Perseda.
What love means, my Erastus, pray thee tell?
Erastus.
Matchless Perseda, she that gave me strength
To win late conquests from many victor's hands,
Thy name was conqueror, not my chivalry;
Thy looks did arm me, not my coat of steel;
Thy beauty did defend me, not my force;
Thy favours bore me, not my light-foot steed;
Therefore to thee I owe both love and life;
But wherefore makes Perseda such a doubt,
As if Erastus could forget himself;
Which if I do, all vengeance light on me!
Perseda.
Ay me, how graceless are these wicked men!
I can no longer hold my patience. [Aside.
Ah, how thine eyes can forge alluring looks,
And feign deep oaths, to wound poor silly maids!
Are there no honest drops in all thy cheeks,
To check thy fraudful countenance with a blush?
Call'st thou me love, and lov'st another better?
If heav'ns were just, thy teeth would tear thy tongue
For this thy perjur'd false disloyalty:
If heav'ns were just, men should have open breasts,
That we therein might read their guileful thoughts:
If heav'ns were just, that power that forceth love
Would never couple wolves and lambs together:
Yes, heav'ns are just, but thou art so corrupt,
That in thee all their influence doth change,
As in the spider good things turn to poison.
Ah, false Erastus, how had I misdone,
That thou shouldst pawn my true affection's pledge
To her, whose worth will never equal mine?
What, is Lucina's wealth exceeding mine?
Yet mine sufficient to encounter thine.
Is she more fair than I? that's not my fault,
Nor her desert: what's beauty but a blast,
Soon cropp'd with age or with infirmities?
Is she more wise? her years are more than mine.
Whate'er she be, my love was more than hers;
And for her chastity let others judge.
But what talk I of her? the fault is thine:
If I were so disgracious in thine eye,
That she must needs enjoy my interest,
Why didst thou deck her with my ornament?
Could nothing serve her but the carcanet
Which, as my life, I gave to thee in charge?
Couldst thou abuse my true simplicity,
Whose greatest fault was overloving thee?
I'll keep no tokens of thy perjury:
Here, give her this; Perseda now is free,
And all my former love is turn'd to hate.
Erastus.
Ah! stay, my sweet Perseda; hear me speak.
Perseda.
What are thy words, but Siren's guileful songs,
That please the ear, but seek to spoil the heart.