Mass. Let reason govern rage yet, let us leave;
Although most wrong be mine, I can forgive.
In this attempt thy shame will ever live. 60
Gni. Thou hast wrong’d the Phœnix of all women rarest—
She that’s most wise, most loving, chaste, and fairest.
Mass. Thou dotest upon a devil, not a woman,
That has bewitch’d thee with her sorcery,
And drown’d thy soul in lethy faculties.
Her quenchless[273] lust has [quite] benumbed thy knowledge;
Thy intellectual powers oblivion smothers,
That thou art nothing but forgetfulness.
Gni. What’s this to my Isabella? My sin’s mine own.
Her faults were none, until thou madest ’em known. 70
Mass. Leave her, and leave thy shame where first thou found’st it;
Else live a bondslave to diseasèd lust,
Devour’d in her gulf-like appetite,
And infamy shall write thy epitaph;
Thy memory leave nothing but thy crimes—
A scandal to thy name in future times.
Gni. Put up your weapon; I dare hear you further.
Insatiate lust is sire still to murther.
Mass. Believe it, friend, if her heart-blood were vext,
Though you kill me, new pleasure makes you next. 80
She loved me dearer than she loves you now;
She’ll ne’er be faithful, has twice broke her vow.
This curse pursues female adultery,
They’ll swim through blood for sin’s variety;
Their pleasure like a sea, groundless and wide,
A woman’s lust was never satisfied.
Gni. Fear whispers in my breast, I have a soul
That blushes red for tend’ring[274] bloody facts.
Forgive me, friend, if I can be forgiven;
Thy counsel is the path leads me to heaven. 90
Mass. I do embrace thy reconcilèd love——
Gni. That death or danger now shall ne’er remove.
Go tell thy Insatiate Countess, Anna,
We have escap’d the snares of her false love,
Vowing for ever to abandon her.