Latest / A School for Greybeards; or, The Mourning Bride / Act 5 and Author's Address

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Act 5 and Author's Address · A School for Greybeards; or, The Mourning Bride

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Act five 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 five
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an apartment at don a Lexis's a table with candles and chairs. He enters,
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followed by a servant. Hey day, Why what's the meaning of all
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this? The family are all up though it is past twelve o'clock, and
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my wife's apartment in a blaze, illuminated as though with some grand anniversary.
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What's the meaning of all this? I say, Dona Surfina has laid it
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with her, sir. They've been playing playing Go get along and let me
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know when they break up. Exit a servant. There's no having any rest
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in the world. No, or at least not for the husbands of this
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world. This custom of letting one's wives receive female company is like shutting your
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gates upon the enemy and then helping them over the wall. Not a woman
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but has her head full of projects and her pockets of billis dou well.
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If at lasts Don Octavio should really marry my daughter. I shall then hope
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inter servant Don Gasper Defrontado is without Sir, Don Gasper, Don Gasper,
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It can't be. He is, indeed sir, attended by most of his
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servants withdraws, swords and torches. Swords and torches. Why he's mad?
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The near approach of matrimony has turned his brain. Well, no great wonder
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looking through the wing, it is, Gasper, sure enough, what a
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figure we're speaking as he enters, bless me while he is quiet. All
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is quiet, my dear nephew. Looking back, Ah, what's he gone?
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Not the voice in the street, but two old women quarreling about a
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string of sausages. Alexis aside, Ay, it is so. He is
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certainly crazy. I am very sorry, Don Gasper, gravely taking off his
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hat, that anything should have happened to call you from your house at this
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time, my house. That's nothing from my bride, from my little toldy,
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from the very altered my friend, But that is nothing. The good
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of the nation must be minded. Come let us fit into business as soon
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as you please. Aside, zoons what a time for him to think on
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the good of the nation. Both draw chairs and sit looking at one another,
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waiting for each to begin. Be brief, my good friend, be
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brief, brief, Why we haven't begun yet? And why the devil don't
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we? How long am I to wait before the mighty matter is brought upon
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the carpet? You consider that I am on the point of being married,
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sir, poray, sir? What would you be at? I be at?
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I want to know what you would be at? Ha ha ha ha
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Oh. Why this is the strangest thing to see an old fellow high in
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the state the night he should be married, forsake his bride and come with
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a train armed cap a pie to disturb another old fellow and ask him what
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he would be at? What's your business? Once more? My business?
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With whom? With me? Sir? With me? What the devil do
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you do here? That's what I want to know, sir, And you'd
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best be in the relation. You seem to think time of no more value
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to me than straw. Alexis rising aside a straw that it is. I
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thought he was mad. They never think of anything but straw. I am
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sorry you are disturbed, don Gasper, Gasper pursuing him. The disturbance is
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nothing if you were But come to the point. What is the plot.
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Where are the conspirators and what do they aim at? Poor soul, Poor
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soul, My dear friend, you really shock me very much. Though I
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knew your marriage was a mad action, I did not think it would have
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taken effect so soon. Oh this is beyond old bearing, making emotion as
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though to his sword, and seems disappointed. No sort. Meet me tomorrow,
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sir, Meet me tomorrow, Oh, with all my heart aside.
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By that time you'll be in a straight waistcoat, and I shall be safe.
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I am cooler. Such old men as we are can afford to waste
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no blood. But there's your ring, sir. Let that be the last
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token of good or ill? Will you ever sin me? Flinging the ring
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from him? My ring? Taking it from the floor. Why how came
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you? Who gave you this ring? Who gave it you? Why did
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not did not? Oh? My mind misgives me you had it from your
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nephew? Eh yes, ha ha ha oh a young rogue, oh ap
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plotting, young villain, ha ha ha. What didn't I have? Oh?
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Shame to my years. I've been made a jest of I just haven't
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grant you may be made nothing worse of. Hurry home, My dear friend,
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you know what I said to day about your bride's odd fancies. Hurry
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home and be thankful. If it is a jest, what do you imagine
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do you conceive? Oh, my dear dear friend, Well, hold,
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you are in the plot. The ring is yours. You're in the plot.
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Believe me, Don Gasper, Oh what a beetle, what a bat
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I've been Never repay your jest with interest in the first place, And that's
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only for a beginning, mind me, only for a beginning. My Octavia
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shall never marry a daughter. How do you like that jest? Oh?
