 | Sappho |  |
352
SCENE IV.
PHAON, SAPPHO.Sap.
Traitor to love;
To honour; to the gods! abjur'd of Heav'n,
Avoid my presence!
Pha.
If repentant tears,
And sighs that rend the heart, from whence they spring,
Can plead forgiveness, Sappho, hear them plead.
Sap.
Yes; so he look'd. The sable-fringed lids
Of his false eyes thus veil'd their liquid lustre,
With modest shamefac'dness, when first he woo'd me.
Look thus on Doris, base one! Sappho towers
Above thy wiles. The god, the god inspires me!
He calls me to Leucate. Dread Apollo,
I hear, and I obey thy awful call.
Pha.
Hah! to Leucate!
Sap.
Yes, to that fam'd cliff,
Whence, dashing down into the whelming surge,
I'll die—or live to hate thee.
Pha.
My heart's Idol,
Forego this frenzy!
Sap.
Say that it were frenzy;
The wrongs, that thou hast heap'd on this poor brain,
Would justify the deed: but 'tis not frenzy;
'Tis inspiration. From yon stream it rose,
In a cærulean robe of Heav'n's own tincture.
353
Thou bad'st me fly to Liberty, or Death.
Pha.
Fly rather to these arms, to life, to love!
Sap.
Cruel! It was thy arm, that gave the blow,
Which makes life loathsome.
Pha.
'Twas the blow of error.
Sap.
Away! I will not parley with thy falsehood.
Pha.
Behold me kneel!
Sap.
Repentance comes too late.
Rise, Traitor, rise! my choice is fixt as fate.
Pha.
O! let this tender tear,
Contrition's purest dew,
My Sappho's pity move.
Sap.
No! my intense despair
Here sighs a long adieu
To Phaon, and to Love
I go—
Pha.
Yet hear—
Sap.
I go
To steep Leucate's brow.
I fly from fraud and thee.
Pha.
Yet stay—
Sap.
Deceiver! no.
The rolling waves below
Involve my destiny.
Pha.
Let Love his softest strains employ
To call thee back to him and joy.
354
In vain; we part to meet no more—
Pha. and Sap.
What agony severe!
Fate has no sharper pang in store
The love-lorn breast to tear.
[Exeunt severally.
| Sappho | |