University of Virginia Library

SCENE VI.

Ulfinore Solus.
[Ulfinore.]
In vain I wander through the Shades and Gardens
For Peace; the Shades and Gardens nourish Love.
O Love, thou Serpent hid beneath the Flowr's
Of rural Innocence, to sting our Quiet!
How am I lost! The Venom burns me up.
I pine away in Thought; I sink in Sorrows;
And Hope, the smiling Flatterer of Grief,
Ev'n Hope is distant from me, to extend
A helping Hand, and raise Me from the Vale
Of Misery: but dull and black Despair
Sits heavy on my Soul and weighs it down.
Why shou'd I think; for Thought must swell to Madness.
O Birtha! lovely as the youthful Spring,
When happy Nature, drest in Verdure, smiles!
But Gondibert alone shall revel there:
Luxurious Thought! to dwell upon her Sight;
To drink the fragrant Dew from her moist Lip
Breathing Delight; to clasp her yielding Waste;
To melt upon her easy-swelling Bosom,
Till the fond Soul flow all to Ecstasy
And bubble up in Sighs!—O happy Gondibert!
No wonder He neglects the Princess' Passion.
But yet the King—By Heav'n the lucky Thought
May dart a Beam of Comfort through the Gloom,
And light me up to Joy: for well I know
The King assumes the Pow'r to chuse a Bride
For his Allies; and Gondibert so charms Him,
He swore that none but He shou'd wed his Daughter.
Wou'd the King knew but of their Loves, in time,
Before that Marriage make Them one for ever;
Still, still She might be mine! hush, Thula comes.