Latest / A School for Greybeards; or, The Mourning Bride / Act 4

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Act 4 · A School for Greybeards; or, The Mourning Bride

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  Act four of A School for Graybeards or The Morning Bride by Hannah Cowley.
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  This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Act four
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  see Seraphina's Apartment inter Seraphina followed by Octavio. It is in vain and so
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  charmingviola, why are you so barbarous? Is it not by your own permission?
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  I attend you? Yes, I know it is. But what if
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  that when the sun shone I liked you, and now by candlelight I hate
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  you? Do go? I will not be teased. This is so singular,
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  What that a woman should change her mind since morning? You, I
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  suppose, are so wonderfully constant that you change yours only with the moon.
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  Do not suspect me a fickleness. Permit me to prove my constancy impossible?
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  Impossible? How so I see, I must tell you to avoid altercation.
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  Be pleased to know, then, sir, that there is nothing on earth
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  I detest like this sober, quiet, prudent method of loving. Your vows
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  have a father's approbation. You are expected you enter the house without difficulty,
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  You yawn through an hour of commonplace. The wedding day is fixed, and
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  we go to church to be married in the same humdrum stupid way that millions
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  of dull couples have done before us. No, no, this I cannot
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  submit to Believe me, Octavio, aside ah tis plain we were born for
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  each other. We think so exactly alike these I confess our misfortunes. But
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  how in our case are they to be avoided? If you are really in
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  earnest in your love, you must contrive to make Don Alexis hate you.
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  Let him throw a thousand difficulties in the way, and then I'll throw myself
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  into your arms. Oh that ecstatic promise. But your father is unhappily attached
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  to our marriage. What the devil can I do to make him set his
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  face against it? I fear it is impossible, Poor Don Octavio, Then
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  you have no hopes, for I do swear by everything that can bind me.
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  Whilst Don Alexis approves of our nuptials, I will never be yours.
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  I'll bribe fellows to slander me. Was ever so unhappy a dilemma, I
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  thought his approbation till this moment a blessing. But now I would willingly make
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  him shut his doors against me and confine you to a grated room with a
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  dozen smoke dried duennasigard you. Then, indeed things would go on gloriously.
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  You would be sighing and groaning without, and I should be weeping and wailing
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  within. Then for plots and contrivances, Then for bribes and scaling ladders,
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  Then for escapes and pursuits. Oh what would I not do for a man
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  who should bring me into such blissful difficulties? I swear you shall be obeyed
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  whatever I hazard aside. Who knows, but an elopement may finish the affair
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  short of marriage a bustle without the door opens a little and discovers Carlotta struggling
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  to keep out Alexis. I tell you, missus brazen, I will be
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  amongst them. Bless me, sir, How can you be so barbarous to
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  disturb the young people? There's done, Alexis. Now begin your talk directly
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  prevent his coming in. If he enters, I never will be yours.
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  Let me in, I say, pardon me, sir. You must not
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  come in, go in to the door, must not come in, or
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  you young dog? Well, well tell me then? Is she kind?
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  Hey, my little Octi? Is she kind? Not quite so kind as
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  I wish her to be? Oh a jade, you slut, you,
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  you perverse baggage. I will have you kind to Octavio. Octavio aside,
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  devil take him? Why does he not better dismiss me? Then she'd fly
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  to my bosom arcty rcty struggling with Carlotta. Have you kissed her yet?
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  No? Then you shall I will see you kiss her. By jove,
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  Lord, sir, how can you be so rambustus came in? I will
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  Sarah Fina aside, then go out? I must exit. So what's she
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  off? Bursting in? Off? Yes, and now I'll be off.
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  What woman of delicacy could bear to be thus treated? Or what? Father?
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  But you going? Now? Dear acty, do not be angry.
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  Do not be angry. You have the character of one of the civilist politest,
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  discreetest. The character lies, sir. I am none of these.
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  I am rude, ill natured, unjust, fickle and full of extravagance.
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  Hey day, why I believe you are full of wine too. I am
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  everything you ought to dread. You could not, in all Lisbon have picked
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  out so hopeless a husband for your daughter. Oh lord, no, you
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  are a very hopeful young gentleman. The character you have given of yourself would
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  suit ye all I doubt. But you seem so intimate with your fallt that
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  like a stale acquaintance, they'll soon discuss thee. Therefore, fickle, drunk
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  or mad, my daughter shall be your wife? Are you so obstinate,
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  sir? I? And if she dares demure? Oh I am ruined.
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  If you persist, I am ruined. Dear Donald Lexis, pardon me.
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  I see my scheme was ridiculous. That better strikes me In one word,
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  stay, let's take care. We are not hurt. In one word,
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  you and I must both be in a plot against your lovely capricious daughter.
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  Oh now, her vivacity renders a stupid, formal, alloud courtship intolerable to
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  her. If you persist in countenancing my addresses, she will hate me.
