SCENE I.--_A Bed-Chamber; a Couch prepared, and set so near the

Pit that the Audience may hear._

ALPHONSO _enters with a Book in his Hand, and sits; reads to himself a little while. Enter_ VICTORIA, _and sits by him, then speaks._

_Vict._ If on your private business I intrude, Forgive the excess of love, that makes me rude. I hope your sickness has not reached your heart, But come to bear a suffering sister's part; Yet, lest I should offend you by my stay, Command me to depart, and I obey.

_Alph._ The patient, who has passed a sleepless night, Is far less pleased with his physician's sight. Welcome, thou pleasing, but thou short reprieve, To ease my death, but not to make me live. Welcome, but welcome as a winter's sun, That rises late, and is too quickly gone.

_Vict._ You are the star of day, the public light; } And I am but your sister of the night; } Eclipsed, when you are absent from my sight. }

_Alph._ Death will for ever take me from your eyes; But grieve not you, for, when I set, you rise: Don Garcia has deserved to be your choice, } And 'tis a brother's duty to rejoice. } } _Vict._ And yet, methought, you gave him not your voice. }

_Alph._ You saw a sudden sickness left me weak; I had no joy to give, nor tongue to speak: And therefore I withdrew, to seek relief In books, the fruitless remedies of grief.

_Vict._ But tell me what philosopher you found, To cure your pain?

_Alph._ The fittest for my wound, Who best the gentle passions knows to move; Ovid, the soft philosopher of love. His Love Epistles for my friends I chose; For there I found the kindred of my woes.

_Vict._ His nymphs the vows of perjured men deplore; One in the woods, and one upon the shore: All are at length forsaken or betrayed; And the false hero leaves the faithful maid.

_Alph._ Not all; for, Linus kept his constancy; And one, perhaps, who more resembled me.

_Vict._ That letter would I view; in hope to find Some features of the fair that rules your mind.

_Alph._ Read, for the guilty page is doubled down; The love too soon will make the lover known. [_Giving her the Book._ Read, if you dare; and, when the crime you see, Accuse my cruel fate, but pity me.

Vict. [_Aside._] 'Tis what I feared, the unhappy Canace!-- Read you; for, to a brother 'twas designed, [_To him._ And sent him by a sister much too kind. [ALPHONSO takes the Book, and reads.

_Why did thy flames beyond a brother's move? Why loved I thee with more than sister's love?_ [He looks upon her, and she holds down her head. He reads again.

_My cheeks no longer did their colour boast; My food grew loathsome, and my strength I lost; Still, ere I spoke, a sigh would stop my tongue; Short were my slumbers, and my nights were long. I knew not from my love those griefs did grow, Yet was, alas! the thing I did not know._ [She looks on him, and he holds down his Head. _Forced at the last, my shameful pain I tell._

_Vict._ No more; we know our mutual love too well. [_Both look up, and meet each other's Eyes._

_Alph._ Two lines in reading had escaped my sight; Shall I go back, and do the poet right?

_Vict._ Already we have read too far, I fear; But read no more than modesty may bear.

ALPHONSO READING.

_For I loved too, and, knowing not my wound, A secret pleasure in thy kisses found._ [He offers to kiss her, and she turns her head away. May we not represent the kiss we read?

_Vict._ Alphonso, no:--brother, I should have said!

ALPHONSO READING AGAIN.

_When half denying, more than half content, Embraces warmed me to a full consent; Then, with tumultuous joys my heart did beat, And guilt, that made them anxious, made them great._

[She snatches the Book, and throws it down, then rises and walks; he rises also.

_Vict._ Incendiary book, polluted flame, Dare not to tempt the chaste Victoria's fame! I love, perhaps, more than a sister should; And nature prompts, but heaven restrains my blood. Heaven was unkind, to set so strict a bound. And love would struggle to forbidden ground. Oh let us gain a Parthian victory! Our only way to conquer, is to fly.

_Alph._ No more, Victoria; though my love aspires More high than yours, and fiercer are my fires, I cannot bear your looks; new flames arise From every glance, and kindle from your eyes. Pure are the beams which from those suns you dart; But gather blackness from my sooty heart. Then let us each with hasty steps remove; Nor spread contagion, where we meant but love.

_Vict._ Hear, heaven and earth, and witness to my vows; And Love, thou greatest power that nature knows! This heart, Alphonso, shall be firmly thine; This hand shall never with another join: Or if, by force, my father makes me wed, Then Death shall be the bridegroom of my bed. Now let us both our shares of sorrow take; And both be wretched for each other's sake.

_Alph._ By those relentless powers that rule the skies, And by a greater power, Victoria's eyes, No love but yours shall touch Alphonso's heart; Nor time, nor death, my vowed affections part: Nor shall my hated rival live to see That hour which envious fate denies to me. Now seal we both our vows with one dear kiss.

_Vict._ No; 'tis a hot, and an incestuous bliss! Let both be satisfied with what we swore; I dare not give it, lest I give you more. [_Exit_ VICTORIA, _looking back on him, and he gazing on her_.

