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Title: The Wonder-Working Magician

Author: Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Translator: Denis Florence Mac-Carthy

Release Date: June 14, 2009 [EBook #6372]

Last Updated: February 1, 2013

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WONDER-WORKING MAGICIAN ***

Produced by Sue Asscher, and David Widger

THE WONDER-WORKING MAGICIAN

By Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Now First Translated Fully From The Spanish

In The Metre Of The Original. By Denis Florence Mac-Carthy.

London: Henry S. King & Co.,

65 Cornhill, And 12, Paternoster Row.

1873.

INTRODUCTION.

ACT THE FIRST.

ACT THE SECOND.

ACT THE THIRD.

INTRODUCTION.

Two of the dramas contained in this volume are the most celebrated of all Calderon's writings. The first, "La Vida es Sueno", has been translated into many languages and performed with success on almost every stage in Europe but that of England. So late as the winter of 1866-7, in a Russian version, it drew crowded houses to the great theatre of Moscow; while a few years earlier, as if to give a signal proof of the reality of its title, and that Life was indeed a Dream, the Queen of Sweden expired in the theatre of Stockholm during the performance of "La Vida es Sueno". In England the play has been much studied for its literary value and the exceeding beauty and lyrical sweetness of some passages; but with the exception of a version by John Oxenford published in "The Monthly Magazine" for 1842, which being in blank verse does not represent the form of the original, no complete translation into English has been attempted. Some scenes translated with considerable elegance in the metre of the original were published by Archbishop Trench in 1856; but these comprised only a portion of the graver division of the drama. The present version of the entire play has been made with the advantages which the author's long experience in the study and interpretation of Calderon has enabled him to apply to this master-piece of the great Spanish poet. All the forms of verse have been preserved; while the closeness of the translation may be inferred from the fact, that not only the whole play but every speech and fragment of a speech are represented in English in the exact number of lines of the original, without the sacrifice, it is to be hoped, of one important idea.

A note by Hartzenbusch in the last edition of the drama published at Madrid (1872), tells that "La Vida es Sueno", is founded on a story which turns out to be substantially the same as that with which English students are familiar as the foundation of the famous Induction to the "Taming of the Shrew". Calderon found it however in a different work from that in which Shakespeare met with it, or rather his predecessor, the anonymous author of "The Taming of a Shrew", whose work supplied to Shakespeare the materials of his own comedy.

On this subject Malone thus writes. "The circumstance on which the Induction to the anonymous play, as well as to the present Comedy [Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew"], is founded, is related (as Langbaine has observed) by Heuterus, "Rerum Burgund." lib. iv. The earliest English original of this story in prose that I have met with is the following, which is found in Goulart's "Admirable and Memorable Histories", translated by E. Grimstone, quarto, 1607; but this tale (which Goulart translated from Heuterus) had undoubtedly appeared in English, in some other shape, before 1594:

"Philip called the good Duke of Burgundy, in the memory of our ancestors, being at Bruxelles with his Court, and walking one night after supper through the streets, accompanied by some of his favourites, he found lying upon the stones a certaine artisan that was very dronke, and that slept soundly. It pleased the prince in this artisan to make trial of the vanity of our life, whereof he had before discoursed with his familiar friends. He therefore caused this sleeper to be taken up, and carried into his palace; he commands him to be layed in one of the richest beds; a riche night cap to be given him; his foule shirt to be taken off, and to have another put on him of fine holland. When as this dronkard had digested his wine, and began to awake, behold there comes about his bed Pages and Groomes of the Duke's Chamber, who drawe the curteines, make many courtesies, and being bare-headed, aske him if it please him to rise, and what apparell it would please him to put on that day. They bring him rich apparell. This new Monsieur amazed at such courtesie, and doubting whether he dreamt or waked, suffered himselfe to be drest, and led out of the chamber. There came noblemen which saluted him with all honour, and conduct him to the Masse, where with great ceremonie they give him the booke of the Gospell, and the Pixe to kisse, as they did usually to the Duke. From the Masse they bring him back unto the pallace; he washes his hands, and sittes down at the table well furnished. After dinner, the Great Chamberlain commands cards to be brought with a great summe of money. This Duke in imagination playes with the chief of the Court. Then they carry him to walke in the gardein, and to hunt the hare, and to hawke. They bring him back into the pallace, where he sups in state. Candles being light the musitions begin to play; and the tables taken away, the gentlemen and gentlewomen fell to dancing. Then they played a pleasant comedie, after which followed a Banket, whereat they had presently store of Ipocras and pretious wine, with all sorts of confitures, to this prince of the new impression; so as he was dronke, and fell soundlie asleepe. Hereupon the Duke commanded that he should be disrobed of all his riche attire. He was put into his old ragges, and carried into the same place, where he had been found the night before; where he spent that night. Being awake in the morning, he began to remember what had happened before; he knewe not whether it were true indeede, or a dream that had troubled his braine. But in the end, after many discourses, he concludes that ALL WAS BUT A DREAME that had happened unto him; and so entertained his wife, his children, and his neighbours, without any other apprehension."

It is curious to find that the same anecdote which formed the Induction to the original "Taming of a Shrew", and which, from a comic point of view, Shakespeare so wonderfully developed in his own comedy, Calderon invested with such solemn and sublime dignity in "La Vida es Sueno". He found it, as Senor Hartzenbusch points out in the edition of 1872 already quoted, in the very amusing "Viage Entretenido" of Augustin de Rojas, which was first published in 1603. Hartzenbusch refers to the modern edition of Rojas, Madrid, 1793, tomo I, pp. 261, 262, 263, but in a copy of the Lerida edition of 1615, in my own possession, I find the anecdote at folios 118, 119, 120. There are some slight differences between the version of Rojas and that of Goulart, but the incidents and the persons are the same. The conclusion to which the artizan arrived at, in the version of Goulart, that all had been a dream, is expressed more strongly by the Duke himself in the story as told by Rojas.

"Y dijo entonces el Duque: 'veis aqui, amigos, "Lo que es el Mundo: Todo es un Sueno", pues esto verdaderamente ha pasado por este, como habeis visto, y le parece que lo ha sonado.'"—

The story in all probability came originally from the East. Mr. Lane in his translation of the Thousand and One Nights gives a very interesting narrative which he believes to be founded on an historical fact in which Haroun Al Raschid plays the part of the good Duke of Burgundy, and Abu-l-Hasan the original of Christopher Sly. The gravity of the treatment and certain incidents in this Oriental story recall more strongly Calderon's drama than the Induction to the "Taming of the Shrew". "La Vida es Sueno" was first published either at the end of 1635 or beginning of 1636.

The "Aprobacion" for its publication along with eleven other dramas (not nine as Archbishop Trench has stated), was signed on the 6th of November in the former year by the official licenser, Juan Bautista de Sossa. The volume was edited by the poet's brother, Don Joseph Calderon. So scarce has this first authorised collection of any of Calderon's dramas become, that a Spanish writer Don Vicente Garcia de la Huerta, in his "Teatro Espanol" (Parte Segunda, tomo 30), denies the existence of this volume of 1635, and states that it did not appear until 1640. As if to corroborate this view, Barrera in his "Catalogo del Teatro antiguo Espanol" gives the date 1640 to the "Primera parte de comedias de Calderon" edited by his brother Joseph.

There can be no doubt, however, that the volume appeared in 1635 or 1636 as stated. In 1637 Don Joseph Calderon published the "Second Part" of his brother's dramas containing like the former volume twelve plays.* In his dedication of this volume to D. Rodrigo de Mendoza, Joseph Calderon expressly alludes to the First Part of his brother's comedies which he had "printed." "En la primera Parte, Excellentissimo Senor, de las comedias que imprimi de Don Pedro Calderon de La Barca, mi hermano," etc. This of course settles the fact of the prior publication of the first Part. It is singular, however, to find that the most famous of all Calderon's dramas should have been frequently ascribed to Lope de Vega. So late as 1857 it is given in an Italian version by Giovanni La Cecilia, under the title of "La Vita e un Sogno", as a drama of Lope de Vega, with the date 1628. This of course is a mistake, but Senor Hartzenbusch, who makes no allusion to this circumstance, admits that two dramas of Lope de Vega, which it is presumed preceded the composition of Calderon's play turn on very nearly the same incidents as those of "La Vida es Sueno". These are "Lo que ha de ser", and "Barlan y Josafa". He gives a passage from each of these dramas which seem to be the germ of the fine lament of Sigismund, which the reader will find translated in the present volume.

[footnote] *In the library of the British Museum there is a fine copy of this "Segunda Parte de Comedias de Don Pedro Calderon de la Barca" Madrid, 1637. Mr. Ticknor mentions (1863) that he too had a copy of this interesting volume.

Senor Hartzenbusch, in the edition of Calderon's "La Vida es Sueno", already referred to (Madrid, 1872), prints the passages from Lope de Vega's two dramas, but in neither of them, he justly remarks, can we find anything that at all corresponds to this "grandioso caracter de Segismundo."

The second drama in this volume, "The Wonderful Magician", is perhaps better known to poetical students in England than even the first, from the spirited fragment Shelley has left us in his "Scenes from Calderon." The preoccupation of a subject by a great master throws immense difficulties in the way of any one who ventures to follow in the same path: but as Shelley allowed himself great licence in his versification, and either from carelessness or an imperfect knowledge of Spanish is occasionally unfaithful to the meaning of his author, it may be hoped in my own version that strict fidelity both as to the form as well as substance of the original may be some compensation for the absence of those higher poetical harmonies to which many of my readers will have been accustomed.

"El Magico Prodigioso" appeared for the first time in the same volume as "La Vida es Sueno", prepared for publication in 1635 by Don Joseph Calderon. The translation is comprised in the same number of lines as the original, and all the preceding remarks on "Life is a Dream", whether in reference to the period of the first publication of the drama in Spain, or the principles I kept in view while attempting this version may be applied to it. As in the Case of "Life is a Dream", "The Wonderful Magician" has previously been translated entire by an English writer, ("Justina", by J.H. 1848); but as Archbishop Trench truly observes, "the writer did not possess that command of the resources of the English language, which none more than Calderon requires."

The Legend on which Calderon founded "El Magico Prodigioso" will be found in Surius, "De probatis Sanctorum historiis", t. V. (Col. Agr. 1574), p. 351: "Vita et Martyrium SS. Cypriani et Justinae, autore Simeone Metaphraste", and in Chapter cxlii, of the "Legenda Aurea" of Jacobus de Voragine "De Sancta Justina virgine".

The martyrdom of the Saints took place in the year 290, and their festival is celebrated by the Church on the 26th of September.

Mr. Ticknor in his History of Spanish Literature, 1863, volume ii. p. 369, says that the Wonder-working Magician is founded on "the same legend on which Milman has founded his 'Martyr of Antioch.'" This is a mistake of the learned writer. "The Martyr of Antioch" is founded not on the history of St. Justina but of Saint Margaret, as Milman himself expressly states. Chapter xciii., "De Sancta Margareta", in the "Legenda Aurea" of Jacobus de Voragine contains her story.

The third translation in this volume is that of "The Purgatory of St. Patrick". This, though perhaps not so famous as the two preceding dramas, is intended to be given by Don P. De la Escosura, in a selection of Calderon's finest "comedias", now being edited by him for the Spanish Academy, as the representative piece of its class—namely, the mystical drama founded on the lives of Saints. Mr. Ticknor prefers it to the more celebrated "Devotion of the Cross," and says that it "is commonly ranked among the best religious plays of the Spanish theatre in the seventeenth century."

In all that relates to the famous cave known through the middle ages as the "Purgatory of Saint Patrick", as well as the Story of Luis Enius—the Owain Miles of Ancient English poetry—Calderon was entirely indebted to the little volume published at Madrid, in 1627, by Juan Perez de Montalvan, entitled "Vida y Purgatorio de San Patricio". This singular work met with immense success. It went through innumerable editions, and continues to be reprinted in Spain as a chap-book, down to the present day. I have the fifth impression "improved and enlarged by the author himself," Madrid, 1628, the year after its first appearance: also a later edition, Madrid, 1664. As early as 1637 a French translation appeared at Brussels by "F. A. S. Chartreux, a Bruxelles." In 1642 a second French translation was published at Troyes, by "R. P. Francois Bouillon, de l'Ordre de S. Francois, et Bachelier de Theologie." Mr. Thomas Wright in his "Essay on St. Patrick's Purgatory," London, 1844, makes the singular mistake of supposing that Bouillon's "Histoire de la Vie et Purgatoire de S. Patrice" was founded on the drama of Calderon, it being simply a translation of Montalvan's "Vida y Purgatorio," from which, like itself, Calderon's play was derived. Among other translations of Montalvan's work may be mentioned one in Dutch (Brussels, 1668) and one in Portuguese (Lisbon, 1738). It was also translated into German and Italian, but I find no mention of an English version. For this reason I have thought that a few extracts might be interesting, as showing how closely Calderon adhered even to the language of his predecessor.

In all that relates to the Purgatory, Montalvan's work is itself chiefly compiled from the "Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum, seu vitae et Actae sanctorum Hiberniae," Paris, 1624, fol. This work, which has now become scarce, was written by Thomas Messingham an Irish priest, the Superior of the Irish Seminary in Paris. No complete English version appears to have been made of it, but a small tract in English containing everything in the original work that referred to St. Patrick's Purgatory was published at Paris in 1718. As this tract is perhaps more scarce than even the Florilegium itself, the account of the Purgatory as given by Messingham from the MS. of Henry of Saltrey is reprinted in the notes to this drama in the quaint language of the anonymous translator. Of this tract, "printed at Paris in 1718" without the name of author, publisher or printer, I have not been able to trace another copy. In other points of interest connected with Calderon's drama, particularly to the clearing up of the difficulty hitherto felt as to the confused list of authorities at the end, the reader is also referred to the notes.

The present version of "The Purgatory of Saint Patrick" is, with the exception of a few unimportant lines, an entirely new translation. It is made with the utmost care, imitating all the measures and contained, like the two preceding dramas, in the exact number of lines of the original. One passage of the translation which I published in 1853 is retained in the notes, as a tribute of respect to the memory of the late John Rutter Chorley, it having been mentioned with praise by that eminent Spanish scholar in an elaborate review of my earlier translations from Calderon, which appeared in the "Athenaeum", Nov. 19 and Nov. 26, 1853.

It only remains to add that the text I have followed is that of Hartzenbusch in his edition of Calderon's Comedias, Madrid, 1856 ("Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles"). His arrangement of the scenes has been followed throughout, thus enabling the reader in a moment to verify for himself the exactness of the translation by a reference to the original, a crucial test which I rather invite than decline.

CLAPHAM PARK, Easter, 1873.

THE WONDER-WORKING MAGICIAN.

TO THE MEMORY OF

SHELLEY,

WHOSE ADMIRATION FOR

"THE LIGHT AND ODOUR OF THE FLOWERY AND STARRY AUTOS"

IS THE HIGHEST TRIBUTE TO THE BEAUTY OF

CALDERON'S POETRY,

THIS DRAMA

IS INSCRIBED.

PERSONS.

CYPRIAN.

THE DEMON.

LELIUS, The Governor of Antioch's Son.

FLORUS, friend of Lelius.

MOSCON, Servant of Cyprian.

CLARIN, Servant of Cyprian.

THE GOVERNOR OF ANTIOCH.

FABIUS, his Servant.

LYSANDER, the reputed Father of Justina.

JUSTINA.

LIVIA, her Maid.

A Servant.

A Soldier.

ATTENDANTS, Soldiers, People.

SCENE—Antioch and its environs.

THE WONDER-WORKING MAGICIAN.

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

A WOOD NEAR ANTIOCH.

Enter CYPPRIAN in a Student's gown, followed by CLARIN and MOSCON, as

poor Scholars, carrying books.

CYPRIAN.  In the pleasant solitude

Of this tranquil spot, this thicket

Formed of interlacing boughs,

Buds, and flowers, and shrubs commingled,

You may leave me, leaving also,

As my best companions, with me,

(For I need none else) those books

Which I bad you to bring hither

From the house; for while, to-day,

Antioch, the mighty city,

Celebrates with such rejoicing

The great temple newly finished

Unto Jupiter, the bearing

Thither, also, of his image

Publicly, in grant procession,

To its shrine to be uplifted;—

I, escaping the confusion

Of the streets and squares, have flitted

Hitherward, to spend in study

What of daylight yet may glimmer.

Go, enjoy the festival,

Go to Antioch and mingle

In its various sports, returning

When the sun descending sinketh

To be buried in the waves,

Which, beneath the dark clouds' fringes,

Round the royal corse of gold,

Shine like sepulchres of silver.

Here you'll find me.

MOSCON.      Sir, although

Most decidedly my wish is

To behold the sports, yet I

Cannot go without a whisper

Of some few five thousand words,

Which I'll give you in a jiffy.

Can it be that on a day

Of such free, such unrestricted

Revelry, and mirth, and fun,

You with your old books come hither

To this country place, rejecting

All the frolic of the city?