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  But if you order her to see me no more and allow me to steal
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  her out of a window or over the garden wall, she'll be the happy
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  bride in Portugal? Do you say so? Oh? Up, aerverse baggage.
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  But I'll fit her, won't love ye merely because I order her to
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  do it? That she had from her mother. You must conceal your knowledge
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  of that, fir. Do you imagine I don't see your whole drift?
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  Now? If you was to continue talking a lapland winter, you could not
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  make the hint clearer. Yeah, she's coming, and my wife with her.
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  So do you hear you? Signor Don Octavio speaking loudly? You are,
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  I say you are. You shall know what you are another time for
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  the present. That's your way, sir, That your way out, and
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  I'll be sworn ye shall never know the way in pushing him out. Inter
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  Seraphina and Viola, Why my dear husband is so mere a gudgeon? There's
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  no reddit and deceiving him to Viola? Now remember your lesson, So,
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  mistress, I have dispatched your lover, have you, sir? The young
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  rake? Shame you're not liking him proves you have your father's penetration, notwithstanding
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  his modest front. There's not such a desperate fellow this side of the Ganges.
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  No, not the other side the Black Sea. My sweet love,
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  are you speaking of Don Octavio. Yes, I am take care. You
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  give him no encouragement, do ye hear, girl? No whisperings from your
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  balcony. No private correspondences, no belaise dropped by your officies, made on
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  pretense they are meant for some charedy Pagd's country cousin, Dear sir. No
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  penciled asignations on the back of your fan, or cards in lemon juice to
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  be called on detection, secret orders to your perfume for pearl powder and bloom
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  of circassia. How can you put such things in the girl's head, dearie,
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  alexis aside that her fingers may put them in practice, to be sure.
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  But you are not up to me there, dearie. But a few
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  minutes since you were fearful sir, that he was not received with sufficient favor.
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  That was that well, no matter that was perhaps to try how far
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  things had gone. Oh, I beg your pardon. The curtain rises and
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  we see the sun. Now I understand your policy. How admirable you middle
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  aged gentlemen are so deep that tis difficult to sifty aye, And when we
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  are sifted, you are found to be chaff. Poor dear Don Octavio,
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  send him a garland of willows viola rather of myrtles. He's too handsome for
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  willows. Handsome he is, they're handsome. Does remember that? Why,
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  sir? He does handsomely. He has traveled handsomely, has a handsome estate,
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  has brought home a handsome character, and now wishes for a handsome wife.
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  Aye, but he must go further afield to catch her. Though he'll
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  find neither wives nor wigeons in my orchard. No, our wigeons are all
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  within doors. Unfortunate that I am just made up my mind to dismiss Sebastian,
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  nay, absolutely to dislike him. And now and now, why now
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  you must make up your mind of the way. Perhaps in my present humor
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  of the two fools are like Sebastian best. But that humor must change,
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  for I can never think of those two young men as you do, my
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  dear father. Thoughts are free. Daughter side Dad, I could hug her.
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  You see, your father generously leaves your thoughts unshackled, My dear,
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  he only desires to control your actions. Pray, oblige him and take Sebastion
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  Alexis aside loned. She knows nothing of our plot, and gives that advice
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  seriously. He is a most accomplished young man wife, engaging in his manners
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  and resistless in his form. My dear, I say, his eyes are
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  expressive, and his tongue is eloquent. Alexis aside the devil's in your tongue.
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  You don't know what you are talking of. I do, indeed perfectly.
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  In short viola, he is so amiable, so captivating, and loves
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  you with such unbounded fondness that if you marry any other, your misery ought
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  to eat equal your ingratitude. Gad, she speaks with an air of too
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  much conviction. This must be managed more nicely. To your chamber, hussey,
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  and try to forget Octavio. Pushin Afiola, and remember your Sebastian.
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  Let him be present to you, waking and sleeping, Let him zoons,
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  let him alone, driving her off. On the other side, you may
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  be doing mischief all this while. I dare not let her into my plot,
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  lest her perverseness or her folly should mar it. And yet I think,
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  no, hang it, I won't. I won't. The only plot
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  that ever had a woman in it came to nothing. I'll conduct this solely
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  by my own sagacity, and have a hearty laugh at the poor fools when
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  all is over. Ha ha ha ha ha ha exit laughing. Seen an
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  elegant apartment at Don Gaspar's illuminated Rachel enters first, followed by Gasper, Antonia,
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  Clara and a number of ladies. Rachael looking back, bless us.
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  The approach of the ceremony has made my master half out of his senses.
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  The poor bride too seems half out of hers, but not with joy.