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What a blind blind hooh? Going off stepping alexis going after him, My
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dear Don Gasper, my friend, my worthy friend, I entreat soon's he's
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gone if it had not been for his choke. Pair about Octavio, how
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I could laugh? Why what the plague did that impertinent Don Julio take such
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a liberty with my ring? For how dared he haul my head and ears
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into his scheme to laugh at his worthy uncle. But Zeukes, it is
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a good laugh after all. Ha ha ha ha. But if Gasper,
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now those bite should prevent Octavio's marriage. What's to be done. Hang me.
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If I go to bed to night, I'll find out Octavio wherever he
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is, make him steal my daughter, conclude the marriage, and then I'll
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laugh with Julio till my old sides crack. Exit scene changes to the street
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before Don Gaspar's enter. Done, Henry, He knocks gently at the door.
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I dar not be louder, but sure the ear of love can catch
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the gentlest sound. Rachel from the balcony. Oh are you come, sir,
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I'll call my lady down. O haste the minutes fly. I have
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secured a safe retreat, leave all behind and bring Antonia only to my arms.
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A noise of people advancing, Ha, what noise is that? And
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lights too? They come this way? If sure it is Don Gasper's voice,
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I am breathless with my fears. Gasper, without put out your lights,
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extinguish your torches, and be silent. Ay tis he shall I plunge
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the sword into his bosom or my own? Either way, I am lost.
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Don Gasper enters and knocks loudly. Yes, yes, I'll be a
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match for his great grandsire's ring. Trust me, knocks again, Rachael the
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balcony. We are just ready, sir, have a moment's patience, just
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ready for worth. Oh, I'm arriving in the very nick of some cursed
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scheme to his servants, keep your swords drawn. Come when I give way
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the suspicions, she shall have air play. Appearances may deceive. The door
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opens. Antonia enters Ha, by heaven, Antonia, we are ruined.
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Where are you my best wishes? Lord of my thousand, charmer of my
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soul? Where are you? Oh? Heavens half drawing his sword? Well,
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well, that may be all meant for me. Give me your hand,
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my love, my life, and kind me to your bosom, a
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home for which I pant hum. There's a rather too much too. I'm
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afraid that's too sweet a morsel to be bent for my chops. Antonia,
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grouping about. Oh, are you will hear? Indeed you frightened me with
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your silence. Here, take these jewels and let us haste away. Ha
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are you thereabouts, madam between his teeth? Then I am cousin Henry a
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sighe to attempt to force her off would be in vain. Will you not
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speak? Do you repent already before possession? Are you cold and false?
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Before? Ah? Ah? Well, that's great comfort. Whatever is designed,
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I am beforehand with the mischief. However, am I not to be
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your wife this very day? Did we not invoke Heaven to bless our vowels?
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Now? Then tis clearly me and I'll be mute no longer. Oh,
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Henry, Henry Gasper, starting, who dost thou take me for Henry?
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All the perfidious wretch? Don Gasper? What will become of me?
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Why? Why are you so angry, sir at my naming one who when
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the cold grave cannot rival you? I was only going to say that Henry
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would not have been so unkindly silent? Was that all? Indeed, my
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little tony, what was wrong to think upon the young man? Never let
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your thoughts read upon the young man, whether in a grave or a garret.
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Never, sir, be assured, neither in one place or the other,
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will my thoughts ever seek a lover? But why did you not speak
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faith? You pratter love so prettily. I could have heard your little tongue
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run forever. But how came you out so late? And with these jewels
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and parcels? Sir? I was why, sir, aless sir, we
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thought the city was in arms and pecked up our things to secure them.
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Lords. We were so scared about plots and robberies. And yes, sir,
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terrified to death. Oh it's all quilled. Now, this is all
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over, my pretty chuck. As soon as I appeared amongst them and threatened
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them and harangue them on their duty, they were as silent as the soft
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tread of a thief on a dark staircase. Aside, I am resolved.
