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Dick, I'm not to be frighted, my lord. I dare speak

truth at any

time.

Lure. Whatever ftains my honour must be falfe.

King. I know it muft, my lord: yet has this man, not knowing who I was, prefumed to charge your lordship, not only with great injuftice to himself, but also with ruining an innocent virgin whom he lov'd, and who was to have been his wife; which, if true, were bafe and treacherous: but I know 'tis falfe, and therefore leave it to your lordship to fay what punishment I fhall inflict upon him for the injury done to your honour.

Lure. I thank your Majefty. I will not be fevere; he fhall only afk my pardon, and to-morrow morning be oblig'd to marry the creature he has traduced me with. King. This is mild. Well, your hear your sentence. Dick. May I not have leave to speak before your Majesty?

King. What canft thou fay?

Dick. If I had your Majesty's permiffion, I believe I have certain witneffes which will undeniably prove the truth of all I have accus'd his lordship of.

King. Produce them.

Dick. Peggy!

Enter Peggy.

King. Do you know this woman, my lord?

Lure. I know her, please your Majefty, by fight; fhe is a tenant's daughter.

Peggy. (afide.) Majefty! what, is this the king?
Dick. Yes.

King. Have you no particular acquaintance with her?" Lure. Hum--I have not feen her thefe feveral months.

Dick. True, my lord; and that is part of your accufation; for, I believe, I have fome letters which will prove your lordship once had a more particular acquaintance with her. Here is one of the first his lordship wrote to her, full of the tendereft and most folemn proteftations of love and conftancy; here is another, which will inform your Majefty of the pains he took to ruin her; there is an abfolute promife of marriage before he could accomplish it.

King. What fay you, my lord; are thefe your hand?

Lure.

Lure. I believe, pleafe your Majefty, I might have little affair of gallantry with the girl fome time ago.

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King. It was a little affair, my lord; a mean affair; and what you call gallantry, I call infamy. Do you think, my lord, that greatnefs gives a fan&tion to wickedness? or that it is the prerogative of lords to be unjust and inhuman? You remember the fentence which yourfelf pronounced upon this innocent man; you cannot think it hard that it fhould pafs on you who are guilty.

Lure. I hope your Majefty will confider my rank, and not oblige me to marry her.

King. Your rank, my lord! Greatness that stoops to actions bafe and low, deferts its rank, and pulls its honours down. What makes your lordship great? Is it your gilded equipage and drefs? then put it on your meaneft flave, and he's as great as you. Is it your riches or eftate? the villain that should plunder you of all, would then be as great as you. No, my lord, he that acts greatly, is the true great man. I therefore think you ought, in juftice, to marry her you have thus wrong'd.

Peggy. Let my tears thank your Majefty. But, alas! I am afraid to marry this young lord: that would only give him power to use me worse, and ftill increase my mifery: I therefore beg your Majefty will not command him to do it.

King. Rife then, and hear me. My lord, you fee how low the greatest noblemen may be reduced by ungenerous actions. Here is, under your own hand, an abfolute promife of marriage to this young woman, which, from a thorough knowledge of your unworthiness, the has prudently declined to make you fulfil. I fhall therefore not infift upon it; but I command you, upon pain of my difpleafure, immediately to fettle on her three hundred pounds a year.

Peggy. May heaven reward your Majefty's goodness. 'Tis too much for me; but if your Majefty thinks fit, let it be fettled upon this much-injured man, to make some fatisfaction for the wrongs which have been done him. As to myself, I only fought to clear the innocence of him I lov'd and wrong'd, then to hide me from the world, and die forgiven.

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Dick.

Dick. This act of generous virtue cancels all paft failings; come to my arms, and be as dear as ever. Peggy. You cannot, fure, forgive me!

Bick. I can, I do, and ftill will make you mine. Peggy. O! why did ever I wrong fuch generous love? Dick. Talk no more of it. Here let us kneel, and thank the goodness which has made us bleft.

King. May you be happy.

Mil. (kneels.) After I have feen fo much of your Majefty's goodness, I cannot defpair of pardon, even for the rough ufage your Majefty receiv'd from me.

[The King draws his fword; the Miller is frighted and rifes up, thinking he was going to kill him.]

What have I done that I fhould lofe my life?

King. Kneel without fear. No, my good hoft; fo far are you from having any thing to pardon, that I am much your debtor. I cannot think but fo good and honest a man will make a worthy and honourable knight: So rife up, Sir John Cockle; and, to fupport your state, and in fome fort requite the pleafure you have done us, a thoufand merks a year fhall be your revenue.

Mil. Your Majesty's bounty I receive with thankfulnefs; I have been guilty of no meanness to obtain it, and I hope I fhall not be obliged to keep it upon base conditions; for though I am willing to be a faithful fubject, I am refolv'd to be a free and an honeft man.

King. I rely upon your being fo: and to gain the friendship of fuch a ane, 1 fhall always think an addition to my happiness, though a king.

Worth, in whatever ftate, is fure a prize,
Which kings, of all men, ought not to despise;
By felfish fycophants fo close befieg'd,
'Tis by mere chance a worthy man's oblig'd;
But hence, to every courtier be it known,
Virtue fhall find protection from the throne.

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SCENE, A Garden belonging to DoON DIEGO's House,

T

DON DIEGO enters mufing.

HOUGHTS to council- let me fee

Hum to be or not to be

A hufband, is the queftion.

A cuckold! muit that follow?

Say what men will,

Wedlock's a pill

Bitter to fwallow,

And hard of digestion.

But fear makes the danger feem double.
Say, Hymen, what mifchief can trouble

My

My peace, fhould I venture to try you?
My doors fhall be lock'd,
My windows be block'd;
No male in my house,
Not fo much as a moufe:

Then horns, horns, I defy you.

Dieg. Urfula!

Enter Urfula.

Urf. Here, an't please your worship.
Dieg. Where is Leonora?

Urf. In her chamber, Sir.

Dieg. There is the key of it; there the key of the best hall; there the key of the door upon the first flight of ftairs; there the key of the door upon the fecond; this double-locks the hatch below, and this the door that opens into that entry.

Urf. I am acquainted with every ward of them.

Dieg. You know, Urfula, when I took Leonora from her father and mother, fhe was to live in the house with me three months; at the expiration of which time, I entered into a bond of four thousand piftoles, either to return her to them spotlefs, with half that fum for a dowry, or make her my true and lawful wife.

Urf. And, I warrant you, they came fecretly to inquire of me whether they might venture to truft your worthip. Lord! faid I, I have lived with the gentleman nine years and three quarters, come Lammas, and never faw any thing uncivil by him in my life; nor no more I ever did: and to let your worship know if I had, you would have mistaken your perfon; for I bless heaven, tho' I'm poor, I'm honeft, and would not live with any man alive that should want to handle me unlawfully.

Dieg. Urfula, I do believe it: and you are particularly happy, that both your age and your perfon exempt you from any fuch temptation. But, be this as it will, Leonora's parents, after fome little difficulty, confented to comply with my propofal; and, being fully fatisfied with their daughter's temper and conduct, which I wanted to be acquainted with, this day being the expiration of the term, I am refolved to fulfil my bond, by marrying her to-morrow.

Urf. Heaven blefs you together.

Z 2

Dieg

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