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Double Falsehood: Act II, Scene 3

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Double Falsehood
Act II, Scene 3

Prospect of a village. Before Don Bernard’s house.

  1. Enter Henriquez.

Henriquez

1 - 23
  1. Where were the eyes, the voice, the various charms,
  2. Each beauteous particle, each nameless grace,
  3. Parents of glowing love? All these in her,
  4. It seems, were not: but a disease in me,
  5. That fancied graces in her. Who ne’er beheld
  6. More than a hawthorne, shall have cause to say
  7. The cedar’s a tall tree; and scorn the shade,
  8. The lov’d bush once had lent him. Soft! Mine honor
  9. Begins to sicken in this black reflection.
  10. How can it be, that with my honor safe
  11. I should pursue Leonora for my wife?
  12. That were accumulating injuries,
  13. To Violante first, and now to Julio;
  14. To her a perjur’d wretch, to him perfidious;
  15. And to myself in strongest terms accus’d
  16. Of murd’ring Honor willfully, without which
  17. My dog’s the creature of the nobler kind.
  18. But Pleasure is too strong for Reason’s curb;
  19. And Conscience sinks o’erpower’d with Beauty’s sweets.
  20. Come, Leonora, auth’ress of my crime,
  21. Appear, and vindicate thy empire here;
  22. Aid me to drive this ling’ring Honor hence,
  23. And I am wholly thine.
  1. Enter to him, Don Bernard and Leonora.

Don Bernard

24 - 26
  1. Fie, my good lord; why would you wait without?
  2. If you suspect your welcome, I have brought
  3. My Leonora to assure you of it.
  1. Henriquez salutes Leonora.

Henriquez

27 - 35
  1. O kiss, sweet as the odors of the spring,
  2. But cold as dews that dwell on morning flow’rs!
  3. Say, Leonora, has your father conquer’d?
  4. Shall duty then at last obtain the prize,
  5. Which you refus’d to love? And shall Henriquez
  6. Owe all his happiness to good Bernardo?
  7. Ah! No; I read my ruin in your eyes:
  8. That sorrow, louder than a thousand tongues,
  9. Pronounces my despair.

Don Bernard

36 - 44
  1.                        Come, Leonora,
  2. You are not now to learn, this noble lord,
  3. (Whom but to name, restores my failing age,)
  4. Has with a lover’s eye beheld your beauty;
  5. Through which his heart speaks more than language can;
  6. It offers joy and happiness to you,
  7. And honor to our house. Imagine then
  8. The birth and qualities of him that loves you;
  9. Which when you know, you cannot rate too dear.

Leonora

45 - 54
  1. My father, on my knees I do beseech you
  2. To pause one moment on your daughter’s ruin.
  3. I vow, my heart ev’n bleeds, that I must thank you
  4. For your past tenderness; and yet distrust
  5. That which is yet behind. Consider, sir,
  6. Whoe’er’s th’ occasion of another’s fault,
  7. Cannot himself be innocent. O, give not
  8. The censuring world occasion to reproach
  9. Your harsh commands; or to my charge lay that
  10. Which most I fear, the fault of disobedience.

Don Bernard

55 - 58
  1. Prithee, fear neither the one, nor the other: I tell thee,
  2. girl, there’s more fear than danger. For my own part, as
  3. soon as thou art married to this noble lord, my fears will
  4. be over.

Leonora

59 - 66
  1. Sir, I should be the vainest of my sex,
  2. Not to esteem myself unworthy far
  3. Of this high honor. Once there was a time,
  4. When to have heard my lord Henriquez’ vows,
  5. Might have subdued my unexperienc’d heart,
  6. And made me wholly his.—But that’s now past:
  7. And my firm-plighted faith by your consent
  8. Was long since given to the injur’d Julio.

Don Bernard

67 - 71
  1. Why then, by my consent e’en take it back again. Thou, like
  2. a simple wench, hast given thy affections to a fellow, that
  3. does not care a farthing for them. One, that has left thee
  4. for a jaunt to court; as who should say, “I’ll get a place
  5. now; ’tis time enough to marry, when I’m turn’d out of it.”