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She shan't know what a gal I was. Come now, let's in enjoy
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our tender hearts in one pardon me, sir. Day is on the point
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of breaking. Dear welcome day, and I am resolved to pass it,
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unbound by any vows but those of love. How and this one point,
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Sir, I must govern or. Here I vow most solemnly never to be
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yours. Oh it's a rash vow, a most unjustifiable vow. Not so
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rash a vow as that you want her to make that minx. Why,
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sir, with submission, I say it's most ration and unjustifiable for eighteen to
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rise out of bed and go to church to vow to love sixty five and
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I'll maintain it. But the vow was made hussy, and all vows must
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be kept religiously kept, And therefore, though it goes against me, even
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this last shall be kept. So come in, my little tony, and
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learn of your noun hobby never to break a vow. All go in that
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s accuse me. Her delicacy is safe from insult. When I see her.
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Next should be with powers to suppress his audacious, fancied rights and close
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the necessity for these degrading acts forever. Exit scene changes to Donna Alexis's garden.
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He enters leading in octavio. Yeah, I am glad I found ye
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twas devilish lucky Viola is certainly somewhere in the garden. Both my wife and
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Corlatta assured me that you was. And the ladder of ropes is suspended from
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the place you pointed out Exactly there. I helped a FicT it myself.
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Tis very secure. The dear little mad cap must have her way, but
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tis strange. She prefers scaling a wall at midnight to walking quietly through the
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gate in the sunshine. Hist I hear the tread of gentle feet, then
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I'm off. If she should find us together, the perverse baggage would suspect
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our intelligence, and that would spoil all. So I'm off exit in a
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few hours. Expect to set your feet, asking pardon and blessing. A
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pause, charming fielda appear I hear you not yet, by the soft influence
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about me, I'm sure you are near. What delightful faculty is this which
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allows us to be conscious of the presence of the object we adore without the
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vulgar intervention of the senses. It must be the privilege of purest love,
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Seraphina entering the privilege of fancy, all mere fancy, though you would exalt
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it into a faculty. Ha, my charmer catching her in his arms.
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Faculties and fancies are now equally nothing, all lost in transport. At finding
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thee in my arms, I protest. I begin to believe you very dangerous.
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I insist on your quitting me this instant breaking from him. Aside,
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heavens, what a situation in the arms of a man alone in a garden
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at two o'clock in the morning. What dost think of, sweet Angel?
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That the sooner we are out of this place, the better I'll save you?
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Aside, suppose I secure her mind? I almost fear some new caprice,
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and if I mistake not, her little heart flutters at this moment and
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unison in my own, dear bewitching woman, let me once more taste,
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hold sir, or by all that's good, breaking from him aside. I
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never knew till now what resistance meant. By heavens. I will not lose
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this charming moment. Then you lose me forever. Make your election. This
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moment is presented to us by love. Let us prove ourselves worthy of the
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boon. How by disgracing love we'll argue that point hereafter. But now,
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hold sir, I am neither blind to your intention nor to my own danger.
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But know you are meditating an irremediable crime. How you're amadiable. Love
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itself shall remedy the crimes it makes. Huh, You know not what you
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speak of, nor can I explain myself. But let us fly. Then
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we will fly, my little trembler and hymen shall yet stay. I cannot
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go with you alone. You must consent that a lady accompanies us who no
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matter. You must promise me without asking questions, to conduct her safely to
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Don Sebastian, and then to conduct me into safety to your father's to my
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ghostly father, you mean to a priest, No, to don Gasper,
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on those terms, I scale the wall with you, and on no other.
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It is odd and mysterious, but I'll scale walls with you on any
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terms. Where is the lady? We shall find her in the next walk.
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Oh no, she is hastening hither into veiled Come, fair damsel.
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This is the valorous knight who is to conduct us through all the intervening dragons
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and giants, to the quiet and sober pail of matrimony, where we shall
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grow good and stupid and recollect the kind action of this night with matronly thankfulness
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and decency. Octavio aside tis vile thought and sticks most indigestibly. Why must
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love be thus shackled? I feel I shall repent and leave the pail that
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I am fairly caught now and must submit. Come, my little fawns,
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take each an arm yead. Let us make haste, or some unlucky ideas,
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which are growing rather ponderous, will prevent my flight over the wall.
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I'll be hanged if it is not the idea of matrimony you find so heavy,
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But be of good comfort, signor and make speed your fate has prepared
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a consolation you little expect. Excellent scene, don gaspers He enters well,
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they at last is broad awake, and the vile night which cloaks so many
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schemes in villainous plots against the peace of whar he husband's has passed away.
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And all have gone well. Yes, all hath gone well, except with
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my poor aching bones and sleepless eyes. Spent all these hours upon Annett at
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Antonia's chamber door. Did not leave it. Truly she is a treasurer.
