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Poems, translated and original cover

Poems, translated and original

Chapter 82: SCENE II.
By E. F. Ellet
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Poetry

About This Book

A compact volume of translated and original lyric poems paired with a short tragic drama. The poems range from elegiac meditations on death, memory, and the fate of poets to vivid nature pieces about lakes, seas, and changing skies; they also include mythic and historical reflections, paraphrases of sacred texts, and shorter lyrical forms such as sonnets and songs. Recurrent concerns are remembrance versus oblivion, the consolations of landscape, poetic vocation, and the ceremonial practices surrounding burial, while the concluding tragedy adapts a Venetian incident into dramatic scenes.

SCENE II.

A Street.

Enter Vincentio and Leonardo, followed by several citizens.

Vincentio.
Courage, my friends! this way leads to his prison.
We’ll break those bars, and drag their gloomy secrets
Into unwonted light.
Leonardo.
Nay—by such madness
You cast away success.
Vincentio.
Shall we shrink back
Even on its threshold?
Leonardo.
One false step, bethink you,
May lose you all. Look—yonder they approach!
Vincentio.
Now is the moment.
Leonardo.
No—’twould but endanger
Yourselves—and serve not him. Pray you—be patient
’Till they have reached the palace; then surround it,
And with your prayers, which more than threats avail,
Besiege their ears.
Vincentio.
To be repulsed and mocked!
Leonardo.
If so, despair; no force of yours can save him.
The Senate would but laugh at you.
To citizens.] Depart!
We are safe no longer here. [Exeunt.