University of Virginia Library

SCENE II.

DIONE. LAURA.
Laura.
Why thus beneath the silver willow laid,
Weeps fair Dione in the pensive shade?
Hast thou yet found the over-arching bower,
Which guards Parthenia from the sultry hour?

Dione.
With weary step in paths unknown I stray'd,
And sought in vain the solitary maid.

Laura.
Seest thou the waving tops of yonder woods,
Whose aged arms imbrown the cooling floods?
The cooling floods o'er breaking pebbles flow,
And wash the soil from the big roots below
From the tall rock the dashing waters bound.
Hark, o'er the fields the rushing billows sound!
There, lost in thought, and leaning on her crook,
Stood the sad nymph, nor rais'd her pensive look;
With settled eye the bubbling waves survey'd,
And watch'd the whirling eddies, as they play'd.

Dione.
Thither to know my certain doom I speed,
For by this sentence life or death's decreed.

[Exit.