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 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! With what a heart and soul sincerity My lips pronounced the unrecallable vow ვი 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! 45 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 Shall bless my fate. At midnight I awoke, 25 The Tarquin was beside me! O my husband, 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! Bristol, 1799. Stabs herself. |