KING.

"A rage so unrelenting,

BOTH.

"Will for ever

Love dissever,

Will for ever break our rest.”

KING.

Floods of sorrow will I shed
To mourn the lovely shade!
My Rosamond, alas! is dead,

And where, O where convey'd !

So bright a bloom, so soft an air,
Did ever nymph disclose!
The lily was not half so fair,
Nor half so sweet the rose."

QUEEN.

How is his heart with anguish torn!
My lord, I cannot see you mourn;
The living you lament: while I,
To be lamented so, could die.

KING.

The living! speak, oh speak again !
Why will you dally with my pain!

QUEEN.

Were your lov'd Rosamond alive,
Would not my former wrongs revive?

KING.

Oh no; by visions from above

Prepar'd for grief, and freed from love,
I came to take my last adieu.

QUEEN.

How am I blest if this be true!-

[Aside.

[Aside.

KING.

And leave th' unhappy nymph for you.

But O

QUEEN.

Forbear, my lord, to grieve, And know your Rosamond does live.

"If 'tis joy to wound a lover,
How much more to give him ease?
When his passion we discover,

Oh how pleasing 'tis to please!
The bliss returns, and we receive
Transports greater than we give."

KING.

O quickly relate

This riddle of fate!

My impatience forgive,

Does Rosamond live?

QUEEN.

The bowl, with drowsy juices fill'd,
From cold Egyptian drugs distill'd,
In borrow'd death has clos'd her eyes:
But soon the waking nymph shall rise,
And, in a convent plac'd, admire
The cloister'd walls and virgin choir:
With them in songs and hymns divine
The beauteous penitent shall join,
And bid the guilty world adieu.

KING.

How am I blest, if this be true!

QUEEN.

Atoning for herself and you.

KING.

I ask no more! secure the fair

In life and bliss: I ask not where:

[Aside.

For ever from my fancy fled

May the whole world believe her dead,
That no foul minister of vice
Again my sinking soul entice
Its broken passion to renew,
But let me live and die with you.

QUEEN.

How does my heart, for such a prize,
The vain censorious world despise!
Though distant ages, yet unborn,
For Rosamond shall falsely mourn,
And with the present times agree,
To brand my name with cruelty;
How does my heart, for such a prize,
The vain censorious world despise!

But see your slave, while yet I speak,
From his dull trance unfetter'd break !
As he the potion shall survive,
Believe your Rosamond alive.

KING.

O happy day! O pleasing view!
My queen forgives—

QUEEN.

My lord is true.

KING.

"No more I'll change,

QUEEN.

"No more I'll grieve:

вотн.

"But ever thus united live."

SIR TRUSTY, awaking.

In which world am I! all I see,

Ev'ry thicket, bush and tree,

So like the place from whence I came,

That one would swear it were the same.

My former legs too, by their pace!
And by the whiskers, 'tis my face!
The self-same habit, garb and mien!
They ne'er wouid bury me in green.

SCENE IV.

Grideline and Sir Trusty.

GRIDELINE.

Have I then liv'd to see this hour,
And took thee in the very bow'r?

SIR TRUSTY.

Widow Trusty, why so fine?

Why dost thou thus in colours shine? Thou shouldst thy husband's death bewail In sable vesture, peak and veil.

GRIDELINE.

Forbear these foolish freaks, and see

How our good king and queen agree.
Why should not we their steps pursue,
And do as our superiors do?

SIR TRUSTY.

Am I bewitch'd, or do I dream?
I know not who, or where I am,
Or what I hear, or what I see,
But this I'm sure, howe'er it be,
It suits a person in my station

T'observe the mode and be in fashion.

Then let not Grideline the chaste
Offended be for what is past,

And hence anew my vows I plight
To be a faithful courteous knight.

GRIDELINE.

I'll too my plighted vows renew,
Since 'tis so courtly to be true.
"Since conjugal passion

Is come into fashion,

And marriage so blest on the throne is,
Like a Venus I'll shine,

Be fond and be fine,

And Sir Trusty shall be my Adonis."

SIR TRUSTY.

"And Sir Trusty shall be thy Adonis.”

The King and Queen advancing.

KING.

Who to forbidden joys would rove,
That knows the sweets of virtuous love?
Hymen, thou source of chaste delights,
Cheerful days, and blissful nights,
Thou dost untainted joys dispense,
And pleasure join with innocence :
Thy raptures last, and are secure
From future grief and present fear.

BOTH.

"Who to forbidden joys would rove, That knows the sweets of virtuous love?"