_Livia._ No, madam; rather, one I think that neither need have cause to fear,— Cipriano.
_Just._ Cipriano! The great scholar, Who did my father service, as I think, And now may mean another; and God knows How much, or quickly, needed!
_Just._ What shall I do! Will not to-morrow—
_Cipriano_ (_entering_). Oh, lady, You scarce can wonder more than I myself At such a visit, and at such an hour, Only let what I come to say excuse The coming, and so much unmannerly.
_Just._ My father is withdrawn, sir, for the night, Never more wanting rest; I dare not rouse him, And least of all with any troubled news. Will not to-morrow—
_Cipr._ What I have to say Best told to-night, at once; and not the less Since you alone, whom chiefly it concerns, Are here to listen.
_Just._ I!—Well, sir, relying On your grave reputation as a scholar, And on your foregone favour to my father, If I should dare to listen—
_Cipr._ Oh, lady—oh, Justina— (Thus stammers the ambassador of love In presence of its sovereign)— You must—cannot but—know how many eyes Those eyes have wounded—
_Cipr._ Nay, but hear. I do not come for idle compliment, Nor on my own behalf; but in a cause On which hang life and death as well as love. Two of the noblest youths in Antioch, Lelio and Floro—Nay, but hear me out: Mine, and till now almost from birth each other’s Inseparable friends, now deadly foes For love of you—
_Cipr._ I have but now Parted their swords in mortal quarrel cross’d.
_Cipr._ I think, for several sakes— Their own, their fathers’, even Antioch’s, That would not lose one of so choice a pair; And, I am sure you think so, lady, yours, So less than covetous of public talk, And least of all at such a fearful cost.
_Cipr._ Yet little due For what so lightly done, and it may be So insufficiently; this feud not stopt— Suspended only, on a single word— Which now at this unseasonable hour I stand awaiting from the only lips That can allay the quarrel they have raised.
_Just._ Alas, why force an answer from my lips So long implied in silent disregard?
_Cipr._ Yet, without which, like two fierce dogs, but more Exasperated by the holding back, They will look for it in each other’s blood.
_Just._ And think, poor men, to find their answer there! Oh, sir, you are the friend, the friend of both, A famous scholar; with authority And eloquence to press your friendship home. Surely in words such as you have at will You can persuade them, for all sakes—and yet No matter mine perhaps—but, as you say, Their fathers’, Antioch’s, their own—