 | The triumph of music |  |
Tho' filial drops are trickling down her cheek,
Venusia first regains the power to speak:
Eager to Heaven her streaming eyes to raise,
Thus, in a burst of gratitude, she prays.
“Great God! whose gifts inspirit, or destroy,
Enable me to bear immensity of joy!
If thy kind mercy, to my heart's desire,
Had bid me from mankind select a sire,
Without a pause, Venusia's happy voice
Had gladly nam'd Manfredi as her choice.
How, for that sire, shall love and duty join,
Now God and nature have proclaim'd him mine!
His generous spirit will his child remind,
That, to her childhood by instruction kind,
Donado should her grateful care engage,
To still the storm that shakes repentant age.
Be cheer'd my early guard! none here forget
The claim of pity, or affection's debt.”
Then, as she spoke, Donado's hand she prest:
The old man wept, and weeping, kist her vest:
Now her quick eyes, that to the lawn she turn'd,
Lucilio distant from the shrine discern'd;
With kind Manfredi's gestures of applause,
The rapturous daughter from the shrine withdraws,
Swift to Lucilio's sympathetic heart
The transport of her bosom to impart;
And lead him, as her tender thoughts intend,
To clasp a foe, converted to a friend.
Venusia first regains the power to speak:
Eager to Heaven her streaming eyes to raise,
Thus, in a burst of gratitude, she prays.
143
Enable me to bear immensity of joy!
If thy kind mercy, to my heart's desire,
Had bid me from mankind select a sire,
Without a pause, Venusia's happy voice
Had gladly nam'd Manfredi as her choice.
How, for that sire, shall love and duty join,
Now God and nature have proclaim'd him mine!
His generous spirit will his child remind,
That, to her childhood by instruction kind,
Donado should her grateful care engage,
To still the storm that shakes repentant age.
Be cheer'd my early guard! none here forget
The claim of pity, or affection's debt.”
Then, as she spoke, Donado's hand she prest:
The old man wept, and weeping, kist her vest:
Now her quick eyes, that to the lawn she turn'd,
Lucilio distant from the shrine discern'd;
With kind Manfredi's gestures of applause,
The rapturous daughter from the shrine withdraws,
Swift to Lucilio's sympathetic heart
The transport of her bosom to impart;
144
To clasp a foe, converted to a friend.
| The triumph of music | |