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  If I may guess, Don Gasper caepering in and singing, tired of dance
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  and song and play. Now we en thou wedding day, Yes, yes,
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  now for the ceremony, Come red, pitty bed. The priest is
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  waiting in the next room to make thee the happiest girl in Portugal, strutting
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  in ten minutes, thou wilt be the wife of Don Gasper the Frontado Antonia
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  aside, Oh heaven, where is Henry? Rachel? My soul sinks within
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  me, truly mine is not very high. Heyday, what's all this about?
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  What? She must be coaxed? Now? I warrant they all love
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  coaxing. Come now, my pretty Tony my now, little TONI taking her
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  under his arms, Antonia breaking from him. Henry, Henry, where art
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  thou? Oh he mocks me. Come, let us to the priest and
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  tie the knot which even Alexander, who cut the guardian, will never be
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  able to destroy. Henri without where is he the bridegroom, the happy bridegroom.
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  Oh, my heart, he has come. Here, he is,
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  Here is the happy bridegroom. Henri enters. Come. You are just in
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  time to witness the ceremony. The priest waits to join us in his rosy
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  bands. Look at her, hum, oh, you sweet little there are
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  smiles and blushes for you. Look at her there, like those of Aurora
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  when she flies before the jolly God of Day. And I, at the
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  jolly God of Day, pursue her but charming and Tonio. The blissful fate
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  which awaits you must be postponed a few hours, Oh, sir, I
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  am sent sent about what from whom Will sends you to postpone? And Tony
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  is bliss it is happy. I have a token to convince you here,
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  sir. Do you know this great seal ring? The impression is stay?
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  Can you see it? Take in a candle. The impression is a satyr.
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  Look at his horns. The devil's in such luck. A man on
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  the wrong side of fifty or so kept marry, but at every turn he
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  has horns and his teeth. If he is invited to a tavern, that
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  dinner is sure to be at the horns. They'll wake me with horns to
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  borrow morning. Nay, I am even kept from the ceremony to night to
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  be regaled with the fight of horns. Antonia de Clara can be the purport
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  of the ring. I can hardly breathe through terror. Do you know them,
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  sir? Know them? Yes? They are Dona Alexis's horns, not
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  mine. It is his ring. But what have I to do with it
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  any more with the ring of Saturn or the belt of Jupiter. If you
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  are for rings, you shall see one presently taking Antonia's hand on this waxen
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  finger. That you will not hear me, sir. This is a token
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  from Don Alexis. Observe me, sir, a token by which you are
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  required, as counselor of the realm, to meet Don Alexis immediately at his
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  own house on affairs of imminent importance. Meet Don Alexis. What is he
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  mad? Or are you mad? Or does he think me mad? Go
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  prithy. I'll meet him tomorrow, seizing Antonia's hand, my service to his
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  night cap, going man to morrow. Why all our throats may be cut
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  by tomorrow? Hey throats cut? Why, sir, there's a plot,
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  a plot, a plot. Claire to Antonia. Now I have his design,
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  my dear Don Gasper. At a juncture so important, every selfish consideration
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  must be annihilated. Should our discontented citizens take arms? Nay for aught?
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  I know there are in arms already arms. Well, what can I do?
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  Fight? Dog, fight bear? I'll be married, going Rachel dropping
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  on her knee. Oh, dear sir, There'll be nothing but rapes and
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  murder. I'll take pity on us, poor virgin sir, and go,
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  don't be a fool striving to get free. Consider, sir, the good
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  of the nation. Ay, sir, the good of the nation. What
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  wouldn't it? What do you do for the good of the nation. Good
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  of the nation will be ashamed? Go go Jolio and vote for me.
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  I'll make you my proxy, your proxy, there, sir, no,
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  no excuse me, but hasten whilst you dally or Lisbon may be fired.
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  If there's such danger. I'm safest here to Antonia, ain't they doc Oh
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  sir, if you can resist the calls of honor, do not resist me.
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  To marry in the midst of such horrible apprehensions is impossible, And my
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  fears are so great they will destroy me. Sweet DoD gaspar go Nay,
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  then come, my dear nephew, let us go together. But the step
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  will I move without you? Henry, you sighed, no miserable to be
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  thus circumvented. Had I not better stay here? To God that stay here?
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  Oh, you are a toutiful nephew. No, sir, you shall
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  guide me if I stir. But I won't stir by all fight on Julio
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  surely will not defend your uncle. Leave him in the street and return instantly
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  apart a jew. Sweet bridegroom, helping to get him out, speak quickly
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  back, looking after them. Ah, but fine, then Sonia gone,
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  dear liberty, I hail thee oh Rachel. Now I claim thy promise,
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  assesst my flight, and make thy terms unfortune follow follow me exit. I
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  will, but let me consider first what I have engaged to do to make
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  my fortune. Why I am to assist a pretty girl to run away from
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  an old husband to a young one, from age goud and petulance to youth,
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  health and glowing love. Aye that I will, or may I never
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  arrive at higher honor than to attend missus in their bibs and ancient maidens in
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  their spectacles in the vect four