Almah. It was your fault that fire seized all your breast;
You should have blown up some to save the rest: 
But ’tis, at worst, but so consumed by fire,
As cities are, that by their fall rise higher. 
Build love a nobler temple in my place;
You’ll find the fire has but enlarged your space.

Almanz. Love has undone me; I am grown so poor,
I sadly view the ground I had before,
But want a stock, and ne’er can build it more.

Almah. Then say what charity I can allow;
I would contribute if I knew but how. 
Take friendship; or, if that too small appear,
Take love,—­which sisters may to brothers bear.

Almanz. A sister’s love! that is so palled a thing,
What pleasure can it to a lover bring? 
’Tis like thin food to men in fevers spent;
Just keeps alive, but gives no nourishment. 
What hopes, what fears, what transports can it move? 
’Tis but the ghost of a departed love.

Almah. You, like some greedy cormorant, devour
All my whole life can give you in an hour. 
What more I can do for you is to die,
And that must follow, if you this deny. 
Since I gave up my love, that you might live,
You, in refusing life, my sentence give.

Almanz. Far from my breast be such an impious thought! 
Your death would lose the quiet mine had sought. 
I’ll live for you, in spite of misery;
But you shall grant that I had rather die. 
I’ll be so wretched, filled with such despair,
That you shall see, to live was more to dare.

Almah. Adieu, then, O my soul’s far better part! 
Your image sticks so close,
That the blood follows from my rending heart. 
A last farewell! 
For, since a last must come, the rest are vain,
Like gasps in death, which but prolong our pain. 
But, since the king is now a part of me,
Cease from henceforth to be his enemy. 
Go now, for pity go! for, if you stay,
I fear I shall have something still to say. 
Thus—­I for ever shut you from my sight. [Veils.

Almanz. Like one thrust out in a cold winters night,
Yet shivering underneath your gate I stay;
One look—­I cannot go before ’tis day.—­
                                        [She beckons him to be gone.
Not one—­Farewell:  Whate’er my sufferings be
Within, I’ll speak farewell as loud as she: 
I will not be out-done in constancy.—­ [She turns her back.
Then like a dying conqueror I go;
At least I have looked last upon my foe. 
I go—­but, if too heavily I move,
I walk encumbered with a weight of love. 
Fain I would leave the thought of you behind,
But still, the more I cast you from my mind,
You dash, like water, back, when thrown against the wind. [Exit.

  As he goes off, the KING meets him with ABENAMAR; they stare at
  each other without saluting.