University of Virginia Library

SCENE II.

Messenger, Chorus, Sylvia, Daphne.
MESSENGER.
Pity and horrour so possess my soul,
That of my senses I'm almost bereft;
Each object that I see, and hear, alarms me.

CHORUS.
Thy countenance, and speech express dismay;
What tidings dost thou bring?

MESSENGER.
The doleful tidings
Of poor Amyntas' death.

SYLVIA.
Oh knelling sound!

MESSENGER.
Never did shepherd tread the rural plain
More graceful, and more polished than Amyntas;
Of every nymph a favourite was Amyntas;
Amyntas had a rich, poetick soul,
And to the Muses was his genius dear.
Yet in the prime of life, and bloom of virtue
He's dead; and of a death how lamentable!

CHORUS.
Shepherd explain thyself; that his misfortune,
And our own loss we may with thee deplore.

SYLVIA.
Alas! I dare not hear the mournful tale:
Oh! my inhuman, oh! my savage heart!
Now, tyrant, show thy rough, unfeeling nature.
Whilst thy Amyntas lived, thou didst torment
The gentlest, faithfullest, the best of shepherds,
Unworthy of thy scorn, thou cold barbarian!
And since his tragedy must now be told,
Endure the rack this messenger prepares thee
As calmly as thou didst excruciate him.
Shepherd, impart thy story; 'tis to me
Of more concern than haply thou supposest:
I'm ready for the worst; for I deserve
The most distracting truth thy tongue can utter:
It is my due; and let me have it all.

MESSENGER.
I well believe thee; for I heard Amyntas
Calling on thee just at the fatal moment;
Thou wast the object of his thoughts, while thought
Had yet it's mansion in his breast; his tongue
Pronounced thy name ere it was mute for ever.

DAPHNE.
I dread the news; yet, I intreat thee, tell it.

MESSENGER.
Upon the hill, where oft the vacant swain
Catches the feathered warblers, I was seated.
There, while I watched my toils, Amyntas passed me;
But how much was he from Amyntas changed!
Disordered was his step, his face was pale:
And from his wandering eye shot black despain.
His pace was quick; I quickly followed him;
And overtook him soon;—he turned, and said,
Ergastus, I request a favour of thee;
'Tis that thou wouldst a little way go with me,
And see me do a memorable deed:
But first I must insist that thou shalt give me
The sacred obligation of an oath,
By which thou shalt engage to stand apart;
For thou must witness bear, not interrupt me.
I readily complied with his proposal;
Who would have thought him bent on deed so horrid,
His mind wrought up to such a height of frenzy?
With all the oaths I ratified my promise
That bind the faith of the religious swain.
Pan, Pales, and Pomona I invoked,
Priapus, and nocturnal Hecate.
As soon as this solemnity was over,
Up to the hill's extremity he took me,
Where in an awful precipice it ends,
Of barren cavities and pointed rocks.
A valley terminates this precipice.
We stopped upon the summit; I looked down,
And started back, scared at the dreadful steep,
And fearing for Amyntas's design.
But he put on a countenance serene,
Nay smiled; and with his smile my fear was lessened.
Then thus he spoke to me; be sure, Ergastus,
To tell the nymphs, and swains of our acquaintance
The scene which thou shalt now behold: he then
Looked down, and spoke these memorable words
With all the pathos of despairing love.
“Had I the ravine of a famished wolf
As near me as I have this rugged steep,
I'd seek to die thy death, my hapless fair one;
I'd wish to have my body torn, and mangled,
As was thy delicate, and beauteous frame:
I grudge myself an easier death than thine.
But since I cannot have my wish accomplished;
Since Heaven denies the opportune attack
Of a rapacious animal; this way
I'll take to die, although it be too gentle.
Sylvia, I follow thee, I come: Oh! Sylvia, let me
Be thy companion in a better state!
How richly would my death be then rewarded!
Yes, Sylvia, sure thou wilt; the land of spirits,
Is, doubtless, a more generous world than this,
And consequently doth exalt our natures.
There too a purer flame inspires the swain
For unembodied nymph! thy virtue placed
Beyond the reach of gross mortality,
Thy virgin-fears will there be all removed;
For there ethereal love alone can woo thee:
Sylvia, I follow thee, I come!” He said,
And down the precipice strait threw himself,
While I stood torpid with severe amazement.

DAPHNE.
Unfortunate Amyntas!

SYLVIA.
Wretched Sylvia!

CHORUS.
Thou shouldst have stopped his rashness; but perhaps
Thy oath prevented thee from interposing?

