THE SPANISH GYPSY

A monologue from the play by Thomas Middleton


  • NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from The Spanish Gypsy. Thomas Middleton. London: London: Richard Marriot, 1653.
  • CLARA: You urge me to a sin
    As cruel as your lust; I dare not grant it.
    Think on the violence of my defame;
    And if you mean to write upon my grave
    An epitaph of peace, forbear to question
    Or whence or who I am. I know the heat
    Of your desires is, after the performance
    Of such a hellish act, by this time drown'd
    In cooler streams of penance; and for my part,
    I have wash'd off the leprosy that cleaves
    To my just shame in true and honest tears;
    I must not leave a mention of my wrongs,
    The stain of my unspotted birth, to memory;
    Let it lie buried with me in the dust;
    That never time hereafter may report
    How such a one as you have made me live.
    Be resolute, and do not stagger; do not,
    For I am nothing.

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