Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/268

248 My lord, know Almerin is as the man

I never saw.

Bren. You do not marry then?

Condemned men thus hear, and thus receive

Reprieves. One question more, and I am gone:

Is there to latitude of eternity

A hope for Brennoralt?

Fran. My lord?

Bren. Have I

A place at all, when you do think of men?

Fran. My lord, a high one: I must be singular,

Did I not value you. The world does set

Great rates upon you; and you have first deserv'd them.

Bren. Is this all?

Fran. All.

Bren. O, be less kind, or kinder:

Give me more pity or more cruelty,

Francelia! I cannot live with this, nor die.

Fran. I fear, my lord, you must not hope beyond it.

Bren. Not hope?

This, sure, is not the body to this soul:

It was mistaken, shuffled in through haste.

Why else should that have so much love, and this

Want loveliness to make that love receiv'd ?

I will raise

Honour to a point it never was—do things

Of such a virtuous greatness she shall love me.

She shall: I will deserve her, though I have her not.

There's something yet in that.

Madam, will't please you, pardon my offence?

O Fates!

That I must call thus my affection!

Fran. I will do anything, so you will think

Of me and of yourself, my lord, and how

Your stay endangers both.

Bren. Alas!

Your pardon is more necessary to

My life, than life to me. But I am gone.

Blessings, such as my wishes for you in

Their extasies could never reach, fall on you!

May ev'rything contribute to preserve

That exc'lence (my destruction), till't meet joys

In love, great as the torments I have in't!