DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

MEN.

KING HENRY.

SIR TRUSTY, Keeper of the Bower. PAGE.

MESSENGER.

WOMEN.

QUEEN ELINOR.

ROSAMOND.

GRIDELINE, Wife to Sir Trusty.

Guardian Angels, &c.

SCENE, WOODSTOCK PARK.

WHAT place is here!
What scenes appear!

Where'er I turn my eyes,
All around

Enchanted ground.

And soft Elysiums rise:

Flow'ry mountains,

Mossy fountains,

Shady woods,

Crystal floods,

With wild variety surprise.
*As o'er the hollow vaults we walk,
A hundred echoes round us talk:
From hill to hill the voice is tost,

Rocks rebounding,

Caves resounding,

Not a single word is lost."

PAGE.

There gentle Rosamond immured
Lives from the world and you secured.

* Alluding to the famous Echo in Woodstock Park.

QUEEN.

Curse on the name! I faint, I die,
With secret pangs of jealousy

PAGE.

There does the pensive beauty mourn,
And languish for her lord's return.

QUEEN.

[Aside.

Death and confusion! I'm too slow- [Aside. Show me the happy mansion, show

No more! the happy mansion show
That holds this lovely, guilty foe.
My wrath, like that of heav'n, shall rise,
And blast her in her paradise.

In such an endless maze I rove,

Lost in labyrinths of love.

My breast with hoarded vengeance burns,
While fear and rage

With hope engage,

And rule my wav'ring soul by turns.

PAGE.

The path yon verdant field divides,

Which to the soft confinement guides.

QUEEN.

Eleonora, think betimes,

What are thy hated rival's crimes!
Whither, ah whither, dost thou go!
What has she done to move thee so!
-Does she not warm with guilty fire
The faithless lord of my desire?
Have not her fatal arts remov'd
My Henry from my arms?

'Tis her crime to be lov'd,

"Tis her crime to have charms.
Let us fly, let us fly,

She shall die, she shall die.
"I feel, I feel my heart relent,
How could the fair be innocent!
To a monarch like mine,
Who would not resign!
One so great and so brave

All hearts must enslave."

PAGE.

Hark, hark! what sound invades my ear?
The conqueror's approach I hear.
"He comes, victorious Henry comes!
Hauth oys, trumpets, fifes, and drums,
In dreadful concert join'd,

Send from afar

A sound of war,

And fill with horror ev'ry wind."

QUEEN.

Henry returns, from danger free!
Henry returns! - but not to me.
He comes his Rosamond to greet,
And lay his laurels at her feet,
His vows impatient to renew;
His vows to Eleonora due.
Here shall the happy nymph detain,
(While of his absence I complain,)

Hid in her mazy, wanton bower,
My lord, my life, my conqueror.
"No, no, 'tis decreed

The traitress shall bleed;
No fear shall alarm,
No pity disarm;

In my rage shall be seen

The revenge of a queen."

SCENE II.

The Entry of the Bower.

SIR TRUSTY, Knight of the Bower, solus.

"How unhappy is he,

That is ty'd to a she,

And fam'd for his wit and his beauty!

For of us pretty fellows

Our wives are so jealous,

They ne'er have enough of our duty.”

But hah! my limbs begin to quiver,
I glow, I burn, I freeze, I shiver;
Whence rises this convulsive strife?
I smell a shrew!

My fears are true,
I see my wife.

SCENE III.

GRIDELINE AND SIR TRUSTY.

GRIDELINE.

Faithless varlet, art thou there?

SIR TRUSTY.

My love, my dove, my charming fair!

GRIDELINE.

Monster, thy wheedling tricks I know.