University of Virginia Library

SCENE THE FIRST.

Sophonisba.
So.
Ah wretched me! What can have happen'd now?
What fatal, what ferocious mystery
Doth Masinissa harbour in his breast?
What hath vindictive Scipio said to him?
Ah evermore, I evermore foresaw
That fatal to us both this camp would be.—
Oh Masinissa! ... On my countenance
Thine eyes were fix'd, swimming with undropt tears,
And yet thou dar'st not speak to me ... With words
Broken and faltering now thou call'st me thine;
Now stern and desperate thine arid eyes,
With a ferocious recklessness, from me
Thou turn'st away; upon the naked earth
Panting thou castest thy convulsed limbs;
And with terrific howlings didst invoke
Th'infernal furies ... Ah, thou hast transfused
Already thy own furies in my breast.—
Be they whate'er they may, this heart possest
A presage of the menaces of Scipio.
All I foresee; yet nothing do I fear.
Now that he is my open enemy,
As he should be, now will I Scipio hear,
And make him hear the thoughts of Sophonisba ...
But who is this coming towards me? ... Is this
Reality? ... Oh Heaven! ... Syphax alive? ...
And in this camp? ... Oh unexpected sight!