CLARIN.  Well, I think my master's right;

For there's nothing more insipid

Than a grand procession day,

Half fandangos, priests, and fiddles.

MOSCON.  Clarin, from the first to last,

All your life you've been a trickster,

A smart temporizing toady,

A bold flatterer, a trimmer,

Since you praise the thoughts of others,

And ne'er speak your own.

CLARIN.      The civil

Way to tell a man he lies

Is to say he's wrong:—you twig me,

Now I think I speak my mind.

CYPRIAN.  Moscon, Clarin, both I bid ye

Cease this silly altercation.

It is ever thus betwixt ye,

Puffed up with your little knowledge

Each maintains his own opinion.

Go, and (as I've said) here seek me

When night falls, and with the thickness

Of its shadows veils from view

This most fair and wondrous system

Of the universe.

MOSCON.      How comes it,

That although you have admitted

'Tis not right to see the feast,

Yet you go to see it?

CLARIN.      Simple

Is the answer: no one follows

The advice which he has given

To another.

MOSCON [aside].  To see Livia,

Would the gods that I were winged.

[Exit.

CLARIN [aside].  If the honest truth were told

Livia is the girl that gives me

Something worth the living for.

Even her very name has in it

This assurance:  'Livia', yes,

Minus 'a', I live for 'Livi'.*

[Exit.

[footnote] *This, of course, is a paraphrase of the original, which,

perhaps, may be given as an explanation.

"Ilega, 'Livia'.

Al 'na', y se, Livia, 'liviana'."

SCENE II.

CYPRIAN.  Now I am alone, and may,

If my mind can be so lifted,

Study the great problem which

Keeps my soul disturbed, bewilder'd,

Since I read in Pliny's page

The mysterious words there written.

Which define a god; because

It doth seem beyond the limits

Of my intellect to find

One who all these signs exhibits.

This mysterious hidden truth

Must I seek for.

[Reads.

SCENE III.

Enter the DEMON, in gala dress.  CYPRIAN.

DEMON [aside].  Though thou givest

All thy thoughts to the research,

Cyprian, thou must ever miss it,

Since I'll hide it from thy mind.

CYPRIAN.  There's a rustling in this thicket.

Who is there? who art thou?

DEMON.      Sir,

A mere stranger, who has ridden

All this morning up and down

These dark groves, not knowing whither,

Having lost my way, my horse,

To the emerald that encircles,

With a tapestry of green,

These lone hills, I've loosed, it gives him

At the same time food and rest.

I'm to Antioch bound, on business

Of importance, my companions

I have parted from; through listless

Lapse of thought (a thing that happens

To the most of earthly pilgrims),

I have lost my way, and lost

Comrades, servants, and assistants.

CYPRIAN.  I am much surprised to learn

That in view of the uplifted

Towers of Antioch, you thus

Lost your way.  There's not a single

Path that on this mountain side,

More or less by feet imprinted,

But doth lead unto its walls,

As to its one central limit.

By whatever path you take,

You'll go right.

DEMON.      It is an instance

Of that ignorance which in sight

Even of truth the true goal misses.

And as it appears not wise

Thus to enter a strange city

Unattended and unknown,

Asking even my way, 'tis fitter

That 'till night doth conquer day,

Here while light doth last, to linger;

By your dress and by these books

Round you, like a learned circle

Of wise friends, I see you are

A great student, and the instinct

Of my soul doth ever draw me

Unto men to books addicted.

CYPRIAN.  Have you studied much?

DEMON.      Well, no;

But I've knowledge quite sufficient

Not to be deemed ignorant.

CYPRIAN.  Then, what sciences know you?

DEMON.      Many.

CYPRIAN.  Why, we cannot reach even one

After years of studious vigil,

And can you (what vanity!)

Without study know so many?

DEMON.  Yes; for I am of a country

Where the most exalted science

Needs no study to be known.

CYPRIAN.  Would I were a happy inmate

Of that country!  Here our studies

Prove our ignorance more.

DEMON.      No figment

Is the fact that without study,

I had the superb ambition

For the first Professor's chair

To compete, and thought to win it,

Having very numerous votes.

And although I failed, sufficient

Glory is it to have tried.

For not always to the winner

Is the fame.  If this you doubt,

Name the subject of your study,

And then let us argue on it;

I not knowing your opinion,

Even although it be the right,

Shall the opposite view insist on.

CYPRIAN.  I am greatly gratified

That you make this proposition.

Here in Plinius is a passage

Which much anxious thought doth give me

How to understand, to know

Who's the God of whom he has written.

DEMON.  'Tis that passage which declares

(Well I know the words) this dictum:

"God is one supremest good,

One pure essence, one existence,

Self-sustained, all sight, all hands."

CYPRIAN.  Yes, 'tis true.

DEMON.      And what is in it

So abstruse?

CYPRIAN.      I cannot find

Such a god as Plinius figures.

If he be the highest good,

Then is Jupiter deficient

In that attribute; we see him

Acting like a mortal sinner

Many a time,—this, Danae,

This, Europa, too, doth witness.

Can then, by the Highest Good,

All whose actions, all whose instincts,

Should be sacred and divine,

Human frailty be committed?

DEMON.  These are fables which the learned

First made use of, to exhibit

Underneath the names of gods

What in truth was but a hidden

System of philosophy.

CYPRIAN.  This reply is not sufficient,

Since such awe is due to God,

None should dare to Him attribute,

None should stain His name with sins,

Though these sins should be fictitious.

And considering well the case,

If the highest good is figured

By the gods, of course, they must

Will what is the best and fittest;

How, then, can some gods wish one thing,

Some another?  This we witness

In the dubious responses

Which are by their statues given.

Here you cannot say I speak of

Learned abstractions of the ideal.

To two armies, if two shrines

Promise give of being victors,

One, of course, must lose the battle:

The conclusion is so simple,—

Need I say it? that two wills,

Mutually antagonistic,

Cannot lead unto one end.

They being thus in opposition,

One we must consider good,

One as bad we must consider.

But an evil will in God

Would imply a contradiction:

Then the highest good can dwell not

Among gods who know division.

DEMON.  I deny your major, since

These responses may be given,

By the oracles, for ends

Which our intellectual vision

Cannot reach: 'tis providence.

Thus more good may have arisen

To the loser in that battle

Than its gain could bring the winner.

CYPRIAN.  Granted; but that god ought not,

For the gods are not malicious,

To have promised victory;—

It would have been quite sufficient,

Without this most false assurance,

The defeat to have permitted.

Then if God must be all sight,

Every god should see distinctly

With clear vision to the end;

Seeing THAT, he erred in fixing

On a false conclusion; then

Though the deity may with fitness

Be divided into persons,

Yet His essence must be single

In the smallest circumstance.

DEMON.  It was needful for this business,

That the oracle should rouse

The two hosts alike.

CYPRIAN.      If fitting,

There were genii that could rouse them

(Good and bad, as they're distinguished

By the learned), who are, in fact,

Spirits who among us mingle,

And who good and evil acts,

Evil thoughts, suggest and whisper,

A convincing argument

For the immortal soul's existence:

Of these ministers could God

Have made use, nor thus exhibit

He was capable of a lie

To effect his ends?

DEMON.      Consider,

That these seeming contradictions

Cannot our firm faith diminish

In the oneness of the gods,

If in things of higher import

They know naught of dissonance.

Take man's wondrous frame, for instance,

Surely that majestic structure

Once conception doth exhibit.

CYPRIAN.  If man's maker then were one

He some vantage must have given him

O'er the others; and if they

All are equal,—'tis admitted

That they are so, from the fact

Of their mutual opposition

To each other,—when the thought

Of creating man was hinted

By one god, another could

Say, "No, no, I do not wish it."

Then if God must be all hands,

Time might come when they would differ,

One creating, one undoing,

Ere the other's work was finished,

Since the power of each was equal,

But unequal were their wishes.

Which of these two powers would conquer?

DEMON.  On impossible and false issues

There can be no argument;—

But your premises admitting,

Say what then?

CYPRIAN.      That there must be

One sole God, all hands, all vision,

Good Supreme, supreme in grace,

One who cannot err, omniscient,

One the highest, none can equal,

Not beginning, yet the Beginner,

One pure essence, one sole substance,

One wise worker, ozone sole willer;—

And though He in one or two

Or more persons be distinguished,

Yet the sovereign Deity

Must be one, sublime and single,

The first cause of every cause,

The first germ of all existence.

DEMON.  How can I deny so clear,

[They rise.

So conclusive a position?

CYPRIAN.  Do you feel it?

DEMON.      Who would not

Feel to find another quicker

In the rivalry of wit?—

And though I am not deficient

In an answer, I restrain it,

Hearing steps approaching hither

Through the wood; besides 'tis time

I proceeded to the city.

CYPRIAN.  Go in peace.

DEMON.      Remain in peace.—

[Aside.

So involved in study IS he,

That I now must wean him from it,

Weaving round him the bewitchment

Of rare beauty.  Since I have leave

To attempt my fires to kindle

In Justina's breast, one stroke,

Thus, two vengeances shall give me.

[Exit.

CYPRIAN.  Never saw I such a man.

But since still my people linger,

I, the cause of so much doubt,

Will now strive to reconsider.

[He resumes his reading, without perceiving

the approach of those who enter.

SCENE IV.

Enter LELIUS and FLORUS.—CYPRIAN.

LELIUS.  Further let us not proceed;

For these rocks, these boughs so thickly

Interwoven, that the sun

Cannot even find admittance,

Shall be the sole witnesses

Of our duel.

FLORUS.      Then, this instant

Draw your sword; for here are deeds,

If in words elsewhere we've striven.

LELIUS.  Yes, I know that in the field,

While the tongue is mute, the glitter

Of the sword speaks thus.

[They fight.

CYPRIAN.      What's this?

Hold, good Florus!  Lelius, listen!—

Here until your rage is calmed,

Even unarmed I stand betwixt ye.

LELIUS.  Thus to interrupt my vengeance,

Whence, O Cyprian, have you risen

Like a spectre?

FLORUS.   A wild wood-god,

Have you from these tree-trunks issued?

SCENE V.

Enter MOSCON and CLARIN.

MOSCON.  Yonder, where we left our master,

I hear sword-strokes; run, run quickly.

CLARIN.  Well, except to run away,

I am anything but nimble;—

Truly a retiring person.

MOSCON and CLARIN.      Sir....

CYPRIAN.  No more:  your gabble irks me.—

How?  What's this?  Two noble friends,

Who in blood, in birth, in lineage,

Are to-day of Antioch all

Its expectancy, the city's

Eye of fashion, one the son

Of the Governor, of the princely

House Colalto, one the heir,

Thus to peril, as of little

Value, two such precious lives

To their country and their kindred?

LELIUS.  Cyprian, although respect

Which on many grounds I give thee,

Holds my sword suspended thus

In due deference for an instant,—

To the scabbard's calm repose

It hath got no power to win it.

Thou of science knowest more,

Than the duel, pretermitting

This, that when two nobles meet

In the field, no power can link them

Friends again, save this, that one

Must his life give as a victim.

FLORUS.  This I also say, and ask thee,

With thy people, that thou quittest,

Leaving us to end our quarrel

Without any help or hindrance.

CYPRIAN.  Though it seems to you my calling

Makes me know the laws but little

Of the duel—that strict code

Valour and vain pride have written,

You are wrong, for I was born

With the obligations fitting

Rank like yours, to know in truth

Infamy and honour's limits.

The devotion to my studies

Has my courage not diminished,

For they oftentimes shake hands

Arms and letters as though kinsmen.

If to meet here in the field

Was the quarrel's first condition,

Having met and fought, its lies

Calumny can never whisper.

And the cause you thus can tell me

Of the feud that brings you hither;

For I promise, if, on hearing

What to me is thus committed,

I perceive that satisfaction

Must on either side be given,

Here to leave you both alone,

Unobserved by any witness.

LELIUS.  Then on this condition solely,

That you leave us, when the bitter

Truth is told, to end our quarrel,

I to tell the cause am willing.

I a certain lady love,

The same lady as his mistress

Florus also loves; now see,

How incompatible are our wishes!—

Since betwixt two jealous nobles

No mediation is admitted.

FLORUS.  I this lady love so much,

That the sunlight I would hinder

From beholding her sweet face.

Since then all interposition

Is in vain, pray stand aside,

And our quarrel let us finish.

CYPRIAN.  Stay, for one more thing I'd know.

Tell me this of your fair mistress,

Is she possible to your hopes,

Or impossible to your wishes?—

LELIUS. Oh: she is so good and wise,

That if even the sun enkindled

Jealousy in the heart of Florus,

It was jealousy pure and simple,

Without cause, for even the sun

Dare not look upon her visage.

CYPRIAN.  Would you marry with her, then?

FLORUS.  This is all my heart's ambition.

CYPRIAN.  And would you?

LELIUS.      Ah, would to heaven,

I were destined for such blisses!—

For although she's very poor,

Virtue dowers her with its riches.

CYPRIAN.  If you both aspire to wed her,

Is it not an act most wicked,

Most unworthy, thus beforehand

Her unspotted fame to injure?

What will say the world, if one

Of you two shall marry with her

After having killed the other

For her sake?  The supposition

Is not probable in fact,

To imagine it is sufficient.

I by no means say you should

Each your chances try to win her

At one time, for I would blush

Such a craven proposition

Came from me, because the lover

Who could keep his jealousy hidden,

Would condone even shame thereafter,

Were the opportunity given;

But I say that you should learn

Which of you it is your mistress

Gives the preference to, then....

LELIUS.          Stay!—

For it were an act too timid,

Too faint-hearted thus to ask

Of a lady such admission

As the choosing him or me.

For if me she chose, more fixed

Is my call for satisfaction;

For his fault has this addition,

He loves one who loves but me.

If to him the choice is given,

This intensifies my anger

All the more, that she, my mistress,

Whom I love, should love another.

Her selection could do little

In the matter, which at last

To our swords should be committed,—

The accepted for his honour,

The refused for his dismissal.

FLORUS.  I confess that I adopt

Altogether that opinion,

Still the privilege of selection

May to ladies be permitted;

So to-day I mean to ask her

Of her father.  'Tis sufficient

To have come here to the field,

And my naked sword uplifted,

(Specially as one is by

Who the further fight resisteth,)

For my honour;—so to sheathe,

Lelius, my sword I'm willing.

[Sheathes his sword.

LELIUS.  By your argument and action,

Florus, you have half convinced me;

I forego the remaining half—

True or false, I thus act with you.

[Sheathes his sword.

I to-day will seek her father.

CYPRIAN.  On, of course, the supposition,

That this lady you pay court to

Suffers naught by the admission,

Since you both have spoken proudly

Of her virtue and her strictness,

Tell me who she is; for I,

Who am held throughout the city

In esteem, would for you both

Speak to her at first a little

That she thus may be prepared

When her father tells your wishes.

LELIUS.  You are right.

CYPRIAN.      Her name?

FLORUS.            Justina,

Daughter of Lysander.

CYPRIAN.      Little,

Now that I have heard her name,

Seem the praises you have given her;

She is virtuous as she's noble.

Instantly I'll pay my visit.

FLORUS [aside].  May heaven grant that in my favour

Her cold heart be moved to pity!

[Exit.

LELIUS.  Love, my hopes with laurels crown

When they are to her submitted!

[Exit.

CYPRIAN.  Further mischief or misfortune,

Grant me, heaven, that I may hinder!

[Exit.

SCENE VI.

MOSCON, CLARIN.

MOSCON.  Has your worship heard our master

Now is gone to pay a visit

To Justina?

CLARIN.      Yes, my lord.

But what matter if he didn't?

MOSCON.  Matter quite enough, your worship;

He has no business there.

CLARIN.      Why, prithee?

MOSCON.  Why?  because I die for Livia,

Who is maid to this Justina,

And I wouldn't have even the sun

Get a glimpse of her through the window.

CLARIN.  Well, that's good; but, for a lady,

To contend were worse than silly,

Whom I mean to make my wife.

MOSCON.  Excellent, faith! the fancy tickles

Quite my fancy.  Let her say

Who it is that annoys or nicks her

To a nicety.  Let's go see her,

And she'll choose.

CLARIN.      A good idea!—

Though I fear she'll pitch on you.

MOSCON.  Have you then that wise suspicion?

CLARIN.  Yes; for always these same Livias

Choose the worst, th'ungrateful minxes.*

[Exeunt.

[footnote] *The 'asonante' versification in 'i-e', which has been

kept up through these six scenes, ends here.  The seventh scene

commences in rhymed five-line stanzas, which change to the asonante

in e-e, at the beginning of Lysander's long speech.

SCENE VII.

A HALL IN THE HOUSE OF LYSANDER.

Enter JUSTINA and LYSANDER.

JUSTINA.  Consolation, sir, is vain,

After what I've seen to-day:

The whole city, madly gay,

Error-blinded and insane,

Consecrating shrine and fane

To an image, which I know,

Cannot be a god, although

Some demoniac power may pass,

Making breathe the silent brass

As a proof that it is so.

