DIONE.

No. To prevent it, is beyond thy power;
Thou only canft defer the welcome hour.
When you the lifted dagger turn'd afide,
Only one road to death thy force deny'd;
Still fate is in my reach. From mountains high,
Deep in whose shadow craggy ruins lie,
Can I not headlong fling this weight of woe,
And dash out life against the flints below?
Are there not streams, and lakes, and rivers wide,
Where my last breath may bubble on the tide ?
No. Life fhall never flatter me again,
Nor fhall to-morrow, bring new fighs and pain.

PARTHENIA.

Can I this burthen of thy foul relieve,

And calm thy grief?

Plight me thy word, and to that word be just;
When poor Alexis fhall be laid in dust,
That pride no longer fhall command thy mind,
That thou wilt spare the friend I leave behind.
I know his virtue worthy of thy breaft.
Long in thy love may Lycidas be bleft!

PARTHENIA.

That fwain (who would my liberty control,
To please some short-liv'd transport of his foul)
Shows, while his importuning flame he moves,
That 'tis not me, himself alone he loves.

O live,

O live, nor leave him by misfortune prest:

'Tis fhameful to desert a friend distrest.

DIONE.

Alas! a wretch like me no lofs would prove,
Would kind Parthenia liften to his love.

PARTHENIA.

Why hides thy bofom this myfterious grief?
Eafe thy o'erburthen'd heart, and hope relief.

DIONE.

What profits it to touch thy tender breaft,
With wrongs, like mine, which ne'er can be redreft?
Let in my heart the fatal fecret die,
Nor call up forrow in another's eye!

If Laura right direct the dark fome ways,
Along thefe paths the penfive fhepherd strays. [Afide.

DIONE.

Let not a tear for me roll down thy cheek.

O would my throbbing fighs my heart-ftrings break! Why was my breast the lifted ftroke deny'd?

Muft then again the deathful deed be try'd?

Yes. "Tis refolv'd.

[Snatches the dagger from Parthenia.

PARTHE

PARTHENIA.

Ah, hold; forbear, forbear!

LYCIDAS.

Methought Diftrefs with fhrieks alarm'd my ear.

PARTHENIA.

Strike not. Ye gods, defend him from the wound!

LYCIDAS.

Yes. 'Tis Parthenia's voice, I know the found.
Some fylvan ravisher would force the maid,
And Laura fent me to her virtue's aid.

Die, villain, die; and feek the fhades below.

[Lycidas fnatches the dagger from Dione, and ftabs her.

DIONE.

Whoe'er thou art, I blefs thee for the blow.

LYCIDAS.

Since Heaven ordain'd this arm thy life fhould guard, O hear my vows! be love the just reward.

PARTHENIA.

Rather let vengeance, with her swiftest speed,
O'ertake thy flight, and recompence the deed!
Why stays the thunder in the upper sky?
Gather, ye clouds; ye forky lightnings, fly:
On thee may all the wrath of Heaven descend,
Whose barbarous hand hath flain a faithful friend.
Behold Alexis !

LYCIDAS,

LYCIDAS,

-Would that treacherous boy

Have forc'd thy virtue to his brutal joy?
What rouz'd his paffion to this hold advance ?
Did e'er thy eyes confefs one willing glance ?
I know, the faithlefs youth his truft betray'd;
And well the dagger hath my wrongs repaid.

DIONE. [Raifing herself on her arm.
Breaks not Evander's voice along the glade?
Ha! is it he who tolds the reeking blade !
There needed not or poifon, fword, or dart;
Thy faithlefs vows, alas! had broke my heart. [Afide.

PARTHENIA.

O tremble, fhepherd, for thy rath offence,
The fword is dy'd with murder'd innocence !
His gentle foul no brutal paffion feiz'd,
Nor at my bofom was the dagger rais'd ;
Self-murder was his aim; the youth I found
Whelm'd in despair, and stay'd the falling wound.

DIONE.

Into what mifchiefs is the lover led,

Who calls down vengeance on his perjur'd head!
O may he ne'er bewail this desperate deed,

And may, unknown, unwept, Dione bleed! [Afide.

LYCIDAS.

What horrors on the guilty mind attend!

His confcience had reveng'd an injur'd friend,
Hadft thou not held the ftroke. In death he fought
To lofe the heart-confuming pain of thought.

Did

Did not the fmooth-tongu'd boy perfidious prove,
Plead his own passion, and betray my love?

DIONE.

O let him ne'er this bleeding victim know;
Left his rafh tranfport, to revenge the blow,
Should in his dearer heart the dagger stain !

That wound would pierce my foul with double pain.

PARTHENIA.

How did his faithful lips (now pale and cold)
With moving cloquence thy griefs unfold!

LYCIDAS.

Was he thus faithful? thus, to friendship true?
Then I'm a wretch. All peace of mind, adieu!
If ebbing life yet beat within thy vein,

Alexis, fpeak; unclose those lids again.

[Afide.

Flings himself on the ground near Dione. See at thy feet the barbarous villain kneel! 'Tis Lycidas who grafps the bloody iteel, Thy once-lov'd friend.-Yet, ere I ceafe to live, Canft thou a wretched penitent forgive?

DIONE.

When low beneath the fable mould I reft,

May a fincerer friendship share thy breast!
Why are thofe heaving groans? (ah! ceafe to weep!).
May my loft name in dark oblivion fleep;
Let this fad tale no fpeaking ftone declare,
From future eyes to draw a pitying tear.

I

Let