Luc. O Tasso! what is this? Heavens I what has happen'd,
You grow still paler?
Leon.For the sake of Heaven
Ang. Oh, rouse yourself!
Tas.Be calm, 'twill pass away.
Luc. Oh, listen!—what an uproar!
Leon.What means this?
Ang. The bells are knelling loud from every tower—
Luc. The cannon thunder from St Angelo's—
Leon. The hour is come. Here comes Aldobrandini.
[The sound of bells is heard, and from time to time cannon
shots in the distance.
SCENE VI.
The Same.—Aldobrandini.
Ald. Pardon me, princess, that I must withdraw
Our friend from such a sweet environment.
The hour has struck, the guests are all assembled,
So, please you, follow me into the hall,
Where you are stay'd for, to conduct our Tasso,
In solemn state, unto the Capitol.
Luc. We are prepared to go.
Ald. You, too, my friend?
Come, then, and let the moment of our joy
No longer be delay'd. Let us be gone.
Tas. Now, then, proceed! I was prepared to drop
Into my opening grave, unknown, unhonour'd—
By few beloved, by few bewail'd—to lay
My wearied head unto its latest sleep!
But from the very churchyard comes the dance
Of giddy life to meet me! It returns,
And lures me onward with its richest treasures,
And bids me crown me with its fairest boughs.
It is the voice of God that speaks to me,
And I obey. It is his hand that brings
These changes—life, and death, and grief, and glory;
That bows me first, that crowns me at the last,
And brightens even the margin of the tomb
With light, that cheers and dissipates the gloom.
[Exeunt through the colonnade.
Ang. What feeling's this? my senses sure deceive me—
I never saw him thus. That glance of his
Was not his glance—it was another fire
That sparkled from within; and all his features
Seemed to me changed and altered.
(Shrieks.) Woe is me!
O God! He sinks! They throng around him! Hence—
O he is dead! [She rushes out through the colonnade.
[Louder cries are heard without of "Long live Tasso," accompanied
by the music, the sound of the bells, and the cannon beyond the scene.
SCENE VII.
Ald. Yes, he has finish'd. Let the triumph cease—
Let all these joyous melodies be hush'd;
