thos is great, and
the quarrel or threatened quarrel of the friends Amintor and Melantius, the
horrible trial put upon Amintor by his sovereign and the abandoned Evadne,
as well as the whole part of Evadne herself when she has once been (rather
improbably) converted, are excellent. A passage of some length from the
latter part of the play may supply as well as another the sufficient
requirement of an illustrative extract:--

_Evad._ "O my lord!

_Amin._ How now?

_Evad._ My much abused Lord! (_Kneels._)

_Amin._ This cannot be.

_Evad._ I do not kneel to live, I dare not hope it;
The wrongs I did are greater: look upon me
Though I appear with all my faults.

_Amin._ Stand up.
This is a new way to beget more sorrow.
Heav'n knows, I have too many; do not mock me;
Though I am tame and bred up with my wrongs
Which are my foster-brothers, I may leap
Like a hand-wolf into my natural wildness
And do an outrage: pray thee, do not mock me.

_Evad._ My whole life is so leprous, it infects
All my repentance: I would buy your pardon
Though at the highest set, even with my life:
That slight contrition, that's no sacrifice
For what I have committed.

_Amin._ Sure I dazzle.
There cannot be a Faith in that foul woman
That knows no God more mighty than her mischiefs:
Thou dost still worse, still number on thy faults
To press my poor heart thus. Can I believe
There's any seed of virtue in that woman
Left to shoot up, that dares go on in sin
Known, and so known as thine is? O Evadne!
'Would, there were any safety in thy sex,
That I might put a thousand sorrows off,
And credit thy repentance! But I must not;
Thou'st brought me to that dull calamity,
To that strange misbelief of all the world
And all things that are in it; that, I fear
I shall fall like a tree, and find my grave,
Only remembering that I grieve.

_Evad._ My lord,
Give me your griefs: you are an innocent,
A soul as white as Heav'n. Let not my sins
Perish your noble youth: I do not fall here
To shadows by dissembling with my tears
(As, all say, w