Scene. the terraced roof of ABSALOM’S house, by night; adorned with vases of flowers, and fragrant shrubs; an awning spread over part of it. TAMAR and HADAD.
Tam. No, no, I well remember—proofs, you said,
Unknown to Moses.
Had. Well, my love, thou knowest
I ’ve been a traveller in various climes;
Trod Ethiopia’s scorching sands, and scaled...
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Quiet as are the quiet skies
He watches where the city lies
Floating in vision clear or dim
Through sun or rain beneath his eyes;
Her songs, her laughter, and her cries
Hour after hour drift up to him.Her days of glory or disgrace
He watches with unchanging face;
He knows what midnight crimes are done,
What horrors... -
It was the lunatic poet escaped from the local asylum,
Loudly he twanged on his banjo and sang with his voice like a saw-mill,
While as with fervour he sang there was borne o'er the shuddering wildwood,
Borne on the breath of the poet a flavour of rum and of onions.
He sang of the Deficit Demon that dwelt in the Treasury...