O'erturns the fabric of presumptuous reason,
And whelms the swelling architect beneath it!
Had not the breeze untwined the meeting boughs,
And through the parted shade disclosed the
Greeks,

The important hour had passed unheeded by,
In all the sweet oblivion of delight,

In all the fopperies of meeting lovers;

In sighs and tears, in transports and embraces, In soft complaints, and idle protestations.

Enter DEMETRIUS and LEONTIUS.

Could omens fright the resolute and wise,
Well might we fear impending disappointments.
Leon. Your artful suit, your monarch's fierce
denial,

The cruel doom of hapless Menodorus

Dem. And your new charge, that dear, that heavenly maid

Leon. All this we know already from Abdalla. Dem. Such slight defeats but animate the brave To stronger efforts, and maturer counsels. Cali. My doom confirmed establishes my pur

pose;

Calmly be heard, till Amurath's resumption
Rose to his thought, and set his soul on fire:
When from his lips the fatal name burst out,
A sudden pause the imperfect sense suspended,
Like the dread stillness of condensing storms.
Dem. The loudest cries of nature urge us for-
ward;

Despotic rage pursues the life of Cali;
His groaning country claims Leontius' aid;
And yet another voice-forgive me, Greece-
The powerful voice of love, inflames Demetrius,
Each lingering hour alarms me for Aspasia.

Cali. What passions reign among thy crew,
Leontius?

Does cheerless diffidence oppress their hearts? Or sprightly hope exalt their kindling spirits? Do they with pain repress the struggling shout, And listen eager to the rising wind?

Leon. All there is hope, and gaiety, and cou

Has treason's dire infection reached my palace?
Can Cali dare the stroke of heavenly justice,
In the dark precincts of the gaping grave,
And load with perjuries his parting soul?
Was it for this, that, sickening in Epirus,
My father called me to his couch of death,
Joined Cali's hand to mine, and, faultering, cried,
Restrain the fervour of impetuous youth
With venerable Cali's faithful counsels!
Are these the counsels? This the faith of Cali?
Were all our favours lavished on a villain?
Confest?

Mus. Confest by dying Menodorus.
In his last agonies the gasping coward,
Amidst the tortures of the burning steel,
Still fond of life, groaned out the dreadful se

Mus. Should we before the troops proclaim his crimes,

I dread his arts of seeming innocence,
His bland address, and sorcery of tongue;
And should he fall unheard, by sudden justice,
The adoring soldiers would revenge their idol.
Mah. Cali, this day, with hypocritic zeal,
Implored my leave to visit Mecca's temple;
Struck with the wonder of a statesman's goodness,
I raised his thoughts to more sublime devotion.
Now let him go, pursued by silent wrath,
Meet unexpected daggers in his way,
And, in some distant land, obscurely die.
Mus. There will his boundless wealth, the spoil
of Asia,

Heaped by your father's ill-placed bounties on him,

Disperse rebellion through the eastern world;
Bribe to his cause and lift beneath his banners
Arabia's roving troops, the sons of swiftness,
And arm the Persian heretic against thee;
There shall he waste thy frontiers, check thy con-
quests,

And though at length subdued, elude thy ven

Claim my divided soul. This wretch, unworthy
To mix with nobler cares, I'll throw aside
For idle hours, and crush him at my leisure.
Mus. Let not the unbounded greatness of his
mind

Betray my king to negligence of danger.
Perhaps the clouds of dark conspiracy
Now roll, full fraught with thunder, o'er your
head.

Twice since the morning rose I saw the Bassa,
Like a fell adder swelling in a brake,
Beneath the covert of this verdant arch,
In private conference; beside him stood
Two men unknown, the partners of his bosom;
I marked them well, and traced in either face
The gloomy resolution, horrid greatness,
And stern composure, of despairing heroes;
And, to confirm my thought, at sight of me,
As blasted by my presence, they withdrew,
With all the speed of terror and of guilt.

Muh. The strong emotions of my troubled soul
Allow no pause for art or for contrivance,
And dark perplexity distracts my counsels.
Do thou resolve: For see, Irene comes!

Amidst the blaze of jewels and of gold,
Adorn a throne, and dignify dominion!