LYSANDER.  Fair Justina, thou indeed,

Wert not who thou art, if thou

Didst not weep as thou dost now,

Didst not in thy pure heart bleed

For what Christ's divinest creed

Suffers on this sinful day.

JUSTINA.  Thus my lineage I display:—

For thy child I could not be,

Could I without weeping see

This idolatrous display.

LYSANDER.  Ah, my good, my gentle maid!

Thou art not my daughter, no,

'Twere too happy, if 'twere so.

But, O God! what's this I've said?—

My life's secret is betrayed!

'Twas my soul that spoke aloud.

JUSTINA.  What do you say, sir?

LYSANDER.      Oh! a crowd

Of old thoughts my heart hath stirred.

JUSTINA.  Many times methought I heard

What but now you have avowed,

And yet never wished to hear,

At the risk perchance of paining,

A more accurate explaining

Of your sorrow and my fear;

But since now it doth appear

Right that I should be possess'd

Of the whole truth half confess'd,

Let me say, though bold appearing,—

Trust your secret to my hearing,

Since it hath escaped your breast.

LYSANDER.  Ah! Justina, I have long

Kept this secret from your ears,

Fearing from your tender years

That the telling might be wrong;

But now seeing you are strong,

Firm in thought, in action brave,

Seeing too, that with this stave,

I go creeping o'er the ground,

Rapping with a hollow sound

At the portals of the grave,

Knowing that my time is brief,

I would not here leave you, no,

In your ignorance; I owe

My own peace, too, this relief:

Then attentive to my grief

Let your pleasure list.

JUSTINA.      A fear

Struggles in my breast.

LYSANDER.      Severe

Is the test my duty pays.

JUSTINA.  From this most perplexing maze

Oh, sir, rescue me.

LYSANDER.      Then hear.

I, most beautiful Justina,

Am Lysander....  This commencement

With my name need not surprise you;

For though known to you already,

It is right, for all that follows,

That it should be well remembered,

Since of me you know no more

Than what this my name presenteth.

Yes, I am Lysander, son

Of that city which on Seven

Hills a hydra seems of stone,

Since it seven proud heads erecteth;

Of that city now the seat

Of the mighty Roman empire,

Cradle of Christ's wider realm,—

Boon that Rome alone could merit.

There of poor and humble parents

I was born, if "poor" expresses

Well their rank who left behind them

Virtues, not vain earthly treasures.

Both of them by birth were Christians,

Joyful both to be descended

From brave sires who with their blood

Happily life's page had reddened,

Terminating the dull scroll

With death's bright emblazoned letters.

In the Christian faith well grounded

I grew up, and so well learnt it,

That I would, in its defence,

Even a thousand lives surrender.

I was young still, when to Rome,

In disguise and ill attended,

Came our good Pope Alexander,

Who then prudently directed

The high apostolic see,

Though its place there was not settled;

For, as the despotic power

Of the stern and cruel gentiles

Satisfies its thirst with blood

From the martyrs' veins that shed it,

So must still the primitive church

Keep concealed its sons and servants;

Not that they decline to die,

Not that martyrdom is dreaded

But that rebel rage should not,

At one stroke, one hour of vengeance,

Triumph o'er the ruined church,

So that no one should be left it

Who could preach and teach the word,

Who could catechise the gentile.

Alexander being in Rome,

I was secretly presented

To him there, and from his hand

Which was graciously extended,

With his blessing I received

Holy Orders, which the seraphs

Well might envy me, since man

Only such an honour merits.

Alexander, as my mission,

Unto Antioch then sent me,

Where the law of Christ in secret

I should preach.  With glad contentment

I obeyed, and at their mercy,

Through so many nations wending,

Came at length to Antioch;

And when I, these hills ascending,

Saw beneath me in the valley

All its golden towers and temples,

The sun failed me, and down sinking

Drew with him the day, presenting

For my solace a companion,

And a substitute for his presence

In the light of stars, a pledge

That he'd soon return to bless me.

With the sun I lost my way,

And then wandering dejected

Through the windings of the forest,

Found me in the dim recesses

Of a natural bower, wherein

Even the numerous rays that trembled

Downward from each living torch

Could in noways find an entrance,

For to black clouds turned the leaves

That by day were green with freshness.

Here arranging to await

The new sun's reviving presence,

Giving fancy that full scope,

That wide range which it possesses,

I in solitude indulged

Many and many a deep reflection.

Thus absorbed was I in thought

When there came to me the echo

Of a sigh half heard, for half

To its owner retroverted.

Then collecting in mine ear

All my senses joined together,

I again heard more distinctly

That weak cry, that faint expression,

That mute idiom of the sad,

Since by it they're comprehended.

From a woman came that groan

To whose sigh so low and gentle

Followed a man's deeper voice,

Who thus speaking low addressed her:

"Thou first stain of noblest blood

By my hands this moment perish,

Ere thou meetest with thy death

'Neath the hands of infamous headsmen."—

Then the hapless woman said

In a voice that sobbed and trembled,

"Ah, lament for thine own blood,

But for me do not lament thee!"—

I attempted then to reach them,

That the stroke might be prevented,

But I could not, since the voices

At that moment ceased and ended,

And a horseman rode away

'Mong the tree-trunks undetected.

Loadstone of my deep compassion

Was that voice which still exerted

All its failing powers to speak

Amid groans and tears this sentence,—

"Dying innocent and a Christian

I a martyr's death may merit."—

Following the polar-star

Of the voice, I came directly

Where the gloom revealed a woman,

Though I could not well observe her,

Who in life's despairing struggle,

Hand to hand with death contended.

Scarcely was I heard, when she

Summoning up her strength addressed me,—

"Blood-stained murderer mine, come back,

Nor in this last hour desert me

Of my life."—"I am," said I,

"Only one whom chance hath sent here,

Guided it may be by heaven,

To assist you in this dreadful

Hour of trial."—"Vain," she said,

"Is the favour that your mercy

Offers to my life, for see,

Drop by drop the life-stream ebbeth,

Let this hapless one enjoy it,

Who it seems that heaven intendeth,

Being born upon my grave,

All my miseries should inherit."—

So she died, and then I...

SCENE VIII.

LIVIA, JUSTINA, and LYSANDER.

Enter LIVIA.

LIVIA.      Sir,

The same tradesman who so presses

To be paid, comes here to seek you,

By the magistrate attended.

That you were not in, I told him:

By that door you have an exit.

JUSTINA.  This untimely interruption

By their coming, how it frets me!

For upon your tragic story

Life, soul, reason, all depended!—

But retire, sir, lest the justice

Should here meet you, if he enters.

LYSANDER.  Ah! with what indignities

Poverty must be contented!

[Exit.

JUSTINA.  They are coming here, no doubt,

Outside I can hear some persons.

LIVIA.  No, they are not they.  I see

It is Cyprian.

JUSTINA.      How? what sendeth

Cyprian here?

SCENE IX.

Enter CYPRIAN, CLARIN, and MOSCON.

CYPRIAN.      A wish to serve you

Is the sole cause of my presence.

For on seeing the officials

Issuing from your house, the friendship

Which I owe unto Lysander

Made me bold herein to enter;

But to know ([Aside.]  Disturbed, bewildered

Am I.) if by chance ([Aside.] What gelid

Frost is freezing up my veins!)

I in any way could help you.

([Aside.]  Ah, how badly have I spoken!—

Fire not frost my blood possesses!)

JUSTINA.  May heaven guard you many years,

Since in his more grave concernments,

Thus you honour my dear father

With your favours.

CYPRIAN.      I shall ever

Be most gratified to serve you.

([Aside.]  What disturbs me, what unnerves me?)

JUSTINA.  He is not just now at home.

CYPRIAN.  Thus then, lady, I can better

Tell you what is the true cause

That doth bring me here at present;

For the cause that you have heard

Is not that which wholly led me

Here to see you.

JUSTINA.      Then, what is it?

CYPRIAN.  This, which craves your brief attention.—

Fair Justina, beauty's shrine,*

To whose human loveliness

Nature, with a fond excess,

Adds such marks of the divine,

'Tis your rest that doth incline

Hither my desire to-day:

But see what the tyrant sway

Of despotic fate can do,—

While I bring your rest to you,

You from me take mine away.

Lelius, of his passion proud,

(Never less was love to blame!)

Florus, burning with love's flame,

(Ne'er could flame be more allowed!)

Each of them by vows they vowed

Sought to kill his friend for you:

I for you disturbed the two,

(Woe is me!) but see the end;

While from death I saved my friend,

You my own death give in lieu.

Lest the scandal-monger's hum

Should be buzzed about your name,

Here to speak with you I came,

(Would that I had never come!)

That your choice might strike it dumb,

Being the umpire in the cause,

Being the judge in love's sweet laws;—

But behold what I endure,

While I their sick hearts may cure,

Jealousy mine own heart gnaws.

Lady, I proposed to be

Their bold spokesman here, that you

Might decide betwixt the two

Which you would select (ah, me!)

That I might (oh, misery!)

Ask you of your father: vain

This pretence.  No more I'll feign:—

For you see while I am speaking

About them, my heart is seeking

But a vent for its own pain.

[footnote] * The five-lined rhymed stanza here recommences, and

continues to the end of the scene.

JUSTINA.  Half in wonder and dismay

At the vile address you make me,

Reason, speech, alike forsake me,

And I know not what to say.

Never in the slightest way

Have your clients had from me

Encouragement for this embassy—

Florus never—Lelius no:—

Of the scorn that I can show

Let then this a warning be.

CYPRIAN.  If I, knowing that you loved

Some one else, would dare to seek

Your regard, my love were weak,

And could justly be reproved.

But here seeing you stand unmoved,

Like a rock mid raging seas,

No extraneous miseries

Make me say I love you now.

'Tis not for my friends I bow,

So your warning hear with ease.—

To Lelius what shall I say?

JUSTINA.      That he

Well may trust the boding fears

Of his love of many years.

CYPRIAN.  To Florus?

JUSTINA.      Not my face to see.

CYPRIAN.  And to myself?

JUSTINA.      Your love should be

Not so bold.

CYPRIAN.      Though a god should woo?

JUSTINA.  Will a god do more for you

Than for those I have denied?

CYPRIAN.  Yes.

JUSTINA.      Well then, I have replied

To Lelius, Florus, and to you.

[Exeunt JUSTINA and CYPRIAN at opposite sides.

SCENE X.

CLARIN, MOSCON, and LIVIA.

CLARIN.  Livia, heigh!

MOSCON.      And Livia, ho!—

List good lass.

CLARIN.      We're here, we two.

LIVIA.  Well, what WANT you, sir?  and YOU,

What do you want?

CLARIN.      We both would show,

If perchance you do not know,

That we love you to distraction.

On a murderous transaction

We came here, to kill each other:—

So to put an end to the bother,

Just choose one for satisfaction.

LIVIA.  Why the thing that you're demanding

Is so great, it hath bereft me

Of my wits.  My grief hath left me

Without sense or understanding.

Choose but one!  My heart expanding,

Beats so hard a strait to shun!

I one only!  'Tis for fun

That you ask me so to do.

For with heart enough for two,

Why require that I choose one?

CLARIN.  Two at once would you have to woo?

Would not two embarrass you, pray?

LIVIA.  No, we women have a way

To dispose of them two by two.

MOSCON.  What's the way? do tell us, do;—

What is it? speak.

LIVIA.      You put one out!—

I would love them, do not doubt....

MOSCON.  How?

LIVIA.        ALTERNATIVELY.

CLARIN.            Eh,

What's ALTERNATIVELY?

LIVIA.      'Tis to say,

That I would love them day about.

[Exit.

MOSCON.  Well, I choose to-day: good-bye.

CLARIN.  I, to-morrow, the better part.

So I give it with all my heart.

MOSCON.  Livia, in fine, for whom I die,

To-day love me, and to-day love I.

Happy is he who so much can say.

CLARIN.  Hearken, my friend: you know my way.

MOSCON.  Why this speech?  Does a threat lie in it?

CLARIN.  Mind, she is not yours a minute

After the clock strikes twelve to-day.

[Exeunt.

SCENE XI.

THE STREET BEFORE LYSANDER'S HOUSE: NIGHT

Enter FLORUS and LELIUS at opposite sides, not seeing each other.

LELIUS [aside].  Scarcely has the darksome night

O'er the brow of heaven extended*

Its black veil, when I come hither

To adore this sacred threshold;

For although at Cyprian's prayer,

I my sharp sword have suspended,

I have not my love, for love

Cannot be suspended ever.

[footnote] *Asonante in e-e, to the end of the Act.

FLORUS [aside].  Here the dawn will find me waiting:—

Here, because 'tis force compels me

To go hence, for I, elsewhere,

Am away from my true centre.

Would to love the day had come,

And with it the dear, expected

Answer Cyprian may bring me,

Risking all upon that venture.

LELIUS [aside].  I have surely in that window

Heard a noise.

FLORUS [aside].  Some sound descends here

From that balcony.

SCENE XII.

The Demon appears at a window in the house of LYSANDER.

LELIUS [aside].      A figure

Issues from it, whose dim presence

I distinguish.

FLORUS [aside].      Through the darkness

I can there perceive some person.

DEMON [aside].  For the many persecutions

O'er Justina's head impending,

Her pure honour to defame

Thus I make a bold commencement.

[He descends by a ladder.

LELIUS [aside].  But, O woe! what's this I witness!—

FLORUS [aside].  What do I see!  Oh, wretched!  wretched!—

LELIUS [aside].  From the balcony to the ground

The dark figure has descended.

FLORUS [aside].  From her house a man comes forth!—

Jealousy kill me not, preserve me,

'Till I discover who he is.

LELIUS [aside].  I will try to intercept him

And find out at once who thus

Tastes the bliss I've lost for ever.

[They advance with drawn swords to recognise

the person who has descended.

DEMON [aside].  Not alone Justina's fame

Do I by this act discredit,

But dissensions, perhaps murders,

Thus provoke.  Ope, earth's dark centre,

And receive me, leaving here

This confusion

[He disappears between FLORUS and LELIUS, who meet together.

SCENE XIII.

FLORUS and LELIUS.

LELIUS.      Sir, whoever

You may be, it doth import me

To know who you are directly;

So at every risk I come here,

On this resolute quest determined.

Say who are you.

FLORUS.      If the accident

Of my having been the observer

Of your secret love, compels you

To this valorous aggression,

More than it can you concern

Me to know, it doth concern me

To know you; for to be curious

Is far less than to be jealous.

Yes, by Heaven! for who is master

Of the house have I to learn here,

Who it is at such an hour,

By this balcony ascending,

Gaineth that which I lose weeping

At these gratings.

LELIUS.      This excelleth,

Good, in faith, is it thus to dim

The clear light of my resentment,

By attributing to me

That which solely your offence is!—

Who you are I have to know,

Death to give to him who has left me

Dead with jealousy here, by coming

From this balcony.

FLORUS.      How excessive

How superfluous is this caution,

Proving what it would dissemble!

LELIUS.  Vainly would the tongue untangle

That which the keen sword can better

Thus cut through.

FLORUS.      With it I answer.

[They fight.

LELIUS.  In this way I'll know for certain

Who is the admitted lover

Of Justina.

FLORUS.      My intention

Is the same.  I'll die or know you.

SCENE XIV.

Enter CYPRIAN, MOSCON, and CLARIN.

CYPRIAN.  Gentlemen, I pray you let me

Interpose in this your quarrel,

Since by accident I am present.

FLORUS.  You cannot oblige me more

Than by letting the fight be ended.

CYPRIAN.  Florus?

FLORUS.  Yes, for sword in hand,

I my name deny not ever

To who asks.

CYPRIAN.  I'm at your side,

Death to him who would offend you.

LELIUS.  You produce in me less fear,

Both of you thus joined together,

Than did he alone.

CYPRIAN.      What!  Lelius?

LELIUS.  Yes.

CYPRIAN.      I am prevented

[To Florus.

Now from standing at your side,

Since between you I present me.

How is this?  In one day twice

Have I your disputes to settle!—

LELIUS.  Then this time will be the last,

For we've settled them already;

Since in knowing who is he

Who Justina's heart possesses,

Now no more my hope remaineth,

Even the thought of it hath left me.

If you have not to Justina

Spoken yet, do not address her;

This I ask you in the name

Of my wrongs and my resentments,

Having seen her secret favours

Florus' happier fate deserveth.

From this balcony I saw him,

From my lost delight descending;

And my heart is not so base

As to meanly love, in presence

Of such jealousies so well proved,

Of disillusions, ah! so certain.

[Exit.

FLORUS.  Stay.

SCENE XV.

CYPRIAN.      You must not follow him,

[Aside.  (Oh, this news with death o'erwhelms me!)

Since if he who is the loser

Of what you have gained, expressly

Says he would forget it, you

Should not try his patient temper.