Henriquez

72 - 82
  1. So, surely, it should seem, most lovely maid;
  2. Julio, alas, feels nothing of my passion:
  3. His love is but th’ amusement of an hour,
  4. A short relief from business, or ambition,
  5. The sport of youth, and fashion of the age.
  6. O! Had he known the hopes, the doubts, the ardors,
  7. Or half the fond varieties of passion,
  8. That play the tyrant with my tortur’d soul;
  9. He had not left thee to pursue his fortune:
  10. To practice cringes in a slavish circle,
  11. And barter real bliss for unsure honor.

Leonora

83 - 99
  1. Oh, the opposing wind,
  2. Should’ring the tide, makes here a fearful billow:
  3. I needs must perish in it.—Oh, my lord,
  4. Is it then possible, you can forget
  5. What’s due to your great name, and princely birth,
  6. To friendship’s holy law, to faith repos’d,
  7. To truth, to honor, and poor injur’d Julio?
  8. O think, my lord, how much this Julio loves you;
  9. Recall his services, his well-tried faith;
  10. Think too, this very hour, where’er he be,
  11. Your favor is the envy of the court,
  12. And secret triumph of his grateful heart.
  13. Poor Julio, how securely thou depend’st
  14. Upon the faith and honor of thy master;
  15. Mistaken youth! This very hour he robs thee
  16. Of all thy heart holds dear. ’Tis so Henriquez
  17. Repays the merits of unhappy Julio.
  1. Weeps.

Henriquez

100 - 102
  1. My slumb’ring honor catches the alarm.
  2. I was to blame to parley with her thus:
  3. Aside.
  4. She’s shown me to myself. It troubles me.

Don Bernard

103
  1. Mad; mad. Stark mad, by this light.

Leonora

104 - 120
  1. I but begin to be so. I conjure you,
  2. By all the tender interests of nature,
  3. By the chaste love ’twixt you, and my dear mother,
  4. (O holy heav’n, that she were living now!)
  5. Forgive and pity me.—Oh, sir, remember,
  6. I’ve heard my mother say a thousand times,
  7. Her father would have forced her virgin choice;
  8. But when the conflict was ’twixt love and duty,
  9. Which should be first obey’d, my mother quickly
  10. Paid up her vows to love, and married you.
  11. You thought this well, and she was praised for this;
  12. For this her name was honor’d, disobedience
  13. Was ne’er imputed to her, her firm love
  14. Conquer’d whate’er oppos’d it, and she prosper’d
  15. Long time your wife. My case is now the same;
  16. You are the father, which you then condemn’d;
  17. I, what my mother was; but not so happy.

Don Bernard

121 - 130
  1. Go to, you’re a fool. No doubt, you have old stories enough
  2. to undo you. What, you can’t throw yourself away but by
  3. precedent, ha? You will needs be married to one, that will
  4. none of you? You will be happy no body’s way but your own,
  5. forsooth. But, d’ye mark me, spare your tongue for the
  6. future; (and that’s using you hardly too, to bid you spare
  7. what you have a great deal too much of) go, go your ways,
  8. and d’ye hear, get ready within these two days to be married
  9. to a husband you don’t deserve. Do it, or, by my dead
  10. father’s soul, you are no acquaintance of mine.

Henriquez

131
  1. She weeps: be gentler to her, good Bernardo.

Leonora

132 - 141
  1. Then woe the day. I’m circled round with fire;
  2. No way for my escape, but through the flames.
  3. Oh, can I e’er resolve to live without
  4. A father’s blessing, or abandon Julio?
  5. With other maids, the choice were not so hard;
  6. Int’rest, that rules the world, has made at last
  7. A merchandize of hearts: and virgins now
  8. Choose as they’re bid, and wed without esteem.
  9. By nobler springs shall my affections move;
  10. Nor own a master, but the man I love.
  1. Exit Leonora.

