It chanc’d I pass’d again that way
In Autumn’s latest hour,
And wond’ring saw the selfsame spray 35
Rich with the selfsame flower.
Ah fond deceit! the rude green bud
Alike in shape, place, name,
Had bloom’d where bloom’d its parent stud,
Another and the same! 40
Plays:
OSORIO
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
[Not in MSS.]
Osorio, 1797. Remorse.
VELEZ MARQUIS VALDEZ, Father to the two brothers, and
Doña Teresa’s Guardian.
ALBERT DON ALVAR, the eldest son.
OSORIO DON ORDONIO, the youngest son.
FRANCESCO MONVIEDRO, a Dominican and Inquisitor.
MAURICE ZULIMEZ, the faithful attendant on Alvar.
FERDINAND ISIDORE, a Moresco Chieftain, ostensibly a
Christian.
NAOMI NAOMI.
MARIA DOÑA TERESA, an Orphan Heiress.
ALHADRA, wife
of FERDINAND ALHADRA, Wife of Isidore.
FAMILIARS OF THE INQUISITION.
MOORS, SERVANTS, &C.
Time. The reign of Philip II., just at the close of the civil wars against the Moors, and during the heat of the persecution which raged against them, shortly after the edict which forbad the wearing of Moresco apparel under pain of death.
ACT THE FIRST
SCENE — The sea shore on the coast of Granada.
VELEZ, MARIA.
Maria. I hold Osorio dear: he is your son,
And Albert’s brother.
Velez. Love him for himself,
Nor make the living wretched for the dead.
Maria. I mourn that you should plead in vain, Lord Velez!
But Heaven hath heard my vow, and I remain 5
Faithful to Albert, be he dead or living.
Velez. Heaven knows with what delight I saw your loves;
And could my heart’s blood give him back to thee
I would die smiling. But these are idle thoughts!
Thy dying father comes upon my soul 10
With that same look, with which he gave thee to me:
I held thee in mine arms, a powerless babe,
While thy poor mother with a mute entreaty
Fix’d her faint eyes on mine: ah, not for this,
That I should let thee feed thy soul with gloom, 15
And with slow anguish wear away thy life,
The victim of a useless constancy.
I must not see thee wretched.
Maria. There are woes
Ill-barter’d for the garishness of joy!
If it be wretched with an untired eye 20
To watch those skiey tints, and this green ocean;
Or in the sultry hour beneath some rock,
My hair dishevell’d by the pleasant sea-breeze,
To shape sweet visions, and live o’er again
All past hours of delight; if it be wretched 25
To watch some bark, and fancy Albert there;
To go through each minutest circumstance
Of the bless’d meeting, and to frame adventures
Most terrible and strange, and hear him tell them:
(As once I knew a crazy Moorish maid, 30
Who dress’d her in her buried lover’s cloaths,
And o’er the smooth spring in the mountain cleft
Hung with her lute, and play’d the selfsame tune
