CALI.
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BDALLA.Because I love:Because my slighted passion burns in vain!Why roars the lioness, distress'd by hunger?Why foam the swelling waves, when tempests rise?Why shakes the ground, when subterraneous firesFierce through the bursting caverns rend their way? CALI.Not till this day, thou saw'st this fatal fair;Did ever passion make so swift a progress?Once more reflect; suppress this infant folly. ABDALLA.Gross fires, enkindled by a mortal hand,Spread, by degrees, and dread th' oppressing stream;The subtler flames, emitted from the sky,Flash out at once, with strength above resistance. CALI.How did Aspasia welcome your address?Did you proclaim this unexpected conquest?Or pay, with speaking eyes, a lover's homage? ABDALLA.Confounded, aw'd, and lost in admiration,I gaz'd, I trembled; but I could not speak;When e'en, as love was breaking off from wonder,And tender accents quiver'd on my lips,She mark'd my sparkling eyes, and heaving breast,And smiling, conscious of her charms, withdrew. [_Enter_ Demetrius _and_ Leontius. CALI.Now be, some moments, master of thyself;Nor let Demetrius know thee for a rival.Hence! or be calm--To disagree is ruin.
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