Don Bernard

142 - 149
  1. Go thy ways, contradiction. Follow her, my lord; follow her,
  2. in the very heat. This obstinacy must be combated by
  3. importunity as obstinate.
  4. Exit Henriquez after her.
  5. The girl says right; her mother was just such another. I
  6. remember, two of us courted her at the same time. She lov’d
  7. neither of us, but she chose me purely to spite that surly
  8. old blockhead my father-in-law. Who comes here, Camillo? Now
  9. the refusing part will lie on my side.
  1. Enter Camillo.

Camillo

150 - 151
  1. My worthy neighbor, I am much in fortune’s favor to find you
  2. thus alone. I have a suit to you.

Don Bernard

152
  1. Please to name it, sir.

Camillo

153 - 155
  1. Sir, I have long held you in singular esteem: and what I
  2. shall now say, will be a proof of it. You know, sir, I have
  3. but one son.

Don Bernard

156
  1. Ay, sir.

Camillo

157 - 158
  1. And the fortune I am blest withal, you pretty well know what
  2. it is.

Don Bernard

159
  1. ’Tis a fair one, sir.

Camillo

160 - 168
  1. Such as it is, the whole reversion is my son’s. He is now
  2. engaged in his attendance on our master, the Duke. But e’er
  3. he went, he left with me the secret of his heart, his love
  4. for your fair daughter. For your consent, he said, ’twas
  5. ready. I took a night, indeed, to think upon it, and now
  6. have brought you mine; and am come to bind the contract with
  7. half my fortune in present, the whole some time hence, and,
  8. in the mean while, my hearty blessing. Ha? What say you
  9. to’t, Don Bernard?

Don Bernard

169 - 170
  1. Why, really, neighbor,—I must own, I have heard something of
  2. this matter.

Camillo

171
  1. Heard something of it? No doubt, you have.

Don Bernard

172
  1. Yes, now I recollect it well.

Camillo

173
  1. Was it so long ago then?

Don Bernard

174
  1. Very long ago, neighbor. On Tuesday last.

Camillo

175
  1. What, am I mock’d in this business, Don Bernard?

Don Bernard

176 - 178
  1. Not mock’d, good Camillo, not mock’d: but in love-matters,
  2. you know, there are abundance of changes in half an hour.
  3. Time, time, neighbor, plays tricks with all of us.

Camillo

179 - 183
  1. Time, sir! What tell you me of time? Come, I see how this
  2. goes. Can a little time take a man by the shoulder, and
  3. shake off his honor? Let me tell you, neighbor, it must
  4. either be a strong wind, or a very mellow honesty that drops
  5. so easily. Time, quoth’a?

Don Bernard

184 - 192
  1. Look’e, Camillo; will you please to put your indignation in
  2. your pocket for half a moment, while I tell you the whole
  3. truth of the matter. My daughter, you must know, is such a
  4. tender soul, she cannot possibly see a Duke’s younger son
  5. without falling desperately in love with him. Now, you know,
  6. neighbor, when greatness rides post after a man of my years,
  7. ’tis both prudence, and good breeding, to let one’s self be
  8. overtaken by it. And who can help all this? I profess, it
  9. was not my seeking, neighbor.

Camillo

193 - 197
  1. I profess, a fox might earth in the hollowness of your
  2. heart, neighbor, and there’s an end. If I were to give a bad
  3. conscience its true likeness, it should be drawn after a
  4. very near neighbor to a certain poor neighbor of
  5. yours.—Neighbor! With a pox!

Don Bernard

198
  1. Nay, you are so nimble with me, you will hear nothing.

Camillo

199 - 203
  1. Sir, if I must speak nothing, I will hear nothing. As for
  2. what you have to say, if it comes from your heart, ’tis a
  3. lie before you speak it. I’ll to Leonora; and if I find her
  4. in the same story, why, I shall believe your wife was true
  5. to you, and your daughter is your own. Fare you well.
  1. Exit, as into Don Bernard’s house.

Don Bernard

204 - 206
  1. Ay, but two words must go to that bargain. It happens, that
  2. I am at present of opinion my daughter shall receive no more
  3. company to day; at least, no such visits as yours.
  1. Exit Don Bernard, following him.
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