University of Virginia Library

SCENE the last.
Oroonoko Enters.
Oro.
To Honour bound! and yet a Slave to Love!
I am distracted by their rival Powers,
And both will be obey'd. O great Revenge!
Thou Raiser, and Restorer of faln Fame!
Let me not be unworthy of thy Aid,
For stopping in thy course: I still am thine:
But can't forget I am Imoinda's too.
She calls me from my Wrongs to rescue her.
No man condemn me, who has never felt
A womans Power, or try'd the Force of Love:
All tempers yield, and soften in those fires:
Our Honours, Interests resolving down,
Run in the gentle Current of our Joys:
But not to sink, and drown our Memory:
We mount agen to Action, like the Sun,
That rises from the Bosom of the Sea,
To run his glorious Race of Light anew,
And carry on the World. Love, Love will be
My first Ambition, and my Fame the next.
Aboan enters bloody.
My Eyes are turn'd against me, and combine
With my sworn Enemies, to represent
This spectacle of Honour. Aboan!
My ever faithful Friend!

Abo.
I have no Name,
That can distinguish me from the vile Earth,
To which I'm going: a poor, abject worm,
That crawl'd awhile upon a bustling World,
And now am trampled to my Dust agen.

Oro.
I see thee gasht, and mangled.

Abo.
Spare my shame
To tell how they have us'd me: but believe
The Hangman's Hand wou'd have been merciful.
Do not you scorn me, Sir, to think I can
Intend to live under this Infamy.
I do not come for pity, to complain.
I've spent an honourable Life with you;
The earliest Servant of your rising Fame,
And wou'd attend it with my latest care:
My life was yours, and so shall be my death.
You must not live.
Bending and sinking, I have dragg'd my Steps
Thus far, to tell you that you cannot live:
To warn you of those Ignominious wrongs,
Whips, Rods, and all the Instruments of death,
Which I have felt, and are prepar'd for you.
This was the Duty that I had to pay.
'Tis done, and now I beg to be discharg'd.

Oro.
What shall I do for thee?

Abo.
My Body tires,
And wonnot bear me off to Liberty:
I shall agen be taken, made a Slave.
A Sword, a Dagger yet wou'd rescue me.
I have not Strength to go to find out Death:
You must direct him to me.

Oro.
Here he is,
[Gives him a Daggar.
The only present I can make thee now:
And next the honourable means of Life,
I wou'd bestow the honest means of Death.

Abo.
I cannot stay to thank you. If there is
A Being after this, I shall be yours
In the next World, your faithful Slave agen.
This is to try [Stabs himself.]
I had a living Sense
Of all your royal Favours, but this last
Strikes through my Heart. I wonnot say farewell,
For you must follow me.

[dyes.
Oro.
In Life, and death,
The Guardian of my Honour! follow thee!
I shou'd have gone before thee: then perhaps
Thy Fate had been prevented. All his Care
Was to preserve me from the barbarous Rage
That wrong'd him, only for being mine.
Why, why, you Gods! Why am I so accurst,
That it must be a Reason of your Wrath,
A Guilt, a Crime sufficient to the Fate
Of any one, but to belong to me?
Ny Friend has sound it, and my Wife will soon:
My Wife! the very Fear's too much for Life:
I can't support it. Where? Imoinda! Oh!
[Going out, she meets him, running into his Arms.
Thou bosom Softness! Down of all my Cares!
I cou'd recline my thoughts upon this Breast
To a forgetfulness of all my Griefs,
And yet be happy: but it wonnot be.
Thou art disorder'd, pale, and out of Breath!
If Fate pursues thee, find a shelter here.
What is it thou woud'st tell me?

Imo.
'Tis in vain to call him Villain.

Oro.
Call him Governour: is it not so?

Imo.
There's not another sure.

Oro.
Villain's the common name of Mankind here:
But his most properly. What! what of him?
I fear to be resolv'd, and must enquire.
He had thee in his Power.

