 | Love's Dominion |  |
SCENE VI.
Euphanes to them.Eup.
Bellinda to dye!
O ye just gods, whom yet I will not blame,
Nor asperse with foul imputation and stain
Of such a horrid crime, till she be dead;
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And plauges upon my head,
I'll say 'twas cruelly and unjustly done.
Phi.
Enter Philander another way.
O Heaven and Earth!
Why do's not t'one sink under me? and tother
Fall on my cursed head, am guilty of
Bellinda's death? but yet 'tis needless too,
For though they both
Forbear to punish me, I do so loath
My hated life for't, I'll die in spight of them,
If flames, or steel, or precipices have any force
To take away a life.
Eup.
To be conducted by Love only to Hope,
And have only a glimpse of Hope to light
Me so despair! if this be to Love and Hope,
Happy who hate, and those who desperate are.
Phi.
To have sought her only to find her false!
And found her, only to be the loss of her!
Eup.
Cruel Fortune thus to have lifted me up,
Only to throw me more violently down again.
Phi.
But I dally and trifle, a friendly Sword
Might do me a pleasure now; and see in happy time
Euphanes who for need could help me.
Eup.
Art thou there murtherer? compleat thy wickedness then
And take my life too, Bellinda's but half dead yet;
When thou hast slain me, thou shalt find the other half
Here panting in my Bosom.
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I prethee spare
Thy reproaches Euphanes, and do not add
Affliction to Affliction; have more humanity
Than to wound a dying man: know I am more
Miserable already than Miseries self
Can make me, or thou thy self couldst wish.
Bellinda's murtherer?
Eup.
Yet killing of me thou might'st add unto thy crime.
Phi.
But it would take from thine
By killing me.
Eup.
If thou knowest no better way
To die, than by my hand, I wish thee no
Greater punishment than still to live:
The Sword is Angers weapon, faint-hearted Coward,
Grief has a keener one, if thou canst find it out.
Phi.
Thou advisest well, a single death
Suffices not for Philanders crime indeed,
And I shall but redouble it, by seeing of her die.
| Love's Dominion | |