LEAND. All that I now hear from you is no more than what my own reason
has already suggested to me. I know how much I am obliged to you for the
great honour you are inclined to pay me, and of which I am unworthy. In
spite of the passion which sways me, I have ever retained a just sense
of your daughter's merit and virtue: therefore I will endeavour...
ANS. Somebody is opening this door; let us retire to a distance, lest
some contagion spreads from it, which may attack you suddenly.
SCENE V.--LELIO, MASCARILLE.
MASC. We shall soon see our roguery miscarry if you persist in such
palpable blunders.
LEL. Must I always hear your reprimands? What can you complain of? Have
I not done admirably since...?
MASC. Only middling; for example, you called the Turks heretics, and you
affirmed, on your corporal oath, that they worshipped the sun and moon
as their gods. Let that pass. What vexes me most is that, when you are
with Celia, you strangely forget yourself; your love is like porridge,
which by too fierce a fire swells, mounts up to the brim, and runs over
everywhere.
LEL. Could any one be more reserved? As yet I have hardly spoken to her.
MASC. You are right! but it is not enough to be silent; you had not been
a moment at table till your gestures roused more suspicion than other
people would have excited in a whole twelvemonth.
Pages:
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90