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But if to secure it I must sag out the rent of my life in
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these alarms and fears and misgivings. Well, tis too late now to think
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about that. My hour has come. Enter a servant Doractavie and a lady
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Sir exit, Octaville enters, leading Seraphina veiled. Permit me, sir to
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ask a protection from this lady for a few hours. If you knew her,
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you would think she had a right to claim it. To claim it?
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Why who is she that I am forbid to tell? Do you release
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me from my promise? Madam? No? Certainly, And yet if I
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did, it were much the same thing. For you do not know me
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not know the lady. Believe me he does not, And yet if you
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ask him, he'll swear he does. Surely, though you are veiled,
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I can swear you are the same sweet melting creature who in a certain garden
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found herself in your arms, and afterwards leapt the wall with you, that
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you may safely swear yes, I know you, not who admit me apart?
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Perhaps he'll deny being whom I am to marry today. Oh no,
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I swear I will marry you today if Don Alexis gives consent. We have
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more than his consent. It's ardent wishes. Yet I shall not be yours.
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Why what a sweet enigmatical charmer you are, Saravina to Don gasper if
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I mistake not, sir, this house has a mistress. May I be
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permitted to wait on Donna Antonia? Madam? Octavia whispers, Oh, yes,
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a rank and reputation, but a little capricious. Pardon me, Madam,
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I will wait on you to Antonia's apartment. Aside, I shan't care
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to leave them together, though, exit leading Seraphina. What can she mean
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with her riddle? Marees? I am perplexed. Sebastian enters with Viola.
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Huh, don't sebat what the weighty ceremony is? So lightly over, Madam.
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I wish you all the joys which belong to your new state. Dear
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Sebastian, taking him aside, tell me how dost feel feel I In a
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few hours I shall be in the same class, and I want to guess
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how it is. If you love as I do, you'll feel as I
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do. Blessed. I fear of your married rogues are so many decoy ducks.
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You look up with envy and cry queer quer to your fellows at large,
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And when you have coaxed us into the sneer, clap your wings and
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exult. Viola running to Sebastian. Oh, I hear my father's voice.
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I would not have him see you at this instant apart Pondon my freedom,
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don oc tellio, but it will be infinitely kind if you'll both leave me.
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Those fears are idle, my charmer. The moment must arrive. Nay,
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do not stay to argue, but oblige me. What sir so much
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of a husband in half an hour to dispute a command? I'll take him
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to task, Madam and give him a lesson on obedience excellent, alexis without
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Octavio and a lady veiled entering, then all is right? Ah viola,
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Well tell me is it all over? Are you married? Yes, sir,
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Yes, sir, enough said ha ha ha ha. Now I can
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laugh at Gasper and enjoy don Julia's joke. Ha ha ha. And you
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too, you have been finely nicked. I have been obliged to cheat you
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into marrying the man you liked. Oh, sir, forgive what I have
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done. Forgive thee my girl, Ay that I will. Here's my hand
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on it. Ah, Don Gasper, he enters, your most obedient,
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very humble servant. How do you find yourself after your last night's whim?
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Sir? My seal ring is at your service at any time, Don Gasper,
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ha ha ha, two jokes at once. I shall laugh now till
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I'm a grandfather. If you laugh till my Octavia makes your grandfather, it
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will be a very long fit, I promise you. Do you think so?
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I'll trust him is now in the next room, at the feet of
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a young lady whose charms are sufficient, I trust to blot those of your
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daughter from his heart. What's that Octavia? At a feed of a lady.
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Do you hear that Viola? Your daughter? Pardon me, fair lady,
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ay, sir, and your daughter too, your daughter, let me
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see you encourage her husband to kneel to other women in your house her husband
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zone, sir, This is no laughing matter. How dare you, sir?
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Why the older? Why don't you rave and storm as women do on
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these occasions? Alas, sir, I have no right, no right.
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I shall see that here, Don Octavio, I say the very day of
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his marriage. Nay, within the hour, inter Octavio, Don alexis your
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pleasure? My pleasure? Sir? Is that zoons that your pleasure shall be
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with my daughter? It is very kind. Nothing can make me so happy.
