University of Virginia Library

Scene I.

Roderigo, Cimena.
CIM.
Th' Infanta's lodgings are that way.

RO.
Madam.

CIM.
You are mistaken, sir, I am Cimena,
He that courts titles must forget a name
That sounds not Princesse, nor would I divert
The full stream of your hopes: here lies my way.

RO.
Madam, Cimena, stay and heare.

CIM.
My ruine.

RO.
One word.

CIM.
Pray let me go.

RO.
The last I mean
To speak to any of your sex: what rigor
Is this you use, did ever any yet
Refuse to be a witnesse to a Will?

CIM.
Was ever any cruelty like this?
Ah Roderigo, is it not enough,
First to betray me to your love, and then
Leave me, unlesse to shake my resolution:
You set upon me with new batterie,
I cannot heare and live.

RO.
I do not come
To urge ought in my own behalf, my dutie
And promise made to him, who may command me,
Forces this from me, can you love the King?

CIM.
Can you be Roderigo, and demand it.

RO.
I have no more to say then, but to take
My last farewell, perhaps when I'me remov'd
Your dutie or ambition will perswade
What from your servant is not credited,
And when by this your obstinacie (as sure
It must fall out so) my poore life grows forfeit,
You will too late repent the losse of both.
A lover and a Crown.

CIM.
Tis vainly urg'd.
How can I lose a Lover, when he first
Renounces me? a Crown I never had,
And if I never seek it, as I shall not,
Where is my losse? but rather where's thy courage
Ah Roderigo must the feare of death
Only come in to make some small pretence
For leaving me, you did not use to be
Frighted at such a name.

RO.
Nor must you think
That I am now, yet would I live to see
Cimena in that lustre with her vertues
Ever design'd her to, for me I think
Nothing can adde unto my present state
More happinesse then to have been the ground
Where on my Mistris would erect her glory.

CIM.
And can you think Cimena will go lesse,
While you discourse thus, you but teach my duty,
The honour of our love must not be yours
More then mine own, I have as great a share
In it as you, and should it come to suffering
I can as well expect to see you great
As my self miserable; which must be so
If fortune once divide us.

RO.
Can our faith
Be so rewarded? heavens, where is your justice?
If we must needs be sever'd; why to both
Gave you an equall minde, and thoughts alike?

CIM.
That being parted, we might be more neere,
For they that love alike are always one,
Since but the sight nought can distinguish them.

RO.
These mysteries Cimena, are not strange
Unto our loves, in which there has not been
Any thing known, or easie, yet me thinks,
We might finde out a way for intercourse.

CIM.
Thy love is too materiall Roderigo,
I could be satisfied with thy Idea.

RO.
And I with thine, but is it not some pleasure
To stand thus, and to gaze on one another?

CIM.
Go Roderigo, for I feel within me
Since this thy stay, some thing, that prompts me to
Desire thy company, which must be fatall
To both of us; adiew, and think we may
Be sever'd yet continue still our selves.

Exit.
RO.
Our selves! am I Roderigo, or has she
Bereft me of my spirit, can she brave
The majesty of Kings secur'd within
Her own firme constancy, and must I tremble,
If the Kings will have not the wish'd successe?
I ought him duty, and I have perform'd it,
I've offerd with my life all my desires,
Yet though I give, I may refuse to take,
He cannot force me to a new affection,
Or make me love her lesse, then she does mee,
In other things he rules, in this I'me free.

Exit.