University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

The Council Chamber.
Osbert, Osric, Edwin, and Lords, rising from Table.
Osbert.
The dawn has almost stolen upon our councils.
Here break we up; and let a short repose
Fit us for weightier toils.
[Exeunt all but Osbert and Osric.
No ray of hope, thou sayest—
No glimpse, however distant, that may serve
To light me to my wishes?

Osric.
None, my lord.
Cold as a marble emblem of the dead,
By some chill vault incircled from the world,
Rowena's every sense is shut, alike,
To love as to ambition—Yet the turns,
The strange events that lodge within the womb
Of wide futurity, alike forbid
Despondence, as presumption.

Osbert.
There I cast
One little grain, where hope may yet take root
In possibility—For, O my friend,
My father! who hast given me, by thy councils,
My better birth—a birth, wherein alone
Existence can have worth, my birth in virtue!—
Already does my soul attempt for freedom;
And, from the fetters and the gloom of guilt,
Gets all aloft, and soars within my bosom.
I feel new being, joyous, calm, humane,
The kindly offices of man to man,
How sweet the intercourse!—of kings to all,
Thrice blest prerogative!

Osric.
True, my loved liege—
When monarchs stoop to act, and feel like men,
They rise a flight o'er angels.

Osbert.
Yes, my Osric,
The foe who meets the ardour of to-morrow,
I think was born when luckless planets ruled.
I pant for day—I pant, to shew my people,
What deeds their king shall dare in their defence,
The first in danger, as the first in office.
But I detain thy age from needful rest;
Thy couch expects thee—this one warm embrace
Shall yield thee till the morning.

Osric.
First of kings,
Thrice valiant Osbert,—may thy future reign
Rise, like the coming sun, upon the world,
Chearful to man, dispensing light and life!
And after a long course of wide beneficence,
Retire, when late, to Heaven, and set in glory!
[Exit Osric.

Enter an Officer.
Officer.
My liege, as westward we held on our rounds
Near the York Minster, we espied a man,
Of port majestic, and of shining arms,
Dazzling the night. He would have pass'd our guard;
And Anulf, Ethelbald, and valiant Oswald,
Fell by his arm—At length, by numbers quell'd,
He waits your pleasure—

Osbert.
Give him entrance. Ha!—