October 4, 2023 • 25 mins
Act IV: The Heart Revealed – Victoria's disguise becomes more difficult to maintain. As love and pride collide, she must decide whether the risk is worth the emotional cost of exposure. Summary by Dream AudioBooks
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Act four of A Bold Stroke for a Husband by
Hannah Cowli. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. Scene one, Donalor's entered Donalora
and Pedro Right.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, Pedro, hast thou seen Don Florio?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yes, Donna?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
How did he look when he read my letter?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Morotobel? I've never seen him look better? He gat the
new cloak and the fal blockhead.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Did he look pleased? Did he kiss my name? Did
he press the billet to his bosom with all the
warmth of love?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
No, he didn't want me in that way, but he
did another, for he put it in the fire. How, yes,
when I spoke he started for I think he had
forgot I was by, So says he go home and
tell Tonalore. I fly to her presence.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
She waves her hand for him to go.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Is it possible so contemptuously to destroy the letter in
which my whole heart overflowed with tenderness?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
How idly I talk? He is here, his very voice
pierces my heart. I dare not meet his eye, thus discomposed.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Except right and her Victoria left in men's clothes, preceded
by Sancho.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
I will inform my mistress that you are here, Don Florio,
I thought she had been in the apartment, except laughed.
Speaker 6 (01:44):
Now must I, with a mind tone by anxieties, once
more assume the lover of my husband's mistress, of the
woman who has robbed me of his heart and his
children of their fortune. Sure, my task is heart, Oh love,
Oh marry love, assist me if I can, by any
art obtain from her that fatal deed, I shall save
(02:05):
my little ones from ruin. And then but I.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Hear her step agitated, pressing her hand on her bosom.
Speaker 6 (02:14):
There I have hid my grief within my heart. And now,
for all the impudence of an accomplished cavalier.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Sings an air, sets her hat in the glass, dances
a few steps et cetera, then runs to Laura right
and seizes her hand.
Speaker 6 (02:30):
Oh, my lovely Laura.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
That look speaks Laura loved as well as lovely.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
To be sure, Petrarch immortalized his Laura by his verses,
and mine shall be immortal in my passion.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Oh Floria, how deceitful, I know not what enchantment binds
me to thee.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
Me, my dear, is all this to.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Me playing carelessly with the feather in her hat?
Speaker 6 (03:02):
Yes, in great thee positively, Laura, you have these extravagancies
so often I wonn them. My passion can stand them.
To be plain, those violences in your temper may make
a pretty relief in the flat of matrimony, child, but
they do not suit that state of freedom which is
necessary to my happiness. It was by such destructive arts, Estes,
(03:26):
you cured Don Carlos of his love.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Cure Don Carlos, Oh, Florio, wert thou, but as he.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
Is, why you don't pretend he loves you still?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yes, most ardently and truly.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
Hah.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
If thou wouldst persuade me that thy passion is real,
borrow his words his looks, be a hypocrite, one, dear moment,
and speak to me in all the frenzy of that
love which warms the heart of Carlos.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Of Carlos, Laura aside.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Hah, that seemed a jealous pang. It gives my hopes
new life. Yes, Florio, he indeed knows what it is
to love for me. He forsook a beauteous wife nay,
and with me he would forsake his country.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
Villain, Villain nay.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Let not the thought distress you. Thus, Carlos I despise
he is the weakest of mankind.
Speaker 6 (04:33):
Tis false, Madam. You cannot despise him. Carlos, the weakest
of mankind. Heavens, what woman could resist him? Persuasion sits
on his tongue, and love, almighty love triumphant in his eyes.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
This is strange you speak of your rival with the
admiration of a mistress, Laura.
Speaker 6 (04:57):
It is the fate of jealousy as well as love,
to see the charms of its object increased and heightened.
I am jealous, jealous to distraction of Don Carlos, and
cannot taste peace unless you'll swear never to see him more.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I swear, joyfully swear never to behold or speak to
him again. When, dear youth, shall we retire to Portugal.
We are not safe here.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
You know I am not rich. You must first tell
the lance my rival gave.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
You observing her with apprehension.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Tis done. I have found a purchaser, and to morrow
the transfer will be finished.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Victoria, asighed ah, I.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
Have now done nothing to trust to but the ingenuity
of Gaspar. There is reason to fear Don Carlos had
no right in that estate with which you supposed yourself
in doubt.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
No right? What could have given you those suspicions.
Speaker 6 (06:03):
A conversation with Huan, his steward, who assures me his
master never had an estate in.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Lyon, never what not by marriage? Huon says, so my
blood runs cold. Can I have taken pains to deceive myself?
