Page:Dramas 2.pdf/290

SCENE II.

The House of the Provost, and the Apartment of Claude, who enters, followed by Crawford, and throws himself hack into a chair with the action of deep distress.

CLAUDE.

Follow me not, my friend; it is in vain

That friendly soothing would assuage my grief.

CRAWFORD.

Grieve not for that which is, indeed, most grievous,

Beyond all measure.

CLAUDE.

Can we measure grief,

And say, So much of it shall be my portion,
And only this? A prudent, lesson'd sorrow,
Usurps the name it bears.—She was the light
That brighten'd every object; made this world
A place worth living in. This beauteous flame
Hath in the socket sunk: I am in darkness,
And no returning ray shall cheer my sight.
This earth, and every thing that it contains,
Is a dull blank around me.