'Tis easy to deceive us,

In pity of your pain;
But when we love you leave us
To rail at you in vain.
Before we have descried it,
There is no bliss beside it
But she that once has tried it,
Will never love again.

The passion you pretended,
Was only to obtain ;
But when the charm is ended,
The charmer you disdain.
Your love by ours we measure,
Till we have lost our treasure ;

But dying is a pleasure,
When living is a pain.

Re-enter TORRISMOND.

Qu. I will never rise;

I cannot choose a better place to die.
Tor. Oh, I would speak, but cannot.

Qu. [Rising.] Guilt keeps you silent then;
you love me not.

What have I done? Ye powers, what have I done,
To see my youth, my beauty, and my love,
No sooner gained, but slighted and betrayed;
And, like a rose just gathered from the stalk,
But only smelt, and cheaply thrown aside,
To wither on the ground!

Ter. For Heaven's sake, madam, moderate
your passion.

Qu. Why namest thou Heaven? There is no heaven for me;

Despair, death, hell, have seized my tortured soul. When I had raised his grovelling fate from ground, To power and love, to empire and to me; When each embrace was dearer than the first; Then, then to be contemned! Then, then thrown off!

It calls me old, and withered, and deformed, And loathsome; Oh, what woman can bear loathsome!

The turtle flies not from his billing mate;
He bills the closer; but ungrateful man,
Base, barbarous man, the more we raise our love,
The more we pall, and cool, and kill his ardour.
Racks, poisons, daggers, rid me of my life,
And any death is welcome!

Tor. Be witness, all ye powers, that know my
heart,

I would have kept the fatal secret hid,
But she has conquered, to her ruin conquered.
Here, take this paper, read our destinies :
Yet do not; but, in kindness to yourself,
Be ignorantly safe.

Qu. No, give it me,

Even though it be the sentence of my death.
Tor. Then see how much unhappy love has
made us.
Oh, Leonora! Oh!

We two were born when sullen planets reigned;
When each the other's influence opposed,
And drew the stars to factions at our birth.
Oh, better, better had it been for us,
That we had never seen, or never loved!
Qu. There is no faith in Heaven, if Heaven
says so.

You dare not give it.

Tor. As unwillingly,

As I would reach out opium to a friend Who lay in torture, and desired to die.

[Gives the paper.

Tor. Death and hell!

Somewhat must be resolved, and speedily.

A friend, and once forget thou art a son,

To help me save the queen?

Lor. [Aside.] Let me consider

Bear arms against my father! He begat me,
That's true; but for whose sake did he beget me?
For his own, sure enough; for me he knew not.
Oh, but, says Conscience, fly in Nature's face!
But how, if Nature fly in my face first?
Then Nature's the aggressor-Let her look to't-
He gave me life, and he may take it back-
No, that's boy's play, say I.

'Tis policy for son and father to take different sides;

For then lands and tenements commit no treason. [To TOR.] Sir, upon mature consideration, I have found my father to be little better than a rebel; and therefore I'll do my best to secure him for your sake, in hope you may secure him hereafter for my sake.

Tor. Put on thy utmost speed to head the
troops,

Which every moment I expect t' arrive.
Proclaim me, as I am, the lawful king.
I need not caution thee for Raymond's life,
Though I no more must call him father now.

Lor. [Aside.] How, not call him father! I see preferment alters a man strangely; this may serve me for a use of instruction, to cast off my father when I am great. Methought, too, he called himself the lawful king, intimating sweetly, that he knows what's what with our sovereign lady. Well, if I rout my father, as I hope in Heaven I

Omnes. Lead on, lead on.

Enter

[Drums and trumpets on the other side.

TORRISMOND and his party. As they are
going to fight, he speaks.

Tor. [To his.] Hold, hold your arms.
Ray. Retire. What means this pause?
Ped. Peace; nature works within them.

