 | Agamemnon |  |
SCENE III.
Cassandra, Chorus of Trojan Captives, Melisander.Melisander.
Fair Princess, stop these Tears. Exert that best
That noblest Virtue, which can master Fortune,
An equal Mind.
Cassandra.
Not for my self I weep!—
But, oh my dear Companions! How for you
My Bosom yearns!
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We have together liv'd
Together let us die!
Cassandra.
Together liv'd!
At This ten thousand Images awake,
Ten thousand little Tendernesses throb.
Chorus.
O Days of Youth! O careless Days! Untaught
To weep, if Love not own'd the pleasing Tear.
Cassandra.
O Woods! O Fountains! O delightful Meads!
That lent us Flowers, the Prime of blooming May,
To deck our Tresses.
Chorus.
O the yellow Banks
Of fair Scamander! in whose silver Stream,
We us'd to bathe, beneath the secret Shade.
Cassandra.
O chearful Ida's airy Summits! where
The Gods delight to dwell.
Chorus.
O silent Troy!
Whose Streets have often echo'd with our Song.
Cassandra.
O the lost Labours of a ruin'd People!
O Country! Freedom! Friends! Relations! All,
That gives or taste or dignity to Life,
All all is gone, beyond recovery gone!
Chorus.
Then let us die!
Cassandra.
For me, the hunted Hart
More fervent pants not for the cooling Stream,
Than I to wrap me in the quiet Shades
Of Death. But, ah! my helpless Friends, for you
I feel it's keenest Anguish.
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Not for us,
Feel not for us. What Comfort have we left?
What Hope, what Wish in Life?—One healing Pang,
And then we weep no more.
Cassandra.
Refreshing Thought!
And then from Bondage, Pain, from every Ill,
For ever free, we meet our Friends again;
Our Parents, Brothers, Sisters, Lovers meet.
Chorus.
Then let us die! and sudden be the Blow!
Cassandra.
The Gods assent.—Behold the happy Shore!
But, ah! there lies a stormy Sea betwixt!
Melisander.
So sings the plaining Nightingale her Woes.
Cassandra.
Ah, far unlike the Nightingale!—She sings,
Unceasing, thro' the balmy Nights of May;
She sings from Love and Joy, while we, alas!—
Melisandra.
Behold the Queen—Deep-wrap'd in Thought she seems.—
Cassandra.
O direful Musings!—Lead us from her Presence.
| Agamemnon | |