University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

The Queen's Apartment.
Astarbe.
How expectation can prolong an hour,
And make it seem a day! a tedious day!
What not yet come! the wonted hour is past.
In vain I turn my eye from walk to walk,
Sophernes is not there.—Here, every morn
I watch his pensive steps along the garden,
And gaze and wish till I am lost in love!
What not yet come! But hark! methinks I hear
The sound of feet! How my heart pants and flutters!
No. 'Twas the wind that shook yon cypress boughs.
Where are my views of wealth, of power, of State?
[Rises.
They're blotted from my mind. I've lost ambition.
O love, thou hast me all. My dreams, my thoughts,
My every wish is center'd in Sophernes.
Hence, Shame, thou rigid tyrant of our sex,
I throw thee off—and I'll avow my passion.

Doraspe.
I can bear to think no longer.

[Sits again.