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EPILOGUE.

CRAMM'D to the throat with wholesome moral stuff,

Alas, poor audience, you have had enough.
Was ever hapless heroine of a play
In such a piteous plight as ours to-day?
Was ever woman so by love betray'd?
Match'd with two husbands, and yet die a maid.
But, bless me!-hold! what sounds are these I
hear-

I see the Tragic Muse herself appear.
[The back scene opens, and discovers a romantic
sylvan landscape, from which the Tragic
Muse advances slowly, and speaks the fol-
lowing lines:

Hence with your flippant epilogue, that tries
To wipe the virtuous tear from British eyes;
That dares my moral, tragic scene profane,
With strains-at best, unsuiting, light, and vain.
Hence from the pure unsullied beams that play
In yon fair eyes where virtue shines-away!

Britons, to you, from the Castalian groves,
Where dwell the tender, oft unhappy loves;

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Where shades of heroes roam, each mighty name,
And court my aid to rise again to fame;
To you I come, to freedom's noblest seat,
And in Britannia fix my last retreat.

In Greece and Rome, I watch'd the public weal,
The purple tyrant trembled at my steel:
Nor did I less o'er private sorrows reign,
And mend the melting heart with softer pain.
On France and you then rose my brightning star,
With social ray-The arts are ne'er at war.
Oh, as your fire and genius strongly blaze,
As your's are generous Freedom's bolder lays,
Let not the Gallic taste leave yours behind,
In decent manners and in life refin'd.
Banish the motley mode to tag low verse,
The laughing ballad to the mournful hearse.
When through five acts your hearts have learn'd
to glow,

Touch'd with the secret force of honest woe;
Oh, keep the dear impression on your breast,
Nor idly lose it for a wretched jest.

IRENE.

BY

JOHNSON.

PROLOGUE.

YE glittering train! whom lace and velvet bless,
Suspend the soft solicitudes of dress;
From grovelling business and superfluous care,
Ye sons of avarice! a moment spare:
'Vot'ries of fame and worshippers of power!
Dismiss the pleasing phantoms for an hour.
Our daring bard, with spirit unconfin'd,
Spreads wide the mighty moral for mankind.
Learn here how Heaven supports the virtuous
mind,

Daring, though calm; and vigorous, though resign'd.

Learn here what anguish racks the guilty breast,
In power dependent, in success deprest;
Learn here that peace from innocence must
flow;

All else is empty sound, and idle show.

If truths like these with pleasing language join;

| Ennobled, yet unchanged, if nature shine;
If no wild draught depart from reason's rules,
Nor gods his heroes, nor his lovers fools;
Intriguing wits! his artless plot forgive,
And spare him, beauties, though his lovers live.

Be this at least his praise; be this his pride;
To force applause no modern arts are tried.
Should partial catcalls all his hopes confound,
He bids no trumpet quell the fatal sound.
Should welcome sleep relieve the weary wit,
He rolls no thunders o'er the drowsy pit.
No snares, to captivate the judgment, spreads;
Nor bribes your eyes to prejudice your heads.
Unmoved the witlings sneer and rivals rail;
Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail.
He scorns the meek address, the suppliant strain,
With merit needless, and without it vain.
In reason, nature, truth, he dares to trust;
Ye fops, be silent! and, ye wits, be just!

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SCENE I.

ACT I.

DEMETRIUS and LEONTIUS in Turkish habits.

Leon. And is it thus Demetrius meets his friend,

Hid in the mean disguise of Turkish robes,
With servile secrecy to lurk in shades,
And vent our sufferings in clandestine groans?
Dem. Till breathless fury rested from destruc-
tion,

These groans were fatal, these disguises vain:
But now our Turkish conquerors have quenched
Their rage, and palled their appetite of murder;
No more the glutted sabre thirsts for blood,
And weary cruelty remits her tortures.

Leon. Yet Greece enjoys no gleam of transient hope,

No soothing interval of peaceful sorrow;
The lust of gold succeeds the rage of conquest,
The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless!
The last corruption of degenerate man!
Urged by the imperious soldier's fierce command,
The groaning Greeks break up their golden ca-

verns,

Pregnant with stores, that India's mines might envy,

The accumulated wealth of toiling ages.

Dem. That wealth, too sacred for their country's use!

That wealth, too pleasing to be lost for freedom! That wealth, which, granted to their weeping prince,

Had ranged embattled nations at our gates-
But thus reserved to lure the wolves of Turkey,
Adds shame to grief, and infamy to ruin.
Lamenting avarice now too late discovers
Her own neglected, in the public safety.
Leon. Reproach not misery.The sons of
Greece,

Ill-fated race! so oft besieged in vain,
With false security beheld invasion.
Why should they fear!-That Power, that kindly
spreads

The clouds, a signal of impending showers,
To warn the wandering linnet to the shade,
Beheld, without concern, expiring Greece,
And not one prodigy foretold our fate.

