Hannah More

“ When my impatient friendship claims that trust
Which I so oft have press'd, and you have promis'd.
Or. I cannot tell thee; 'tis a tale of guilt:
How shall I speak? my resolution sickens;
All virtuous men will shun me; thou wilt scorn me,
And fly the foul contagion of my crime.
Ber. My bosom is not steel'd with that harsh prudence
Which would reproach thy failings; tell me all:
The proudest heart loves to repose its faults
Upon a breast that has itself a tincture
Of human weakness: I have frailties too,
Frailties that teach me how to pity thine. ”

“ Orlando mourns the absence of a friend,
Guildford is anxious for a son's renown.
In my poor heart your various terrors meet,
With added fears and fonder apprehensions:
They all unite in me, I feel for all,—
His life, his fame, his absence, and his love:
For he may live to see his native home,
And he may live to bless a sister's hopes,
May live to gratify impatient friendship,
May live to crown a father's house with honour,
May live to glory, yet be dead to love.
Em. Forbear these fears; they wound my brother's honour:
Julia, a brave man must be ever faithful ”

“ Here comes my uncle, venerable Guildford,
Whom I could honour, were he not the sire
Of that aspiring boy, who fills the gap
'Twixt me and fortune: Rivers, how I hate thee!
Enter Guildford.
How fares my noble uncle?
Guild.Honest Bertrand!
I must complain we have so seldom met:
Where do you keep? believe me, we have miss'd you.
Ber. O, my good lord! your pardon—spare me, sir,
For there are follies in a young man's life,
Vain schemes and thoughtless hours which I should blush
To lay before your wise and temperate age. ”

“ Strike, my brave friend! be sudden and be silent!
Death, which is terrible to happy men,
To me will be a blessing: I have lost
All that could make life dear; I've lost my friend;
I've stabb'd the peace of mind of that fair creature;
I have surviv'd my honour: this is dying!
The mournful fondness of officious love
Will plant no thorns upon my dying pillow;
No precious tears embalm my memory,
But curses follow it.
Em. See, Rivers melts;
He pities thee.
Or. I'll spare thy noble heart
The pain of punishing: Orlando's self
Revenges both. ”

“ Or tell me all, or I renounce thy friendship.
Ber. That threat unlocks my tongue; I must not lose thee.
Sweet Julia wept, clasp'd her fair hands, and cried,
Why was I left a legacy to Rivers,
Robb'd of the power of choice? Seeing me she started,
Would have recall'd her words, blush'd, and retir'd.
Or. No more; thou shalt not tempt me to my ruin;
Deny what thou hast said, deny it quickly,
Ere I am quite undone; for, oh! I feel
Retreating virtue touches its last post,
And my lost soul now verges on destruction.
—Bertrand, she promis'd to defer the marriage. ”

“ Orlando——
Em. What of him?
Guild. I cannot tell thee;
An honest shame, a virtuous pride forbids.
Em. Oh, speak!
Guild. Canst thou not guess, and spare thy father?
Em. 'Tis possible I can—and yet I will not:
Tell me the worst while I have sense to hear.
Thou wilt not speak—nay, never turn away;
Dost thou not know that fear is worse than grief?
There may be bounds to grief, fear knows no bounds:
In grief we know the worst of what we feel,
But who can tell the end of what we fear?
Grief mourns some sorrow palpable and known,
But fear runs wild with horrible conjecture. ”

“ Of young Orlando, to confide to me
That secret grief which preys upon his heart?
'Tis shallow, indiscreet hypocrisy
To seem too good: I am the careless Bertrand,
The honest, undesigning, plain, blunt man.
The follies I avow cloak those I hide;
For who will search where nothing seems conceal'd?
'Tis rogues of solid, prudent, grave demeanour
Excite suspicion; men on whose dark brow
Discretion, with his iron hand, has grav'd
The deep-mark'd characters of thoughtfulness. ”

“ Ne'er shall the sight of mirth profane my grief;
The sound of joy shall never charm my ear,
Nor music reach it, save when the slow bell
Wakes the dull brotherhood to lifeless prayer.
Then, when the slow-retreating world recedes,
When warm desires are cold, and passion dead,
And all things but my Julia are forgotten,
One thought of her shall fire my languid soul,
Chase the faint orison, and feed despair.
Ber. What! with monastic, lazy drones retire,
And chant cold hymns with holy hypocrites?
First perish all the sex! Forbid it, manhood!
Where is your nobler self? ”

“ Alive, victorious, and as firm in friendship
As fondness could have wish'd or fancy feign'd;
I might enquire why thus Orlando shuns him——
Why thus he courts this melancholy gloom,
As if he were at variance with delight,
And scorn'd to mingle in the general joy?
Or. Oh, my fair monitress! I have deserv'd
Your gentle censure. Henceforth I'll be gay.
Em. Julia complains, too, of you.
Or. Ah! does Julia?
If Julia chides me, I have err'd indeed;
For harshness is a stranger to her nature.
But why does she complain? O tell me wherefore? ”

