а For sensualists in your own sepulchre, Oct. How's this? come, be more mild. Cast. You chide me soberly; Then, sir, I tune my voice to other music. You are an eminent statist; be a father To such unfriended virgins as your bounty Hath drawn into a scandal : you are powerful In means; a bachelor, freed from the jealousies Of wants; convert this privacy of maintenance Into your own court; let this, as you call it, Your Academy, have a residence there; And there survey your charity yourself: That when you shall bestow on worthy husbands, With fitting portions, such as you know worthy, You may yield to the present age, example, And to posterity, a glorious chronicle; There were a work of piety! The other is A scorn upon your tombstone; where the reader Will but expound, that when you liv'd, you pan dar'd Your own purse and your fame. I am too bold, sir; . passages The time hath lent; for once, I can bear with you. Cast. I'll countenance the hazard of suspicion, And be your guest awhile. Oct. Be-but hereafterI know not what. Livio! Re-enter Livio and MOROSA. Cast. Indeed, sir, Oct. Well, then, thou shalt not, Mor. All is inck'd here, [Aside. Liv. I'd speak with you anon. Cast. It may be so. Oct. Come, fair one. Liv. "Oh, I am cheated! [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I. An Apartment in the Palace. Enter Livio and CASTAMELA. Liv. Prithee, be serious. Cast. Prithee, interrupt not The paradise of my becharming thoughts, Which mount my knowledge to the sphere I move in, Liv. Tattle, sister! 9 All is inck'd here.] So the old copy. If the poet meant to endow this convenient character with any feeling of goodness, this may be an expression of regret at finding, as she supposed, Castamela giving way to the marquis : should this not be admitted, we might then read nick'd, a transposition of the letters of the former word. This must be allowed to be a very scene, and Castamela rises considerably in the reader's estimation. She does not fall in that which follows. Cast. To the gentleman Liv. Thou mistak'st sure Cast. Strange and idle. tress, Cast.“ Love, dear maid, Liv. Fine sport! tion, Which may adorn thy rarities to boast 'em, That bounty can withhold.”—I know I shall not. Liv. And so you clapt the bargain! the conceit on't Tickles your contemplation! 'tis come out now: A woman's tongue, I see, some time or other, Cast. We shall flourish; more be straiten'd Within the limits of an empty patience; Nor tire our feeble eyes with gazing only On greatness, which enjoys the swing of plea sures ; But be ourselves the object of their envy, To whom a service would have seem'd ambition. It was thy cunning, Livio, I applaud it, Fear nothing; I'll be thrifty in thy projects : Want? misery? may all such want as think on't! Our footing shall be firm. Liv. You are much witty. Why, Castamela, this to me? you counterfeit Most palpably; I am too well acquainted With thy condition, sister. If the marquis Hath utter'd one unchaste, one wanton syllable, Pro voking thy contempt; not all the flatteries of his assurance to our hopes of rising Can, or shall, slaye our souls. Cast. Indeed not so, sir; You are beside the point, most gentle signor! I'll be no more your ward, no longer chamber'd, 1 I am too well acquainted With thy condition, sister.] i. e. natural disposition. We have had this in a former play, (The Broken Heart) but as the word has an ambiguous appearance in this place, it seemed not improper a to advert to it. Nor mew'd up to the lure of your devotion; take this for answer. Liv. In such earnest! Hath goodness left thee quite? Fool, thou art wand'ring In dangerous fogs, which will corrupt the purity Of every noble virtue dwelt within thee. Come home again, home, Castamela, sister, Home to thine own simplicity; and rather Than yield thy memory up to the witchcraft Of an abused confidence, be courted For Romanello. Cast. Romanello! Liv. Scorn'st thou The name ? thy thoughts I find, then, are chang'd, rebels To all that's honest; that's to truth and honour. Cast. So, sir, and in good time! Liv. Thou art fallen suddenly Into a plurisy of faithless impudence; A whorish itch infects thy blood, a leprosy Of raging lust, and thou art mad to prostitute The glory of thy virgin-dower basely For common sale. This foulness must be purged, Or thy disease will rankle to a pestilence, Which can even taint the very air about thee; But I shall study physic. Cast. Learn good manners : I take it, you are saucy. |