Untitled - OUDL Home

414 WILLIAM CONGREVE [ACT III
Zara. [ Aside.] Damned, damned dissembler! yet I will be
calm,
Choke in my rage, and know the utmost depth
Of this deceiver.—You seem much surprised.
Dsm. At your return so soon and unexpected!
Zara. And so unwished, unwanted too it seems.
Confusion! yet I will contain myself.
You're grown a favourite since last we parted;
Perhaps I'm saucy and intruding—
Osm. Madam!
Zara. I did not know the princess' favourite;
Your pardon, sir—mistake me not; you think
I'm angry; you're deceived. I came to set
You free: but shall return much better pleased,
To find you have an interest superior.
Osm. You do not come to mock my miseries?
Zara. I do.
Osm. I could at this time spare your mirth.
Zara. I know thou couldst: but I'm not often pleased,
And will indulge it now. What miseries?
Who would not be thus happily confined,
To be the care of weeping majesty?
To have contending queens, at dead of night,
Forsake their down, to wake with wat'ry eyes,
And watch like tapers o'er your hours of rest?
O curse! I cannot hold—
Osm. Come, 'tis too much.
Zara. Villain!
Osm. How, madam!
Zara. Thou shalt die.
Osm. I thank you.
Zara. Thou liest! for now I know for whom thou'dst live,
Osm. Then you may know for whom I'd die.
Zara. Hell! hell I—
Yet I'll be calm—Dark and unknown betrayer!
But now the dawn begins, and th,e slow hand
Of Fate is stretched to draw the veil, and leave
Thee bare, the naked mark of public view.
Osm. You may be still deceived, 'tis in my power—
Zara. Who waits there? [To the Guard.] As you'll answer
it, look this slave
Attempt no means to make himself away.