CALI.

Sure, not unconscious of the mighty blessing,
Her grateful sons shine bright with every virtue;
Untainted with the lust of innovation,
Sure, all unite to hold her league of rule
Unbroken as the sacred chain of Nature,
That links the jarring elements in peace.

The sultan gaz'd, he wonder'd, and he lov'd:
In passion lost, he bade the conquering fair
Renounce her faith, and be the queen of Turkey,
The pious maid, with modest indignation,
Threw back the glittering bribe.

LEONTIUS.

But say, great bassa, why the sultan's anger,
Burning in vain, delays the stroke of death?

DEMETRIUS.

Celestial goodness! It must, it must be she ; her name?

CALI.

CALI.

Young, and unsettled in his father's kingdoms,
Fierce as he was, he dreaded to destroy

Aspasia,
The empire's darling and the soldier's boast;
But now confirm'd, and swelling with his con-
quests,

What hopes, what terrours, rush upon my soul ! Secure he tramples my declining fame,

O lead me quickly to the scene of fate; Frowns unrestrain’d, and dooms me with his Break through the politician's tedious forms: eyes.

Aspasia calls me; let me fly to save her.

DEMETRIUS.

DEMETRIUS. What can reverse thy doom?

LEONTIUS.

Did Mahomet reproach or praise her virtue?

CALI.

CALI.

DEMETRIUS.

CALI.

The tyrant's death.

His offers oft repeated, still refus'd,

At length rekindled his accustomed fury,
DEMETRIUS.

And chang'd the endearing smile and am'rous But Greece is still forgot.

whisper

To threats of torture, death, and violation.
CALJ.

On Asia's coast,
Which lately bless'd my gentle government,

These tedious narratives of frozen age
Soon as the sultan's unexpected fate

Distract my soul; dispatch thy lingering tale; Fills all th' astonish'd empire with confusion,

Say, did a voice from Heav'n restrain the tyMy policy shall raise an easy throne ;

rant? The Turkish pow'rs from Europe shall retreat,

Did interposing angels guard her from him?
And harass Greece no more with wasteful war.
A galley mann'd with Greeks, thy charge, Leon-
tius,

Just in the moment of inpending fate,
Attends to waft us to repose and safety.

Another plund'rer, brought the bright Irene:
Of equal beauty, but of softer mien,

Fear in her eye, submission on her tongue,
That vessel, if observ'd, alarms the court,

Her mournful charms attracted his regards, And gives a thousand fatal questions birth :

Disarm'd his rage, and in repeated visits Why stor’d for flight? and why prepard by Gain’d all his heart! at length his eager love Cali ?

To her transferr'd the offer of a crown.

LEONTIUS.
This hour I'll beg, with upsuspecting face,

Nor found again the bright temptation fail !
Leave to perform my pilgrimage to Mecca ;
Which granted, hides ray purpose from the
world.

Trembling to grant, nor daring to refuse,
And, though refus'd, conceals it from the sultan. While Fleav'n and Mahomet divide her fears.

With coy caresses and with pleasing wiles

She feeds his hopes, and sooths him to delay. How can a single hand attempt a life

For her, repose is banish'd from the night,
Which armies guard, and citadels enclose?

And business from the day. In her apartments
He lives

DEMETRIUS.

CALI.

CALI.

LEONTIUS.

CALI.

CALI.

CALI.

MUSTAPHA.

LEOSTIUS.

MUSTAPHA. Forbear to speak of hazards; Heav'n will contemn the mercenary fervour, What has the wretch that has surviv'd his coun- Which love of greatness, not of truth, inflames

try,
His friends, his liberty, to hazard ?

CALI.
Cease, cease thy censures; for the sultan comes

Alone, with am'rous haste to seek his love.
Life.

SCENE IV.
DEMETRIUS.

MAHOMET, CALI BASSA, MUSTAPHA.
Th' inestimable privilege of breathing !
Important hazard ! What's that airy bubble,
When weigh'd with Greece, with virtue, with Hail ! terrour of the monarchs of the world,
Aspasia?

Uoshaken be thy throne as Earth's firm base, A foating atom, dust that falls unheeded Live till the Sun forgets to dart his beams, Into the adverse scale, nor shakes the balance. And weary planets loiter in their courses! CALI.

