University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

Scene Ismena's Apartment in Elmerick's House.
Enter Ismena alone.
When we are bless'd even to our utmost wish,
Is it the nature of the restless mind
To work its own disquiet, and extract
Pain from delight? O Elmerick! my life,
My lord, my husband! when I count with transport
Thy amiable virtues, when I think
How fair a treasure I possess in thee,
I'm lost in scenes of soft, bewild'ring bliss;
Yet fear, I know not why, some fatal change
May rob me of my happiness.

Enter Bathori.
Bath.
So melancholy, and alone, my daughter!

Ism.
My Lord is with some Nobles of the States.

Bath.
You shou'd remember 'tis the greatest honour
To be so oft consulted, so rever'd
By men who stand the foremost in their country.

Ism.
Remember too, how dear a sacrifice
My Elmerick made, when he forsook retreat,
And chang'd our solid peace for courts and senates.
We knew no want, no avarice, no ambition:
Intruding business and corroding cares,
Though hid beneath the pomp of wealth and power,
Must take from our felicity; who find,
Each in the other, what the world besides
Is much too poor to give.

Bath.
You must not weigh
Your single quiet with the good of millions.
Your noble husband's rank and high abilities
Have destin'd him the servant of his country:
For Elmerick has every gift of Heaven
That renders publick care a debt to virtue,
And soft retirement poor, unmanly baseness.

Ism.
Still you forget the graces that have made
Your only child, your lov'd Ismena, happy.

Bath.
Thou dearest comfort of thy father's age!
My heart is pleased that thou art mindful of them.
Your well placed love, this tender gratitude,
Are proofs you merit, what you justly boast of,
To have the hand and heart, to be the wife
Of Elmerick—I cannot praise thee higher.

Ism.
The highest praise my vainest wish aspires to,
Is that my ardent love bears some proportion
To its exalted object.

Bath.
Both are happy;
And Heaven preserve you so!—I judge that now
The States may be assembling in the Palace,
As summon'd by the King. He has not met them
Since they elected Elmerick their Palatine,
Pursuant to the grant he gave his people.
He means this morning to appoint a Regent,
Then to set forth for Palestine.

Ism.
What dangers
He generously meets!

Bath.
For me, I own,
I ne'er approv'd this rash, romantick war,
Begot by hot-brained bigots, and fomented
By the intrigues of proud, designing priests.
All ages have their madness, this is ours.
The King is wise, benevolent and brave,
But covetous of Glory to excess;
And if he steer amiss, 'tis in a torrent
That bears down all before it.

Ism.
His fair Queen,
No doubt, will greatly mourn so long an absence.

Bath.
Perhaps she may.—Yet—I cou'd wish, Ismena,
(I speak in confidence and with concern)
The Queen were wise, and gentle like thy self.

Ism.
My place and near attendance on her person
Have given me means to know her, and, 'tis sure,
To Nature none owes more.

Bath.
Yes, I confess,
Matilda wants not charms, sharp female wit,
And dignity of form; but her warm passions,
And the wild eagerness with which she follows
Each gust of inclination, may, I fear,
Prove dangerous to herself, the King and Realm.

Ism.
Detraction cannot say she e'er transgrest
The strictest bounds of virtue.

Bath.
Suppose her chaste, 'tis pride, not virtue in her.
Can she be virtuous, who beheld, unmoved,
The treacherous arts of her licentious brother
To tempt your virgin honour, while he stay'd
To grace his sister's nuptials, and stained Buda
With his Moravian riot?

Ism.
I reveal'd
Her thoughtless conduct, which indeed amazed me,
Only to you, my Father.—Let it die:
Be all her errors mended and forgot,
Her worth improv'd and honour'd.

Bath.
Nay, I wish it:
Wou'd I cou'd add, with truth, I hop'd it too!—
Thou dearest pleasure of my ebbing life,
With thee conversing, I forgot the hours
Were passing on—I go: The States demand me.

[Exeunt separately.