University of Virginia Library

ACT V.

SCENE I.

The Senate assembled in the Palace.—Enter an Herald.
Herald.

Senator.
Tell mighty Genseric, Petronius yields,
Appall'd and frighten'd at his potent name.
He left the city, sick of life and empire;
No more ambitious of the world's applause,
He wish'd to hide beyond the rapid Rhine;
But fate forbad—a bold Burgundian chief,
Arrested his career, and cleft him down—
Amidst the cries of citizens and friends,
Of foes to Rome, and of Edoxia's slaves.
His body, mangled by a thousand wounds,
Was thrown contemptuously from Tyber's bank.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Opens and discovers the Citizens in great Confusion—Leo at the Head of a Procession of Priests, Senators and Nobles, meet Genseric in suppliant postures, without the Palace.
Leo.
Edoxia sends all health to Genseric,
Her friend—her royal brother, and demands
Protection for the imperial house:
That no rough foot approach the palace gate,
Or hostile arm to plunder, or invade,
The royal daughters, or the wife of Cæsar.

Genseric.
Tell her that Genseric himself will haste,
To guard the princesses and Cæsar's wife.

Leo.
She begs repose after the furious storm;
And thy permission to be left retir'd,
To weep awhile the destiny of Rome;
To pour the balm of pity on the breast
Of virgin sorrow—to lift the drooping head
Of undissembled grief—hung like the lily
O'er the wasted vale—when the rough surge's
Roaring deluge sweeps down all around,
Except the naked bloom—propless and weak,
And quivering on the marge of the next tide—
Whose wat'ry wave may wash the broken fragment
From its natal soil.

Genseric.
Hymenial songs must cheer these drooping maids—
They each shall choose a Goth or Vandal lord,
And rase the lineage of the Roman name
In the warm grots of Asdrubal and Hanno,
For which their ancestors in Carthage bled,
And armies perish'd in the Lybian sands.

Leo.
Now thou art master of the Roman world,
Let clemency bespeak thee more a king,
Than all thy triumphs o'er subjected Rome.

Genseric.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

EDOXIA and LEO in the Imperial Palace.
Leo.
Fortune ingulphs thy family and throne,
Beneath her shifting tide they're floating down,
And for thine house my soul in anguish bleeds;
The capitol—thy crown—and freedom lost—
Thy daughters seiz'd, Placidia borne away,
And made the mistress of a Gothic lord,
And Genseric himself is near the palace,
With hosts of Vandals crowding in the rear.

Edoxia.
Enter Genseric.

Genseric.
A milder tone becomes a captive queen,
At whose request invaded and subdu'd,
Rome prostrate lies beneath her conquering lord.

Edoxia.
Ah! what a contrast to the splendid tale
Of Roman greatness—her illustrious fame.—

Genseric.
Empire decays when virtue's not the base,
And doom'd to perish when the parts corrupt.

Edoxia.
My soul's as hot with rage, remorse, revenge,
As are the Lybian sands when Sirius reigns,
Or the thrice heated summer solstice burns.

Genseric.
Then, to console and mitigate thy rage,
I'll haste to Tunis with the illustrious throng,
Where Hunneric, my son, shall wed Eudocia.

Edoxia.
Oh! dreadful threat—severer far than death.
Where are the sacred, celebrated shades,
Who wash'd the stains from chaste Lucretia's fame
In red libations from a tyrant's heart—
Oh! shield Eudocia—snatch her from despair.
Rescue a hapless, chaste, and friendless maid
From base, abandon'd, prostituted slaves!—

Genseric.
Fix'd as the fates that roll th' etherial orbs,
I now forbid a murmur, or a sigh.

Edoxia.
Thou may'st forbid the morning sun to rise;
Bid ocean cease to lave the pebbled shore,
Or Roman souls to mix with Vandal slaves,
And be obey'd—ere sighs are hush'd,
Or execrations cease.—

Genseric.
Each chief has seiz'd a princely Roman dame,
The booty's safe, and prosperous gales invite;
And now my guards escort the empress on.

