Page:The Mysterious Mother - Walpole (1781).djvu/47
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A TRAGEDY.
39
Expands his pinions o'er a bed so holy,
Sure he's a welcome guest.
Sure he's a welcome guest.
ADELIZA.
Oh! do not doubt it,
The pious matron meets him like a friend
Expected long. And if a tender tear,
At leaving your poor ward, melts in her eye,
And downward sinks its fervent ecstacy;
Still does impatience to be gone, betray
Her inward satisfaction. Yesternight,
As weeping, praying, by her couch I knelt,
Behold, my Adeliza, mark, she said,
How happy the death-bed of innocence![1]
Oh! lady, how those sounds affected me!
I wish'd to die with her—and oh! forgive me,
If in that moment I forgot my patroness!
Oh! do not doubt it,
The pious matron meets him like a friend
Expected long. And if a tender tear,
At leaving your poor ward, melts in her eye,
And downward sinks its fervent ecstacy;
Still does impatience to be gone, betray
Her inward satisfaction. Yesternight,
As weeping, praying, by her couch I knelt,
Behold, my Adeliza, mark, she said,
How happy the death-bed of innocence![1]
Oh! lady, how those sounds affected me!
I wish'd to die with her—and oh! forgive me,
If in that moment I forgot my patroness!
COUNTESS.
It was a wish devout. Can that want pardon?
But to confess it, speaks thy native candour.
Thy virtuous, thy ingenuous truth disdains
To hide a thought—
It was a wish devout. Can that want pardon?
But to confess it, speaks thy native candour.
Thy virtuous, thy ingenuous truth disdains
To hide a thought—
ADELIZA, falling at her feet.
Oh! can I hear this praise,
And not expire in blushes at thy feet?
Oh! can I hear this praise,
And not expire in blushes at thy feet?
COUNTESS.
What means this passion?
What means this passion?
ADELIZA.
Ah recall thy words:
Thy Adeliza merits no encomium.
Ah recall thy words:
Thy Adeliza merits no encomium.
- ↑ Dr. Young relates that Mr. Addison, on his death-bed, spoke in this manner to his pupil Lord Warwick.
COUNTESS.