Alcip. ‘Tis true, Sir, and your bounty does amaze me;
Can I receive a blessing of this magnitude
With hands, yet have not wash’d away the sin
Of your Erminia’s murder? think of that, Sir;
For though to me it did appear most just,
Yet you must hate the Man that has undone you.
Gal. I see Erminia still usurps your thoughts.
Alcip. I must confess my Soul is scarce diverted
Of that fond Passion which I had for her;
But I protest before the Gods and you,
Did she still live, and I might still possess her,
I would refuse it, though I were ignorant
Of what the Gods and your fair self design me.
Phi. To doubt thee were a sin below my nature, And to declare my faith above my fear, Behold what I present thee with.
[Goes out, and enters again with Erminia.
Alcip. Ha—Erminia? [He looks afrighted.
—It is the same appear’d to me last night,
—And my deluded Fancy
Would have persuaded me ‘twas but a dream.
Phi. Approach her, Sir, ‘tis no fantasm.
Alcip. ‘Tis she her self, Oh Gods, Erminia!
[She goes a little back, as afraid, he kneels.
—Ah, Madam, do not fear me in this posture,
Which I will never quit till you have pardon’d me;
It was a fault the most excusable,
That ever wretched Lover did commit;
And that which hinder’d me from following thee,
Was that I could not well repent the Crime;
But like a surly Sinner fac’d it out,
And said, I thought ‘twas just, yes, fair Erminia;
Hadst thou been mine, I would i’th’ face of Heaven,
Proclaim it just and brave revenge:
But, Madam, you were Wife to my Prince,
And that was all my sin:
Alas, in vain I hop’d for some return,
And grew impatient of th’unkind delay,
And frantickly I then out-run my happiness.
Er. Rise, I forgive thee, from my soul I do;
Mayst thou be happier
In thy more glorious Passion for the Princess,
And all the Joys thou e’er couldst hope from me,
Mayst thou find there repeated.
Enter King, Orgulius, and the rest.