 | Mariamne |  |
SCENE V.
Enter Herod and Pheroras, with attendants.Herod.
What hideous sound of shrieks and dying groans
Echo'd from hence, as if by violence
A soul had left her mansion unprepar'd.
Phe.
Horrors! our sister dead!
Soh.
That villain came
[Pointing to Sameas's body.
In all the gestures of extreme despair;
Crying she brib'd him to accuse the Queen:
And having heard Arsinoe wou'd return
To null his evidence, rage and remorse
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And then he pierc'd himself.
Her.
O Salomé!
The jarring elements which compos'd thy frame,
Made thee aspiring, turbulent, and bold:
In others woe was thy supreme delight;
And most against my Queen thy malice aim'd
Her venom'd shafts: but now thy guilty blood
Will quench the flames, which thy infernal torch
Spread o'er the harvest of my nuptial joys.
Soh.
How blind, alas! to fate is the dim eye
Of dull mortality!
Her.
O Sohemus!
A thrilling horror freezeth every vein,
While I review the precipice of fate,
Where late I stood perplex'd: but one step more
Had plung'd me in th' abyss of endless woe,
A most consummate wretch!—But here she comes,
[Mariamne enters in a mourning habit.
Welcome as night with sweet refreshing shade,
And balmy dews, to the faint traveller;
Who journies o'er a waste of burning sands,
With painful steps and slow.—Remove the dead;
She hath no vengeful appetite to glut,
With such sad spectacles.
[All go out except Herod.
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