МАНОМЕТ.
At least this day be calm-If we succeed, But, Cali, let Irene share thy prayers;
Aspasia's thine, and all thy life is rapture.- For what is length of days without Irene?
See! Mustapha, the tyrant's minion, comes :

I come from empty noise, and tasteless pomp, Invest Leontius with his new command;

From crowds that hide a monarch from himself, And wait Abdalla's unsuspected visits:

To prove the sweets of privacy and friendship, Remember, freedom, glory, Greece, aud love. And dwell upon the beauties of Irene. [Ereunt Demetrius and Leontius.

O may her beauties last unchang'd by time,
SCENE III.

As those that bless the mansions of the good!
CALI, MUSTAPHA.

МАНОМЕТ.

Each realm where beauty turns the graceful By what enchantment does this lovely Greek

shape, Hold in her chains the captivated saltan?

Swells the fair breast or animates the glance, He tires his fav’rites with Irene's praise,

Adorns my palace with its brightest virgins; And seeks the shades to muse upon Irene; Yet, unacquainted with these soft emotions, Irene steals unheeded from his tongue,

I walk'd superior through the blaze of charms, And mingles unperceiv'd in ev'ry thought.

Prais'd without rapture, left without regret.
Why rove I now, when absent from my fair,

From solitude to crowds, from crowds to solitude, Why should the sultan shun the joys of beauty,

Still restless, till I clasp the lovely maid,
Or arm his breast against the force of love?

And ease my loaded soul upon her bosom?
Love, that with sweet vicissitude relieves
The warrior's labours and the monarch's cares.
But will she yet receive the faith of Mecca ?

Forgive, great sultan, that intrusive duty

Inquires the final doom of Menodorus,
MUSTAPHA.

The Grecian counsellor.
Thosé powrful tyrants of the female breast,

МАНОМЕТ.
Fear and ambition, urge her to compliance;
Dress'd in each charm of gay magnificence,

Go, see him die;
Alluring grandeur courts her to his arms.

His martial rhetric taught the Greeks resistance ; Religion calls her from the wish'd embrace,

Had they preavis'd, I ne'er had kuowo Irene. Paints future joys, and points to distant glories.

[Exit Mustapha. CALE.

SCENE V. Soon will th' unequal contest be decided.

MAHOMET, CALI. Prospects, obscur'd by distance, faintly strike;

MABOMET, Each pleasure brightens at its near approach,

Remote from tumult, in th' adjoining palace, And ev'ry danger shocks with double horrour.

Thy care shall guard this treasure of my soul ; MUSTAPHA.

There let Aspasia, since my fair entreats it,

With converse chase the melancholy moments. How shall I scorn the beautiful apostate! Sare chill'd with sixty winter camps, thy blood How will the bright Aspasia shine above her! At sight of female charms will glow no more. CALI.

CALI. Should she, for proselytes are always zealous, These years, unconquerid Mahomet, demand Witha pious warmath receive our prophet's law Desires more pure, and other cares than lote.

CALI.

MUSTAPHA.

ASPASTA,

MAHOMET.

Long have I wish'd, before our prophet's tomb The glittering vanities of empty greatness, To pour my pray’rs for thy successful reign, The hopes and fears, the joys and pains of life, To quit the tumults of the noisy camp,

Dissolve in air, and vanish into nothing. And sink into the silent grave in peace.

Lernobler hopes and juster fears succeed,
What! think of peace while haughty Scander- And bar the passes of Irene's mind
beg,

Against returning guilt.
Elate with conquest, in his native mountains,
Prowls o'er the wealthy spoils of bleeding Turkey!
While fair Hungaria's unexhausted valleys

When thou art absent, Pour forth their legions, and the roaring Danube Death rises to my view with all its terrours ; Rolls half his foods unheard through shouting Then visions horrid as a murd'rer's dreams, camps !

Chill my resolves, and blast my blooming virtue: Nor could'st thou more support a life of sloth Stern torture shakes his bloody scourge before Than Amurath

me,
And anguish gnashes on the fatal wheel.

IRENE.

CALI.

ASPASIA.

MAHOMET.

CALI.

MAHOMET.

ASPASIA.

INENE.

Still full of Amurath! [Aside,

Since fear predominates in ev'ry thought,

And sways thy breast with absolute dominion, Than Amurath, accustom'd to command, Think on th’insulting scorn, the conscious pangs, Could bear his son upon the Turkish throne. The future mis'ries that await th' apostate ;

So shall timidity assist thy reason,

And wisdom into virtue turn thy frailty. This pilgrimage our lawgiver ordain'd

IRENE.

