Soph. How now, daughter? What's the meaning of that indecent noise you make?
Luc. [Aside.] If I speak to him, he will discover my voice, and then I am ruined.
Duke. If your name be Lucretia, I have some business of concernment with you.
Luc. [To Sophronia.] Dear madam, for heaven's sake make haste into the cloister; the duke pursues me on some ill design.
Soph. [To the Duke.] 'Tis not permitted, sir, for maids, once entered into religion, to hold discourses here of worldly things.
Duke. But my discourses are not worldly, madam;
I had a vision in the dead of night,
Which shewed me this fair virgin in my sleep,
And told me, that from her I should be taught
Where to bestow large alms, and great endowments,
On some near monastery.
Soph. Stay, Lucretia;
The holy vision's will must be obeyed. [Exeunt Sophronia and Nuns.
Luc. [Aside.] He does not know me, sure; and yet I fear religion is the least of his business with me.
Duke. I see, madam, beauty will be beauty in any habit;
Though, I confess, the splendour of a court
Were a much fitter scene for yours, than is
A cloistered privacy.
Luc. [counterfeiting her voice.]
The world has no temptations for a mind
So fixed and raised above it;
This humble cell contains and bounds my wishes:
My charity gives you my prayers, and that's
All my converse with human kind.