ORDONIO. The accomplice and sworn friend of Isidore. ALVAR. I know him not. How sweet and musical the name of Alvar! And yet methinks I have heard the name but lately. O heaven! how he would fall upon thy neck, Means he the husband of the Moorish woman? Isidore? Isidore ? Mountebank and villain! What then art thou? For shame, put up thy sword! 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). And weep forgiveness! 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! yillain! 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 Hide Alvar from thee? Toil and painful wounds 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, With bitterer agonies than death can give. 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, Why didst thou leave his children? I would have stood far off, quiet though dark, Too great to be one soul's particular lot! [Struggling to suppress her feelings. ALVAR. Wert thou in heaven, my curse would pluck thee Delights so full, if unalloy'd with grief, thence! [Both rise. Were ominous. In these strange dread events APPENDIX. Note 1, page 81, col. 1. 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 He loved the old man, and revered his art: To be his pupil, and with filial zeal By practice to appropriate the sage lessons, 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, 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. Sesina'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 ATHENÆUM. 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 the 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 dif .ferent 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 But Raab Kiuprili moves with such a gait? RAAB KIUPRILI (making a signal to stop the drums, etc.) CHEF RAGOZZI. Pardon my surprise. Thus sudden from the camp, and unattended! What may these wonders prophesy? 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. 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, "THE USURPER'S FORTUNE." SCENE I. Front of the Palace with a magnificent Colonnade. On one side a military Guard-House. Sentries pacing backward and forward before the Palace. CHEF RAGOZZI, at the door of the Guard-House, as looking forwards at some object in the distance. CHEF RAGOZZI. My eyes deceive me not, it must be he! CHEF RAGOZZI. We know no otherwise; but Emerick's friends (And none but they approach him) scoff at hope. RAAB KIUPRILI Ragozzi! I have rear'd thee from a child, And as a child I have rear'd thee. Whence this air Clear as the morning to me, showing all things. CHEF RAGOZZI. O most loved, most honor'd, The mystery that struggles in my looks, Betray'd my whole tale to thee, if it told thee And bad men's hopes infect the good with fears. I have trembling proof within, how true thou speakest. CHEF RAGOZZI. That the prince Emerick feasts the soldiery, 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 CHEF RAGOZZI. Thou! This life of mine, O take it, Lord Kiuprili! Mine own no longer. Guardian of Illyria, Is throng'd by arm'd conspirators, watch'd by ruffians Or is it scorn, that in this race of treason CHEF RAGOZZI. Doubtless they deem Heaven too usurp'd! Heaven's justice Bought like themselves! [During this conversation music is heard, at first solemn and funereal, and then changing to spirited and triumphal. Being equal all in crime, Do you press on, ye spotted parricides! RAAB KIUPRILI. The bad man's cunning still prepares the way [Enter a procession of EMERICK'S Adherents, |