Dem. A thousand horrid prodigies foretold it.
A feeble government, eluded laws,
A factious populace, luxurious nobles,
And all the maladies of sinking states.
When public villany, too strong for justice,
Shows his bold front, the harbinger of ruin,
Can brave Leontius call for airy wonders,
Which cheats interpret, and which fools regard?
When some neglected fabric nods beneath
The weight of years, and totters to the tempest,
Must Heaven dispatch the messengers of light,
Or wake the dead to warn us of its fall?

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compassion.

Each night, protected by the friendly darkness, Quitting my close retreat, I range the city, And, weeping, kiss the venerable ruins :

With silent pangs I view the towering domes, Sacred to prayer; and wander through the streets, Where commerce lavished unexhausted plenty, And jollity maintained eternal revels

Dem. How changed alas !—Now, ghastly desolation

In triumph sits upon our shattered spires;
Now superstition, ignorance, and error,
Usurp our temples, and profane our altars.

Leon. From every palace burst a mingled cla

mour,

The dreadful dissonance of barbarous triumph,
Shrieks of affright, and wailings of distress.
Oft when the cries of violated beauty.
Arose to Heaven, and pierced my bleeding breast,
I felt thy pains, and trembled for Aspasia.

Dem. Aspasia! spare that loved, that mournful name!

Dear hapless maid! tempestuous grief o'erbears My reasoning powers-Dear, hapless, lost Aspasia!

Leon. Suspend the thought.

Dem. All thought on her is madness: Yet let me think-I see the helpless maid! Behold the monsters gaze with savage rapture, Behold how lust and rapine struggle round her! Leon. Awake, Demetrius, from this dismal

dream;

Sink not beneath imaginary sorrows:
Call to your aid your courage and your wisdom;
Think on the sudden change of human scenes;
Think on the various accidents of war;
Think on the mighty power of awful virtue;
Think on that providence that guards the good.
Dem. O Providence! extend thy care to me,
For courage droops unequal to the combat,
And weak philosophy denies her succours.
Sure some kind sabre, in the heat of battle,
Ere yet the foe found leisure to be cruel,
Dismissed her to the sky..

Leon. Some virgin martyr,

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Perhaps, enamoured of resembling virtue,
With gentle hand restrained the streams of life,
And snatched her timely from her country's fate,
Dem. From those bright regions of eternal
day,

Where now thou shin'st among thy fellow saints,
Arrayed in purer light, look down on me!
In pleasing visions, and assuasive dreams,

O! soothe my soul, and teach me how to lose thee!

Leon. Enough of unavailing tears, Demetrius: I came obedient to thy friendly summons, And hoped to share thy counsels, not thy sor

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sorrows,

At midnight's private hour, a voice unknown Sounds in my sleeping year, Awake, Demetrius!

'Awake, and follow me to better fortunes.' Surprised, I start, and bless the happy dream; Then, rousing, know the fiery chief Abdallah, Whose quick impatience seized my doubtful hand,

And led me to the shore where Cali stood,
Pensive, and listening to the beating surge.
There, in soft hints, and in ambiguous phrase,
With all the diffidence of long experience,
That oft had practised fraud, and oft detected,
The veteran courtier half revealed his project.
By his command, equipped for speedy flight,
Deep in a winding creek a galley lies,
Manned with the bravest of our fellow captives,
Selected by my care, a hardy band,
That long to hail thee chief.

Leon. But what avails

So small a force? Or why should Cali fly?
Or how ean Cali's flight restore our country?
Dem. Reserve these questions for a safer hour,
Or hear himself; for see, the Bassa comes.

Enter CALI BAssa.

Cali. Now summon all thy soul, illustrious
Christian!

Awake each faculty that sleeps within thee,
The courtier's policy, the sage's firmness,
The warrior's ardour, and the patriot's zeal;
If, chasing past events with vain pursuit,

Or wandering in the wilds of future being,
A single thought now rove, recall it home.
But can thy friend sustain the glorious cause,
The cause of liberty, the cause of nations?

Dem. Observe him closely with a statesman's

eye,

Thou, that hast long perused the draughts of nature,

And know'st the characters of vice and virtue, Left by the hand of heaven on human clay.

Cali. His mien is lofty, his demeanour great; Nor sprightly folly wantons in his air, Nor dull serenity becalms his eye. Such had I trusted once as soon as seen; But cautious age suspects the flattering form, And only credits what experience tells. Has silence pressed her seal upon his lips? Does adamantine faith invest his heart? Will he not bend beneath a tyrant's frown? Will he not melt before ambition's fire ? Will he not soften in a friend's embrace, Or flow dissolving in a woman's tears?

Dem. Sooner these trembling leaves shall find

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Cali. Forgive an old man's weakness,
And share the deepest secrets of my soul,
My wrongs, my fears, my motives, my designs.
When unsuccessful wars, and civil factions,
Embroiled the Turkish state, our sultan's fa-
ther,

Great Amurath, at my request, forsook
The cloister's ease, resumed the tottering throne,
And snatched the reins of abdicated power
From giddy Mahomet's unskilful band.
This fired the youthful king's ambitious breast;
He murmurs vengeance at the name of Cali,
And dooms my rash fidelity to ruin.

