perhaps, the extremes unite;
But there's a mist of fate before my sight.

_Ozm._ The two extremes too distant are, to close;
And human wit can no mid way propose.
My duty therefore shows the nearest way
To free your father, and my own obey.

_Benz._ Your father, whom, since yours, I grieve to blame,
Has lost, or quite forgot, a parent's name;
And, when at once possessed of him and you,
Instead of freeing one, will murder two.

_Ozm._ Fear not my life; but suffer me to go:
What cannot only sons with parents do!
'Tis not my death my father does pursue;
He only would withdraw my love from you.

_Benz._ Now, Ozmyn, now your want of love I see;
For would you go, and hazard losing me?

_Ozm._ I rather would ten thousand lives forsake;
Nor can you e'er believe the doubt you make.
This night I with a chosen band will go,
And, by surprise, will free him from the foe.

_Benz._ What foe! ah whither would your virtue fall!
It is your father whom the foe you call.
Darkness and rage will no distinction make,
And yours may perish for my father's sake.

_Ozm._ Thus, when my weaker virtue goes astray.
Yours pulls it back, and guides me in the way:
I'll send him word, my being shall depend
On Selin's life, and with his death shall end.

_Benz._ 'Tis that, indeed, would glut your father's rage:
Revenge on Ozmyn's youth, and Selin's age.

_Ozm._ Whate'er I plot, like Sysiphus, in vain
I heave a stone, that tumbles down again.

_Benz._ This glorious work is then reserved for me:
He is my father, and I'll set him free.
These chains my father for my sake does wear:
I made the fault; and I the pains will bear.

_Ozm._ Yes; you no doubt have merited these pains;
Those hands, those tender limbs, were made for chains!
Did I not love you, yet it were too base
To let a lady suffer in my place.
Those proofs of virtue you before did show,
I did admire; but I must envy now.
Your vast ambition leaves no fame for me,
But grasps at universal monarchy.

_Benz._ Yes, Ozmyn, I shall still this palm pursue;
I will not yield my glory even to you.
I'll break those bonds in which my father's tied,
Or, if I cannot break them, I'll divide.
What, though my limbs a woman's weakness show,
I have a soul as masculine as you;
And when these limbs want strength my chains to wear,
My mind shall teach my body how to bear. [_Exit_ BENZ.

_Ozm._ What I resolve, I must not let her know;
But honour has decreed she must not go.
Wha