 | Ruth |  |
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1. PART I.
SCENE I.
A Field in Moab.Israelite Travellers, and Naomi.
RECITATIVE.
1st Isr.
Stay, brother—see, in yonder shade,
Some sable Daughter of Affliction laid!
She rises—mark her mournful air!
She looks, she moves, she breathes despair!
Too great appears her woe,
To suffer words to break away, or swelling tears to flow.
RECITATIVE Accompanied.
2d Isr.
'Tis nought to us—Come, let's be gone—
This land for us no friendship knows:
All are strangers here, and foes!—
Shall we regard a foe's distress?—no, brother, no!—pass on.
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1st Isr.
Thro' every clime, the heart humane
Is pleased to share in every pain—
There dwells a secret sense within,
To frail mortality a-kin;
And to the Child of humbling Grief,
Or friend, or foe, it brings relief!
CHORUS.
Or friend, or foe, the Child of Grief
From hearts humane will find relief!
RECITATIVE.
1st Isr.
Unhappy sister! whence the care,
That seems above thy strength to bear?
RECITATIVE.
Nao.
'Tis an incurable despair!—
RECITATIVE.
1st Isr.
Yet if our power cannot relieve, our pity sure may share.
RECITATIVE.
Nao.
Lopt from the trunk of Israel's tree,
And stript of foliage and of fruit, a blasted branch you see!
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2d Isr.
Of Israel?—O, declare thy grief!—
I hasten, now, to bring relief.
AIR.
Nao.
Ah cease—your comforts come in vain!
As on a barren rock they fall;
Whence soft descending stores of rain,
No blade of kindly growth can call.
AIR.
1st Isr.
From desolated lands,
From rugged rocks, and parching sands,
The powerful word of Israel's King
Can call the beauties of the spring!—
RECITATIVE.
His hand the wounded heart can heal—
But O, whence springs thy grief, reveal!
RECITATIVE.
Nao.
Once I was blest, supremely blest!
These arms a loved and loving consort prest—
Two sons, beside, were mine—all now, alas, no more!
Husband and children lost I'm destined to deplore!
RECITATIVE.
1st Isr.
Alas, sad matron!—May we claim
Thy tribe, thy native place, and name?
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Nao.
Of Judah's tribe, in Bethlehem's town,
Naomi once was known.
But late, when famine ravaged all our plains,
I, with my houshold, succour sought from Moab's foreign swains.
RECITATIVE.
2d Isr.
Our sister!—
1st Isr.
—O, our sister dear!
2d Isr.
Return!—
1st Isr.
—Thy kin, thy country, chear!
RECITATIVE.
2d Isr.
The LORD hath visited our land,
And on his chosen people pour'd the bounty of his hand!
AIR, Duet.
Rich verdure and blossoms again deck the spring,
Again in the groves the wing'd choristers sing;
Again the blithe milkmaid is heard at her pail,
And the ploughman's glad whistle descends on the vale.
RECITATIVE.
Nao.
Though fall my ills so heavy from his hand,
I bless the LORD who saves my native land.
Yes, happy soil! ye hills and vales of Grace!
Thou sacred, pleasing, promised place!
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Then closing bid a last adieu to mortal life and light!
AIR.
Dear Natal Earth, prepare my grave,
Receive the fading form you gave!
Dear Natal Earth, upon your breast,
The fading form you gave, shall rest!
RECITATIVE.
2d Isr.
Cease, cease, O hapless sister! cease to mourn—
Thy joyful friends shall hail thy wish'd return;
Bethlehem exulting thy approach shall greet,
And her throng'd ways spread flow'rs beneath thy feet.
AIR.
Let no wretched offspring of Adam despair—
As passes our pleasure, so passes our care!
Man's life is an April, now gloomy, now gay;
His shade and his shine fleet successive away!
To the pain thy Creator appoints thee resign,
And seize the glad moment allowed to be thine.
RECITATIVE.
Nao.
My friends, my country, now, Naomi scarce will own—
To haughty Wealth in prosperous state, the Poor remain unknown!
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1st Isr.
As o'er a treasure lost and found,
O'er thee thy kindred will rejoice around.
AIR.
O Israel, receive to thy breast,
This thy daughter, so virtuous and dear!
In thy songs be her welcome exprest,
And her diffidence lost in thy chear!
As her morning in clouds has begun,
Let her noon in its progress be bright;
And her evening, like summer's fair sun,
Leave behind it a glory of light!
END OF THE FIRST PART.
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