FLORUS.  Both by you and him at once

Has mine own been too well tested.

Speak not now unto Justina

About me; for though full vengeance

I propose to take for being

Thus supplanted and rejected,

Every hope of her being mine

Now has ceased, for shameful were it,

In the face of such proved facts,

To persist in my addresses.

[Exit.

SCENE XVI.

CYPRIAN, MOSCON, and CLARIN.

CYPRIAN [aside].  What is this, O heavens! I hear?

Can it be the two are jealous

Of each other at one time?

And I too of both together?—

Doubtless from some strange delusion

The two suffer, which I welcome

With a sort of satisfaction,

For to it I am indebted

For the fact of their desisting

From their suit and their pretension.—

Moscon, have for me by morning

A rich court-suit; sword and feathers,

Clarin, be thy care; for love

In a certain airy splendour

Takes delight; for now no longer

Books or studies give me pleasure;—

Love they say doth murder mind,

Learning dies when he is present.

[Exeunt.

ACT THE SECOND.

SCENE I.

THE STREET IN FRONT OF LYSANDER'S HOUSE.

Enter CYPRIAN, MOSCON, and CLARIN, in gala dresses.

CYPRIAN [aside].  Where, presumptuous thoughts, ah! where,

Would you lead me, whither go?

If for certain now you know

That the high attempts you dare

Are delusive dreams of bliss,

Since you strive to scale heaven's wall,

But from that proud height to fall

Headlong down a dark abyss?

I Justina saw..... So near

Would to God I had not seen her,

Nor in her divine demeanour

All the light of heaven's fourth sphere.

Lovers twain for her contend,

Both being jealous each should woo,

And I, jealous of the two,

Know not which doth most offend.

All I know is, that suspicion,

Her disdain, my own desires,

Fill my heart with furious fires—

Drive me, ah! to my perdition.

This I know, and know no more,

This I feel in all my strait;

Heavens!  Justina is my fate!

Heavens!  Justina I adore!—

Moscon.

MOSCON.      Sir.

CYPRIAN.            Inquire, I pray,

If Lysander's in.

MOSCON.      I fly.

CLARIN.  No, sir, no.  On me rely,—

Moscon can't go there to-day.

CYPRIAN.  Ever wrangling in this way,

How ye both my patience try!

Why can he not go?  Say why?

CLARIN.  Because to-day is not his day.

Mine it is, sir, to his sorrow.

So your message I will bear.

Moscon can't to-day go there;

He will have his turn to-morrow.

CYPRIAN.  What new madness can this be

Which your usual feud doth show?

But now neither of you go,

Since in all her brilliancy

Comes Justina.

CLARIN.      From the street

To her house she goes.

SCENE II.

Enter JUSTINA and LIVIA, veiled.—CYPRIAN, MOSCON, and CLARIN.

JUSTINA.      Ah, me!

Cyprian's here.  [Aside to her.]  See, Livia, see!

CYPRIAN [aside].  I must strive and be discreet,

Feigning with a ready wit,

Till my jealousy I can prove.

I will only speak of love,

If my jealousy will permit.

Not in vain, senora sweet,—

Have I changed my student's dress,

The livery of thy loveliness,

As a servant at thy feet,

Thus I wear.  If sighs could move thee

I would labour to deserve thee;

Give me leave at least to serve thee,

Since thou wilt not let me love thee.

JUSTINA.  Slight effect, sir, as I see,

Have my words produced on you,

Since they have not brought....

CYPRIAN.      Too true!

JUSTINA.  A forgetfulness of me.

In what way must I explain

Clearer than I have done before,

That persistence at my door

Is and ever must be vain?

If a day, a month, a year,

If for ages there you stay,

Naught but this that now I say

Ever can you hope to hear.

As it were my latest breath,

Let this sad assurance move thee,—

Fate forbids that I should love thee,

Cyprian, except in death.

[She moves towards the house.

CYPRIAN.  At these words my hopes revive:—

Sad! no, no, to joy they move me,

For if thou in death canst love me,

Soon for me will death arrive.

Be it so; and since so nigh

Comes the hour your words to prove—

Ah! even now begin to love,

Since I now begin to die.

[JUSTINA enters.

SCENE III.

CYPRIAN, MOSCON, CLARIN, and LIVIA.

CLARIN.  Livia, while my master yonder,

Like a living skeleton,

Life and motion being gone,

On his luckless love doth ponder,

Give me an embrace.

LIVIA.      Stay, stay.

Patience, man! until I see,

For I like my conscience free,

If to-day is your right day.—

Tuesday, yes, and Wednesday, no.

CLARIN.  What are you counting there?  Awake!

Moscon's mum.

LIVIA.      He might mistake,

And I wish not to act so.

For, desiring to pursue

A just course betwixt you both,

Turn about, I would be loth

Not to give you each his due.

But I see that you are right,

'Tis your day.

CLARIN.      Embrace me, then.

LIVIA.  Yes, again, and yet again.

MOSCON.  Hark to me, my lady bright,

May I from your ardour borrow

A good omen in my case;

And as Clarin you embrace,

Moscon you'll embrace to-morrow!

LIVIA.  Your suspicion is, in fact,

Quite absurd; on me rely.

Jupiter forbid that I

Should commit so bad an act

As to be cool in any way

To a friend.  I will to thee

Give an embrace in equity,

When it is your worship's day.

[Exit.

SCENE IV.

CYPRIAN, MOSCON, and CLARIN.

CLARIN.  Well, I'll not be by to see,

That's a comfort.

MOSCON.      How?  why so?

Need I be chagrined to know,

If the girl's not mine, that she

Thus to you her debt did pay.

CLARIN.  No.

MOSCON.      This makes my point more strong,

Since to me it were no wrong

If it chanced not on my day.

But our master yonder, see,

How absorbed he seems.

CLARIN.      More near,

If he speaks I'd like to hear.

MOSCON.  And I, too, would like.

CYPRIAN.      Ah me!

[As MOSCON and CLARIN approach CYPRIAN from opposite sides, he

gesticulates with his arms, and accidentally strikes both.

Love, how great thy agonies!—

CLARIN.  Ah! ah, me!

MOSCON.      Ah, me!  I bawl.

CLARIN.  Well, I think that we may call

This the land of the 'sigh-ah-mes'!

CYPRIAN.  What! and have you both been here?

CLARIN.  I, at least, was here, I'll swear.

MOSCON.  And I, also.

CYPRIAN.      O, despair

End at once my sad career!

Ah, what human heart to woe

Like to mine has given a home?

SCENE V.

THE COUNTRY.

CYPRIAN, CLARIN, and MOSCON.

CLARIN.  Whither Moscon, do we roam?

MOSCON.  When we've reached the end, we'll know.

Leagues behind us lies the town,

Still we go.

CLARIN.  A strange proceeding!—

Little time have we for reading,

Idly pacing up and down.

CYPRIAN.  Clarin, get thee home.

MOSCON.      And I?

CLARIN.  Sly-boots, would you rather stay?

CYPRIAN.  Go: here leave me both; away!

CLARIN.  Mind, he tells us both to fly.

[Exeunt CLARIN and MOSCON.

SCENE VI.

CYPRIAN.  Memory of a maddened brain,

Do not with such strong control

Make me think another soul

Is what in my heart doth reign.

Blind idolator I have been—

Lost in love's ambitious flight,

Since such beauty met my sight,

Since a goddess I have seen.

Yet in such a maze of woe

Rigorous fate doth make me move,

That I know but whom I love,

And of whom I am jealous—no.

Yet this passion is so strong—

Ah, so sweet this fascination,

Driving my imagination

With resistless force along—

That I would (I know too well

How this madness doth degrade me)

To some devilish power to aid me,

Were it even to rise from hell,

Where some mightier power hath kept it,—

Sharing all its pains in common,—

I would, to possess this woman,

Give my soul.

SCENE VII.

The Demon and CYPRIAN.

Demon [within].      And I accept it.

[A great tempest is heard, with thunder and lightning.

CYPRIAN.  What's this, ye heavens so pure?

Clear but a moment hence and now obscure,

Ye fright the gentle day!

The thunder-balls, the lightning's forked ray,

Leap from its riven breast—

Terrific shapes it cannot keep at rest;

All the whole heaven a crown of clouds doth wear,

And with the curling mist, like streaming hair,

This mountain's brow is bound.

Outspread below, the whole horizon round

Is one volcanic pyre.

The sun is dead, the air is smoke, heaven fire.

Philosophy, how far from thee I stray,

When I cannot explain the marvels of this day!

And now the sea, upborne on clouds the while,

Seems like some ruined pile,

That crumbling down the wind as 'twere a wall,

In dust not foam doth fall.

And struggling through the gloom,

Facing the storm, a mighty ship seeks room

On the open sea, whose rage it seems to court,

Flying the dangerous pity of the port.

The noise, the terror, and that fearful cry,

Give fatal augury

Of the impending stroke.  Death hesitates,

For each already dies who death awaits.

With portents the whole atmosphere is rife,

Nor is it all the effect of elemental strife.

The ship is rigged with tempest as it flies.*

It rushes on the lee,

The war is now no longer of the sea;

Upon a hidden rock

It strikes: it breaks as with a thunder shock.

Blood flakes the foam where helpless it is tost.

[footnote] *Hartzenbusch remarks that there is no corresponding rhyme

for this line in the original, and that both the sense and the

versification are defective.—'Comedias de Calderon', t. 2, p. 178.

[The sound of the tempest increases, and voices are heard within.

VOICES WITHIN.  We sink! we sink! we're lost!

DEMON [within]. For what I have in hand,

I'll trust this plank to bear me to the land.

CYPRIAN.  As scorning the wild wave

One man alone his life attempts to save.

While lurching over, mid the billows' swell,

The great ship sinks to where the Tritons dwell;

There, with its mighty ribs asunder rent,

It lies a corse of the sea, its grave and monument.

[Enter The Demon, dripping with wet, as if escaped from the sea.

DEMON [aside].  For the end I wish to gain

It was of necessity

That upon this sapphire sea

I this fearful storm should feign,

And in form unlike that one

Which in this wild wood I wore,

When I found my deepest lore

By his keener wit outdone,

Come again to assail him here,

Trusting better now to prove

Both his intellect and his love.—

[Aloud.

Earth, loved earth, O mother dear,

From this monster, this wild sea,

Give me shelter in thy arms.

CYPRIAN.  Lose, my friend, the dread alarms,

And the cruel memory

Of thy peril happily past;

Since we learn or late or soon,

That beneath the inconstant moon

Human bliss doth never last.

DEMON.  Who are thou, at whose kind feet

Has my fortune cast me here?

CYPRIAN.  One who with a pitying tear,

For a ruin so complete,

Would alleviate your woe.

DEMON.  Ah, impossible!—for me

Never, never, can there be

Any solace.

CYPRIAN.      How, why so?

DEMON.  All my priceless wealth I've lost...

But I'm wrong to thus complain,

I'll forget, nay, think it gain,

Since my life it hath not cost.

CYPRIAN.  Now that the wild whirl malign

Of this earthquake storm doth cease,

And the sky returns to peace,

Quiet, calm, and crystalline,

And the bright succeeds the dark

With such strange rapidity,

That the storm would seem to be

Only raised to sink thy bark,

Tell me who thou art, repay

Thus a sympathy so sincere.

DEMON.  It has cost me to come here

More than you have seen to-day,

More than I can well express;

Of the miseries I recall

This ship's loss is least of all.

Would you see that clearly?

CYPRIAN.      Yes.

DEMON.  I am since you wish to know it,

An epitome, a wonder*

Of all happiness and misfortune,

One I have lost, I weep the other.

By my gifts was I so glorious,

So conspicuous in my order,

Of a lineage so illustrious,

With a mind so well informed,

That my rare endowments feeling,

A great king (in truth the noblest

King of Kings, for all would tremble

If he looked in anger on them,)

In his palace roofed with diamonds

And with gems as bright as morning,

(If I called them stars, 'tis certain

The comparison were too modest,)

His especial favourite called me.

Which high epithet of honour

So enflamed my pride, as rival

For his royal seat I plotted,

Hoping soon my victor footsteps

Would his golden thrones have trodden.

It was an unheard-of daring,

THAT, chastized I must acknowledge,

I was mad; but then repentance

Were a still insaner folly.

Obstinate in my resistance,

With my spirit yet unconquered,

I preferred to fall with courage

Than surrender with dishonour.

If the attempt was rash, the rashness

Was not solely my misfortune,

For among his numerous vassals

Not a few my standard followed.

From his court, in fine, thus vanquished,

Though part victor in the contest,

I went forth, my eyes outflashing

Flames of anger and abhorrence,

And my lips proclaiming vengeance

For the public insult offered

To my pride, among his people

Scattering murder, rapine, horror.

Then a bloody pirate, I

The wide plains of the sea ran over,

Argus of its dangerous shallows,

Lynx-eyed where the reefs lay covered;

In that vessel which the wind

Bit by bit so soon demolished,

In that vessel which the sea

As a dustless ruin swallowed,

I to-day these fields of crystal

Eagerly ran o'er, my object

Being stone by stone to examine,

Tree by tree to search this forest:—

For a man in it is living,

Whom it is of great importance

I should see, this day expecting

The fulfilment of a promise

Which he gave and I accepted.

This infuriate tempest stopped me.

And although my powerful genius

Could chain up east, south, and north wind,

I cared not, as if despairing

Of success, with other objects,

Other aims in view, to turn them

To the west wind's summer softness.—

[Aside.

(I have said I could, but did not,

For I note the dangerous workings

Of his mind, and thus to magic

Bind him by these hints the stronger.)

Let not my wild fury fright thee,

Nor be at my power astonished,

For I could my own death give me,

If I were by rage so prompted,

And so great that power, the sunlight,

By my science could be blotted.

I, in magic am so mighty,

That I can describe the orbits

Of the stars, for I have travelled

Through the farthest and beyond them.

And in order that this boasting

May not seem to you mere bombast,

Look, if at this very instant

You desire it, this untrodden

Nimrod of rude rocks more savage

Than of Babylon is recorded,

Shall without a leaf being shaken,

Show the most horrific portents.

I am, then, the orphan guest here

Of these ash-trees, of these poplars,

And though what I am, assistance

At thy feet here I ask from thee:

And I wish the good I purchase

To repay thee with the product

Of unnumbered years of study,

Though it now slight effort costs me,

Giving to your wildest wishes

[Aside.

(Here I touch his love,) the fondest

Longings of your heart, whatever

Passion can desire or covet.

If through courtesy or caution

You should not accept my offer,

Let my good intentions pay you,

If from greater acts you stop me.

For the pity that you show me,

Which I thankfully acknowledge,

I will be a friend so faithful,

That henceforth the changeful monster

Of events and acts, called Fortune,

Which 'twixt flattering words and scornful,

Generous now, and now a miser,

Shows a friendly face or hostile,

Neither it nor that laborious

Ever flying, running worker,

Time, the loadstone of the ages,

Nor even heaven itself, heaven proper,

To whose stars the dark world oweth

All its most divine adornment,

Will have power to separate me

From your side a single moment,

Since you here have given me welcome.

And even this is almost nothing

When compared with what my wishes

Hope hereafter to accomplish.

[footnote] *Asonante in 1-3, to the end of the speech.

CYPRIAN.  Well to the sea, my thanks are due, that bore

You struggling to the shore,

And led you to this grove,

Where you will quickly prove

The friendly feelings that inflame my breast,

If happily I merit such a guest.

Then let us homeward wend,

For I esteem you now as an old friend.

My guest you are, and so you must not leave me

While my house suits you.

DEMON.      Do you then receive me

Wholly as yours?

CYPRIAN [embracing him].  This act doth prove it true,

That seals an eternal bond betwixt us two.—

[Aside.

Oh! if I could win o'er

This man to instruct me in his magic lore!

Since by that art my love might gain

Some solace for its pain;

Or yielding to its mighty laws

My love at length might win my love's sweet cause—

The cause of all my torment, madness, rage.

DEMON [aside].  The working of his mind and love I gauge.

SCENE VIII.

CLARIN and MOSCON enter running from opposite sides.

CYPRIAN and The Demon.

CLARIN.  Oh! are you sir, alive?

MOSCON.      My friend, do you

Speak civilly for once as something new?

That he's alive requires no demonstration.

CLARIN.  I struck this lofty note of admiration,

Thou noble lackey, to express my wonder,

How from this storm of lightning, rain, and thunder,

Without a miracle he could survive.

MOSCON.  Will you stop wondering, now you see him alive?

CYPRIAN.  These are my servants, sir.—

What brings you here?

MOSCON.      Your spleen once more to stir.

DEMON.  They have a pleasant humour.

CYPRIAN.      Foolish pair,

Their weary wit is oft too hard to bear.

MOSCON.  This man, sir, waiting here,

Who is he?

CYPRIAN.  He's my guest, so do not fear.

CLARIN.  Wherefore have guests at such a time as this?