Could I think so? I should be mad?
Speaker 6 (06:24):
These doubts may soon be annihilated or confirmed to certainty.
I have seen Don Sancho, the uncle of Victoria. He
is now in Madrid. You have told me that he
once professed a passion for you.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Oh to access, But at that time I had another object.
Speaker 6 (06:42):
Have you conversed with him much?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I never saw him nearer than from my balcony, where
he used to ogle me through a glass suspended by
a ribbon, like an order of knighthood. He is weak
enough to fancy it gives him an air of distinction.
But where can I find him? I must see him.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
Write him a billet, and I will send it to
his lodgings instantly.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Dear Florio, A new prospect opens to me. Don Sancho
is rich and generous, and by playing on his passions,
his fortune may be a constant fun to us. I'll
dip my penny in flattery.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
Exit right, bays woman, How can I pity thee or
regret the steps which my duty obliges me to take?
For myself, I would not swerve from the nicest line
of rectitude nor wear the shadow of deceit. But for
my children? Is there a parental heart that will not
pardon me?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Exit right? Scene two Don Caesar's and her Olivia and Minette.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Well, here we are in private. What is this charming
intelligence of which thou so full this morning?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Why?
Speaker 7 (08:02):
Mom, As I was in the balcony that overlooks Don
Vasquez's garden, Donia Marcella told me that Doncessa had last
night been to pay her a visit previous to their
marriage and.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Their marriage, how can you give me the intelligence? Was
such a look of joy their marriage? What will become
of me.
Speaker 7 (08:26):
Dear mom, if you'll by have patience? He says that
Doncesa and she are perfectly agreed.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Still with that smirking face, I can't have patience.
Speaker 7 (08:40):
And madam, if you won't let me tell the story.
Please to read it. Here's a letter from Donia Marcella.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Why did you.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Not give it to me at first?
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Read?
Speaker 7 (08:52):
Because I'd delight to be cut out of my story
before ators were obliged to come to the point at
once mercy or what tropes and figures we should lose?
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Oh, manette, I give you leave to that smirk again.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Listen read.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
I am more terrified at the idea of becoming your
father's wife than you are in expectation of a stepmother,
and Don Caesar would be as loath as either of us.
He only means to frighten you into matrimony, and I have,
on certain conditions, agreed to assist him. But whatever you
may hear or see, be assured that nothing is so
(09:33):
impossible as that he should become the husband of Donna Marcella.
Oh delightful girl. How I love her for this?
Speaker 7 (09:41):
Yes, ma'am. And if you'd had patience, I should have
told you that she's now here with Don Csa in
great debate how to begin the attack which must force
you to take shelter in the arms of a husband.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Ah. No matter how they begin it, let them amuse
themselves in raising batteries. My reserved fire shall tumble them
about their ears. In the moment, my poor father is
singing his eyos for victory. But there comes the lovers. Well,
I protest now, sixteen and sixty is a very comely sight.
(10:19):
Tis contrast gives effect to everything blood. How my father
oguls I had no idea he was such a sort
of man. I am really afraid he isn't quite so
good as he used to be.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Enter, Don Caesar leading Marcella, Don Caesar apart, Umm.
Speaker 8 (10:40):
Madam looks very placid. We shall discompose her? Or I
am mistaken? So Olivia. Here's Dona Marcella come to visit you.
Though as matters are, that respect is due from you.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
I am sensible of the condescension, my dear ma'am, how
very good this is?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Taking her hand Caesar aside.
Speaker 8 (11:13):
Yes, you'll think yourself wonderfully obliged when you know all pray,
Don Marcella, Or do you think of these apartments? The
furniture and decorations are my daughter's taste. Would you wish
them to remain? Or will you give orders to have
(11:36):
them changed?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Changed?
Speaker 6 (11:39):
Undoubtedly I can have nobody's taste.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Govern my apartments but my own. Don Caesar apart.
Speaker 8 (11:47):
Ah that touches see how she looks, they shall receive
your orders. You understand I suppose from this that everything
is fixed on between Donna Marcella and me.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Yes, sir, I understand it perfectly, and it gives me
infinite pleasure.
Speaker 8 (12:14):
Nay, pleasure entirely, sir, tall uroll ah that won't do
that won't do. You can't hide it. You are frightened
out of your wits at the thoughts of a mother
in law, especially a young, gay handsome one.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Pardon me, sir, the thought of a mother in law
was indeed disagreeable, but her being young and gay qualifies it.