“ They seize Orlando.
Jul. I will not long survive thee, oh, my Rivers!
Enter Rivers with the dagger.
Riv. Who calls on Rivers with a voice so sad,
So full of sweetness?
Guild. Ah, my son!
Jul. 'Tis he, 'tis he!
Julia and Rivers run into each other's arms.
Orlando breaks from the guards and falls on his knees.
Or. He lives, he lives! the god-like Rivers lives! ”

“ And mark'd at once the colour of my life.
Hearts that love well, love long; they love but once.
My peace thou hast destroy'd, my honour's mine:
She who aspir'd to gain Orlando's heart
Shall never owe Orlando's hand to pity. ”

“ Exit Guildford.
Riv. I would not deeper wound my father's peace;
But I would hide the cause of my resentment,
Till all be known; and yet I know too much.
It must be so—his grief, his sudden parting:
Fool that I was, not to perceive at once—
But friendship blinded me, and love betray'd.
Bertrand was right, he told me she was chang'd,
And would, on some pretence, delay the marriage.
I hop'd 'twas malice all.—Yonder she comes,
Dissolv'd in tears; I cannot see them fall,
And be a man; I will not, dare not meet her ”

“ Jul. My hero! Do I then behold thee?
Riv. Oh, my full heart! expect not words, my Julia!
Em. Rivers!
Riv. My sister! what an hour is this!
My own Orlando too!
Or. My noble friend!
Riv. This is such prodigality of bliss,
I scarce can think it real. Honest Bertrand,
Your hand; yours, my Orlando; yours, my father;
And, as a hand, I have a heart for all;
Love has enlarg'd it; from excess of love
I am become more capable of friendship.
My dearest Julia!
Guild. She is thine, my son;
Thou hast deserv'd her nobly; thou hast won her,
Fulfill'd the terms——
Riv. ”

“ There's not a word but fits Orlando's case
As well as Rivers';—tender to excess—
No name—'twill do; his faith in me is boundless;
Then, as the brave are still, he's unsuspecting,
And credulous beyond a woman's weakness.
(Going out, he spies the dagger.)
Orlando's dagger!—ha! 'tis greatly thought.
This may do noble service; such a scheme!
My genius catches fire! the bright idea
Is form'd at once, and fit for instant action! ”

“ Riv. She is another Julia.
Or. I stood upon a fearful precipice—
I'm giddy still—oh, yes! I understand thee—
Thy beauteous sister! what a wretch I've been!
Oh, Rivers! too much softness has undone me.
Yet I will never wrong the maid I love,
Nor injure thee; first, let Orlando perish!
Riv. Be more explicit.
Or. For the present spare me.
Think not too hardly of me, noble Rivers!
I am a man, and full of human frailties ”

“ Enter Orlando.
Or. Ha! Rivers here! would I had shunn'd his walks!
How shall I meet the man I mean to wrong?
Riv. Why does Orlando thus expose his health
To this cold air?
Or. I ask the same of Rivers?
Riv. Because this solitude, this silent hour,
Feeds melancholy thoughts, and soothes my soul.
My Julia will not see me.
Or. How?
Riv. She denies me
Admittance to her presence.
Or. (aside.) Then I'm lost,
Confirm'd a villain; now 'tis plain she loves me.
Riv. She will not pardon me one single fault
Of jealous love, though thou hadst clear'd up all. ”

“ Ber. 'Tis prudent to be arm'd;—no words,—take mine;
There may be danger,—Julia may be lost,—
This night secures or loses her for ever.
The cypress walk—spare none who look like spies.
Or. (looking at the sword.)
How deeply is that soul involv'd in guilt,
Who dares not hold communion with its thoughts,
Nor ask itself what it designs to do! ”

“ For when I think that danger sprung from friendship;
That Rivers, to preserve another's life,
Incurr'd this peril, still my wonder rises.
Ber. And why another's life? Why not Orlando's?
Such caution more betrays than honest freedom.
Guild. He's still the same, the gibing, thoughtless Bertrand,
Severe of speech, but innocent of malice. ”

“ Yes, Bertrand,
Prudence becomes moroseness, when it makes
A rigid inquisition of the fault,
Not of the man, perhaps, but of his youth.
Foibles that shame the head on which old Time
Has shower'd his snow are then more pardonable,
And age has many a weakness of its own.
Ber. Your gentleness, my lord, and mild reproof,
Correct the wand'rings of misguided youth,
More than rebuke, and shame me into virtue.
Guild. Saw you my beauteous ward, the Lady Julia?
Ber. She past this way, and with her your fair daughter,
Your Emmelina.
Guild. Call them both my daughters ”

