he draws his dagger. In the darkness Zaire comes to the rendezvous. Orosman, hearing her voice, lets his dagger fall. She draws near—she calls upon Nerestan, and at that name Orosman stabs her.
At that moment Nerestan is brought in, in chains, with Fatima. Orosman, beside himself, addresses Nerestan, whom he terms his rival: "'Tis thou who tearest Zaire from me," he said; "look on her before she dies. Let your punishment begin with hers." Nerestan approaches the body. "What do I see? My sister! Barbarian, what hast thou done?" At the word sister, Orosman is as a man who wakes from a deadly dream; he knows his error—he sees all he has lost—he is too deeply plunged in horror to complain. Nerestan and Fatima speak to him, but he understands nothing of what they say except that he was loved. He calls on Zaire—runs to her—they stop him—he falls back in the stupor of despair. "What is to be my doom?" said Nerestan. After a long silence the Soldan orders his fetters to be taken off, loads him and the other Christians with presents, and then kills himself beside Zaire.
This play, translated by Aaron Hill, a gentleman who was once manager of Drury Lane, and wrote a tragedy with the appalling title of "The Fatal Vision," was acted in London in 1735. Mrs Cibber (daughter-in-law of Colley Cibber), then only eighteen, made her first appearance as Zaire, and achieved an extraordinary degree of success. A young gentleman "of fortune and condition" made an equally decided failure as Orosman. The play long retained its place on the list at Covent Garden, where Master Betty (who died only a year or two ago) acted Orosman, and Charles Kemble, Nerestan. Played by good actors, it was no doubt capable of producing strong effects of the kind to which our grandfathers were perhaps more sensitive than we are—effects quite
