She may now seek Cyprian.

Begin, while I in silence bind

My voice, when thy sweet song thou hast begun.
A Voice within. What is the glory far above
All else in human life?

[While these words are sung, the DEMON goes out at one door, and JUSTINA enters at another.

The First Voice. There is no form in which the fire Of love its traces has impressed not.

Man lives far more in love's desire

Than by life's breath soon possessed not.

If all that lives must love or die,

All shapes on earth, or sea, or sky,
With one consent to Heaven cry
That the glory far above

All else in life is

Justina. Thou melancholy thought, which art So fluttering and so sweet, to thee

When did I give the liberty

Thus to afflict my heart?

What is the cause of this new power
Which doth my fevered being move,
Momently raging more and more?
What subtle pain is kindled now
Which from my heart doth overflow
Into my senses?—

All.

Love! O love!

Justina. 'Tis that enamoured nightingale
Who gives me the reply:

He ever tells the same soft tale
Of passion and of constancy
To his mate, who, rapt and fond,
Listening sits, a bough beyond.

Be silent, Nightingale !-No more
Make me think, in hearing thee
Thus tenderly thy love deplore,
If a bird can feel his so,

What a man would feel for me.
And, voluptuous vine, O thou

Who seekest most when least pursuing,-
To the trunk thou interlacest

Art the verdure which embracest,

And the weight which is its ruin,-
No more, with green embraces, vine,
Make me think on what thou lovest,-
For whilst thou thus thy boughs entwine.

I fear lest thou shouldst teach me, sophist,
How arms might be entangled too.

Light-enchanted sunflower, thou
Who gazest ever true and tender
On the sun's revolving splendour,
Follow not his faithless glance
With thy faded countenance,
Nor teach my beating heart to fear,
If leaves can mourn without a tear,
How eyes must weep! O Nightingale,
Cease from thy enamoured tale,-
Leafy vine, unwreath thy bower,
Restless sunflower, cease to move,-
Or tell me all what poisonous power
Ye use against me.

All.

Justina. It cannot be

Love! love! love!

Whom have I ever loved?

Trophies of my oblivion and disdain,

Floro and Lelio did I not reject?

And Cyprian?— [She becomes troubled at the name of CYPRIAN. Did I not requite him

With such severity, that he has fled

Where none has ever heard of him again?—
Alas! I now begin to fear that this

May be the occasion whence desire grows bold,
As if there were no danger. From the moment
That I pronounced to my own listening heart,
Cyprian is absent, O miserable me!

I know not what I feel!

It must be pity
To think that such a man, whom all the world
Admired, should be forgot by all the world,
And I the cause.

[More calmly.

[She again becomes troubled. And yet if it were pity,

Floro and Lelio might have equal share,
For they are both imprisoned for my sake.
Alas! what reasonings are these? It is
Enough I pity him, and that, in vain,
Without this ceremonious subtlety.

And woe is me! I know not where to find him now,

Even should I seek him through this wide world.

Enter DEMON.

Dæmon. Follow, and I will lead thee where he is.

[Calmly.

Justina. And who art thou, who hast found entrance hither,

Into my chamber, through the doors and locks?

Art thou a monstrous shadow which my madness

Has formed in the idle air?

Dæmon.

No. I am one

Called by the thought which tyrannises thee
From his eternal dwelling; who this day
Is pledged to bear thee unto Cyprian.

Justina. So shall thy promise fail. This agony
Of passion which afflicts my heart and soul
May sweep imagination in its storm;

The will is firm.

Damon.

Already half is doue

In the imagination of an act.

The sin incurred, the pleasure then remains;
Let not the will stop half-way on the road

Justina. I will not be discouraged, nor despair,
Although I thought it, and although 'tis true
That thought is but a prelude to the deed :—
Thought is not in my power, but action is
I will not move my foot to follow thee.

Dæmon. But a far mightier wisdom than thine own
Exerts itself within thee, with such power

Compelling thee to that which it inclines

That it shall force thy step; how wilt thou then
Resist, Justina?

