SCENE I.

Enter ZARA and SELIMA.

Sel. Ir moves my wonder, young and beaute-
ous Zara,

Whence these new sentiments inspire your heart!
Your peace of mind increases with your charms;
Tears now no longer shade your eyes soft lustre:
You meditate no more those happy climes,
To which Nerestan will return to guide you.
You talk no more of that gay nation now,
Where men adore their wives, and woman's
power

Draws reverence from a polished people's softness:
Their husbands' equals, and their lovers' queens!
Free without scandal; wise without restraint;
VOL. I.

Their virtue due to nature, not to fear.
Why have you ceased to wish this happy change?.
A barred seraglio!-sad, unsocial life!
Scorned, and a slave! All this has lost its terror;
And Syria rivals, now, the banks of Scine!

Zur. Joys, which we do not know, we do not
wish.

My fate's bound in by Sion's sacred wall :
Closed, from my infancy, within this palace,
Custom has learnt, from time, the power to
please.

I claim no share in the remoter world,
The sultan's property, his will my law;
Unknowing all but him, his power, his fame;
To live his subject is my only hope,
All else an empty dream.--

3 K

Sel. Have you forgot

Absent Nerestan then? whose generous friendship

So nobly vowed redemption from your chains!
How oft have you admired his dauntless soul!
Osman, his conqueror, by his courage charmed,
Trusted his faith, and on his word released him:
Though not returned in time--we yet expect him.
Nor had his noble journey other motive,
Than to procure our ransom.-And is this,
This dear, warm hope, become an idle dream?
Zur. Since after two long years he not returns,
Tis plain his promise stretched beyond his power.
A stranger and a slave, unknown, like him,
Proposing much, means little ;--talks and vows,
Delighted with a prospect of escape:-
He promised to ransom ten Christians more,
And free us all from slavery!-I own
I once admired the unprofitable zeal,
But now it charms no longer-

Sel. What if yet,

He, faithful, should return, and hold his vow; Would you not, then

Zar. No matter--Time is past,

And every thing is changed

Sel. But, whence comes this?

Has been preserved, was found upon your bosom,
As if designed by Heaven, a pledge of faith
Due to the God you purpose to forsake!

Zar. Can my fond heart, on such a feeble proof,

Embrace a faith, abhorred by him I love?
I see too plainly custom forms us all;

But, know me better-'twas unjust suspicion. All emperor as he is, I cannot stoop

To honours, that bring shame and baseness with thein:

Reason and pride, those props of modesty,
Sustain my guarded heart, and strengthen virtue :
Rather than sink to infamy, let chains
Embrace me with a joy, such love denies!
No-I shall now astonish thee;-His greatness
Submits to own a pure and honest flame.
Among the shining crowds, which live to please
him,

His whole regard is fixed on me alone :
He offers marriage; and its rites now wait,
To crown inc empress of this castern world.
Sel. Your virtue and your charms deserve it
all:

My heart is not surprised, but struck to hear it.
If to be empress can complete your happiness,

Are consequences of our place of birth:
Born beyond Ganges, I had been a Pagan;
In France, a Christian; I am here a Saracen :
Tis but instruction, all! Our parents' hand
Writes on our heart the first faint characters,
Which time, re-tracing, deepens into strength,
That nothing can efface, but death or Heaven!
Thou wert not made a prisoner in this place,
Till after reason, borrowing force from years,
Had lent its lustre to enlighten faith:-
For me, who, in my cradle, was their slave,
Thy Christian doctrines were too lately taught

me;

Yet, far from having lost the reverence due,
This cross, as often as it meets my eye,
Strikes through my heart a kind of awful fear!
I honour, from my soul, the Christian law;
Those laws, which, softening nature by humanity,
Melt nations into brotherhood;—no doubt
Christians are happy; and 'tis just to love them.
Sel. Why have you, then, declared yourself
their foc?

Why will you join your hand with this proud Osman's,

Who owes his triumph to the Christian ruin?

Zar. Ah!-who could slight the offer of his

heart?

Nay for I mean to tell thee all my weakness-
Perhaps I had, cre now, profest thy faith,

But Osman loved me-and I've lost it all:-
I think on none but Osman-my pleased heart,
Filled with the blessing, to be loved by him,
Wants room for other happiness. Place thou
Before thy eyes, his merit and his fame,

His youth, yet blooming but in manhood's dawn,

How many conquered kings have swelled his power!

Think, too, how lovely! how his brow becomes
This wreath of early glories!—Oh, my friend!
I talk not of a sceptre, which he gives me :
No-to be charmed with that were thanks too
humble!

Offensive tribute, and too poor for love!
'Twas Osman won my heart, not Osman's crown:
I love not in him aught besides himself.
Though think'st, perhaps, that these are starts of
passion:

But, had the will of Heaven, less bent to bless him,

Doomed Osman to my chains, and me to fill
The throne that Osman sits on-ruin and wretch-
edness

Catch and consume my wishes, but I would-
To raise me to myself, descend to him.

Sel. Hark! the wished music sounds-Tis he-
he comes
[Exit Selima.
Zar. My heart prevented him, and found him

near :

Absent two long whole days, the slow-paced hour At last is come, and gives him to my wishes! [A grand march. Enter OSMAN, reading a paper, which he re-delivers to ORASMIN; with Attendants.

