diviner eloquence ; woo her earsWith plaints for me more tender than the voice
Of dying Echo, echoed.
Page.
Kindest master!
To know thee sad thus, will unloose my tongue
In mournful syllables. Let but my words reach
Her ears and she shall take them coupled with
Moans from my heart and sighs not counterfeit.
May I speed better!
[Exit Page.
Ludolph.
Auranthe! My Life!
Long have I lov’d thee, yet till now not lov’d:
Remembering, as I do, hard-hearted times
When I had heard even of thy death perhaps,
And thoughtless, suffered to pass alone
Into Elysium! now I follow thee
A substance or a shadow, wheresoe’er
Thou leadest me, whether thy white feet press,
With pleasant weight, the amorous-aching earth,
Or thro’ the air thou pioneerest me,
A shade! Yet sadly I predestinate!
O unbenignest Love, why wilt thou let
Darkness steal out upon the sleepy world
So wearily; as if night’s chariot wheels
Were clog’d in some thick cloud. O, changeful Love,
Let not her steeds with drowsy-footed pace
Pass the high stars, before sweet embassage
Comes from the pillow ‘d beauty of that fair
Completion of all delicate nature’s wit.
Pout her faint lips anew with rubious health
And with thine infant fingers lift the fringe
Of her sick eyelids ; that those eyes may glow
With wooing light upon me, ere the Morn
Peers with disrelish, grey, barren, and cold.
Otho calls me his Lion should I blush
To be so tam’d, so
Gersa. Do me the courtesy
Gentlemen to pass on.
Courtier.
We are your servants.
[Exeunt Courtiers.
Ludolph.
It seems then, Sir, you have found out the man
You would confer with; me?
Gersa.
If I break not
Too much upon your thoughtful mood, I will
Claim a brief while your patience.
Ludolph.
For what cause
Soe’er I shall be honour ‘d.
Gersa.
I not less.
Ludolph. What may it be? No trifle can take place
Of such deliberate prologue, serious ‘haviour.
But be it what it may I cannot fail
To listen with no common interest
For though so new your presence is to me,
I have a soldier’s friendship for your fame
Please you explain.
Gersa.
As thus for, pardon me,
I cannot in plain terms grossly assault
A noble nature ; and would faintly sketch
What your quick apprehension will fill up
So finely I esteem you.
Ludolph.
I attend
Gersa. Your generous Father, most illustrious Otho,
Sits in the Banquet room among his chiefs
His wine is bitter, for you are not there
His eyes are fix’d still on the open doors,
And every passer in he frowns upon
Seeing no Ludolph comes.
Ludolph.
I do neglect
Gersa. And for your absence, may I guess the cause?
Ludolph.
Stay there! no guess? more princely you must be
Than to make guesses at me. ’Tis enough,
I’m sorry I can hear no more.
Gersa.
And I
As griev’d to force it on you so abrupt;
Yet one day you must know a grief whose sting
Will sharpen more the longer ’tis concealed.
Ludolph.
Say it at once, sir, dead, dead, is she dead?
Gersa.
Mine is a cruel task : she is not dead
And would for your sake she were innocent
Ludolph. Thou liest! thou amazest me beyond
All scope of thought; convulsest my heart’s blood
To deadly churning Gersa you are young
As I am ; let me observe you face to face ;
Not grey-brow’d like the poisonous Ethelbert,
No rheumed eyes, no furrowing of age,
No wrinkles where all vices nestle in
Like crannied vermin no, but fresh and young
And hopeful featured. Ha! by heaven you weep
Tears, human tears Do you repent you then
Of a curs’d torturer’s office! Why shouldst join
Tell me, the league of Devils? Confess confess
The Lie.
Gersa.
Lie!– but begone all ceremonious points
Of honour battailous. I could not turn
My wrath against thee for the orbed world.
Ludolph.
Your wrath, weak boy? Tremble at mine unless
Retraction follow close upon the heels
Of that late stounding insult: why has my sword
Not done already a sheer judgment on thee?
Despair,
