University of Virginia Library

SCENE II.

An apartment and Couch.—music without.
Yamos and Attendants.
Yamos.
Bid the musicians cease. Let them forbear.
The soft melodious sadness of their song
Awakens in me but unhappy thoughts.—
Methinks the ghosts of all my ancestors,
Hover around me, and in piteous silence,
Look on my grieved and melancholy mind.
O sure some dreadful woe unseen impends
That thus my heart feels cold as kneaded clay.
Send for Antonio to me.

I Attend.
He is here.

[Enter Antonio.]
Yamos.
Art thou too sad, my friend, pray thee draw near,
Sit here by me, I would converse awhile,
To learn why thus my anxious spirit pines,
And questions oft the use of all our labors?

Ant.
Such weary thoughts, sir, frequently arise,
When the exhausted spirit needs repose.
They are the dreams of reason, and molest,
Like the night visions, only while they last.

Yamos.
And shall I wake from this unhappiness;
Shall my lov'd Idda chearfully awake?
And take me back with those endearing arms
With which she press'd me to her virgin breast?
Alas, you sigh—there is no hope of that.
[Enter Orooko.]
How now, Orooko, why these looks of rage;
What new discov'ry in the town alarms?

Orooko.
Stranger, avaunt.

Yamos.
What change is this, Antonio?

Orooko.
He shall not stay, let him at once retire!

Yamos.
Treason, Guards, ho! Dost thou menace, old man?
What hast thou done, that thou dar'st thus insult
Our royal presence with this fierce demeanour.
Antonio, fear him not. I will protect thee.
Though mutiny and rash rebellion rise,
By his incitement. I am still thy friend.
You weep and tremble—weeps Orooko too?
Friends, why is this?

Orooko.
Let him retire. Retire.

[Exit Ant.
Yamos.
Now he is gone, what would you say to me?

Orooko.
The thunder's voice heard in the summer's calm,
Nor the great Spirit's when he heaves the woods,
In wilder billows than the roaring ocean,
Speaks no such horror, as I must unfold.

Yamos.
Orooko, tell me, is my Idda dead?

Orooko.
Curses descend on her. Let fury come,
And wide and numberless as all the leaves,
That the winds scatter when the forests fade,
Disperse the ashes of her guilty form.

Yamos.
Thou art not mad, Orooko? yet thou speak'st
More frantic ecstasy than the loose wrack,
Of scatter'd thought, in the disorder'd mind
Hath ever yet assum'd.

Orooko.
The Queen is false.

Yamos.
False, False? Repeat what thou hast said—the word.
My ears ring fearfully—repeat the word.—

Orooko.
False with Antonio,

Yamos.
Hoary liar, ha! (strikes him down.)


Orooko.
(on the ground.)
Gods of his fathers, take my thanks for this.
Now must the noble soul of Yamos feel,
By this dishonor he has done himself
In striking me, his own, his father's friend!
What shame and woe springs from Antonio's guile.

Yamos.
Th'infection works, in every joint I feel
The withering horror seizing on my strength.
It was delirium! and I heard it not.
No one did say to me my wife was false—
Antonio! O to what wicked thoughts
The idle fancy will betake itself!
While the musicians sang, I closed my eyes,
Strange fears oppress'd me. I would see Antonio,—
He came and he was sad. Orooko came—
Is that Orooko on the ground before me?

Orooko.
(rising.)
Distraction kindles in him, help, O help!—

Yamos.
Hush, hush, we will be calm, we will be calm.
(They sit down.)
Come, sit thee down—we will discourse of this—
And first I will relate my dream to thee—
Antonio—no, he is not.—O my heart,
It swells to thrice three hearts, and stops my breath.
Once I did think he fondly look'd at her,
And she responded with familiar smiles,
Such as no wife may blamelessly express.—
And when I chid her for't, that hate began,
Which no imploring love of mine could alter,
No tend'rest grief since that dire hour appease.

Orooko.
Did you observe their love?

Yamos.
What love? what love?
I but beheld a free unseemly glance.
What have you seen?

Orooko.
Alas, dear noble Yamos,
Such looks unchaste were never known before.

Yamos.
Ha! is it for that, you have so tortur'd me.
And for your worship and availless rites
Would tempt me thus to sacrifice my friend.
Away, old man—back to thy wilds again;
Provoke me not with guilty imputation,
To think as ill of thy respected self,
As thy fell bigotry would say of others.
What is this knowledge, that with painful throes
My mind would bring into the world of thought,
And on it, as a mother o'er her child,
All other things forsaking, fondly doat—
Suspicion! Suspicion! O forerunning shadow
Of coming woe—more hideous than the substance.
If this Antonio be the wretch you think;
If Idda be the victim of his guile;
What may ensue?—Nothing more ill than is!
And the good springing from Antonio's knowledge
Must still be good, let him be what he may.

Orooko.
How know you that?

Yamos.
I will endure no more;
If thus I listen to thy venomous tongue,
I shall believe the glorious sun himself
Black as eclipse—Away, away, and leave me.

[Exeunt.