CYPRIAN [to The Demon].  Your worth is lost on ignorance such as his.

MOSCON.  My master's right.  Are you, forsooth, his heir?

CLARIN.  No; but our new friend there,

Looks like a guest, unless I deceive me, who

Will honour our poor house a year or two.

MOSCON.  Why?

CLARIN.      When a guest soon means to go away,

Well, he'll not make much smoke in the house, we say.

But this....

MOSCON.      Speak out.

CLARIN.            Will make, I do not joke..

MOSCON.  What?

CLARIN.      In the house a deuced deal of smoke.

CYPRIAN.  In order to repair

The danger done by the rude sea and air,

Come thou with me.

DEMON.       [Aside.]  I'm thine, while thou hast breath.

CYPRIAN.  I go to prepare thy rest.

DEMON [aside].      And I thy death:—

An entrance having gained

Within his breast, and thus my end obtained;

My rage insatiate now without control

Seeks by another way to win Justina's soul.

[Exit.

CLARIN.  Guess, if you can, what I am thinking about.

MOSCON.  What is it?

CLARIN.      That a new volcano has burst out

In the late storm, there's such a sulphur smell.

MOSCON.  It came from the guest, as my good nose could tell.

CLARIN.  He uses bad pastilles, then; but I can

Infer the cause.

MOSCON.      What is it?

CLARIN.            The poor gentleman

Has a slight rash on his skin, a ticklish glow,

And uses sulphur ointment.

MOSCON.  Gad! 'tis so.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IX.

THE STREET.

LELIUS and FABIUS.

FABIUS.  You return, then, to this street.

LELIUS.  Yes; the life that I deplore

I return to seek once more

Where 'twas lost.  Ah! guide my feet,

Love, to find it!—

FABIUS.      That house there

Is Justina's; come away.

LELIUS.  Wherefore, when I will to-day

Once again my love declare.

And as she, I saw it plain,

Trusted some one else at night,

'Tis not strange, in open light,

That I try to soothe my pain.

Leave me, go; for it is best

That I enter here alone.

My rank in Antioch is known,

My father Governor; thus drest

In his robe as 'twere, my strong

Passion listening to no mentor,

I Justina's house will enter

To protest against my wrong.

[Exeunt.

SCENE X.

A HALL IN THE HOUSE OF LYSANDER.

JUSTINA, and afterwards LELIUS.

JUSTINA.  Livia.... But a step! who's there?

[LELIUS enters

LELIUS.  It is I.

JUSTINA.      What novelty,

What extreme temerity,

Thus, my lord, compels you?...

LELIUS.      Spare

Your reproaches.  Jealous-grown,

I can bear that you reprove.

Pardon me, for with my love

My respect has also flown.

JUSTINA.  Why, at such a perilous cost

Have you dared...

LELIUS.      Because I'm mad.

JUSTINA.  To intrude....

LELIUS.      Heart-broken, sad.

JUSTINA.  Here....

LELIUS.      Because, in truth, I'm lost.

JUSTINA.  Nor perceive how scandal views

Such an act as now you do

'Gainst....

LELIUS.      Be not so moved, for you

Little honour now can lose.

JUSTINA.  Lelius, spare at least my fame.

LELIUS.  Ah, Justina, it were best

That this language you addressed

Unto him who nightly came

Down here from this balcony;—

'Tis enough for me to show

All your lightness that I know,

That less coy and cold to me

Your pretended honour prove.

If I am disdained, displaced,

'Tis another suits your taste,

Not that you your honour love.

JUSTINA.  Silence, cease, your words withhold.

Who with insult e'er before

Dared to pass my threshold's door?

Are you then so blind and bold,

So audacious, so insane,

As my pure light to eclipse,

Through the libel of your lips,

By chimeras false and vain?—

In my house a man?

LELIUS.      'Tis so.

JUSTINA.  From my balcony?

LELIUS.      With shame

I repeat it.

JUSTINA.      O, my fame,

O'er us twain your Aegis throw.

SCENE XI.

THE SAME.

The Demon appears at the door which is behind JUSTINA.

DEMON [aside].  For the deep design I handle,

For my double plot I come

Raging to this simple home,

Now to work the greatest scandal

Ever seen.  Here, brooding o'er him,

This wild lover mad with ire,

I will fan his jealous fire,

I will place myself before him,

Catch his eye, and then as fleeing,

In invisible gloom array me.

[He affects to come in, and being seen by LELIUS muffles himself in

his cloak, and re-enters the inner apartment.

JUSTINA.  Man, do you come here to slay me?

LELIUS.  No, to die.

JUSTINA.      What object seeing

Paralyses thus your senses?

LELIUS.  What I see is your untruth.

Tell me now, the wish, forsooth,

Has invented my offences.

From that very chamber there

Came a man, I turned my head,

When he saw my face he fled

Back into the room.

JUSTINA.      The air

Must this phantasy display—

This illusion.

LELIUS.      Oh, that sight!

JUSTINA.  Is it not enough by night,

Lelius, but in open day

Thus fictitious forms to see?

LELIUS.  Phantom shape or real lover,

Now the truth I will discover.

[He goes into the room where The Demon had disappeared.

JUSTINA.  I no hindrance offer thee,

For my innocence, a way,

At the cost of this permission,

Thus finds out the night's submission

To correct by the light of day.

SCENE XII.

LYSANDER and JUSTINA; LELIUS, within.

LYSANDER.  My Justina.

JUSTINA [aside].      Woe is me!

Ah, if here before Lysander*

Lelius from that room comes forth!

[footnote] *Asonante in a-i to the end of Scene XVII.

LYSANDER.  My misfortunes, my disasters

Fly to be consoled by thee.

JUSTINA.  What can be the grief, the sadness,

That your face betrays so plainly?

LYSANDER.  And no wonder, when the pallor

Springs even from the heart.  This sobbing

Stops my weak words in their passage.

[LELIUS appears at the door of the apartment.

LELIUS [aside].  I begin now to believe,

Since he is not in this chamber,

Jealousy can cause these spectres.

He, the man I saw, has vanished,

How I know not.

JUSTINA [aside to Lelius].  Come not forth,

Lelius, here before my father.

LELIUS.  Convalescent in my sickness

I will wait till he is absent.

[Retires.

JUSTINA.  Why this weeping? why this sighing?

What, sir, moves thee, what unmans thee?

LYSANDER.  I am moved by a misfortune,

I'm unmanned by a disaster,

Greater far than tender pity

Ever wept,—the dread example

Cruelty has sworn to make

In the innocent blood of martyrs.

To the Governor of this city

Decius Caesar a strict mandate

Has despatched... I can speak no more.

JUSTINA [aside].  What position e'er was harder?

Moved with pity for the Christians

Hither comes to me Lysander

The sad news to tell, not knowing

Lelius to his words may hearken,—

Lelius, the Governor's son.

LYSANDER.  So Justina...

JUSTINA.      Sir, no farther,

Since you feel it so acutely,

Speak upon this painful matter.

LYSANDER.  Let me, for I'll feel some solace

When to thee it is imparted.

In it he commands...

JUSTINA.      Proceed not

Further  now, when you should rather

Cheat your years with more repose.

LYSANDER.  How? when I, to make you partner

In those lively fears whose bodings

Are sufficient to despatch me,

Would inform you of the edict,

The most cruel that the margin

Of the Tiber ever saw

Writ in blood to stain its waters,

Do you stop me?  Ah, Justina,

You were wont in another manner

Once to listen to me.

JUSTINA.      Sir,

Different were the circumstances.

LELIUS [at the door, aside].  I can hear but indistinctly

Half-formed words and broken accents.

SCENE XIII.

FLORUS enters.—JUSTINA and LYSANDER; LELIUS, peeping at the door

of the inner room.

FLORUS [aside].  Licence has a jealous lover,

Who but enters to unmask here

A pretended purity,

To forego politer manners.

I come here with that intention...

But as she is with her father

I will wait a new occasion.

LYSANDER.  Who is there?  Some footstep passes.

FLORUS [aside].  Ah! 'tis now impossible

Without speaking to get back here.

Some excuse I'll try to offer:—

I am...

LYSANDER.      You here, sir?

FLORUS.            Your pardon.

I ask leave, sir, to speak with you

On a most important matter.

JUSTINA [aside].  Oh! take pity on me, fortune,

For these trials are too many.

LYSANDER.  Well, sir, speak.

FLORUS [aside, at the door].  Florus in Justina's house

Leaves and enters like a master!—

These are not unfounded jealousies,

These are real and substantial.

LYSANDER.  You grow pale, you change your colour.

FLORUS.  Do not wonder, be not startled,

For I came to give a warning,

To your life of utmost value,

Of an enemy that you have,

Who your swift destruction planneth.

What I've said is quite sufficient.

LYSANDER [aside].  Florus, doubtless, must have gathered

Somehow that I am a Christian,

And thus comes in kindliest manner

Of my danger to apprise me.—

[Aloud.

Speak, hide nothing in this matter.

SCENE XIV.

LIVIA enters.—

JUSTINA, LYSANDER, and FLORUS; LELIUS at the door of the room.

LIVIA.  Sir, the Governor, who is waiting

At the door of the house, commanded

Me to call you to his presence.

FLORUS.  Best I wait for his departure:—

[Aside.

(Meantime my excuse I'll think of.)

So 'tis well that you despatch him.

LYSANDER.  I appreciate your politeness.

Here I will return instanter.

[Exeunt LYSANDER and LIVIA.

SCENE XV.

JUSTINA and FLORUS; LELIUS at the door.

FLORUS.  Are you then that virtuous maiden,

Who, the very breeze that flatters

With its soft and sweet caresses,

You would call rude, bold, unmannered?

How then is it you surrendered

Even the very keys of the casket

Of your honour?

JUSTINA.      Hold, hold, Florus,

Do not dare to throw a shadow

On that honour which the sun

After the most strict examen

Has proved bright and pure.

FLORUS.      Too late

Comes this idle boast.  It happens

That I know to whom you have given

Free access...

JUSTINA.      You dare this scandal?—

FLORUS.  By a balcony...

JUSTINA.      Do not say it.

FLORUS.  To your honour.

JUSTINA.      Thus will you blast me?

FLORUS.  Yes, for hypocritical virtue

Merits something even harsher.

LELIUS [at the door, aside].  Florus was not then the hero

Of the balcony; some more happy

Lover than us twain she welcomes.

JUSTINA.  Oh! defame not noble damsels,

Since you noble blood inherit.

FLORUS.  Noble damsel, dar'st thou call thee,

When thy very arms received him,

And from thy balcony he departed?

Power subdued thee; from the fact

That the Governor is his father,

Vanity led thee on to show

That in Antioch he commanded...

LELIUS [aside].  Here he speaks of me.

FLORUS.      Not seeing

Any graver defect of manner,

Than what in his birth and breeding

Rank may cover with its mantle,

But not so....

[LELIUS enters.

LELIUS.      Be silent, Florus,

Nor attack me in my absence;

For of a rival to speak ill,

Is the act but of a dastard.

'Tis to stop this I come forward,

Angry after so many passes

Which my sword has had with thine,

That I have not yet dispatched thee.

JUSTINA.  Who, not guilty, ever saw her

In such dangerous straits entangled?

FLORUS.  What behind your back was spoken,

I before you will establish,

Truth is truth where'er 'tis uttered.

[They grasp their swords.

JUSTINA.  Florus!  Lelius! what would you have then.

LELIUS.  I would have full satisfaction

Where I heard th'insulting language.

FLORUS.  I'll maintain what I have said

Where I said it.

JUSTINA.      From so many

Strokes of fortune, free me, Heaven!—

FLORUS.  And I'll learn to chastise your rashness.

SCENE XVI.

The Governor enters with LYSANDER and attendants.—JUSTINA, LELIUS,

and FLORUS.

[All who enter].  Hold! stand back!

JUSTINA.      Unhappy me!

GOVERNOR.  What is this?  But empty scabbards,

Naked swords, are quite sufficient

To inform me what has happened.

JUSTINA.  What misfortune!

LYSANDER.      What affliction!—

LELIUS.  Ah, my lord...

GOVERNOR.      Enough, no farther.

Lelius, thou a son of mine,

A disturber?  Thou a scandal

To all Antioch through my favour?

LELIUS.  Think, my lord...

GOVERNOR.      Arrest, disarm them,

Take them hence.  Make no distinction

On account of blood or rank here.

Let them suffer both alike,

Since in guilt alike they acted.

LELIUS [aside].  I came jealous, and go outraged.

FLORUS [aside].  To my pains new pains are added.

GOVERNOR.  In distinct and separate prisons,

And with watchful eyes to guard them,

Place the two.—And you, Lysander,

Is it possible you have tarnished

Such a noble reputation,

Suffering....

LYSANDER.      No; let not these dazzling

False appearances mislead you,

For Justina in what happened

Was quite blameless.

GOVERNOR.      In her house here,

Would you have her live regardless

Of the fact that they were young,

And that she was fair;  My anger

I restrain, lest people say,

I, an interested party,

Sentence passed as partial judge.—

But of you who caused this quarrel,

Now that maiden shame has left you,

Well I know that you will glad me

With the occasion I desire,

Of exposing, of unmasking,

In the light of actual vices,

The false virtuous part you've acted.

[Exeunt The Governor and his attendants;

LELIUS and FLORUS follow as prisoners.

SCENE XVII.

JUSTINA and LYSANDER.

JUSTINA.  I reply but with my tears.

LYSANDER.  Tears as vain as they are tardy.

What an act was mine, Justina,

When to thee my lips imparted

Who thou art!  Oh, would I never

Told thee, that upon the margin

Of a rivulet in this forest,

A dead mother's womb here cast thee!

JUSTINA.  I....

LYSANDER.      Do not attempt excuses.

JUSTINA.  Heaven will make them, then, hereafter

LYSANDER.  When too late, perhaps.

JUSTINA.      No limit

Can be late here while life lasteth.

LYSANDER.  For the punishment of crimes.

JUSTINA.  Injured truth to re-establish.

LYSANDER.  I, from what I have seen, condemn thee.

JUSTINA.  I thee, from what thou knowest not, rather.

LYSANDER.  Leave me; I go forth to die

Where my grief will soon dispatch me.

JUSTINA.  At thy feet I would lose my life;

But do not reject me, father.

[Exeunt.

SCENE XVIII.

A HALL IN CYPRIAN'S HOUSE.

At the end is an open gallery, through which is seen the country.

CYPRIAN, the Demon, MOSCON, and CLARIN.

DEMON.  Since the hour that I have been

In your house a guest, you ne'er

Show a gay and cheerful air.

Sadness in your face is seen.

It is wrong your cure to shun,

Seeking to mislead mine eyes,

Since I would unsphere the skies,

Shake the stars, and shroud the sun,

For the least desire you feel

That more pleasantly you might live.

CYPRIAN.  Magic has no power to give

The impossible I conceal,

Though the misery I betray.

DEMON.  Come, confess the longed-for bliss.

CYPRIAN.  I love a woman.

DEMON.      And is this

The impossible that you say?

CYPRIAN.  If you knew her, you'd agree.

DEMON.  Well, describe her, I'm resigned;

Though I can't but smile to find

What a coward you must be.

CYPRIAN.  The fair cradle of the skies,

Where the infant sun reposes,

Ere he rises, decked with roses,

Robed in snow, to dry heaven's eyes.

The green prison-bud that tries

To restrain the conscious rose,

When the crimson captive knows

April treads its gardens near,

Turning dawn's half frozen tear

To a smile where sunshine glows.

The sweet streamlet gliding by,

Though it scarcely dares to breathe

Softest murmurs through its teeth,

From the frosts that on it lie.

The bright pink, in its small sky

Shining like a coral star.

The blithe bird that flies afar,

Drest in shifting shades and blooms—

Soaring cithern of plumes

Harping high o'er heaven's blue bar.

The white rock that cheats the sun

When it tries to melt it down,

What it melts is but the crown

Which from winter's snow it won.

The green bay that will not shun,

Though the heavens are all aglow,

For its feet a bath of snow,—

Green Narcissus of the brook,

Fearless leaning o'er to look,

Though the stream runs chill below

In a word, the crimson dawn,

Sun, mead, streamlet, rosebud, May

Bird that sings his amorous lay,

April's laugh that gems the lawn,

Pink that sips the dews up-drawn,

Rock that stands in storm and shine,

Bay-tree that delights to twine

Round its fadeless leaves the sun,

All are parts which met in one

Form this woman most divine.

For myself, in blind unrest,

(Guess my madness if you can)

I, to seem another man,

In these courtly robes am drest,

Studious calm I now detest,

Fame no longer fires my mind,

Passion reigns where thought refined,

I my firmness fling to tears,

Courage I resign to fears,

And my hopes I give the wind.

I have said, and so will do,

That to some infernal sprite

I would offer with delight

(And the pledge I now renew)

Even my soul for her I woo.

But my offer is in vain,

Hell rejects it with disdain,

For my soul, it may allege,

Is a disproportionate pledge

For the interest I would gain.