Irene. Why all this glare of splendid eloquence,
To paint the pageantries of guilty state?
Must I for these renounce the hope of Heaven,
Immortal crowns, and fulness of enjoyment?

Mah. Vain raptures all-For your inferior na

tures,

Formed to delight, and happy by delighting,
Heaven has reserved no future paradise,
But bids you rove the paths of bliss, secure
Of total death, and careless of hereafter;
While Heaven's high minister, whose awful vo-
lume

Records each act, each thought of sovereign man,
Surveys your plays with inattentive glance,
And leaves the lovely trifler unregarded.

Irene. Why, then, has nature's vain munifi

cence

Profusely poured her bounties upon woman! Whence, then, those charms thy tongue has deigned to flatter,

That air resistless, and enchanting blush,
Unless the beauteous fabric was designed
A habitation for a fairer soul?

Mah. Too high, bright maid, thou rat❜st exterior grace;

Not always do the fairest flowers diffuse
The richest odours, nor the speckled shells
Conceal the gem; let female arrogance
Observe the feathered wanderers of the sky,
With purple varied, and bedrop'd with gold;
They prune the wing, and spread the glossy
plumes,

Ordained, like you, to flutter and to shine,
And cheer the weary passenger with music.

Irene. Mean as we are, this tyrant of the world Implores our smiles, and trembles at our feet: Whence flow the hopes and fears, despair and rapture,

Whence all the bliss and agonies of love?

Mah. Why, when the balm of sleep descends

on man,

Do gay delusions, wandering o'er the brain,
Soothe the delighted soul with empty bliss,
To want give affluence, and to slavery freedom?
Such are love's joys, the lenitives of life,

A fancied treasure, and a waking dream.

Irene. Then let me once, in honour of our sex, Assume the boastful arrogance of man. The attractive softness, and the endearing smile, And powerful glance, 'tis granted, are our own; Nor has impartial Nature's frugal hand Exhausted all her nobler gifts on you; Do not we share the comprehensive thought, The enlivening wit, the penetrating reason? Beats not the female breast with generous passions,

The thirst of empire, and the love of glory?

Mah. Illustrious maid! new wonders fix me
thine;

Thy soul completes the triumphs of thy face.
I thought,-forgive, my fair!-the noblest aim,
The strongest effort of a female soul,
Was but to chuse the graces of the day;
To tune the tongue, to teach the eyes to roll,
Dispose the colours of the flowing robe,
And add new roses to the faded cheek.
Will it not charm a mind, like thine exalted,
To shine the goddess of applauding nations,
To scatter happiness and plenty round thee,
To bid the prostrate captive rise and live,

SCENE I.

CALI enters with a discontented air; to him enters ABDALLA.

Cali. Is this the fierce conspirator, Abdalla? Is this the restless diligence of treason? Where hast thou lingered, while the encumbered

hours

Fly labouring with the fate of future nations, And hungry slaughter scents imperial blood? Abd. Important cares detained me from your counsels.

Cali. Some petty passion, some domestic trifle, Some vain amusement of a vacant soul; A weeping wife, perhaps, or dying friend, Hung on your neck, and hindered your departure. Is this a time for softness or for sorrow? Unprofitable, peaceful, female virtues ? When eager vengeance shows a naked foe, And kind ambition points the way to greatness? Abd. Must then ambition's votaries infringe The laws of kindness, break the bonds of nature, And quit the names of brother, friend, and father?

Cali. This sovereign passion, scornful of restraint,

Ev'n from the birth affects supreme command,
Swells in the breast, and, with resistless force,
O'erbears each gentler motion of the mind;
As, when a deluge overspreads the plains,
The wandering rivulet, and silver lake,

Mix undistinguished with the general roar.

Abd. Yet can ambition in Abdalla's breast Claim but the second place: there mighty love Has fixed his hopes, inquietudes, and fears, His glowing wishes, and his jealous pangs.

