Page:Passions 2.pdf/191

Rh

SCENE I. An apartment in a royal castle. Ethwald is discovered sitting in deep meditation by the side of a couch, with a lamp burning by him on a high stand; the rest of the stage entirely dark. Ethw. Why am I haunted with these thoughts? What boots it That from their weak and priest-beridden king The soldiers turn distasteful, and on me In mutter'd wishes call? What boots all this? Occasion fairly smiles, but I am shackled. Elsewhere I needs must turn my climbing thoughts— But where? The youthful see around them spread A boundless field of undetermin'd things, Towering in tempting greatness; But, to the closer scan of men matured, These fade away, and in the actual state Of times and circumstances each perceives A path which doth to his advancement lead, And only one; as to the dazzled eye Of the night rev'ller, o'er his emptied bowl, The multiplied and many whirling lights Do shrink at last into one single torch, Shedding a steady ray. I see my path; But what is that to me? my steps are chain'd.