To listen to a song so syren-sweet-so exquisite ?-
That I might hold my breath, entranced, and die
Of ardent listening? She is a miracle!

Enter DOMUS.

Look, here's a sot will tell me all he knows.

One of her servants

Is that your lady's voice? (to DOMUS) her pipe's a rare one.

Ay, marry.

DOMUS.

If you heard it sound within,

Till it makes the glasses chime, and all the bottles,
You'd think yourself in heaven.

I have seen my master

watch them, and fall back Like a man in his fits. I'm rather dizzy,

And drunken-like myself. The vile quandaries.
Iler beauty brings one into-

[Staggers about.

Ay, I'm crazed. But you should see our Picus-
Lord, how he stands agape, till he drops his salver,
And then goes down on his knees.

And have a leather jerkin-marry, shall you!

We need a helper sadly. I'm o'er-burdened

(You see how I am burdened); but I'll teach you What manners you may want.

MERCUTIUS.

Well, I'm for you—

(I will dislike no place that brings me near her)Mind, you have listed me.

DOMUS.

And I can promise

You'll not dislike your fare-'tis excellent, light
As well as savory, and will not stuff you ;

But when you've eat your stretch to the outer button,

In half an hour you'll hunger.

With barely a tithe of fasting.

There's such a cellar!

It is all feasting,

Then such drinking!

One hundred paces long (for I have paced it),

By about two hundred narrow. Come along, boy! [Exeunt.

SCENE V.

A Chamber in LAMIA's House. LAMIA and LYCIUS are

discovered sitting on a couch.

Nay, sweet-lipped Silence,

LAMIA.

'Tis now your turn to talk. I'll not be cheated Of any of my pleasures; which I shall be, Unless I sometimes listen.

LYCIUS.

Pray talk on,

A little further on. You have not told me

What country bore you, that my heart may set

Its name in a partial place. Nay, your own name—
Which ought to be my better word for beauty—

I know not.

LAMIA.

Wherefore should I talk of such things

I care not to remember? A lover's memory
Looks back no further than when love began,
As if the dawn o' the world.

As for my birth-suppose I like to think

That we were dropped from two strange several stars
(Being thus meant for one), why should you wish
A prettier theory, or ask my name,

As if I did not answer, heart and eyes,

To those you call me by? In sooth, I will not
Provide you with a worse.

LYCIUS.

Then I must find it. Now I'm but puzzled
To compound sweet superlatives enough

In all the world of words.

[Domus enters boisterously with a letter.

DOMUS.

An express! an express!

Faith, I've expressed it. I did not even wait (aside)

[LYCIUs takes the letter, and reads in great agitation. LAMIA watches him.

LAMIA.

Alas! what news is this? Lycius! dear Lycius!
Why do you clutch your brow so? What has chanced
To stab you with such grief?
with such grief? Speak! speak!

Dead?

LYCIUS.

LAMIA.

LYCIUS.

My father!

Dying-dying-if not dead by this.

I must leave you instantly.

LAMIA.

Alas! I thought

This fair-eyed day would never see you from me!
But must you go, indeed?

LYCIUS.

I must! I must!

This is some fierce and fearful malady
To fall so sudden on him. Why, I left him,
No longer since-ay, even when I met you
We had embraced that morn.

LAMIA.

It was but yesterday!

How soon our bliss is marred! And must you leave me?

LYCIUS.

Oh! do not ask again with such a look,
Or I shall linger here and pledge my soul
To everlasting shame and keen remorse!

LAMIA.

The Fates are cruel!

Yet let me cling to thee and weep awhile:
We may not meet again. I can not feel
You are safe but in these arms!

LYCIUS.

I'm split asunder

By opposite factions of remorse and love;

But all my soul clings here.

He will not see his father.

[She embraces him.

DOMUS.

It makes me weep.

[LYCIUS casts himself on the couch.

LAMIA (striking Domus).

Wretch take that,

For harrowing up his griefs! Dearest !-my Lycius!
Lean not your brow upon that heartless pillow!

How he groaned then!

DOMUS.

LAMIA.

Lycius, you fright me!

You turn me cold!

LYCIUS (rising up).

Oh! in that brief rest,

I've had a waking vision of my father!

Even as he lay on his face and groaned for me,

And shed like bitter tears!

Oh, how those groans will count in heaven against me!
One for pain's cruelty, but two for mine,

That gave a sting to his anguish.

His dying breath will mount to the skies and curse me.
His angered ghost

Will haunt my sight, and when I'd look upon you
Step in like a blot between us.

LAMIA.

Go, go! or you will hate me.

Go and leave me !

If I now strive by words or tears to stay you

For my pleasure's sake or pain's,

You'd say there was something brutal in my nature
Of cold and fiendish, and unlike woman;

Some taint that devilish

Yet give me one long look before you go—
One last, long look!

[She fixes her eyes on his.