I that have now been chamber'd here alone, To you and me; resolve yourself it is, Gio. Well then, The schoolmen teach that all this globe of earth Anna. So I have read too. Gio. But 'twere somewhat strange To see the waters burn. Could I believe This might be true, I could believe as well Anna. That's most certain.- -But, Good brother, for the present, how do you mean To free yourself from danger? some way think How to escape. I'm sure the guests are come. Gio. Look up, look here; what see you in my face? Anna. Distraction and a troubled conscience. Gio. Death and a swift repining wrath What see you in mine eyes? Anna. Methinks you weep. Gio. I do indeed; these are the funeral tears yet look, Shed on your grave: these furrow'd up my cheeks, Fair Annabella, should I here repeat The story of my life, we might lose time. Be record all the spirits of the air, And all things else that are, that day and night, Early and late, the tribute which my heart Hath paid to Annabella's sacred love, Hath been these tears which are her mourners now. Never till now did nature do her best, To show a matchless beauty to the world, Anna. Then I see your drift. Ye blessed angels, guard me! Gio. Give me your hand. How sweetly life doth run This pulse doth promise health! But I could chide Gio. Farewell. Anna. Will you be gone? And make this mid-day night, that thy gilt rays Gio. To save thy fame. Thus die, and die by me, and by my hand; Revenge is mine, honour doth love command. Anna. Forgive him, Heaven, and me my sins. Brother, unkind, unkind [Stabs her. Farewell. [Sir Thomas Browne, in the last chapter of his Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors, rebukes such authors as have chosen to relate prodigious and nameless sins. The chapter is entitled, Of some Relations whose Truth we fear. His reasoning is solemn and fine." Lastly, as there are many relations whereto we cannot assent, and make some doubt thereof, so there are divers others whose verities we fear, and heartily wish there were no truth therein. Many other accounts like these we meet sometimes in history, scandalous unto Christianity, and even unto humanity; whose not only verities but relations honest minds do deprecate. For of sins heteroclital, and such as want either name or precedent, there is oft-times a sin even in their histories. We desire no records of such enormities; sins should be accounted new, that so they may be esteemed monstrous. They omit of monstrosity, as they fall from their rarity; for men count it venial to err with their forefathers, and foolishly conceive they divide a sin in its society. The pens of men may sufficiently expatiate without these singularities of villainy; for, as they increase the hatred of vice in some, so do they enlarge the theory of wickedness in all. And this is one thing that may make latter ages worse than were the former : for the vicious examples of ages past poison the curiosity of these present, affording a hint of sin unto seduceable spirits, and soliciting those unto the imitation of them, whose heads were never so perversely principled as to invent them. In things of this nature silence commendeth history; 'tis the veniable part of things lost, wherein there must never rise a Pancirollus1 nor remain any register but that of hell."] 1 Who wrote De Antiquis Deperditis, or of the Lost Inventions of Antiquity. THE BROKEN HEART: A TRAGEDY, BY JOHN FORD. ITHOCLES loves CALANTHA, Princess of Sparta; and would have his sister PENTHEA plead for him with the princess. She objects to him her own wretched condition, made miserable by a match, into which he forced her with BASSANES, when she was precontracted by her dead father's will, and by inclination, to ORGILUS; but at last she consents. ITHOCLES. PENTHEA. Ith. Sit nearer, sister, to me, nearer yet; We had one father, in one womb took life, Pen. You had been happy: Then had you never known that sin of life From whom you had your being. Ith. Sad Penthea, Thou canst not be too cruel: my rash spleen Hath with a violent hand pluck'd from thy bosom Pen. Not yet, Heaven, I do beseech thee: first let some wild fires Ith. Wrong'd soul, thy prayers are heard. Pen. Here, lo, I breathe, A miserable creature, led to ruin By an unnatural brother. Ith. I consume. In languishing affections for that trespass, Pen. The handmaid to the wages, The untroubled' of country toil, drinks streams, Quench my hot sighs with fleetings of my tears. 1 A word seems defective here. While every bit I touch turns in digestion Pen. Pray kill me; Rid me from living with a jealous husband; Ith. After my victories abroad, at home I meet despair; ingratitude of nature Hath made my actions monstrous. Thou shalt stand For thy resolved martyrdom; wrong'd maids Pure turtles crown'd with myrtle, if thy pity Pen. O, no more. Ith. Death waits to waft me to the Stygian banks, Pen. Who is the saint you serve? Ith. Friendship, or nearness Of birth, to any but my sister, durst not Pen. Let me, By your new protestations I conjure ye, Ith. Her name -'tis -'tis-I dare not Pen. All your respects are forged. Ith. They are not-Peace. Calantha is the princess, the king's daughter, Sole heir of Sparta. Me most miserable! Do I now love thee? For my injuries, Revenge thyself with bravery, and gossip My treasons to the king's ears. Do; Calantha Pen. Suppose you were contracted to her, would it not Snatch her out of your arms against her will, Ith. Trouble not The fountains of mine eyes with thine own story. Pen. We are reconciled. Alas! sir, being children, but two branches Ith. Yes, in thee, Only in thee, Penthea mine. Pen. If sorrows Have not too much dull'd my infected brain, PENTHEA recommends her brother as a dying bequest to the Princess. Cal. Being alone, Penthea, you have granted Pen. 'Tis a benefit Which I shall owe your goodness ev'n in death for. The summons of departure short and certain. Of human greatness are but pleasing dreams, Cal. Contemn not your condition, for the proof Pen. To place before ye A perfect mirror, wherein you may see Cal. Indeed |