Justina.

Dæmon.

By my free-will.

Must force thy will.

Justina.

I

It is invincible;

It were not free if thou hadst power upon it.

[He draws, but cannot more her.

Dæmon. Come, where a pleasure waits thee.
Justina.

Too dear.

It were bought

Damon. "Twill soothe thy heart to softest peace.
Justina. 'Tis dread captivity.

Dæmon.

'Tis joy, 'tis glory.

But how

Justina. "Tis shame, 'tis torment, 'tis despair.
Damon.

Canst thou defend thyself from that or me,
If my power drags thee onward?

Justina.

Consists in God.

My defence

[He vainly endeavours to force her, and at last releases her. Dæmon. Woman, thou hast subdued me,

Only by not owning thyself subdued.

But since thou thus findest defence in God,

I will assume a feigned form, and thus

Make thee a victim of my

baffled rage.

For I will mask a spirit in thy form

Who will betray thy name to infamy,

And doubly shall I triumph in thy loss,

First by dishonouring thee, and then by turning
False pleasure to true ignominy.

[Excit

Justina.

I

Appeal to Heaven against thee! so that Heaven
May scatter thy delusions, and the blot
Upon my fame vanish in idle thought,
Even as flame dies in the envious air,
And as the flow'ret wanes at morning frost,
And thou shouldst never— -But, alas! to whom
Do I still speak?-Did not a man but now
Stand here before me ?-No, I am alone,
And yet I saw him. Is he gone so quickly?
Or can the heated mind engender shapes
From its own fear? Some terrible and strange
Peril is near.
Lisander! father! lord!

Livia!

Enter LISANDER and LIVIA.

Lisander. O my daughter! what?

Livia.

Justina.

What?

Saw you

A man go forth from my apartment now?-
I scarce sustain myself!

Lisander.

Justina. Have you not seen him?

Livia.

Justina. I saw him.

Lisander.

A man here!

No, lady.

'Tis impossible; the doors

Which led to this apartment were all locked.

Livia (aside). I dare say it was Moscon whom she saw, For he was locked up in my room.

It must

Lisander.
Have been some image of thy phantasy.
Such melancholy as thou feedest is
Skilful in forming such in the vain air
Out of the motes and atoms of the day.
Livia. My master's in the right.
Justina.
Delusion but I fear some greater ill.
I feel as if out of my bleeding bosom
My heart was torn in fragments; ay,

Oh, would it were

Some mortal spell is wrought against my frame;
So potent was the charm, that had not God
Shielded my humble innocence from wrong,

I should have sought my sorrow and my shame
With willing steps.-Livia, quick, bring my cloak,

For I must seek refuge from these extremes

Even in the temple of the highest God

Which secretly the faithful worship.

Livia. Here.

Justina (putting on her cloak). In this, as in a shroud of

snow, may I

Quench the consuming fire in which I burn,

Wasting away!

Lisander.

And I will go with thee.

Livia. When I once see them safe out of the house,

Justina. Thine is the cause, great God! Turn, for my sake And for thine own, mercifully to me!

SCENES FROM THE FAUST OF GOETHE.

PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN.

The LORD and the Host of Heaven.
Enter Three Archangels.

RAPHAEL.

THE sun makes music as of old
Amid the rival spheres of Heaven,
On its predestined circle rolled

With thunder speed: the Angels even
Draw strength from gazing on its glance,
Though none its meaning fathom may ;-
The world's unwithered countenance
Is bright as at creation's day.

GABRIEL.

And swift and swift, with rapid lightness,
The adorned Earth spins silently,
Alternating Elysian brightness

With deep and dreadful night; the sea
Foams in broad billows from the deep

Up to the rocks; and rocks and ocean,
Onward, with spheres which never sleep,
Are hurried in eternal motion.

MICHAEL

And tempests in contention roar
From land to sea, from sea to land;
And, raging, weave a chain of power
Which girds the earth as with a band.
A flashing desolation there

Flames before the thunder's way;

But thy servants, Lord, revere

The gentle changes of thy day.