University of Virginia Library

SCENE FOURTH.

DONNA ISABELLA, DON MANRIQUE, DON LOPEZ.
D. ISABELLA.
I will remove all cause of discontent;
And, since my choice more honour will confer,
I will reclaim my Ring; and chuse myself.
But, from my choice, Alvarez I exclude;
Yet, the sole cause of this exclusion, Lords!
Is, that I know he loves the Queen of Arragon.—
In one of you, I view the future King.—

D. MANRIQUE
(kneeling).
O Madam! how your words transport my soul!
E'en whilst I tremble between hope and fear.
If Lopez win you, I shall be less wretched,
Resigning you to such a worthy Lover.
Speak, Madam! my impetuous soul, eager
With hope, demands to know my bliss or woe.

D. ISABELLA.
Rise!—Ere I speak my choice, fain would I see,
Some certain proof, that 't is myself you love;
And not the splendour of my sovereign Rank.
Counts! I shall think myself most lov'd by him,
Who can my sentiments and thoughts adopt;
Like whom I like, and, whom I hate, despise.

D. LOPEZ.
Lest we mistake your will, speak plainly, Madam!

D. ISABELLA.
If I have liberal been to valiant Carlos,
Let me behold in you a like esteem;
Honour his virtues, do his merit justice.
For ne'er presume, I will a Consort chuse,
To have the King, I make, my work destroy;
Reclaim my favours, or disgrace my friends.
Therefore, let neither hope to share my Throne,
Till something worthy, on your parts, confirms
What I have done for Carlos: that by such act,
I may remain assur'd, the structure which
My gratitude has rear'd, shall not be raz'd:
For I must know it safe, from storm, or stratagem.

D. MANRIQUE.
Don Carlos, Madam! is most highly honour'd;
His happiness so much employs your thoughts,
Ours is to his inthrall'd: yet since to honour him,
Is to please you, instruct us how to act.—
The Palm of Victory, nor the Trump of Fame,
Ne'er gave renown to one more brave than Carlos.
He is most worthy your munificence;
And well deserves to be, what you have made him.
Our gratitude to him indebted stands,
And we wish'd largely to acknowledge it.

D. LOPEZ.
But after you, we can do nothing for him:
Carlos is rais'd above our power to favour.
What is there in our power, left to propose,
That would not be a degradation to him?

D. ISABELLA.
Gifts, in your power there are, he might accept;
Gifts, that would clear your names from black ingratitude,
And free my anxious mind from its disquiet;
Gifts, which, without disgrace, he might possess.

D. LOPEZ.
Then name them, Madam! Power, and not will, we lack,
To clear us from this charge of black ingratitude.

D. ISABELLA.
Counts! you have each a Sister. 'T is my will,
That He, whom I shall please to chuse for King,
When he receives my hand, at the same Altar,
Shall, to the Warrior Carlos, give his Sister.
(The Counts testify by their looks much surprise.)
Embrace him, as his Brother, and his Friend;
And thus secure him from my Husband's enmity.
Not that I need to fear his hate to Carlos;
As in Castile I shall be always Queen.
For the new King, whate'er his project be,
Will, though inthron'd, be only my first subject.
But to exert my plenitude of power,
Over the heart to which I gave my own,
Would pain my inmost soul in the extreme.
I urge this union as of strife preventive,
Then answer? Will ye give your full consent?

D. MANRIQUE.
Yes, Queen! our full consent—to doom us both
To the most cruel death, rather than see,
The bright, pure honours of a thousand years,
By such a marriage, in one moment tarnish'd.—
Too dear an Empire at a price like this!

D. ISABELLA.
Thus then, audacious Count! thus then you testify,
That Carlos is most worthy my munificence;
And well deserves to be, what I have made him.
Thus to except against the Rank I give,
Proud Manrique! is to scorn my sovereign power.

D. MANRIQUE.
I do not, Queen! dispute your power to exalt
Carlos, or whom you please, e'en to our Rank.
No Sovereign stands accountable for dignities,
Which he confers, or gifts his liberality
Bestows. If he support, or raise, the unworthy,
'T is his own work, and the shame all his own.
But to disgrace, by misalliance, blood,
Which, from my Ancestors, unsully'd flows,
No Monarch ever shall, by my consent;
First be it on a Public Scaffold spilt,
Rather than know such vile contamination;—
Mine, from inheritance, I owe account of it
To my brave Ancestors, and all Posterity:
Pure, from my great Forefathers I receiv'd it,
Pure, shall it still remain, or cease to flow.

D. ISABELLA.
Then, Manrique! I, who owe account to no one,
Will of your vaunted, noble blood dispose.
Be mine the shame of its contamination.
What mad extravagance makes you presume
To think, I should propose, what would dishonour you?
How dare you to suspect me of such turpitude?
What law of rectitude, or nicest honour,
Have I infring'd, throughout my Life, proud Lord?
Or what disgrace incurr'd? I know of none,
But what I now incur—being forc'd to wed,—
Degrading thought,—the Vassal of my Crown;
Who,—whilst I thus descend,—scorns to intrust
His honour to my care.—Say! in what character,
Subject, or Lover, dare you to treat me thus?

D. LOPEZ.
Pardon the ardour, which infatuates him,
And makes him disrespectful in his speech:
In marriage, both our Sisters are betroth'd.

D. ISABELLA.
To whom?

D. MANRIQUE.
His Sister, Madam! is to me affianc'd.

D. ISABELLA
(to Manrique).
To whom is yours engag'd?

D. MANRIQUE.
To Lopez, Madam!

D. ISABELLA.
Then I am wrong in making either King.
Go, happy Lovers! go to your chosen Mistresses:
And to enhance the value of your love,
Tell them, with what contemptuous, galling scorn,
You have a Queen insulted, and disdain'd
A throne.—Retire! We hold no further conference.

D. LOPEZ
(kneeling).
Yet hear us, Madam!

D. ISABELLA.
And what have you to urge?
To speak in praise of constancy in love;
And that no earthly grandeur should seduce it?
If 't is a crime to violate this virtue,
I too, perhaps, my Lords! may learn to practise it.

D. LOPEZ.
Practise it, Madam!—But permit us first
To explain ourselves; that you may fully know
Don Manrique's heart, and mine, where you reign absolute;
As Queen respected, and ador'd as Mistress.—
Your choice will make the one, on whom it falls,
Supremely bless'd, the other doom to woe.
But to prevent all jealous feuds between us,
A mutual promise binds us in one interest.
If he be chosen, then I wed his Sister;
If I obtain you, mine with him unites:
Thus, Carlos cannot to the King be brother.

D. ISABELLA.
And know you not, that, being what you are,
The feudatory Vassals of my State,
Your Sisters are my Subjects, and on me
Depend?—Without my order, and expressly
Against my will, in marriage to engage them,
Is to usurp my Throne, and give me law.

D. MANRIQUE.
Assert your high prerogative as Sovereign,
Command us, as the Vassals of your State:
Do not request, unless we may refuse.
Command, we, at our peril, must obey.

D. LOPEZ.
But, Queen! remember,—never will consent.—

D. MANRIQUE.
And yet, in deference to your election,
Thus far we will recede, through love and duty;
Carlos is generous and he knows his birth;
Let him in secret judge upon that knowledge.
And, if his blood be worthy of such union,
To us let him this marriage then propose;
And we the alliance shall an honour deem.
He has free choice to wed one of our Sisters;
If, after knowing these strict terms, he dare.
'T is at his peril if his birth be mean.—
Thus far we stoop to gain our royal Mistress.
Modest let Carlos be; or else this marriage,
Must in innumerable evils plunge him.

D. ISABELLA.