 | Poems, dramatic and miscellaneous |  |
SCENE I.
A Camp near Rome.ÆTIUS and GAUDENTIUS.
Ætius.
A solemn stillness reigns throughout the camp;
The hostile sound of martial musick's hush'd;
A truce agreed, the proud Attila gives,
Perhaps, a short liv'd peace to bleeding Rome:
But nations pouring from their frozen dens,
Rough, naked boors, from every northern wild,
Untutor'd, or by nature, or by art,
With scarce a trait that speaks the species man,
Except the semblance of the human form,
Must be the chosen scourge, by heaven design'd,
To chasten Rome for that tyrannick sway
Usurp'd and stretch'd o'er all her wide domain,
And proudly held by her remorseless sword;
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That trod down nations, trampled on the necks
Of mighty kings, and taught her weaker foes.
To fear alike her senators and gods.
Gaudentius.
Though from each quarter of the peopled globe
Some hostile foe, or new invader rise,
Imperial Rome must ever awe the world.
Ætius.
With hideous shouts the northern hords retir'd
O'er the bleak mounts to Sogdiana's wilds;
But fierce Attila look'd indignant back
On weaken'd Rome, by luxury undone;
Flush'd with success, by vulgar kings ador'd,
Who watch his nod and tremble at his frown,
The Scythian savage left the Latian shore,
Like some wild beast just gorg'd with human blood,
Full glutted with his prey, to breathe awhile
In his ferocious den—to whet his taste
For new refreshing hecatombs of blood.
Gaudentius.
Extreme distress unites the firm and brave;
True virtue might each obstacle surmount;
Rome, like a phenix, from her smoking towns,
Dissolving columns, cities wrapt in flames,
Might vet emerge and more illustrious shine,
If party rage and luxury should cease,
And peace give time to make a just reform
Through each corrupted channel of the law;
Or if simplicity again returns,
And government more energy assumes,
Her ancient codes restor'd on equal terms,
She yet might reign from Danube to the Po.
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There's little hope from such a noble source;
So chang'd her manners, so debas'd the mind
By faction, pride, intemperance and lust.
Lost in inglorious ease, all valour melts
Beneath incrusted roofs, emboss'd with gold,
Egyptian pearls and emeralds of the East.
The sword alone is all that Rome can boast
That bears affinity to former fame;
Yet see the sons of Romulus dismay'd,
The trembling youth of Italy alarm'd
Whene'er the trumpet summons to the field.
Before the vernal equinox returns
To cheer the Hetrurian plains, war wakes anew;
I saw the tyger gnash his hungry teeth
When fair Honoria's ample dower was nam'd,
On which the savage stipulated peace;
This brings him back to claim his royal bride.
Gaudentius.
But while transported with the youthful charms
Of beauteous Elda—taken to his bed;
Amidst barbarick pomp—he may forget
Both enmity and gold and his Honoria,
Till Rome's prepar'd to meet him in the field.
[Exeunt:
| Poems, dramatic and miscellaneous | |