I hope, ma'am, you'll give us balls and the most
spirited parties. You can't think how stupid we have been.
My dear father hates those things, but I hope.
Speaker 8 (13:01):
Now, hey, hey, hey, what's the meaning of all this? Why, hussy,
don't you know? You'll have no apartment but the garret.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
That will benefit my complexion, Sir, by mending my health
tis charming to sleep in an elevated situation.
Speaker 8 (13:25):
Here he is an obstinate, perverse, slapped.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Bless me, sir, are you angry that I look forward
to your marriage without murmuring?
Speaker 8 (13:37):
Yes I am, Yes, I am. You ought to murmur,
and you ought to too.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
To dear me, I find love taken up late in
life has a bad effect on the temper. I wish,
my dear Papa, you had felt the influence of Donna
Marcella's charms somewhat sooner.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
You do, you do why this must be all put on?
This can't be real.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Indeed, indeed it is, And I protest your engagement with
this lady has given me more pleasure than I have
tasted ever since you began to tease me about a husband.
You seem determined to have a marriage in the family,
and I hope now I shall live in quiet with
my dear sweet young mother in law.
Speaker 8 (14:34):
Oh oh, walking about? Was there? Ever? She doesn't care
for a mother in law, can't frighten her?
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Sure, my fate is very peculiar that being pleased with
your choice and submitting with humble duty to your will
should be the cause of offense.
Speaker 8 (15:00):
Yes, Hussie, I don't want you to be pleased with
my choice. I don't want you to submit with humble
duty to my will. Where I do want you to submit.
You rebel, you are you are, But I mortify that
(15:23):
wayward spirit.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yet exit non Caesar and Marcella right.
Speaker 7 (15:29):
Well, really, my master is in a piteous passion. He
seems more angry at your liking his marriage and that
you're refusing to be married yourself. Wouldn't it have been better, madam,
to have affected discontent to what purpose?
Speaker 4 (15:44):
But to lay myself open to fresh solicitations in order
to get rid of the evil I pretended to dread.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Bless us.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Nothing can be more easy than for my father to
be gratified if he were but lucky in the choice
of a lover.
Speaker 7 (15:59):
As much to say, Madam, that there is why.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Yes, as much as to say I see you are
resolved to have my secret Manette and.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
So and her servant left.
Speaker 9 (16:11):
There is a gentleman at the door, Madam, called Don
Julio de Melsina. He waits on you from Don Vincencio.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Who Don Julio. It cannot be art thou sure of
his name?
Speaker 9 (16:25):
The servant repeated it twice. He is in a fine
courage and seems to be a nobleman.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Conduct him hither, Exit servant Olivia aside, I am astonished.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
I cannot see him. I would not have him know
the incognita to be Olivia. For worlds. There is but
one way, Manette, ask no questions, but do as I order.
You receive Don Julio in my name, call yourself the
heiress of Don Caesar, and on no account suffer him
to believe that you are anything else.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Excitt right, So.
Speaker 7 (17:04):
Then this is some new lover she's determined to discust,
and fancies that making me pass for her will complete it.
Perhaps her ladyship may be mistaken.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Though looking through the wind upon my.
Speaker 7 (17:20):
Word a sweet man or lad my heart beats at
the very idea of his making love to me. Even
though he takes me for another stay, I think he
shan't find me here. Standing in the middle of a
room gives one's appearance no effect. I'll enter upon him
with an easy swim, or an engaging trip, or a
(17:42):
something that she'll strike. The first glance is everything.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Excerpt right, and heer don Fulio left, preceded by a
servant who retires right.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Not here. The ridiculous dispute between Garcia I Vincent, thank
you gives me irresistible curiosity. Though if she is the character,
Garcia describes, I expect to be cuffed for my impertinence.
Here she comes a pretty smiling girl faith for a
(18:17):
vixen and.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Her Manette write very effectively.
Speaker 7 (18:22):
Sir, your most obedient, humble servant, you are, Don Julio
de Melissina. I am extremely glad to see.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
You, Sir Julio, aside a.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Very courteous reception, you honor me infinitely, Madam, I must
apologize for waiting on you without a better introduction. Don
Vincentio promised to attend me, but a concert called him
to another part of the town at the moment I
prepared to come hither a concert.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Yes, sir, he's very fond of music.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
He is, Madam, you I suppose have a passion for
that charming science.
Speaker 7 (19:07):
Oh yes, I love it mightily, Julio aside.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
This is lucky. I think I have heard Donna Olivia
that your taste that way is peculiar. You are fond
of a aside faith, I can hardly speak it of
a jew's harp.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Smothering a laugh.
