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JUSTINA. A forgetfulness of me.
In what way must I explain Clearer than I have done before, That persistence at my door Is and ever must be vain?
If a day, a month, a year, If for ages there you stay, Naught but this that now I say Ever can you hope to hear.
As it were my latest breath, Let this sad a.s.surance move thee,-- Fate forbids that I should love thee, Cyprian, except in death.
[She moves towards the house.
CYPRIAN. At these words my hopes revive:-- Sad! no, no, to joy they move me, For if thou in death canst love me, Soon for me will death arrive.
Be it so; and since so nigh Comes the hour your words to prove-- Ah! even now begin to love, Since I now begin to die.
[JUSTINA enters.
SCENE III.
CYPRIAN, MOSCON, CLARIN, and LIVIA.
CLARIN. Livia, while my master yonder, Like a living skeleton, Life and motion being gone, On his luckless love doth ponder, Give me an embrace.
LIVIA. Stay, stay.
Patience, man! until I see, For I like my conscience free, If to-day is your right day.-- Tuesday, yes, and Wednesday, no.
CLARIN. What are you counting there? Awake!
Moscon's mum.
LIVIA. He might mistake, And I wish not to act so.
For, desiring to pursue A just course betwixt you both, Turn about, I would be loth Not to give you each his due.
But I see that you are right, 'Tis your day.
CLARIN. Embrace me, then.
LIVIA. Yes, again, and yet again.
MOSCON. Hark to me, my lady bright, May I from your ardour borrow A good omen in my case; And as Clarin you embrace, Moscon you'll embrace to-morrow!
LIVIA. Your suspicion is, in fact, Quite absurd; on me rely.
Jupiter forbid that I Should commit so bad an act As to be cool in any way To a friend. I will to thee Give an embrace in equity, When it is your wors.h.i.+p's day.
[Exit.
SCENE IV.
CYPRIAN, MOSCON, and CLARIN.
CLARIN. Well, I'll not be by to see, That's a comfort.
MOSCON. How? why so?
Need I be chagrined to know, If the girl's not mine, that she Thus to you her debt did pay.
CLARIN. No.
MOSCON. This makes my point more strong, Since to me it were no wrong If it chanced not on my day.
But our master yonder, see, How absorbed he seems.
CLARIN. More near, If he speaks I'd like to hear.
MOSCON. And I, too, would like.
CYPRIAN. Ah me!
[As MOSCON and CLARIN approach CYPRIAN from opposite sides, he gesticulates with his arms, and accidentally strikes both.
Love, how great thy agonies!--
CLARIN. Ah! ah, me!
MOSCON. Ah, me! I bawl.
CLARIN. Well, I think that we may call This the land of the 'sigh-ah-mes'!
CYPRIAN. What! and have you both been here?
CLARIN. I, at least, was here, I'll swear.
MOSCON. And I, also.
CYPRIAN. O, despair End at once my sad career!
Ah, what human heart to woe Like to mine has given a home?
SCENE V.
THE COUNTRY.
CYPRIAN, CLARIN, and MOSCON.
CLARIN. Whither Moscon, do we roam?
MOSCON. When we've reached the end, we'll know.
Leagues behind us lies the town, Still we go.
