Britain ... - Blue-Lite

Scene I.] THE DEVOTED ONE. 169
I must ungrateful, false, and perjured prove,
Or blast the golden promise of my hopes.
Love and Ambition for the mastery strive,
Like seas that meet in thunder. O, I feel
Something
like madness here !
CANUTE.
Go, and behold
The fair Celtina. By my shield and bracelet,
To see her is to love. We will become
A suitor in thy cause, for thou hast saved
The husband of our sister, and we count
No gift too great for service such as thine.
[Aside.
[Exeunt Canute and Ulfmando.
GODWIN.
The die is cast. Love, thou must yield the throne
To thy more powerful rival. Yet will I
A brother's tenderness for Edith cherish.
Soft ! there's another path, a primrose path
For me to tread, that leads to perfect bliss.
Edith shall be my mistress. I will have
No sighs, or tears, or broken hearts, to mar
The joys of rank and grandeur. Thou, Ambition,
Shalt seat me high in power, and laughing Love
This brow engarland with his brightest roses.
I, at one leap, have cleared the wide-stretched gulph
Where the dead-sea of dark oblivion rolls ;
And now I stand upon a sunlit steep,
With Honour by my side. O, how my heart
Burned with despite and envy to behold
The mighty and the noble, not from hate
To rank and titles, but that I was doomed
To be a thing for their contempt or pity.
If kind they seemed, the manner of their kindness