[TOR. and RAY. go apart. Tor. How comes it, good old man, that we

two meet

On these harsh terms? Thou very reverend rebel,
Thou venerable traitor, in whose face
And hoary hairs treason is sanctified,
And sin's black dye seems blanched by age to
virtue.

Ray. What treason is it to redeem my king, And to reform the state?

Tor. That's a stale cheat;
The primitive rebel, Lucifer, first used it,
And was the first reformer of the skies.

Ray. What! if I see my prince mistake a
poison,

Call it a cordial, am I then a traitor,
Because I hold his hand, or break the glass?
Tor. How darest thou serve thy king against

his will?

Ray. Because 'tis then the only time to serve him.

Tor. I take the blame of all upon myself.
Discharge thy weight on mc.
Ray. Oh, never, never!

To save the effusion of my subjects' blood, and thou shalt still

Be as my foster-father, near my breast,
And next my Leonora.

Ray. That word stabs me;

You shall be still plain Torrismond with me,
The abettor, partner, (if you like that name)
The husband of a tyrant; but no king,
Till you deserve that title by your justice.

Tor. Then, farewell pity; I will be obeyed. [To the people.] Hear, you mistaken men, whose loyalty

Runs headlong into treason, see your prince;
In me behold your murdered Sancho's son:
Dismiss your arms, and I forgive your crimes.
Ray. Believe him not; he raves: his words
are loose

As heaps of sand, and scattering wide from sense.
You see he knows not me, his natural father!
But, aiming to possess the usurping queen,
So high he's mounted in his airy hopes,
That now the wind is got into his head,
And turns his brains to frenzy.

Tor. Hear me yet; I am-
Ray. Fall on, and hear him not;
But

spare his person for his father's sake. Ped. Let me come. If he be mad, I have that shall cure him; there's not a surgeon in all Arragon has so much dexterity as I have, at breathing of the temple-vein.

Tor. My right for me!
Ray. Our liberty for us!
Omnes. Liberty, liberty!

[As they are ready to fight,

Enter LORENZO and his party.

Take your own crown from Leonora's gift, And hug your father's murderer in your arms.

Enter Queen, TERESA, and Women. Alph. No more: behold the queen. Ray. Behold the basilisk of Torrismond, That kills him with her eyes. I will speak on. My life is of no further use to me;

I would have chaffered it before for vengeance; Now let it go for failing.

Tor. [Aside.] My heart sinks in me while I hear him speak,

And every slackened fibre drops its hold,
Like nature letting down the springs of life;
So much the name of father awes me still.
Send off the crowd. For you, now I have con-
quered,

I can hear with honour your demands.

Lor. [To ALPH. Now, sir, who proves the traitor?

My conscience is true to me; it always whispers Right when I have my regiment to back it.

[Exeunt all but TOR. RAY. and Queen. Tor. Oh, Leonora ! what can jove do more? I have opposed your ill fate to the utmost, Combated heaven and earth to keep you mine; And yet, at last, that tyrant, justice-Oh!

Qu. 'Tis past, 'tis past, and love is ours no

arms.

Alph. How, rebel! art thou there?

Lor. Take your rebel back again, father mine. The beaten party are rebels to the conquerors. I have been at hard-head with your butting citizens; I have routed your herd: I have dispersed them; and now they are retreated quietly from their extraordinary vocation of fighting in the streets, to their ordinary vocation of cozening in their shops.

Tor. [To RAY.] You see 'tis vain contending with the truth;

Acknowledge what I am.

Ray, You are my king; would you would be

To lose a crown and lover in a day.
Let pity lend a tear when rigour strikes.

Ray. Then, then you should have thought of tears and pity,

When virtue, majesty, and hoary age
Pleaded for Sancho's life.

Qu. My future days shall be one whole contrition;

A chapel will I build, with large endowment,
Where every day, an hundred aged men
Shall all hold up their withered hands to Heaven,
To pardon Sancho's death.

