 | Poems, dramatic and miscellaneous |  |
78
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,
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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.
The multitude disarm'd—I leave their lives;
Plebeian slaves may tremble and retire;
But all of noble or patrician blood,
Of ev'ry age and sex, my prisoners are.
Plebeian slaves may tremble and retire;
But all of noble or patrician blood,
Of ev'ry age and sex, my prisoners are.
Go thou, and tell the empress to prepare,
First, to receive her sovereign in the palace—
Then with her daughters, follow him to Carthage.
First, to receive her sovereign in the palace—
Then with her daughters, follow him to Carthage.
[Exeunt.
| Poems, dramatic and miscellaneous | |