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Then what the devil do you mean by by your father says you are
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at the feet of a lady. I was you was? Why should that
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offend you? Do you not wish me to love your daughter? Love my
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daughter and kneel to another? Oh mistake, sir, another, I'll convince
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you that Viola alone going to the wing. Here she comes the dear lively
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girl who left a garden wall to give a sober marriage the air of a
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romance hound. Where am I are not you, my daughter, twitching off
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Viola's veil. Yes, did you not leap the wall with him? Yes,
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sir? And are you not married? I am indeed, Curtine,
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And did you, madam, leap a wall? Yes, sir? And
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are you married too? I am indeed, throws up her veil, and
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curtesys my wife hound, my wife, amazement, his wife? His wife
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leaped the wall with my Octavia. I led another five hundred more. Theres
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to your yearly allowance for that, my boy, pretty dear Dawn, indulge
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your laugh. You're in a very fine vein a minute ago, now love
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till your grandfather don Octavio. I have used you ill, but I trust
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your generosity will pardon my taking advantage of your partiality for me to serve two
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amiable and faithful lovers. You have used me ill. Indeed, yet hang
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it come, I am not married. I am not married. However aside,
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yes, madam, I can forgive you, but how shall I forgive
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myself? I had you, oh distraction, I had you alone amidst the
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conscious shades of night, and in my power. Pardon me, sir.
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No woman can be alone, nor in the power of any man while she
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respects herself and discarded by a sense of her duty. You see, Don
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alexis what benefits arise from plodding without a woman. Oh, I shall be
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mad. So it was my wife then, to whom you were kneeling,
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And it was you whom I pressed yesterday to grant him some small favors.
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Just so, my sweet hubby. Oh, come be merry, old gentleman,
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a companion for your seal ring to Jox at once. Ay, you
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have it aught nothing now to Octavio, and you have the impudence to love
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my wife more than ever. Now there's no danger of matrimony. And you
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are now considering when you shall make me a saytor eh, come be frank.
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When is it to be faith? I wish I could tell. I
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will answer for him. It shall be never whilst you repose a generous confidence
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in me and allow me to be the guardian of my own honor. Don't
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gasper goes out now? I entreat you, my dear Don alexis, be
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a very tyrant suspect to watch her and confine her. Will you be so
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much, my friend? I don't know what I shall be yet, both
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as husband and father I have ingeniously contrived to bite myself most damnably to viola.
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As for you, madam, bread and water and a dark chamber shall
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be your lot, Sebastian entering, No, Sir, I am the arbiter
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of her lot. However I can half your punishment, and a dark chamber
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she shall certainly have. What then, thou art really married and married to
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Sebastian. Dear sir, you assured me that of the two fools you preferred
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him. Yes, but I depend on your perverseness. Hussy Jesper leading in
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Antonia. Come you who have not seen my little pet be older? Nay
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a present her to yell as a pattern of meankness and perfect love. Oh
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it's a sweet, pudsy meekness. Alas you should not answer, for you
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know I am a woman, my perfect love. Indeed you may the world
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has not a heart so truly wedded as Antonia's. Behold its master, its
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lawful lord, my husband. Would you do the opposite? Door, don
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Henry entering, cone my Antonia to his arms. Yes, I am thy
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husband. Now I stand boldly forward and proclaim my title. I am thy
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husband, that dear distinction which Heaven has blessed me with heaven only shall reclaim
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what am I to lose? My mother as well as my wife? Alexis
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de gasper your nephew, Why is this full moon? We are all going
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to run out of our wit. Don't be disheartened, though it should be
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so. Ye'll not how far to run, my Julio. What in the
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name of no sir, not Jolio, but Don Henry, that Don Henry,
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whom you so basely reported to be dead, that you might dishonor him
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in security? How? Why why you are dead as good as dead?
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You are dead in the law. You are outlawed, banished, No sir,
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neither restored to my country. Behold my pardon as sure as a paper,
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your pardon. Hum now, then I see the hall. I must
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be telling my secrets. What the devil to it? Well? You got
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it through me. You know. You may thank the music of my moders
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for that dance. No sir, throwing down a purse. There is the
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gold you basely bartered for the pardon you solicited. My pardon I obtained from
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the hands of Majesty itself, from our gracious Queen. Oh, when her
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kingdom's foes provoke correction from her subject's arms. Then shall my sword again be
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drawn, nor ask for forgiveness for its ardent duty? Well, very well,
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but what has your pardon to do with my wife? Put in her
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behind him? What are you to do with Tony? She is my wife,
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made mine by contract before you destined her the bliss of being yours.