Osm. Wait my return-or, should there be a

cause

That may require my presence, do not fear
To enter; ever mindful, that my own

[Exit Oras. &c. Follows my people's happiness.-At length, Cares have released my heart--to love and Zara. Zar. 'Twas not in cruel absence, to deprive

me

Of your imperial image-every where
You reign triumphant: memory supplies
Reflection with your power; and you, like Hea-

ven,

Are always present-and are always gracious. Osm. The sultans, my great ancestors, bequeathed

Their empire to me, but their taste they gave

not;

Their laws, their lives, their loves, delight not me :
I know our prophet smiles on am'rous wishes,
And opens a wide field to vast desire;
I know, that at my will I might possess;
That, wasting tenderness in wild profusion,
I might look down to my surrounded feet,
And bless contending beauties. I might speak,
Serenely slothful, from within my palace,
And bid my pleasure be my people's law.
But, sweet as softness is, its end is cruel.
I can look round, and count a hundred kings,
Unconquered by themselves, and slaves to o-
thers:

Hence was Jerusalem to christians lost;
But Heaven, to blast that unbelieving race,

| Taught me to be a king, by thinking like one.
Hence, from the distant Euxine to the Nile,
The trumpet's voice has waked the world to war;
Yet, amidst arms and death, thy power has reach-
ed me;

For thou disdain'st, like me, a languid love;
Glory and Zara join—and charm together.

Zar. I hear at once, with blushes and with joy, This passion, so unlike your country's customs. Osm. Passion, like mine, disdains my coun

try's customs;

The jealousy, the faintness, the distrust,
The proud, superior coldness of the East.
I know to love you, Zara, with esteem;
To trust your virtue, and to court your soul.
Nobly confiding, I unveil my heart,
And dare inform you, that 'tis all your own:
My joys must all be yours: only my cares
Shall he concealed within-and reach not Zara.
Zar. Obliged by this excess of tenderness,
How low, how wretched was the lot of Zara!
Too poor with aught, but thanks, to pay such
blessings!

Osm. Not so-I love-and would be loved again;

Let me confess it, I possess a soul,
That what it wishes, wishes ardently.
I should believe you hated, had you power
To love with moderation: 'tis my aim,
In every thing, to reach supreme perfection.
If, with an equal flame, I touch your heart,
Marriage attends your smile-But know, 'twill
make

Me wretched, if it makes not Zara happy.

Zar. Ah, sir! if such a heart as generous Os

Not the unhappy;--every place alike,
Gives the distressed a privilege to enter.-
[Exit Oras.
I think with horror on these dreadful maxims,
Which harden kings insensibly to tyrants.

Re-enter ORASMIN with NERESTAN.
Ner. Imperial sultan! honoured, even by foes!
See me returned, regardful of my vow,
And punctual to discharge a Christian's duty.
I bring the ransom of the captive Zara,
Fair Selima, the partner of her fortune,
And of ten Christian captives, prisoners here.
You promised, sultan, if I should return,
To grant their rated liberty :----Behold,
I am returned, and they are yours no more.
I would have stretched my purpose to myself,
But fortune has denied it;-my poor all
Sufficed no further, and a noble poverty
Is now my whole possession.-I redeem
The promised Christians; for I taught them hope:
But, for myself, I come again your slave,
To wait the fuller hand of future charity.

Osm. Christian! I must confess thy courage charms me!

But let thy pride be taught, it treads too high,
When it presumes to climb above my mercy.
Go ransomless thyself, and carry back
Their unaccepted ransoms, joined with gifts,
Fit to reward thy purpose; instead of ten,
Demand a hundred Christians; they are thine:
Take them, and bid them teach their haughty
country,

They left some virtue among Saracens.

Be Lusignan alone excepted-He,

Have I not told thee, Christian, all my will? What if I praised thee !-This presumptuous virtue,

Compelling my esteem, provokes my pride;
Be gone-and when to-morrow's sun shall rise
On my dominions, be not found-too near me.
[Exit Nerestan.
Zar. [Aside.] Assist him, Heaven!
Osm. Zara, retire a moment-
Assume, throughout my palace, sovereign empire,
While I give orders to prepare the pomp
That waits to crown thee mistress of my throne.
[Leads her out and returns.
Orasmin! didst thou mark the imperious slave!
What could he mean?-he sighed and, as he
went,

Turned and looked back at Zara!—didst thou mark it?

Oras. Alas! my sovereign master! let not jealousy

Strike high enough to reach your noble heart. Osm. Jealousy, said'st thou? I disdain it :

No!

claim

To my Jerusalem-that claim, his guilt!
Such is the law of states; had I been vanquished,
Thus had he said of me. I mourn his lot,
Who must in fetters, lost to day-light pine,
And sigh away old age in grief and pain.
For Zara-but to name her as a captive,
Were to dishonour language;—she's a prize
Above thy purchase :--all the Christian realms,
With all their kings to guide them, would unite
In vain, to force her from me-Go, retire-

SCENE I.

NERESTAN, CHATILLON.

Go, and prepare for the approaching nuptials.
Zara to careful empire joins delight.

I must allot one hour to thoughts of state,
Then, all the siniling day is love and Zara's.
[Exit Orasmin.
Monarchs, by forms of pompous misery pressed,
In proud, unsocial misery, unblessed,
Would, but for love's soft influence, curse their
throne,

And, among crowded millions, live alone. [Exit.

Cha. MATCHLESS Nerestan! generous and great!

You, who have broke the chains of hopeless slaves!

You, Christian saviour! by a Saviour sent!
Appear, be known, enjoy your due delight;
The grateful weepers wait to clasp your knees,
They throng to kiss the happy hand that saved
them: