A Tragedy written in German,

By MR. KLOPSTOC K.

FIRST PRINTED IN

The ST. JAMES'S MAGAZINE, March 1763.

ACT II. SCENE II.
ADAM, SETH, SELIMA.

SELIMA.

FATHER, againt your

ATHER, against your orders I return,
Imploring your paternal goodness: lift!

Oh, I conjure you, deign to lift!-a man-
His like I ne'er beheld-prowls round the bow'r,
Menaces me, and wou'd confer with you.
Ev'n yet I ftand dismay'd-beyond a doubt,
In other regions there exifts a race

Of men, who're not thy children-No, 'tis certain
This is no fon of Adam.

He rolls confufion and difmay: his limbs.
Are covered with a fhining fpeckled hide,
And in his hand he bears a maffy club,
Knotted all o'er: his face is pale and fun burnt;
But ah, his palenefs is not like to your's.

Oh father, father!

ADAM.

Was his forehead bare?

SELIM A.

Scarce durft I caft my fearful looks upon him,
Yet on his forehead I defcried a fign-
Such as I can't defcribe-I know not what
Of terrible and dreadful.

ADAM.

It is Cain;

O Seth, 'tis Cain. The Lord hath fent him now
To render death more bitter to me. Go!
Go, Seth, and fee if God hath fent him to me.
Tell him, befeech him, to depart in peace:
Urge him to fly my prefence! but if ftill
He will appear before me, let him come!

'Tis God who fends him: I have well deferv'd it. Cover the altar, that the guiltless blood

Of his poor brother, whom he maffacred,

Wound not his

cycs.

SCENE

That horrid pit juft dug at th' altar's foot?

ADAM.

Oh daughter! didft thou never see a grave?

SELIMA,

A grave? my father!

ADAM, [apart.

Oh too bitter day!

Cain will foon come, and Selima is here.

SELIMA.

Oh, answer me! Is then my father angry?
Alas! there was a time, when you wou'd deign
To call me your dear Selima.

ADAM.

Still moft dear,

Still my beloved child.

SELIMA.

You faid but now,

That Cain was come to render death more bitter. Alas, I fcarce can breathe; my voice too fails: Ah my dear father, mean you now to die?

ADAM

ADAM.

Grieve not my daughter! death is due to all;
From duft we came, and fhall to dust return.
So God himself hath order'd; and you know it,
Long time before those eyes of your's, my child,
Were open'd on the light, had hoary age
Whiten'd my locks. But Cain

SELIMA.

Oh father, father! [Embracing his knees,

By your paternal fondnefs, by that love
Which once you bore to Abel, and which now
Eman and Seth partake; by thofe dear babes
Who fhall to day take bleffings from your hand;
Live, I conjure you! Oh my father, live!
Do not die yet.

Is't Adam that I fee?

Adam, thou wert not wont to turn fo pale

At fight of men thy crime had render'd wretched.

ADAM

ADAM.

Hold, I conjure thee! look on that dear maid, Whofe eyes o'erflow with tears: refpect her grief, Nor stain with blafphemies her innocence.

CAIN.

Her innocence!-has that remain'd on earth,
Since Adam has had children?

Why haft thou disobey'd me? why return'd

To this abode of peace?

I am now come to take full vengeance on thee.'

SETH.