_ I wish she may not wed to blood more near.
_Seb._ What if I make her mine?
_Alv._ Now heaven forbid!
_Seb._ Wish rather heaven may grant;
For, if I could deserve, I have deserved her:
My toils, my hazards, and my subjects' lives,
Provided she consent, may claim her love;
And, that once granted, I appeal to these,
If better I could chuse a beauteous bride.
_Ant._ The fairest of her sex.
_Mor._ The pride of nature.
_Dor._ He only merits her, she only him;
So paired, so suited in their minds and persons,
That they were framed the tallies for each other.
If any alien love had interposed,
It must have been an eye-sore to beholders,
And to themselves a curse.
_Alv._ And to themselves
The greatest curse that can be, were to join.
_Seb._ Did not I love thee past a change to hate,
That word had been thy ruin; but no more,
I charge thee, on thy life, perverse old man!
_Alv._ Know, sir, I would be silent if I durst:
But if, on shipboard, I should see my friend
Grown frantic in a raging calenture,
And he, imagining vain flowery fields,
Would headlong plunge himself into the deep,--
Should I not hold him from that mad attempt,
Till his sick fancy were by reason cured?
_Seb._ I pardon thee the effects of doting age,
Vain doubts, and idle cares, and over-caution;
The second nonage of a soul more wise,
But now decayed, and sunk into the socket;
Peeping by fits, and giving feeble light.
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