counsel.

Surprised, and conscious, in their charge they

faultered,

And threatened tortures soon discovered all:
That Perseus bribed them to their perjuries;
That Quintius' letter was a forgery;
That prince Demetrius' intercourse with Rome
Was innocent of treason to the state.

Erir. Oh, my swoln heart! What will the gods do with me?

Ant. And to confirm this most surprising news, Dymas, who, striving to suppress a tumult, The rumour of Demetrius' flight had raised, Was wounded sore, with his last breath confessed, The prince refused his daughter; which affront Inflamed the statesman to his prince's ruin. Erir. Did he refuse her? Ant. Quite o'ercome with joy! Transported out of life!-The gods restore her! Erir. Ah! why recall me? This is a new kind Of murder; most severe ! that dooms to life. Ant. Fair princess, you confound me ! Erix. Am I fair?

[Swoons.

Erir. For me it matters not; but, oh! the prince

When he had shot the gulph of his despair,
Emerging into all the light of Heaven;
His heart high-beating with well-grounded hope;
Then to make shipwreck of his happiness,
Like a poor wretch, that has escaped the storm,
And swam to what he deems an happy isle,
When, lo! the savage natives drink his blood!
Ah! why is vengeance sweet to woman's pride,
As rapture to her lover? It has undone me!
Del. Madam, he comes.

Erix. Leave us, Antigonus.

Ant. What dreadful secret this?-But I'll obey, Invoke the gods, and leave the rest to fate.

[Exit. Erix. How terribly triumphant comes the wretch!

He comes, like flowers ambrosial, early born,
To meet the blast, and perish in the storm!

Enter DEMETRIUS,

Dem. After an age of absence in one hour, Have I then found thee, thou celestial maid! Like a fair Venus in a stormy sea,

Or a bright goddess, through the shades of night, Dropt from the stars to these blest arms again? How exquisite is pleasure after pain!

Pained at thy presence, through redundant joy,
Like a poor miser, beggared by his store i
Erir. Demetrius, joy and sorrow dwell too

near.

Dem. Talk not of sorrow, lest the gods resent, As underprized, so loud a call to joy. I live, I love, am loved, I have her here! Rapture, in present, and, in prospect, more! No rival, no destroyer, no despair! For jealousies, for partings, groans, and death, A train of joys, the gods alone can name! When Heaven descends in blessings so profuse, So sudden, so surpassing hope's extreme, Like the sun bursting from the midnight gloom, 'Tis impious to be niggards in delight; Joy becomes duty; Heaven calls for some excess, And transport flames as incense to the skies! Erir. Transport how dreadful!

Dem. Turns Erixene?

Can she not bear the sunshine of our fate?
Meridian happiness is poured around us;
The laughing loves descend in swarms upon us;
And where we tread is an eternal spring!
By Heaven! I almost pity guilty Perseus
For such a loss.

Erir. That stabs me through and through! Dem. What stabs thee?-Speak! Have I then lost thy love?

Erix. To my confusion, be it spoke-Tis thine. Dem. To thy confusion! Is it then a crime? You heard how dying Dymas cleared my fame. Erix. I heard, and trembled! heard, and ran distracted!

Dem. Astonishment!

Erix. I've nothing else to give thee.

[He steps back in astonishment; she in agony; and both are silent for some

time.

He is struck dumb;-nor can I speak-Yet must I.
I tremble on the brink; yet must plunge in!
Know, my Demetrius, joys are for the gods;
Man's common course of nature is distress :
His joys are prodigies; and, like them too,
Portend approaching ill. The wise man starts,
And trembles at the perils of a bliss.

To hope, how bold! how daring to be fond,
When, what our fondness grasps, is not immortal!
I will presume on thy known, steady virtue,
And treat thee like a man; I will, Demetrius!
Nor longer in my bosom hide a brand,
That burns unseen, and drinks my vital blood.
Dem. What mystery?

Erix. The blackest!

Dem. How every terror doubles in the dark! Why muffled up in silence stands my fate? This horrid spectre let me see at once, And shew if I'm a man.

Erir. It calls for more.

Dem. It calls for me then; love has made me

more.

Erir. Oh, fortify thy soul with more than love!

