Muft I not only lose thee, but be curs'd

To sprinkle my own hands with thy life blood?

It cannot be avoided.

MANDANE.

MEMNON.

Nor perform❜d.

Lift
up my hand against thee as a foe!
I who should fave thee from thy very father,
And teach thy dearest friends to use thee well,
Make kindness kind, and soften all their smiles
O, my Mandane! think how I have lov'd!
O, my Mandane! think upon thy pow'r !
How often haft thou seen me pale with joy,
And trembling at a smile? And fhall I-

MANDANE.

Myron!

[At that MEMNON ftarts up fuddenly.

ΜΕΜΝΟΝ.

Ah hold! I charge thee hold! One glance that way

Awakes my hell, and blows up all its flames :

The world turns round; my heart is fick to death!
O my distraction! perfect lofs of thought!

MANDANE.

Why ftand you like a ftatue? Are you dead?
What do you fold so fast within your arms?
Why, with fix'd eye-balls, do you pierce the ground?
Why shift your place, as if you trod on fire?
Why gnaw your lip, and groan fo dreadfully?
My lord, if I have spent whole live-long nights
In tears, and figh'd away the day in private,
Only opprefs'd with an excess of love,

Are arguments that I should draw thy blood.-
No child was ever lull'd upon the breast
With half that tenderness has melted from thee,
And fell like balm upon my wounded foul !

And shall I murder thee? Yes, thus-thus-thus

MANDANE.

Alas! my lord forgets we are to die.

[Embracing fome time.

[Memnon gazes with wonder on the dagger.
ΜΕΜΝΟΝ.

By heav'n I had; my foul had took her flight
In blifs-Why, is not this our bridal day?

Sun, hide thy face, and put the world in mourning.
Though blood start out for tears, 'tis done-But one,
One last embrace. [As he embraces her, fhe bursts into tears.
Let me not fee a tear-I could as foon
Stab at the face of heav'n, as kill thee weeping.

MANDANE.

'Tis paft; I am compos'd.

MEMNON.

And now and now.

MANDANE

MANDANE.

Be not fo fearful; 'tis the fecond blow

Will pain my heart—indeed this will not hurt me.

ΜΕΜΝΟΝ.

O thou haft ftung my foul quite through and through,
With those kind words: I had just steel'd my breast,
[Dafbing down the dagger.

And thou undo'ft it all- -I could not bear
To raze thy skin to fave the world from ruin.
MANDANE. [Stabs herself.]

If you're a woman, I'll be something more.-
I shall not taste of heaven till you arrive.

ΜΕΜΝΟΝ.

Struck home-and in her heart-She's dead already;

And now with me all nature is expir'd.

[Dies.

My lovely bride, now we again are happy, [Stabs himself. And better worlds prepare our nuptial bow'r.

Now every fplendid object of ambition,

Which lately, with their various gloffes, play'd
Upon my brain, and fool'd my idle heart,
Are taken from me by a little mist,

And all the world is vanish'd.

[Dies.

A march founded. Enter NICANOR and SYPHOCES, vic

torious.

The guards, which are advancing to the bodies, fly.

NICANOR.

The day's our own; the Perfian's angry pow'rs

Have well repaid this morning infolence,
And turn'd the desperate fortune of the field,
By fure, though late, relief.

SYPHOCES.

I from the city bring you welcome news :
My guilty letter from the amorous queen
I spread amongst the multitude; while yet
Their blood was warm with reading the black scroll,
Myris, to view the fortune of the fight,

Leaving her palace for the western tow'r,

Was feiz'd, torn, scatter'd, on the guilty spot,
Where her great brother fell,

NICANOR.

The gods are juft,

SYPHOCES.

See where Bufiris comes; your royal captive,
In his misfortune great; an awful ruin !
And dreadful to the conqueror !

NICANOR, [Advancing, fees the bodies.]
Sad fight!

A fight that teaches triumph how to mourn,
And more than juftifies these streaming tears,
Even on the moment that my country's fav'd
From fore oppreffion, and inglorious chains.

[He falls on his attendants,
A great fhout. Enter BUSIRIS, wounded.
BUSIRIS.

Conquer'd? 'Tis false; I am your master still;
Your mafter, though in bonds: You stand aghaft
At your good fate, and, trembling, can't enjoy.
Now, from my foul, I hug these welcome chains
Which fhew you all Bufiris, and declare

Crowns and fuccefs fuperfluous to my fame.

You think this ftreaming blood will lower my thought;
miftaken men, I fmile at death;

No, ye
For living here, is living all alone;

To me a real folitude, amid

5

A throng

A throng of little beings groveling round me;
Which yet ufurp one common shape and name.

I thank these wounds, these raging pains, which promise An interview with equals foon elsewhere.

[He fees Memnon.]

Ha! dead? 'Tis well: He rofe not to my sword;

I only wish'd his fate, and there he lies.

Some, when they die, die all; their mould'ring clay

Is but an emblem of their memories;

The space quite closes up thro' which they pass'd:
That I have liv'd, I leave a mark behind,

Shall pluck the fhining age from vulgar time,
And give it whole to late posterity:
My name is writ in mighty characters,
Triumphant columns, and eternal domes,

Whofe fplendor heighten our Egyptian day,

Whose strength shall laugh at time, till their great bafis,

Old earth itself, fhall fail: In after-ages,

Who war or build, fhall build or war from me;

Grow great in each as my example fires :

'Tis I of art the future wonders raise;

I fight the future battles of the world.

Great Jove, I come! Egypt, thou art forfaken; [Sinks.

Afia's impoverish'd by my finking glories;

And the world leffens, when Bufiris falls.

SYPHOCES.

Bear the dead monarch to his pyramid;
And for what use foe'er it was defign'd
By that high-minded, but mistaken, man,
There let him lie magnificent in death;
Great was his life, great be his monument;
And on Bufiris' nephew, young Arfaces,
Of gentler fpirit, let the crown devolve.

[Dies.

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