University of Virginia Library

ACT V.

SCENE, A solitary Heath, marked with the Ruins of an old Castle, here and there a blasted Tree.
Elvine, Edgar.
Edgar.
Forgive me, noble youth! if I presume
To rush unbidden on your secret hour.
Alas! my Lord, you come not near the camp.
From lovers and from friends you stand afar.
Even from their tents you turn away your eye.
Alone you stalk, with a disorder'd step,
And a wild eye, as if indeed you stood
A friendless man, and outcast from the world.

Elvine.
'Tis past. What have I more to do with man?
I am no member of the living world.
No friend have I among the human kind.

Edgar.
My gracious master! Heaven prevent my fears!
Alas, my aged heart will burst in twain
To see this day!—

[bursting into tears.
Elvine.
Come near me, O my friend,
Say, dost thou know me?—

Edgar.
Know you? good my Lord!
Descend, ye blessed angels, to his aid?

Elvine.
Edgar, the time has been when I was blest!
That time can come no more. In yonder camp
They think me happy, and they call me great.
—There is not such a wretch in the wide world!—

Edgar.
O might I know what wounds your peace?

Elvine
, pointing to his heart.
'Tis here,
The unseen dart that gives the mortal wound—
The malady of mind—You've known Elvina—
She is a fiend of hell—

Edgar.
My gracious master,
If right you study your repose or peace,
O judge not rashly of the maid you love!

Elvine.
I judged not rashly. Gods! what would I give
To think her innocent? But, I've such proof:
Such shining, flaming, damning proof; her hand,
Her own hand-writing—Ah! departed hours
That saw us happy, ye can ne'er return!
The circle of my friends was all my world;
That world has vanish'd—Oh! the dreadful fall
Of those we love from honour and from fame,
Comes like the general wreck—No future time,
Not all the vast variety of thought,
Can bring one smiling image to my mind;
Can raise one ray of hope to break the gloom
That closes o'er my head.—From thought to thought
Restless I plunge; 'tis darkness; 'tis despair.
Would I could think no more!—

Edgar.
Forget the false one.
A worthless woman merits not a thought;
Your country calls you. Rise to higher thoughts.
The Dauphin comes.

Elvine.

Enter Elvina.
[He turns aside from her.

Elvine.
I've known the time
When Elvine's name, from his Elvina's voice,
Which knows its tender way yet to my heart,
Would have seduced me from my post in war.
Now thou art chang'd!—

Elvina.
Chang'd! I can never change.
O Elvine let me know—

Elvine.
Yes. Thou shalt know;
And thou shalt hear me—for the last time hear me.
For to the field of battle straight I go,
From which, if steel can pierce an open breast,
I never shall return. For Oh! Elvina,
I cannot with thee—nor without thee, live!

Elvina.
My Lord, thy words I cannot comprehend;
But, Oh! I tremble at thy look so wild.

Elvine.
Oh! once I loved thee! Gods! Gods, how I loved thee!
Each night, retiring from the ranks of war,
You came an angel to my constant dream.
The dear idea met me in the morning.
I ne'er put on my armour but I thought
On her whose knight I was, whose scarf I wore.
Even in the wildness of my youthful mind
I never wandered from Elvina's charms.
While she—O heavens!—

Elvina.
Guard me, ye gracious powers!
Dark are your words, but they are daggers, Elvine!
Have I deserv'd reproach from him I loved?
O it was all my pleasure, all my pride,
My joy in secret, and my public vaunt;
It soothed me in the hour of my despair,
That when your friends forsook you, I alone
Was just and grateful to an injur'd youth;
More just, more grateful, than he proves to me!

Elvine.

Elvina.
Done, my Lord!
I am afraid you are disturb'd in mind.

Elvine.
Disturb'd in mind! Yes, I'm disturb'd in mind.
I've that within which none of all the damn'd
Can bear in burning hell—for I have lost—
O, I have lost the treasure of my soul!
My heart is torn from all that it held dear—

Elvina.
I fear some traitor has abused thine ear.
Come to particulars, I charge thee. Speak.

Elvine.
O woman! Woman! woman! ask thy heart.