Dem. What?--I'll have it, though it blast me! Erir. Thus, then, in thunder-I am Perseus' wife!

[Demetrius staggers and falls.—After a pause

Dem. In thunder!-No; that had not struck
so deep!

What tempest e'er discharged so fierce a fire?
Calm and deliberate anguish feeds upon me;
Each thought sent out for help brings in new woe!
Where shall I turn? Where fly? To whom but
thee,
[Kneeling.
Tremendous Jove! whom mortals will not know
From blessings, but compel to be severe !
I feel thy vengeance, and adore thy power!
I see my failings, and absolve thy rage.
But, oh! I must perceive the load that's on me;
I can't but tremble underneath the stroke.
Aid me to bear!-But since it can't be borne,
Oh, let thy mercy burst in flames upon me!
Thy triple bolt is healing balm to this;
This pain unfelt, unfancied by the wretch,
The groaning wretch, that on the wheel expires!
Erix. Why did I tell thee?
Dem. Why commit a deed

Too shocking to be told? What fumes of hell Flew to thy brain? What fiend the crime inspired?

Erix. Perseus, last night, as soon as thou wast
fled,

At that dead hour, when good men are at rest,
When every crime and horror is abroad,
Graves yawn, fiends yell, wolves howl, and ravens

scream;

Than ravens, wolves, or fiends, more fatal far,
To me he came, and threw him at my feet,
And wept, and swore, unless I gave consent
To call a priest that moment, all was ruined :
That the next day Demetrius and his powers
Might conquer, he lose me, and I my crown,
Conferred by Philip but on Perseus' wife.
I started, trembled, fainted; he invades
My half-recovered strength, bribed priests con-
spire,

All urge my vow, all seize my ravished hand,
Invoke the gods, run o'er the hasty rite;

And furies howled our nuptial song below.— Canst thou forgive ?

Dem. By all the flames of love, And torments of despair, I never can! The furies toss their torches from thy hand, And all their adders hiss around thy head! I'll see thy face no more.

Erix. Thy rage is just. Yet stay and hear me!

[Going.

[She kneels, and holds him. Dem. I have heard too much.

Erir. Till thou hast heard the whole, O do not curse me!

Dem. Where can I find a curse to reach thy crime?

[Stamping.

Erir. Stamp till the centre shakes, So black a dæmon shalt thou never raise! Perseus! Canst thou abhor him more than I? Hell has its furies, Perseus has his love, And, oh! Demetrius his eternal hate!

Dem. Eternal! Yes, eternal and eternal; As deep and everlasting as my pain!

Erix. Some god descend, and soothe his soul to peace!

Dem. Talkest thou of peace? what peace hast thou bestowed?

A brain distracted, and a broken heart.
Talk'st thou of peace? Hark, hark, thy husband

calls,

His father's rebel! Brother's murderer!

| Nature's abhorrence, and—thy lawful lord! Fly, my kind patroness, and in his bosom Consult my peace.

Erir. I never shall be there. My lord! my life!

Dem. How say'st? Is Perseus here?Fly, fly! away! 'tis death! 'tis incest!

[Starting wide, and looking round him. Dar'st thou to touch Demetrius? Dar'st thou touch him,

Ev'n with thine eye?

[As he is going, she lays hold of his robe. Erix. I dare-and more, dare seize, And fix him here: no doubt, to thy surpriseI'm blemished, not abandoned; honour still Is sacred in my sight. Thou call'st it incest; 'Tis innocence, 'tis virtue; if there's virtue In fixed, inviolable strength of love.

For know, the moment the dark deed was done, The moment madness made me Perseus' wife,

| I seized this friend, and lodged him in my bosom, [Shewing a dagger. Firmly resolved I never would be more: And now I fling me at thy feet, imploring

Dem. How can I strike?

[Gazing on her with astonishment. Stab at the face of Heaven? How can I strike? Yet how can I forbear?

I feel a thousand deaths debating one.

A deity stands guard on every charm,

And strikes at me.

Erix. As will thy brother soon;

He's now in arms, and may be here this hour.
Nothing so cruel as too soft a soul;

This is strange tenderness, that breaks my heart;
Strange tenderness, that dooms to double death-
To Perseus.

Dem. True-but how to shun that horror? By wounding thee, whom savage pards would spare?

