The Lamp and the Bell: A Drama In Five Acts

PROLOGUE

      [Anselmo and Luigi]

  ANSELMO. What think you,—lies there any truth in the tale
  The King will wed again?

  LUIGI. Why not, Anselmo?
  A king is no less lonely than a collier
  When his wife dies, And his young daughter there,
  For all her being a princess, is no less
  A motherless child, and cries herself to sleep
  Night after night, as noisily as any,
  You may be sure.

  ANSELMO. A motherless child loves not,
  They say, the second mother. Though the King
  May find him comfort in another face,—
  As it is well he should—the child, I fancy,
  Is not so lonely as she is distraught
  With grief for the dead Queen, and will not lightly
  Be parted from her tears.

  LUIGI. If tales be true,
  The woman hath a daughter, near the age
  Of his, will be a playmate for the Princess.

  CURTAIN