SCENE II. Enter IRAD and JAPHET. Irad. Despond not: wherefore wilt thou wander thus, To add thy silence to the silent night, And lift thy tearful eye unto the stars? Japh. But they sooth me-now Perhaps she looks upon them as I look. Irad. Japh. But she loves thee not. Alas! Irad. And proud Aholibamah spurns me also. Japh. I feel for thee too. Irad. Let her keep her pride, Mine hath enabled me to bear her scorn; It may be, time too will avenge it. Japh. Find joy in such a thought? Irad. Canst thou Nor joy, nor sorrow. I loved her well; I would have loved her better, If not her words, tells me she loves another. Japh. Ay, but not Anah: she but loves her God. That I know not; but her air, Irad. Whate'er she loveth, so she loves thee not, Yes. Or think'st thou lov'st not, art thou happier? For being happy, Deprived of that which makes my misery. Irad. I take thy taunt as part of thy distemper, The yellow dust they try to barter with us, Japh. And so would I If I could rest. Irad. Thou wilt not to our tents, then? Japh. No, Irad; I will to the cavern, whose Mouth they say opens from the internal world To let the inner spirits of the earth Forth when they walk its surface. Irad. What wouldst thou there? Japh. Wherefore so? Sooth further my sad spirit With gloom as sad: it is a hopeless spot, Irad. I must go with thee. Japh. But 'tis dangerous; sights have peopled it with terrors. Irad, no; believe me I feel no evil thought, and fear no evil. Irad. But evil things will be thy foe the more As not being of them: turn thy steps aside, Japh. (solus.) Peace! I have sought it where it should be found, In love with love too, which perhaps deserved it; A weakness of the spirit-listless days, Peace! what peace? the calm Of desolation, and the stillness of The untrodden forest, only broken by The sweeping tempest through its groaning boughs; Of my mind overworn. The earth's grown wicked, When the dread hour denounced shall open wide The elements; this bosom, which in vain Hath beat for thee, and then will beat more vainly, Thy wrath! for she is pure amidst the failing As a star in the clouds, which cannot quench, Lord of the shoreless sea and watery world, [Exit JAPHET. Enter NOAH and SHEM. Noah. Where is thy brother Japhet? Shem. He went forth, Towards Anah's tents, round which he hovers nightly Noah. What doth he there? It is an evil spot And that the hour approacheth, should indulge Shem. I will seek Japhet. Noah. Go not forward, father: Do not fear for me: All evil things are powerless on the man Shem. To the tents of the father of the sisters? [Exeunt NOAH and SHEM. SCENE III. The mountains.—A cavern, and the rocks of Caucasus. Japh. (solus) Ye wilds, that look eternal; and thou Which seem'st unfathomable; and ye mountains, [cave, So varied and so terrible in beauty; Here, in your rugged majesty of rocks And toppling trees that twine their roots with stone Of man would tremble, could he reach them-yes, Perhaps even hours, ye will be changed, rent, hurled Which seems to lead into a lower world, Shall have its depths search'd by the sweeping wave, That I must live beyond ye? Where shall be VOL. VI.-M |