Oh, speak again!

HOTHER. Thou tremblest,
My bride! my much-lov'd bride! And burning tear-drops,
Oh, hide them! Ha! they burn me--melt my courage!
Weep not, my bride!

NANNA. Ah, joy! the joy of heaven,
Entices forth these tears! My Hother liveth!

HOTHER (mournfully). Still liveth!

NANNA (affectionately and sorrowfully). Still!

HOTHER (turning away his face). O cruel, cruel fortune!
Yet I have sworn?

NANNA. Fright me not, my Hother!
Affright me not! What mean'st thou? Mighty powers!
Thine eyes thou turnest from thy bride!

HOTHER (looking upon her with tenderness). Ah, Nanna!

NANNA. Ha! tears on Hother's cheeks! Oh, save me, Freya!
What means this? Oh, I die!

HOTHER (he embraces her with violence). Oh, dearest Nanna!

NANNA. Oh heaven! say--

HOTHER (embraces her again). Once more, my bride!

NANNA. I tremble
What means this?

HOTHER. Canst thou bury in oblivion
Thy Hother's cruel doubt? Say, canst thou pardon
His only crime?

NANNA. Think'st thou I can remember
That Hother e'er has err'd?

HOTHER. How nobly spoken!
Farewell, my bride! farewell, for ever.

[He embraces her for the third time, and is going; but she holds fast his
arm.

NANNA. Cruel!
If thou hast ever lov'd me--

HOTHER. Canst thou doubt it?
By Odin, more than the best light! Can Hother's
Tears not make bare to thee his heart?

NANNA Then wherefore
Wouldst thou fly from me!

HOTHER. Honour calleth--Honour!
And that--forgive me--that is more than Nanna.
Ha! I must fly from thee! Each tear thou sheddest
Enfeebles but my heart, and makes death bitter.

[He is going.

NANNA.. If thou regard'st my vow--regard'st my terror,
Wouldst thou not see me die, and die distracted--

HOTHER. What wilt thou?

NANNA. Ah! a prayer!--oh how I tremble--
But if thou meetest Balder--

HOTHER. I avoid him!

NANNA (astonished, and calmer). What! thou avoid'st him?

HOTHER. Think'st thou I bear hatred
'Gainst one who yielded thee a glimpse of pleasure?
One--nearly one of Hother's days? He gave me
My life, and shall I slay him in requital?
Oh! Nanna, . . . I've the mighty thought imagined;
But with it trembles yet my lip--oh, canst thou
Pay virtue its reward--forget for ever thy Hother,
And--in course of time--love Balder?

NANNA. Oh, hush! oh, hush! my Hother!

HOTHER. He is virtuous,
He loves thee well, and Odin is his father.

NANNA. How cruel!

HOTHER. I must fly from thee fo