DEATH: A DRAMATIC SCENE. (By the Author of " The Arabs.") DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. MELPOMENE-THALIA-DEATH. SUPPOSED SCENE.-A dark and cavernous foreground, softening into a beautiful landscape in the distance. TIME Twilight. Enter MELPOMENE and THALIA. MELPOMENE. THE night is waning, and the moon-eyed owl Lies hushed; or doth but murmur in its sleep, O Death! my lonely bosom's only love, Why dost thou linger? THALIA. Nay, my sister sad, Prithee compose that rueful face of thine, Who, scorning sleep, and seeking endless change, MELPOMENE. Catching at bawbles-gewgaws of the brain- THALIA. Plucking the poisoned stings Wherewith thy hand would fence the honey'd sweets Hived in the bosom of the breathing world. Which springs from every gushing fount of joy, MELPOMENE. The living cemetery, where men walk Shrouded with woes; where wild Perversion reigns; Where misery appears in borrowed smiles, Virtue in rags, and Infamy in robes; And each and all, according to their garb, THALIA. Say it is the scene Of Fashion, Splendour, Eloquence, and Grace; The fount of Wit, the focus of Delight. MELPOMENE. And what are all the gaieties of earth?— |