FIRST DES.

Let him answer that.

MAN. Ye know what I have known; and without

power

I could not be amongst ye: but there are
Powers deeper still beyond-I come in quest
Of such, to answer unto what I seek.

NEM. What would'st thou ?

MAN.

Thou canst not reply to me.

Call up the dead-my question is for them.

NEM. Great Arimanes, doth thy will avouch

The wishes of this mortal?

Bear what thou borest,

The heart and the form,
And the aspect thou worest
Redeem from the worm.
Appear!-Appear!-Appear!

Who sent thee there requires thee here!
(The Phantom of ASTARTE rises and stands
in the midst.)

MAN. Can this be death? there's bloom upon her

cheek;

But now I see it is no living hue,

But a strange hectic-like the unnatural red
Which Autumn plants upon the perish'd leaf.
It is the same! Oh, God! that I should dread
To look upon the same-Astarte !—No,
I cannot speak to her-but bid her speak-
Forgive me or condemn me.

By the

The

NEMESIS.

power which hath broken
grave which enthrall'd thee,

Speak to him who hath spoken,

Or those who have call'd thee!

MAN.

She is silent,

And in that silence I am more than answer'd,

1

NEM. My power extends no further. Prince of air! It rests with thee alone-command her voice.

ARI. Spirit-obey this sceptre!

NEM.

She is not of our order, but belongs

Silent still!

To the other powers. Mortal! thy quest is vain, And we are baffled also.

ΜΑΝ.

Hear me, hear me

Astarte! my beloved! speak to me:

I have so much endured-so much endure

Look on me! the grave hath not changed thee more
Than I am changed for thee. Thou lovedst me
Too much, as I loved thee: we were not made
To torture thus each other, though it were
The deadliest sin to love as we have loved.
Say that thou loath'st me not-that I do bear
This punishment for both-that thou wilt be
One of the blessed-and that I shall die;
For hitherto all hateful things conspire
To bind me in existence—in a life
Which makes me shrink from immortality-
A future like the past. I cannot rest.
I know not what I ask, nor what I seek:
I feel but what thou art-and what I am;
And I would hear yet once before I perish
The voice which was my music-Speak to me!

For I have call'd on thee in the still night,

Startled the slumbering birds from the hush'd boughs,
And woke the mountain wolves, and made the caves
Acquainted with thy vainly echoed name,

Which answer'd me-many things answer'd me—
Spirits and men— -but thou wert silent all.

Yet speak to me! I have outwatch'd the stars,
And gazed o'er heaven in vain in search of thee
Speak to me! I have wander'd o'er the earth
And never found thy likeness-Speak to me!
Look on the fiends around-they feel for me:
I fear them not, and feel for thee alone-
Speak to me! though it be in wrath;-but say-
I reck not what-but let me hear thee once-
This once-once more!

PHANTOM OF ASTARTE. Manfred!

MAN.

Say on, say on

I live but in the sound-it is thy voice!

PHAN. Manfred! To-morrow ends thine earthly ills.

Farewell!

MAN. Yet one word more-am I forgiven?

PHAN. Farewell!

MAN.

PHAN. Farewell!

Say, shall we meet again?

MAN. One word for mercy! Say, thou lovest me.

PHAN. Manfred!

[The Spirit of ASTARTE disappears.

NEM.

She's

gone, and will not be recall'd;

Her words will be fulfill'd. Return to the earth.

A SPIRIT. He is convulsed-This is to be a mortal And seek the things beyond mortality.

ANOTHER SPIRIT. Yet, see, he mastereth himself, and makes

His torture tributary to his will.

Had he been one of us, he would have made

MAN. We meet then! Where? On the earth?— Even as thou wilt: and for the grace accorded

I now depart a debtor. Fare ye well!

[Exit MANFRED.

(Scene closes.)

END OF ACT SECOND.