Speaker 7 (19:35):
A Jew's harp musty. What do you think a person
of my birth and figure can have such fancies as that? No, Sir,
I love fiddles, French holes, tables, and all the cheerful,
noisy instruments in the world.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Julio aside, Vincentio must have been mad, and I as
mad as he to mention it. And you are fond
of concerts, Madam, dote on them?
Speaker 7 (20:05):
Aside, I wish he'd offer me a ticket.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
Julio aside, Vincentio is clearly wrong. Now to prove how
far the other was right in supposing her a vixen.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
There is a grand public concert Sara, to be tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Pray do you go?
Speaker 5 (20:27):
I believe I shall have that pleasure.
Speaker 7 (20:29):
Madam, my father, don't say sar oh, let me purchase
a ticket. I think it's very hard.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Pardon me. I think it's perfectly right right.
Speaker 7 (20:42):
What to refuse me a trifling expense that would procure
me a great pleasure?
Speaker 5 (20:47):
Yes, doubtless, the ladies are too fond of pleasure. I
think don Cesarre is exemplary.
Speaker 7 (20:56):
No, sir, you think it very hard if you me
to be locked up all your life and know nothing
of the world but what you could catch through the
bars of your balcony.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
Perhaps I might, But as a man, I am convinced
his right daughters and wives should be equally excluded those
destructive haunts of dissipation. Let them keep to their embroidery,
nor ever presume to show their faces, but at their
own firesides. Aside, this will bring out the xantippie.
Speaker 7 (21:32):
Surely well, sir, I don't know to be sure, home,
as you say, is the fittest placeful women. For my part,
I could live forever at home. Aside, I am determined
he shall have his way.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Who knows what may happen, Julio, aside.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
By all the powers of Caprice, Garcia is as wrong
as the other.
Speaker 7 (22:00):
I delight in nothing so much as in sitting by
my father and hearing his tales of old times. And
I fancy when I have a husband, I shall be
more happy to sit and listen to his stories of
present times.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Perhaps your husband, fair lady, might not be inclined so
to amuse you. Men have a thousand delights that called
them abroad, and probably your chief amusements would be counting
the hours of his absence, in giving a tear to
each as it passed.
Speaker 7 (22:36):
Well, he should never see them, however, I would always
smile when he entered, and if he found my eyes red,
i'd say, I had been weeping over the history of
the unfortunate damsel whose true love hung himself at sea
and appeared to her afterwards in a wet jacket.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Aside, Sure this will do.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
I am every moment more astonished. Pray, Madam, permit me
a question? Are you really? Yet? I cannot doubt it?
Are you really? Donna Olivia, the daughter of Don Cesar,
to whom Don Garcia and Don Vicentio had lately the
(23:22):
honor of paying their addresses.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
Am I Donia Olivia?
Speaker 5 (23:29):
What a question?
Speaker 8 (23:31):
Pray?
Speaker 7 (23:32):
Sa? Is this my father's house? Are you? Don Julio?
Speaker 5 (23:37):
I beg your pardon, but to confess I had heard
you described as a lady who had not quite so
much sweetness?
Speaker 7 (23:46):
And oh what you had heard that? I was imagined,
I suppose did all slander? Sir? There is not in Madrid,
though I say it a sweeter temper than my own.
Though I have refused a good many lovers, yet if
one was to offer himself that I could.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
Like you, would take pity and reward his passion. I
would lovely, Donna Olivia? How charming is this? Frankness?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Aside?
Speaker 5 (24:20):
Tis a little odd, though.
Speaker 7 (24:23):
Why I believe I should take pity, for it always
seemed to me to be very heartthearted, to be cruel
to a lover that one likes, because in that case
one should uh you know, sir, The sooner the affair
is over, the better for both parties.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Julio aside, What the deuce.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
Does she mean? Is this Garcia's sour.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Fruit Caesar without Olivia?
Speaker 8 (24:53):
Olivia bless me?
Speaker 7 (24:56):
I hear my father now, Sir, I have a particular
fancy that you should not tell him in this first
visit your.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Design, Adam, my design.
Speaker 7 (25:08):
Yes, that you will not speak out till we have
had a little further conversation, which I'll take care to
give you an opportunity for very soon. He'll be here
in a moment. Now, pray, don juliogu. If he should
meet you and ask who you are, you can say
that you are. You may say that you came on
(25:28):
a visit to my maid, you know.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
Except right, I thank you, madam aside for my dismission.
I never was in such a peril in my life.
