_Or._ Oh, my fair monitress! I have deserv"d Your gentle censure. Henceforth I"ll be gay.
_Em._ Julia complains, too, of you.
_Or._ Ah! does Julia?
If Julia chides me, I have err"d indeed; For harshness is a stranger to her nature.
But why does she complain? O tell me wherefore?
That I may soon repair the unwilling crime, And prove my heart at least ne"er meant to wrong her.
_Em._ Why so alarm"d?
_Or._ Alarm"d!
_Em._ Indeed you seem"d so.
_Or._ Sure you mistake. Alarm"d! oh, no, I was not; There was no cause--I could not be alarm"d Upon so slight a ground. Something you said, But what I know not, of your friend.
_Em._ Of Julia?
_Or._ That Julia was displeas"d----was it not so?
"Twas that, or something like it.
_Em._ She complains That you avoid her.
_Or._ How! that I avoid her?
Did Julia say so? ah! you have forgot-- It could not be.
_Em._ Why are you terrified?
_Or._ No, Not terrified--I am not--but were those Her very words? you might mistake her meaning; Did Julia say Orlando shunn"d her presence?
Oh! did she, could she say so?
_Em._ If she did, Why this disorder? there"s no cause.
_Or._ No cause?
O there"s a cause of dearer worth than empire!
Quick let me fly, and find the fair upbraider; Tell her she wrongs me, tell her I would die Rather than meet her anger. [EMMELINA _faints_.
Ah, she faints!
What have I said? curse my imprudent tongue!
Look up, sweet innocence! my Emmelina---- My gentle friend, awake! look up, fair creature!
"Tis your Orlando calls.
_Em._ Orlando"s voice!
Methought he talk"d of love--nay, do not mock me; My heart is but a weak, a very weak one!
I am not well--perhaps I"ve been to blame.
Spare my distress: the error has been mine.
[_Exit_ EMMELINA.
_Or._ So then, all"s over; I"ve betray"d my secret, And stuck a poison"d dagger in her heart, Her innocent heart. Why, what a wretch am I!
Ruin approaches;--shall I tamely meet it, And dally with destruction till it blast me?
No, I will fly thee, Julia, fly for ever.
Ah, fly! what then becomes of Emmelina?
Shall I abandon _her_? it must be so; Better escape with this poor wreck of honour, Than hazard all by staying--Rivers here?
_Enter_ RIVERS.
_Riv._ The same. My other self! My own Orlando!
I came to seek thee; "twas in thy kind bosom My suffering soul repos"d its secret cares, When doubts and difficulties stood before me; And now, now, when my prosperous fortune shines, And gilds the smiling hour with her bright beams, Shall I become a n.i.g.g.ard of my bliss, Defraud thee of thy portion of my joys, And rob thee of thy well-earn"d claim to share them?
_Or._ That I have ever lov"d thee, witness Heaven!
That I have thought thy friendship the best blessing That mark"d the fortune of my happier days, I here attest the sovereign Judge of hearts!
Then think, O think, what anguish I endure, When I declare, in bitterness of spirit, That we must part----
_Riv._ What does Orlando mean?
_Or._ That I must leave thee, Rivers; must renounce Thy lov"d society.
_Riv._ Thou hast been injur"d; Thy merit has been slighted; sure my father, Who knew how dear I held thee, would not wrong thee.
_Or._ He is all goodness; no--there is a cause---- Seek not to know it.
_Riv._ Now, by holy friendship!
I swear thou shalt not leave me; what! just now, When I have safely pa.s.s"d so many perils, Escap"d so many deaths, return"d once more To the kind arms of long-desiring friendship; Just now, when I expected such a welcome, As happy souls in Paradise bestow Upon a new inhabitant, who comes To taste their blessedness, you coldly tell me You will depart; it must not be, Orlando.
_Or._ It must, it must.
_Riv._ Ah, must! then tell me wherefore?
_Or._ I would not dim thy dawn of happiness, Nor shade the brighter beams of thy good fortune, With the dark sullen cloud that hangs o"er mine.
_Riv._ Is this the heart of him I call"d my friend, Full of the graceful weakness of affection?
How have I known it bend at my request!
How lose the power of obstinate resistance, Because his friend entreated! This Orlando!
How is he chang"d!
_Or._ Alas, how chang"d indeed!
How dead to every relish of delight!
How chang"d in all but in his love for thee!
Yet think not that my nature is grown harder, That I have lost that ductile, yielding heart; Rivers, I have not--oh! "tis still too soft; E"en now it melts, it bleeds in tenderness-- Farewell!--I dare not trust myself--farewell!
_Riv._ Then thou resolv"st to go?
_Or._ This very day.
_Riv._ What do I hear? To-day! It must not be: This is the day that makes my Julia mine.
_Or._ Wed her to-day?
_Riv._ This day unites me to her; Then stay at least till thou behold"st her mine.