Lev. But, withal, sure of hand and spirit?

Ben. Yes, yes, yes.

Lev. I use not many words, the time prevents 'em:

A man of quality has robb'd mine honour.

Ben. Name him.

Lev. Adurni.

Ben. He shall bleed.

Lev. Malfato

Contemn'd my proffered love.

Ben. Yoke them in death.-
What's my reward?

Lev. Propose it, and enjoy it.
Ben. You for my wife.
Lev. Ha!

Ben. Nothing else: deny me,

And I'll betray your counsels to your ruin;

Else do the feat courageously.-Consider.

Lev. I do despatch the task I have enjoined, Then claim my promise.

Ben. No such matter, pretty one,

We'll marry first,-or-farewell.

Lev. Stay examine

[Going.

From my confession what a plague thou draw'st

Into thy bosom: though I blush to say it,

Know, I have, without sense of shame or honour, Forsook a lawful marriage-bed, to dally

Between Adurni's arms.

Ben. This lord's?

Lev. The same.

More; not content with him, I courted
A newer pleasure, but was there refused
By him I named so late.

Ben. Malfato?

Lev. Right:

Am henceforth resolutely bent to print

My follies on their hearts; then change my life
For some rare penance.1 Canst thou love me now?
Ben. Better;

I do believe 't is possible you may mend:

All this breaks off no bargain.

Lev. Accept my hand; with this a faith as constant
As vows can urge; nor shall my haste prevent
This contract, which death only must divorce.
Ben. Settle the time.

Lev. Meet here to-morrow night;
We will determine further, as behooves us.
Ben. How is my new love called?

Lev. Levidolche.

Be confident, I bring a worthy portion.-
But you'll fly off.

1

-then change my life

For some rare penance.] It might almost be conjectured from this passage, that the author really had some Italian story before him. It is the genuine mode of repentance in that country. "Let me only commit a few more crimes, despatch a few more enemies, and I will then do some rare penance, and amend my life for good and all."

It may seem somewhat extraordinary that Benatzi should not recognise his wife. She, it appears, had discovered him through all his disguises, his military rags and accoutrements, his false beard, &c., whereas he continues ignorant of her, though she meets him without any apparent effort at concealment, affects no change of language, or even of name, and resides with her uncle, with whom Benatzi must have been sufficiently familiar But there is the old plea-aliter non fit, Avite, liber! Otherwise, no plot.-GIFFORD. But was Benatzi really so ignorant as Mr. Gifford supposes him? Had not the author designed, for we can hardly say contrived, a double plot, by which the divorced pair should each have separate designs upon the other? What Levidolche's intentions were, are sufficiently apparent from her own language; and Benatzi's may without any great difficulty be inferred. The disguise which he assumes (for a soldier, with the distinguished part imputed to him by a victorious commander, [Act v. scene 2], should not necessarily be in rags), and the situation in which he is first found, at the door of Levidolche's uncle's house, evidently imply a design of becoming a spy upon the actions of his divorced wife, and of shaping his future course as circumstances might direct. A very few words put into the mouth of Benatzi, instead of the obscure intimation of Auria (p. 85), would with ease have made all this sufficiently clear: and these few words, we are almost persuaded, were to be found in the original draught of the drama; we say original draught, because so many obscurities pervade the printed copies, that we can scarcely believe them to have received the author's own personal correction and revision. See further the note at p. 85.

[Exit.

Ben. Not I, by all that 's noble !

A kiss-farewell, dear fate!

Lev. Love is sharp-sighted,

And can pierce through the cunning of disguises. False pleasures, I cashier ye; fair truth, welcome!

[Exit.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

A Room in the House of MALFATO.

Enter MALFATO and SPINELLA.

Mal. Here you are safe, sad cousin; if you please, May over-say the circumstance of what

You late discours'd: mine ears are gladly open,
For I myself am in such hearty league

With solitary thoughts, that pensive language
Charms my attention.

Spin. But my husband's honours,

By how much more in him they sparkle clearly,
By so much more they tempt belief, to credit

The wreck and ruin of my injured name.

Mal. Why, cousin, should the earth cleave to the

roots,

The seas and heavens be mingled in disorder,
Your purity with unaffrighted eyes

Might wait the uproar; 't is the guilty trembles
At horrors, not the innocent! you are cruel
In censuring a liberty allow'd.

Speak freely, gentle cousin, was Adurni
Importunately wanton?

Spin. In excess

Of entertainment, else not.

Mal. Not the boldness Of an uncivil courtship?

Spin. What that meant,

I never understood. I have at once
Set bars between my best of earthly joys,

And best of men; so excellent a man
As lives without comparison; his love
To me was matchless.

Mal. Yet put case, sweet cousin,

That I could name a creature, whose affection
Follow'd your Auria in the height; affection
To you, even to Spinella, true and settled
As ever Auria's was, can, is, or will be;
You may not chide the story.

Spin. Fortune's minions

Are flatter'd, not the miserable.
Mal. Listen

To a strange tale, which thus the author sigh'd.
A kinsman of Spinella (so it runs),

Her father's sister's son, some time before
Auria, the fortunate, possess'd her beauties,
Became enamour'd of such rare perfections
As she was stored with; fed his idle hopes
With possibilities of lawful conquest;
Proposed each difficulty in pursuit

Of what his vain supposal styled his own;
Found in the argument one only flaw

Of conscience, by the nearness of their bloods-
Unhappy scruple, easily dispens'd with,

Had any friend's advice resolv'd the doubt.

Still on he loved, and loved, and wish'd, and wish'd; Eftsoon began to speak, yet soon broke off,

And still the fondling durst not,-'cause he durst not. Spin. "T was wonderful.

Mal. Exceeding wonderful.

Beyond all wonder; yet 't is known for truth,
After her marriage, when remain'd not aught
Of expectation to such fruitless dotage,

His reason then,-now,-then-could not reduce
The violence of passion, though he vow'd
Ne'er to unlock that secret, scarce to her
Herself, Spinella; and withal resolv'd
Not to come near her presence, but to avo1
All opportunities, however proffer'd.

VOL. II.-6

Spin. An understanding dull'd by the infelicity Of constant sorrow, is not apprehensive

In pregnant novelty; my ears receive

The words you utter, cousin, but my thoughts
Are fasten'd on another subject.

Mal. Can you

Embrace, so like a darling, your own woes,
And play the tyrant with a partner in them?
Then I am thankful for th' advantage; urg'd
By fatal and enjoin'd necessity,

To stand up in defence of injur'd virtue;
Will, against any, I except no quality,
Maintain all supposition misapplied,
Unhonest, false, and villanous.

Spin. Dear cousin,

As you're a gentleman

Mal. I'll bless that hand,

Whose honourable pity seals the passport
For my incessant turmoils to their rest.
If I prevail, (which Heaven forbid!) these ages
Which shall inherit ours, may tell posterity
Spinella had Malfato for a kinsman,

By noble love made jealous of her fame.
Spin. No more; I dare not hear it.
Mal. All is said:

Henceforth shall never syllable proceed
From my unpleasant voice of amorous folly.

Enter CASTANNA.

Cast. Your summons warn'd me hither; I am

come.

Sister! my sister, 't was an unkind part,

Not to take me along wi' you.

Mal. Chide her for it;

Castanna, this house is as freely yours

As ever was your father's.

Cast. We conceive so,

Though your late strangeness hath bred marvel

in us.