TERESA (retires from him, and feebly supports herself O that my joy could spread its sunshine round thee!

[A pause; then presses her forehead.
O't is lost again!

This dull confused pain

Mysterious man!

Hail, potent wizard! in my gayer mood

I pour'd forth a libation to old Pluto,
And as I brimm'd the bowl, I thought on thee.
Thou hast conspired against my life and honour,
Hast trick'd me foully; yet I hate thee not.
Why should I hate thee? this same world of ours,
'Tis but a pool amid a storm of rain,
And we the air-bladders that course up and down,
And joust and tilt in merry tournament;
And when one bubble runs foul of another,

[Waving his hand to ALVAR.

The weaker needs must break.

ALVAR.

I see thy heart!
There is a frightful glitter in thine eye

[A pause, she gazes at ALVAR. Which doth betray thee. Inly-tortured man!
This is the revelry of a drunken anguish,
Which fain would scoff away the pang of guilt,
And quell each human feeling.

Methinks I can not fear thee: for thine eye
Doth swim with love and pity-Well! Ordonio-
Oh my foreboding heart? and he suborn'd thee,
And thou didst spare his life? Blessings shower on thee,
As many as the drops twice counted o'er

In the fond faithful heart of his Teresa!

It told but half the truth. O let this portrait
Tell all-that Alvar lives-that he is here!
Thy much deceived but ever faithful Alvar.

[Takes her portrait from his neck, and gives it her.

TERESA (receiving the portrait).

The same-it is the same. Ah! Who art thou?

ORDONIO.

Feeling! feeling!
The death of a man-the breaking of a bubble-
'Tis true I cannot sob for such misfortunes;
But faintness, cold and hunger-curses on me
If willingly I e'er inflicted them!

Come, take the beverage; this chill place demands it.
[ORDONIO proffers the goblet.

Yon insect on the wall,

ALVAR.

Which moves this way and that its hundred limbs,
Were it a toy of mere mechanic craft,

It were an infinitely curious thing!

But it has life, Ordonio! life, enjoyment!

And by the power of its miraculous will
Wields all the complex movements of its frame
Unerringly to pleasurable ends!

Saw I that insect on this goblet's brim

Nay I will call thee, ALVAR! [She falls on his neck. I would remove it with an anxious pity!

ALVAR.

O joy unutterable!

But hark! a sound as of removing bars
At the dungeon's outer door. A brief, brief while
Conceal thyself, my love! It is Ordonio.

For the honour of our race, for our dear father;
O for himself too (he is still my brother)
Let me recall him to his nobler nature,
That he may wake as from a dream of murder!
O let me reconcile him to himself,

ORDONIO.

What meanest thou?

ALVAR.

There's poison in the wine.

ORDONIO.

Thou hast guess'd right; there's poison in the wine.
There's poison in 't-which of us two shall drink it?
For one of us must die!

ALVAR.

Whom dost thou think me?

He would have died to save me, and I kill'd him-
A husband and a father!-

TERESA.

Some secret poison

Drinks up his spirits!

ORDONIO (fiercely recollecting himself).

Let the Eternal Justice Prepare my punishment in the obscure worldI will not bear to live-to live-O agony ! And be myself alone my own sore torment! [The doors of the dungeon are broken open, and in rush ALHADRA, and the band of MORESCOES.

Seize first that man!

ALHADRA.

She hath avenged the blood of Isidore!

I stood in silence like a slave before her

That I might taste the wormwood" and the gall,
And satiate this self-accusing heart
With bitterer agonies than death can give.
Forgive me, Alvar!

Oh!-couldst thou forget me!

[Dies.

[ALVAR and TERESA bend over the body of ORDONIO.
ALHADRA (to the Moors).

I thank thee, Heaven! thou hast ordain'd it wisely,
That still extremes bring their own cure.
That point
In misery, which makes the oppressed Man
Regardless of his own life, makes him too
Lord of the Oppressor's-Knew I a hundred men

[ALVAR presses onward to defend ORDONIO. Despairing, but not palsied by despair,

Why didst thou leave his children?

