Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 19 (piety, thalander, crimes, blessings, loathed, pretend…). Matches are highlighted.
nature suffers, and looks backward, And mankind trembles to see me pursue What beasts would fly from. For when I advance This sword, as I must do against your head, Piety will weep, and filial duty mourn, To see their altars which you built up in me, In a moment razed and ruined, that you could (From my grieved soul I wish it) but
Full speech
It was long since resolved on Nor must I stagger now, may the cause That forces me to this unnatural act, Be buried in everlasting silence, And I find rest in death, or my revenge, To either I stand equal. Pray you Gentlemen Be charitable in your censures of me, And do not entertain a false belief That I am mad, for undertaking that Which must be, when effected, still repented. It adds to my calamity that I have Discourse and reason, and but too well know I can nor live, nor end a wretched life, But both ways I am impious. Do not therefore Ascribe the perturbation of my soul To a servile fear of death: I oft have viewed All kinds of his inevitable darts, Not are they terrible. Were I condemned to leap From the cloud-covered brows of a steep rock Into the deep; or Curtius -Like to fill up, For my Countries safety and and after name, A bottomless A bysse, or charge through fire, It could not so much shake me, as the encounter Of this days single enemy. Not for the world: Yet two things I entreat you, the first is, You'll not inquire the difference between My self and him, which as a father once I honoured, now my deadliest enemy, The last is, if I fallen, to bear my body Far from this place, and where you please inter it. I should say more, but by his sudden coming I am cut off. It's approved of By me, and I command you led the way, And leave me to my fortune. You shall have All you desire; for in a word or two I must make bold to entertain the time, If he give suffrage to it. Embrace with love on both sides, and with S Leave deadly hate, and fury. I shall, Sir; But in a perplexed form and method, which You only can interpret; would you had not A guilty knowledge in your bosom of The language which you force me to deliver, So I were nothing. As you are my father I bend my knee, and uncompelled profess My life, and all thats mine, to be your gift; And that in a sons duty I stand bound To lay this head beneath your feet, and run All desperate hazards for your ease and safety. But this confessed on my partly, I rise up, And not as with a father, (all respect, Love, fear, and reverence cast off,) but as A wicked man I thus expostulate with you. Why have you done that which I dare not speak, And in the Actium changed the humble shape Of my obedience, to rebellious rage And insolent pride? and with shut eyes constrained me To run my Bark of honour on a shelf, I must not see, nor if I saw it, shun it? In my wrongs nature suffers, and looks backward, And mankind trembles to see me pursue What beasts would fly from. For when I advance This sword, as I must do against your head, Piety will weep, and filial duty mourn, To see their altars which you built up in me, In a moment razed and ruined, that you could (From my grieved soul I wish it) but produce To qualify, not excuse your deed of horror, Ou seeming reason that I might fix here, And move no father. This sword divides that slavish knot. Thou incensed Power, A while forbear thy thunder, let me have No aid in my revenge, if from the grave My mother.
Plot summary
Plot — The Unnatural Combat
Malefort Junior, son of the Admiral, has committed treason by allying himself with pirates and threatening the ruin of Marseilles. The Admiral is suspected of complicity and imprisoned. Theocrine, his daughter, reluctantly offers herself to Beaufort Junior, son of the Governor of Marseilles, if he will only persuade his father to allow hers a hearing. Beaufort Senior can refuse his son nothing, so the Admiral gets his opportunity to protest his innocence. Malefort Junior ‘challenges his father to a duel over a wrongdoing which he will not specify. The Admiral refuses to be held accountable by his son, and accepts the challenge. Malefort Junior is killed: the threat to Marseilles is over, and Admiral Malefort is lauded a hero. Malefort suggests that Theocrine should marry Beaufort Junior; Beaufort Senior half-heartedly agrees and invites them to a nuptial feast. The Governor's table is open to any former soldier who needs a free ~ meal, a custom regularly invoked by Belgarde, who is unemployed in peacetime and angry at being denied - his -back pay. Fearing embarrassment at the feast, Beaufort Senior has his steward discourage Belyarde with the suggestion that he is underdressed for the ===== PAGE 200 ===== occasion; but the upshot is that Belgarde turns up in a suit of armour and declares his worthiness. His plain- speaking wins him respect and a gift of money from the Governor. He spends it all on new clothes, but the signs of prosperity attract his creditors, and he is still unable to pay them. People are noticing Malefort’s excessive solicitude towards his daughter. This comes to a head when Beaufort Junior takes her off to woo her in private, with a priest ready to perform the marriage. Malefort reacts by calling off the marriage and taking Theocrine home. He harbours an incestuous passion for his daughter, who is very like his dead second wife. Struggling to conquer the urge, he confesses to his friend Montreville and asks him to abduct her: he cannot be tempted if he never sees her again. Beaufort Junior realizes something is wrong and has Belgarde muster troops to besiege Montreville’s fort. Montreville demands sexual favours from Theocrine, and reveals her father’s secret. Meanwhile Malefort reasons from classical precedent that incest is not wicked after all, and goes to fetch his daughter back. Montreville denies him access and reveals that he has.a long-standing grudge: Theocrine’s mother was his mistress before Malefort stole her, poisoning his…