Elvina.
O Elvine, 'tis a kind one! how it beats!

Elvine.
Yes it can beat—can beat for all mankind.
I am your fool no more.—

Elvina.
Suspicion, Heavens!
Dost thou not know me? What is there on earth
Whereon to rest, but that eternal rock,
The heart of those we love? And can that fail?—
Alas! why didst thou save me from the sword
To kill me thus? Would I had died this day!
For then I suffered, then I would have died
For thee!—

Elvine.
For me! This is th'extreme of guilt:
Th'unpardonable crime! Serene to give
The front of virtue to the soul of vice.
For me!

Elvina.
Perhaps we ne'er shall meet again!
In this last moment, Elvine! I conjure thee
By the bless'd memory of what we were!
By all the tender hours that we have pass'd!
The days of dearness, and the loves of youth!
Our fond romantic hopes of future bliss!
The sighs we breath'd in sympathy of soul,
The tears we mingled in that tender hour,
You laid your cheek to mine, and fervent seal'd
The sacred vow of everlasting love!
By all that's past, I charge thee, tell me, tell
What is that crime, so flagrant and so foul,
To cast me from thy bosom?

Elvine
, in tender emotion.
Oh! Elvina.

Elvina.

Elvine.
Oh! Elvina!
Tho' lost, I cannot see thee thus.

Elvina.
Then thus,
Elvine, I claim my empire in thy arms.

[Rushing to his arms.
Elvine
repulsing her.
Off, off, false woman!—Ah! there was a time—

Elvina
with a broken voice.
Heavens!

Elvine.
Hell! that is thy element.

Elvina.
What crime?

Elvine.
Oh! Infidelity.

Elvina.
What villain hath belied me?

Elvine.
No villain.

Elvina.
Who then?

Elvine.
Thy father.

Elvina.
What evidence?

Elvine.
Thy letter.

Elvina.
Where?

Elvine.
I tore it in my wrath,
As I will rend that ruffian of a lover,
And give his spirit to the shades of hell.
[The trumpet sounds for battle.
Lady, we part for ever and for ever!
I go without a tear; for thou art fallen
Below the most abandoned of thy kind.
God! has that sex thy sanction to deceive?
To shew a daemon in the shape of heaven,
And look like angels, while the're devils damn'd!

[Elvina standing fixed in astonishment and despair, Albemarle and Emma come up to her; she faints in their arms.
Emma.
She's gone! my noble Lady, gone!—

Albemarle.
Help, Heaven!
Ye saints and angels, help—!
[Bending over her in silence,
Ha! she revives!—

Elvina.
Where am I now? Ah! it avails me not,
For I can never be what once I was.
Elvine is parted, never to return.

Albemarle.
The battle is begun. The sword is drawn.
Convicted of thy falsehood, Elvine goes.
Wild in the field to throw his life away,
And bare his bosom to the certain sword
Held out.—

Elvina.
He might have known, he should have known,
That his Elvina never would prove false.

Albemarle.
How could he doubt it when I told him so?

Elvina.
My father my accuser!

Albemarle.
O, my child!
Thy letter to the Dauphin—

Elvina.
To the Dauphin!
No letter to the Dauphin I e'er sent.

Albemarle.
This morn the French Ambassador produced it
Before the Barons: We have read it all.

Elvina.
O Heaven! that letter was address'd to him,
To Elvine.—

Albemarle.
Elvine? Have a care, my child!—

Elvina.
To Elvine it was written—Emma knows it.
Ha! when I ponder!—My disordered mind
Forgot th'address.—The curs'd Ambassador
Supplied the blank, and mark'd it for the Dauphin.

Albemarle.
O, this unfolds the fatal mystery!
My child is innocent.

[Taking her in his arms.
Elvina.
But I'm undone.
Eternal destiny! this is thy work.
Ready to rush upon the certain sword
He goes devoted—Oh! he never knew
How much I loved him! to distraction lov'd him!
Knew not the throbs, the palpitations wild,
Th'unutterable heavings of a heart
Where reign'd his image.—Now to death he goes,
And thinks me false—O heaven, amid my woes,
My flowing miseries, for him I weep:
For Elvine is as wretched—as Elvina!