Imo.
I blush to think it.

Oro.
Blush! to think what?

Imo.
That I was in his Power.

Oro.
He cou'd not use it?

Imo.
What can't such men do?

Oro.
But did he? durst he?

Imo.
What he cou'd, he dar'd.

Oro.
His own Gods damn him then: for ours have none,
No Punishment for such unheard-of Crimes.

Imo.
This Monster, cunning in his Flatteries,
When he had weary'd all his useless Arts,
Leapt out, fierce as a beast of prey, to seize me.
I trembled, fear'd.

Oro.
I fear, and tremble now.
What cou'd preserve thee? what deliver thee?

Imo.
That worthy Man, you us'd to call your Friend—

Oro.
Blanford.

Imo.
Came in, and sav'd me from his Rage.

Oro.
He was a Friend indeed to rescue thee!
And for his sake, I'le think it possible
A Christian may be yet an honest man.

Imo.
O! did you know what I have strugl'd through,
To save me yours, sure you wou'd promise me
Never to see me forc't from you agen.

Oro.
To promise thee! O! do I need to promise?
But there is now no farther use of Words.
Death is security for all our fears.
[Shews Aboan's body on the floor.
And yet I cannot trust him.

Imo.
Aboan!

Oro.
Mangled, and torn, resolv'd to give me time
To fit my self for what I must expect,
Groan'd out a warning to me, and expir'd.

Imo.
For what you must expect?

Oro.
Wou'd that were all.

Imo.
What! to be butcher'd thus—

Oro.
Just as thou see'st.

Imo.
By barbarous Hands, to fall at last their Prey!

Oro.
I have run the Race with Honour, shall I now
Lag, and be overtaken at the Goal?

Imo.
No.

Oro.
I must look back to thee.

[Tenderly.
Imo.
You shannot need.
I'm always present to your purpose, say,
Which way wou'd you dispose me?

Oro.
Have a care,
Thou'rt on a Precipice, and dost not see
Whither that question leads thee. O! too soon
Thou dost enquire what the assembled Gods
Have not determin'd, and will latest doom.
Yet this I know of Fate, this is most certain,
I cannot, as I wou'd, dispose of thee:
And, as I ought, I dare not. Oh Imoinda!

Imo.
Alas! that sigh! why do you tremble so?
Nay then 'tis bad indeed, if you can weep.

Oro.
My Heart runs over, if my gushing Eyes
Betray a weakness which they never knew,
Believe, thou, only thou cou'dst cause these tears.
The Gods themselves conspire with faithless Men
To our destruction.

Imo.
Heaven and Earth our Foes!

Oro.
It is not always granted to the great,
To be most happy: If the angry Pow'rs
Repent their Favours, let 'em take 'em back:
The hopes of Empire, which they gave my youth,
By making me a Prince, I here resign.
Let 'em quench in me all those glorious Fires,
Which kindled at their beams: that lust of Fame,
That Fevor of Ambition, restless still,
And burning with the sacred Thirst of Sway,
Which they inspir'd, to qualifie my Fate,
And make me fit to govern under them,
Let 'em extinguish. I submit my self
To their high pleasure, and devoted Bow
Yet lower, to continue still a Slave;
Hopeless of liberty: and if I cou'd
Live after it, wou'd give up Honour too,
To satisfie their Vengeance, to avert
This only Curse, the curse of losing thee.

Imo.
If Heav'n cou'd be appeas'd, these cruel Men
Are not to be entreated, or believ'd:
O! think on that, and be no more deceiv'd.

Oro.
What can we do?

Imo.
Can I do any thing?

Oro.
But we were born to suffer.

Imo.
Suffer both,
Both die, and so prevent 'em.

