II.
"And is she dead?—and did they dare
Obey my phrensy's jealous raving?
My wrath but doomed my own despair:
The sword that smote her's o'er me waving.
But thou art cold, my murder'd love!
And this dark heart is vainly craving
For her who soars alone above,
And leaves my soul unworthy saving.
III.
"She's gone, who shared my diadem;
She sunk, with her my joys entombing;
I swept that flower from Judah's stem
Whose leaves for me alone were blooming;
And mine's the guilt, and mine the hell,
This bosom's desolation dooming;
And I have earned those tortures well,
Which unconsumed are still consuming."
Hebrew Melodies.
[48] History of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 96.
[49] Matth. ii. 22, 23. "Among the atrocities which disgraced the later days of Herod, what we called the Massacre of the Innocents (which took place late in the year before, or early in the same year with the death of Herod) passed away unnoticed. The murder of a few children in a village near Jerusalem would excite little sensation among such a succession of dreadful events, except among the immediate sufferers. The jealousy of Herod against any one who should be Born as a king in Judea,—the dread that the high religious spirit of the people might be re-excited by the hope of a real Messiah,—as well as the summary manner in which he endeavoured to rid himself of the object of his fears, are strictly in accordance with the relentlessness and decision of his character." History of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 106.
[50] Acts xii. 21, 22, 23.
[51] 1 Samuel, ix. 5 11.
[52] 1 Kings xxii. 8, 13.