favour comes at once; and sometimes when we least expect it. Vil. I'm going to visit her. Car. What interest a brother-in-law can have with her depend upon. Vil. I know your interest, and I thank you. Car. You are prevented; see the mourner comes: She weeps, as seven years were seven hours; So fresh, unfading, is the memory Of my poor brother's, Biron's, death: I leave you to your opportunity. [Exit VILLEROY. Perhaps, at last, she seeks my father's doors; [Exit. Enter VILLEROY and ISABELLA, with her Child. And at a time when friends are found no more, Vil. I must be Always your friend. Isa. I have known, and found you Truly my friend: and would I could be yours; Pray begone, Take warning, and be happy. There's none for me without you. What serve the goods of fortune for? To raise Vil. Thus, at this awful distance, I have serv'd Of expectation, that you may be mine, Of seeing you, without this pleasing pain: Isa. Oh, I have heard all this! -But must no more--the charmer is no more: My buried husband rises in the face Of my dear boy, and chides me for my stay: Vil. What can I say! The arguments that make against my hopes And long experience of your growing goodness: Isa. Nay, then I must begone. If you are my friend, If you regard my little interest, No more of this. I'm going to my father; he needs not an excuse Vil. I'm only born to be what you would have me, Where is the charity that us'd to stand Like the good angel of the family, [Exit. [Knocks. To feed and clothe, to comfort and relieve them? Now even their gates are shut against their poor. [She knocks again. Enter SAMPSON. Samp. Well, what's to do now, I trow? You knock as loud as if you were invited; and that's more than I heard of; but I can tell you, you may look twice about you for a welcome in a great man's family, before you find it, unless you bring it along with you. Isa. I hope I do, sir. Is your lord at home? Samp. My lord at home! Isa. Count Baldwin lives here still ? Samp. Ay, ay, Count Baldwin does live here; and I am his porter; but what's that to the purpose, good woman, of my lord's being at home? Isa. Why, don't you know me, friend? Samp. Not I, not I, mistress; I may have seen you before, or so; but men of employment must forget their, acquaintance; especially such as we are never to be the better for. [Going to shut the Door. Enter NURSE. Nurse. Handsomer words would become you, and mend your manners, Sampson: you prate to? do you know who Isa. I am glad you know me, Nurse. Nurse. Marry, Heav'n forbid, madam, that I should ever forget you, or my little jewel: pray go in LISABELLA goes in with her Child.] Now my blessing go along with you, wherever you go, or whatever are about. Fie, Sampson, how couldst thou be such a saracen? A Turk would have been a better christian, than to have done so barbarously by so good a lady. you Samp. Why, look you, Nurse, I know you of old: by your good will, you would have a finger in every body's pye, but mark the end on't; If I am called to account about it, I know what I have to say. and spare not. Nurse. Marry come up here; say your pleasure, Refuse his eldest son's widow and poor child, the comfort of seeing him? She does not trouble him so often. Samp. Not that I am against it, Nurse, but we are but servants, you know; we must have no likings, but our lord's, and must do as we are ordered. But what is the business, Nurse? You have been in the family before I came into the world: what's the reason, pray, that this daughter-in-law, who has so good a report in every body's mouth, is so little set by, by my lord? Nurse. Why, I tell you, Sampson, more or less: I'll tell the truth, that's my way, you know, without adding or diminishing. Samp. Ay, marry, Nurse. Nurse. My lord's eldest son, Biron by name, the son of his bosom, and the son that he would have lov'd best, if he had as many as king Pyramus of Troy. This Biron, as I was saying, was a lovely sweet gentleman, and indeed, nobody could blame his father for loving him: he was a son for the king of Spain; Heaven bless him, for I was his nurse. But now I come to the point, Sampson; this Biron, without asking the advice of his friends, hand over head, as young men will have their vagaries, not having the fear of his father before his eyes, as I may say, wilfully marries this Isabella. Samp. How, wilfully! he should have had her consent, methinks. Nurse. No, wilfully marries her; and which was worse, after she had settled all her fortune upon a nunnery, which she broke out of to run away with him. They say they had the church's forgiveness, but I had rather it had been his father's. Samp. Why, in good truth, and I think our young master was not in the wrong but in marrying without a portion. Nurse. That was the quarrel, I believe, Sampson: upon this, my old lord would never see him: disinherited him; took his younger brother, Carlos, into favour, whom he never cared for before; and, at last, forced Biron to go to the siege of Candy, where he was killed. Samp. Alack a-day, poor gentleman. Nurse. For which my old lord hates her, as if she had been the cause of his going thither. Samp. Alas, poor lady! she has suffered for it; she has lived a great while a widow, Nurse. A great while indeed, for a young woman, Sampson. to be seen. Samp. Gad so here they come; I won't venture [They retire. Enter COUNT BALDWIN, followed by ISABELLA and her Child. C. Bald. Whoever of your friends directed you, Misguided, and abus'd you There's your way: |