MESSENGER.
No; when I saw his purpose, I forgot
That I was sacredly engaged; and sure,
Heaven, in such cases, from an oath absolves us;
I flew to save him; caught him by his girdle:
The girdle snapped, too feeble to pull back
His body's weight, impelled with violence.
It in my hand remained; I've brought it with me.

CHORUS.
And did you not look down to see what followed?

MESSENGER.
Ah! no; with what I had already seen
I was so terrified, I looked no farther:
I could not look upon his mangled corse:
I saw his mangled corse in my mind's eye.

CHORUS.
I never heard a more disastrous tale!

SYLVIA.
Sylvia may justly now be said to have
A stony heart, since this news doth not kill me.
And since the tidings of my death yet wanting
Their proof, occasioned his untimely end;
A sacrifice ill-suiting my disdain:
'Tis meet that his too true catastrophe,
Who was my faithful, and too generous lover,
Should by my voluntary death be followed.
For I am overwhelmed with shame, and horrour:
Already conscience is in arms against me,
Chides my delay, and points me out the tomb.
Grief is a cowardly, lazy, trifling thing;
'Twill be too slow an executioner;
I'll have recourse to the decisive steel;
Or the dear zone shall be my instrument,
Which left it's hold, and could not bear to see
The horrid exit of it's gentle master.
It stayed behind him to revenge his fate,
And give my rigour it's just retribution.
Unhappy zone of more unhappy swain!
Grudge not awhile to be in my possession;
For I will keep thee but to vindicate
The wrongs I've done to thy departed owner.
'Twas certainly my duty to have been
The kind companion of his earthly state;
But since profanely I've despised that duty,
I go to seek him in the future world:
I conquer the timidity of woman;
I sacrifice my life to injured love;
Perhaps that offering may propitiate Heaven,
My guilt may expiate, and entitle me
To join my shepherd in the shades below.

CHORUS.
Take comfort, Sylvia; for this accident
We should ascribe to fortune, not to thee.
The violence of grief that wrings thy soul
Would make tears flow from the most flinty nature.

SYLVIA.
Shepherds, why weep you? do you weep for me?
You prostitute your pity, if you do;
For I had no compassion for Amyntas.
For him more justly if your tears you shed,
Wipe them away; they suit not the occasion;
Too trivial an effect from such a cause.
And thou, my Daphne, too, wipe thine away;
They wound me, Daphne, and they're unavailing.
And if thy Sylvia raises this emotion,
I beg thou mayst suppress it to oblige me,
And turn thy mind to a more worthy object.
Let us perform a sadly pleasing office;
Let us our shepherd's breathless, mangled limbs
Redeem from the unhospitable rocks,
And with a decent sepulture compose them.
His grave with yew, and cypress we'll adorn,
And, with more gay religion, o'er it strew
The brightest, and most aromatick flowers,
Invoking Heaven for his eternal rest.
For nothing now but his funereal rites
Detains me longer from the realms of Pluto.
Let me perform this last, this only duty
That I can pay his memory ere I die.
And though, I'm sensible this impious hand
A work so pious may contaminate,
Yet well I know the tribute of this hand,
However impious, will be grateful to him.
His death, alas! but too completely proved
How partially, with what excess he loved me!

DAPHNE.
Yes, Sylvia, I'll assist thee in that office,
With a most amicable veneration
For the remains of our departed friend;
But on condition that thou thinkest not
Of dying, when his obsequies are over.

SYLVIA.
I've hitherto lived only to myself,
To gratify my supercilious temper:
But the few moments I have yet remaining,
Devoutly will I dedicate to him:
Those marks of love I'll show Amyntas dead,
Which I would never give his graceful person,
When animated with it's tender soul.
But a short period I assign my life;
Soon after I've inhumed my lover's body,
Mine by the nymphs and swains shall be interred.
Amyntas' grave shall be made large enough
To hold the corpse of each; we have, in life,
Been, by my folly, kept too much asunder;
Then let us in the tomb repose together.
Pray, shepherd, show me where my lover lies.

MESSENGER.
Daphne will show thee: 'tis not far from hence.

DAPHNE.
Yes, I'll conduct thee; well I know the place.

SYLVIA.
Shepherds, farewell, the heavenly powers preserve you.
Ye trees, ye rivulets, ye hills, adieu!
Adieu, for ever to the bloom of nature!

MESSENGER.
Shepherds, this nymph, without our watchful care,
The fate of her Amyntas soon will share;
Her gesture, look, and words bespeak despair.

CHORUS.