Edoxia.
What! thus commanded in imperious strains,
To haste from Rome to Africk's scorching realms,
Where Tophet gapes and slaughter'd infants cry,
By thousands offer'd their infernal gods:—
Jehovah! why do all thy thunders sleep—
While each black crime the demons perpetrate,
Is acted o'er by this infernal race.

Genseric.
Slaves, hasten on, and seize your royal charge,
And guard her safe to Carthagena's coast.

Edoxia.

[Draws a conceal'd poignard, and attempts to stab herself.
Genseric.
Slaves, seize her hand—she must not die—
'Twill half defeat the triumph of the day.

Edoxia.
Enough of life and all life's idle pomp—
Nor by a tyrant's fiat will I live—
I leave the busy, vain, ambitious world
To cheat itself anew, and o'er and o'er
Tread the same ground their ancestors have trod,
In chace of thrones, of sceptres, or of crowns,
'Till all these bubbles break in empty air,
Nor leave a trace of happiness behind.

[Edoxia is led off in golden chains.
Genseric,
from the Palace Gates, gives Orders to the Vandal Troops.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

HUNNERIC and TRAULISTA.
Hunneric.
If or ambition, wealth, or airy fame,
Could sooth to rest, my soul would be at ease;
But yet some secret heaviness I feel,
Ne'er felt before, that rankles at the heart,
And blasts the joys of victory and conquest.

Traulista.
The world, and all its treasures at command;
And beauty, emulous to win thy love—
What can disturb thy peace?

Hunneric.
Eudocia—the lovely, weeping, tender, fair Eudocia—
She is my prize—my prisoner—my wife—
Yet every motion of her eye appals;
And when she speaks, I like a statue stare,
Unable to reply, or to withdraw.

Traulista.
These Roman maids have some enchanting arts,
That bend the boldest warrior to their smiles;
Yet they are not so cold as they may seem.

Hunneric.
She holds me by some fascinating tie,
Spite of my prowess, or superiour strength:
Did the celestial deities combine
To form her thus?—Her image makes me hate
The wanton beauties of our amorous clime.
In her majestick presence, I'm as tame,
As the young lambkin in the shepherd's cot;
I fearcely move me, lest I should offend;
It may be love—I fear it is—
Yet spurn it from my thought—yes, I adore,
My worship is profound—my veneration such
I'm tenfold more a slave than is the princess.

Traulista.
Perhaps, some darling favourite indulg'd,
May find Eudocia soft as yielding air,
Though frozen to the blandishments of love—
Cold as the Scythian snows to thine embrace;
Yet I could let a fatal secret out,
Would give a clue to wake her passions up.

Hunneric.
Ah! say Traulista;
Half my booty shall be thy reward;
And fifty captives of the fairest dames
Shall swell thy haram to the eastern stile.

Traulista.
Know, all the sex I equally despise;
And did some busy demon wake a wish
To toy and trifle with some matchless fair,
I'd puff it off;—if I could blush, the thought
Would burn my cheek.—Give me a Roman province,
Or give an army to patrole the empire,
To rid the world of their patrician pride,
Or yet more turbulent plebeian blood,
That has, for more than thirteen hundred years,
Plagu'd all mankind with their ambitious fires.

Hunneric.
Not less than thee, I hate the Roman name:
Command thy terms—though they're to govern Rome,
To wear a crown—to reign in Gaul or Spain;
Both by the cross, and by the ancient gods,
Here is my signet—claim thine own reward.

Traulista.
What if within this garden lies conceal'd
The rival of thy love?

Hunneric.
The game more easy—more secure the prey:
By all the blood Genseric's arm has spilt,
The traitor dies before the morning dawns.

Traulista.
Belov'd and favour'd by the fair Eudocia,
The brave Gaudentius waits to bear her off.

Hunneric.
Hah! the son of Ætius?—thy valiant friend?—

Traulista.

Hunneric.
Nail this Gaudentius to some grassy plot
And thou shall triumph in the capitol.