Dem. Unhappy lot of all that shine in courts! For forced compliance, or for zealous virtue, Still odious to the monarch or the people.

Cali. Such are the woes, when arbitrary power, And lawless passion, hold the sword of justice. If there be any land, as fame reports, Where common laws restrain the prince and subject,

A happy land, where circulating power
Flows through each member of the embodied
state;

Sure, not unconscious of the mighty blessing,
Her grateful sons shine bright with every virtue;
Untainted with the lust of innovation,
Sure all unite to hold her league of rule

Unbroken as the sacred chain of nature,
That links the jarring elements in peace.
Leon. But say, great Bassa, why the Sultan's

anger,

Burning in vain, delays the stroke of death? Cali. Young, and unsettled in his father's kingdoms,

Fierce as he was, he dreaded to destroy
The empire's darling, and the soldier's boast;
But now confirmed, and swelling with his con-
quests,

Secure he tramples my declining fame,

At length rekindled his accustomed fury, And changed the endearing smile and amorous whisper

To threats of torture, death, and violation.

Dem. These tedious narratives of frozen age Distract my soul! dispatch thy lingering tale; Say, did a voice from Heaven restrain the tyrant? Did interposing angels guard her from him?

Cali. Just in the moment of impending fate, Another plunderer brought the bright Irene; Of equal beauty, but of softer mien, Fear in her eye, submission on her tongue,

Frowns unrestrained, and dooms me with his Her mournful charms attracted his regards,

eyes.

Dem. What can reverse thy doom?

Cali. The tyrant's death.

Dem. But Greece is still forgot.

Cali. On Asia's coast,

Which lately blessed my gentle government,
Soon as the sultan's unexpected fate

Fills all the astonished empire with confusion,
My policy shall raise an easy throne;
The Turkish powers from Europe shall retreat,
And harass Greece no more with wasteful war.
A galley manned with Greeks,-thy charge, Le-❘
ontius,-

Attends to waft us to repose and safety..

Disarmed his rage, and in repeated visits Gained all his heart; at length his eager love To her transferred the offer of a crown.

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Leon. Nor found again the bright temptation fail?

Cali. Trembling to grant, nor daring to refuse
While Heaven and Mahomet divide her fears,
With coy caresses and with pleasing wiles
She feeds his hopes, and soothes him to delay.
For her, repose is banished from the night,
And business from the day. In her apartments
He lives

Leon. And there must fall.
Cali. But yet the attempt

Dem. That vessel, if observed, alarms the Is hazardous.

court,

And gives a thousand fatal questions birth; Why stored for flight? and why prepared by Cali?

Cali. This hour I'll beg, with unsuspecting face,

Leave to perform my pilgrimage to Mecca; Which, granted, hides my purpose from the world,

And, though refused, conceals it from the sultan. Leon. How can a single hand attempt a life, Which armies guard, and citadels inclose?

Cali. Forgetful of command, with captive beauties,

Far from his troops, he toys his hours away.
A roving soldier seized in Sophia's temple
A virgin, shining with distinguished charms,
And brought his beauteous plunder to the sultan.
Dem. In Sophia's temple!-What alarm !—
Proceed.

Cali. The sultan gazed, he wondered, and he

loved;

In passion lost, be bade the conquering fair Renounce her faith, and be the queen of Turkey; The pious maid, with modest indignation, Threw back the glittering bribe.

Dem. Celestial goodness!

It must, it must be she!-Her name?
Cali. Aspasia.

Dem. What hopes, what terrors rush upon my
soul!

O lead me quickly to the scene of fate;
Break through the politician's tedious forms!
Aspasia calls me, let me fly to save her.

Leon. Did Mahomet reproach or praise her
virtue?

Cali. His offers oft repeated, still refused,

Leon. Forbear to speak of hazards!

What has the wretch that has survived his country,

His friends, his liberty, to hazard?
Cali. Life.

Dem. The inestimable privilege of breathing! Important hazard! What's that airy bubble, When weighed with Greece, with virtue, with Aspasia?

A floating atom, dust that falls unheeded
Into the adverse scale, nor shakes the balance.

Cali. At least this day be calm-If we suc

ceed,

Aspasia's thine, and all thy life is rapture-
See! Mustapha, the tyrant's minion comes.
Invest Leontius with his new command;
And wait Abdalla's unsuspected visits :
Remember freedom, glory, Greece, and love.
[Exeunt DEM. and LEON.
Enter MUSTAPHA.

Mus. By what enchantment does this lovely
Greek

Hold in her chains the captivated sultan ?
He tires his favourites with Irene's praise,
And seeks the shades to muse upon Irene;
Irene steals unheeded from his tongue,
And mingles unperceived with every thought.
Cali. Why should the sultan shun the joys of
beauty,

Or arm his breast against the force of love?
Love, that with sweet vicissitude relieves
The warrior's labours, and the monarch's cares.
But will she yet receive the faith of Mecca?

Mus. Those powerful tyrants of the female
breast,

Fear and ambition, urge her to compliance;

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