ACT III. The SCENE continues.* Enter ANNA. Anna. Thy vassals, Grief! great nature's order break, And change the noontide to the midnight hour. Whilst Lady Randolph sleeps I will walk forth, And taste the air that breathes on yonder bank. Sweet may her slumbers be! Restore her, Heav'n! Send gracious ministers, who love our race, And who delight in goodness. Send them down That round her couch they may diffuse soft airs; And from her fancy chase those dismal forms That haunt her waking; her sad spirit charm With images celestial.+ Enter a SERVant. Serv. One of the vile assassins is secur'd. Anna. Let me look on them. Ha! here is a heart, These are no vulgar jewels. Guard the wretch. [Exit Anna. Enter Servants with a Prisoner. Pris. I know no more than does the child unborn Of what you charge me with. First Serv. You say so, Sir! But torture soon shall make you speak the truth. Enter LADY RANDOLPH and ANNA. * I have seen this play performed when the Scene in this Act was HALL within the Castle. It gave a variety, and had, I thought, a pleasing effect. + See Jane Shore, the beginning of Act 11. p. 119. You speak with him. Your dignity, your fame, Lady Rand. Thou shalt behold me with a desperate Hear how my infant perish'd. See he kneels. [heart, [The Prisoner kneels. Pris. Heav'n bless that countenance, so sweet and A judge like thee makes innocence more bold. O save me, lady! from these cruel men, [mild! Lady Rand. Of this man's guilt what proof can ye produce? First Serv. We found him lurking in the hollow glynn. Not satisfied with this, we search'd his cloathes, His stubbornness against the torture's force. Pris. O gentle lady! 'gainst your lord's dear life your children's welfare, spare My age! tear not with iron my ancient joints, Nor my grey hairs bring to the grave with pain.+ Detected falsehood is most certain death. [be. [Anna removes the Servants and returns. * The 12mo. reads Heav'n. "Then shall ye bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to the "grave." Genesis XLII. 38. This scene bears a very strong resemblance to that between Edipus and the Old Shepherd, in the CEdipus Tyrannus of Sophocles, A. iv. Pris., Alas! I'm sore beset! let never man, For sake of lucre, sin against his soul! Eternal justice is in this most just! I, guiltless now, must former guilt reveal. Lady Rand. O! Anna, hear!-once more, I charge thee, speak The truth direct: for these to me foretell With which if the remainder tallies not, Pris. Then, thus adjur'd, I'll speak to you as just A little hovel by the river's side Receiv'd us: there hard labour, and the skill Had caught. The voice was ceas'd; the person lost: By the moon's light I saw, whirl'd round and round, And nestled curious there an infant lay. Lady Rand. Was he alive? Pris. He was. Lady Rand. Inhuman that thou art? How could'st thou kill what waves and tempests spar'd? Pris. I am not so inhuman. Lady Rand. Didst thou not? Anna. My noble mistress, you are mov'd too much: This man has not the aspect of stern murder; Let him go on, and you, I hope, will hear Good tidings of your kinsman's long lost child. Pris. The needy man, who has known better days, Is he whom tempting fiends would pitch upon Who saw no end of black adversity: Yet, for the wealth of kingdoms, I would not Lady Rand. Ha! dost thou say so? Then, perhaps, Pris. Not many days ago he was alive. [he lives! Lady Rand. O! God of heav'n!* did he then die so Pris. I did not say he died; I hope he lives. [lately? Not many days ago these eyes beheld Him, flourishing in youth, and health, and beauty. Pris. Alas! I know not where. Lady Rand. Fearful perplexity! Thou riddler, speak Direct and clear; else I will search thy soul. Anna. Permit me, ever honour'd! Keen impatience, 'Tho' hard to be restrain'd, defeats itself." Lady Rand. Pursue thy story with a faithful tongue, To the last hour that thou didst keep the child.+ Pris. Fear not my faith, tho' I must speak my shame. Within the cradle, where the infant lay, Was stow'd a mighty store of gold and jewels; * The 12mo. reads-O1 heavenly Pow'r ! + The 8vo. edit, gives these two lines to Anna. Bought flocks and herds, and gradually brought forth Lady Rand. Proceed. Pris. The stranger sole remain'd The heir of what indeed was his. Fain then Would I, loving the boy with father's fondness, Mean while the stripling* grew in years and beauty; But all in vain: for, when a desperate band Lady Rand. Eternal Providence! What is thy name? Anna. Just are your transports: 'ne'er was woman's heart 'Prov'd with such high events, such fierce extremes.' But yet remember that you are beheld By servile eyes; your gestures may be seen * See before, p. 279. Note * + "With the holy thou shalt be holy and with a perfect man "thou shalt be perfect. With the clean thou shalt be clean: and "with the froward thou shalt learn frowardness." Psalm xxv. 25, 26. |