Page:Poems of Sentiment and Imagination.djvu/163

Rh Set all Rome mad with love. I've seen her picture

In the gallery of a gentleman

Who told me her sad story.

1st Cit.What was it?

2d Cit. I have no mind to tell it; it brings tears,

And tears shame men like us; it was a tale

Of love, desertion, crime, and sorrowful death.

1st Cit. A common story. But is this a copy

Of that same picture, gentle Alvernon?

Alver. 'Tis one I took from memory.

1st Cit.Hast thou

Then seen the fair original?

Alver.Of this I have.

2d Cit. He never saw Viola, he's too young;

She was the wife of Mazarini, who

Now lives in solitude; you've heard his airs;

They are the finest on the Roman stage—

So wild, and grand, and full of melody.

I hear he has a daughter; if she sings

As did her mother, it will not be long

Ere the world finds her out. I would go

Full thirty leagues to see her smile, and hear

The witchery of her voice.

1st Cit.'Tis you, now,

Who talks the lover, and not Claudio.

2d Cit. Hast heard of the commotion in the church?

One of the members of a stern, strict order,

Hath lately been deemed mad; and whisperings,

And vague reports of what hath been the cause,

Have much disturbed the holy brethren.

1st Cit. Why? do they think a monk should not go mad?