ntent.
I love not a sophisticated truth,
With an allay of lie in't.

_Fred._ [_Kneeling._]
This is not, sir, the posture of a rebel,
But of a suppliant; if the name of son
Be too much honour to me.
What first I purpos'd, I scarce know myself.
Love, anger, and revenge, then rolled within me,
And yet, even then, I was not hurried farther
Than to preserve my own.

_Duke._ Your own! What mean you?

_Fred._ My love, and my Lucretia, which I thought,
In my then boiling passion, you pursued
With some injustice, and much violence;
This led me to repel that force by force.
'Twas easy to surprise you, when I knew
Of your intended visit.

_Duke._ Thank my folly.

_Fred._ But reason now has reassumed its place,
And makes me see how black a crime it is
To use a force upon my prince and father.

_Duke._ You give me hope you will resign Lucretia.

_Fred._ Ah no; I never can resign her to you:
But, sir, I can my life; which, on my knees,
I tender, as the atoning sacrifice:
Or if your hand (because you are a father)
Be loth to take away that life you gave,
I will redeem your crime, by making it
My own: So you shall still be innocent, and I
Die blessed, and unindebted for my being.

_Duke._ O Frederick, you are too much a son, [_Embracing him._
And I too little am a father: you,
And you alone, have merited Lucretia;
'Tis now my only grief,
I can do nothing to requite this virtue:
For to restore her to you,
Is not an act of generosity,
But a scant, niggard justice; yet I love her
So much, that even this little, which I do,
Is like the bounty of an usurer;
High to be priz'd from me,
Because 'tis drawn from such a wretched mind.

_Fred._ You give me now a second, better life; [_Kissing his hand._
But,--that the gift may be more easy to you,--
Consider, sir, Lucretia did not love you,--
I fear to say, ne'er would.

_Duke._ You do well to help me to o'ercome that difficulty:
I'll weigh that, too, hereafter. For a love,
So violent as mine, will ask long time,
And much of reason, to effect the cure.
My present care shall be to make you happy;
For that will make my wish impossible,
And then the remedies will be more easy.

_Enter_ SOPHRONIA, LUCRETIA, VIOLETTA, LAURA, HIPPOLITA.

_Soph._ I have, with joy, o'erheard this happy change,
And come with blessings to applaud your conquest
Over the greatest of mankind, yourself.

_Duke._ I hope 'twill be a full and lasting one.

_Luc._ Thus, let me kneel,