Por. If mutual love be vowed when faith you plight, Then he, who forfeits first, has lost his right.
Ber. Husbands a forfeiture of love may make; But what avails the forfeit none can take? As, in a general wreck, The pirate sinks with his ill-gotten gains, And nothing to another's use remains, So, by his loss, no gain to you can fall: The sea, and vast destruction swallows all.
Por. Yet he, who from the shore the wreck descries, May lawfully enrich him with the prize.
Ber. Who sees the wreck, can yet no title plead, Till he be sure the owner first is dead.
Por. If that be all the claim I want to love, This pirate of your heart I'll soon remove, And, at one stroke, the world and you set free.
Ber. Leave to the care of heaven that world and me.
Por. Heaven as its instrument my courage sends.
Ber. Heaven ne'er sent those who fight for private ends. We both are bound by trust, and must be true; I to his bed, and to his empire you. For he who to the bad betrays his trust, Though he does good, becomes himself unjust.
Por. When Brutus did from Cæsar Rome redeem, The act was good.
Ber. But was not good in him. You see the Gods adjudged it parricide, By dooming the event on Cæsar's side. 'Tis virtue not to be obliged at all; Or not conspire our benefactor's fall.