This beating storm will crush my feeble age!
Yet let me not complain; I have a son, Just such a son as Heaven in mercy gives, When it would bless supremely: he is happy; His ardent wishes will this day be crown"d; He weds the maid he loves: in him, at least, My soul will yet taste comfort.--See; he"s here; He seems disorder"d.
_Enter_ RIVERS (_not seeing_ GUILDFORD).
_Riv._ Yes, I fondly thought Not all the tales which malice might devise, Not all the leagues combined h.e.l.l might form, Could shake her steady soul.
_Guild._ What means my son?
Where is thy bride?
_Riv._ O name her not!
_Guild._ Not name her?
_Riv._ No; if possible, not think of her; Would I could help it:--Julia! oh, my Julia!
Curse my fond tongue! I said I would not name her: I did not think to do it, but my heart Is full of her idea; her lov"d image So fills my soul, it shuts out other thoughts; My lips resolving not to frame the sound, Dwell on her name, and all my talk is Julia!
_Guild._ "Tis as it should be; ere the midnight bell Sound in thy raptur"d ear, this charming Julia Will be thy wife.
_Riv._ No.
_Guild._ How?
_Riv._ She has refus"d.
_Guild._ Say"st thou?
_Riv._ She has.
_Guild._ Why, who would be a father!
Who that could guess the wretchedness it brings, But would entreat of Heaven to write him childless!
_Riv._ "Twas but a little hour ago we parted, As happy lovers should; but when again I sought her presence, with impatient haste, Told her the priest, the altar, all was ready; She blush"d, she wept, and vow"d it could not be; That reasons of importance to our peace Forbad the nuptial rites to be perform"d Before to-morrow.
_Guild._ She consents to-morrow!
She but defers the marriage, not declines it.
_Riv._ Mere subterfuge! mere female artifice!
What reason should forbid our instant union?
Wherefore to-morrow? wherefore not to-night?
What difference could a few short hours have made?
Or if they could, why not avow the cause?
_Guild._ I have grown old in camps, have liv"d in courts; The toils of bright ambition have I known, Woo"d greatness and enjoy"d it, till disgust Follow"d possession; still I fondly look"d Through the false perspective for distant joy; Hop"d for the hour of honourable ease, When, safe from all the storms and wrecks of fate, My shatter"d bark at rest, I might enjoy An old man"s blessings, liberty and leisure, Domestic happiness, and smiling peace.
The hour of age, indeed, is come! I feel it: Feel it in all its sorrows, pains, and cares; But where, oh, where"s th" untasted peace it promis"d?
[_Exit_ GUILDFORD.
_Riv._ I would not deeper wound my father"s peace; But I would hide the cause of my resentment, Till all be known; and yet I know too much.
It must be so--his grief, his sudden parting: Fool that I was, not to perceive at once-- But friendship blinded me, and love betray"d.
Bertrand was right, he told me she was chang"d, And would, on some pretence, delay the marriage.
I hop"d "twas malice all.--Yonder she comes, Dissolv"d in tears; I cannot see them fall, And be a man; I will not, dare not meet her; Her blandishments would soothe me to false peace, And if she ask"d it, I should pardon all. [_Exit._
_Enter_ JULIA.
_Jul._ Stay, Rivers! stay, barbarian! hear me speak!
Return, inhuman!--best belov"d, return: Oh! I will tell thee all, restore thy peace, Kneel at thy feet, and sue for thy forgiveness.
He hears me not--alas! he will not hear.
Break, thou poor heart, since Rivers is unkind.
_Enter_ ORLANDO.
_Or._ Julia in tears!
_Jul._ Alas! you have undone me!
Behold the wretched victim of her promise!
I urg"d, at your request, the fatal suit Which has destroy"d my peace; Rivers suspects me, And I am wretched!
_Or._ Better "tis to weep A temporary ill than weep for ever; That anguish must be mine.
_Jul._ Ha! weep for ever!
Can they know wretchedness who know not love?
_Or._ Not love! oh, cruel friendship! tyrant honour!
_Jul._ Friendship! alas, how cold art thou to love!
_Or._ Too well I know it; both alike destroy me, I am the slave of both, and more than either The slave of honour.
_Jul._ If you then have felt The bitter agonies----
_Or._ Talk _you_ of agonies?
You who are lov"d again! No! they are mine; Mine are the agonies of hopeless pa.s.sion; Yes, I do love--I dote, I die for love!
(_He falls at her feet._) Julia!
_Jul._ What dost thou mean? Unfold this fatal secret.
_Or._ Nay, never start--I know I am a villain!
I know thy hand is destin"d to another, That other, too, my friend, that friend the man To whom I owe my life! Yes, I adore thee; Spite of the black ingrat.i.tude, adore thee; I dote upon my friend and yet betray him; I"m bound to Emmelina, yet forsake her; I honour virtue while I follow guilt; I love the n.o.ble Rivers more than life, But Julia more than honour.
_Jul._ Hold! astonishment Has seal"d my lips; whence sprung this monstrous daring?
_Or._ (_rises._) From despair.
_Jul._ What can you hope from me?
_Or._ Hope! nothing.
I would not aught receive, aught hope, but death.
Think"st thou I need reproach? think"st thou I need To be reminded that my love"s a crime?
That every moral tie forbids my pa.s.sion?
But though I know that heav"n has plagues in store, Yet mark--I do not, will not, can"t repent; I do not even wish to love thee less; I glory in my crime: pernicious beauty!