Oro. O, hold! I charge thee, hold!
Imo. Though I must own

It would be nobler for us both, from you.

Oro. O for a whirlwind's wing to hurry us To yonder cliff, which frowns upon the flood; That in embraces locked we might plunge in, And perish thus in one another's arms.

Imo. Alas! what shout is that?

Oro. I see 'em coming.

They sha'not overtake us.

And now farewell.

This last kiss,

Imo. Farewell, farewell forever!

Oro. I'll turn my face away, and do it so.

Now, are you ready?

Imo. Now. But do not grudge me

The pleasure, in my death, of a last look;
Pray look upon me.-Now I'm satisfied.
Oro. So fate must be by this.

[Going to stab her, he stops short; she lays her hand on his, in order to give the blow.

Imo. Nay, then I must assist you.

And since it is the common cause of both,

'Tis just that both should be employed in it.

Thus, thus 'tis finished, and I bless my fate, [Stabs herself.

That, where I lived, I die in these loved arms.

[Dies.

Oro. She's gone. And now all's at an end with me. Soft, lay her down: O we will part no more.

[Throws himself by her.

But let me pay the tribute of my grief,
A few sad tears to thy loved memory,

And then I follow-
But I stay too long.

[Shouts: weeps over her. [A noise again.

The noise comes nearer. Hold, before I go,

It shall be so,

There's something would be done.
And then, Imoinda, I'll come all to thee.

[Rises.

Enter BLANDFORD and his party, before the LIEUTENANTGOVERNOR and his party. Swords drawn on both sides.

Lieut. You strive in vain to save him, he shall die.
Bland. Not while we can defend him with our lives.
Lieut. Where is he?

Oro. Here is the wretch whom you would have.
Put up your swords, and let not civil broils
Engage you in the cursed cause of one

Who cannot live, and now entreats to die.

This object will convince you.

[They gather about the body.

Bland. 'Tis his wife.
Alas! there was no other remedy.
Lieut. Who did the bloody deed?
Oro. The deed was mine:

Bloody I know it is, and I expect
Your laws should tell me so.

Thus, self-condemned,

I do resign myself into your hands,

The hands of justice—But I hold the sword

For you

and for myself.

[Stabs the GOVERNOR and himself, then throws himself by IMOINDA's body.

"Tis as it should be now, I have sent his ghost
To be a witness of that happiness

In the next world, which he denied us here.
Bland. I hope there is a place of happiness
In the next world for such exalted virtue.
Pagan or unbeliever, yet he lived

To all he knew: and, if he went astray,

[Dies.

There's mercy still above to set him right.
But Christians, guided by the heavenly ray,
Have no excuse if they mistake their way.

[Exeunt.

Nicholas Rowe.

TAMERLANE.

TAMERLANE Overthrows BAJAZET, the Turkish Sultan, and takes him Prisoner. In the Characters of TAMERLANE and BAJAZET, Rowe professed to draw the Characters of WILLIAM III. and Louis XIV. SCENE II.-The inside of a magnificent Tent. Symphony of warlike Music. Enter TAMERLAne, Axalla, Prince of TANAIS, ZAMA, MIRVAN, Soldiers, and other Attend

ants.

Ax. From this auspicious day the Parthian name

Shall date its birth of empire, and extend

Even from the dawning east to utmost Thu'e

The limits of its sway.

Pr. Nations unknown,

Where yet the Roman eagles never flew,

Shall pay their homage to victorious Tamerlane;

Bend to his valour and superior virtue,

And own that conquest is not given by chance,

But, bound by fatal and resistless merit,

Waits on his arms.

Tam. It is too much you dress me
Like an usurper, in the borrowed attributes
Of injured Heaven. Can we call conquest ours?
Shall man, this pigmy, with a giant's pride,

Vaunt of himself, and say, Thus have I done this?
Oh, vain pretence to greatness! Like the moon,
We borrow all the brightness which we boast,
Dark in ourselves, and useless. If that hand,
That rules the fate of battles, strike for us,
Crown us with fame, and gild our clay with honour,
'Twere most ungrateful to disown the benefit,
And arrogate a praise which is not ours.

Ax. With such unshaken temper of the soul
To bear the swelling tide of prosperous fortune,
Is to deserve that fortune: in adversity
The mind grows tough by buffeting the tempest,
Which, in success dissolving, sinks to ease,
And loses all her firmness.

Tam. Oh, Axalla !

Could I forget I am a man as thou art,

Would not the winter's cold or summer's heat,
Sickness or thirst, and hunger, all the train
Of Nature's clamorous appetites, asserting
An equal right in kings and common men,
Reprove me daily ?-No-If I boast of aught,
Be it to have been Heaven's happy instrument,
The means of good to all my fellow-creatures :
'This is a king's best praise.

Enter OMAR.

Om. Honour and fame [Bowing to TAMERLANE Forever wait the emperor: may our prophet Give him ten thousand thousand days of life, And every day like this. The captive sultan, Fierce in his bonds, and at his fate repining, Attends your sacred will.

Tam. Let him approach.

Enter BAJAZET, and other Turkish Prisoners in chains, with a Guard of Soldiers.

When I survey the ruins of this field,

The wild destruction which thy fierce ambition

Has dealt among mankind (so many widows

And helpless orphans has thy battle made,

That half our eastern world this day are mourners),
Well may I, in behalf of heaven and earth,
Demand from thee atonement for this wrong.

Baj. Make thy demand to those that own thy power; Know, I am still beyond it; and though fortune (Curse on that changeling deity of fools!)

Has stripped me of the train and pomp of greatness,
That outside of a king, yet still my soul,
Fixed high, and of itself alone dependent,
Is ever free and royal, and even now,
As at the head of battle, does defy thee:

I know what power the chance of war has given,
And dare thee to the use on't. This vile speeching,

This after-game of words, is what most irks me;
Spare that, and for the rest 'tis equal all-

Be it as it may.

Tam. Well was it for the world,

When on their borders neighbouring princes met,
Frequent in friendly parle, by cool debates

Preventing wasteful war: such should our meeting
Have been, hadst thou but held in just regard

The sanctity of leagues so often sworn to.

Canst thou believe thy Prophet, or, what's more,

That Power supreme, which made thee and thy Prophet,