University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

The theatre represents a rocky shore, with a distant prospect of the sea; beyond which is seen still more faintly a city.
Several Men and Women in affliction.
A Man.
Behold, my friends, behold the dismal scene,
Where never summer treads, nor spring serene,
But everlasting winter low'ring o'er,
Deforms the bleak, uncomfortable shore.

A Woman.
Here, where the wild beast lurking in his den,
Avoids the haunts of no less savage men;
Among these rocks the horrid cavern lies,
Doom'd to receive the Royal sacrifice.

Chorus.
Oh dreadful sentence! unrelenting fate!
Mourn, all ye sons of prostrate Persia, mourn;
From hence let sorrow take an endless date,
Tears follow tears, and sighs to sighs return;
In an eternal course of piercing woe,
Such as from shame, despair, and grief, should flow.

A Man and a Woman.
A nymph adorn'd with ev'ry grace,
So soft a form, so fair a face,
With Venus she may vie:
Like some sweet flow'r, untimely crop!
Ah, must she fade! ah, must she drop!
Ah! must she, must she die?

A Man.
Soft! break ye quickly off! west o'er the beach,
Far as the eye its piercing beams can stretch:
Lo! where the victim, 'midst a mournful throng,
In solemn, slow procession, moves along.

A Woman.
She comes a living coarse; what eye but weeps
At the sad spectacle?—Now, Sun, eclipse!
At once the lover and the God assume,
And snatch her trembling from th'untimely tomb.