See how succeeding passions rage by turns,
How fierce the youth with joy and rapture burns,
And how to death, for beauty lost, he mourns.

Let no nice taste the poet's art arraign,
If some frail vicious characters he feign:
Who writes shou'd still let nature be his care,
Mix shades with lights, and not paint all things
fair,

But shew you men and women as they are.
With deference to the fair he bad me say,
Few to perfection ever found the way ;
Many in many parts are known t'excel,
But 't were too hard for one to act all well;
Whom justly life should through each scene com-
mend,

The maid, the wife, the mistress, and the friend :
This age, 't is true, has one great instance seen,
And heav'n in justice made that one a Queen.
28 you. 1714, ye.

25

30

35

SCENE, Sciolto's PALACE AND Garden, with SOME PART OF THE STREET NEAR IT, IN

GENOA

Dramatis Persona. 1703 ed. prints the Epilogue between the Prologue and this.

The Fair Penitent

ACT I. SCENE I.

Scene, a Garden belonging to Sciolto's Palace.
Enter Altamont and Horatio.

Altamont. Let this auspicious day be ever
sacred,

No mourning, no misfortunes happen on it;
Let it be markt for triumphs and rejoycings;
Let happy lovers ever make it holy,

Chuse it to bless their hopes, and crown their
wishes

This happy day that gives me my Calista.

Horatio. Yes, Altamont; to-day thy better

stars

Are join'd to shed their kindest influence on thee:

Sciolto's noble hand, that rais'd thee first,

5

Half dead and drooping o'er thy father's grave, 10
Compleats its bounty, and restores thy name
To that high rank and lustre which it boasted
Before ungrateful Genoa had forgot

6 my. 1732 omits.

The merit of thy godlike father's arms;

Before that country which he long had serv'd, 15 In watchful councils, and in winter camps,

Had cast off his white age to want and wretch-
edness,

And made their court to faction by his ruin.
Alt. Oh great Sciolto! Oh my more than
father!

Let me not live, but at thy very name
My eager heart springs up, and leaps with joy.
When I forget the vast, vast debt I owe thee,
Forget! (but 't is impossible) — then let me
Forget the use and privilege of reason,
Be driven from the commerce of mankind,
To wander in the desart among brutes,
To bear the various fury of the seasons,
The night's unwholsom dew and noon-day's

heat,

To be the scorn of earth and curse of heav'n.

20

25

Hor. So open, so unbounded was his goodness, 30 It reach'd ev'n me, because I was thy friend. When that great man I lov'd, thy noble father, Bequeath'd thy gentle sister to my arms, His last dear pledge and legacy of friendship, That happy tye made me Sciolto's son; He call'd us his, and with a parent's fondness

20 live. 1732 omits comma after live, but inserts it after name. 25 driven. 1732, driv❜n. 27-28 To bear . . . heat. F omits.

35

tell ead nothings othe

SCENE I

gudThe Fair Penitent

II

Indulged us in his wealth, blest us with plenty,
Heal'd all our cares, and sweeten'd love it self.
Alt. By heav'n, he found my fortunes so aban-
don'd,

That nothing but a miracle could raise 'em ;
My father's bounty, and the state's ingratitude,
Had strip'd him bare, nor left him ev❜n a grave;
Undone my self, and sinking with his ruin,
I had no wealth to bring, nothing to succour him,
But fruitless tears.

Hor.

didst,

Yet what thou cou'dst thou

And didst it like a son; when his hard creditors,
Urg'd and assisted by Lothario's father,
(Foe to thy house, and rival of their greatness)
By sentence of the cruel law, forbid

His venerable corps to rest in earth,
Thou gav'st thy self a ransom for his bones;
With piety uncommon, didst give up
Thy hopeful youth to slaves who ne'er knew

mercy,

Sour, unrelenting, mony-loving villains,

Who laugh at human nature and forgiveness,
And are like fiends the factors for destruction.
Heav'n, who beheld the pious act, approv'd it,
And bad Sciolto's bounty be its proxy,
To bless thy filial virtue with abundance.

40 raise. F, save. 52-56 With piety. . . destruction. F omits.

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45

50

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