A Escrava Isaura 10.81 · 10.81

Álvaro's 'ar triumphante', his triumphant air, is that of a man vindicated, eager to make his friends eat their suspicions. He calls their doubts 'injustas e injuriosas', unjust and injurious, and defends Isaura as 'o ente o mais bello e mais puro, que existe debaixo do sol' — the most beautiful and pure being under the sun. His indignation on her behalf is generous and, again, exactly right: the suspicions were unjust, she is pure. But his method of refuting them is to display her, to bring the very woman into the room and let her beauty answer for her. He would clear her name by showing her face — and it is her face, and one mark upon it, that constitutes the whole danger. The lover defends his beloved's honour by the one means that most imperils her safety, and does so glowing with the certainty that he is doing her a service.

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