Traulista.
This night is friendly to revenge and death:
Between the gloom of midnight and the dawn,
Just light enough beneath the cypress shade
To track the heedless lover on his way:
Yet could'st thou in Eudocia's presence draw,
And lay her lover bleeding at her feet?
When she to heaven erects her lily hand,
In all the beauteous agony of grief,
Heaves up her snowy breast, and sighs—Gaudentius!

Hunneric.
'Twould sweeten my revenge, and steal my heart,
To drag her instant to my slighted bed.

Traulista.
Then on and feast thee with the luscious sight;
A triumph worthy of a Vandal prince.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

A Grotto in the Garden of the Palace—EUDOCIA solus— GAUDENTIUS approaching.
Gaudentius.

Eudocia
within, in a soft, plaintive, agonizing voice.
Oh! some kind seraph snatch my soul away,
And shroud my griefs beneath the peaceful tomb;
Or must a dagger ope a passage hence,
To set me free from Hunneric's embrace?

Gaudentius.
'Tis she herself—'tis her symphonious voice:
The murmuring maid in broken accents sighs;
Tis my Eudocia whispering to her God.
[Enters the Grotto.
Let not those sighs fear up an angel's breast;
Nor let the wreck of empire strike too deep.

Eudocia.
Hah!—who art thou that boldly dares intrude
On the last hour of this my still retreat?
Some spy of Hunneric's, to watch my steps,
Lest one short moment of repose I find,
This last sad night, ere I'm completely curs'd.

Gaudentius.
May all the powers who guard the good and just
Protect my princess!—

Eudocia.
Hah! my belov'd Gaudentius!—
Dost thou yet live, through all the perils
Of a barbarous siege, to see Eudocia
Snatch'd from thy lov'd arms?—Alas! my fate,
To what a hated rival am I doom'd!

Gaudentius.
I had not liv'd but for Eudocia's sake.

Eudocia.
Yet save a life much dearer than my own;
Nor linger here, 'tis on the verge of death:
Leave me to perish in my country's fall.

Gaudentius.
Not all the clangor, or the din of arms,
Or roughen'd tempests, whose impetuous blasts,
In fiery bolts, may rive the mountains up,
Again shall tear me from my lov'd Eudocia.

Eudocia.
My lips can't utter, nor my tongue express,
The anguish that my tortur'd soul endures:
'Twas early duty nurs'd my infant love,
And strictest virtue sanctifi'd the flame,
'Till Valentinian fell—alas! no more;
Nature—religion—reason—filial love,
Forbid a union with the son of Ætius.

Gaudentius.
My brain grows hot—it kindles to distraction—
This night secures my bliss—or—certain death.

Eudocia.
Oh! live Gaudentius—live for Rome's defence;
Nor rob thy country of so brave an arm.
Not crowns, or sceptres, or the world besides,
Has aught to balance with my love for thee;
Yet urge no more—fly hence and save thyself—
One parting sigh—one solemn, last adieu—
Then, for thy country's sake, forget Eudocia.

Gaudentius.
Not till the pulse of life forgets to play,
And death's cold dews pervade my quivering lip.
Within this garden will I find a grave,
Unless my princess dares an enterprise,
Which lost this night, may never more return;
I must attempt thy rescue ere the morn.

Eudocia.
In what new horror would this scene involve?

Gaudentius.
Arouse thy noble fortitude of mind—
'Tis the decisive hour—the next subjects
To Hunneric's embrace.—

Eudocia.
Not all that nature shudders at in death,
Has half the terrors that his name conveys;
Oh! save, if possible—prevent my fate.

Gaudentius.
Then fly with me from misery supreme.

Eudocia.
The port of Ostia's shut—and all the seas
Fill'd with Genseric's fierce piratic slaves:—
Where can the wretched fly?

Gaudentius.
Fly any where from Hunneric and death.

Eudocia.
Alas! my heart—my weak, my wavering heart!

Gaudentius.
Come, let us move to yonder small alcove;
The brave Traulista, whom Genseric trusts,
Most fortunately heads the nightly watch,
Patroles the posts until the morning dawns;
The moment that the midnight bell resounds,
He brings a Vandal garb for my Eudocia,
And aids our flight to the Tarentiae sea.

