Untainted from the earth, as Christ's, to soar, To that dread band seraphic, that doth lie Glorious the thought-yet ah! my babes, ah! still Though cold ye lie in earth-though gentle death Hath suck'd your balmy breath, And the last kiss which your fair cheeks I gave No tears-no tears—I wish them not again; Ere Doubt, or Fear, or Woe, or act of Sin --E cælo descendit γνῶθι σεαυτόν.—Juvenal. Γνῶθι σεαυτὸν !—and is this the prime And heaven-sprung adage of the olden time !--Say, canst thou make thyself?---Learn first that trade ;-- Haply thou mayst know what thyself had made. What hast thou, Man, that thou dar'st call thine own ?-- What is there in thee, Man, that can be known?- A phantom dim of past and future wrought, Beareth all things.-2 Cor. xiii, 7. GENTLY I took that which ungently came, dark. Thine own keen sense of wrong that thirsts for sin, A rib of dry rot in thy ship's stout side, MY BAPTISMAL BIRTH-DAY. GOD's child in Christ adopted,---Christ my all,--What that earth boasts were not lost cheaply, rather Than forfeit that blest name, by which I call The Holy One, the Almighty God, my Father?--- The heir of heaven, henceforth I fear not death: In vain they try EPITAPH. STOP, Christian Passer-by !---Stop, child of God, 9th November, 1833 DRAMATIS PERSONE. MARQUIS VALDEZ, father to the two brothers, and Dona TERESA's guardian. DON ALVAR, the eldest son. DON ORDONIO, the youngest son. MONVIEDRO, a Dominican and inquisitor. ZULIMEZ, the faithful attendant on ALVAR. ISIDORE, a Moresco chieftain, ostensibly a Christian NAOMI. Moors, Servants, &c. DOÑA TERESA, an orphan heiress. ALHADRA, wife of ISIDORE. Time---The reign of PHILIP II., just at the close of the civil wars against the Moors, and during the heat of the persecution which raged against them, shortly after the edict which forbade the wearing of Moresco apparel under pain of death. ! |