Page:A Series of Plays on the Passions Volume 1.pdf/96

94

To please you with false notions of your pow'r. So all men talk of ladies and of love.

Vict. 'Tis even so. If love a tyrant be, How dare his humble chained votaries. To tell such rude and wicked tales of him?

Bas. Because they most of lover's ills complain, Who but affect it as a courtly grace, Whilst he who feels is silent.

Ros. But there you wrong me; I have felt it oft. Oft has it made me sigh at ladies' feet, Soft ditties sing, and dismal sonnets scrawl.

Albin. In all its strange effects, most worthy Rosinberg, Has it e'er made thee in a corner sit, Sad, lonely, moping sit, and hold thy tongue?

Ros. No, 'faith, it never has.

Albin. Ha, ha, ha, ha! then thou hast never lov'd.

Ros. Nay, but I have, and felt its bondage too.

Vict. O! it is pedantry to call it bondage! Love-marring wisdom, reason full of bars, Deserve, methinks, that appellation more. Is it not so, my Lord?—(To Basil.)

Bas.O! surely Madam; That is not bondage which the soul enthrall'd So gladly bears, and quits not but with anguish. Stern honour's laws, the fair report of men, These are the fetters that enchain the mind, But such as must not, cannot be unloos'd.

Vict. No, not unloos'd, but yet one day relax'd, To grant a lady's suit, unus'd to sue.

Ros. Your highness deals severely with us now,