DEMON.  Is this, then your boasted courage,

In the footsteps of dejected*

Swains to follow, who grow timid

When their first assault's rejected?

Are examples then so distant

Of fair ladies who surrender

All their vanities to entreaties,

All their pride to fond addresses?

Would you make your breast the prison

Of your love, your arms her fetters?

[footnote] *Asonante in e-e to the end of the Act.

CYPRIAN.  Can you doubt it?

DEMON.      Then command them

To retire, those two, your servants,

So that we remain here only.

CYPRIAN.  Go: both leave me for the present.

MOSCON.  I obey.

[Exit.

CLARIN.      And I as well.—

[Aside, concealing himself.

Such a guest must be the devil.

CYPRIAN.  They are gone.

DEMON [aside].      That Clarin's hiding,

Is to me of small concernment.

CYPRIAN.  What more wish you now?

DEMON.      First fasten

Well this door.

CYPRIAN.      Yes; none can enter.

DEMON.  For the possession of this woman,

With your lips you have asserted

You would give your soul.

CYPRIAN.      'Tis so.

DEMON.  Then the contract is accepted.

CYPRIAN.  What do you say?

DEMON.      That I accept it.

CYPRIAN.  How?

DEMON.      So much have I effected

By my science, that I will teach you

How by it to get possession

Of the woman that you worship;

For I (though so wise and learned)

Have no other means to win her.

Let us now in writing settle

What we have resolved between us.

CYPRIAN.  Do you wish by new pretences

To prolong the pains I suffer?

In my hand is what I tender,

But in yours is not the offer

That you make me; no, for never

Conjurations or enchantments

Can free will control or fetter.

DEMON.  Give me, on the terms you spoke of,

Your signed bond.

CLARIN.  [peeping].  The deuce!  This fellow

Is no fool, I see.  No greenhorn

In his business is this devil.

I give him my bond!  No, truly,

Though my lodgings wanted a tenant

For the space of twenty ages,

I wouldn't do it.

CYPRIAN.      Sir, much jesting

May with merry friends be pastime,

Not with those who are dejected.

DEMON.  I, in proof of what I am able

To effect, will now present you

With an example, though it faintly

Shows the power my art possesses.

From this gallery what is seen?

CYPRIAN.  Much of sky, and much of meadow,

Wood, a rivulet, and a mountain.

DEMON.  Which to you doth seem most pleasant?

CYPRIAN.  The proud mountain, for in it

Is my adored one represented.

DEMON.  Proud competitor of time,

Rival of the years for ever,

Who as king of fields and plains

Crown'st thee with the cloud and tempest,

Move thyself, change earth and air;

Look, see who I am that tell thee.—

And, look thou, too, since a mountain

I can move, thou mayest a maiden.

[The mountain moves from one side to the other in the perspective of

the theatre.

CYPRIAN.  Never saw I such a wonder!

Ne'er a sight of so much terror!

CLARIN [peeping].  With the fright and with the fear,

I enjoy a twofold tremble.

CYPRIAN.  Mighty mountain bird that fliest,

Trees for wings replacing feathers,

Boat, whose rocks supply the tackle,

As thou furrowest through the zephyr,

To thy centre back return thee,

And so end this fear, this terror.

[The mountain returns to its original position.

DEMON.  If one proof is not sufficient,

I will give you then a second.

Do you wish to see the woman

You adore?

CYPRIAN.      Yes.

DEMON.            Then, thy entrails

Ope, thou monster, to whose being

The four elements are servants.

Show to us the perfect beauty

That thou hidest in thy centre.

[A rock opens and JUSTINA is seen sleeping.

Is this she whom you adore?

CYPRIAN.  Whom I idolize beyond measure.

DEMON.  But since I have power to give her,

I can take her too, remember.

CYPRIAN.  Now impossible dream of mine,

Now thy arms will be the centre

Of my love, thy lips the sun,

Burning, brimming as with nectar.

DEMON.  Stay; for till the word you gave me

Is affirmed, and well attested,

You can touch her not.

[CYPRIAN rushes towards the rock, which closes.

CYPRIAN.      Oh, stay

Cloud that hides the most resplendent

Sun, that on my bliss e'er dawned!—

But 'tis air my void arm presses.—

I believe your art, acknowledge

Now I am your slave for ever.

What do you wish I do for thee?

What do you ask?

DEMON.      To be protected

By your signature here written

In your blood, at the foot of a letter.

CLARIN [peeping].  Oh!  I'd give my soul that I

To stay here had not been tempted.

CYPRIAN.  For my pen I use this dagger,

Paper let this white cloth serve for,

And the ink wherewith I write it,

Be the blood my arm presents me.

[He writes with the point of a dagger upon a piece of linen, having

drawn blood from one of his arms.

CYPRIAN [Aside].  Oh! I freeze with fear, with horror!

I, great Cyprian, say expressly

I will give my immortal soul,

(Oh! what lethargy, what frenzy!)

Unto him whose art will teach me

(What confusion! what strange terror!)

How I may of fair Justina,

Haughty mistress mine, possess me.

I have signed it with my name.

DEMON [aside].  Now to my deceits is rendered

Valid homage, when such reason,

When discourse like his must tremble

Even when my help is sought for.—

Have you written?

CYPRIAN.      And signed the letter.

DEMON.  Then the sun you adore is thine.

CYPRIAN.  Thine too, for the years eternal,

Is the soul I offer thee.

DEMON.  Soul for soul I pay my debtors,

Then for thine I give to thee

Thy Justina's

CYPRIAN.      In what term then,

Think you you can teach to me

All your magic art?

DEMON.      A twelvemonth;

But on this condition....

CYPRIAN.      Speak.

DEMON.  That within a cavern buried,

Without any other study,

We may live there both together,

In our service having no one

For us two but this attendant,

[Drags out CLARIN.

Who being curious hid him here;—

By securing thus his person

That our secret is well kept,

We, I think, may be quite certain.

CLARIN [aside].  Oh, that I had never waited!

How does it happen though, so many

Neighbours prone to pry, as I am,

Are not caught thus by the devil?

CYPRIAN.  So far well.  My love, my genius

Have this happy end effected:

First Justina will be mine,

Then by my new lights, new learning,

I will wake the world's surprise.

DEMON.  I have gained what I intended.

CLARIN.  I not so.

DEMON.      You come with us.—

[Aside.

O'er my great foe I've got the better.

CYPRIAN.  Ah, how happy my desires,

If I reach to such possession!—

DEMON [aside].  Never will my envy rest

Till I gain both souls to serve me.—

Let us go, and in the deepest

Cavern this wild world presenteth

You to-day will learn in magic

Your first lesson.

CYPRIAN.      Let us enter,

For my mind with such a master,

For my love with such incentive,

Will the sorcerer Cyprian's name

Live before the world for ever.

ACT THE THIRD.

SCENE I.

A WOOD; AT THE EXTREMITY A GROTTO.

CYPRIAN.

CYPRIAN.  Ungrateful beauty mine,

At length the day, the happy day doth shine—

My hope's remotest range,

The limits of my love and of thy change,

Since I to-day will gain

At last my triumph over thy disdain.

This lofty mountain nigh,

Raised to the star-lit palace of the sky,

And this dark cavern's gloom,

Of two that live, so long the dismal tomb,

Are the rough school wherein

From magic art its mystic lore I win,

And such perfection reach

That I can now my mighty master teach.

Seeing, that on this day, since I came here

The sun completes its course from sphere to sphere,

I from my prison cell come forth to view

What in the light I now have power to do.

Ye skies of cloudless day

List to my magic spell-words and obey;

Swift zephyrs that rejoice

In heaven's warm light, stand still and hear my voice;

Stupendous mountain rock

Shake at my words as at an earthquake shock;

Ye trees in rough bark drest

Be frightened at the groanings of my breast;

Ye flowers so fair and frail

Faint at the echoing terror of my wail;

Ye sweet melodious birds

Hush all your songs before my awful words;

Ye cruel beasts of prey

See the first fruits of my long toil to-day;

For blinded, dazzled, dazed,

Confused, disturbed, astonished and amazed,

Ye skies and zephyrs, rocks, and trees, and flowers,

And birds, and beasts, behold my magic powers,

And thus to all make plain

Cyprian's infernal study is not vain.

SCENE II.

The Demon and CYPRIAN.

DEMON.  Cyprian!

CYPRIAN.      Wise friend and master still!

DEMON.  Why, how is this, that using your free-will

More than my precept meant,

Say for what end, what object, what intent,

Through ignorance or boldness can it be,

You thus come forth the sun's bright face to see?

CYPRIAN.  Seeing that now my spell

Can fill with fear, with horror even hell,

Since I, with so much care

Have studied magic and its depths laid bare,

So that yourself can scarcely tell

Whether 'tis I or you that most excel,

Seeing that now there is no place or part

That I with study, diligence and art,

have not attained,

Since necromancy's secret I have gained,

That art whose lines of gloom

Can ope to me the dark funereal tomb,

And bring before mine eyes

Each corpse that in it lies,

Regaining them, as 'twere by a new birth

From the hard avarice of the grasping earth.

The pale ghosts, one and all,

Rise and respond my call;—

And seeing that at length the sun

My goal of life had won,

Since from its innate force

Swift-speeding on its course,

Climbing the heavens each day,

It turns as 'twere reluctantly away,

And with a natural fear

Completes to-day the lifetime of a year,

I wish to attain the scope

To last of all my dreams, of all my hope.

To-day the rare, the beautiful, the divine

Justina will be mine,

Here summoned by my charms,

Here lured by love she'll come unto my arms,

For you from me no longer can require

Postponement of my hope's, my heart's desire.

DEMON.  Nor do I wish to do it, no,

Since thus so earnestly you wish it so.

Now trace upon the ground

Mute mystic symbols, and the deep profound

Of air, with powerful incantations move

Obedient to your hope and to your love.

CYPRIAN.  For that I will retire;

You soon shall see the heaven and earth admire.

[Exit.

DEMON.  I give you leave to go,

Because our science being the same, I know

That the abyss of hell

Obedient to your spell

Will yield through me, this way,

The fair Justina to your arms to-day:

For, though my mighty power

Cannot enslave free-will even for an hour,

It may present

The outward show of rapture and content,

Suggesting thoughts impure:—

If force I cannot use, at least I lure.

SCENE III.

CLARIN and The Demon.

CLARIN.  Ungrateful fair, who still my heart doth hold,

Not burning Libya sure, but Livia cold,

The time is come to show

Whether in love you have been true or no,

Whether, since I within this cave was placed,

Not chased by me you have yourself been chaste;

For I have studied here

At second hand some magic for a year,

Just to find out (alack! I can't but wince)

Whether with Moscon you have wronged me since:—

Ye watery skies (some people call them pure)

List to my conjurations I conjure,

Mountains....

DEMON.      How, Clarin?

CLARIN.            Oh! my master wise!

By the concomitance of my hands and eyes,

I've learned some magic, and would know by it

If Livia, that ungrateful little chit,

Has played me false since I have been away,

Embracing that rogue Moscon on my day.

DEMON.  Have done with these buffooneries: leave me, go.

And 'mid these intricate rocks whose paths you know,

Assist your master, who will let you see

(If you would witness such a prodigy)

The end of all his woe.

I wish to be alone.

CLARIN.      And I not so.

I now perceive

Why to use magic I have not your leave,

The fault was mine, neglecting to attest

My bond, and sign it with the blood of my breast.—

[He takes out a soiled pocket-handkerchief.

Upon this linen handkerchief

(None cleaner he can have who cries for grief)

I'll sign it now, the method I propose

Is but to give myself a box on the nose,

For there is little harm

Whether the blood is drawn from nose or arm.

[He writes with his finger on the handkerchief,

after having drawn some blood.

I, the great Clarin, say, if I can level

Pert Livia's cruel pride, whom I give to the devil....

DEMON.  Leave me, I say again,

Go seek your master and with him remain.

CLARIN.  Yes, I will do so, don't get angry though.

The reason you reject my bond I know:

'Tis this, because you see,

Do what I will that you are sure of me.

SCENE IV.

The Demon.

DEMON.  Abyss of hell prepare!

Thyself the region of thine own despair.—

From out each dungeon's dark recess

Let loose the spirits of voluptuousness,

To rain and o'erthrow

Justina's virgin fabric pure as snow.

A thousand filthy phantoms with thee brought

So people her chaste thought

That all her maiden fancies may be filled

With their deceits; let sweetest notes be trilled

From every tuneful grove,

And all, birds, plants, and flowers, provoke to love.

Let nothing meet her eyes

But spoils of love's delicious victories,

Let nothing meet her ears

But languid sighs that listening passion hears:

That thus unguarded by the faith, and weak,

She here may Cyprian seek

Invoked by his strong spell,

And by my blinding spirit lured as well.

Begin, in silence I will here remain

Unseen, that you may now begin the strain.

[Exit.

SCENE V.

JUSTINA; music within.  [They sing within.]

A VOICE.  What is the glory far above,

All else that life can give?

CHORUS OF VARIOUS VOICES.  Love love.

A VOICE.  No creature lives on which love's flame

Has not impressed its burning seal,

The man feels more who love doth feel

Than when Life's breath first warmed his frame.

Love owns one universal claim,—

To Love, it only needs To Be,—

Whether a bird, a flower, a tree:

Then the chief glory, far above

All else in life must be....

CHORUS [within].      Love, love.

JUSTINA [alarmed and restless].  Fancy, flatter that thou art,

Though thou should'st be sad to-day,

When did I to thee impart,

In this strange and sudden way,

Licence to afflict my heart?

What thus makes my pulses move?

What strange fire is this I prove

Which each moment doth increase?

Ah! this pain that ends my peace,

This sweet unrest, ah, what?

CHORUS.      Love, love.

JUSTINA [more composed].  'Tis that enamoured nightingale

Who thus gives me the reply:—

To his partner in the vale

Listening on a bough hard by

Warbling thus his tuneful wail.

Cease, sweet nightingale, nor show

By thy softly witching strain

Trilling forth thy bliss and woe,

How a man might feel love's pain,

When a bird can feel his so.

No: it was that wanton vine

That in fond pursuit has sought

The tall tree it doth entwine,

Till the green weight it hath brought

Makes the noble trunk decline.

Green entwining boughs that hold

What you love in your embrace,

Make my fancy not too bold:—

Ah, if boughs thus interlace,

How would clasping arms infold!—

And if not the vine, 'twill be

That bright sunflower which we see

Turning with its tearful eyes

To its sun-god in the skies,

Whatsoe'er his movements be.

Flower thy watch no longer keep,

Drooping leaflets fold in sleep,

For the fond thought reappears,

Ah, if leaves can shed such tears,

What are those that eyes can weep!

Cease then, lyrist of the grove,

Leafy vine, unclasp thy arms,

Fickle flower, no longer move,

And declare, these poisoned charms

That you use, what yields?

CHORUS [within].      Love, love.

JUSTINA.  Love! it cannot be.  Its chain

Have I ever worn for man?

No, the fond deceit is vain.

All received a like disdain,

Lelius, Florus, Cyprian.

Lelius did I not despise?

Florus did I not detest?

Cyprian, the good and wise,

[She pauses at Cyprian's name and

resumes for a time her unquiet manner.

Spurn with such a haughty breast,

That he vanished from my eyes,

As if frightened by their ire?—

Where he went I do not know.

But save this, the faintest fire

Love e'er lit, ne'er dared to glow

In the depths of my desire.

Yes, for since I said that he

Should submit without appeal

Never more my face to see,

Ah, I know and what I feel!—

[She grows calmer.

Pity it must surely be,

That a man so widely known

Should through love of me be lost,

When he pays at such a cost

For the preference he has shown.

[She becomes troubled again.

Were it pity though, 'tis true,

The same pity I should give

Lelius and to Florus too,

Who in separate dungeons live,

Ah! for daring me to woo.

[She grows calmer.

But my thoughts, ye mutinous crew,

If my pity is enough

It should not be clogged by you.

Still your promptings press me so,

That I feel in my despair,

Where he is, if I could know,

I to seek him now would go.

SCENE VI.

The Demon and JUSTINA.

DEMON.  Come, and I will tell thee where.

JUSTINA.  Who art thou who has procured

Entrance to this lone retreat,

Though the entrance is secured?

Or, my senses being obscured,

Art thou but delusion's cheat?

DEMON.  No, not so; but having known

How this passion pressed thee so,

I have sought thee here alone,

Having promised thee to show

Whither Cyprian has flown.

JUSTINA.  Then thou'lt reach not thy intent;

For this passion, this strange pain,

Which my thought doth so torment,

Though my fancy it may gain,

It will never my consent.

DEMON.  But in thought to enter in

Shows that half the deed is done;

Since accomplished is the sin:—

Stop not halfway, ere is won

What the wish desired to win.

JUSTINA.  Even in this desponding hour,

Though to think may taint the flower,

Thy suggestion comes to nought,—

In my power is not my thought

But my act is in my power.