_Alph._ Oh raging, impious, and yet hopeless fire! Not daring to possess what I desire; Condemned to suffer what I cannot bear; Tortured with love, and furious with despair. Of all the pains which wretched mortals prove, The fewest remedies belong to love: But ours has none; for, if we should enjoy, Our fatal cure must both of us destroy. Oh dear Victoria! cause of all my pain; Oh dear Victoria! whom I would not gain; Victoria, for whose sake I would survive! Victoria, for whose sake I dare not live!

_Enter_ GARCIA _with Attendants. The two Princes salute_, _but_ ALPHONSO _very coldly_.

_Gar._ I come to show my grief for your distemper; For, if my noble brother saw my heart, There should you find a plain, a holy friendship, Unmixt with interest, equally partaking Of what affects you, both of good and ill.

_Alph._ I thank you; but my malady increases At your approach. I have no more to say; But wish you better health than I can boast, And to myself a lonely privacy.

_Gar._ I find I am not welcome to your sight; But know not from what cause.

Alph. [_Angrily._] My surest remedy is in your absence. 'Tis hard my lodgings cannot be my own, But importuned with visits undesired; And therefore, I must tell you, troublesome.

_Gar._ 'Tis an odd way of entertaining friends; But, since I find you discomposed with sickness, That shall excuse your humours; where I go, I hope for better welcome.

_Alph._ Sir, I must ask, whom you pretend to visit?

_Gar._ My mistress, prince.

_Alph._ Your mistress! who's that mistress?

_Gar._ What need I name Victoria?

_Alph._ Who? my sister!

_Gar._ Whom else could you imagine?

_Alph._ Any other.

_Gar._ And why not her?

_Alph._ Because I know not if she will admit you.

_Gar._ Her father has allowed it.

_Alph._ But not she; Or, if both have, yet my consent is wanting. You take upon you in a foreign kingdom, As if you were at home in your Navarre.

_Gar._ And you, methinks, As if you had no father, or no king. Farewell, I will not stay.

_Alph._ You shall not go: Thus as I am, thus single, thus unarmed, And you with guards attended--

_Gar._ You teach me to forget the rule of manners.

_Alph._ I mean to teach you better.

[_As_ GARCIA _is going to pass by him_, ALPHONSO _runs to one of his Attendants, and snatches his Sword away, then steps between_ GARCIA _and the Door_.

_Enter_ VERAMOND _and_ XIMENA, _attended_.

_Vera._ What means this rude behaviour in my court? As if our Arragon were turned to Thrace, Unhospitable to her guests, and thou, Alphonso, a Lycurgus.

_Alph._ He would pass, Without my sister's leave, into her lodgings. By heaven, if this be suffered to proceed, The next will be to treat the royal maid As coarsely, as she were some suburb girl.

_Gar._ [_To Vera._] Had I not your permission, sir?

_Vera._ You had. But these, Alphonso, are thy ruffian manners. How dar'st thou, boy, to break my orders, And then asperse thy sister with thy crime?

_Alph._ She said his presence was unpleasing to her.

_Vera._ Come, thou beliest her innocence and duty: She did not, durst not say it.

_Alph._ If she did not, I dare, and will maintain to all the world, That Garcia is not worthy of my sister.

_Vera._ Not worthy!

_Alph._ No; I say once more, not worthy.

_Gar._ Not in myself; for who deserves Victoria? But, since her royal father bids me hope, Not less unworthy than another prince:-- And none, with your permission, sir, shall dare [_To_ VER. To interpose betwixt my love and me.

_Alph._ Sure a less price, than our infanta's bed, Might pay thee for thy mercenary troops.

_Vera._ Peace, insolent; too long I have endured Thy haughty soul, untamed and turbulent: But, if I live, this shall not pass unpunished; Darkness and chains are medicines for a madman.

_Xim._ My lord, I humbly beg you, spare your son; And add not fury to a raging fire. He soon will recollect his scattered reason, Which heat of youth, and sickness and fatigues, Have dissipated in his boiling blood. Give him but time, and then his temperate humour Will soon return into the native channel, And, unopposed, be calm.

_Vera._ No; never more. The moon has rolled above his head, and turned it; As peals of thunder sour the generous wine.-- Hence from my presence, thou no more my son! [_To_ ALPH.

_Xim._ If he be mad, be madness his excuse; And pardon nature's error, not his own.

_Vera._ Ximena, you have fondled him to this: I prophesied; and now 'tis come to pass.

_Gar._ Perhaps I interrupted him too rudely; And, since I caused myself that ill reception, Forgive our mutual faults.

_Vera._ You shall prevail; Though he deserves not such an intercessor.-- [_To_ ALPH.] Retire, Alphonso, to your inmost lodgings, And there inclose yourself, and mourn your crimes. Be this your last relapse; the next is fatal.

_Alph._ I will retire: But, if I am a madman, as you say, And as I half believe, expect no cure But in Alphonso's death. [ALPHONSO _goes in_.

Xim. [_Aside._] It works apace; But whither it will tend, heaven only knows. [VERA. _sees the Book upon the Ground, and takes it up_.

_Vera._ This book he left; go bear it after him.-- Yet stay; I know not why, but somewhat prompts me To read this folded page.-- [_To_ GARCIA.] Go, royal youth: I would myself conduct you to Victoria, But lovers need no guide to their desires; And love no witness, but himself, requires.

[_Exeunt the King and Queen one Way, with their Attendants; and_ DON GARCIA _with his, another_.