 | The Obstinate Lady |  |
Scena Secunda.
Enter Polidacre and Falorus.Pol.
How do you like Lucora?
Fal.
She's a Lady above my thoughts, much
more my tongue.
Pol.
Could not you wish her yours? I have a desire
to make her so.
Fal.
Ambrosia Hebe's Cates are for the Gods:
Princes she doth deserve to wooe her love.
Pol.
You undervalue her my Lord;
The best is not too good for him that gets her.
Your breeding has been worthy your descent;
I've known you from your Infancy, and am
Desirous to make you mine.
Fal.
He enforceth me to an acceptance. I must temporize
with him,
Most worthy Polidacre, I cannot attain to a greater
happiness on earth, then to bear the name of your
Son in law.
Pol.
I thank thee my Falorus. Ile go presently, & get
my daughters consent. As you shall not want beauty
with her, so you shall not money. Ile take my leave.
Fal.
I am your most humble servant, my Lord.
Exit Pol.
VVhat envious Star when I was born, divin'd
This adverse Fate, who having such a beauty
Profer'd him, would refuse it? The pin'd man
VVhom Poets phantasies have plac'd in Hell
VVith fruit before him, had not such a cross.
The brave Carionil must not be slighted;
The sacred truth of friendship ever shoo'd
By force enfeeble all rebellious blood.
Enter Carionil.
VVell met my dear Carionil.
Car.
I am happy in your company: y'are my hearts
best treasury, Falorus.
But give me leave my friend.
Fal.
O! I see the cause; your Mistris.
Car.
Retire ye Clouds, and weep our showers of woe,
Because ye may no longer stand and gaze
On her, for whom the heavens their circuits go,
That they may see, and wonder at her face.
Dear Falorus withdraw your self awhile.
Fal.
The Gods assist your suit.
Car.
Thanks worthy friend.
He withdraws.
Hail natures most perfect work, and the continual
Idea of my admiring Soul, for whom (if it be your
will) I must dye, and by whom (if it is your pleasure)
I shall live, live in an unspeakable felicity by
enjoying you, who shall dye happily for wanting
you, and I cannot live in such a penury.
Nen.
VVoo'd I had such a servant: I should not serve
him scurvily.
Car.
Honour your poor adorer, Lady, with a gracious
look of your beloved eyes, and my misery for
Luco.
My Lord, if you presume upon a womans
Feign'd carriage to her wooers, leave it now.
For (if you'l give me leave) I'le call to witness
Every particular Deity we adore,
That I will never have a husband: and
For your saying you must dye for me, I hold it
A common Complement of idle Lovers;
And wish you so much happiness, that you
May live well without me.
Cario.
O be not so unmerciful!
Let not that tongue erre into virulent words,
VVhich could have cal'd Euridice from Hell.
Had your most excellent mother (fairest Lady)
Inexorable been, you had not been,
Nor Crimson Roses ever spread upon
Your lovely cheeks, nor had the world discover'd
Two Planets more: hath nature liberally
Heaped the rarest perfections (she could give
Mortality) upon you to no end?
No surely, nor can I believe that she
Ment to enclose a mind infractible
Within a body so powerful to subdue.
As you (even your dear self) was daughter to
A beauteous mother, so you also should
Indebt the world unto you by your issue:
Be not so cruel therefore (dear Lucora)
Let not your tongue degenerate from your form.
Luco.
Sir, you have heard me speak what I intend.
Car.
Be not a Tygres Lady.
Any thing but a wife:
Sir, I must leave you, and leave you this humour;
The Court hath many Ladies, take your choice. Nentis!
Nen.
Madam
Luc.
Come my Lord take my counsel.
Nen.
I could use him kindlyer.
Car.
What say you Lady?
Nen.
Nothing my Lord.
Exeunt Luco. Nent.
Car.
Doth a fair face presage a cruel heart?
I'st not a meer full contrary in Nature,
That the softest body should be hard'st to win?
Nature is grown decrepit, and all things
Sublunary erre against her rule of order.
Stir not then thou glorious Fabrick of the heavens,
And periodize the Musick of the spheres.
Thou ever yet fast fixed Globe of earth,
Whirl-round in a perpetual Motion.
Ye Stars and Moon that beautifie the night,
Change rule with clear Hyperion, and so cast
Succeeding time into another mould.
Then with thy powerful beams, Apollo, draw
The Ocean into clouds, and drown the world:
So there a new creation may befall,
And this life be a life celestial.
Enter Falorus,
O all my happiness on earth, my true Falorus!
Lucoraes beauty triumphs in my breast,
And shortly will destroy me: There's no beast
That haunts the vastest Affrican wilderness.
She'l never marry man.
Fal.
She will Carionil. Her father would have her,
and she has not so much evil to contradict his
will: where then can she make such a choice as
you? that in a duel, your Grandfather did kill
hers, y've heard her oft protest she valued not.
Car.
Does he desire it, or does your love flatter me
into a little possibility of obtaining her? Alas, if
she could like me, her father would very difficultly
consent. He loves not my family.
Fal.
Polidacre could not hinder you, were she willing.
But (friend) her father means to marry her.
His own lips offer'd her to me.
Car.
O ye just heavenly powers! then I am lost,
Sunk into misery beneath a spark
Of this lives happiness.
Falorus, you shall not have her.
Fal.
I would not wrong my noble friend so much.
Car.
A puff of wind and gone. For her who would not
Do all mankind an injury, and out-act
In horrid deeds all those that ere profess'd
Licentious Atheisme? unsheath your sword;
I will not take that life basely away
Which next unto Lucoraes I esteem,
Yet stay.
Fal.
He's frantick! withdraw this frensie O ye Gods.
Car.
You are my friend?
Fal.
I have been so accounted by you.
Car.
Let me consult it out, shall one word.
Out of me all the interest that I
Have to Lucora, by affecting her:
But this is a safe medium, a true friend
Exceeds all words, and syllables at height;
A man may, nay he should poize equally
His love, and part unto his friend the justice of it,
Which is the full half; so that it appears
They should be lov'd by's as we love our selves.
But to a Mistress who would not give more?
Who can choose to give more? the love that we
Bear to a friend, it is an accident, a meer one:
But tis our nature to affect a woman,
And 'tis a glory to preserve a Mistress
Entire to ones self without competitors.
My reason's satisfi'd: no friendship can
Keep in the sword of any rival'd man.
Fal.
Collect your self Carionil.
Car.
You'l fight with me?
Fal.
I do not wear a weapon for such a Quarrel.
Car.
What more affliction! yet tis against manhood,
(A most ignoble murther) to take his life
Who makes no opposition. And yet if death
Prevent him not she will be his. Sad fates!
You shall not have Lucora.
Fal.
You wrong our amity by this suspicion:
I swear I will not.
Car.
How!
Fal.
Consider (dear Carionil) I grieve
To see my friend so over-passionate,
Car.
My love ore-sway'd my reason: pardon me
My best Falorus, I believe your vertue
Would not act such an injury against
Your own Carionil.
Fal.
Shall we walk? and I'le tell you all that pass'd
'Twixt me and Polidare.
Car.
I am a thousand waies obliged yours.
Fal.
You are my Carionil, I wish no more
From you then a perpetuity of love,
And that our hearts may never be unti'd.
Car.
You are too worthy for my friendship.
Exunt.
| The Obstinate Lady | |