'Tis all the remedy you're like to find. Abdelm. Yes, there's one more;

I'll hate you, and this visit is my last.

But, if you'll freely pardon me, I'll try. Lyndar. And, till you that submissive servant prove,

Lyndar. Do't if you can; you know I hold I neve. can conclude you truly love.

you fast:

Yet, for your quiet, would you could resign
Your love, as easily as I do mine.

Abdelm. Furies and hell, how uncon-
cerned she speaks!

To them the King, ALMAHIDE, ABENAMAR,
ESPERANZA, Guards, Attendants.

Boab. Approach, my Almahide, my charm-
ing fair,

With what indifference all her vows she Blessing of peace, and recompence of war. breaks! This night is yours; and may your life still be

Curse on me, but she smiles!

Lyndar. That smile's a part of love, and all's your due:

I take it from the prince, and give it you.
Abdelm. Just heaven, must my poor heart
your May-game prove,

To bandy, and make children's play in love?
[Half crying.
Ah! how have I this cruelty deserved?
I, who so truly and so long have served!
And left so easily! oh, cruel maid!
So easily! 'Twas too unkindly said.
That heart which could so easily remove
Was never fixed, nor rooted deep in love.
Lyndar. You lodged it so uneasy in your
breast,

I thought you had been weary of the guest.
First, I was treated like a stranger there;
But, when a household friend I did appear,
You thought, it seems, I could not live else-
where.

Then, by degrees, your feigned respect with-
drew;

You marked my actions, and my guardian

grew.

But I am not concerned your acts to blame:
My heart to yours but upon liking came;
And, like a bird whom prying boys molest,
Stays not to breed where she had built her
nest.

Abdelm. I have done ill,

And dare not ask you to be less displeased;
Be but more angry, and my pain is eased.
Lyndar. If I should be so kind a fool, to
take

This little satisfaction which you make,
I know you would presume some other time
Upon my goodness, and repeat your crime.
Abdelm. Oh never, never, upon no pre-
tence;

My life's too short to expiate this offence.
Lyndar. No, now I think on't, 'tis in vain
to try;

'Tis in your nature, and past remedy,
You'll still disquiet my too loving heart:
Now we are friends, 'tis best for both to part.
Abdelm. [taking her hand]. By this-will
you not give me leave to swear?
Lyndar. You would be perjured if you
should, I fear:

And, when I talk with Prince Abdalla next,
I with your fond suspicions shall be vexed. I
Abdelm. I cannot say I'll conquer jealousy,

V

I waked, and straight I knew,

loved so well, it made my dream prove

true:

[After the dance, a tumultuous noise of drums An alarm nearer: then enter ALMANZOR and and trumpets.

That you are brought to this deplored estate,
Is but the ingenious flattery of your fate;
Fate fears her succor like an alms to give;
And would you, God-like, from yourself
should live.

Almah. Mark but how terrible his eyes
appear!

And yet there's something roughly noble
there,

Which, in unfashioned nature, looks divine,
And, like a gem, does in the quarry shine.
[ALMANZOR returns; she falls at his feet,
being veiled.

Almah. Turn, mighty

your face this way,

Almah. Alas!
Almanz. 'Tis all in vain; it will not do:
[Aside.

I cannot now a seeming anger show:
My tongue against my heart no aid affords;
For love still rises up, and chokes my words.
Almah. In half this time a tempest would
be still.

Almanz. 'Tis you have raised that tempest
in my will.

I wonnot love you; give me back my heart; But give it, as you had it, fierce and brave. It was not made to be a woman's slave: conqueror, turn But, lion-like, has been in deserts bred,

Do not refuse to hear the wretched pray!
Almanz. What business can this woman
have with me?

Almah. That of the afflicted to the Deity.
So may your arms success in battles find;
So may the mistress of your vows be kind,
If you have any; or, if you have none,
So may your liberty be still your own!

Almanz. Yes, I will turn my face, but not
my mind:

You bane and soft destruction of mankind,
What would you have with me?

Almah. I beg the grace

[Unveiling. You would lay by those terrors of your face. Till calmness to your eyes you first restore, I am afraid, and I can beg no more.

Almans. [looking fixedly on her]. Well; my
fierce visage shall not murder you.
Speak quickly, woman; I have much to do.
Almah. Where should I find the heart to
speak one word?

Your voice, sir, is as killing as your sword.
As you have left the lightning of your eye,
So would you please to lay your thunder by.
Almanz. I'm pleased and pained, since first
her eyes I saw,

As I were stung with some tarantula.
Arms, and the dusty field, I less admire,
And soften strangely in some new desire;
Honor burns in me not so fiercely bright,
But pale as fires when mastered by the light:
Even while I speak and look, I change yet

more,

And now am nothing that I was before.
I'm numbed, and fixed, and scarce my eye-

balls move;

I fear it is the lethargy of love!
'Tis he; I feel him now in every part:
Like a new lord he vaunts about my heart;
Surveys, in state, each corner of my breast,
While poor fierce I, that was, am dispos-
sessed.