Tor. See, Raymond, see, she makes a large amends.

Sancho is dead; no punishment of her

Can raise his cold stiff limbs from the dark grave; Nor can his blessed soul look down from Hea

ven,

Or break the eternal sabbath of his rest,
To see, with joy, her miseries on earth.
Ray. Heaven may forgive a crime to peni-

tence;

For Heaven can judge if penitence be true; But man, who knows not hearts, should make examples;

Which, like a warning-piece, must be shot off, To fright the rest from crimes.

Qu. Had I but known that Sancho was his fa-
ther,

I would have pour'd a deluge of my blood
To save one drop of his.

Tor. Mark that, inexorable Raymond, mark, 'Twas fatal ignorance that caused his death. Ray. What if she did not know he was your father?

She knew he was a man, the best of men, Heaven's image double-stamp'd, as man and king.

Qu. He was, he was, even more than you can say;

cause;

But all my guilt was caused by too much love.
Had I for jealousy of empire sought

Good Sancho's death, Sancho had died before.
'Twas always in my power to take his life;
But interest never could my conscience blind,
Till love had cast a mist before my eyes,
And made me think his death the only means
Which could secure my throne to Torrismond.
Tor. Never was fatal mischief meant so kind;
For all she gave has taken all away.
Malicious powers! Is this to be restored?
'Tis to be worse deposed than Sancho 'was.
Ray. Heaven has restored you, you deposed
yourself.

Oh, when young kings begin with scorn of justice,
They make an omen to their after-reign,
And plot their annals in the foremost page!
Tor. No more; lest you be made the first ex-
ample,

To show how I can punish.

Ruy. Once again,

Let her be made your father's sacrifice, And after make me her's.

Tor. Condemn a wife!

Tht were t' atone for parricide with murder. Ray. Then let her be divorced: we'll be con

tent

With that poor scanty justice. Let her part. Tor. Divorce! that's worse than death; 'tis, death of love.

Qu. The soul and body part not with such pain,

As I from you; but yet 'tis just, my lord:
I am the accurst of heaven, the hate of earth,
Your subjects' detestation, and your ruin;
And therefore fix this doom upon myself.

Tor. Heaven! can you wish it? to be mine no more?

Qu. Yes, I can wish it, as the dearest proof, And last that I can make you of my love." To leave you blest, I would be more accurst Than death can make me; for death ends our

woes,

And the kind grave shuts up the mournful scene: But I would live without you, to be wretched long,

And hoard up every moment of my life,
To lengthen out the payment of my tears,
Till even fierce Raymond at the last shall say,
Now let her die, for she has grieved enough.

Tor. Hear this, hear this, thou tribune of the people;

Thou zealous, public blood-hound, hear, and melt.

Ray. [Aside.] I could cry now, my eyes grow womanish,

But yet my heart holds out.

Qu. Some solitary cloister will I choose, And there with holy virgins live immured: Coarse my attire, and short shall be my sleep, Broke by the melancholy midnight-bell. Now, Raymond, now be satisfied at last, Fasting and tears, and penitence and prayer, Shall do dead Sancho justice every hour. Ray. [Aside.] By your leave, manhood!

[Wipes his eyes. Tor. He weeps; now he is vanquished. Ray. No; 'tis a salt rheum that scalds my

1

The traitor's sight, I'll go; attend us here. [Ext. Enter GOMEZ, ELVIRA, DOMINICK, with Officers, to make the stage as full as possible. Ped. Why, how now, Gomez? what makest thou here with a whole brotherhood of city-bailiffs? Why, thou look'st like Adam in paradise, with his guard of beasts about him.

Alph. Well, what have you to say against your wife, Gomez ?

Gom. Why, I say, in the first place, that I and all men are married for our sins, and that our wives are a judgment; that a bachelor-cobler is a happier man than a prince in wedlock; and that we are all visited with a household plague, and, Lord have mercy upon us, should be writ ten on all our doors.

