 | Zenobia |  |
SCENE VI.
Enter Rhadamistus and Ægle, as in conversation. Zopyrus apart.Rhad.
Deceive me not,
Ah! courteous shepherdess.—To sport with misery
Were cruelty, alas! that ill would suit
Thy gentle nature.
Ægl.
Think not I deceive you:
Your consort lives.—I drew her from the stream
Pierc'd with her wound, and sav'd her at the peril,
With her unhappy life to lose my own.
Rhad.
Ah! lovely nymph! my tutelary Goddess!
Is such compassion found in savage woods?
Yes—virtue these resides; in peopled cities
Are only known the semblance and the name.
Ægl.
We now have reach'd the place.—Expect me here;
I'll haste before you and prepare Zenobia.
[goes into the cottage.
Rhad.
I burn with fond impatience to behold her,
And yet I tremble to approach her presence:
I'm warm'd by love and chill'd by deep remorse.
36
[coming out of the cottage.]
Zenobia is departed; vainly there
I seek to find her.
Rhad.
O! Almighty Powers!
Ægl.
Be not dismay'd: she surely will return;
Perchance for us she seeks.
Rhad.
O! no—She hates,
She shuns me now—Alas! I cannot blame her;
Just is her hatred, Ægle; nor have I
Deserv'd to suffer less from her resentment.
Ægl.
Zenobia hate you? Shun you? Ill indeed
You know your spouse: such false suspicion wrongs
The truest consort that the world has known.
For you she seeks, for you alone she sighs,
And trembles but for you.—She even defends,
And loves your cruelty; while he, who hears
Her plead your cause, no longer can condemn you:
She calls the hand that struck her merciful.
Rhad.
O! let us haste to find her; at her feet
Let me expire with love, with shame and sorrow.
Ægl.
Removing hence, you may perchance but lose
Her whom you hope to find.
Rhad.
Go then, my Ægle,
Do thou pursue the search—Alas! delay not—
Forgive my hasty warmth—I sigh to gain
A blessing mourn'd so long with heart-felt anguish.
37
Though press'd with anguish, who would e'er
Beneath his grief repine;
Who, though decreed such grief to bear,
Could say, “That heart is mine?”
Beneath his grief repine;
Who, though decreed such grief to bear,
Could say, “That heart is mine?”
Two souls whom equal passions sway,
One only soul will prove;
Since both but one desire obey,
And glow with mutual love.
One only soul will prove;
Since both but one desire obey,
And glow with mutual love.
[Exit.
| Zenobia | |