Part 2 / Act 2 — SCENE III.

The Cardinal’s closet.

Enter Cardinal.

Car. Let me think upon’t;

Set holy anger by awhile. There’s time

Allow’d for natural argument: ’tis she

That loves my nephew; she that loves, loves first;

What cause have I to lay a blame on him then?

He’s in no fault in this: say ’twas his fortune,

At the free entertainment of the general,

'Mongst others the deserts and hopes of Milan,

To come into her sight, where’s the offence yet?

581What sin was that in him? Man’s sight and presence

Are free to public view: she might as well

Have fix’d her heart’s love then upon some other;

I would’t had lighted any where but there!

Yet I may err to wish’t, since it appears

The hand of heaven, that only pick’d him out

To reward virtue in him by this fortune;

And through affection I’m half conquer’d now;

I love his good as dearly as her vow,

Yet there my credit lives in works and praises:

I never found a harder fight within me,

Since zeal first taught me war; say I should labour

To quench this love, and so quench life and all,

As by all likelihood it would prove her death,

For it must needs be granted she affects him

As dearly as the power of love can force,

Since her vow awes her not, that was her saint;

What right could that be to religion,

To be her end, and dispossess my kinsman?

No, I will bear in pity to her heart,

The rest commend to fortune and my art. [Exit.