My heart's inhabitant! my soul's ambition!
By wounding thee, and bathing in thy blood;
That blood illustrious, through a radiant race
Of kings and heroes, rolling down from Gods!
Erix. Heroes, and kings, and gods themselves,
must yield

To dire necessity.

Dem. Since that absolves me, Stand firm and fair!

Erix. My bosom meets the point,

Than Perseus far more welcome, to my breast. Dem. Necessity, for gods themselves too

strong,

Is weaker than thy charms. [Drops the dagger. Erir. Oh, my Demetrius !

[Turns, and goes to a further part of the stage. Dem. Oh, my Erixene!

[Both silent, weep, and tremble.

Erix. Farewell!
[Going.
Dem. Where goest? [Passionately seizing her.
Erir. To seek a friend.

Dem. He's here.

Erix. Yes, Perseus' friend

Earth, open and receive me.

Dem. Heaven strike us dead,

And save me from a double suicide,
And one of tenfold death.-O Jove! O Jove!

But I'm distracted. What can Jove? Why What can I pray for? Erix. For a heart. Dem. Yes, one,

[Falling on his knees. [Suddenly starting up.

pray?

That cannot feel. Mine bleeds at every vein. Who never loved, ne'er suffered; he feels nothing,

Who nothing feels but for himself alone;
And, when we feel for others, reason reels,
O'erloaded, from her path, and man runs mad.
As love alone can exquisitely bless,
Love only feels the marvellous of pain;
Opens new veins of torture in the soul,
And wakes the nerve, where agonies are born.
E'en Dymas, Perseus, (hearts of adamant !)
Might weep these torments of their mortal foe.
Erix, Shall I be less compassionate than they?
[Takes up the dagger.
What love denied, thine agonies have done;
[Stabs herself.
Demetrius' sigh outstings the dart of death.

Her blood cries

vengeance; but my father's

peace[Dies. King. As much his goodness wounds me, as his death.

What then are both? O Philip, once renowned!
Where is the pride of Greece, the dread of Rome,
The theme of Athens, the wide world's example,
And the god Alexander's rival, now?
Even at the foot of fortune's precipice,
Where the slave's sigh wafts pity to the prince,
And his omnipotence cries out for more!.
Ant. As the swoln column of ascending smoke,
So solid swells thy grandeur, pigmy man !
King. My life's deep tragedy was planned
with art,

From scene to scene, advancing in distress,
Through a sad series, to this dire result;
As if the Thracian queen conducted all,
And wrote the moral in her children's blood;
Which seas might labour to wash out in vain.
Hear it, ye nations! distant ages, hear!
And learn the dread decrees of Jove to fear:
His dread decrees the strictest balance keep;
The father groans, who made a mother weep;
But if no terror for yourselves can move,
Tremble, ye parents, for the child ye love;
For your Demetrius: mine is doomed to bleed,
A guiltless victim, for his father's deed.
[Exeunt omnes.

SCENE I.

Enter MRS BEVERLEY and CHARLOTTE. Mrs Bev. Be comforted, my dear; all may be well yet. And now, methinks, the lodging begins to look with another face. Oh, sister! sister! if these were all my hardships; if all I had to complain of were no more than quitting my house, servants, equipage, and shew, your pity would be weakness.

Char. Is poverty nothing, then?

Mrs Bev. Nothing in the world, if it affected only me. While we had a fortune, I was the happiest of the rich and now it is gone, give me but a bare subsistence, and my husband's smiles, and I'll be the happiest of the poor. To me, now, these lodgings want nothing but their master. Why do you look at me?

pernicious vice of gaming! But, methinks his usual hours of four or five in the morning might have contented him; it was misery enough to wake for him till then. Need he have staid out all night?I shall learn to detest him.

Mrs Bev. Not for the first fault. He never slept from me before.

Char. Slept from you! No, no, his nights have nothing to do with sleep. How has this one vice driven him from every virtue!-Nay, from his affections, too!The time was, sister

Mrs Bev. And is. I have no fear of his affections. Would I knew, that he were safe!

Char. From ruin and his companions. But that is impossible. His poor little boy, too! What must become of him?

Char. That I may hate my brother. Mrs Bev. Do not talk so, Charlotte.