Madrigal And Trulletta :: :: University of Virginia Library

Madrigal, Trulletta.
Mad.
Hail to you horrors! hail thou house of death!
And thou, the mournful mistress of these shades!—
But, ha! what means this quivering in thy limbs?
This terror in thy eyes? these ghastly looks?
Even such a form, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,
And told the mournful tale of blazing Troy.

Trul.
Alas! some sudden ruin waits Trulletta—
My father's spirit hath been here to warn me
'Gainst something fatal, but I know not what;
For just as he began the tender caution,
A noise, not much unlike the catcall's knell,
Abridg'd the mournful tale, and down he sunk
Reluctant; yet obedient to the sound.

Mad.
O day and night, but this is wond'rous strange!
The world's last groan, wrapt in surrounding fires,
Had less amaz'd me!—was he cloath'd, or naked?

Trul.
Cloath'd in his 'custom'd garb from top to toe.

Mad.
Wore he his beaver on his head?—or cap
With cat-skin lin'd?

Trul.
His head arm'd cap a-pe.

Mad.
With, or without his apron?

Trul.
With it, Love!

Mad.
His sandals—shoes, or slippers?

Trul.
One of each.

Mad.
His beard was red?

Trul.
It was, as thou hast seen it,
Almost the colour of the rising moon.

Mad.
Seem'd it not sing'd?

Trul.
Not in the least.

Mad.
That's strange!—
I would I had been here!—it must portend
Some festinating evil—but to whom,
Or what, my comprehension fathoms not:
This is however sure, so sage a ghost
Would hardly come on an unmeaning errand.
But more of this hereafter—come, my Love!
The sad procession waits—now summon all
Thy reason's fortitude to grapple with
Affliction's potence—hark!— (Bell sounds.)
that dreadfull knell
O Cabbagino, is thy passing-bell.

A Procession.

This, and the two foregoing scenes, (in imitation of many of our modern tragedies) appear to be introduced on Mr. Bayes's principle, viz. “What a devil is the plot good for but to bring in fine things?”

Hail to you horrors! hail thou house of death!
And thou, the lovely mistress of these shades.

Fair Penitent.

This image is taken from the greatest connoissieur in human nature that ever existed, I mean our inimitable Shakespear.

This line from Hamlet.

This line, and succeeding hemistic, from Merope.

The above interrogatories, with the major part of the foregoing scene between Trulletta and the ghost, an imitation of Hamlet.

I would I had been there!

Hamlet.

It hath been often observ'd, that mechanics generally speak in the terms of their respective callings. The word fathoms is a proof, that our author is not free from this almost-universal absurdity. Dr. Humbug.