Page:Dramas 1.pdf/267

Rh

I have been too long truant here, And my neglected task calls me within.[Exit.

Why look I still upon this foolish scroll? As foolish as 'tis spiteful. Leonora Has for her wicked solace in my absence My noble friend—my second self received! Good likely tale! (Reads again.) "An unknown friend cautions thee to beware of Don Juen. He has played thee false in thine absence, and destroyed thy wife's virtue and thine own honour. Look to it, if thou wouldst not become the most contemptible of all doating husbands: for thy fond security will make them bold, and the world will point at thee ere long." The common cant of all those friends unknown. Juen and Leonora! blest, most blest, In friendship and in love! This canker'd fiend Is stung therewith. Envy most devilish. Yet not uncommon in this wicked world. Well; it shall serve to light my evening lamp; God mend the wretch who wrote it. [Exit.