Page:Dramas 2.pdf/34

22

Thou say'st my lady's well: did she receive, With a wife's joy, the news of my return?

I am not skill'd to say; for dispositions Of various hues are variously affected. The news were sudden and unlook'd for: oft The joy of such is clouded and disturb'd. She did withdraw in secrecy to hide Her strong emotions.

She was strongly moved?

I know not how it was.—The servants, too, Whisper'd together as I pass'd, and look'd With a strange staring gravity upon me. Dull clowns! who should have cast their caps in air For joy of your return.—Baldwin is dead; And if for him they wear those sombre looks, Good piteous souls they are.—A courtly damsel, Attending on the Countess, did, forsooth! Mistake my trumpet for the glad arrival Of some gay visitor, who was expected; Whose buxom train, no doubt, contains some youth More grateful to her sight than war-worn knight, Such as my paltry self.