SCENE II. A Room, with YOUNG WILMOT asleep upon a Bed, in the Distance. Enter OLD WILMOT and AGNES Agnes. The stranger sleeps at present; but so restless His slumbers seem, they can't continue long. O. Wilm. Oh, Agnes! Agnes! if there be a hell, 'Tis just we should expect it. [Goes to take the Dagger, but lets it fall. Agnes. Shake off this panic, and be more yourself. 0. Wilm. What's to be done? On what had we de termin'd? Agnes. You're quite dismay'd. [Takes up the Dagger. O. Wilm. Give me the fatal steel. 'Tis but a single murder, Necessity, impatience, and despair, The three wide mouths of that true Cerberus, Devour their millions daily: And shall I— Of manhood, pity, mercy, or remorse, Left in this savage breast. Agnes. Where do you go? The street is that way. [Going the wrong Way. O Wilm. True! I had forgot. Agnes. Quite, quite confounded! O. Wilm. Well, I recover.-I shall find the way. [Retires towards the Bed. Agnes. Oh, softly! softly! The least noise undoes us. What are we doing? Misery and want, Are lighters ills than this! I cannot bear it !Stop, hold thy hand!-Inconstant, wretched woman! What! doth my heart recoil ?- -O, Wilmot! Wilmot! What pow'r shall I invoke to aid thee, Wilmot ? SCENE III. Another Room. [Scene closes. Enter CHARLOTTE, EUSTACE, and RANDAL. Char. What strange neglect? The doors are all unbarr'd, And not a living creature to be seen! Enter OLD WILMOT and AGNES. Sir, we are come to give and to receive A thousand greetings-Ha! what can this mean! Or could a habit so disguise your son, Agnes. Heard you that? What prodigy of horror is disclosing, 0. Wilm. Pr'ythee, peace : The miserable damn'd suspend their howling, Rand. What mean these dreadful words, and fran tic air! That is the dagger my young master wore. Eust. My mind misgives me. Do not stand to gaze On these dumb phantoms of despair and horror! Let us search further; Randal, show the way. [Exeunt RANDAL, EUSTACE, and CHARLOTTE, Agnes. Let life forsake the earth, and light the sun, And death and darkness bury in oblivion Mankind and all their deeds, that no posterity Or view the grave of such detested parricides ! From age to age, to teach desponding mortals, Heaven, when incens'd, can punish-Die thou first. I durst not trust thy weakness. Agnes. Ever kind, But most in this! [Stabs AGNES. 0. Wilm. I will not long survive thee. Agnes. Do not accuse thy erring mother, Wilmot ! With too much rigour, when we meet above. To give thee life for life, and blood for blood, Is not enough. Had I ten thousand lives, I'd give them all to speak my penitence, Deep, and sincere, and equal to my crime. Oh, Wilmot! oh, my son ! my son! Enter RANDAL and EUSTACE.. Eust. Oh, Wilmot! Wilmot ! Are these the fruits of all thy anxious cares [Dies. For thy ungrateful parents ? -Cruel fiends! O. Wilm. What whining fool art thou, who wouldst usurp My sovereign right of grief-Was he thy son That flow'd, through purer channels, from thy loins? Ó. Wilm. O, would they end A thousand ages hence, I then should suffer Rand. Heaven grant they may ! And may thy penitence atone thy crime! [Dies "Tend well the hapless Charlotte, and bear hence THE END. Printed by Augustus Applegath and Edward Cowper, |