Cali. Love is indeed the privilege of youth; Yet, on a day like this, when expectation Pants for the dread event-But let us reason

Abd. Hast thou grown old amidst the crowd

of courts,

And turned the instructive page of human life,
To cant, at last, of reason to a lover?
Such ill-timed gravity, such serious folly,
Might well befit the solitary student,
The unpractised dervise, or sequestered faquir.
Know'st thou not yet, when love invades the soul,
That all her faculties receive his chains?
That reason gives her sceptre to his hand,
Or only struggles to be more enslaved?
Aspasia! who can look upon thy beauties,
Who hear thee speak, and not abandon reason?
Reason! the hoary dotard's dull directress,
That loses all because she hazards nothing:
Reason! the timorous pilot, that, to shun
The rocks of life, for ever flies the port.

Cali. But why this sudden warmth?
Abd. Because I love:

Because my slighted passion burns in vain!
Why roars the lioness distressed by hunger?
Why foam the swelling waves when tempests
rise?

Why shakes the ground, when subterraneous fires

Fierce through the bursting caverns rend their way?

Cali. Not till this day thou saw'st this fatal fair;

Did ever passion make so swift a progress?
Once more reflect, suppress this infant folly.

Abd. Gross fires, enkindled by a mortal hand, Spread by degrees, and dread the oppressing

stream;

The subtler flames, emitted from the sky,

Flash out at once, with strength above resist

ance.

Cali. How did Aspasia welcome your address? Did you proclaim this unexpected conquest, Or pay with speaking eyes a lover's homage? Abd. Confounded, awed, and lost in admiration, I gazed, I trembled; but I could not speak : When, even as love was breaking off from wonder,

And tender accents quivered on my lips,

She marked my sparkling eyes, and heaving breast,

And smiling, conscious of her charms, withdrew. Cali. Now be some moments master of thyself,

Nor let Demetrius know thee for a rival.
Hence! or be calm-To disagree is ruin.

Enter DEMETRIUS and LEONTIUS.

Dem. When will occasion smile upon our wishes,

And give the tortures of suspense a period?
Still must we linger in uncertain hope?
Still languish in our chains, and dream of free-
dom,

Like thirsty sailors gazing on the clouds,

Till burning death shoots through their withered limbs?

Cali. Deliverance is at hand; for Turkey's tyrant,

Sunk in his pleasure, confident and gay,
With all the hero's dull security,

Trusts to my care his mistress and his life,
And laughs and wantons in the jaws of death.
Leon. So weak is man, when destined to de-
struction!

The watchful slumber, and the crafty trust.
Cali. At my command yon iron gates unfold;
At my command the sentinels retire;
With all the licence of authority,
Through bowing slaves, I range the private rooms,
And of to-morrow's action fix the scene.

Dem. To-morrow's action? Can that, hoary wisdom,

Borne down with years, still doat upon to-mor row?

That fatal mistress of the young, the lazy,
The coward, and the fool condemned to lose
An useless life in waiting for to-morrow,
To gaze with longing eyes upon to-morrow,
Till interposing death destroys the prospect!
Strange! that this general fraud from day to day
Should fill the world with wretches undetected.
The soldier, labouring through a winter's march,
Still sces to-morrow drest in robes of triumph;
VOL. II.

Still to the lover's long-expecting arms,
To-morrow brings the visionary bride;
But thou, too old to bear another cheat,
Learn, that the present hour alone is man's.

Leon. The present hour with open arms invites; Seize the kind fair, and press her to thy bosom. Dem. Who knows, ere this important morrow rise,

But fears or mutiny may taint the Greeks?
Who knows if Mahomet's awaking anger
May spare the fatal bow-string till to-morrow?
Abd. Had our first Asian foes but known this
ardour,

We still had wandered on Tartarian hills.
Rouse, Cali! shall the sons of conq ered Greece
Lead us to danger, and abash their victors?
This night, with all her conscious stars, be witness,
Who merits most, Demetrius or Abdalla.

Dem. Who merits most !-I knew not we were rivals.

Cali. Young man, forbear.-The heat of youth,

no more.

Well-'tis decreed-This night shall fix our fate.
Soon as the veil of evening clouds the sky,
With cautious secrecy, Leontius, steer
The appointed vessel to yon shaded bay,
Formed by this garden on the shaded deep;
There, with your soldiers armed, and sails ex-
panded,

Await our coming, equally prepared
For speedy flight, or obstinate defence.
[Exit LEONTIUS.
Dem. Now pause, great Bassa, from the
thoughts of blood,

And kindly grant an ear to gentler sounds!
If e'er thy youth has known the pangs of absence,
Or felt the importance of obstructed love,
Give me, before the approaching hour of fate,
Once to behold the charms of bright Aspasia,
And draw new virtue from her heavenly tongue.
Cali. Let prudence, ere the suit be further

urged,

Impartial weigh the pleasure with the danger. A little longer, and she's thine for ever.

