University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

The Scene is a Bed-Chamber, a Couch prepar'd, and set so near the Pit that the Audience may hear.
Alphonso enters with a Book in his hand, and sits; reads to himself a little while: Enter Victoria, and sits by him, then speaks.
Victo.
If on your Private Bus'ness I intrude,
Forgive th'excess of Love that makes me rude:
I hope your sickness has not reacht your Heart;
But come to bear a suff'ring Sister's part:
Yet, lest I shou'd offend you by my stay,
Command me to depart, and I obey.

Alphon.
The Patient who has pass'd a sleepless night,
Is far less pleas'd with his Physician's sight:
Welcome thou pleasing, but thou short Reprieve;
To ease my Death, but not to make me live.
Welcome, but welcome as a Winter's Sun,
That rises late, and is too quickly gone.

Victo.
You are the Star of Day, the publick Light:
And I am but your Sister of the Night:
Eclips'd when you are absent from my sight.

Alphon.
Death will for ever take me from your Eyes;
But grieve not you, for when I Sett, you Rise.
Don Garcia has deserv'd to be your Choice,
And 'tis a Brother's Duty to rejoyce.

Victo.
And yet methought you gave him not your Voice.

Alph.
You saw a sudden Sickness left me weak;
I had no Joy to give, nor Tongue to speak:
And therefore I withdrew, to seek Relief
In Books, the fruitless Remedies of Grief.

Victo.
But tell me what Philosopher you found
To cure your Pain?

Alph.
The fittest for my Wound;
Who best the gentle Passions knows to move;
Ovid, the soft Philosopher of Love:
His Love Epistles for my Friends I chose;
For there Ifound the Kindred of my Woes.

Victo.
His Nymphs the Vows of Perjur'd Men deplore;
One in the Woods, and one upon the Shoar:
All are at length forsaken or betray'd;
And the false Hero leaves the faithful Maid.

Alphon.
Not all: for Linus kept his Constancy:
And one, perhaps, who more resembled me.

Victo.
That Letter wou'd I view: in hope to find
Some features of the Fair that rules your Mind.

Alph.
Read, for the guilty Page is doubled down:
The Love too soon will make the Lover known.
[Giving her the Book.
Read, if you dare, and when the Crime you see,
Accuse my cruel Fate, but pity me.

Victo.
(aside.)
'Tis what I fear'd, th'unhappy Canace!
Read you; for to a Brother 'twas design'd,
[To him.
And sent him by a Sister much too kind.

Alphonso takes the Book, and reads.
Why did thy Flames beyond a Brother's move?
Why lov'd I thee with more than Sister's Love?
[He looks upon her, and she holds down her Head.
He reads again.
My Cheeks no longer did their Colour boast:
My Food grew loathsom, and my Strength I lost:
Still, e're I spoke, a sigh wou'd stop my Tongue:
Short were my slumbers, and my Nights were long.
I knew not from my Love those Griefs did grow:
Yet was, alas! the thing I did not know.
[She looks on him, and he holds down his Head.
Forc'd at the last, my shameful pain I tell.

Victo.
No more: We know our mutual Love too well.

[Both look up, and meet each others Eyes.
Alph.
Two Lines in reading had escap'd my sight:
Shall I go back, and do the Poet right?

Victo.
Already we have read too far, I fear:
But read no more than Modesty may bear.

Alphonso
reading.
For I lov'd too, and knowing not my wound,
A secret Pleasure in thy Kisses found.
[He offers to kiss her, and she turns her Head away.
May we not represent the Kiss we read?

Victo.
Alphonso, no: Brother, Ishou'd have said!

Alphonso
reading again.
When half denying, more than half content,
Embraces warm'd me to a full Consent:
Then, with tumultuous Joys, my Heart did beat:
And Guilt that made 'em Anxious, made 'em Great.

[She snatches the Book, and throws it down, then rises and walks, he rises also.
Victo.
Incendiary Book, Polluted Flame,
Dare not to tempt the Chast Victoria's Fame.
I love, perhaps, more than a Sister shou'd:
And Nature prompts; but Heav'n restrains my Blood.
Heav'n was unkind to set so strict a Bound:
And Love wou'd struggle to forbidden Ground.
Oh let us gain a Parthian Victory;
Our only way to conquer, is to fly.

Alph.
No more, Victoria; tho my Love aspires
More high than yours, and fiercer are my Fires:
I cannot bear your looks; new Flames arise
From ev'ry Glance; and kindle from your Eyes.
Pure are the Beams which from those Suns you dart;
But gather blackness from my sooty Heart:
Then let us each with hasty steps remove;
Nor spread Contagion, where we meant but Love.

Victo.
Hear Heav'n and Earth, and witness to my Vows;
And Love, thou greatest Power that Nature knows;
This Heart, Alphonso, shall be firmly thine;
This Hand shall never with another joyn.
Or if by force my Father makes me wed;
Then Death shall be the Bridegroom of my Bed.
Now let us both our shares of Sorrow take;
And both be wretched for each others sake.

Alph.
By those relentless Power that rule the Skies;
And by a greater Power, Victoria's Eyes,
No Love but yours shall touch Alphonso's Heart;
Nor Time, nor Death, my vow'd Affections part.
Nor shall my hated Rival live to see
That hour which envious Fate denies to me.
Now seal we both our Vows with one dear Kiss.

Victo.
No, 'tis a hot, and an incestuous Bliss!
Let both be satisfi'd with what we swore;
I dare not give it, lest I give you more.