I believe she has a license in her pocket, a
priest in her closet in the ceremony
Speaker 1 (25:48):
By heart except end of Act four
Act four of A Bold Stroke for a Husband by
Hannah Cowli. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. Scene one, Donalor's entered Donalora
and Pedro Right.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, Pedro, hast thou seen Don Florio?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Yes, Donna?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
How did he look when he read my letter?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Morotobel? I've never seen him look better? He gat the
new cloak and the fal blockhead.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Did he look pleased? Did he kiss my name? Did
he press the billet to his bosom with all the
warmth of love?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
No, he didn't want me in that way, but he
did another, for he put it in the fire. How, yes,
when I spoke he started for I think he had
forgot I was by, So says he go home and
tell Tonalore. I fly to her presence.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
She waves her hand for him to go.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Is it possible so contemptuously to destroy the letter in
which my whole heart overflowed with tenderness?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
How idly I talk? He is here, his very voice
pierces my heart. I dare not meet his eye, thus discomposed.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Except right and her Victoria left in men's clothes, preceded
by Sancho.
Speaker 5 (01:34):
I will inform my mistress that you are here, Don Florio,
I thought she had been in the apartment, except laughed.
Speaker 6 (01:44):
Now must I, with a mind tone by anxieties, once
more assume the lover of my husband's mistress, of the
woman who has robbed me of his heart and his
children of their fortune. Sure, my task is heart, Oh love,
Oh marry love, assist me if I can, by any
art obtain from her that fatal deed, I shall save
(02:05):
my little ones from ruin. And then but I.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Hear her step agitated, pressing her hand on her bosom.
Speaker 6 (02:14):
There I have hid my grief within my heart. And now,
for all the impudence of an accomplished cavalier.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Sings an air, sets her hat in the glass, dances
a few steps et cetera, then runs to Laura right
and seizes her hand.
Speaker 6 (02:30):
Oh, my lovely Laura.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
That look speaks Laura loved as well as lovely.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
To be sure, Petrarch immortalized his Laura by his verses,
and mine shall be immortal in my passion.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Oh Floria, how deceitful, I know not what enchantment binds
me to thee.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
Me, my dear, is all this to.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Me playing carelessly with the feather in her hat?
Speaker 6 (03:02):
Yes, in great thee positively, Laura, you have these extravagancies
so often I wonn them. My passion can stand them.
To be plain, those violences in your temper may make
a pretty relief in the flat of matrimony, child, but
they do not suit that state of freedom which is
necessary to my happiness. It was by such destructive arts, Estes,
(03:26):
you cured Don Carlos of his love.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Cure Don Carlos, Oh, Florio, wert thou, but as he.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
Is, why you don't pretend he loves you still?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yes, most ardently and truly.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
Hah.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
If thou wouldst persuade me that thy passion is real,
borrow his words his looks, be a hypocrite, one, dear moment,
and speak to me in all the frenzy of that
love which warms the heart of Carlos.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Of Carlos, Laura aside.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Hah, that seemed a jealous pang. It gives my hopes
new life. Yes, Florio, he indeed knows what it is
to love for me. He forsook a beauteous wife nay,
and with me he would forsake his country.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
Villain, Villain nay.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Let not the thought distress you. Thus, Carlos I despise
he is the weakest of mankind.
Speaker 6 (04:33):
Tis false, Madam. You cannot despise him. Carlos, the weakest
of mankind. Heavens, what woman could resist him? Persuasion sits
on his tongue, and love, almighty love triumphant in his eyes.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
This is strange you speak of your rival with the
admiration of a mistress, Laura.
Speaker 6 (04:57):
It is the fate of jealousy as well as love,
to see the charms of its object increased and heightened.
I am jealous, jealous to distraction of Don Carlos, and
cannot taste peace unless you'll swear never to see him more.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I swear, joyfully swear never to behold or speak to
him again. When, dear youth, shall we retire to Portugal.
We are not safe here.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
You know I am not rich. You must first tell
the lance my rival gave.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
You observing her with apprehension.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Tis done. I have found a purchaser, and to morrow
the transfer will be finished.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Victoria, asighed ah, I.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
Have now done nothing to trust to but the ingenuity
of Gaspar. There is reason to fear Don Carlos had
no right in that estate with which you supposed yourself
in doubt.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
No right? What could have given you those suspicions.
Speaker 6 (06:03):
A conversation with Huan, his steward, who assures me his
master never had an estate in.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Lyon, never what not by marriage? Huon says, so my
blood runs cold. Can I have taken pains to deceive myself?
Could I think so? I should be mad?
