University of Virginia Library

SCENE V.

Freeman's House.
Young Freeman and Mrs. Freeman.
Y. Freeman.
You may as well
Call back the blushes to the faded rose,
Or bid the drooping lilly raise its head,
As ask a smile, or cheerful look, from me.

Mrs. Freeman.
Why will you indulge this melancholly
To the destruction of a parent's peace?

Y. Freeman.
Ye pleasant hills, and ye delightful vales,
Ye painted meads, and love-sequester'd shades,
Which oft' have witness'd to my happyer hours,
Farewel, the goddess of the scenes is fled!
The bright inspirer of my heart with joy
Is gone, and left me to despair and woe.

Mrs. Freeman.
Hear a fond mother that wou'd fain apply
A remedy to your distemper'd mind.

Y. Freeman.
But why unjust do I accuse the maid!
Can the eye wish to bar harmonious sounds
The entrance of the ear? Or is the ear
Desirous to deprive the eye of sight?
Charlotte, whose happyness depends on mine;
Can never join to wreck her Freeman's heart.

Mrs. Freeman.
How may the folly of a moment lose
What can not be recover'd in an age!
What miserys have I brought upon myself!

Y. Freeman.
Hark! is not that the charmer's voice afar,
That crys, come Freeman, haste to rescue me,
And snatch me from the snares which now surround me!
I come, O! nymph divine, to seize my right,
Resolv'd to bear away my lovely prize,
Or perish in th' attempt.

(As he goes towards the door Charlotte enters.