Almanz.  What recompence attends me, if I stay?

Almah.  You know I am from recompence debarred, But I will grant your merit a reward; Your flame’s too noble to deserve a cheat, And I too plain to practise a deceit.  I no return of love can ever make, But what I ask is for my husband’s sake; He, I confess, has been ungrateful too, But he and I are ruined if you go; Your virtue to the hardest proof I bring; Unbribed, preserve a mistress and a king.

Almanz.  I’ll stop at nothing that appears so brave:  I’ll do’t, and now I no reward will have.  You’ve given my honour such an ample field, That I may die, but that shall never yield.

The king, however, not perhaps understanding this nice point of honour, grows jealous, and wishes to dismiss the disinterested ally, whom his spouse’s beauty had enlisted in his service.  But this did not depend upon him; for Almanzor exclaims,

Almanz.  I wonnot go; I’ll not be forced away:  I came not for thy sake; nor do I stay.  It was the queen who for my aid did send; And ’tis I only can the queen defend:  I, for her sake, thy sceptre will maintain; And thou, by me, in spite of thee, shalt reign.

The most applauded scenes in these plays turned upon nice discussions of metaphysical passion, such as in the days of yore were wont to be agitated in the courts and parliaments of love.  Some puzzling dilemma, or metaphysical abstraction, is argued between the personages on the stage, whose dialogue, instead of presenting a scene of natural passion, exhibits a sort of pleading or combat of logic, in which each endeavours to defend his own opinion by catching up the idea expressed by the former speaker, and returning him his illustration, or simile, at the rebound; and where the lover hopes everything from his ingenuity, and trusts nothing to his passion.  Thus, in the following scene between Almanzor and Almahide, the solicitations of the lover, and the denials of the queen, are expressed in the very carte and tierce of poetical argumentation: 

  Almah.  My light will sure discover those who talk.—­
  Who dares to interrupt my private walk?

  Almanz.  He, who dares love, and for that love must die. 
  And, knowing this, dares yet love on, am I.

Almah.  That love which you can hope, and I can pay, May be received and given in open day; My praise and my esteem you had before; And you have bound yourself to ask no more.

  Almanz.  Yes, I have bound myself; but will you take
  The forfeit of that bond, which force did make?

  Almah.  You know you are from recompence debarred;
  But purest love can live without reward.

  Almanz.  Pure love had need be to itself a feast;
  For, like pure elements, ’twill nourish least.