I can follow to the brink,

Free to pause or to pursue,

Move my foot, or backward shrink,

For it is one thing to do,

And another thing to think.

DEMON.  If a stronger power than thine,

Drawn from a profounder source,

With thine own desires combine,

How resist the double force

Which with force thy steps incline?

JUSTINA.  I will trust a safer spell:—

My free will suffices me.

DEMON.  But my power will it excel.

JUSTINA.  Then the will no more were free

If a force could it compel.

DEMON.  Come where every bliss thou'lt meet.

[Attempts to draw her with him, but cannot move her.

JUSTINA.  Ah! the bliss were bought too dear.

DEMON.  It is peace, serene and sweet.

JUSTINA.  'Tis a slavery most severe.

DEMON.  Life, 'tis joy.

JUSTINA.      'Tis death, deceit.

DEMON.  Thy defence, what can it be,

If my power thus forces thee?

[Drags her with more force.

JUSTINA.  In my God it doth consist.

DEMON.  By persisting to resist,

[Releases her.

Woman, thou has conquered me.

Thy defence to God is due,

And my counsel is disdained;

Yes, but raging I'll renew

My attempt and have thee feigned,

If I cannot have thee true.

To a spirit I will give

Shape like thine though fugitive,

It will counterfeit thy form,

As with seeming life be warm,

And in it disgraced thou'lt live.

Thus two triumphs at one time

I am sure to win by this,

Be thy virtue so sublime,

Since through an ideal bliss

I will consummate a crime.

[Exit.

SCENE VII.

JUSTINA.

JUSTINA.  'Gainst the clouds that round me lower

I appeal to heaven's high power;

Let this spectre of my fame—

As before the wind the flame—

As before the frost the flower,

Vanish, die.... But woe is me!

Who is here to heed my moan?

Was there not a man with me?

Yes.  But no:  I am alone:

No.  But yes:  for I could see.

Where so quickly could he fly?

Was he born of my unrest?

Oh! my danger's manifest...

Father! friend!  Lysander!  I

Call....

SCENE VIII.

LYSANDER and LIVIA enter from opposite doors.—JUSTINA.

LYSANDER.  My child?

LIVIA.      What means this cry?

JUSTINA.  Saw you not a man (ah, me!)

Who but left me instantly?

I can scarce express my thought.

LYSANDER.  A man here?

JUSTINA.      You saw him not?

LIVIA.  No, senora.

JUSTINA.      I could see.

LYSANDER.  Saw a man here?  That is hard,

When the place was locked and barred.

LIVIA [aside].  Moscon sure she must have seen,

Whom I have contrived to screen

In my changer.

LYSANDER.      I regard

What you saw but as the play

Of your fancy and your fear.

Melancholy surely may

Have, the man that you saw here,

Formed from atoms of the day.

LIVIA.  Yes, I think my master's right.

JUSTINA.  No, 'twas no defect of sight,

No illusion: since my heart,—

Ah! too well I feel the smart—

Has been broken by the fright.

Some strange witchery of my will

Must have been effected here.

And with such consummate skill,

That if God had not been near

I might have pursued my ill.

He who at such timely hour

Helped me to resist the power

Of this fearful violence,

Will my humble innocence

Guard, whatever dangers lower.—

Livia, my cloak:  whene'er

[Exit LIVIA.

Overwhelming griefs oppress,

I to holy church repair,

Where we secretly confess

The true faith.

[LIVIA returns with the cloak, which she places on JUSTINA.

LIVIA.      'Tis this you wear.

JUSTINA.  There perchance I may appease

This strange fire that burns me so.

LYSANDER.  I desire with thee to go.

LIVIA [aside].  I will breathe much more at ease

When they're out of the house, I know.

JUSTINA.  Since I wholly trust to thee

Heaven, thy hold to me afford.

Save me....

LYSANDER.      Come: so it may be.

JUSTINA.  Since the cause is thine, O Lord!

Oh, defend Thyself and me!

[Exeunt JUSTINA and LYSANDER.

SCENE IX.

MOSCON and LIVIA.

MOSCON.  Have they gone?

LIVIA.      They're gone: all right.

MOSCON.  Why, I'm almost dead with fright.

LIVIA.  Were you of your sense bereft

When but now my room you left

And appeared before her sight?

MOSCON.  Left your room?  Be seen by her?

Why, I swear it, Livia dear,

Not one moment did I stir.

LIVIA.  Who then was it she saw here?

MOSCON.  Well, the devil, as I infer.

How know I?  But then do not

Take it so to heart, my soul.

LIVIA.  Oh! that's not the cause.

[She weeps.

MOSCON.      Then what?

LIVIA.  Such a question, when the whole

Of a day it was his lot

With me here locked up to stay?

For his comrade far away

Must I not a tear then shed,

Though I take this day instead,

Having wept not yesterday?

Would I have him think of me

As a woman who could be

So forgetful and so frail,

As for half a year to fail

In what we did both agree?

MOSCON.  Half a year?  It is above

One whole year since he went away.

LIVIA.  Quite an error, as I'll prove.

Mind, I cannot count a day

When I Clarin could not love.

This being so, if I to thee

Gave up half the year (ah me!),

I would give a false amount

To place all to his account.

MOSCON.  Ah, ungrateful! can it be

When my heart on thee depends

For its peace, that thine attends

To such trifles?

LIVIA.      Moscon, yes,

For I find, I must confess,

Short accounts make longest friends.

MOSCON.  Such being then thy constancy,

Livia, I must say good-bye,

Till to-morrow.  Ah! if he

Is thy two-day fever, I

Hope he's not thy syncope.

LIVIA.  Well, my friend, from this you know

I no malice bear.

MOSCON.      Just so.

LIVIA.  See me then no more to-day,

But to-morrow, sir, you may:

I'll not need to send.  Heigho!

[Exeunt.

SCENE X.

A WOOD.

CYPRIAN, as frightened; CLARIN, stealthily after him.

CYPRIAN.  Doubtless something must have happened

'Mong the stars; imperial clusters,*

Since I find their influences

To my wishes so repugnant.

Up from the profound abysses

Some dark caveat must be uttered,

Which prohibits the obedience

Which they owe me as my subjects.

I, a thousand times, with spell-words

Made the winds of heaven to shudder,

I, a thousand times, the bosom

Of the earth with symbols furrowed,

Yet mine eyes have not been gladdened

By the human sun refulgent

That I seek, nor in mine arms

Hold that human heaven.

[footnote] *'Asonante' in 'u-e' to the end of Scene XV.

CLARIN.      What wonder?

When a thousand times have I

Scraped the earth as if for nuggets,

When a thousand times the wind

By my screeching was perturbed,

And yet Livia was oblivious.

CYPRIAN.  Once again then I am humbled

To invoke her thus.  Oh, listen,

Beautiful Justina....

SCENE XI.

A phantom Figure of JUSTINA appears.

The Figure, CYPRIAN, and CLARIN.

FIGURE.      Summoned,

As I wander through these mountains,

I obey a call so urgent.

What, then, wouldst thou? what, then, wouldst thou,

Cyprian, with me?

CYPRIAN.      Oh, I shudder!

FIGURE.  And since now....

CYPRIAN.      I am astonished!

FIGURE.  I have come....

CYPRIAN.      What thus disturbs me?

FIGURE.  To this place....

CYPRIAN.      What makes me tremble?

FIGURE.  Where....

CYPRIAN.      Oh! whence this doubt that numbs me?

FIGURE.  Love doth call me....

CYPRIAN.      Why, this terror?

FIGURE.  And the powerful spell thou workest

Thus complied with, to this forest's

Deepest depths I fly to shun thee.

[Exit, covering her face with the cloak.

CYPRIAN.  Listen, hear me, stay, Justina!

But why linger spell-bound, stunned here?

I'll pursue her, and this forest,

Whither by my spells conducted

She has flown, will be the leafy

Theatre, the rude-constructed

Bride-bed of the strangest bridal

Heaven e'er witnessed.

[Exit.

SCENE XII.

CLARIN.      Stop:  Renuncio

Bride like this who smells of smoke

Stronger than a blacksmith's furnace.

But perhaps the incantation,

Being so extremely sudden,

Caught her leaning o'er the lye-tub,

If not cooking tripe for supper.

No.  Thus cloaked and in a kitchen!

That excuse won't do: another

Let me try.  (I have it now,

For an honourable woman

Never smells then any sweeter,)

She with fright must have been flustered.—

He has overtaken her now,

And from that rude vale uncultured,

Struggling in closed clasping arms,

(For I think when lovers struggle,

Open arms are not the weapon

Even for the lustiest lover,)

To this very spot they come:

I will watch them under cover,

For I wish for once to witness

How young women are abducted.

[Conceals himself.

SCENE XIII.

CYPRIAN embracing the Figure of JUSTINA, which he carries in his arms.

CYPRIAN.  Now, O beautiful Justina,

In this sweet and secret covert,

Where no beam of sun can enter,

Nor the breeze of heaven blow roughly,

Now the trophy of thy beauty

Makes my magic toils triumphant,

For here folding thee, no longer

Have I need to fear disturbance.

Fair Justina, thou hast cost me

Even my soul.  But in my judgment,

Since the gain has been so glorious,

Not so dear has been the purchase.

Oh! unveil thyself, fair goddess,

Not in the clouds obscure and murky,

Not in vapours hide the sun,

Show its golden rays refulgent.

[He draws aside the cloak and discovers a skeleton.

But, O woe! what's this I see!

Is it a cold corse, mute, pulseless,

That within its arms expects me?

Who, in one brief moment's compass,

Could upon these faded features,

Pallid, motionless, and shrunken,

Have extinguished the bright beauties

Of the blush rose and the purple?

THE SKELETON.  Cyprian, such are all the glories

Of the world that you so covet.

[The Skeleton disappears.

CLARIN rushes in frightened, and embraces CYPRIAN.

SCENE XIV.

CLARIN and CYPRIAN.

CLARIN.  Fear, for any one who wants it,

Wholesale or retail I'll furnish.

CYPRIAN.  Stay! funereal shadow, stay!

Now for other ends I urge thee.

CLARIN.  I am a funereal body:—

Don't you see it by my bulk here?

CYPRIAN.  Ah! who are you?

CLARIN.      Who I am, sir,

Or am not, myself doth puzzle.

CYPRIAN.  Did you in the air's void spaces,

Or earth's caverns yawning under,

See an icy corse here vanish,

See to dust and ashes turning

All the freshness and the beauty

That it promised in its coming?

CLARIN.  Do you take me, sir, for one

Of those pitiful poor lurkers

Men call spies?

CYPRIAN.      What could it be?

CLARIN.  And not be, in such a hurry.

CYPRIAN.  Let us seek it.

CLARIN.      Let's not seek it.

CYPRIAN.  I must sift this matter further.

CLARIN.  I would rather not.

SCENE XV.

The Demon, CYPRIAN, and CLARIN.

DEMON [aside].      Just heavens,

If my nature, in conjunction,

Once possessed both grace and science,

When 'mongst angels I was numbered,

Grace alone is what I've lost,

Science no.  Then why unjustly,

If 'tis so, deprive my science

Of its proper power and function?

CYPRIAN.  Lucifer, wise master mine.

CLARIN.  Pray don't call him: for he'll come here

In another corse, I warrant.

DEMON.  Speak, what would you?

CYPRIAN.      The annulling,

The redemption of those pledges,

At whose very thought I shudder.

CLARIN.  As I don't redeem my pledges,

I'll slip off here through the bushes.

[Exit.

SCENE XVI.

CYPRIAN and The Demon.

CYPRIAN.  Scarcely o'er earth's wounded bosom

Had I the true spell-word uttered,

When in the ensuing action,

She, of all my dreams the subject,

My adored, divine Justina....

But why take the useless trouble,

That to tell you know already?

I embraced her, would unmuffle

Her fair face, when (woe is me!)

In her beauty I discovered

A gaunt skeleton, a statue,

A pale image, a sepulchral

Show of death, which in these measured

Words thus spoke (even yet I shudder),

"Cyprian, such are all the glories

Of the world that you so covet."—

To assert, that on thy magic

As expressed by me, the burden

Of the fault should lie, is vain,

For I, point by point, so worked it,

That of all its silent symbols

There was not a line but somewhere

Had its place, of all its spell-words

Not one word that was not uttered.

Then, 'tis plain thou has deceived me,

For though acting as instructed,

I but found an empty phantom

Where I sought a blissful substance.

DEMON.  Cyprian, this defect from thee,

Nor from me, in truth, resulted:

Not from thee, because the magic

Thou didst exercise with subtle

Thought and skill; and not from me,

For I could not teach thee further.

From a higher cause, believe me,

Came this injury thou hast suffered.

But be not cast down: for I,

Who in tranquil rest would lull thee,

Will to thee unite Justina,

By a different way and juster.

CYPRIAN.  That is not my intention now.

For this strange event has struck me

With such terror and confusion,

That thy ways I do not covet.

And since thou has not complied with

The conditions, the assumptions

Of my love, I only ask thee,

Now that from thy face I'm rushing,

As the contract is annulled,

That my bond thou shouldst return me.

DEMON.  What I promised was to teach thee,

By a course of secret study,

How to draw to thee Justina

By the potent power impulsive

Of thy words: and since the wind

Here Justina hath conducted,

I have then fulfilled my contract,

I have kept my plighted word then.

CYPRIAN.  What was offered to my love

Was that I should surely pluck here

The sweet fruit whose seeds my hope

Had to these wild wastes entrusted.

DEMON.  Cyprian, I was only bound

Her to bring here.

CYPRIAN.      A mere shuffle:

To my arms you swore to give her.

DEMON.  In thy arms I saw her struggle.

CYPRIAN.  'Twas a phantom.

DEMON.      'Twas a portent.

CYPRIAN.  Worked by whom?

DEMON.      By one who worked it

To protect her.

CYPRIAN.      Who was he?

DEMON [trembling].  I don't wish the name to utter.

CYPRIAN.  I will turn my magic science

'Gainst thyself.  By its compulsion

Speak, inform me who he is.

DEMON.  Well, a god who takes this trouble

For Justina.

CYPRIAN.      What's one God,

When of gods there's such a number?

DEMON.  All their power in Him is centred.

CYPRIAN.  Then One only, sole and sovereign,

Must He be, whose single will

Their united wills outworketh.

DEMON.  I know nothing, I know nothing.

CYPRIAN.  I renounce then with my utmost

Power the pact that I made with thee;

What compelled Him (this I urge thee

In that God's great name) to guard her?

DEMON [after having struggled ineffectually not to say it].  To

preserve her pure, unsullied.

CYPRIAN.  Then He is the sovereign goodness

Since a wrong He will not suffer.

But if she remained here hidden

Say what loss would have resulted?

DEMON.  Loss of honour, if the secret

Leaked out to the gossiping vulgar.

CYPRIAN.  Then that God must be all sight,

Since he could foresee these trouble.

But, why could not thy enchantment

Be as potent and consummate?

DEMON.  Ah!  His power is ampler, fuller.

CYPRIAN.  Then that God must be all hands,

Since whate'er He wills He worketh.

Tell me then who is that God,

Whom to-day I have discovered

The supreme of good to be,

The Creator, the Annuller,

The Omniscient, the All-seeing,

Whom I've sought for years unnumbered?

DEMON.  Him I know not.

CYPRIAN.      Speak, who is He?

DEMON.  As I speak it, how I shudder!

He—He is the God of the Christians.

CYPRIAN.  Say what moved Him to obstruct me

In my wish?

DEMON.      Her Christian faith.

CYPRIAN.  Does He guard so those who love Him?

DEMON.  Yes; but now too late, too late,

Dost thou hope to gain His succour,

Since, in being my slave, thou canst not

Claim the privilege of His subject.

CYPRIAN.  I thy slave?

DEMON.      In my possession

Is thy signature.

CYPRIAN.      I'll struggle

To regain it from thee, since

'Twas conditional at the utmost.

I don't doubt I will get it.

DEMON.      How?

CYPRIAN.  In this way.

[He draws his sword, strikes at The Demon, but cannot touch him.

DEMON.      Although the lunges

Of thy naked sword against me

Are well aimed, thou hast not struck me,

Fierce as were thy blows.  And now,

Even in more despair to plunge thee,

I would have thee learn at least

That the Devil is thy instructor.

CYPRIAN.  What do you say?

DEMON.      That I am he.

CYPRIAN.  Oh! to hear thee how I shudder!—

DEMON.  Not alone a slave art thou,

But MY slave; be that thy comfort.

CYPRIAN.  I the slave of the Devil!  I

Own a master so unworthy?

DEMON.  Yes; for since thy soul thou gav'st me,

Thenceforth it to me was subject.

CYPRIAN.  Is there then no gleam of hope,

No appeal, no aid, no succour,

By which I so great a crime

Can blot out?

DEMON.      No.

CYPRIAN.            Why doubt further?

Let not this sharp sword rest idly

In my hand, but swiftly cutting

Through my breast, become the willing

Instrument of mine own murder.

