 | Mustapha |  |
171
SCENE IX.
Back Scene opening discovers the mutes and soldiers in attitudes of grief round the body of Mustapha. They bring it forward.Zanger,
entering.
Alas! my brother—dead!—Look here, just heaven!
I could not save—but I can perish with thee.
[stabs himself.
Solyman.
What hast thou done?—Wert thou too leagu'd against me?
Yet live: my heart forgives, and bids thee live.
Zanger.
Not universal rule should bribe me now
Longer to breathe this tainted air—My Lord—
By those soft tears of pity and remorse
You shed o'er this sad scene—Support me, friends—
To dying friendship grant this last request—
Beneath one marble let us rest together:
In the same social tomb our human part
Sleep safe and undisturb'd—Now, Mustapha—
Now, I am thine—for ever!
Solyman.
O my sons!
Did ever age produce such god-like worth?
Such matchless friendship?—Ah—what then am I—
Their murderer!—Hide, hide me from that thought.
O let me plunge into profoundest night!
Let her broad wing with ever-during shade
Involve my memory! lest fame should tell,
Should publish to remotest time—I clos'd
A life of glory—thus!
| Mustapha | |