Thou dost not leave me! But a brief while retire into the darkness: TERESA (retires from him, and feebly supports herself O that my joy could spread its sunshine round thee' against a pillar of the dungeon). Ha! speak on! ALVAR. Beloved Teresa! It told but half the truth. O let this portrait TERESA. The sound of thy voice shall be my music! [Retiring, she returns hastily and embraces ALVAR. Alvar! my Alvar! am I sure I hold thee? Is it no dream? thee in my arms, my Alvar! [Ezit. [A noise at the Dungeon door. It opens, and ORDONIO enters, with a goblet in his hand ORDONIO. Hail, potent wizard! in my gayer mood I pour'd forth a libation to old Pluto, And we the air-bladders that course up and down, The weaker needs must break. ALVAR. I see thy heart! ORDONIO. Feeling! feeling! Come, take the beverage; this chill place demands it Yon insect on the wall, ALVAR. Which moves this way and that its hundred limbs, 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 [Takes her portrait from his neck, and gives it her. Unerringly to pleasurable ends! TERESA (receiving the portrait). The same it is the same. Ah! who art thou? ALVAR. O joy unutterable! But hark! a sound as of removing bars For the honor of our race, for our dear father; Mountebank and villain! What then art thou? For shame, put up thy sword! I fix mine eye upon thee, and thou tremblest! Thou blind self-worshipper! thy pride, thy cunning. Thy shallow sophisms, thy pretended scorn Cured thee of starting in thy sleep? or made ORDONIO (vacantly repeating the words). ALVAR. Saved? saved? How sweet and musical the name of Alvar! ORDONIO. Spirit of the dead! Methinks I know thee! ha! my brain turns wild At its own dreams!-off-off, fantastic shadow! ALVAR. I fain would tell thee what I am! but dare not! ORDONIO. Cheat! villain! traitor! whatsoever thou be- TERESA (rushing out and falling on ALVAR's neck). [ORDONIO with frantic wildness runs upon ALVAR with his sword. TERESA flings herself on ORDONIO and arrests his arm. Stop, madman, stop. ALVAR. Does then this thin disguise impenetrably Ordonio-Brother! Touch not pollution, Alvar! I will die. [He attempts to fall on his sword: ALVAR and TERESA prevent him. ALVAR. We will find means to save your honor. Live, TERESA. And you may yet be happy. ORDONIO. O horror! not a thousand years in heaven [Kneeling. Forgive me, Alvar!—Curse me with forgiveness! ALVAR. Call back thy soul, Ordonio, and look round thee: Now is the time for greatness! Think that Heaven TERESA. O mark his eye! he hears not what you say. ALVAR. Heal, O heal him, Heaven! ORDONIO. Nearer and nearer! and I cannot stir! He would have died to save me, and I kill'd him- She hath avenged the blood of Isidore! TERESA. Some secret poison Drinks up his spirits! ORDONIO (fiercely recollecting himself). Let the eternal Justice Prepare my punishment in the obscure world— Seize first that man! ALHADRA. I stood in silence like a slave before her, 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, [ALVAR presses onward to defend ORDONIO. This arm should shake the Kingdoms of the World, ORDONIO. Why didst thou leave his children? Too great to be one soul's particular lot! [Struggling to suppress her feelings. Those little ones will crowd around and ask me, The deep foundations of iniquity Should sink away, earth groaning from beneath them; Delights so full, if unalloy'd with grief, Wert thou in heaven, my curse would pluck thee Were ominous. In these strange dread events thence! Just Heaven instructs us with an awful voice, APPENDIX. Note 1, page 81, col. 1. You are a painter. The following lines I have preserved in this place, not so much as explanatory of the picture of the assassination, as (if I may say so without disrespect to the Public) to gratify my own feelings, the passage being no mere fancy portrait; but a slight, yet not unfaithful profile of one,* who still lives, nobilitate felix, arte clarior, vitâ colendissimus. ZULIMEZ (speaking of Alvar in the third person). And his first travels, 't was his choice or chance SELMA. My husband's father told it me, Poor old Sesina-angels rest his soul! He found a baby wrapt in mosses, lined A pretty boy, but most unteachable- But knew the names of birds, and mock'd their notes, To gather seeds of wild flowers, and to plant them A Friar, who gather'd simples in the wood, A gray-hair'd man, he loved this little boy: The boy loved him, and, when the friar taught him, So he became a rare and learned youth: But O! poor wretch! he read, and read, and read, But yet his speech, it was so soft and sweet, TERESA. 'Tis a sweet tale: Such as would lull a listening child to sleep, His rosy face besoil'd with unwiped tears. And what became of him? SELMA. He went on shipboard With those bold voyagers who made discovery Of golden lands. Sesiba's younger brother Went likewise, and when he return'd to Spain, He told Sesina, that the poor mad youth, Soon after they arrived in that new world, In spite of his dissuasion, seized a boat, And all alone set sail by silent moonlight Up a great river, great as any sea, And ne'er was heard of more: but 'tis supposed, He lived and died among the savage men. Zapolya; A CHRISTMAS TALE. IN TWO PARTS. Πὰρ πυρὶ χρὴ τοιαῦτα λέγειν χειμῶνος ἐν ὥρᾳ. Apud ATHENZUM. ADVERTISEMENT. KIUPRILI. Enter RAA But Raab Kiuprili moves with such a gait? Lo! e'en this eager and unwonted haste But agitates, not quells, its majesty. THE form of the following dramatic poem is in hum- My patron! my commander! yes, 't is he! ble imitation of the Winter's Tale of Shakspeare, Call out the guards. The Lord Kiuprili comes. except that I have called the first part a Prelude instead of a first Act, as a somewhat nearer resem-Drums beat, etc. the Guard turns out. blance to the plan of the ancients, of which one specimen is left us in the Eschylian Trilogy of the RAAB KIUPRILI (making a signal to stop the drums, etc.) Agamemnon, the Orestes, and the Eumenides. Though Silence! enough! This is no time, young friend! a matter of form merely, yet two plays, on different For ceremonious dues. This summoning drum, periods of the same tale, might seem less bold, than Th' air-shattering trumpet, and the horseman's clatter, an interval of twenty years between the first and Are insults to a dying sovereign's ear. second act. This is, however, in mere obedience to Soldiers, 't is well! Retire! your general greets you, custom. The effect does not, in reality, at all de- His loyal fellow-warriors. pend on the Time of the interval; but on a very dif [Guards retire. ferent principle. There are cases in which an interval of twenty hours between the acts would have a Thus sudden from the camp, and unattended! Pardon my surprise. worse effect (i. e. render the imagination less disposed What may these wonders prophesy ? to take the position required) than twenty years in other cases. For the rest, I shall be well content if CHEF RAGOZZI. RAAB KIUPRILI. Tell me first, my readers will take it up, read and judge it, as a How fares the king? His majesty still lives? Christmas tale. CHEF RAGOZZI. We know no otherwise; but Emerick's friends |