Elvira A Tragedy |
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| 7. | SCENE VII. |
 | Elvira |  |
SCENE VII.
ALONZO, ELVIRA, DON PEDRO.ALONZO.
My son!
DON PEDRO.
My King and father!
Elvira—from the grave to me restor'd!
To these despairing arms!—and you my little ones!
ELVIRA.
O I am blest—beyond all utterance blest!
And my transported heart—Ah me—
ALONZO.
Elvira!
Thy cheek is pale!
ELVIRA.
Oh I have death within me!
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This flood of Joy, my soul's best happiness,
O'erpowers thy tender frame.
ELVIRA.
Ah no, I burn:
A kindled furnace rages in my bosom—
Convulsions shake me—sweats of death bedew
My trembling limbs!
DON PEDRO.
O Source of life! look down
With pity on her—
ELVIRA.
Ha! a sudden night
Spreads dark around—You swim before my eyes—
Their light is lost!—but I will hold you fast—
Again I burn!
ALONZO.
O most inhuman Queen!
This Stygian draught, too sure, was by thy hand,
Thy fatal hand prepar'd.
DON PEDRO.
Did heaven look on
And suffer this?—Yet, by my soul's strong anguish!
Not she alone, her Spain shall weep in blood
This deed accurst!
ELVIRA.
'Tis past—Don Pedro, love
My memory—Alonzo, cherish these—
O my poor babes!—and bless their dying mother!
But that fair princess—yes, reward for me
Her nobleness of virtue—My lov'd Lord!
These arms would fold thee still—but Oh—
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She dies—
In that last sigh the gentle spirit fled!
DON PEDRO.
Mine shall rejoin it, ere it finds that heaven
Prepar'd for souls like hers—I will not live?
This sword restor'd—
ALONZO
, seizing his hand.
Away—Shall fury still
Sway all thy actions? No: reward her truth
A nobler way. These Infants claim thy care:
And thou must suffer life, to guide their steps
Safe from the snares that courtly Fraud and Falsehood
Spread daily in a youthful Prince's walk;
Spread for his ruin. And now, warn'd thyself,
Let all mankind, by one example, know,
From passions unrestrain'd what mischiefs grow!
| Elvira | |