Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876,
By WHEAT & CORNETT,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
CASTS OF CHARACTERS, STAGE BUSINESS, COSTUMES, RELATIVE POSITIONS, &c.,
THE HOME CIRCLE, PRIVATE THEATRICALS, AND THE AMERICAN STAge.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by WHEAT & CORNETT, in the Office
of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
Enter LORD RANDOLPH.
Lord R. Again these weeds of woe! say, dost
thou well
To feed a passion which consumes thy life?
The living claim some duty; vainly thou
Bestow'st thy cares upon the silent dead.
Lady R. Silent, alas! is he for whom I mourn;
Childless, without memorial of his name,
He only now in my remembrance lives.
"This fatal day stirs my time-settled sorrow,
"Troubles afresh the fountain of my heart."
Lord R. "When was it pure of sadness? These
black weeds
"Express the wonted color of thy mind,
"Forever dark and dismal. Seven long years
"Are pass'd since we were join'd by sacred ties;
"Clouds all the while have hung upon thy brow,
"Nor broke nor parted by one gleam of joy."
Time, that wears out the trace of deepest anguish,
As the sea smooths the prints made in the sand,"
Has past o'er thee in vain.
Lady R. "If time to come
"Should prove as ineffectual, yet, my lord,
"Thou canst not blame me. When our Scottish
"Vied with each other for my luckless love melan-"Oft I besought them, I implor'd them all "Not to assail me with my father's aid, "Nor blend their better destiny with mine. "For melancholy had congeal'd my blood, "And froze affection in my chilly breast. "At last my sire, rous'd with the base attempt "To force me from him, which thou rend'redst vain,
Accords with my soul's sadness, and draws forth
The voice of sorrow from my bursting heart,
Farewell awhile; I will not leave you long;
For in your shades I deem some spirit dwells,
Who, from the chiding stream, or groaning oak,
Still hears and answers to Matilda's moan.
Oh, Douglas! Douglas! if departed ghosts
Are e'er permitted to review this world,
Within the circle of that wood thou art,
And with the passion of immortals hear'st
My lamentation; hear'st thy wretched wife
Weep for her husband slain, her infant lost.
My brother's timeless death I seem to mourn,
Who perished with thee on this fatal day.
To thee I lift my voice; to thee address
The plaint which mortal ear has never heard.
Oh, disregard me not; tho' I am call'd
Another's now, my heart is wholly thine.
Incapable of change, affection lies
Buried, my Douglas, in thy bloody grave.
"To his own daughter bow'd his hoary head,
"Besought me to commiserate his age,
"And vow'd he should not, could not die in peace,
"Unless he saw me wedded, and secur'd
"From violence and outrage. Then, my lord!
"In my extreme distress I call'd on thee,
"Thee I bespake, profess'd my strong desire
"To lead a single, solitary life,
"And begg'd thy nobleness not to demand
"Her for a wife, whose heart was dead to love.
"How thou persistedst after this, thou know'st,
"And must confess that I am not unjust,
"Nor more to thee than to myself injurious."
Lord R. "That I confess; yet ever must regret
Would thou wert not
Compos'd of grief and tenderness alone,
"But hadst a spark of other passions in thee—
"Pride, anger, vanity, the strong desire
Of admiration, dear to womankind;
"These might contend with and allay thy grief,
But Randolph comes, whom fate has made my "The grief I cannot cure.
lord,
To chide my anguish and defraud the dead.
NOTE.-The length of this play necessarily requires curtailments on the Stage-the passages thus omitted are those inserted with inverted commas.
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