Page:A Series of Plays on the Passions Volume 3.pdf/329

Aur. Make no excuse, I pray thee. I am told
By good Terentia thou dost wish me well,
Tho' Ulrick long has been thy friend. I know
A wanderer on the seas in early youth
Thou wast, and still can'st feel for all storm-toss'd
On that rude element.

Bast. 'Tis true, fair Lady: I have been, ere now,
Where such a warning light, sent from the shore,
Had saved some precious lives ; which makes the task,
I now fulfil, more grateful.

Aur. How many leagues from shore may such a light
By the benighted mariner be seen?

Bast. Some six or so, he will descry it faintly,
Like a small star, or hermit's taper, peering
From some cav'd rock that brows the dreary waste;
Or like the lamp of some lone lazar-house,
Which through the silent night the traveller spies
Upon his doubtful way.

Viol. Fie on such images!
Thou should'st have liken'd it to things more seemly.
Thou might'st have said the peasant's evening fire
That from his upland cot, thro' winter's gloom,
What time his wife their evening meal prepares,