Speaker 6 (06:24):
These doubts may soon be annihilated or confirmed to certainty.
I have seen Don Sancho, the uncle of Victoria. He
is now in Madrid. You have told me that he
once professed a passion for you.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Oh to access, But at that time I had another object.
Speaker 6 (06:42):
Have you conversed with him much?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I never saw him nearer than from my balcony, where
he used to ogle me through a glass suspended by
a ribbon, like an order of knighthood. He is weak
enough to fancy it gives him an air of distinction.
But where can I find him? I must see him.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
Write him a billet, and I will send it to
his lodgings instantly.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Dear Florio, A new prospect opens to me. Don Sancho
is rich and generous, and by playing on his passions,
his fortune may be a constant fun to us. I'll
dip my penny in flattery.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
Exit right, bays woman, How can I pity thee or
regret the steps which my duty obliges me to take?
For myself, I would not swerve from the nicest line
of rectitude nor wear the shadow of deceit. But for
my children? Is there a parental heart that will not
pardon me?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Exit right? Scene two Don Caesar's and her Olivia and Minette.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Well, here we are in private. What is this charming
intelligence of which thou so full this morning?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Why?
Speaker 7 (08:02):
Mom, As I was in the balcony that overlooks Don
Vasquez's garden, Donia Marcella told me that Doncessa had last
night been to pay her a visit previous to their
marriage and.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Their marriage, how can you give me the intelligence? Was
such a look of joy their marriage? What will become
of me.
Speaker 7 (08:26):
Dear mom, if you'll by have patience? He says that
Doncesa and she are perfectly agreed.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Still with that smirking face, I can't have patience.
Speaker 7 (08:40):
And madam, if you won't let me tell the story.
Please to read it. Here's a letter from Donia Marcella.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Why did you.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Not give it to me at first?
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Read?
Speaker 7 (08:52):
Because I'd delight to be cut out of my story
before ators were obliged to come to the point at
once mercy or what tropes and figures we should lose?
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Oh, manette, I give you leave to that smirk again.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Listen read.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
I am more terrified at the idea of becoming your
father's wife than you are in expectation of a stepmother,
and Don Caesar would be as loath as either of us.
He only means to frighten you into matrimony, and I have,
on certain conditions, agreed to assist him. But whatever you
may hear or see, be assured that nothing is so
(09:33):
impossible as that he should become the husband of Donna Marcella.
Oh delightful girl. How I love her for this?
Speaker 7 (09:41):
Yes, ma'am. And if you'd had patience, I should have
told you that she's now here with Don Csa in
great debate how to begin the attack which must force
you to take shelter in the arms of a husband.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Ah. No matter how they begin it, let them amuse
themselves in raising batteries. My reserved fire shall tumble them
about their ears. In the moment, my poor father is
singing his eyos for victory. But there comes the lovers. Well,
I protest now, sixteen and sixty is a very comely sight.
(10:19):
Tis contrast gives effect to everything blood. How my father
oguls I had no idea he was such a sort
of man. I am really afraid he isn't quite so
good as he used to be.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Enter, Don Caesar leading Marcella, Don Caesar apart, Umm.
Speaker 8 (10:40):
Madam looks very placid. We shall discompose her? Or I
am mistaken? So Olivia. Here's Dona Marcella come to visit you.
Though as matters are, that respect is due from you.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
I am sensible of the condescension, my dear ma'am, how
very good this is?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Taking her hand Caesar aside.
Speaker 8 (11:13):
Yes, you'll think yourself wonderfully obliged when you know all pray,
Don Marcella, Or do you think of these apartments? The
furniture and decorations are my daughter's taste. Would you wish
them to remain? Or will you give orders to have
(11:36):
them changed?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Changed?
Speaker 6 (11:39):
Undoubtedly I can have nobody's taste.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Govern my apartments but my own. Don Caesar apart.
Speaker 8 (11:47):
Ah that touches see how she looks, they shall receive
your orders. You understand I suppose from this that everything
is fixed on between Donna Marcella and me.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Yes, sir, I understand it perfectly, and it gives me
infinite pleasure.
Speaker 8 (12:14):
Nay, pleasure entirely, sir, tall uroll ah that won't do
that won't do. You can't hide it. You are frightened
out of your wits at the thoughts of a mother
in law, especially a young, gay handsome one.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Pardon me, sir, the thought of a mother in law
was indeed disagreeable, but her being young and gay qualifies it.
I hope, ma'am, you'll give us balls and the most
spirited parties. You can't think how stupid we have been.
My dear father hates those things, but I hope.