I'm bound; but I will rouse my rage again;
And, though no hope of liberty remain,
I'll fright my keeper when I shake my chain.
You are
[Angrily.
Almah. I know I am your captive, sir.
Almanz. You are-You shall-And I can
scarce forbear-

And, used to range, will ne'er be tamely led.
Restore its freedom to my fettered will,
And then I shall have power to use you ill.
Almah. My sad condition may your pity
move;

But look not on me with the eyes of love.-
I must be brief, though I have much to say.
Almanz. No, speak; for I can hear you
[Softly.

now all day.

Her suing soothes me with a secret pride:
A suppliant beauty cannot be denied: [Aside.
Even while I frown, her charms the furrows
seize;

And I'm corrupted with the power to please.
Almah. Though in your worth no cause of
fear I see,

I fear the insolence of victory;

As you are noble, sir, protect me then
From the rude outrage of insulting men.
Almanz. Who dares touch her I love?

I'm all o'er love:

Nay, I am Love; Love shot, and shot so fast,
He shot himself into my breast at last.

Almah. You see before you her who
should be queen,

Since she is promised to Boabdelin.

Almanz. Are you beloved by him? O
wretched fate,

First, that I love at all; then, love too late!
Yet, I must love!

Almah. Alas, it is in vain;

Fate for each other did not us ordain.
The chances of this day too clearly show
That heaven took care that it should not be

Almanz. He signed but his; but I will
seal my love.

I love you better, with more zeal than he.
Almah. This day

I gave my faith to him, he his to me.
Almanz. Good heaven, thy book of fate
before me lay,

But to tear out the journal of this day:
Or, if the order of the world below
Will not the gap of one whole day allow,
Give me that minute when she made her vow!
"That minute, ev'n the happy from their

bliss might give;

"And those, who live in grief, a shorter time
would live."

So small a link, if broke, the eternal chain
Would, like divided waters, join again.—
It wonnot be; the fugitive is gone,
Pressed by the crowd of following minutes

on:

That precious moment's out of nature fled,
And in the heap of common rubbish laid,
Of things that once have been, and are de-
cayed.

Almah. Your passion, like a fright, sus-
pends my pain;

It meets, o'erpowers, and bears mine back again:

But as, when tides against the current flow, The native stream runs its own course below,

So, though your griefs possess the upper part,

My own have deeper channels in my heart.
Almanz. Forgive that fury which my soul
does move;

'Tis the essay of an untaught first love:
Yet rude, unfashioned truth it does express;
'Tis love just peeping in a hasty dress.
Retire, fair creature, to your needful rest;
There's something noble laboring in my
breast:

This raging fire which through the mass does

move

Shall purge my dross, and shall refine my love.

[Exeunt ALMAHIDE and ESPERANZA. She goes, and I like my own ghost appear; It is not living when she is not here.

To him ABDALLA as King, attended.

acknowledgments

Almans. Then, briefly, thus: when I the
Albayzin won,

I found the beauteous Almahide alone,
Whose sad condition did my pity move;
And that compassion did produce my love.
Abdal. This needs no suit; in justice, I
declare,

She is your captive by the right of war.
Almanz. She is no captive then; I set her
free;

And, rather than I will her jailer be,
I'll nobly lose her in her liberty.

Abdal. Your generosity I much approve;
But your excess of that shows want of love.
Almans. No, 'tis the excess of love which
mounts so high

That, seen far off, it lessens to the eye.
Had I not loved her, and had set her free,
That, sir, had been my generosity;
But 'tis exalted passion, when I show
I dare be wretched, not to make her so:
And, while another passion fills her breast,
I'll be all wretched rather than half blest.
Abdal. May your heroic act so prosperous
be,

That Almahide may sigh you set her free.

Enter ZULEMA,

Zul. Of five tall towers which fortify this
town,

All but the Alhambra your dominion own:
Now, therefore, boldly I confess a flame,
Which is excused in Almahida's name.
If you the merit of this night regard,
In her possession I have my reward.

Almanz. She your reward! why, she's a
gift so great,

That I myself have not deserved her yet;
And therefore, though I won her with my
sword,

I have, with awe, my sacrilege restored.
Zul. What you deserve

I'll not dispute because I do not know;
This only I will say, she shall not go.

Almanz. Thou, single, art not worth my
answering:

But take what friends, what armies thou canst bring;

What worlds; and, when you are united all, Then I will thunder in your ears: "She shall!"

Zul. I'll not one tittle of my right resign. to Sir, your implicit promise made her mine; When I in general terms my love did show, You swore our fortunes should together go. Abdal. The merits of the cause I'll not decide,

Abdal. My first
heaven are due;
My next, Almanzor, let me pay to you.
Almanz. A poor surprise, and on a naked

foe,

Whatever you confess, is all you owe;
And I no merit own, or understand
That fortune did you justice by my hand:
Yet, if you will that little service pay
With a great favor, I can show the way.

Abdal. I have a favor to demand of you;
That is, to take the thing for which you sue.

But, like my love, I would my gift divide.
Your equal titles, then, no longer plead;
But one of you, for love of me, recede.

Almans. I have receded to the utmost
line,

When, by my free consent, she is not mine:
Then let him equally recede with me,