Will not that power that form’d the heart of wo. For those who could not please by nobler service.

man, Our warlike prophet loves an active faith, And wove the feeble texture of her nerves, The holy Aame of enterprizing virtue,

Forgive those fears that shake the tender frame? Mocks the dull vows of solitude and penance, And scorns the lazy hermit's cheap devotion. Shine thou, distinguish'd by superior merit, The weakness we lament, ourselves create; With wonted zeal pursue the task of war, Instructed from our infant years to court, Till ev'ry nation reverence the Koran,

With counterfeited fears, the aid of man, And ev'ry suppliant lift his eyes to Mecca. We learn to shudder at the rustling breeze,

Start at the light, and tremble in the dark; CALI.

Till, affectation ripening to belief,
This regal confidence, this pious ardour,

And folly frighted at her own chimeras,
Let prudence moderate, though not suppress. Habitual cowardice usurps the soul.
Is not each realm that smiles with kinder suns,
Or boasts a happier soil, already thine ?
Extended empire, like expanded gold,

Not all like thee can brave the shocks of fate. Exchanges solid strength for feeble splendour.

Thy soul, by nature great, enlarg'd by know

ledge,

Soars urencum! with our idle cares, Preach thy dull politics to vulgar kings,

And all Aspasia, but her beauty 's man. Thou know'st not yet thy master's future great

ness, His vast designs, his plans of boundless pow'r,

Each generous sentiment is thine, Demetrius, When ev'ry storm in my domain shall roar,

Whose soul, perhaps, yet mindful of Aspasia, When ev'ry wave shall beat a Turkish shore;

Now hovers o'er this melancholy shade, Then, Cali, shall the toils of battle cease,

Well pleas'd to find thy precepts not forgotten. Then dream of prayer, and pilgrimage, and o! could the grave restore the pious hero, peace,

[Ereunt. Soon would his art or valour set us free,

And bear us far from servitude and crimes,
ACT II.
SCENE I.

He may yet live.
ASPASIA, IRENE.

Alas ! delusive dream!

Too well I know him; his immoderate courage, Aspasia, yet pursue the sacred theme; Exhaust the stores of pious eloquence,

Th’impetuous sallies of excessive virtue, And teach me to repel the sultan's passion.

Too strong for love, have hurried him on death. Still at Aspasia's voice a sudden rapture Exalts my soul, and fortifies my heart.

MAHOMET.

ASPASIA.

IRENE.

ASPASIA

IRENE.

SCENE IL

While with incessant thought laborious man

Extends bis mighty scheines of wealth and pox's, ASPASIA, IRENE, CALI, ABDALLA.

And towers and triumphs in ideal greatness; Cali to ABDALIA, as they advance. Some accidental gust of opposition

Blasts all the beauties of his new creation, Behold our future sultaness, Abdalla;

(Verturns the fabric of presumptuous reason, Let artful fatt'ry now, to lull suspicion,

And whelms the swelling architect beneath it. Glide through Irene to the sultan's ear.

Had not the breeze untwin'd the meeting boughs, Wouldst thou subdue th' obdurate cannibal

And through the parted shade disclos'd the To tender friendship, praise him to his mistress.

Greeks, [To irene.] Well may those eyes that view these heav'nly In all the sweet oblivion of delight,

Th’important bour had pass'd unheeded by, charms

In all the fopperies of meeting lovers; Reject the daughters of contending kings:

In sighs and tears, in transports and embraces, For what are pompous titles, proud alliance,

In soft complaints, and idle protestations.
Empire or wealth, to excellence like thine ?
ABDALLA.

SCENE IV.
Receive th' impatient sultan to thy arms;

CALI, DEMETRIUS, LEONTIUS. And may a long posterity of monarchs, The pride and terroar of succeeding days, Rise from the happy bed; and future queens Could omens fright the resolute and wise, Diffuse Irene's beauty through the world ! Well might we fear impending disappointments.

CALI.

DEMETRIUS.

CALI.

LEONTIUS.

DEMETRIUS.

CALI.

S

Can Mahomet's imperial hand descend

Your artful suit, your monarch's fierce denial, To clasp a slave? or can a soul like mine, The cruel doom of hapless MenodorusUnus'd to pow'r, and form’d for humbler scenes, Support the splendid miseries of greatness ?

And your new charge, that dear, that hearinly

maid-
No regal pageant deck'd with casual honours,
Scorn'd by his subjects, trampled by his foes,
No feeble tyrant of a petty state,

All this we know already from Abdalla.
Courts thee to shake on a dependant throne;
Born to command, as thou to charm mankind,
The sultan from himself derives his greatness. Such slight defeats but animate the brave
Observe, bright maid, as his resistless voice

To stronger efforts and maturer counsels.
Drives on the tempest of destructive war,
How nation after nation falls before him.
ABDALLA.