[Exit Victoria looking back on him, and he gazing on her.
Alph.
Oh Raging, Impious, and yet hopeless Fire;
Not daring to possess what I desire.
Condemn'd to suffer what I cannot bear;
Tortur'd with Love, and Furious with Despair.
Of all the Pains which wretched Mortals prove,
The fewest Remedies belong to Love:
But ours has none: for if we shou'd enjoy,
Our fatal Cure must both of us destroy.
Oh Dear Victoria, cause of all my Pain!
Oh Dear Victoria, whom I wou'd not gain!
Victoria, for whose sake I wou'd survive:
Victoria, for whose sake I dare not live.

Enter Garcia with Attendants. The two Princes salute, but Alphonso very coldly.
Garci.
I come to shew my grief for your Distemper:
For if my Noble Brother saw my Heart,
There shou'd you find a Plain, a Holy Friendship,
Unmixt with Interest, equally partaking
Of what affects you, both of good and ill.

Alphon.
I thank you; but my Malady increases
At your approach; I have no more to say,
But wish you better health than I can boast;
And to my self a lonely Privacy.

Garci.
I find I am not welcome to your sight:
But know not from what cause.

Alphon.
(angrily.)
My surest Remedy is in your absence:
'Tis hard my Lodgings cannot be my own;
But importun'd with Visits, undesir'd;
And therefore, I must tell you, troublesom.

Garci.
'Tis an odd way of entertaining Friends.
But since I find you discompos'd with sickness,
That shall excuse your Humours; where I go
I hope for better Welcome.

Alphon.
Sir, I must ask whom you pretend to visit?

Garci.
My Mistress, Prince.

Alphon.
Your Mistress! who's that Mistress?

Garci.
What need I name Victoria?

Alphon.
Who? my Sister?

Garci.
Whom else cou'd you imagine?

Alphon.
Any other.

Garci.
And why not her?

Alphon.
Because I know not if she will admit you.

Garci.
Her Father has allow'd it.

Alph.
But not she;
Or if both have, yet my consent is wanting.
You take upon you in a Foreign Kingdom,
As if you were at home in your Navarre.

Garci.
And you, methinks,
As if you had no Father, or no King.
Farewell, I will not stay.

Alphon.
You shall not go:
Thus as I am, thus single, thus unarm'd,
And you with Guards attended—

Gar.
You Teach me to forget the Rule of Manners.

Alph.
I mean to Teach you better.

[As Garcia is going to pass by him, Alphonso runs to one of his Attendants, and snatches his Sword away, then steps between Garcia and the Door.
Enter Veramond and Ximena, Attended.
Vera.
What means this rude Behaviour in my Court?
As if our Arragon were turn'd to Thrace;
Unhospitable to her Guests, and thou
Alphonso, a Lycurgus.

Alphon.
He would pass
Without my Sister's leave, into her Lodgings.
By Heav'n, if this be suffer'd to proceed,
The next will be, to Treat the Royal Maid
As coursly, as she were some Suburb Girl.

Gar.
(to Vera.)
Had I not your Permission, Sir?

Vera.
You had.
But these, Alphonso, are thy Russian Manners.
How dar'st thou, Boy, to break my Orders,
And then asperse thy Sister with thy Crime?

Alphon.
She said his Presence was unpleasing to her.

Vera.
Come, thou bely'st her Innocence and Duty:
She did not, durst not, say it.

Alph.
If she did not,
I dare, and will maintain to all the World,
That Garcia, is not worthy of my Sister.

Vera.
Not worthy?

Alphon.
No; I say once more, not worthy.

Garcia.
Not in my self; for who deserves Victoria?
But, since her Royal Father bids me hope,
Not less unworthy than another Prince.
(To Ver.)
And none, with your permission, Sir, shall dare
To interpose, betwixt my Love and Me.

Alph.
Sure a less Price than our Infanta's Bed,
Might pay thee for thy Mercenary Troops.

Vera.
Peace, Insolent, too long I have indur'd
Thy Haughty Soul, untam'd and turbulent:
But, if I Live, this shall not pass unpunisht;
Darkness and Chains, are Medicines for a Madman.

Ximena.
My Lord, I humbly beg you, spare your Son;
And add not Fury to a Raging Fire.
He soon will recollect his scatter'd Reason;
Which Heat of Youth, and Sickness, and Fatigues,
Have dissipated in his boyling Blood.
Give him but time, and then his Temperate Humour
Will soon return into the Native Channel;
And, unoppos'd, be calm.

Vera.
No, never more:
The Moon has roul'd above his Head, and turn'd it;
As Peals of Thunder sow'r the generous Wine.
(To Alph.)
Hence from my Presence thou, no more my Son.

Ximena.
If he be Mad, be Madness his excuse;
And Pardon Nature's Error, not his own.

Vera.
Ximena, you have fonded him to this;
I Prophesied; and now 'tis come to pass.

Gar.
Perhaps, I interrupted him too rudely:
And since I caus'd, my self, that ill Reception,
Forgive our mutual Faults.

Vera.
You shall prevail;
Tho' he deserves not such an Intercessor:
(To Alphon.)
Retire, Alphonso, to your inmost Lodgings;
And there inclose your self, and mourn your Crimes:
Be this your last Relapse; the next is Fatal.

Alphon.
I will retire.
But, if I am a Madman, as you say;
And as I half believe, expect no Cure,
But in Alphonso's Death.

[Alphonso goes in.
Ximena
(aside.)
It works apace:
But whither it will tend, Heaven only knows.

[Veramond sees the Book upon the Ground, and takes it up.
Vera.
This Book he left; go bear it after him.
Yet stay, I know not why, but somewhat prompts me
To Read this folded Page.
(To Garcia.)
Go, Royal Youth,
I wou'd my self conduct you to Victoria:
But Lovers need no Guide to their Desires:
And Love no Witness, but himself Requires.

[Exeunt the King and Queen one way, with their Attendants, and Don Garcia with his, another.