Page:Passions 2.pdf/186

174

''Ethw. (aside to Alwy, displeased.'') How came he here?

Alwy. I cannot tell.

''Ethw. (to'' Sol.) We are confined within this narrow space: Go range yourselves at large on yon green sward, And there well spread the lots.

SCENE V. ''An apartment in a royal castle. Enter Ethelbert, and leans his back upon a pillar near the front of the stage, as if deeply engaged in gloomy thoughts: afterwards enters Ethwald by the opposite side at the bottom of the stage, and approaches'' Eth. slowly, observing him attentively as he advances.

Ethw. Thou art disturbed, Ethelbert.

Eth. I am.

Ethw. Thine eyes roll strangely, as tho' thou beheld'st Some dreadful thing: On what look'st thou?

Eth.Upon my country's ruin. The land is full of blood: her savage birds O'er human carcases do scream and batten: The silent hamlet smokes not, in the field The aged grandsire turns the joyless soil: Dark spirits are abroad, and gentle worth Within the narrow house of death is laid, An early tenant.