University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

An Apartment in the House of Fabius.
To Fabius writing, Lavinia enters.
Fabius.
I wish'd to hold some talk with you, Lavinia,
In absence of my wife.—Are you not well?

Lavin.
A slight indisposition, my good lord?

Fabius.
Wherefore that sigh?—Why went you not to grace
The triumph?

Lavin.
O, my lord! I take small joy
In shew or tumult.

Fabius.
I have mark'd, of late,
Your looks are of the sad and pining cast—
Your eyes bend nearer to the earth, Lavinia.

Lavin.
In sooth, my honour'd patron,
I had a jealous fear, that, of late time,
Your looks past o'er me with unwonted coldness.

Fabius.
O weak misprision!—Art thou not the child
Of my adoption—even as my own offspring,
Dear to my heart?

Lavin.
Upon my bended knee,
I thank you!—But, good sir, your honour'd wife,
My lady, grows more difficult of late,
And takes my service with distaste.

Fabius.
Well, well—
Soon as her darling daughter is disposed of
To this young conqueror, your high-born step-dame
May come to better temper.—Still you sigh!

Lavin.
Your pardon, sir!—Were your first lady living,
I had not learn'd to sigh!

Fabius.
But, is there not another cause?—Perhaps,
Your thoughts, at times, may turn on that brave youth,
Whose valour wrought your great deliverance.

Lavin.
Surely—
I, else, were most ungrateful!

Fabius.
I own it.—
I have heard your general obligations to him;
But wish you would be more particular
Respecting that adventure.

Lavin.
On a visit
To my poor mother at her little farm,
The season smiled; and we o'erlook'd the pales
That faced the Appian-way. Lord Clodius came
With a proud equipage.—He pray'd admission;
But that denied, they burst the gate—I shriek'd,
And fled, and cried for help—but he pursued,
O'ertook me, and, with brutal violence,
Would—O the gods!—when I beheld his head
Struck from his shoulders!—Two of his attendants,
At two strokes more, lay breathless! The rest join'd
To fall on my defender—but his motions,
Active as lightning, forceful as it's bolt,
Soon turn'd them to vain flight; for not a man
Survived to bear the tidings!

Fab.
'Twas a god,
A god in human form!—Did you enquire
His lineage or condition?

Lav.
Yes, my lord.
He said, he would informs us, when his actions
Should have approved him worthy of the blood
From whence he sprung. Three happy days he staid,
And held us in Elysium.
But O, his converse—how divinely sweet
Flow'd Wisdom from his youthful lips!—even Truth
Grew fairer as he talk'd!

Fab.
Soft, my Lavinia—
Here comes your step-dame!

Lav.
I'll retire, my lord.
[Exit Lavinia.