Dem. Prudence and love conspire in this re

quest,

Lest, unacquainted with our bold attempt, Surprise o'erwhelm her, and retard our flight. Cali. What I can grant, you cannot ask in vain

Dem. I go to wait thy call; this kind consent Completes the gift of freedom and of life.

[Exit DEMETRIUS. Abd. And this is my reward-to burn, to languish,

To rave unheeded, while the happy Greek,
The refuse of our swords, the dross of conquest,
Throws his fond arms about Aspasia's neck,
Dwells on her lips, and sighs upon her breast;
Is't not enough, he lives by our indulgence,
But he must live to make his masters wretched?
Cali. What claims hast thou to plead ?
Abd. The claim of power,

The unquestioned claim of conquerors and kings!
Cali. Yet, in the use of power, remember justice.

Q

Abd. Can then the assassin lift his treacherous hand

Against his king, and cry, Remember justice?
Justice demands the forfeit life of Cali;
Justice demands-But see the approaching sul-

tan.

Oppose my wishes, and-Remember justice. Cali. Disorder sits upon thy face-retire. [Exit ABDALLA.

Enter MAHOMET.

Long be the sultan blessed with happy love!
My zeal marks gladness dawning on thy cheek,
With raptures such as fire the pagan crowds,
When pale, and anxious for their years to come,
They see the sun surmount the dark eclipse,
And hail unanimous their conquering god.
Mah. My vows, 'tis true, she hears with less
aversion;

She sighs, she blushes, but she still denies.
Cali. With warmer courtship press the yield-
ing fair;

Call to your aid, with boundless promises,
Each rebel wish, each traitor inclination,
That raises tumults in the female breast,
The love of power, of pleasure, and of show.
Mah. These arts I tried, and, to inflame her

more,

By hateful business hurried from her sight,
I bade a hundred virgins wait around her,
Soothe her with all the pleasures of command,
Applaud her charms, and court her to be great.
[Exit MAHOMET.
Cali. He's gone-Here rest, my soul, thy faint-
ing wing,

Here recollect thy dissipated powers.
Our distant interests, and our different passions
Now haste to mingle in one common centre,
And fate lies crowded in a narrow space.
Yet in that narrow space what dangers rise?-
Far more I dread Abdalla's fiery folly,
Than all the wisdom of the grave divan.
Reason with reason fights on equal terms;
The raging madman's unconnected schemes
We cannot obviate, for we cannot guess.
Deep in my breast be treasured this resolve,-
When Cali mounts the throne, Abdalla dies!
Too fierce, too faithless for neglect or trust.—
Enter IRENE and ASPASIA, with attendants.
Amidst the splendour of encircling beauty,
Superior majesty proclaims the queen,
And nature justifies our monarch's choice.
Irene. Reserve this homage for some other

fair;

Urge me not on to glittering guilt, nor pour
In my weak ear the intoxicating sounds.
Cali. Make haste, bright maid, to rule the wil-
ling world;

Awed by the rigour of the sultan's justice,
We court thy gentleness.

Asp. Can Cali's voice

Concur to press a hapless captive's ruin?

Cali. Long would my zeal for Mahomet and thee

Asp. If yet this shining pomp, these sudden
honours,

Swell not thy soul beyond advice or friendship,
Not yet inspire the follies of a queen,
Or tune thine ear to soothing adulation,
Suspend awhile the privilege of power,
To hear the voice of truth; dismiss thy train,
Shake off the incumbrances of state a moment,
And lay the towering sultaness aside,

[IRENE signs to her attendants to retire. While I foretell thy fate; that office doneNo more I boast the ambitious name of friend, But sink among thy slaves without a murmur.

Irene. Did regal diadems invest my brow, Yet should my soul, still faithful to her choice, Esteem Aspasia's breast the noblest kingdom.

Asp. The soul, once tainted with so foul a