break. If I exist to-morrow night, she shall be mine. If I exist? Ha! whence that doubt? "We meet again this night!" so said the spectredreadful words, be ye blotted from my mind for ever! Hassan, to your vigilance I leave the care of my beloved. Fly to me that instant, should any unbidden footstep approach yon chamber door. I'll go to my couch again. Follow me, Saib, and watch me while I sleep. Then, if you see my limbs convulsed, my hands clinched, my hair bristling, and cold dews trembling on my brow, seize me, rouse me! Snatch me from my bed! I must not dream again. O faithless sleep, why art thou too leagued with my foes? There was a time, when thy presence brought oblivion to my sorrows; when thy poppy crown was mingled with roses! - Now, fear and remorse are thy sad companions, and I shudder to see thee approach my couch! Blood trickles from thy garments! snakes writhe around thy brows! thy hand holds the well-known fatal dagger, and plunges it still reeking in my breast! - then do I shriek in agony! then do I start distracted from thy arms! Oh, how I hate thee, sleep! Friend of virtue, oh! how I dread thy coming! LEWIS. BRUTUS' HARANGUE ON THE DEAD BODY OF LUCRETIA. THUS, thus, my friends! fast as our breaking hearts Permitted utterance, we have told our story : And now, to say one word of the imposture "The mask necessity has made me wear. When the ferocious malice of your king— King! do I call him? — when the monster, Tarquin, My father, Marcus, and my elder brother, Envying at once their virtues and their wealth, Would you know why I summon'd you together? The mould in which each female face was form'd, The worthiest of the worthy! not the nymph And holiest affection! Oh my countrymen ! It was a holyday in Rome: old age Forgot its crutch; labor its task! all ran; And mothers, turning to their daughters, cried 66 There, there's Lucretia!"- Now look ye where she lies, That beauteous flower, that innocent sweet rose, Torn up by ruthless violence Say would - gone! gone! you seek instructions! would you seek And swell the general sound-Revenge! Revenge! PAYNE. TELL ON HIS NATIVE MOUNTAINS. YE crags and peaks! I'm with you once again— To show they still are free. Methinks I hear And bid your tenant welcome to his home How huge you are how mighty, and how free! Ye are the things that tower, that shine—whose smile Makes glad whose frown is terrible—whose forms, Robed or unrobed, do all the impress wear Of awe divine! Ye guards of liberty, I'm with you once again! I call to you, With all my voice! I hold my hands to you, Scaling yonder peak, I saw an eagle wheeling near its brow Of measuring the ample range beneath And round about; absorb'd he heeded not The death that threaten'd him. I could not shoot! Oh, with what pride I used "Twas free From end to end, from cliff to lake 'twas free! How happy was it then! I loved Its very storms. Yes, I have sat In my boat at night, when, midway o'er the lake, And I have thought of other lands, whose storms Have wish'd me there the thought that mine was free And cried in thraldom to that furious wind, Blow on!-- This is the land of liberty! OTHELLO'S APOLOGY. Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, KNOWLES. The very head and front of my offending Hath this extent; no more. Rude am I in speech, For, since these arms of mine had seven years' pith And little of this great world can I speak, More than pertains to feats of broils and battle; In speaking for myself. Yet, by your patience, I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms, (For such proceeding I am charged withal) I won his daughter with. Her father loved me; oft invited me ; Still question'd me the story of my life I ran it through, ev'n from my boyish days, Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances, Of hair-breadth 'scapes in th' imminent deadly breach; And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence, And with it all my travel's history: Wherein of antres vast, and deserts idle, Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heav'n, It was my hint to speak. — All these to hear Would Desdemona seriously incline. But still the house affairs would draw her thence; Which, ever as she could with haste despatch, She'd come again, and with a greedy ear |