The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 01 · Chapter 30Scene II
This chapter is not translated yet. You are reading the original.
THOAS (alone)
Fierce anger rages in my riven breast, First against her, whom I esteemed so pure; Then 'gainst myself, whose foolish lenity Hath fashion'd her for treason. Man is soon Inur'd to slavery, and quickly learns Submission, when of freedom quite depriv'd. If she had fallen in the savage hands Of my rude sires, and had their holy rage Forborne to slay her, grateful for her life, She would have recogniz'd her destiny, Have shed before the shrine the stranger's blood, And duty nam'd what was necessity.
Now my forbearance in her breast allures Audacious wishes. Vainly I had hoped To bind her to me; rather she contrives To shape an independent destiny. She won my heart through flattery; and now That I oppose her, seeks to gain her ends By fraud and cunning, and my kindness deems A worthless and prescriptive property.