1810.) 
Stild seek to hope that thou wast not deceit- 
ful ? 
I cannot, though I know it, think thou wast ; 
And therefore do I linger. Cowld I see thee 
As I should view thee, then this point were 
; welcome. 
{While she points the dagger to ber breast, 
: Tos ri returns looking wildly. ) 
*Tis cold and chilling—O, I dare not use it. 
Come, come, and aid my hand—I am a 
coward, 
ZT. I hop’d ’twas over; but it must be 
soon. 
didi. Can’t 1 be sav’d, my father? must I 
go 
in twilight walks and misty cells to moan 
Hours of unending solitude away ? 
4nd who will call thee father when I’m 
gone ? - 
{. Wring not my heart, Editha, lest 
spare thee. 
Edi, O spare me—by my mother’s love 
have mercy 3 
By the caresses which upon thy knee 
Diy infancy receiv’d—-O do not kill me. 
ZT. Give me the dagger, child, 
Fdi, No, no, I will not. 
Look where my mother waits for thy return; 
€ier eyes are dry—-her grief is past a tear— 
Her breast is livid, and her loose torn locks 
Are stain’d with blood: she asks her daugh- 
ter of thee, 
And imprecates a curse upon her husband. 
{Gives the dagger, kneeling.) But let her not 
_ pronounce it—no, my father, 
Tell her Editha kneei’d to ask for death, 
And welcom’d, from her father’s arm, the 
blessing. (Tosrr stabs her.) 
Tell her that like a bleeding lamb I fell, 
Aad kiss’d the hand-Ah, °twill be over 
shortly 
Tell her I thought of her, and bade her love 
thee 
The more for this last. office of thy goodness. 
Farewell, my father. 
ZY. Child, farewell for ever! : 
{She dies in bis arms; be lays ber gently down, 
and continues lorking at ber in silence. Ep- 
WARD and HAROLD continue at table in 
the back ground.) 
Edw. Harold, to-day thou art not girt 
with mirth 5 q 
Of old thou wast the soul of every feast. 
Hi. I know not why this gloom oppresses 
me: 
But I feel cold at heart.—-Where are my 
people ? 
- Bring us another wassail-bowl in haste, 
nm spicy wine we’ll drown this. sluggish 
spirit. ; 
Edw. Warold,I pledgethee. — 
H. ( Drinks.) Monarch, this to thee. 
Where is my page? Why dost thou bring the 
bow! ? 
{Looking at the cup-bearer.) Have I not seen 
thy face in Tosti’s house? 
My bowels yearn, and my knees smite each 
other. 
Harold and Tost?, a Tragedy. 
413, 
This was not wine I swallowed—-am I poi 
son’d? 
Whence is this nipping chill, this paler day- . 
light ? j 
Why clings a bloody dew to every pillar ? 
Why do these arches mutter sullen groans 
Of distant thunder? Whence these fading. 
spectres ; 
That gleam amid the transitory gloom? 
The castle rocks upon its strong foundatiogs é 
All nature seems to quake. 
T. VU tell thee why ; 
Tis that all nature bows to hail my triumph, 
And sympathizes with my high revenge. 
Thy Siegwin, thy beloved, darling Sieg- 
win, 
Has bled beneath my sword; and im theg - 
bowl 
Thou drank’st his reeking blood. 
H. (coming forward.) My boy! my son! 
And has the hell-hound known to find my 
heart- strings, 
And gnawn them with the sharpest tooth of 
spite? 
Why did I spare his life a single instant ? 
ZY. Thou soughtest to deprive me of my 
child ; : 
And would’st have taken what is more thag 
life 5 : 
Her virtue, to bestow it on that man. 
[ Epwarp advances. 
I have prevented that.--Come here and view 
her. 
Edw. Editha, O, this blood shoyld flow to 
save thee! 
T. Ive taken life for life, and am re- 
» veng’d. 
I have bereft mysetf of ali I lov’d, 
And mountain’d up unlessening woe upon me. 
Henceforth I'll be the outcast of mankind, © 
And rove about in endless misery, 
The aim at which chastising gods shall shoot. 
The winter storm in his cold arm shall seize 
My stiffening limbs, andI wil! call it mercy. 
The hail and thunder on my head shall beat, 
And lightnings sear these eye-balls, and Pld 
smile. 
I loath the sight of day, of man, of you. 
The vengeful sisters, their pale stony eyes _ 
On Tosti turn’d, with sounding stride ape 
proach, 
Lok, arm my hands with mischief t Would’st 
thou point 
Against the brother’s heart the brother's 
sword, 
Against the daughter’s breast the father’s 
hand— : 
T’lldo it. Then into thy midnight gulfs 
I'll plunge delighted—~on thy sleety blasts 
To beat about in restless misery== . 
To hide in caves of ice—-in venom seas 
To bathe my tortur’d limbs—and wail and 
howl | 
Till the great wheel of ages roll its round. 
: [ Gees 
Minstrels sing. 
Fair rose yon spreading oak, 
Young ivy rob’d its wunk: 