Speaker 8 (13:01):
Now, hey, hey, hey, what's the meaning of all this? Why, hussy,
don't you know? You'll have no apartment but the garret.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
That will benefit my complexion, Sir, by mending my health
tis charming to sleep in an elevated situation.
Speaker 8 (13:25):
Here he is an obstinate, perverse, slapped.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Bless me, sir, are you angry that I look forward
to your marriage without murmuring?
Speaker 8 (13:37):
Yes I am, Yes, I am. You ought to murmur,
and you ought to too.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
To dear me, I find love taken up late in
life has a bad effect on the temper. I wish,
my dear Papa, you had felt the influence of Donna
Marcella's charms somewhat sooner.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
You do, you do why this must be all put on?
This can't be real.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Indeed, indeed it is, And I protest your engagement with
this lady has given me more pleasure than I have
tasted ever since you began to tease me about a husband.
You seem determined to have a marriage in the family,
and I hope now I shall live in quiet with
my dear sweet young mother in law.
Speaker 8 (14:34):
Oh oh, walking about? Was there? Ever? She doesn't care
for a mother in law, can't frighten her?
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Sure, my fate is very peculiar that being pleased with
your choice and submitting with humble duty to your will
should be the cause of offense.
Speaker 8 (15:00):
Yes, Hussie, I don't want you to be pleased with
my choice. I don't want you to submit with humble
duty to my will. Where I do want you to submit.
You rebel, you are you are, But I mortify that
(15:23):
wayward spirit.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yet exit non Caesar and Marcella right.
Speaker 7 (15:29):
Well, really, my master is in a piteous passion. He
seems more angry at your liking his marriage and that
you're refusing to be married yourself. Wouldn't it have been better, madam,
to have affected discontent to what purpose?
Speaker 4 (15:44):
But to lay myself open to fresh solicitations in order
to get rid of the evil I pretended to dread.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Bless us.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Nothing can be more easy than for my father to
be gratified if he were but lucky in the choice
of a lover.
Speaker 7 (15:59):
As much to say, Madam, that there is why.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Yes, as much as to say I see you are
resolved to have my secret Manette and.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
So and her servant left.
Speaker 9 (16:11):
There is a gentleman at the door, Madam, called Don
Julio de Melsina. He waits on you from Don Vincencio.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Who Don Julio. It cannot be art thou sure of
his name?
Speaker 9 (16:25):
The servant repeated it twice. He is in a fine
courage and seems to be a nobleman.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Conduct him hither, Exit servant Olivia aside, I am astonished.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
I cannot see him. I would not have him know
the incognita to be Olivia. For worlds. There is but
one way, Manette, ask no questions, but do as I order.
You receive Don Julio in my name, call yourself the
heiress of Don Caesar, and on no account suffer him
to believe that you are anything else.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Excitt right, So.
Speaker 7 (17:04):
Then this is some new lover she's determined to discust,
and fancies that making me pass for her will complete it.
Perhaps her ladyship may be mistaken.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Though looking through the wind upon my.
Speaker 7 (17:20):
Word a sweet man or lad my heart beats at
the very idea of his making love to me. Even
though he takes me for another stay, I think he
shan't find me here. Standing in the middle of a
room gives one's appearance no effect. I'll enter upon him
with an easy swim, or an engaging trip, or a
(17:42):
something that she'll strike. The first glance is everything.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Excerpt right, and heer don Fulio left, preceded by a
servant who retires right.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Not here. The ridiculous dispute between Garcia I Vincent, thank
you gives me irresistible curiosity. Though if she is the character,
Garcia describes, I expect to be cuffed for my impertinence.
Here she comes a pretty smiling girl faith for a
(18:17):
vixen and.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Her Manette write very effectively.
Speaker 7 (18:22):
Sir, your most obedient, humble servant, you are, Don Julio
de Melissina. I am extremely glad to see.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
You, Sir Julio, aside a.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Very courteous reception, you honor me infinitely, Madam, I must
apologize for waiting on you without a better introduction. Don
Vincentio promised to attend me, but a concert called him
to another part of the town at the moment I
prepared to come hither a concert.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
Yes, sir, he's very fond of music.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
He is, Madam, you I suppose have a passion for
that charming science.
Speaker 7 (19:07):
Oh yes, I love it mightily, Julio aside.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
This is lucky. I think I have heard Donna Olivia
that your taste that way is peculiar. You are fond
of a aside faith, I can hardly speak it of
a jew's harp.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Smothering a laugh.
