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Myr.

Hold! no, no, it cannot be.

Sal. I am sped, then!

Myr.

With the blood that fast must follow

The extracted weapon, I do fear thy life.

Sal. And I not death. Where was the king when you Convey'd me from the spot where I was stricken?

Sol. Upon the same ground, and encouraging With voice and gesture the dispirited troops Who had seen you fall, and falter'd back.

Sal.

Named next to the command?

Sol.

Whom heard ye

I did not hear.

Sal. Fly, then, and tell him, 'twas my last request
That Zames take my post until the junction,
So hoped for, yet delay'd, of Ofratanes,
Satrap of Susa. Leave me here: our troops
Are not so numerous as to spare your absence.
Sol. But prince▬▬▬▬▬

Sal.

Hence, I say! Here's a courtier and

A woman, the best chamber company.
As you would not permit me to expire

Upon the field, I'll have no idle soldiers

About my sick couch. Hence! and do my bidding!

[Exeunt the Soldiers.

Myr. Gallant and glorious spirit! must the earth So soon resign thee?

Sal.

Gentle Myrrha, 'tis

The end I would have chosen had I saved

The monarch or the monarchy by this;

As 'tis, I have not outlived them.

You wax paler.

Myr.
Sal. Your hand; this broken weapon but prolongs

My pangs, without sustaining life enough,

To make me useful: I would draw it forth,

And my life with it, could I but hear how
The fight goes.

Sar.
Sal.

Is lost?

Enter SARDANAPALUS and Soldiers.

My best brother!

And the battle

Sar. (despondingly). You see me here.

Sal.

I'd rather see you thus! [He draws out the weapon from the wound, and dies.

DEATH OF JACOPO FOSCARI.

(TWO FOSCARI, Act iv. Scene 1.)

To JACOPO FOSCARI, MARINA, and the DOGE,
enter an Officer and Guards.

Offi. Signor! the boat is at the shore-the wind
Is rising-we are ready to attend you.

Jac. Fos. And I to be attended. Your hand!

Once more, father,

Doge. Take it. Alas! how thine own trembles ! Jac. Fos. No-you mistake; 'tis yours that shakes, my father,

Farewell!

[blocks in formation]

Let me support you-paler-ho! some aid there!

[blocks in formation]

Fac. Fos.

My eyes swim strangely-where's the door?

Mar.

Now, I'm ready

Away!

Let me support him-my best love! Oh, God!
How faintly beats this heart—this pulse!

Fac. Fos.

Is it the light?—I am faint.

The light!

[blocks in formation]

Mar. There's death in that damp clammy grasp. Oh, God !-My Foscari, how fare you?

Fac. Fos.

Well!

[He dies.

Offi. He's gone!

Doge.

He's free.

Mar.

No-no, he is not dead;

There must be life yet in that heart-he could not

Thus leave me.

Doge.

Mar.

Daughter!

Hold thy peace, old man !

I am no daughter now-thou hast no son.

Oh, Foscari!

Offi.

We must remove the body.

Mar. Touch it not, dungeon miscreants! your base

office

Ends with his life, and goes not beyond murder,

Even by your murderous laws. Leave his remains

To those who know to honour them.

Offi.
I must
Inform the signory, and learn their pleasure.
Doge. Inform the signory, from me, the Doge,
They have no further power upon those ashes :

While he lived, he was theirs, as fits a subject-
Now he is mine—my broken-hearted boy!

Mar. And I must live!

Doge.

[Exit Officer.

Your children live, Marina.

Mar. My children! true-they live, and I must live To bring them up to serve the state, and die

As died their father. Oh! what best of blessings
Were barrenness in Venice!

Had been so !

Doge.

Mar.

Would my mother

My unhappy children!

What!

You feel it then at last-you!-Where is now
The stoic of the state?

Doge (throwing himself down by the body). Here!
Mar.
Ay, weep on!
I thought you had no tears-you hoarded them
Until they are useless; but weep on! he never
Shall weep more-never, never more.

CAIN AND LUCIFER IN THE ABYSS OF SPACE.

(CAIN, Act ii. Scene 1.)

Cain. Oh, god, or demon, or whate'er thou art,

[blocks in formation]

Yon small blue circle, swinging in far ether,

With an inferior circlet near it still,

Which looks like that which lit our earthly night?

Is this our Paradise? Where are its walls,

And they who guard them?

Lucifer.

Of Paradise.

Cain.

Point me out the site

How should I? As we move

Like sunbeams onward, it grows small and smaller,

And as it waxes little, and then less,

Gathers a halo round it, like the light

Which shone the roundest of the stars, when I

Beheld them from the skirts of Paradise :

Methinks they both, as we recede from them,

Appear to join the innumerable stars

Which are around us; and, as we move on,
Increase their myriads.

Lucifer.

And if there should be

Worlds greater than thine own, inhabited

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