University of Virginia Library

SCENE II.

A Garden.
Conrade and Ismena.
Conr.
Her charms are still the same, and at her sight
Love burns with double fury: Yet I want
My former resolution: I am aw'd,
And scarce have courage left me to approach her.
(Aside.)
—Be not surpriz'd, adorable Ismena,
To see me here, and see me still your slave:
Yes, those all-powerful beauties, that subdu'd
My ranging heart to constancy and truth,
Still hold the binding charm: To love Ismena
Is, as I feel too well, to love for ever.

Ism.
As you are brother to my royal mistress,
I'm not surpriz'd to see you here, Prince Conrade;
But as I'm wife to noble Elmerick,
To hear you hold this language does surprize me.

Conr.
Nor time, nor absence, nor the last despair,
For I have prov'd them all, can cure my passion,
A mortal passion, that must soon consume me,
Unless you bid me live.

Ism.
Live, and be wise;
Live, and be noble: break your vassalage
To passions that debase the name of Prince,
While that of Man is forfeited and lost.

Conr.
This high disdain, this counsel urg'd in scorn,
Is cruel and unjust.—Too haughty Fair!
Wilt thou ne'er learn compassion? Never melt
At my long tender sorrows? Let me hope—

Ism.
What have I done to raise your vanity
To this presumptuous heigth?

Conr.
O call it love,
And I'll confess it soars to all the heights
Of fond, distracted passion.

Ism.
Impious trifles!
Are these the arts by which false man betrays?—
Unhappy women! do they yield to guilt
Because a madman raves, a traitor flatters?—
I thought, vain Prince, I had been better known;
And that your rash attempt when here before,
At least, had taught you wisdom.

Conr.
I confess
My love was then to blame, so to expose
Your virgin honour: You have now a husband—

Ism.
You sink beneath my scorn—I have a husband—
And such an one as loose incontinence
Would want the will to wrong. Sir, if I bear
This insult unreveng'd, 'tis to my prudence,
Not to your birth and name, you owe your safety.

Conr.
My safety!—Hell!—let the proud Palatine
But dare to threaten thus—

Ism.
Take my advice,
And dare not to provoke him. Thus far, Prince,
I judge my scorn sufficient.

Conr.
Oh! 'tis too much, and all that I can fear:—
I'll conquer it or perish.

Ism.
Since your reason
Is wholly lost in this impetuous frenzy,
To shun your madness shall be all my care.

Conr.
Fly where you will, honour, as well as love,
Compels me now for ever to pursue you.

Ism.
The light, vain Libertine grows formidable!—
His insolence may lay a scene of ruin,
That chills my blood with horror but to think on.

Conr.
Her Cynick father!—There's another champion.
What with her innate pride and high alliances
She makes a strong resistance; and my passion,
Enter Bathori.
By opposition irritated, burns
More fiercely to attempt the noble conquest.

(Exit Conrade.
Bath.
Prince Conrade just now leaves you?

Ism.
Let him go.

Bath.
You seem disorder'd.

Ism.
Howe'er misplac'd by Fortune, Nature form'd me
For the domestick joys of calm retreat:
I'm sick of court already.

Bath.
For what cause?
You know your Lord, by his high trust compell'd,
Here must reside: It cannot be dispens'd with.

Ism.
'Tis true, and all our happy days are past:
For insolence and Conrade still pursue me.
Then judge, when this shall reach my husband's ear,
As soon it must, how will his soul endure
This outrage on my virtue and his honour?
Shall I not see his hands stain'd with the blood
Of the Queen's brother, or the noble Elmerick
(A thousand, thousand deaths are in the thought)
Bleed by the rage of impious, desperate Conrade?

Bath.
Unheard-of insolence! He shall be taught
The difference between the passive slaves
Of loose Moravia, and our free Hungarians.
Your Lord must never learn this daring insult:
For know, my Child, I hold myself sufficient
To shield a daughter from this princely Libertine,
And awe him into silence and respect.

Ism.
You know him not: He is not to be aw'd:
There is but one, one only way to shun him:
Let me forsake the court, with you retire
'Till Conrade quits the kingdom.

Bath.
Rightly judg'd.
Thy prudence is thy guard; safer in that
From being made the theme of busy rumour,
Ever injurious to a woman's fame,
Than in an army rais'd for thy defense.
My house and arms are ready to receive thee.

Exeunt.