THE WIFE OF FERGUS.

Fergusius 3. periit veneno ab uxore dato. Alii scribunt cum uxor sæpe exprobrasset ei matrimonii contemptum et pellicum greges, neque quicquam profecisset, tandem noctu dormientem ab ea strangulatum. Quæstione de morte ejus habitâ, cum amicorum plurimi insimularentur, nec quisquam ne in gravissimis quidem tormentis quisquam fateretur, mulier, alioqui ferox, tot innoxiorum capitum miserta, in medium processit, ac e superiore loco cædem a se factum confessa, ne ad ludibrium superesset, pectus cultro transfodit: quod ejus factum varie pro cujusque ingenio est acceptum, ac perinde sermonibus celebratum. BUCHANAN.

Scene, The Palace Court. The Queen speaking from the Battlements

CEASE.. cease your torments! spare the sufferers! Scotchmen, not theirs the deed;.. the crime was mine. Mine is the glory.

Idle threats! I stand

Secure. All access to these battlements

Is barr'd beyond your sudden strength to force ;. 5 And lo! the dagger by which Fergus died!

Shame on ye, Scotchmen, that a woman's hand Was left to do this deed! Shame on ye, Thanes, Who with slave-patience have so long endured

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The wrongs, and insolence of tyranny!
Cowardly race!.. that not a husband's sword
Smote that adulterous King! that not a wife
Revenged her own pollution; in his blood
Wash'd herself pure, and for the sin compell'd
Atoned by righteous murder!.. O my God!
Of what beast-matter has thou moulded them
To bear with wrongs like these? There was a time
When if the Bard had feign'd you such a tale,
Your eyes had throbb'd with anger, and your hand,
In honest instinct would have graspt the sword. 20
O miserable men, who have disgraced

Your fathers, whom your sons must blush to name!

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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;

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As if I knew not what must consummate
My glory! as if aught that earth can give
Could tempt me to endure the load of life!...
Scotchmen! ye saw when Fergus to the altar
Led me, his maiden Queen. Ye blest me then,.. 34
I heard you bless me,.. and I thought that Heaven
Had heard you also, and that I was blest;

For I loved Fergus. Bear me witness, God!

With what a heart and soul sincerity

My lips pronounced the unrecallable vow

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That made me his, him mine; bear witness, Thou!

Before whose throne I this day must appear

Stain'd with his blood and mine! My heart was his,.. His in the strength of all its first affections.

In all obedience, in all love, I kept

Holy my marriage-vow. Behold me, Thanes!
Time hath not changed the face on which his eye
So often dwelt, when with assiduous care
He sought my love, with seeming truth, for one,
Sincere herself, impossible to doubt.

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Time hath not changed that face!.. I speak not now
With pride of beauties that will feed the worm
To-morrow; but with honest pride I say,
That if the truest and the purest love
Deserved requital, such was ever mine.
How often reeking from the adulterous bed
Have I received him! and with no complaint.
Neglect and insult, cruelty and scorn,
Long, long did I endure, and long curb down
The indignant nature.

Tell your countrymen,

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Scotchmen, what I have spoken! Say to them 60
Ye saw the Queen of Scotland lift the dagger
Red from her husband's heart; that in her own

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,
Welcome! and thou too, Brutus ! ye were both
My wedding guests, and fitly ye are come.
My husband.. Collatine.. alas! no more
Lucretia's husband, for thou shalt not clasp
Pollution to thy bosom,... hear me on!
For I must tell thee all.

I sat at eve
Spinning amid my maidens as I wont,
When from the camp at Ardea Sextus came.
Curb down thy swelling feelings, Collatine!
I little liked the man! yet, for he came
From Ardea, for he brought me news of thee,
I gladly gave him welcome; gladly listen'd, ..
Thou canst not tell how gladly,.. to his tales
Of battles, and the long and perilous siege ;
And when I laid me down at night to sleep,
'T was with a lighten'd heart,.. I knew thee safe,
My visions were of thee.

Nay, hear me out!

And be thou wise in vengeance, so thy wife

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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

Shall bless

my fate. At midnight I awoke,

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The Tarquin was beside me! O my husband,
Where wert thou then! gone was my rebel strength,..
All power of utterance gone! astonish'd, stunn'd,
I saw the coward ruffian, heard him urge
His wicked suit, and bid me tamely yield,..
Yield to dishonour. When he proffer'd death,.. 30
Oh, I had leapt to meet the merciful sword!
But that with most accursed vows he vow'd,
That he would lay a dead slave by my side,
Murdering my spotless honour... Collatine,
From what an anguish have I rescued thee!
And thou, my father, wretched as thou art,
Thou miserable, childless, poor old man,...
Think, father, what that agony had been!
Now thou may'st sorrow for me, thou may'st bless
The memory of thy poor, polluted child.

Look if it have not kindled Brutus' eye:
Mysterious man! at last I know thee now,
I see thy dawning glories!.. to the grave
Not unrevenged Lucretia shall descend;
Not always shall her wretched country wear
The Tarquin's yoke! Ye will deliver Rome,
And I have comfort in this dreadful hour.

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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!

Bristol, 1799.

Stabs herself.