Don J. [Addressing himself to her, and beginning; she holding out her hand and interrupting him.] Madam——
Elv. Spare compliments, and let your actions speak:
Those may oblige both him and me; your words
Cannot comply with both.
Don J. [Aside.] Did ever yet
Such majesty with misery combine,
But in this woman? [To her.] Madam, I obey,
And, since you're pleas'd t' approve what I proposed,
No moment shall be lost in th' execution.
[Exit Julio, Fernando accompanying him, and Fabio.
Elv. O, how unkindly have the heavens dealt
With womankind above all other creatures!
Our pleasure and our glory to have placed
All on the brink of precipices, such
As every breath can blow the least light of us
Headlong into, past all hopes of redemption:
Nor can our wit or virtue give exemption.
'Tis true, I lov'd; but justified therein
By spotless thoughts and by the object's merit,
I deem'd myself above the reach of malice;
When in an instant, by another's folly,
I am more lost than any by her[6] own.
Accurs'd Don Zancho, what occasion
E'er gave Elvira to thy mad intrusion?
Unless disdain and scorn incentives are
To make men's passions more irregular.
Ah, matchless rigour of the Pow'rs above!
Not only to submit our honour's fate
Unto the vanity of those we love,
But to the rashness even of those we hate. [Exit.
Enter Donna Blanca at one door, reading a paper, with great marks of passion and disturbance; and her waiting-woman Francisca at another, observing her.
Blan. Ah, the traitor!
Fran. What can this mean? [Aside.
Blan. Was this thy sweet pretension at Madrid,
Drawn out in length, and hind'ring thy return?
Thy fair pretence, thou shouldst have said, false man.
Fran. For love's sake, madam, what can move you thus?