10 15 The wrongs, and insolence of tyranny! Your fathers, whom your sons must blush to name! 24 Ay,.. ye can threaten me! ye can be brave In anger to a woman! one whose virtue Upbraids your coward vice; whose name will live Honour'd and praised in song, when not a hand Shall root from your forgotten monuments The cankering moss. Fools! fools! to think that death Is not a thing familiar to my mind; 30 As if I knew not what must consummate For I loved Fergus. Bear me witness, God! My lips pronounced the unrecallable vow 39 That made me his, him mine; bear witness, Thou! Before whose throne I this day must appear In all obedience, in all love, I kept Holy my marriage-vow. Behold me, Thanes! 45 He sought my love, with seeming truth, for one, 49 Time hath not changed that face!.. I speak not now Tell your countrymen, 55 Scotchmen, what I have spoken! Say to them 60 She plunged it. Stabs herself. Tell them also, that she felt No guilty fear in death. Westbury, 1798. LUCRETIA. Scene, The House of Collatine. WELCOME, my father! good Valerius, I sat at eve Nay, hear me out! And be thou wise in vengeance, so thy wife 5 10 15 Not vainly shall have suffer'd. I have wrought 20 My soul up to the business of this hour, That it may stir your noble spirits, and prompt Such glorious deeds that ages yet unborn 25 Shall bless my fate. At midnight I awoke, Look if it have not kindled Brutus' eye: 35 40 45 50 Thinkest thou, my husband, that I dreaded death? O Collatine! the weapon that had gored My bosom had been ease, been happiness,.. Elysium, to the hell of his hot grasp. Judge if Lucretia could have fear'd to die! Stabs herself. Bristol, 1799. LA CABA. This monodrama was written several years before the author had any intention of treating at greater length the portion of Spanish history to which it relates. It is founded upon the following passage in the Historia Verdadera del Rey Don Rodrigo, which Miguel de Luna translated from the Arabic. Aviendose despedido en la Ciudad de Cordoba el Conde Don Julian de aquellos Generales, recogiò toda su gente, deudos y criados; y porque sus tierras estavan tan perdidas y maltratadas, se fue á un lugar pequeño, que está fabricado en la ribera del mar Mediterraneo, en la provincia que llaman Vandalucia, á la qual nombraron los Christianos en su lengua Villaviciosa. Y aviendo llegado á ella, dió orden de embiar por su muger, y hija, que estavan detenidas en aquellas partes de Africa, en una Ciudad que está en la ribera del mar, la qual se llama Tanjer, para desde alli aguardar el sucesso de la conquista de España en que avia de parar: las quales llegadas en aquella Villa, el Conde D. Julian las recibió con mucho contento, porque tenia bien sentida su larga ausencia. Y aviendo descansado, desde ulli el Conde dava orden con mucha diligencia para poblar y restaurar sus tierras, para ir á vivir á ellas. Su hija estava muy triste y afligida; y por mucho que su padre y madre la regalavan, nunca la podian contentar, ni alegrar. Imaginava la grande perdida de España, y la grande destruicion de los Christianos, con tantas muertes, y cautiverios, robadas sus haziendas, y que ella huviesse sido causa principal, cabeza, y ocasion de aquella perdicion; y sobre todo ello le crecian mas sus pesadumbres en verse deshonrada, |