“ Honour! 'tis the fiend
Who feeds on orphans' tears and widows' groans,
And slakes his impious thirst in brothers' blood.
Honour! why, 'tis the primal law of hell!
The grand device to people the dark realms
With noble spirits, who, but for this curst honour,
Had been at peace on earth, or bless'd in heaven.
With this false honour Christians have no commerce,
Religion disavows, and truth disowns it.
Or. (throws away his sword.)
An angel speaks, and angels claim obedience.
Riv. (to Orlando.)
This is the heart thou hast wrong'd.
Em. (comes up to Orlando.) I pity thee ”

“ Or. Do;
Yet wrong me not, for if I am a coward
'Tis but to thee: there does not breathe the man,
Thyself excepted, who durst call me so
And live; but, oh! 'tis sure to heaven and thee,
I am the veriest coward guilt e'er made.
Now, as thou art a man, revenge thyself:
Strike!
Riv. No, not stab thee like a base assassin,
But meet thee as a foe.
Or. Think of my wrongs.
Riv. I feel them here.
Or. Think of my treachery.
Riv. Oh, wherefore wast thou false? how have I lov'd thee!
Or. Of that no more: think of thy father's grief,
Of Emmelina's wrongs——
Riv. Provoke me not.
Or. Of Julia——
Riv. ”

“ And tears, and thread, and balls, and thimbles mix.
Sappho, 'tis true, long vers'd in epic song,
For years esteem'd all household studies wrong;
When, dire mishap, though neither shame nor sin,
Sappho herself, and not her muse, lies in. ”

“ Wisdom is wealth, and science is renown.
Here sacred laws protect the meanest subject;
The bread that toil procures fair freedom sweetens;
And every peasant eats his homely meal,
Content and free, lord of his small domain.
Riv. Past are those Gothic days, and, thanks to heaven,
They are for ever pass'd, when English subjects
Were born the vassals of some tyrant lord! ”

“ And friendship has infring'd on higher duties.
Or. It was a generous fault.
Ber. Yet 'twas a fault.
Oh, for a flinty heart that knows no weakness,
But moves right onward, unseduc'd by friendship,
And all the weak affections!
Or. Hear me, Bertrand!
This is my last farewell; absence alone
Can prop my stagg'ring virtue.
Ber. You're resolv'd:
Then Julia's favours come too late.
Or. What favours?
Ber. Nay, nothing; I renounce these weak affections;
They have misled us both. I, too, repent,
And will return the letter back to Julia.
Or. Letter! what letter? Julia write to me? ”

“ It is her hand.
(Reads.) "To spare my blushes Bertrand brings you this.
How have you wrong'd me! you believ'd me false;
'Twas my compassion for your friend deceiv'd you.
Meet me at midnight in the great pavilion;
But shun till then my presence; from that hour
My future life is yours; your once-lov'd friend
I pity and esteem; but you alone
Possess the heart of Julia."
This to me!
I dream, I rave, 'tis all Elysium round me,
And thou, my better angel! this to me!
Ber. I'm dumb: oh, Julia! what a fall is thine!
Or. What! is it such a crime to love? away——
Thy moral comes too late ”

“ Exeunt Julia and Emmelina.
Riv. (looking after Julia.) Oh, generous Julia!
Or. (aside to Bertrand.)
Mark how much she loves him!
Ber. (aside to Orlando.)
Mere words, which the fond sex have always ready.
Riv. Forgive me, good Orlando, best of friends!
How my soul joys to meet thee on this shore!
Thus to embrace thee in my native England!
Guild. England! the land of worth, the soil of heroes,
Where great Elizabeth the sceptre sways,
O'er a free, glorious, rich, and happy people! ”

“ There fall without a crime. There, where no hate,
No individual rage, no private wrong,
Arms man against his brother.—Not as here,
Where both are often murderers in the act;
In the foul purpose——always.
Riv. Is honour nothing?
Em. Honour! O yes, I know him. 'Tis a phantom;
A shadowy figure wanting bulk and life ”

“ Riv. 'Twas Bertrand whom Orlando killed; the traitor
Has with his dying breath confess'd the whole.
Or. Good sword, I thank thee!
Riv. In the tangled maze
Orlando miss'd the path he was to take,
And pass'd through that where Bertrand lay conceal'd
To watch th' event: Orlando thought 'twas me,
And that I play'd him false: the walk was dark.
In Bertrand's bloody hand I found this dagger,
With which he meant to take my life; but how
Were you alarm'd?
Guild. One of Orlando's men,
Whom wealth could never bribe to join in murder——
Or. ”