Jump to content

Page:The Amyntas of Tasso (1770) - Percival Stockdale.djvu/172

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
140
AMYNTAS.
MESSNGER.
The doleful tidings
Of poor Amyntas' death.

SYLVIA.
Oh knelling sound!

MESSENGER.
Never did shepherd tread the rural plain
More graceful, and more polished than Amyntas;
Of every nymph a favourite was Amyntas;
Amyntas had a rich, poetick soul,
And to the Muses was his genius dear.
Yet in the prime of life, and bloom of virtue
He's dead; and of a death how lamentable!

CHORUS.
Shepherd explain thyself; that his misfortune,
And our own loss we may with thee deplore.

SYLVIA.
Alas! I dare not hear the mournful tale:
Oh! my inhuman, oh! my savage heart!
Now, tyrant, show thy rough, unfeeling nature.
Whilst thy Amyntas lived, thou didst torment

The