But what say I?  He who could

Snatch Justina from thy clutches,

Can He not, too, rescue me?

DEMON.  No.  By choice thou wert a culprit,

And He does not favour crimes,

Virtues only.

CYPRIAN.      If the summit

Of all power He be, to pardon

Is as easy as to punish.

DEMON.  He rewardeth by His power,

He chastiseth from His justice.

CYPRIAN.  One who yields He'll not chastise.

I am one, since I am humbled.

DEMON.  Thou art mine, my slave: no master

Canst thou have but me.

CYPRIAN.      I trust not.

DEMON.  How, when still in my possession

Is that bond of thine, that bloody

Scroll inscribed by thine own hand?

CYPRIAN.  He who is supreme and sovereign,

And depends not on another,

Will yet bear me through triumphant.

DEMON.  In what way?

CYPRIAN.      He is all sight,

And will see the fitting juncture.

DEMON.  It I hold.

CYPRIAN.      He is all hands,

And will burst my bonds asunder.

DEMON.  Ere that comes I'll see thee dead:

Thus my clasping arms shall crush thee.

[They struggle together.

CYPRIAN.  Thou great God, the Christians' God,

Oh, assist me in this struggle!

DEMON [flinging CYPRIAN from his arms].

It is He who has saved thy life.

CYPRIAN.  More He'll do since I seek Him humbly.

[Exeunt.

SCENE XVII.

HALL IN THE PALACE OF THE GOVERNOR.

The Governor, FABIUS, and Soldiers.

GOVERNOR.  How then was the capture made?

FABIUS.  In their church, as we suspected,

We discovered them collected,

Where before their God they prayed.

With an armed guard I traced them

To this secret sacred hall,

Made them prisoners one and all,

And in different prisons placed them.

But, your patience not to tire,

The chief point I may declare,—

Captured is Justina fair,

And Lysander her old sire.

GOVERNOR.  If for gold, a fair pretence,

If for rank, you would not miss,

Wherefore bring me news like this

And not claim your recompense?

FABIUS.  If you deign to value thus

My poor service you may pay it.

GOVERNOR.  How?

FABIUS.      With great respect I say it,

Florus free, and Lelius.

GOVERNOR.  Though I seemed austere and cold,

Them chastising without pity

To strike terror through the city,

Yet if the whole truth were told,

Then the cause were plain why they

Have been prisoned a whole year.

It is this, a father's fear

Lelius would preserve this way.

Florus was his rival, he

Had a host of powerful friends,

Each was jealous, and his ends

Would attain whate'er might be.

I was fearful a collision

Would ensue if they should meet,

So I thought it more discreet

Not to come to a decision.

So with this intent I sought

Some pretext, Justina's face

To expel from out this place,

But I could discover nought.

But since this event to-day,

With her damaged character,

Gives a right to banish her,

Nay, to take her life away,

Let them be released.  No fear

Need you have about their fate;

Go, and Lelius liberate,

Go, and Florus bring me here.

FABIUS.  Myriad times I kiss thy feet

For a favour so immense.

[Exit.

SCENE XVIII.

The Governor and Soldiers.

GOVERNOR.  And since now this fair pretence,

This hypocritical deceit,

In my power at last doth lie,

Wherefore my revenge postpone

For the sorrows I have known

Through her fault?  Yes, she shall die

By the bloody headsman's hand.

[To a Soldier.

Bring her hither in my name.

Let her punishment and shame

Be a terror to the land.

Let the palace she thought sweet

But her scaffold scene present.

[Exit the Soldier with others.

SCENE XIX.

FABIUS, LELIUS, and FLORUS.—THE SAME.

FABIUS.  Sir, the two for whom you sent

Here are kneeling at your feet.

LELIUS.  I, whose wish it is to be

Welcomed as thy son this time,

With no consciousness of crime

Do not see a judge in thee,

I an angry sire may see

With a son's respectful fear

And obedience.

FLORUS.      Being here, I infer that it must be

(Though no guilt can I discern)

Thy chastising hand to feel.

See.  Submissive here I kneel.

GOVERNOR.  Lelius, Florus, I was stern,

Justly stern against ye two,

For as judge or father I

Could not unchastised pass by

Your offence.  But then I knew

That in noble hearts the feeling

Of resentment does not last,

And as now the cause is past,

I resolved, to both appealing,

Friends to make of you once more.

So to consecrate the tie

Now embrace in amity.

LELIUS.  I am glad that, as of yore,

Florus is my friend to-day.

FLORUS.  That thou'rt mine this act may show.

Here's my hand.

GOVERNOR.      This being so,

You are free to go or stay:—

When I tell you of the sad

Fall of her you once admired,

Northing further is required.

SCENE XX.

The Demon, a crowd of People.—THE SAME.

DEMON [within].  Ware! beware!  He's mad! he's mad!

GOVERNOR.  What is this?

LELIUS.      I'll go and see.

[He goes to the door, and after a pause returns.

GOVERNOR.  In this palace hall these cries,

From what cause can they arise?

FLORUS.  Something serious it must be.

LELIUS.  This confusion is occasioned

(Hear a singular adventure),

Sir, by Cyprian, who being absent

Many days again has entered*

Antioch completely mad.

[footnote] *Asonante in e-e which continues to the end.

FLORUS.  It was doubtless the fine essence

Of his mind that thus has brought him

To this lamentable ending.

PEOPLE [within].  Ware the madman! ware the madman!

SCENE XXI.

CYPRIAN, half naked; People.—THE SAME.

CYPRIAN.  Never was I more collected;

It is you yourselves are mad.

GOVERNOR.  Cyprian, what is all this ferment?

CYPRIAN.  Governor of Antioch,

Viceroy of great Caesar Decius,

Florus, Lelius, my young friends,

Whom I valued and respected,

Proud nobility, great people,

To my words be all attentive:

I am Cyprian, I am he

Once so studious, and so learned,

I the wonder of the schools,

Of the sciences the centre.

What I gained from all my studies

Was one doubt, a doubt that never

Left my wildered mind a moment,

Ever troubling and perplexing.

I Justina saw, and seeing,

To her charms my soul surrendered,

And for soft voluptuous Venus

Left the wise and learn'd Minerva.

Baffled by Justina's virtue,

I, pursuing though rejected,

And from one extreme to another

Passing on as passion led me,

To my guest, who from the sea

Found my feet a port of shelter,

For Justina pledged my soul,

Since at once he charmed my senses

And my intellect, by giving

Love its hopes, and thought its treasures.

From that hour, as his disciple

Lived I in these lonely deserts,

And to his laborious teaching

I am for a power indebted,

By which I can move even mountains

And in different places set them:

Yet although these mighty wonders

I can do to-day, I'm helpless

By the voice of my desire

To draw towards me one fair vestal.

And the cause why I am powerless

To subdue that beauteous virgin

Is that by a God she's guarded,

Whom, now knowing by His blessed

Grace bestowed, I come to acknowledge

As the Infinite, the Eternal.

Yes, the great God of the Christians

I now openly confess here.

And though true it is I am

Still of hell the slave and servant,

Having with my very blood

Signed a certain secret cedule,

Yet my blood that blood may blot out

In the martyrdom I'm expecting.

If you are a judge, if Christians

You pursue with bloody vengeance,

I am one: for in these mountains

A grave venerable elder

The first sacrament conferring

With its sacred sign impressed me.

This being so, why wait?  Your orders

Give unto the bloody headsman,

Tell him here to strike this neck

And from it my head dissever.

Try my firmness as you will,

For I, resolute and determined,

Will endure a thousand deaths

Since this truth at last I've learned,

That without the great God, whom

Now I seek, adore, and reverence,

Human glories are but ashes,

Dust, smoke, wind, delusive, empty.

[He falls as if in a swoon, with his face to the ground.

GOVERNOR.  So absorbed, so lost in wonder,

Cyprian, has thy daring left me,

That considering modes of torture

I have yet not one selected.

Rise.  Bestir thee.

[Spurns him with his foot.

FLORUS.      As a statue

Formed of ice he lies extended

SCENE XXII.

Soldiers, JUSTINA.—THE SAME.

A SOLDIER.  Here, your Highness, is Justina.

GOVERNOR [aside].  I must go, her face unnerves me.—

With this living corse here lying

[Aside to his retinue.

Let us leave her for the present.

For the two being here confined,

It may alter their intentions,

Seeing that they are condemned

Both to die: if not, 'tis certain,

That unless they adore our gods

Frightful torments soon shall end them.

LELIUS [aside].  I remain 'twixt love and fear

Quite bewildered and suspended.

FLORUS [aside].  So affected have I been,

I scarce know what most affects me.

[Exeunt all, except JUSTINA.

SCENE XXIII.

JUSTINA; CYPRIAN, insensible on the ground.

JUSTINA.  What! without a word you leave me?

When I come here, calm, contented,

Even to die.  Ah! wishing death,

Am I then of death prevented?—

[She perceives CYPRIAN.

But my punishment is, doubtless,

Thus locked up to face the terrors

Of a slow and lingering death,

With the body of this wretch here

Left alone, my sole companion

Being a corse.  O thou, re-entered

Into thy original earth,

Happy wert thou, if thy sentence

Was passed on thee for the faith

I adore!

CYPRIAN [recovering consciousness].      O proud avenger

Of your gods, why wait, the thread

Of my life to cut?...

[He perceives JUSTINA, and rises.

Heaven bless me!—

[Aside.

Can I trust my eyes?  Justina!

JUSTINA [aside].  Cyprian, do I see?  O Heaven!

CYPRIAN [aside].  No, it is not she, my thought

Fills the void air with her presence.

JUSTINA [aside].  No, it is not he, the wind

Forms this phantom to divert me.

CYPRIAN.  Shadow of my fantasy...

JUSTINA.  Of my wish, delusive spectre...

CYPRIAN.  Terror of my startled senses...

JUSTINA.  Horror of my heart's dejection...

CYPRIAN.  What, then, wouldst thou?

JUSTINA.      What, then, wouldst thou?

CYPRIAN.  I invoked thee not.  What errand

Has thou come on?

JUSTINA.      Why thus seek me?

I to thee no thought directed.

CYPRIAN.  Ah!  I sought thee not, Justina.

JUSTINA.  Nor here at thy call I entered.

CYPRIAN.  Then why here?

JUSTINA.      I am a prisoner.—

Thou?

CYPRIAN.      I, too, have been arrested.

But, Justina, say what crime

Could thy virtue have effected?

JUSTINA.  It is not for any crime,

It is from their deep resentment,

Their abhorrence of Christ's faith,

Whom I as my God confess here.

CYPRIAN.  Thou dost owe Him that, Justina,

For thy God was thy defender,

He watched o'er thee in His goodness.

Get my prayers to Him accepted.

JUSTINA.  Pray with faith, and He will listen.

CYPRIAN.  Then with that I will address Him.

Though a fear, that's not despair,

Makes me for my great sins tremble.

JUSTINA.  Oh! have confidence.

CYPRIAN.      My crimes are

So immense.

JUSTINA.      But more immense are

His great mercies.

CYPRIAN.      Then, will He

Pardon have on me?

JUSTINA.      'Tis certain.

CYPRIAN.  How, if my soul surrendered

To the Demon's self, as purchase

Of thy beauty?

JUSTINA.      Oh, there are not

Stars as many in the heavens,

Sands as many on the shore,

Sparks within the fire as many,

Motes as many in the beam,

On the winds so many feathers,

As the sins He can forgive.

CYPRIAN.  I believe it, and am ready

Now a thousand lives to give Him.—

But I hear some people enter.

SCENE XXIV.

FABIUS, leading in MOSCON, CLARIN, and LIVIA, as prisoners; CYPRIAN

and JUSTINA.

FABIUS.  With your master and your mistress

Here remain confined together.

[Exit.

LIVIA.  If THEY fancy to be Christians,

What have WE done to offend them?

MOSCON.  Much: 'tis crime enough for us

That we happen to be servants.

CLARIN.  Flying peril in the mountain,

I find here a greater peril.

SCENE XXV.

A Servant.—THE SAME.

SERVANT.  The Lord Governor Aurelius

Summons Cyprian to his presence,

And Justina.

JUSTINA.      Ah! how happy,

If 'tis for the wished-for ending.

Do not, Cyprian, be disheartened.

CYPRIAN.  Faith, zeal, courage, all possess me:

For if life must be the ransom

Of my slavery to the devil,

He who gave his soul for thee,

Will he not give God his person?

JUSTINA.  I once said that I could love thee

But in death, and since together,

Cyprian, we now must die,

What I promised I present thee.

[They are led out by the Servant.

SCENE XXVI.

MOSCON, LIVIA, and CLARIN.

MOSCON.  How contentedly to die

They go forth.

LIVIA.      Much more contented

Are we three to remain alive.

CLARIN.  Not much more; for we must settle

Our account now, though I own

The occasion might be better,

And the place too, still 'twere wrong

To neglect the time that's present.

MOSCON.  What account pray?

CLARIN.      I have been

Absent.

LIVIA.      Speak.

CLARIN.              The whole of a twelvemonth,

When without my intermission

Moscon in possession held thee.

Now my quota in the business,

If we both have equal measure,

Is that I must have my year.

LIVIA.  Can it be that I'm suspected

Of thus wronging thee so basely?

Why, I wept whole days together

When it was the day for weeping.

MOSCON.  Yes, for I myself was present:

Every day that was not mine

She thy friendship quite respected.

CLARIN.  That's a bounce; for not a tear,

When this day her house I entered,

Did she shed, and there I found thee

Sitting with her quite contented.

LIVIA.  But this day is not a fast.

CLARIN.  Yes, it is; for I remember

That the day I went away

Was my day.

LIVIA.      Oh! that's an error.

MOSCON.  Yes, I see how that arises,

This year is a year bissextile,

And our days are now the same.

CLARIN.  Well, I'm satisfied, 'tis better

That a man should not too deeply

Pry into such things.—Good heavens!—

[The sound of a great tempest is heard.

SCENE XXVII.

The Governor, a crowd of People; then FABIUS, LELIUS, and FLORUS, all

astonished; afterwards The Demon.

LIVIA.  Sure the house is tumbling down.

MOSCON.  How terrific! what a tempest!

GOVERNOR.  Doubtless in disastrous ruin

Topple down the walls of heaven

[The tempest is renewed, and enter FABIUS, LELIUS, and FLORUS.

FABIUS.  Scarcely on the public scaffold

Had the headsman's hand dissevered

Cyprian and Justina's necks,

When the earth, even to its centre,

Seemed to tremble.

LELIUS.      And a cloud,

From whose burning womb extended

The wild lightnings, the loud thunders,

Awful embryos were projected,

Fell upon us.

FLORUS.      From which issued

A most horrid, most repelling

Shape, who on the scaly shells

Of a mailed and mighty serpent,

O'er the scaffold made a sign

Motioning silence and attention.

[The Scene opens, and a scaffold with the heads and bodies of JUSTINA

and CYPRIAN is seen.  Over it in the air, upon a winged serpent, is

The Demon.

DEMON.  Hear, O mortals, hear what I,

By the orders of high Heaven,

For Justina's exculpation,

Must declare to all here present.

I it was, who to dishonour

Her pure fame, in form dissembled

For the purpose, scaled her house,

And her very chamber entered.

And in order that her fame

Should not by that fraud be lessened,

I come here her injured honour

To exhibit pure and perfect.

Cyprian, who with her lieth

On a happy bier at rest there,

Was my slave.  But he effacing,

With the blood his neck outsheddeth,

The red signature, the linen

Is now spotless and unblemished.

And the two, in spite of me,

Having to the spheres ascended

Of the sacred throne of God,

Live there in a world far better.—

This, then, is the truth, which I

Tell, because God makes me tell it,

Much against my will, my practice

Not being great as a truth-teller.

[He falls swiftly, and sinks into the earth.

LIVIA.  Oh! what horror!

FLORUS.      What confusion!

LIVIA.  What a prodigy!

MOSCON.      What terror!

GOVERNOR.  These are all but the enchantments

Which this sorcerer effected

At his death.

FLORUS.      I am in doubt

To believe them or reject them.

LELIUS.  The mere thought of them confounds me.

CLARIN.  If magician, it is certain,

As I hold, he must have been

The magician then of heaven.

MOSCON.  Leaving our partitioned love

In a rather odd dilemma,

For "The Wonderful Magician"

Ask the pardon of its errors.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wonder-Working Magician, by

Pedro Calderon de la Barca

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Table of Contents

THE WONDER-WORKING MAGICIAN

Now First Translated Fully From The Spanish In The Metre Of The Original. By Denis Florence Mac-Carthy.

London: Henry S. King & Co., 65 Cornhill, And 12, Paternoster Row. 1873.

INTRODUCTION.

THE WONDER-WORKING MAGICIAN.

THE WONDER-WORKING MAGICIAN.

ACT THE FIRST.

ACT THE SECOND.

ACT THE THIRD.