Demon, thou shouldst have sent thy dogs of hell

To lap their blood! Then, then I might have harden'd
My soul in misery, and have had comfort.

I would have stood far off, quiet though dark,

And bade the race of men raise up a mourning
For a deep horror of desolation,
Too great to be one soul's particular lot!
Brother of Zagri! let me lean upon thee.
[Struggling to suppress
her feelings.
The time is not yet come for woman's anguish,
I have not seen his blood-Within an hour
Those little ones will crowd around and ask me,
Where is our father? I shall curse thee then!

This arm should shake the Kingdoms of the World;
The deep foundations of iniquity

Should sink away, earth groaning from beneath them;
The
holds of the cruel men should fall,
strong
Their Temples and their mountainous Towers should
fall;

Till Desolation seemed a beautiful thing,
And all that were and had the Spirit of Life,
Sang a new song to her who had gone forth,
Conquering and still to conquer !

[ALHADRA hurries off with the Moors; the stage
fills with armed Peasants and Servants, Zu-
LIMEZ and VALDEZ at their head. VALDEZ
rushes into ALVAR's arms.

Delights so full, if unalloyed with grief,

[Both rise.

Wert thou in heaven, my curse would pluck thee thence! Were ominous. In these strange dread events

Zapolya;

A CHRISTMAS TALE.

IN TWO PARTS.

Πὰρ πυρὶ χρὴ τοιαῦτα λέγειν χειμῶνος ἐν ὥρα.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE form of the following dramatic poem is in humble imitation of the Winter's Tale of Shakspeare, except that I have called the first part a Prelude instead of a first Act, as a somewhat nearer resemblance to the plan of the ancients, of which one specimen is left us in the Eschylian Trilogy of the Agamemnon, the Orestes, and the Eumenides. Though a matter of form merely, yet two plays, on different periods of the same tale, might seem less bold, than an interval of twenty years between a first and second act. This is, however, in mere obedience to custom. The effect does not, in reality, at all depend on the Time of the interval; but on a very different principle. There are cases in which an interval of twenty hours between the acts would have a worse effect (i. e. render the imagination less disposed to take the position required) than twenty years in other cases. For the rest, I shall be well content if my readers will take it up, read and judge it, as a Christmas tale.

CHARACTERS.

MEN.

EMERICK, usurping King of Illyria.
RAAB KIUPRILI, an Illyrian Chieftain.
CASIMIR, Son of Kiuprili.

CHEF RAGOZZI, a Military Commander.

WOMAN.

ZAPOLYA, Queen of Illyria.

ZAPOLYA.

PART I.

THE PRELUDE, ENTITLED

FORTUNE.»
SCENE I.

O most loved, most honour'd,

The mystery, that struggles in my looks,
Betray'd my whole tale to thee, if it told thee

That I am ignorant; but fear the worst.

And mystery is contagious. All things here

Are full of motion: and yet all is silent :

And bad men's hopes infect the good with fears.
RAAB KIUPRILI (his hand to his heart).

THE USURPER'S I have trembling proof within, how true thou speakest.

CHEF RAGOZZI.

That the prince Emerick feasts the soldiery, Gives splendid arms, pays the commanders' debts, Front of the Palace with a magnificent Colonnade. On And (it is whisper'd) by sworn promises one side a military Guard-house. Sentries pacing Makes himself debtor-hearing this, thou hast heard backward and forward before the Palace. CHEF (Then in a subdued and saddened voice.) RAGOZZI, at the door of the Guard-house, as looking But what my lord will learn too soon himself. forwards at some object in the distance.

---IIV

RAAB KIUPRILI.

Ha!-Well then, let it come! Worse scarce can come.

This letter, written by the trembling hand

Of royal Andreas, calls me from the camp