 | Fatal Constancy |  |
157
ACT I.
A Room of State.The Hero
and his Friend meeting.
[If this manner of opening the play, tho' almost universally practised, should be thought too simple, and unaffecting, the curtain may rise slowly to soft music, and discover the hero in a reclining pensive posture, who, upon the entrance of his friend, and the ceasing of the symphony, may start from his couch, and come forward.]
Welcome, my friend; thy absence long has torn
My bleeding breast—nor hast thou heard as yet
My hapless story. 'Twas that fatal morn,
The frighted sun seem'd conscious of my grief
And hid himself in clouds, the tuneful birds
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Thinkst thou she e'er can listen to my vows?
Thinkst thou the king can e'er refuse her to me?
O if he should!—I cannot bear the thought—
The shipwreck'd mariner, the tortur'd wretch
That on the rack, the traveller that sees
In pathless desarts the pale light's last gleam
Sink in the deep abyss, distracted, lost—
—But soft ye now for Lindamira comes.
Ah cruel maid, &c. &c. &c.
And dost thou yield? ye waters gently glide,
Winds catch the sound, O thou transcending fair!
Stars fall from heaven, and suns forget to rise,
And Chaos come when Lindamira dies!
[Exeunt embracing.
End of the first Act.
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