Chapter XIV: Act II: Scene as before. CHORUS OF ISRAELITES

O PEACE of mind, angelic guest!
Thou soft companion of the breast!
Dispense thy balmy store.
Wing all our thoughts to reach the skies,
Till earth, receding from our eyes, 5
Shall vanish as we soar.

FIRST PRIEST.

RECITATIVE.

No more! Too long has justice been delay’d,
The king’s commands must fully be obey’d;
Compliance with his will your peace secures,
Praise but our gods, and every good is yours. 10
But if, rebellious to his high command,
You spurn the favours offer’d from his hand,
Think, timely think, what terrors are behind;
Reflect, nor tempt to rage the royal mind.

SECOND PRIEST.

AIR.

Fierce is the whirlwind howling 15
O’er Afric’s sandy plain,
And fierce the tempest rolling
Along the furrow’d main:
But storms that fly,
To rend the sky, 20
Every ill presaging,
Less dreadful show
To worlds below
Than angry monarch’s raging.

GOLDSMITH’S AUTOGRAPH

(Stanzas from ‘The Captivity’)

ISRAELITISH WOMAN.

RECITATIVE.

Ah, me! What angry terrors round us grow; 25
How shrinks my soul to meet the threaten’d blow!
Ye prophets, skill’d in Heaven’s eternal truth,
Forgive my sex’s fears, forgive my youth!
If, shrinking thus, when frowning power appears,
I wish for life, and yield me to my fears. 30
Let us one hour, one little hour obey;
To-morrow’s tears may wash our stains away.

AIR.

To the last moment of his breath
On hope the wretch relies;
And e’en the pang preceding death 35
Bids expectation rise.

Hope, like the gleaming taper’s light,
Adorns and cheers our way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray. 40

SECOND PRIEST. RECITATIVE.

Why this delay? At length for joy prepare;
I read your looks, and see compliance there.
Come on, and bid the warbling rapture rise,
Our monarch’s fame the noblest theme supplies.
Begin, ye captive bands, and strike the lyre, 45
The time, the theme, the place, and all conspire.

CHALDEAN WOMAN.

AIR.

See the ruddy morning smiling,
Hear the grove to bliss beguiling;
Zephyrs through the woodland playing,
Streams along the valley straying. 50

FIRST PRIEST.

While these a constant revel keep,
Shall Reason only teach to weep?
Hence, intruder! We’ll pursue
Nature, a better guide than you.

SECOND PRIEST.

Every moment, as it flows, 55
Some peculiar pleasure owes;
Then let us, providently wise,
Seize the debtor as it flies.

Think not to-morrow can repay
The pleasures that we lose to-day; 60
To-morrow’s most unbounded store
Can but pay its proper score.

FIRST PRIEST.

RECITATIVE.

But hush! See, foremost of the captive choir,
The master-prophet grasps his full-ton’d lyre.
Mark where he sits, with executing art, 65
Feels for each tone, and speeds it to the heart;
See how prophetic rapture fills his form,
Awful as clouds that nurse the growing storm;
And now his voice, accordant to the string,
Prepares our monarch’s victories to sing. 70

FIRST PROPHET.

AIR.

From north, from south, from east, from west,
Conspiring nations come;
Tremble thou vice-polluted breast;
Blasphemers, all be dumb.

The tempest gathers all around, 75
On Babylon it lies;
Down with her! down—down to the ground;
She sinks, she groans, she dies.

SECOND PROPHET.

Down with her, Lord, to lick the dust,
Ere yonder setting sun; 80
Serve her as she hath served the just!
’Tis fixed—it shall be done.

FIRST PRIEST.

RECITATIVE.

No more! When slaves thus insolent presume,
The king himself shall judge, and fix their doom.
Unthinking wretches! have not you, and all, 85
Beheld our power in Zedekiah’s fall?
To yonder gloomy dungeon turn your eyes;
See where dethron’d your captive monarch lies,
Depriv’d of sight and rankling in his chain;
See where he mourns his friends and children slain. 90
Yet know, ye slaves, that still remain behind
More ponderous chains, and dungeons more confin’d.

CHORUS OF ALL.

Arise, all potent ruler, rise,
And vindicate thy people’s cause;
Till every tongue in every land 95
Shall offer up unfeign’d applause.
[_Exeunt._