Eudocia.
Traulista!—I like not this Traulista—
Traulista has a rough, a savage soul,
Wrought up to treasons of the darkest hue.

Gaudentius.
His life he owes to Ætius and myself.

Eudocia.
But gratitude can never bind the base:
An infidel to God—there is no tie—
No principle to bind a worthless heart.

Gaudentius.
Hs is my friend; come, dissipate distrust.

Eudocia.
A thousand spectres stare on every side.

Gaudentius.
Let's lose no time, nor let thy fears retard;
[He offers to lead her out of the Bower.
The hazy moon enwraps her tranquil face,
And hides behind a thin transparent cloud,
Lest she betray, by her resplendent beam
Thy trembling step—the terror in thy eye.

[Moving slowly on.
Eudocia.
Methinks I hear some speedy foot advance.

[She starts back.
Gaudentius.
My generous friend anticipates the hour.

Eudocia.
Lie still, my heart—
Nor burst the brittle casement of my breast.

Enter SERVANT.
Servant.
Away, my lord—fly to the thickest shade,
Or, ere thou can'st escape, thou art undone.

Gaudentius.
Hah! betray'd!—

Servant.
Two ruffians arm'd, crawl round the citron walk—
They nam'd Gaudentius—I stay'd to hear no more—
But rush'd—and shot across the darken'd grove,
To serve the princess and to save my lord.

Gaudentius.
Alas! my faithful Cassio—thou'rt too late,
Yet as a soldier will I sell my life.

Enter HUNNERIC and TRAULISTA.
[Gaudentius makes a furious pass and mortally wounds Traulista.]
Traulista.
Death to my hopes—damnation to his hand!—

Gaudentius.
Oh! heavens! Traulista—art thou the villain—
Traitor—dastard—slave—lurking in secret,
To betray thy friends?

Traulista.
Coward, come on—
To brave in words thou may'st a dying man;
Yet know I've life enough to dash to hell,
And send thy puny soul to Pluto's shades,
For daring once to threat Traulista's life.

Gaudentius.
High heaven has levell'd at thy treacherous heart
The fatal stroke that justice' hand demands.

Traulista.
Now are there deities or devils—ghosts or gods,
I'd thank them all had he have dy'd before me.
My eye balls sink—my stiffen'd fibres fail!—
Haste, Charon—with thy boat—and set me o'er
The Stygian pool—blot out this being—
'Tis a curse to man—yet if these Romans live
In other worlds, I would exist again,
To chase them from Elysium, as from Rome.

[Dies.
Hunneric.
Seize this young furious prince, and on the rack
[To his Guards.
Extend each limb—with heated pincers tare,
'Till I have time to find new tortures out.

Gaudentius.
Not thee, nor death, nor tortures do I fear,
Would angel guards and ministers of fate
First snatch Eudocia from thy loath'd embrace—
Yet know, Gaudentius dies not as a slave.

[He rushes forward and engages Hunneric, who mortally wounds him.—Eudocia runs between their swords, and offers her breast to Hunneric.]
Eudocia.
Strike here, most noble Hunneric—end my pain—
Now if thy soul can do one generous deed
Emancipate thy prisoner—enhance the gift—
Nor like a niggard do thy work by halves;
But let me die with him, my life, my lord,
My husband, my Gaudentius.

Hunneric.
No, my Eudocia, live—thou art my queen.

Eudocia.
If hell's dark empire had a charm for me,
Then I might wish to be the Vandal queen.

Gaudentius.
Adieu, my fair—adieu, my lov'd Eudocia—
Adieu to glory, empire and renown!— [Falls.


Eudocia.
Oh! stay Gaudentius—let me assuage thy wounds,
Support thy drooping head one moment more—
Then I accompany my much lov'd lord.

[She faints.
Hunneric.
Slaves, bear her off—these are the sex's tricks—
While her fond eyes hang on her paramour
She'll play them o'er, and weep, and sigh, and rave,
And faint again—yet cannot die with grief—
But in mine arms she'll sink an easy bride.

Eudocia.
[The guards attempt to force her from the corpse of Gaudentius.]