make his daughter wretched, even without procuring happiness to Palermo. Palermo has juft told him that He never merited a worthy heart Who meanly stoop'd contented with a cold one. Yet a cold heart was all that Anfelmo could give to his friend, by the utmoft exertion of authority to outrage nature and curfe his child. An authority which he perfeveres to exert. He tells his daughter indeed that A little time Will charm her gentle bofom into reft, I But he does not appear to believe this abfurdity, even while he advances it; for he has juft affirmed the direct contrary. fee, fays he, with infinite regret Your fcorn, your fix'd averfion to Palermo, This man loves his daughter more than his dearest friend; he declares that the diftrefs of a friend fhould make us more active in his behalf, yet to give a friend what that friend declares is not worth having, he not only deferts his daughter in diftrefs, but brings the diftrefs upon her. Is this lefs abfurd than Prince Prettyman's forfaking his mitrels and marrying the fisherman's daughter, in gratitude for having faved his life? A promife, however, having been extorted from Clementina that the will marry Palermo, though in the utmost agony of grief, abhorrence, and defpair, the good father falls immediately into an extacy of joy, and he cries out My transport grows too mighty to be borne! O let me haflen to the brave Palermo And raife him from defpondency to rapture. Clementina however fuppofes, that her father would at once defift from his fuit if fhe fhould tell him that he had married Rinaldo, though Rinaldo was dead, which is not a very probable fuppofition; but the fuppofes alfo that this man of punctilious honour, and inflexible rectitude, would exert his power, as temporary governor of Venice, to ruin Rinaldo's family, in revenge for his having married his daughter, and for that reafon ftill keeps the fecret to her own ruin, which revealed would fet her at ease. It foon appears that Rinaldo is alive: he was carried off wounded from the field, and fuppofed to be dead; but a noble Frenchman, who had taken notice of him in the battle, recollecting his features, made an attempt to recover him, and fuc ceeded: ceeded he likewife fo warmly recommended him to the King of France, that he is appointed ambaffador to Venice, with proposals that if the Venetians will acknowledge themselves fubject to France, their own form of government fhall be eftablifhed, and they protected from their enemies: but the offer of a foreign ruler' to Venice by a Venetian, is a capital offence; therefore Rinaldo having been created Lord of Granville by the French King, propofes not to discover who he is while he is treating if his propofals are accepted indeed, he intends to claim his wife; if not, to carry her off privately. 6 In confequence of this notable project, the following events are supposed to take place. Rinaldo, a noble Venetian, whom every body in the army knew when he fell, for concurring multitudes beheld him fall,' and reported that he was dead; nobody knows, when he returns in a public character to his country: he is fo happily tranfformed into a French man, by his French title, that no Venetian difcovers him to be his countryman; and though Palermo had been his fellow-foldier, and Anfelmo quarrelled with his family, neither of them have the leaft knowledge of his perfon, and he appears in public without referve, the event juftifying his prefumption. Within lefs than an hour after the arrival of Rinaldo, Palermo discovers Clementina embracing him in an arbour. He tells her father what he has feen, but the old man' gives him a hearty scolding for believing his eyes. He then directs him where he alfo may fee the lovers tête-a-tête: he goes to make the experiment, but without any other emotion than contempt and anger at the fuppofed folly of the report. His own eyes foon convince him that Palermo was not miftaken. Here then is a very extraordinary fituation: the father finds his daughter embracing a Frenchman, who had not been an hour in the country, and whom she is fuppofed never to have feen before: yet, in the general tenor of the dialogue that ensues, there are no traces of this peculiarity; it is juft fuch as might have happened if the lover had been a perfon with whom the lady had been long privately familiar: he appears to be well acquainted with her fituation, and juftifies his paffion by boafting that he is as good as Palermo, who had been capriciously preferred, and the her's, by afferting her right of choice. It would furely have been more natural for Palermo, who has fo warmly declared against a connection with a cold heart, to have broke off all connection with an alienated one: yet he talks as if he was compelled to marry Clementina by a spell which could not be broken. Hear him exclaim: What though her error is ideal yet, And actual guilt has stamp'd no fable on her; * 4 is Is not her mind, that all-in-all of virtue, It ftabs-it tears-On love's luxurious pillow The diftrefs of the piece is to arife from a forced match, and therefore in violation of all nature: Anfelmo is to facrifice his child to Palermo, because he has promised; and Palermo is to take her against her will, to the total fubverfion of his own happiness as well as her's, rather than abfolve Anfelmo from fo abfurd and fatal an obligation. It is ftrange that no fpark of fufpicion fhould kindle in Anfelmo's breaft, that the perfon whom he had feen in his daughter's arms was not wholly unknown to her; and it is ftranger that when the intimates that he is not, he fhould treat the intimation as an artifice.. Conceal your name and quality with care,' fays fhe to Rinaldo in her father's prefence; and her father replies, What shallow air of mystery is this? He orders guards to feize the ambassador of France and force him aboard his fhip: the lovers, as ufual, lay hold on each other; he is pulled one way, the another, an order is given to hew them afunder, and they are forced out feparately; an incident that always produces a fine effect. In the first act Clementina exclaims against parental tyranny, and at the end of the third juftifies it: What claim, what right, misjudging Elizara, Doom his fad race to wretchednefs for ever? Why do I exclaim? His caufe for rage After After the scene in the arbour, Anfelmo tells Palermo that now to wed his daughter would be bafenefs; that she is funk below his thought, and fhould be defpifed and forgotten: Palermo perfectly agrees with him in this, fentiment, and fays, Kwere a flave indeed, A foul-lefs flave, to prostitute a thought, A fingle thought on such a woman longer. Yet foon after we find Clementina' importuning him to do what he has done already : Nay, for your own fake give me up Palermo. This furely implies that he had refufed to give her up in the beginning of the altercation which this verfe continues. He however difclaims her at laft in the ftrongest terms, reproaches her with having Loft a whole life of innocence and bonour, and declares that he requires no pleas to fhun an obvious bafenefs, and would fooner wed diftraction than difhonour: however, upon Rinaldo's coming back, after having been forced on board his veffel, he prepares to prevent his carrying her off because, fays he, my noble friend fhall not be bafely plundered of his daughter." At this crifis Anfelmo arrives, orders Rinaldo again to be feized, and, ftrange as it may appear, to be put to death. ANSELMO. And now conduct the hero to his prison. GRANVILLE. [Rinaldo.] Why all this pomp of needlefs preparation? The gen'rous mind esteems to fuffer noblest. Bring forth your racks then, witness to my triumph, Which is most brave, the torturer or tortur’d. CLEMENTINA. Stop not with him-Prepare your racks for me- It is a fon he hurries to the block, And that my fancy'd spoiler is my husband. ANSELMO. ANSELMO. Your husband, traitrefs!-infamous evafion, Take heed, reveal not all, my Clementina. Known, or unknown, that equal death awaits me. My father, hear me-Yes, he is my husband. ANSELMO. Your husband-married-when-by whom, and where? Away, and from the world hide quick That guilty head-Your minion dies this hour- Take him from hence CLEMENTINA. And take me with him, guards. GRANVILLE. Unman me not with this exceffive softness, [Borne off. CLEMENTINA to the Guard preventing her. Is this a time to drag me from my husband? And |