Dom. Now he reviles marriage, which is one of the seven blessed sacraments.

Gom. 'Tis liker one of the seven deadly sins: but make your best on't, I care not; 'tis but binding a man neck and heels for all that! But, as for my wife, that crocodile of Nilus, she has wickedly and traitorously conspired the cuckol dom of me, her anointed sovereign lord; and, with the help of the aforesaid friar, whom Heaven confound, and with the limbs of one Colonel Hernando, cuckold-maker of this city, devi

Dom. Take notice how uncharitably he talks of churchmen.

Gom. Indeed you are a charitable belswagger: my wife cried out, fire, fire! and you brought out your church buckets, and called for engines to play against it.

Alph. I am sorry you are come hither to accuse your wife; her education has been virtuous, her nature mild and easy.

Gom. Yes; she's easy with a vengeance, there's a certain colonel has found her so.

Alph. She came a spotless virgin to your bed. Gom. And she's a spotless virgin still for me -she's never the worse for my wearing, I'll take my oath on't: I have lived with her with all the innocence of a man of threescore; like a peaceable bed-fellow as I am.

Elv. Indeed, sir, I have no reason to complain of him for disturbing of my sleep.

Dom. A fine commendation you have given yourself; the church did not marry you for that. Ped. Come, come, your grievances, your grie

vances.

Dom. Why, noble sir, I'll tell you.

Gom. Peace, friar! and let me speak first. I am the plaintiff. Sure you think you are in the pulpit, where you preach by hours.

Dom. And you edify by minutes. Gom. Where you make doctrines for the people, and uses and applications for yourselves. Ped. Gomez, give way to the old gentleman , in black.

Gom. No, the t'other ell gentleman in black shall take me if I do; I will speak first; nay, I will, friar, for all your verbum sacerdotis, I'll speak truth in few words, and then you may come afterwards, and lie by the clock, as you use to do: for, let me tell you, gentlemen, he shall lie and forswear himself with any friar in all Spain; that's a bold word now.

Dom. Let him alone; let him alone; I shall fetch him back with a circum-bendibus, I warrant him.

her arm, feloniously to bear one casket of diamonds, pearls, and other jewels, to the value of thirty thousand pistoles. Guilty, or not guilty; how sayest thou, culprit?

Dom. False and scandalous! Give me the book. I'll take my corporal oath point-blank against every particular of this charge. Elv. And so will I.

Dom. As I was walking in the streets, telling my heads, and praying to myself, according to my usual custom, I heard a foul outcry before Gomez's portal; and his wife, my penitent, making doleful lamentations; thereupon, making what haste my limbs would suffer me, that are crippled with often kneeling, I saw him spurning and fisting her most unmercifully! whereupon, using Christian arguments with him to desist, he fell violently upon me, without respect to my sacerdotal order, pushed me from him, and turned me about with a finger and a thumb, just as a man would set up a top. Mercy, quoth I. Damme, quoth he. And still continued labouring me, 'till a good-minded colonel came by, whom, as Heaven shall save me, I had never seen be fore!

Gom. Oh Lord! Oh Lord!

Dom. Ay, and, Oh, lady! Oh, lady, too! I redouble my oath, I had never seen him. Well, this noble colonel, like a true gentleman, was for taking the weaker part you may be sure-whereupon this Gomez flew upon him like a dragon, got him down, the devil being strong in him, and gave him bastinado upon bastinado, and buffet upon buffet, which the poor meek colonel, being prostrate, suffered with a most Christian patience.

Gom. Who? he meek? I'm sure I quake at the very thought of him; why, he's as fierce as Rhodomont; he made assault and battery upon my person, beat me into all the colours of the rainbow; and every word this abominable priest has uttered is as false as the Alcoran. But if you want a thorough-paced liar, that will swear through thick and thin, commend me to a friar.