Enter Augusta: She has a Snake in her Bosom hanging down.
Aug. O jealousy, thou raging ill,
Why hast thou found a room in lovers' hearts,
Afflicting what thou canst not kill,
And poisoning love himself, with his own darts?
I find my Albion's heart is gone,
My first offences yet remain,
Nor can repentance love regain;
One writ in sand, alas, in marble one.
I rave, I rave! my spirits boil
Like flames increased, and mounting high with pouring oil;
Disdain and love succeed by turns;
One freezes me, and t'other burns; it burns.
Away, soft love, thou foe to rest!
Give hate the full possession of my breast.
Hate is the nobler passion far,
When love is ill repaid;
For at one blow it ends the war,
And cures the love-sick maid.
248 Enter Democracy and Zelota; one represents a Patriot, the other, Religion.
Dem. Let not thy generous passion waste its rage,
But once again restore our golden age;
Still to weep and to complain,
Does but more provoke disdain.
Let public good
Inflame thy blood;
With crowds of warlike people thou art stored.
And heaps of gold;
Reject thy old,
And to thy bed receive another lord.
Zel. Religion shall thy bonds release,
For heaven can loose, as well as tie all;
And when 'tis for the nation's peace,
A king is but a king on trial;
When love is lost, let marriage end,
And leave a husband for a friend.
Dem. With jealousy swarming,
The people are arming,
The frights of oppression invade them.
Zel. If they fall to relenting,
For fear of repenting,
Religion shall help to persuade them.
Aug. No more, no more temptations use
To bend my will;
How hard a task 'tis to refuse
A pleasing ill!
Dem. Maintain the seeming duty of a wife,
A modest show with jealous eyes deceive;
Affect a fear for hated Albion's life,
And for imaginary dangers grieve.
Zel. His foes already stand protected,
His friends by public fame suspected,
Albanius must forsake his isle;
A plot, contrived in happy hour,
249 Bereaves him of his royal power,
For heaven to mourn, and hell to smile.