CONFIDANT.
It is not meet that he should find you thus.
TILNURINA.
Thou counsel’st right; but ’tis no easy task For barefaced grief to wear a mask of joy.
Enter. GOVERNOR.
GOVERNOR.
How’s this!—in tears?—O Tilburina, shame! Is this a time for maudling tenderness, And Cupid’s baby woes?—Hast thou not heard That haughty Spain’s pope-consecrated fleet Advances to our shores, while England’s fate, Like a clipp’d guinea, trembles in the scale?
TILNURINA.
Then is the crisis of my fate at hand! I see the fleets approach—I see—
PUFF.
Now, pray, gentlemen, mind. This is one of the most useful figures we tragedy writers have, by which a hero or heroine, in consideration of their being often obliged to overlook things that are on the stage, is allowed to hear and see a number of things that are not.
SNEER.
Yes; a kind of poetical second-sight!
PUFF.
Yes.—Now then, madam. Tilb.
I see their decks Are clear’d!—I see the signal made! The line is form’d!—a cable’s length asunder! I see the frigates station’d in the rear; And now, I hear the thunder of the guns! I hear the victor’s shouts—I also hear The vanquish’d groan!—and now ’tis smoke-and now I see the loose sails shiver in the wind! I see—I see—what soon you’ll see—
GOVERNOR.
Hold, daughter! peace! this love hath turn’d thy brain The Spanish fleet thou canst not see—because—It is not yet in sight!
DANGLE.
Egad, though, the governor seems to make no allowance for this poetical figure you talk of.