Speaker 7 (19:35):
A Jew's harp musty. What do you think a person
of my birth and figure can have such fancies as that? No, Sir,
I love fiddles, French holes, tables, and all the cheerful,
noisy instruments in the world.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Julio aside, Vincentio must have been mad, and I as
mad as he to mention it. And you are fond
of concerts, Madam, dote on them?
Speaker 7 (20:05):
Aside, I wish he'd offer me a ticket.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
Julio aside, Vincentio is clearly wrong. Now to prove how
far the other was right in supposing her a vixen.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
There is a grand public concert Sara, to be tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Pray do you go?
Speaker 5 (20:27):
I believe I shall have that pleasure.
Speaker 7 (20:29):
Madam, my father, don't say sar oh, let me purchase
a ticket. I think it's very hard.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Pardon me. I think it's perfectly right right.
Speaker 7 (20:42):
What to refuse me a trifling expense that would procure
me a great pleasure?
Speaker 5 (20:47):
Yes, doubtless, the ladies are too fond of pleasure. I
think don Cesarre is exemplary.
Speaker 7 (20:56):
No, sir, you think it very hard if you me
to be locked up all your life and know nothing
of the world but what you could catch through the
bars of your balcony.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
Perhaps I might, But as a man, I am convinced
his right daughters and wives should be equally excluded those
destructive haunts of dissipation. Let them keep to their embroidery,
nor ever presume to show their faces, but at their
own firesides. Aside, this will bring out the xantippie.
Speaker 7 (21:32):
Surely well, sir, I don't know to be sure, home,
as you say, is the fittest placeful women. For my part,
I could live forever at home. Aside, I am determined
he shall have his way.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Who knows what may happen, Julio, aside.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
By all the powers of Caprice, Garcia is as wrong
as the other.
Speaker 7 (22:00):
I delight in nothing so much as in sitting by
my father and hearing his tales of old times. And
I fancy when I have a husband, I shall be
more happy to sit and listen to his stories of
present times.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Perhaps your husband, fair lady, might not be inclined so
to amuse you. Men have a thousand delights that called
them abroad, and probably your chief amusements would be counting
the hours of his absence, in giving a tear to
each as it passed.
Speaker 7 (22:36):
Well, he should never see them, however, I would always
smile when he entered, and if he found my eyes red,
i'd say, I had been weeping over the history of
the unfortunate damsel whose true love hung himself at sea
and appeared to her afterwards in a wet jacket.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Aside, Sure this will do.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
I am every moment more astonished. Pray, Madam, permit me
a question? Are you really? Yet? I cannot doubt it?
Are you really? Donna Olivia, the daughter of Don Cesar,
to whom Don Garcia and Don Vicentio had lately the
(23:22):
honor of paying their addresses.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
Am I Donia Olivia?
Speaker 5 (23:29):
What a question?
Speaker 8 (23:31):
Pray?
Speaker 7 (23:32):
Sa? Is this my father's house? Are you? Don Julio?
Speaker 5 (23:37):
I beg your pardon, but to confess I had heard
you described as a lady who had not quite so
much sweetness?
Speaker 7 (23:46):
And oh what you had heard that? I was imagined,
I suppose did all slander? Sir? There is not in Madrid,
though I say it a sweeter temper than my own.
Though I have refused a good many lovers, yet if
one was to offer himself that I could.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
Like you, would take pity and reward his passion. I
would lovely, Donna Olivia? How charming is this? Frankness?
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Aside?
Speaker 5 (24:20):
Tis a little odd, though.
Speaker 7 (24:23):
Why I believe I should take pity, for it always
seemed to me to be very heartthearted, to be cruel
to a lover that one likes, because in that case
one should uh you know, sir, The sooner the affair
is over, the better for both parties.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Julio aside, What the deuce.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
Does she mean? Is this Garcia's sour.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Fruit Caesar without Olivia?
Speaker 8 (24:53):
Olivia bless me?
Speaker 7 (24:56):
I hear my father now, Sir, I have a particular
fancy that you should not tell him in this first
visit your.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
Design, Adam, my design.
Speaker 7 (25:08):
Yes, that you will not speak out till we have
had a little further conversation, which I'll take care to
give you an opportunity for very soon. He'll be here
in a moment. Now, pray, don juliogu. If he should
meet you and ask who you are, you can say
that you are. You may say that you came on
(25:28):
a visit to my maid, you know.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
Except right, I thank you, madam aside for my dismission.
I never was in such a peril in my life.
I believe she has a license in her pocket, a
priest in her closet in the ceremony
Speaker 1 (25:48):
By heart except end of Act four
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