--[_Noise_.] So! what bustle
is here--between my father and the Duenna too, I'll e'en get out of
the way. [_Exit_.]
_Re-enter_ DON JEROME _with a letter, pulling in_ DUENNA.
_Don Jer_. I'm astonished! I'm thunderstruck! here's treachery with a
vengeance! You, Antonio's creature, and chief manager of this plot for
my daughter's eloping!--you, that I placed here as a scarecrow?
_Duen_. What?
_Don Jer_. A scarecrow--to prove a decoy-duck! What have you to say
for yourself?
_Duen_. Well, sir, since you have forced that letter from me, and
discovered my real sentiments, I scorn to renounce them.--I am
Antonio's friend, and it was my intention that your daughter should
have served you as all such old tyrannical sots should be served--I
delight in the tender passions and would befriend all under their
influence.
_Don Jer_. The tender passions! yes, they would become those
impenetrable features! Why, thou deceitful hag! I placed thee as a
guard to the rich blossoms of my daughter's beauty. I thought that
dragon's front of thine would cry aloof to the sons of gallantry:
steel traps and spring guns seemed writ in every wrinkle of it.--But
you shall quit my house this instant. The tender passions, indeed! go,
thou wanton sibyl, thou amorous woman of Endor, go!
_Duen_.
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