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Chapters (43)
  1. Cover Page
  2. The Witch
  3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  4. ABBREVIATIONS
  5. INTRODUCTION
  6. FURTHER READING
  7. The Witch
  8. [DRAMATIS PERSONAE]
  9. THE WITCH
  10. [Act I,] Scene ii
  11. Act II, Scene i
  12. [Act II,] Scene ii
  13. [Act II,] Scene iii
  14. Act III, Scene i
  15. [Act III,] Scene ii
  16. [Act III,] Scene iii
  17. Act IV, Scene i
  18. [Act IV,] Scene ii
  19. [Act IV,] Scene iii
  20. Act V, Scene i
  21. [Act V,] Scene ii
  22. [Act V,] Scene iii
  23. APPENDIX
  24. In a maiden time profess’d
  25. Come Away, Hecate!
  26. Notes
  27. Thomas Holmes, Esquire
  28. Act I, Scene i
  29. [Act I,] Scene ii
  30. Act II, Scene i
  31. [Act II,] Scene ii
  32. [Act II,] Scene iii
  33. Act III, Scene i
  34. [Act III,] Scene ii
  35. [Act III,] Scene iii
  36. Act IV, Scene i
  37. [Act IV,] Scene ii
  38. Act IV Scene iii
  39. Act V, Scene i
  40. [Act V,] Scene ii
  41. [Act V,] Scene iii
  42. Appendix
  43. Footnotes
HERMIO      Oh my lord!
GOVERNOR
What news breaks there?
HERMIO      Of strange destruction;
Here stands the lady that within this hour
Was made a widow.
GOVERNOR      How!
HERMIO      Your niece my lord.
A fearful, unexpected accident 25
Brought death to meet his fury; for my lord,
Entering Fernando’s house like a raised tempest,
Which nothing heeds but its own, violent rage,
Blinded with wrath and jealousy, which scorn guides,
From a false trap-door fell into a depth 30
Exceeds a temple’s height, which takes into it
Part of the dungeon that falls threescore fathom
Under the castle.
GOVERNOR      Oh you seed of lust,
Wrongs and revenges wrongful, with what terrors
You do present yourselves to wretched man 35
When his soul least expects you!
ISABELLA      I forgive him
All his wrongs now and sign it with my pity.
FLORIDA
Oh my sweet servant!      [Faints]
GOVERNOR      Look to yond light mistress.
GASPERO
She’s in a swoon my lord.
GOVERNOR      Convey her hence.
It is a sight would grieve a modest eye, 40
To see a strumpet’s soul sink into passion
For him that was the husband of another.
[SERVANTS help FLORIDA off]
[To SEBASTIAN] Yet all this clears not you.
SEBASTIAN      Thanks to heaven
That I am now of age to clear myself then.

[Removes his disguise]

GOVERNOR
Sebastian!
SEBASTIAN      The same, much wronged, sir.
ISABELLA      Am I Certain 45
Of what mine eye takes joy to look upon?
SEBASTIAN
Your service cannot alter me from knowledge;
I am your servant ever.
GOVERNOR      Welcome to life sir.
Gasper thou swor’st his death.
GASPERO      I did indeed my lord,
And have been since well paid for’t. One forsworn mouth 50
Hath got me two or three more here.
SEBASTIAN      I was dead, sir,
Both to my joys and all men’s understanding,
Till this my hour of life; for ’twas my fortune
To make the first of my return to Ravenna
A witness to that marriage – since which time 55
I have walked beneath myself and all my comforts,
Like one on earth whose joys are laid above –
And though it had been offence small in me
To enjoy mine own, I left her pure and free.
GOVERNOR
The greater and more sacred is thy blessing; 60
For where heaven’s bounty holy groundwork finds,
’Tis like a sea, encompassing chaste minds.

Enter DUCHESS