Gons. If you will needs to a religious house, Leave that fair face behind; a worse will serve To spoil with watching, and with fasting there.
Man. Pr'ythee, no more of this; the only way To make her happy is to force it on her. Julia, prepare yourself strait to be married.
Jul. To whom?
Man. You see your bridegroom: And you know
My father's will, who, with his dying breath
Commanded, you should pay as strict obedience
To me, as formerly to him: If not,
Your dowry is at my dispose.
Jul. O, would
The loss of that dispense with duty in me,
How gladly would I suffer it! and yet,
If I durst question it, methinks 'tis hard!
What right have parents over children, more
Than birds have o'er their young? yet they impose
No rich-plumed mistress on their feathered sons;
But leave their love, more open yet and free
Than all the fields of air, their spacious birthright.
[GONSALVO seems to beg MANUEL not to be harsh.
Man. Nay, good Gonsalvo, trouble not yourself, There is no other way; when 'tis once done, She'll thank me for't.
Jul. I ne'er expected other usage from you;
A kind brother you have been to me,
And to my sister: You have sent, they say,
To Barcelona, that my aunt should force her
To marry the old Don you brought her.
Hip. Who could, that once had seen Gonsalvo's. face? Alas, she little thinks I am so near! [Aside.
Man. Mind not what she says. A word with you—[To GONSALVO.