My doom confirm'd establishes my purpose.

Calmly he heard till Amurath's resumption At his dread name the distant mountains shake Their cloudy summits, and the sons of fierceness, When from his lips the fatal name burst out,

Rose to his thought, and set bis soul on fire: That range unciviliz'd from rock to rock,

A sudden pause th' imperfect sense suspended, Distrust th' eternal fortresses of Nature,

Like the dread stillness of condensing storms. And wish their gloomy caverns more obscure.

ASPASIA
Forbear this lavish pomp of dreadful praise :

The loudest cries of Nature urge us forward; The horrid images of war and slaughter

Despotic rage pursues the life of Cali; Renew our sorrows, and awake our fears.

His groaning country claims Leontius' aid;

And yet another voice, forgive me, Grecce, ABDALLA.

The pow'rful voice of love inflames Demetrius, Cali, methinks yon waving trees afford

Each ling'ring hour alarms me for Aspasia. A doubtful glimpse of our approaching friends :

CALI, Just as I mark'd them they forsook the shore, And turn'd their hasty steps towards the garden. What passions reiga among thy crew, Leontius?

Does cheerless diffidence oppress their bearts?

Or aprightly hope exalt their kindling spirits?
Conduct these queens, Abdalla, to the palace: Do they with pain repress the struggling shout,
Such beav'ply beauty, torm'd for adoration, And listen eager to the rising wind ?
The pride of monarchs, the reward of conquest !
Such beauty must not shine to vulgar eyes.

All there is hope, and gaiety, and courage,
SCENE III.

No cloudy doubts, or languishing delays;

Ere I could range thein on the crowded deck, Ilow Heav'n, in scorn of human arrogance,

At once an hundred voices thunder'd round me, Corninits to trivial chance the fate of nations!

And ev'ry voice was “ Liberty and Greece,"

DEMETRIUS.

CALI.

LEONTIUS.

CALI, solus.

DEMETRIUS.

Mahomet, examining the paper. Swift let us rush upon the careless tyrant,

His correspondence with our foes of Greece: Nor give him leisure for another crime.

His hand ! his seal! The secrets of my soul

Conceal'd from all but him! All, all conspire LEONTIUS.

To banish doubt, and brand him for a villain ! Then let us now resolve, nor idly waste

Our schemes for ever cross'd, our mines discoAnother hour in dull deliberation.

ver'd, Betray'd some traitor lurking near my bosom.

Oft bave I rag'd, when their wide-wasting cannon But see, where, destin'd to protract our counsels, Lay pointed at our batt'ries yet unform’d, Comes Mustapha.-Your Turkish robes conceal And broke the meditated lines of war. yoni.

Detested Cali too, with artful wonder, Retire with speed, while I prepare to meet him Would shake his wily head, and closely whisper, With artificial smiles, and seeming friendship. Beware of Mustapha, beware of treason,

CALI.

MAHOMET.

There will his boundless wealth, the spoil of

Asia,
Now, Mustapha, pursue thy tale of horrour.
Has treason's dire infection reach'd my palace?

Heap'd by your father's ill-plac'd bounties on him, Can Cali dare the stroke of heav'nly justice

Disperse rebellion through the Eastern world ; In the dark precincts of the gaping grave,

Bribe to his cause, and list beneath his banners, And load with perjuries his parting soul?

Arabia's roving troops, the sons of swiftness, Was it for this, that, sick’ning in Epirus,

And arm the Persian heretic against thee;

There shall he waste thy frontiers, check thy My father calld me to his couch of death, Joiu'd Cali's hand to mine, and falt'ring cry'd,

conquests, * Restrain the fervour of impetuous youth

And, though at length subdu'd, elude thy venWith vencrable Cali's faithful counsels ?”

geance. Are these the counsels, this the faith of Cali ?

MAHOMET. Were all our favours lavish'd on a villain?

Elude my vengeance! No-My troops shall Confest ?

range

Th’ eternal snows that freeze beyond Mæotis, MUSTAPHA.

And Afric's torrid sands, in search of Cali. Confest by dying Menodorus. Should the fierce North upon his frozen wings In his last agonies the gasping coward,

Bear him almost above the wond'ring clouds, Amidst the tortures of the burning steel,

And seat him in the Pleiads' golden chariots, Still fond of life, groan'd out the dreadful secret. Thence shall my fury drag him down to tortures: Held forth this fatal scroll, then sunk to nothing. Wherever guilt can dy, revenge can follow.