Mar. Still my son.
Ces. Right Madam, now you have it, still your son.
The Genius of your blessings hath instructed
Your tongue oraculously, we will forget
How once I and Clarissa enterchang'd
The tyes of brother and of sister, henceforth
New stile us man and wife.
Cla. By what authority?
Ces. Heavens great appointment, yet in all my dotage
On thy perfections, when I thought Clarissa
We had been pledges of one womb, no lose
No wanton heat of youth, desir'd to claime
Priority in thy affections, other
Than nature might commend. Chastly I tend'red
Thy welfare as a brother ought; but since
Our bloods are strangers, let our hearts contract
A long life-lasting unity, for this way
The sentence is to be observ'd or no way.
Mar. Then no way.
Ces. I expected other answer Madam from you.
Mar. No, every age shall curse me,
The monster, and the prodigie of nature,
Horrors beyond extremity.
Cla. Pray mother confine the violence of greif.
Ces. Yes mother, pray do.
Mar. Thus some catch at a matrons honor
By flying lust to plot Incestuous witchcrafts.
More terrible than whoredomes; cruell mercy!
When to preserve the body from a death
The soul is strangled.