The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 05 by John Dryden
page 75 of 530 (14%)
page 75 of 530 (14%)
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_Fisc._ And what? Why do you stare and tremble? Answer me like a man.
_Har. Jun._ Oh, I have nothing left of manhood in me! I am turned beast or devil. Have I not horns, and tail, and leathern wings? Methinks I should have by my actions. Oh, I have done a deed so ill, I cannot name it. _Fisc._ Not name it, and yet do it? That's a fool's modesty: Come, I'll name it for you: You have enjoyed your mistress. _Har. Jun._ How easily so great a villany comes from thy mouth! I have done worse, I have ravished her. _Fisc._ That's no harm, so you have killed her afterwards. _Har. Jun._ Killed her! why thou art a worse fiend than I. _Fisc._ Those fits of conscience in another might be excusable; but in you, a Dutchman, who are of a race that are born rebels, and live every where on rapine,--would you degenerate, and have remorse? Pray, what makes any thing a sin but law? and, what law is there here against it? Is not your father chief? Will he condemn you for a petty rape? the woman an Amboyner, and, what's less, now married to an Englishman! Come, if there be a hell, 'tis but for those that sin in Europe, not for us in Asia; heathens have no hell. Tell me, how was't? Pr'ythee, the history. _Har. Jun._ I forced her. What resistance she could make she did, but 'twas in vain; I bound her, as I told you, to a tree. |
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