University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

Osbert and Osric.
Osbert.
Still living—and so near me?—O, the rapture!—
The dear distress'd!—Will you then plead my pardon?
Will you not tell her—nay, enforce it, Osric;
Pour all the abundance of my soul before her—
Tell her, her safety lies within these walls;
My crown is hers, my life her best protection.

Osric.
Mean you to wed her, then?

Osbert.
Would'st thou not, my friend,
Aspire at Heaven, if distance did not bar thee?
Wed her!—yes, Osric—for a single day,
An hour of bliss in her society,
I'd barter every year of life to come—
But, O my crime—that outrage on her honour!—
Her peace, her beauty, and her spotless innocence,
Rent and polluted by my brutal passion!—
What shall I plead?—Pardon she never can—
Tell her, in that, we are already wedded;
For Osbert hates himself.

Osric.
I will, my lord.

Osbert.
Nay, but this night—this very night, my Osric!—
Fate may dispose the morrow to another.
Tell her this instant hour stands singly up
'Twixt life and death, time and eternity,
Connubial honour and the blot of ages!
Away—my peace attends on thy return!—
Some angel sit upon thy charmed tongue,
And teach thy breath persuasion.
[Exit Osbert.

Osric.
Rowena married, and a queen!—'tis well—
The foe expell'd, my prince return'd to virtue,
Her honour rescued, and his fault forgotten!—
But, Edwin!—there's the gulph—this dread prediction!
For Osbert wedded, then becomes at once
His king, and father; so may fate be answer'd!—
'Tis but in man, throughout the maze of life,
To mark the clue of his peculiar duty—
'Tis Heaven's to wind and guide the thread at pleasure.

[Exit.