He must be willing, if necessary, not only to sacrifice his health
and life in her behalf, indeed, any true knight would do that: he
must be willing to sacrifice his good name, be false to his religion
and a traitor to his country. What do I care whether he be a coward,
a craven, a scoundrel, a hissing and a byword, so long as he loves
me most of all?
This is a difficult position for the Abbe, the man of God: but he
does not flinch. His decision is that the third lover is the one of
whom Almighty God would approve.
One thing is certain: the third man really loved his Lady. We do not
know whether the other two loved or not. When a man talks a great
deal about his honor, his self-respect, it is just possible that he
loves himself more than he loves any one else. But the man who would
go through hell to win a woman really loves that woman. Browning
abhors selfishness. He detests a man who is kept from a certain
course of action by thoughts of its possible results to his
reputation.
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