Page:A Series of Plays on the Passions Volume 1.pdf/193

Rh

I will no go, for grief hath made me strong. (Struggling to get loose.)

Ros. Do not withhold her, leave her sorrow free. It doth subdue the sternness of my grief To see her mourn him thus.—Yet I must curse.— Heav'n's curses light upon her damned father, Whose crooked policy has wrought this wreck.

Isab. If he has done it, you are well reveng'd, For his dark plots have been detected all. Gauriceio, for some int'rest of his own, His master's secret dealings with the foe Has to Lanoy betray'd; who straight hath sent, On the behalf of his imperial lord, A message full of dreadful threats to Mantua. His discontented subjects aid him not; He must submit to the degrading terms A haughty conq'ring power will now impose.

Ros. And art thou sure of this?

Isab.I am, my lord,

Ros. Give me thy hand. I'm glad on't, O! I'm glad on't! It should be so! how like a hateful ape Detected, grinning 'midst his pilfer'd hoard A cunning man appears, whose secret frauds Are open'd to the day! scorn'd, hooted, mock'd! Scorn d by the very fools who most admir'd His worthless art. But when a great mind falls, The noble nature of man's gen'rous heart Doth bear him up against the shame of ruin;