Oro.
By thy Death!
O! let me hunt my travel'd Thoughts again;
Range the wide waste of desolate despair;
Start any hope. Alas! I lose my self,
'Tis Pathless, Dark, and Barren all to me.
Thou art my only guide, my light of Life,
And thou art leaving me: Send out thy Beams
Upon the Wing; let 'em fly all around,
Discover every way: Is there a dawn,
A glimmering of comfort? the great God,
That rises on the World, must shine on us.

Imo.
And see us set before him.

Oro.
Thou bespeak'st, and goes before me.

Imo.
So I wou'd, in Love:
In the dear unsuspected part of Life,
In Death for Love. Alas! what hopes for me?
I was preserv'd but to acquit my self,
To beg to die with you.

Oro.
And can'st thou ask it?
I never durst enquire into my self
About thy fate, and thou resolv'st it all.

Imo.
Alas! my Lord! my Fate's resolv'd in yours.

Oro.
O! keep thee there: Let not thy Virtue shrink
From my support, and I will gather strength,
Fast as I can to tell thee—

Imo.
I must die.
I know 'tis fit, and I can die with you.

Oro.
O! thou hast banisht hence a thousand fears,
Which sickned at my Heart, and quite unman'd me.

Imo.
Your fear's for me, I know you fear'd my strength,
And cou'd not overcome your tenderness,
To pass this Sentence on me: and indeed
There you were kind, as I have always found you,
As you have ever been: for tho' I am
Resign'd, and ready to obey my doom,
Methinks it shou'd not be pronounc'd by you.

Oro.
O! that was all the labour of my grief.
My heart, and tongue forsook me in the strife:
I never cou'd pronounce it.

Imo.
I have for you, for both of us.

Oro.
Alas! for me! my death
I cou'd regard as the last Scene of life,
And act it thro' with joy, to have it done.
But then to part with thee—

Imo.
'Tis hard to part.
But parting thus, as the most happy must,
Parting in death, makes it the easier.
You might have thrown me off, forsaken me,
And my misfortunes: that had been a death
Indeed of terror, to have trembled at.

Oro.
Forsaken! thrown thee off!

Imo.
But 'tis a pleasure more than life can give,
That with unconquer'd Passion to the last,
You struggle still, and fain wou'd hold me to you.

Oro.
Ever, ever, and let those stars, which are my Enemies,
Witness against me in the other World,
If I wou'd leave this Mansion of my Bliss,
To be the brightest Ruler of their Skies.
O! that we cou'd incorporate, be one,
[Embracing her.
One Body, as we have been long one Mind:
That blended so, we might together mix,
And losing thus our Beings to the World,
Be only found to one anothers Joys.

Imo.
Is this the way to part?

Oro.
Which is the way?

Imo.
The God of Love is blind, and cannot find it.
But quick, make haste, our Enemies have Eyes
To find us out, and shew us the worst way
Of parting; think on them.

Oro.
Why dost thou wake me?

Imo.
O! no more of Love.
For if I listen to you, I shall quite
Forget my Dangers, and desire to live.
I can't live yours.

[Takes up the Dagger.
Oro.
There all the Stings of Death
Are shot into my Heart—what shall I do?

Imo.
This Dagger will instruct you.

[Gives it him
Oro.
Ha! this Dagger!
Like Fate, it points me to the horrid Deed.

Imo.
Strike, strike it home, and bravely save us both.
There is no other Safety,

Oro.
It must be—
But first a dying Kiss—
[Kisses her.
This last Embrace—
[Embracing her.
And now—

Imo.
I'm ready.

Oro.
O! where shall I strike?
Is there a smallest grain of that lov'd Body
That is not dearer to me than my Eyes,
My bosom'd Heart, and all the live Blood there?
Bid me cut off these Limbs, hew off these Hands,
Dig out these Eyes, tho' I wou'd keep them last
To gaze upon thee: but to murder thee!
The Joy, and Charm of every ravisht Sense,
My Wife! forbid it Nature.

