University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

a Hall.
LUCIO, an OFFICER.
OFFICER.
Think on the danger.

LUCIO.
Who sees only that,
Will ne'er surmount it. More than life I owe her.
Adversity's hard hand had crush'd my hopes,
Doom'd my sweet wife, and infant family,
To shameful beggary: my affliction reach'd her:
Can I forget her all-dispensing bounty,
That rais'd my soul from comfortless despair,
That bad my cheerful house again receive me,
Bless'd us with plenty?—If I fall, and save her,
'Tis well; I ask no nobler epitaph.

OFFICER.
There's virtue in your motive, and your purpose;
But how effect her rescue?

LUCIO.
Will you join us?

OFFICER.
Or why these questions?

LUCIO.
I dare trust your honour,
The bond of soldiers. Know then, I command
(And sought it with this hope) her prison guard:
I have sounded them, they hate the cruel service.
A little, ere the fatal hour's approach,
We mean to pass their unresisting force,
Throw wide the iron gates, and bear her safe
Beyond the danger of this bloody edict.

OFFICER.
It looks success, may fortune second it!
The throngs assembled to behold the sight,
Will count for idle gazers, and conceal
Your bold design, till 'tis too late to twhart it.
How brooks she her sad plight?

LUCIO.
With fortitude
So sweet, so even-temper'd, that her death
Seems but a phantom, dress'd by Fancy's trick,
To frighten children. All her soul's employ'd
In minist'ring, with softest piety,
To her distracted father.

OFFICER.
There's a spectacle,
Indeed, heart-rending. Cast on the cold ground,
He strews his head with ashes, by the roots
Tears out his silver hair, beats his poor breast;
While the significant dumbness of his gesture,
Beggars all power of words.

LUCIO.
Thou blind mischance,
Stand neuter! we shall cheer him presently.
I'll to my station. Keep thy sword conceal'd,
Nor sheathe it drawn, but in the villain's breast,
That dare oppose us. Be but firm, and fear not.

[Exeunt severally.