Albemarle.
[Sounds heard.
'Tis o'er. The signal of pursuit is given.

Emma.
Crowds chacing crowds, and flashing arms I see,
And garments stain'd with blood. 'Tis like the storm,
When heaven, and earth, and ocean mingle war.

Enter suddenly Edgar.
The battle's over, and the foe is fled.
Her sudden effort made, vain-glorious France
Forsook the field.

Elvina.
Ha! Elvine? Where?—

Edgar.
Aghast,
Long did he look this way, with aspect wild:
His hands in agony extreme he wrung;
With faultering voice, in broken sounds, he cried
“I've conquered—now I perish—Oh! Elvina!”
Then, with determin'd hand, his sword he drew,
And instant plung'd amid the hostile ranks,
Which clos'd behind him.

Albemarle.

Elvina.
Aye: To the grave.

Albemarle.
O look not on me with that eye forlorn!

Elvina.
Never, Ah! never shall I see him more!—

Albemarle.
No friend, no comforter have I on earth
But thee, my child! My daughter, live for me.—

Elvina.
It glooms! Shall I not find thee in the tomb.
Oh! Elvine! Elvine!—

Enter suddenly Elvine.
Here I am, Elvina—
Forgive me, O my love! I knew thee not,
I sought the Dauphin thro' the ranks of war;
We fought; he fell the victim of my sword:
It was th'Ambassador, like him array'd,
Who told his guilt; thy innocence; and died.
Angelic goodness! What can e'er attone
For foul suspicion of thy spotless fame;
Thou fairest, and thou best of woman kind?

Elvina.
Words cannot speak the language of my heart.
'Twas fatal destiny. Yet Elvine, know,
The pang which pierc'd me most, was what thou felt.

Elvine.
Look on the past as but a dreary dream.
Oh! let me find forgiveness in thy arms!

[Embracing.
Albemarle.
Heavens bless you both, my children! Now, in peace,
My hoary head shall to the grave descend.

Enter in PROCESSION,
Archbishop, Barons, Knights.
Archbishop, with MAGNA CHARTA in his hand, To Elvine.
Albemarle.
Let unborn ages echo to the sound!
Now England, rising from the dust, resumes
Her name among the nations, and unfolds
The page of glory to remotest time.
The memory of this day will raise a race
Of daring spirits in the dregs of time.
A nation of the brave, a kingly people,
Bold in the cause of freedom and their fathers,
And for their country prodigal of blood.

Archbishop
, in emotion.
From future time the veil is drawn aside.
The hidden volume opens to mine eye,
And lo! they rise!

Albemarle.
He trembles, and he glows
Like ancient prophets when they felt the God.

Archbishop.
Barons, this glorious day, this hallowed ground
Shall never be forgot; to Runnamede,
The field of freedom, Britain's sons shall come,
Shall tread where heroes and where patriots trod,
To worship as they walk!

Albemarle.
Rapt into heaven,
High visions pass before the holy man;
His tranced accent is the voice divine.

Archbishop.
The day of Britain now begins to dawn,
Red in its rise. Heaven opens: And behold
The hours of glory and the morn of men
Ascending o'er the globe. An aera new,
The last of ages now begins to roll,
The reign of liberty. The Goddess comes
Down from high heaven; her garment dyed in blood:
The sword refulgent in her lifted hand.
She looks: And fixes, never to remove,
Her throne and sceptre in Britannia's isle.

Elvine.
O blest of heaven, who shall behold the day
Of Britain shine!

Archbishop.
The Queen of isles behold,
Sitting sublime upon her rocky throne,
The region of the storms! She stretches forth,
In her right hand, the sceptre of the sea,
And in her left the balance of the earth.
The Guardian of the globe, she gives the law:
She calls the winds, the winds obey her call,
And bear the thunder of her power, to burst
O'er the devoted lands, and carry fate
To Kings, to nations, and the subject world.
Above the Grecian or the Roman name,
Unlike the great destroyers of the globe,
She fights and conquers in fair Freedom's cause.
Her song of victory the nations sing:
Her triumphs are the triumphs of mankind.