Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales Part 14

For those, who could not please by n.o.bler service.-- Our warlike prophet loves an active faith.

The holy flame of enterprising virtue Mocks the dull vows of solitude and penance, And scorns the lazy hermit's cheap devotion.

Shine thou, distinguish'd by superiour merit; With wonted zeal pursue the task of war, Till ev'ry nation reverence the koran, And ev'ry suppliant lift his eyes to Mecca.

CALI.

This regal confidence, this pious ardour, Let prudence moderate, though not suppress.

Is not each realm, that smiles with kinder suns, Or boasts a happier soil, already thine?

Extended empire, like expanded gold, Exchanges solid strength for feeble splendour.

MAHOMET.

Preach thy dull politicks to vulgar kings, Thou know'st not yet thy master's future greatness, His vast designs, his plans of boundless pow'r.

When ev'ry storm in my domain shall roar, When ev'ry wave shall beat a Turkish sh.o.r.e; Then, Cali, shall the toils of battle cease, Then dream of pray'r, and pilgrimage, and peace.

[_Exeunt_.

ACT II.--SCENE I.

ASPASIA, IRENE.

IRENE.

Aspasia, yet pursue the sacred theme; Exhaust the stores of pious eloquence, And teach me to repel the sultan's pa.s.sion.

Still, at Aspasia's voice, a sudden rapture Exalts my soul, and fortifies my heart; The glitt'ring vanities of empty greatness, The hopes and fears, the joys and pains of life, Dissolve in air, and vanish into nothing.

ASPASIA.

Let n.o.bler hopes and juster fears succeed, And bar the pa.s.ses of Irene's mind Against returning guilt.

IRENE.

When thou art absent, Death rises to my view, with all his terrours; Then visions, horrid as a murd'rer's dreams, Chill my resolves, and blast my blooming virtue: Stern torture shakes his b.l.o.o.d.y scourge before me, And anguish gnashes on the fatal wheel.

ASPASIA.

Since fear predominates in ev'ry thought, And sways thy breast with absolute dominion, Think on th' insulting scorn, the conscious pangs, The future mis'ries, that wait th' apostate; So shall timidity a.s.sist thy reason, And wisdom into virtue turn thy frailty.

IRENE.

Will not that pow'r, that form'd the heart of woman, And wove the feeble texture of her nerves, Forgive those fears that shake the tender frame?

ASPASIA.

The weakness we lament, ourselves create; Instructed, from our infant years, to court, With counterfeited fears, the aid of man, We learn to shudder at the rustling breeze, Start at the light, and tremble in the dark; Till, affectation ripening to belief, And folly, frighted at her own chimeras, Habitual cowardice usurps the soul.

IRENE.

Not all, like thee, can brave the shocks of fate.

Thy soul, by nature great, enlarg'd by knowledge, Soars uninc.u.mber'd with our idle cares, And all Aspasia, but her beauty's man.

ASPASIA.

Each gen'rous sentiment is thine, Demetrius, Whose soul, perhaps, yet mindful of Aspasia, Now hovers o'er this melancholy shade, Well pleas'd to find thy precepts not forgotten.

Oh! could the grave restore the pious hero, Soon would his art or valour set us free, And bear us far from servitude and crimes.

IRENE.

He yet may live.

ASPASIA.

Alas! delusive dream!

Too well I know him; his immoderate courage, Th' impetuous sallies of excessive virtue, Too strong for love, have hurried him on death.

SCENE II.

ASPASIA, IRENE, CALI, ABDALLA.

CALI _to_ ABDALLA, _as they advance_.

Behold our future sultaness, Abdalla;-- Let artful flatt'ry now, to lull suspicion, Glide, through Irene, to the sultan's ear.

Would'st thou subdue th' obdurate cannibal To tender friendship, praise him to his mistress.

[_To_ IRENE.]

Well may those eyes, that view these heav'nly charms, Reject the daughters of contending kings; For what are pompous t.i.tles, proud alliance, Empire or wealth, to excellence like thine?

ABDALLA.

Receive th' impatient sultan to thy arms; And may a long posterity of monarchs, The pride and terrour of succeeding days, Rise from the happy bed; and future queens Diffuse Irene's beauty through the world!

IRENE.

Can Mahomet's imperial hand descend To clasp a slave? or can a soul, like mine, Unus'd to pow'r, and form'd for humbler scenes, Support the splendid miseries of greatness?

CALI.

No regal pageant, deck'd with casual honours, Scorn'd by his subjects, trampled by his foes; No feeble tyrant of a petty state, Courts thee to shake on a dependant throne; Born to command, as thou to charm mankind, The sultan from himself derives his greatness.

Observe, bright maid, as his resistless voice Drives on the tempest of destructive war, How nation after nation falls before him.

ABDALLA.

At his dread name the distant mountains shake Their cloudy summits, and the sons of fierceness, That range uncivilized from rock to rock, Distrust th' eternal fortresses of nature, And wish their gloomy caverns more obscure.

ASPASIA.

Forbear this lavish pomp of dreadful praise; The horrid images of war and slaughter Renew our sorrows, and awake our fears.

ABDALLA.

Cali, methinks yon waving trees afford A doubtful glimpse of our approaching friends; Just as I mark'd them, they forsook the sh.o.r.e, And turn'd their hasty steps towards the garden.

CALI.

Conduct these queens, Abdalla, to the palace: Such heav'nly beauty, form'd for adoration, The pride of monarchs, the reward of conquest!

Such beauty must not shine to vulgar eyes.

SCENE III.

CALI, _solus_.

How heav'n, in scorn of human arrogance, Commits to trivial chance the fate of nations!

While, with incessant thought, laborious man Extends his mighty schemes of wealth and pow'r, And towers and triumphs in ideal greatness; Some accidental gust of opposition Blasts all the beauties of his new creation, O'erturns the fabrick of presumptuous reason, And whelms the swelling architect beneath it.

Had not the breeze untwin'd the meeting boughs, And, through the parted shade, disclos'd the Greeks, Th' important hour had pa.s.s'd, unheeded, by, In all the sweet oblivion of delight, In all the fopperies of meeting lovers; In sighs and tears, in transports and embraces, In soft complaints, and idle protestations.

SCENE IV.