Scene III.

Love for Love

by William Congreve

SCANDAL, ANGELICA, JENNY.

ANGELICA
Ha! I saw him wink and smile. I fancy 'tis a
trick--I'll try.--I would disguise to all the world a failing which I
must own to you: I fear my happiness depends upon the recovery of
Valentine. Therefore I conjure you, as you are his friend, and as you
have compassion upon one fearful of affliction, to tell me what I am
to hope for--I cannot speak--but you may tell me, tell me, for you
know what I would ask?

SCANDAL
So, this is pretty plain. Be not too much
concerned, madam; I hope his condition is not desperate. An
acknowledgment of love from you, perhaps, may work a cure, as the
fear of your aversion occasioned his distemper.

ANGELICA
[Aside.] Say you so; nay, then, I'm convinced.
And if I don't play trick for trick, may I never taste the pleasure
of revenge.--Acknowledgment of love! I find you have mistaken my
compassion, and think me guilty of a weakness I am a stranger to. But
I have too much sincerity to deceive you, and too much charity to
suffer him to be deluded with vain hopes. Good nature and humanity
oblige me to be concerned for him; but to love is neither in my power
nor inclination, and if he can't be cured without I suck the poison
from his wounds, I'm afraid he won't recover his senses till I lose
mine.

SCANDAL
Hey, brave woman, i'faith--won't you see him, then,
if he desire it?

ANGELICA
What signify a madman's desires? Besides, 'twould
make me uneasy: --if I don't see him, perhaps my concern for him may
lessen. If I forget him, 'tis no more than he has done by himself;
and now the surprise is over, methinks I am not half so sorry as I
was.

SCANDAL
So, faith, good nature works apace; you were
confessing just now an obligation to his love.

ANGELICA
But I have considered that passions are
unreasonable and involuntary; if he loves, he can't help it; and if I
don't love, I can't help it; no more than he can help his being a
man, or I my being a woman: or no more than I can help my want of
inclination to stay longer here. Come, Jenny.