Imo.
Tis your Wife,
Who on her knees conjures you. O! in time
Prevent those Mischeifs that are falling on us.
You may be hurry'd to a shameful Death,
And I too drag'd to the vile Governour:
Then I may cry aloud: when you are gone,
Where shall I find a Friend agen to save me?

Oro.
It will be so. Thou unexampled Virtue!
Thy Resolution has recover'd mine:
And now prepare thee.

Imo.
Thus with open Arms,
I welcome you, and Death.

[He drops his Dagger as he looks on her, and throws himself on the Ground.
Oro.
I cannot bear it.
O let me dash against this Rock of Fate.
Dig up this Earth, tear, tear her Bowels out,
To make a Grave, deep as the Center down,
To swallow wide, and bury us together.
It wonnot be. O! then some pitying God
(If there be one a Friend to Innocence)
Find yet a way to lay her Beauties down
Gently in Death, and save me from her Blood.

Imo.
O rise, 'tis more than Death to see you thus.
I'le ease your Love, and do the Deed my self—

[She takes up the Dagger, he rises in haste to take it from her.
Oro.
O! hold, I charge thee, hold.

Imo.
Tho' I must own
It wou'd be nobler for us both from you.

Oro.
O! for a Whirlwind's Wing to hurry us
To yonder Clif, which frowns upon the Flood:
That in Embraces lockt we might plunge in,
And perish thus in one anothers Arms.

Imo.
Alas! what shout is that?

Oro.
I see 'em coming.
They shannot overtake us. This last Kiss.
And now farewell.

Imo.
Farewel, farewel for ever.

Oro.
I'le turn my Face away, and do it so.
Now, are you ready?

Imo.
Now. But do not grudge me
The Pleasure in my Death of a last look,
Pray look upon me—Now I'm satisfied.

Oro.
So Fate must be by this

[Going to stab her, he stops short, she lays her hands on his, in order to give the blow.
Imo.
Nay then I must assist you.
And since it is the common Cause of both,
'Tis just that both shou'd be employ'd in it.
Thus, thus 'tis finisht, and I bless my Fate,
[Stabs her self.
That where I liv'd, I die, in these lov'd Arms.

[Dyes.
Oro.
She's gone. And now all's at an End with me.
Soft, lay her down. O we will part no more.
[Throws himself by her.
But let me pay the tribute of my Grief,
A few sad Tears to thy lov'd Memory,
And then I follow—
[Weeps over her.
But I stay too long.
[A noise agen.
The Noise comes nearer. Hold, before I go,
There's something wou'd be done. It shall be so.
And then, Imoinda, I'le come all to thee.

[Rises.
[Blanford, and his party, enters before the Governour and his party, Swords drawn on both sides.
Gov.
You strive in vain to save him, he shall die.

Blan.
Not while we can defend him with our lives.

Gov.
Where is he?

Oro.
Here's the Wretch whom you wou'd have.
Put up your Swords, and let civil broils
Engage you in the cursed cause of one,
Who cannot live, and now entreats to die.
This object will convince you.

Blan.
'Tis his Wife!
[They gather about the Body.
Alas! there was no other Remedy.

Gov.
Who did the bloody Deed?

Oro.
The Deed was mine:
Bloody I know it is, and I expect
Your Laws shou'd tell me so. Thus self-condemn'd,
I do resign my self into your Hands,
The Hands of Justice—But I hold the Sword
For you—and for my self.

[Stabs the Governour, and himself, then throws himself by Imoinda's Body.
Stan.
He has kill'd the Governour, and stab'd himself.

Oro.
'Tis as it shou'd be now. I have sent his Ghost
To be a Witness of that Happiness
In the next World, which he deny'd us here.

[Dyes.
Blan.
I hope there is a place of Happiness
In the next World for such exalted Virtue.
Pagan, or Unbeliever, yet he liv'd
To all he knew: And if he went astray,
There's Mercy still above to set him right.
But Christians guided by the Heavenly Ray,
Have no excuse if we mistake our Way.