ALL. Love! O love! JUSTINA. Thou melancholy thought, which art Thus to afflict my heart? What is the cause of this new power ALL. Love, O love! JUSTINA. 'Tis that enamoured nightingale Who gives me the reply: He ever tells the same soft tale Be silent, Nightingale !-No more What a man would feel for me. And, voluptuous vine, O thou Who seekest most when least pursuing, To the trunk thou interlacest Art the verdure which embracest, And the weight which is its ruin, No more, with green embraces, vine, Light-enchanted sunflower, thou ALL. Love love love! JUSTINA. It cannot be! Whom have I ever loved? Trophies of my oblivion and disdain, Floro and Lelio did I not reject? And Cyprian? [She becomes troubled at the name of CYPRIAN. Did I not requite him With such severity, that he has fled Where none has ever heard of him again?— May be the occasion whence desire grows bold, I know not what I feel! [More calmly. It must be pity To think that such a man, whom all the world And I the cause. [She again becomes troubled. And yet if it were pity, Floro and Lelio might have equal share, For they are both imprisoned for my sake. Alas! what reasonings are these? It is Enough I pity him, and that, in vain, Without this ceremonious subtlety. [Calmly. And woe is me! I know not where to find him now, Enter DEMON. DÆMON. Follow, and I will lead thee where he is. JUSTINA. And who art thou, who hast found entrance hither, DÆMON. No. I am one Called by the thought which tyrannises thee JUSTINA. So shall thy promise fail. This agony DEMON. Already half is done In the imagination of an act. The sin incurred, the pleasure then remains ; JUSTINA. I will not be discouraged, nor despair, DÆMON. But a far mightier wisdom than thine own It were not free if thou hadst power upon it. [He draws, but cannot move her. DEMON. Come, where a pleasure waits thee. Too dear. JUSTINA. It were bought 'Tis shame, 'tis torment, 'tis despair. DEMON. But how Canst thou defend thyself from that or me, Consists in God. JUSTINA. My defence [He vainly endeavours to force her, and at last releases her. DÆMON. Woman, thou hast subdued me, Only by not owning thyself subdued. But since thou thus findest defence in God, First by dishonouring thee, and then by turning [Exit. JUSTINA. I Appeal to Heaven against thee! so that Heaven May scatter thy delusions, and the blot |