Page:Keats - Poetical Works, DeWolfe, 1884.djvu/405

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OTHO THE GREAT.
389
A noble nature; and would faintly sketchWhat your quick apprehension will fill up;So finely I esteem you.
 Ludolph.I attend.
 Gersa. Your generous father, most illustrious Otho,Sits in the banquet-room among his chiefs;His wine is bitter, for you are not there;His eyes are fix'd still on the open doors,And ev'ry passer in he frowns upon,Seeing no Ludolph comes.
 Ludolph.I do neglect.
 Gersa. And for your absence may I guess the cause?
 Ludolph. Stay there! No—guess? More princely you must beThan to make guesses at me. 'Tis enough.I'm sorry I can hear no more.
 Gersa.And IAs grieved to force it on you so abrupt;Yet, one day, you must know a grief, whose stingWill sharpen more the longer 'tis conceal'd.
 Ludolph. Say it at once sir! dead—dead—is she dead?
 Gersa. Mine is a cruel task: she is not dead,And would, for your sake, she were innocent.
 Ludolph. Hungarian! Thou amazest me beyondAll scope of thought, convulsest my heart's bloodTo deadly churning! Gersa, you are young,As I am; let me observe you, face to face:Not gray-brow'd like the poisonous Ethelbert,No rheumed eyes, no furrowing of age,No wrinkles, where all vices nestle in
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