And the returnOf Ludolph with the Princess.
Gonfred.
No more save
Prince Gersa’s freeing Abbot Ethelbert,
And the sweet lady, fair Erminia,
From prison.
Theodore.
Where are they now? hast yet heard?
Gonfred.
With the sad Emperor they are closeted ;
I saw the three pass slowly up the stairs,
The lady weeping, the old Abbot cowl’d.
Sigifred.
What next?
Thedore.
I ache to think on’t.
Gonfred.
’Tis with fate.
Theodore.
One while these proud towers are hush’d as death.
Gonfred.
The next our poor Prince fills the arched rooms
With ghastly ravings.
Sigifred.
I do fear his brain.
Gonfred.
I will see more. Bear you so stout a heart?
[Exeunt into the Castle.
Scene IV
A Cabinet, opening towards a Terrace.
OTHO, ERMINIA, ETHELBERT, and a Physician, discovered.
Otho.
O, my poor Boy! my Son! my Son! My Ludolph!
Have ye no comfort for me, ye Physicians
Of the weak Body and Soul?
Ethelbert.
’Tis not the Medicine
Either of heaven or earth can cure unless
Fit time be chosen to administer
Otho. A kind forbearance, holy Abbot come
Erminia, here sit by me, gentle Girl;
Give me thy hand hast thou forgiven me?
Erminia.
Would I were with the saints to pray for you!
Otho. Why will ye keep me from my darling child?
Physician.
Forgive me, but he must not see thy face
Otho. Is then a father’s countenance a Gorgon?
Hath it not comfort in it? Would it not
Console my poor Boy, cheer him, heal his spirits?
Let me embrace him, let me speak to him
I will who hinders me? Who’s Emperor?
Physician.
You may not, Sire ’twould overwhelm him quite,
He is so full of grief and passionate wrath,
Too heavy a sigh would kill him or do worse.
He must be sav’d by fine contrivances
And most especially we must keep clear
Out of his sight a Father whom he loves
His heart is full, it can contain no more,
And do its ruddy office.
Ethelbert.
Sage advice;
We must endeavour how to ease and slacken
The tight-wound energies of his despair,
Not make them tenser
Otho. Enough! I hear, I hear.
Yet you were about to advise more I listen.
Ethelbert.
This learned doctor will agree with me,
That not in the smallest point should he be thwarted
Or gainsaid by one word his very motions,
Nods, becks and hints, should be obey’d with care,
Even on the moment: so his troubled mind
May cure itself
Physician. There is no other means.
Otho.
Open the door: let’s hear if all is quiet
Physician. Beseech you, Sire, forbear.
Erminia.
Do, do.
Otho.
I command!
Open it straight hush! quiet my lost Boy!
My miserable Child!
Ludolph (indistinctly without). Fill, fill my goblet,
Here’s a health!
Erminia.
O, close the door!
Otho.
Let, let me hear his voice; this cannot last
And fain would I catch up his dying words
Though my own knell they be this cannot last
O let me catch his voice for lo! I hear
This silence whisper me that he is dead!
It is so. Gersa?
Enter GERSA.
Physician.
Say, how fares the prince?
Gersa.
