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[He -whispers to Jaffier.

Jaffier: Ha! is'tthenso?

Pierre : Most certainly.

Jaffier: I'll do it.

Pierre : Remember.

Officer : Sir!

Pierre : Come, now I'm ready.

[He and Jaffier ascend the scaffold. Captain, you should be a gentleman of honour; Keep off the rabble, that I may have room To entertain my fate, and die with decency. Come. [Takes off his gown. Executioner prepares to bind him.

Friar: Son.

Pierre : Hence, tempter!

Officer : Stand off, priest.

Pierre: I thank you, sir (to the Officer). You'll think on't (to Jaffier).

Jaffier : It won't grow stale before to-morrow.

Pierre : Now, Jaffier! Now I'm going. Now

[Executioner having bound him.

Jaffier: Have at thee, Thou honest heart, then—here! (Stabs him.) And this is well, too! (Stabs himself.)

Friar: Damnable deed! 61

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Pierre: Now thou'st indeed been faithful. This was done nobly we've deceived the Senate.

Jaffier: Bravely.

Pierre : 1 la, ha, ha!—oh! oh! [Dies.

Jaffier : Now, ye cursed rulers, Thus of the blood ye have shed I make libation, And sprinkle it mingling. May it rest upon you And all your race! Be henceforth peace a stranger Within your walls; let plague and famine waste Your generation—oh, poor Belvidera! Sir, I've a wife; bear this in safety to her, A token, that with my dying breath I blessed her, And the dear little infant left behind me. I'm sick. I'm quiet. [Dies.

Officer : Bear this news to the Senate,

And guard their bodies till there's further orders. Heaven grant I die so well!

Scene III.—An apartment in Priuli's house. Soft music. Enter Belvidera, distracted, led by two of her women, Priuli, and servants.

Belvidera : Are you returned ? See, father, here he's come again: Am I to blame to love him? O, thou dear one, Why do you fly me ? Are you angry still then ? Jaffier, where art thou ? Father, why do you do thus ? Stand off, don't hide him from me. He's here, somewhere. Stand off, I say ! What, gone ? Remember t tyrant: I may revenge myself for this trick, one day. I'll do't—I'll do't. Renault's a nasty fellow; Hang him, hang him, hang him.

[Enter Officer* Priuli : News, what news ? Officer: Most sad, sir;

Jaffier, upon the scaffold, to prevent

62

Thomas Otzvay

A shameful death, stabbed Pierre, and next himself; Both fell together.

Priuli : Daughter!

Belvidera : Ha! look there!

The ghosts of Jaffier and of Pierre appear. My husband bloody, and his friend, too! Murder: Who has done this ? Speak to me, thou sad vision! On these poor trembling knees I beg it. Vanished— Here they went down—oh, I'll dig, dig the den up! You shan't delude me thus. Ho, Jaffier, Jaffier! Peep up and give me but a look. I have him! I've got him, father. Oh ! now how I'll smuggle him! My love! my dear! my blessing! help me! help me! They have hold on me, and drag me to the bottom; Nay—now they pull so hard—farewell! [Dies.

Priuli : Lead me into some place that's fit for mourning: Where the free air, light, and the cheerful sun May never enter: hang it round with black: Set up one taper, that may last a day, !As long as I've to live; and there all leave me.

[Exeunt all.

63

OVID The Metamorphoses

THE THEME

Of shapes that suffered transformation strange My Muse will sing. Ye Gods, that miracles Like these have wrought, inspire my great emprise, Guiding my verse unbroken from the birth Of things primeval till Augustan times!

THE AGES OF THE WORLD

First sprang the Golden Age, which of its will, Without revenge or law, kept faith and right. There was yet no penalty, nor dread, Nor threat of law on brazen tablet graved;

Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) was born at Sulmo, about ninety miles from Rome, in 43 B.C. He died in banishment at Tomi, on the Black Sea, in 18 a.d. His father hoped that by training him in law, Ovid might pass through a successful civil career; but the youth's astonishing aptitude for "lisping in numbers," which came to him as naturally as to Pope, proved the determining influence of his life. So he became the favourite poet of the " smart set" at Rome under the Emperor Augustus, in the period immediately preceding the opening of the Christian era. His " Loves," and the imaginary letters in his " Heroines " were popular in high circles. In his " Art of Love," however, the Emperor saw influences pernicious to society, and found in a court intrigue sufficient excuse to banish Ovid in a.d. 8. This severance from the world of fashion cost him infinite misery, which he expressed chiefly in his " Sorrows." But before his exile he had shown his wonderful gifts of narrative in his " Metamorphoses," or tales of transformation, which he himself esteemed the most important of his works. This work is not, apart from its general idea, an artistic unity; but it is a rich treasury of stories which has exerted potent influence upon art and literature, especially at the epoch of the Renaissance. The translations here given have been made by Prof. J. Wight Duff.