Gio. Whose hand gave me this wound?

Vas. Mine, sir; I was your first man: have you Gio. I thank thee; thou hast done for me [enough? But what I would have else done on myself.

Art sure thy lord is dead?

Vas.

O, impudent slave!

As sure as I am sure to see thee die.

Car. Think on thy life and end, and call for mercy.
Gio. Mercy! why, I have found it in this justice.
Car. Strive yet to cry to Heaven.

O, I bleed fast!

Gio.
Death, thou'rt a guest long looked for; I embrace

Thee and thy wounds: O, my, last minute comes!
Where'er I go, let me enjoy this grace,

Freely to view my Annabella's face.

Don. Strange miracle of justice!

[Dies.

Car. Raise up the city; we shall be murdered all! Vas. You need not fear, you shall not: this strange task being ended, I have paid the duty to the son which I have vowed to the father.

Car. Speak, wretched villain, what incarnate fiend Hath led thee on to this?

Vas. Honesty, and pity of my master's wrongs: for know, my lord, I am by birth a Spaniard, brought forth my country in my youth by Lord Soranzo's father, whom whilst he lived I served faithfully: since whose death I have been to this man as I was to him. What I have done was duty, and I repent nothing, but that the loss of my life had not ransomed his.

Car. Say, fellow, know'st thou any yet unnamed Of counsel in this incest?

Vas. Yes, an old woman, sometimes1 guardian to this murdered lady.

Car. And what's become of her?

Vas. Within this room she is! whose eyes, after her confession, I caused to be put out, but kept alive, to 1 i.e. Formerly.

confirm what from Giovanni's own mouth you have heard. Now, my lord, what I have done you may judge of; and let your own wisdom be a judge in your own reason. Car. Peace!-First this woman, chief in these effects, My sentence is, that forthwith she be ta'en

Out of the city, for example's sake,

There to be burnt to ashes.

Don.

'Tis most just.

Car, Be it your charge, Donado, see it done.
Don. I shall,

Vas. What for me? if death, 'tis welcome: I have been honest to the son, as I was to the father.

Car. Fellow, for thee, since what thou didst was done Not for thyself, being no Italian,

We banish thee for ever; to depart

Within three days: in this we do dispense

With grounds of reason, not of thine offence.

Vas. 'Tis well: this conquest is mine, and I rejoice that a Spaniard outwent an Italian in revenge. [Exit. Car. Take up these slaughtered bodies, see And all the gold and jewels, or whatsoever, Confiscate by the canons of the church,

We seize upon to the pope's proper use.

[buried ;

Rich. [Discovers himself.] Your grace's pardon: thus

long I lived disguised,

To see the effect of pride and lust at once

Brought both to shameful ends.

Car. What! Richardetto, whom we thought for dead? Don. Sir, was it you—

Rich.

Car.

Your friend.

We shall have time

To talk at large of all: but never yet
Incest and murder have so strangely met.
Of one so young, so rich in nature's store,
Who could not say, 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE?

[Exeunt.

O account remains of the first appear. ance of this play, or of its success. It was acted by the King's servants at the Blackfriars Theatre, and was published in 1633. It is said in the Prologue that the story-the scene of which is curiously placed in Sparta-had some foundation in fact. It may have been taken from an Italian novel.