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Pardon me, then, my sweet Antonia taken her from Gasper? If I
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deprive you of this venerable charmer and give you in his place a husband,
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hoem O sings, Oh, once I was a merry old man, but
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now the case has changed. Who could have thought that my old seal ring
33:45
would ever have been a talisman to make lovers happy and save a graybeard from
33:50
folly? Come don, Gasper, Let me advise you to think your loss
33:54
again. You see in your humble servant what mischievous creatures young wives are.
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She'd plague your heart out as I do my old husband's faith. She says.
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True. A minute ago I thought the laugh on my side, But
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to still on your own. You have lost a young wife, and I
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have found one why to say truth? If it were not that? At
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present I feel a little awkward. I don't know very well which way to
34:30
look as to your contract, I might perhaps dispute its powers, but as
34:35
here is a stroke or two of mine which may be I sha'n't be sorry
34:38
to have dropped. Even go to church in God's name, and when you
34:43
come home, beware of plots and seal rings. This is generous. The
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sentiments you professed for me, I see will be converted to a more decent
34:52
regard, and we shall all be united in bands of charming friendship. Go
34:59
ahead, this looks like a sort of general amnesty. So let the frolic
35:05
go round to the house. But dare my fault hope forgiveness here? Yes?
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I am on this spot an old offender, and have so often gratefully
35:17
experienced the candor of my judges that I trust now to meet their pardon and
35:23
invoke the greatest sign. In Divect Five epilogue, a morning bride that would
35:34
be something new. That I am a morning husband is too true, cries
35:38
old Sir Testy in his gouty chair. Ah could I wedlock's fatal slip repair?
35:45
But young wives are a sort of flying gout torments for which no cure
35:52
was ever found out. Both old men's plagues to punish youthful tricks equally difficult.
35:59
I fear to fix of wife and gout alike. I stand in dread
36:04
for both alas sometimes affect the head. Thus rail old cynics striving to disparage
36:14
the charming, silken ties of modern marriage. In former times, when folks
36:20
agreed to wed, the silent bride by silent bridegroom led up to the altar,
36:27
marched in solemn state, all was demure and stupidly sedate, impressed with
36:34
awe, while neither dare to speak. A wedding was a mere ballet tragique.
36:40
Thank heaven were past the ages of romance. Wedlock is now a kind
36:45
of country dance, where man and wife, with smiles each other, greet
36:51
take hands, change sides, and part as soon as meet pleasure's soft accents.
36:58
Every care to sp bell while hymen fiddles vive la bagatelle, blessed age,
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when ceremonious chains are worn like bracelets, not to fetter but adorn.
37:14
When we assume deep Morning's fable show tis etiquette prescribes the form of woe.
37:21
Whatever our loss, we must have fashions leave ere we can venture decently to
37:27
grieve blameless the air or the dear parchment chuckles if he's unpowdered, and puts
37:35
on black buckles, till the gray frock speaks his first anguish ore, and
37:40
he's but half as wretched as before. Ere the gay widow first abroad is
37:46
seen decked an exhilarating bombazine, while the dear colonel visits unexpected, and she's
37:55
as well as could have been expected. Customs in indulgence wisely does she borrow
38:02
in cards of compliments, exhausts her sorrow of tears, her black edged paper
38:08
fills the place, mourns as her proxy, and preserves her face. Our
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mourning bride, who with no sorrow, labors and mourns, but in appearance,
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like her neighbors, though forced by etiquette good humor, loves as well
38:28
as any here blessed in the fate which these kind smiles decree her. She
38:34
hopes her friends will often come to see her an address. I offered the
38:42
following comedy to the public under a circumstance which has given my mind the most
38:46
exquisite uneasiness. On the morning after the first representation, it was observed by
38:52
the papers that there had been persons present at the theater the preceding evening who
38:59
went there determined to disapprove at all events. From such a determination it is
39:04
hard, indeed, to escape, and the opposition intended was justified, it
39:08
seems, by the indecency of some of the expressions from such a charge.
39:14
I feel it impossible to defend myself, for against an imputation like this,
39:20
even vindication becomes disgraceful. As I was not at the theater, I should
39:25
have had some difficulty in understanding at what passages the objections were leveled, had
39:30
not one of the papers recorded them with many cruel remarks. The particulars which
39:37
were thus pointed out, will I trust, be sufficient apology for themselves.
