ACT IV. SCENE I.

A Room in the House of MALFAto.

Enter MALFATO and SPINELLA.

Mal. Here you are safe, sad cousin; if you please,

May over-say the circumstance of what

You late discours'd: mine ears are gladly open,
For I myself am in such hearty league
With solitary thoughts, that pensive language
Charms my attention.

Spin. But my husband's honours,

By how much more in him they sparkle clearly, By so much more they tempt belief, to credit The wreck and ruin of my injured name.

Mal. Why, cousin, should the earth cleave to the roots,

The seas and heavens be mingled in disorder,
Your purity with unaffrighted eyes

Might wait the uproar; 'tis the guilty trembles
At horrors, not the innocent! you are cruel
In censuring a liberty allow'd.

Speak freely, gentle cousin, was Adurni
Importunately wanton?

Spin. In excess

Of entertainment, else not.

Mal. Not the boldness

Of an uncivil courtship?

Spin. What that meant,

I never understood. I have at once
Set bars between my best of earthly joys,
And best of men; so excellent a man
As lives without comparison; his love
To me was matchless.

Mal. Yet put case, sweet cousin,

That I could name a creature, whose affection
Followed your Auria in the height; affection
To you, even to Spinella, true and settled
As ever Auria's was, can, is, or will be;
You may not chide the story.

Spin. Fortune's minions

Are flatter'd, not the miserable.
Mal. Listen

To a strange tale, which thus the author sigh'd.
A kinsman of Spinella, (so it runs)

Her father's sister's son, some time before
Auria, the fortunate, possess'd her beauties,
Became enamour'd of such rare perfections
As she was stored with; fed his idle hopes
With possibilities of lawful conquest;
Proposed each difficulty in pursuit
Of what his vain supposal stiled his own;
Found in the argument one only flaw

Of conscience, by the nearness of their bloods-
Unhappy scruple, easily dispens'd with,

Had any friend's advice resolv'd the doubt.

Still on he loved, and loved, and wish'd, and wish'd;

Eftsoon began to speak, yet soon broke off,

And still the fondling durst not,-'cause he durst

not.

Spin. 'Twas wonderful.

Mal. Exceeding wonderful,

Beyond all wonder; yet 'tis known for truth.
After her marriage, when remain'd not ought
Of expectation to such fruitless dotage,
His reason then,-now,-then-could not reduce
The violence of passion, though he vow'd
Ne'er to unlock that secret, scarce to her,
Herself, Spinella; and withal resolv'd
Not to come near her presence, but to avoid
All opportunities, however proffer'd.

Spin. An understanding dull'd by the infelicity
Of constant sorrow, is not apprehensive
In pregnant novelty; my ears receive

The words you utter, cousin, but my thoughts
Are fasten'd on another subject.

Mal. Can you

Embrace, so like a darling, your own woes,
And play the tyrant with a partner in them?
Then I am thankful for th' advantage; urg'd
By fatal and enjoin'd necessity,

To stand up in defence of injur'd virtue ;
Will, against any, I except no quality,
Maintain all supposition misapplied,
Unhonest, false, and villainous.

Spin. Dear cousin,

As you're a gentleman

Mal. I'll bless that hand,

Whose honourable pity seals the passport

For

my incessant turmoils, to their rest.

If I prevail, (which heaven forbid!) these ages
Which shall inherit ours, may tell posterity
Spinella had Malfato for a kinsman,

By noble love made jealous of her fame.
Spin. No more; I dare not hear it.
Mal. All is said:

Henceforth shall never syllable proceed,

From my unpleasant voice, of amorous folly."

Enter CASTANNA.

Cast. Your summons warn'd me hither; I am

come.

Sister! my sister, 'twas an unkind part,

Not to take me along wi' you.

Mal. Chide her for it;

Castanna, this house is as freely yours,

As ever was your father's.

Cast. We conceive so,

Though your late strangeness hath bred marvel

in us.

But wherefore, sister, keeps your silence distance?

Am I not welcome to you?

5 Malfato has hitherto appeared to little advantage; but the author makes him full amends in this beautiful scene, and that which follows in the next Act, in which the pure, undeviating attachment of the wife, and the warm, delicate, and honourable affection of the friend are pourtrayed in language worthy of the highest commendation.

Spin. Lives Auria safe?

Oh, prithee do not hear me call him husband,
Before thou canst resolve what kind of wife
His fury terms the runaway; speak quickly,
Yet do not-stay, Castanna,-I am lost!
His friend hath set before him a bad woman,
And he, good man, believes it.

Cast. Now in truth

Spin. Hold! my heart trembles-I perceive thy tongue

Is great with ills, and hastes to be deliver❜d;
I should not use Castanna so. First tell me,
Shortly and truly tell me, how he does.

Cast. In perfect health.

Spin. For that, my thanks to Heaven.

Mal. The world hath not another wife like this.Cousin, you will not hear your sister speak, So much your passion rules.

Spin. Even what she pleases:

Go on, Castanna.

Cast. Your most noble husband

Is deaf to all reports, and only grieves

At his soul's love, Spinella's, causeless absence. Mal. Why look ye, cousin, now!

Spin. Indeed!

Cast. Will value

No counsel, takes no pleasure in his greatness,
Neither admits of likelihood at all

That you are living; if you were, he's certain
It were impossible you could conceal

Your welcomes to him, being all one with him;