Poems and Essays By the late William Caldwell Roscoe. (Edited with a Prefatory Memoir, by his Brother-in-law, Richard Holt Hutton) |
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 | Poems and Essays |  |
Scene II.
The inside of a Hut deep in the Woods. A bed of leaves.Peas.
(without).
What, ho! most reverend father!
Eli.
(without).
Enter! Enter!
Enter Eliduke and Peasant as before.
Peas.
This is the hut I spake of, and the bed.
[Eli. lays the body of Estreldis on the bed.
But for the hermit—
Eli.
Out belike i' the woods.
Peas.
Out! Out indeed, sir! Look! Here is his grave.
Alas, he's dead and buried. Some kind hand
Has laid his ancient bones in earth, and o'er them
Raised this rude cross to mark the spot as sacred.
Surely his soul's in heaven, for he was ever
Most charitable, and that's the nearest way to 't.
Eli.
Does Death still slay old men, then? Oh, begone!
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Sir, shall we bury her?
Eli.
Beast! she's not yet cold.
Begone, I say!
[Exit Peasant.
O soul of passion! queen of hearts! Estreldis!
Devotion's deep-eyed daughter! only fair!
Unseal those eyes, whose answering flash to mine
Was late my spring of being! Oh, unfold
Those ivory ports of hearing! Only hear,
And to your brain I'll let such music in,
Such clear-toned soundings from the heart of love,
Eloquent whispers, warm upbreathed sighs,
That, faintly mustered in their separate cells,
Your other senses, stirred by sympathy,
Shall from their functions shake the clog of death.
Or answer this my kiss with those your lips,
Moulded for this, where yet the crimson blood
Hath not renounced his painting; and your soul
Being fled away and scattered in thin air,
Suck in the half of mine, and live by that!
Then we shall die together. O fool! She's dead!
Hear! O unnatural rocks and bawling sea,
Conspirators with the felonious wind
To rob the world of comfort! You have slain
The unsurpassable child of bankrupt Nature!
O false Estreldis! Thy new paramour,
Death, is unworthy to compare to me,
Being lean and haggard, built with clanking bones,
Graceless and merciless, unused to love,
Savage, and glaring grim with empty eyes,
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O sweet, return! I am thy eldest love!
[Throwing himself on the earth.
Eliduke beats at the dim gates of death!
Will not the monster hear me? Oh, return!
| Poems and Essays | |