39:42
In the following pages they are all restored that the public at large may have
39:46
the power to adjudge me, as well as that small part of it confined
39:51
within the walls of a theater. These passages have not been restored from any
39:55
pertinacious opinion of their beauty, For other expressions might have conveyed my intention as
40:01
well. But had I allowed one line to stand as altered for the stage,
40:07
what might not that reprobated line have been supposed to express? I shrink
40:13
from the idea, and therefore most solemnly aver that the comedy as now printed
40:17
contains every word which was opposed the first night from the suspicion of indelicacy,
40:23
hoping their obvious meaning only will be attended to without the coarse ingenuity of strained
40:30
explanations which have been made by persons who seemed desires to surround my task of
40:36
dramatic writing with as many difficulties as possible. A celebrated critic more attended to
40:43
for the discrimination and learning which appear in his strictures than for their lenity.
40:49
In his observations on the Graybeards, has the following. When missus Kallagh gets
40:53
possession of the spirit and turn of a character, she speaks the language of
40:59
that character better than any of her dramatic contemporaries. This, I confess I
41:05
hold to be very high praise. And it is to this very praise which
41:08
my contemporaries resolve. I shall have no claim. They will allow me,
41:13
indeed, to draw strong character, but it must be without speaking its language.
41:19
I may give vulgar or low bred persons, but they must converse in
41:22
a style of elegance. I may design the coarsest manners or the most disgusting
41:29
folly, But its expressions must not deviate from the line of politeness. Surely
41:35
it would be as just to exact from the artists who are painting the gallery
41:38
of Shakespeare, that they should complete their designs without the use of light and
41:44
shade. It cannot be the poet's mind which the public desire to trace in
41:50
dramatic representation, but the mind of the characters and the truth of their coloring.
41:54
Yet in my case it seems resolved that the point to be considered is
41:59
not whether that Dottard, or that pretender, or that Coquette would so have
42:04
given their feelings, but whether missus Kelly ought so to have expressed herself.
42:09
This is a criterion which happily no author is subjected to, but those of
42:14
the drama. The novelists may use the boldest tints, seizing nature for her
42:20
guide. She may dart through every rank of society, drag forth not only
42:23
the accomplished, but the ignorant, the course and the vulgar rich, display
42:29
them in their strongest colors, snatch immortality, both for them and for herself.
42:36
I, on the contrary, feel encompassed with chains when I write which
42:39
check me in my happiest flights, and force me continually to reflect not whether
42:45
this is just, but whether it is safe. There are vain regrets which
42:50
I hope my readers will pardon me for having a moment indulged. I now
42:54
hasten to that part of the comedy, which will be found in the following
42:58
sheets as all for the second representation, The idea of the business which concerns
43:05
Antonia, Henry and Gasper was presented to me in an obsolete comedy, the
43:09
work of a poet of the drama, once highly celebrated. I say the
43:15
idea, for when it is known that in the original the scene lay amongst
43:20
traitors in the city of London, and those traitors of the lowest and most
43:23
detestable manners, it will be conceived at once that in removing it to Portugal
43:30
and fixing the characters amongst the nobility, it was hardly possible to carry with
43:35
me more than the idea. The circumstance which most particularly interested me and fixed
43:42
itself in my mind, was that of snatching a young woman from a hateful
43:45
marriage the moment before that marriage became valid, that is to say, after
43:51
the ceremony This very circumstance to which the comedy owes its existence was that which
43:58
some of the audience found a discourt ordant to their feelings. An event which
44:01
had in the last century been stamped with the highest applause, though surrounded by
44:07
many repulsive circumstances, was found in this to be ill conceived. I did
44:13
not, however, dispute the decision of my critics, and the marriage has
44:16
been, in course dissolved. The manner in which the comedy has since been
44:22
received gives room to suppose that the alteration is approved. It has struggled with
44:28
many oppressive circumstances. The chasm in the performance, occasioned by the repeated illness
44:34
of mister Parsons, was sufficient to have sunk it. But neither that,
44:37
nor the sterile month of December, always against the theaters, has prevented its
44:43
being distinguished by many brilliant and crowded nights. I now resign it to the
44:47
closet, where, without the aid of fine acting or the fascinations of beauty,
44:52
and deriving all its little force from the pen which composed it, it
44:57
hopes still to amuse the innocent flame. The Seraphinus coquetry. They still shed
45:01
race of delight on her readers, and the affecting situation of Antonia interested them.
45:07
Hannah Cowley end of an Address, end of a School for Graybeards or
45:15
The Morning Bride by Hannah Cowley