SYLVANO (STEM SYL)

But Madame, pray what partly shall I act? How truly do I do it? I should do that scurvily. Because I can love none but you, and would be loath to dissemble, though but in jest. Indeed Madame I should die if I were otherwise: But pray, when will you be well? you have been sick a great while. Not alone, I'll die with you, and be buried with you if you will give me leave. The virgins loved my innocence, and it When I was yet a child. Yes, and the world too; I know he would not have been so unkind else. Begged relief from her. A large requital! — A smile from my Ferrando? o 'twas heaven, Felicia, while thou wish'st it! now thou hast Obtained it, it's a hell; the antidote Is now become my poison: Tyrant love That sportest thee at the pains, thy Martyrs feel And makest thy salve applied, wound when should heal. It's ominous, this might have been my marriage day; But heaven forgive, and prosper him. Hence my delight! thou art turned traitor to me: Thy strings conveyed a poison to my ears, And they drank deeply of it;— yet forbear, Alas it was my self, my inward grief, Thrown from the soul in often sighs, that made Thy found infectious; it's with that as gilded, It grows still greater as it's born about, And poisons every thing should work it's cure. Felicia. How has thy name, thy self, thy friend deceived thee! That only Wertenberg acquainted with the found Of happiness; mocked with a false report, Into a real misery; whose easy nature (The greatest foe unto it self, was flattered) Out of a virgin treasure; and then left Rifled of all; but (what grief now is preying on) A hapless life — yet cruel thief, th'ast left So much of thee behind, as shall hereafter Tell to the world a dark and gloomy tale Of thy black perjury. O, me miserable! You must prepare your self for a sad story then: You'll wished untold. Know then, that when I was my self My name was— Felicia Yes his—that was once Alberto Durazzo is farre-fam'd Marquess; till His cruel Master seized on's life, and honours, At his return from Sicily i'th first wars; Where he received a fatal overthrow. Here! here began my misery. Then let me die without your farther knowledge Of my mishap; will be injurious Unto my ashes, and disturb their quiet; I know it will; You'll have cause enough ere I've done; Therefore don't hear't; Too much It's thus then! —Yet do'nt believe me, say that I was mad, Distracted with my sorrows, that my words Fell so uneven from me, you mistook The sense; say any thing.— Or may I never find peace hereafter! The King Madame. Ferrando; —(Seize me Courteous death, Or I shall poison all her joys;) Ferrando was the author of my fallen: Ferrando! o! o! (Swoons) O! o! o! Where am I? Would! the Princess! Beshrew me but I've had a fearful dream! I hope was but a dream; Good Madame don't affright me; Your fancy's dark and gloomy. Revenge? for whom? I'll tell you; but you first Shall promise me, to bread no other way To your revenge and mine, then I shall lead you in. While yet Alberto lived As great in favour as in blood, the glory O'th Court of Naples, honoured with daily visits From his Prince; was my unhappy destiny, (Fool that I was to be so credulous!) To receive many favours from Ferrando; Which I interpreted i'th way of love; Mean while, this match was treated of between Him, and your self; your Father ( Sicily's King) After your plighted troths, and formal ceremonies Used betwixt Prince, and Prince, would break it off, Which caused a sudden war upon his Country; In which expedition Alberto Was sent chief general: the King being fore't Now to withdraw his public visits, employed Ʋ rsini in the business; gets access Privately to me i'th might, and that too Always i'th dark, lest happily he might Be known to any of my servants; Briefly After his many oaths, and protestations Of his fair meaning, I at last consented To let him steal the fruit, he durst not own: When ere I urged, he was ingug'd to you, He answered, that was but a trick of state, A fair pretence to colour his design; And mak't seem glorious, in the eye o'th world; That he warred for a Kingdom, not a Queen; Only entreated me, that I'de be silent, And not so much as in a sign betray To'th day, what only night was conscious of. Willingly. My father i'th mean while returns defeated, For which the King led on by passion, seized His life and honours, these conferred on his Now favourite Ʋ rsini: the fleet re enforced, He himself the second time in person Went general of the forces, conquered Sicily, And slew your father on Messina's plains, Last brought you away captive. When first I saw Your person, and how mutually you loved, Knowing how far I was beneath your worth, So deer I held you both, that I determined For ever to be lost to memory; And serve you thus in this disguise: which I Had done, but that this hapless chance Betrayed me to your knowledge. 'Twas my too cruel destinies! Our wrongs and sorrows Have made us just so Like to one another, That each seems th'o others counterfeit. Hers that does surmount, Shall borrow grief of tother. Has robbed me of a father cruel Tyrant, Taken my virgin honour, all my dower. Has mocked me with the title of a Queen. Oh yet for my sake have some pity on him, And for that partly of him, that's cradled here, alas he may live to make us fair amends. Ah me! Would I had never had it, that alone Has only caused my grief: Judge Sir, by these tears. 'Twas told me there, my Parents straightway died. Those are favours Sir, That become them to give, not me to take. For that I crave your pardon, 'twas all the untruths My life has ere been charged with; but 'twas thus: Led partly by a jealous fear, to see What he intended; partly to find out My brother Frederico, who was left there Commander in Mazara, which was took In the first expedition, in this disguise, amongst others whom desire of fame, or profit Led to your shore, I crossed the seas; but failing In quest of him I sought, I came to Court, Where since I have remained. Bereaved me of my Brother, and my friends. Yet this cannot cure our grief. But say l've thought a way, how we may yet Be both restored to happiness, would you not Accept, and follow't? As yet (you know) your virgin treasure stands Free from his ruder touch: those Ceremonies, Which linked you in one Hymeneal knot, Religion will make void, the precontract betwixt him and me being known, so that you then, On this partly are free from him; enjoy him thus You cannot, neither would you (I suppose) After these wrongs, (if you might be permitted:) What hinders then, but that I take your place This night? and show him, to what height his perjury Has wrought our wrongs, while you in some disguise May quit the Court, and ever next Sun appear, From hence towards France, to whom you are allied In blood, and wrongs. — To stay there's none. Me thinks each thing I meet withal upbraids my found credulity; The soaring lark hovers aloft i'th air, At distance from th'inchanting glass, that Courts Her to her ruin! the fearful Quail Suspects and shuns the music of the pipe That sings her into fetters. Only poor I am sillier than these; Witness untimely swelling of this womb Pregnant to my disgrace;— As I lay hid In yonder thicket, the brambles gently swelled, And hid my shame, which yet each trivial wind But dallying with, persuaded from my covert! And left me naked to heaven's eye; the boughs Of the next willow clung about my head, As if they knit themselves into a garland, Which I should wear for my forsaken lover,— O you the weak supporters of my woes, Why do'e fail me now at greatest needs? Bear me at least into some hollow cave Where I may die, free from and after scorn; And not when I am dead, be found the shame Of our frail sex;— O! I faint, and fallen, Just Like the early branches of some tree, Whose hasty sap shoots into early fruit, Till the over laden boughs crack with the weight, Ere yet they be full ripe — And I am lost in Passion.