ALVAR ALVAR. ALVAR. ORDONTO. OR DONIO. ALVAR. ORDONIO. How sweet and musical the name of Alvar! The accomplice and sworn friend of Isidore. Then, then, Ordonio, he was dear to thee, And thou wert dear to him ; Heaven only knows I know him not. How very dear thou wert! Why didst thou hate him? And yet methinks I have heard the name but lately. O heaven! how he would fall upon thy neck, Means he the husband of the Moorish woman? And weep forgiveness ! Isidore ? Isidore ? OR DONIO. Spirit of the dead ORDONIO. Good ! good! that lie! by heaven it has restored me. Methinks I know thee! ha! my brain turns wild Now I am thy master! Villain! thou shalt drink it, At its own dreams-off-off, fantastic shadow! Or die a bitterer death. I fain would tell thee what I am! but dare not! What strange solution Hast thou found out to satisfy thy fears, Cheat! villain! traitor! whatsoever thou beAnd drug them to unnatural sleep? I fear thee, man! [Alvar takes the goblet, and throwing it to the ground TERESA (rushing out and falling on Alvar's neck). with stern contempl. Ordonio! 'tis thy brother. [ORDONIO with frantic wildness runs upon Alvar with his sword. TERESA flings herself on Thou mountebank! ORDONIO and arrests his arm. Stop, madman, stop. Mountebank and villain ! ALVAR. Does then this thin disguise impenetrably Hide Alvar from thee? Toil and painful wounds I speak, and fear and wonder crush thy rage, And long imprisonment in unwholesome dungeons, Have marr'd perhaps all trait and lineament My anguish for thy guilt! Ordonio_Brother! For all thy human brethren-out upon them! Nay, nay, thou shalt embrace me. What have they done for thee ? have they given thee ORDONIO (drawing back and gazing at Alvar with a peace? countenance of at once awe and terror). Cured thee of starting in thy sleep? or made Touch me not! ALVAR. Saved saved ? Oh live, Ordonio! for our father's sake! Spare his gray hairs ! TERESA. And you may yet be happy. prevent him. ALVAR. OR DONIO. OR DONIO. He told me of the babes that prattled to him, O horror! not a thousand years in heaven Live! Live! Why yes ! 't were well to live with you: A mangled body? mangled-dash'd to atoms! For is it fit a villain should be proud ? Not all the blessings of a host of angels My brother! I will kneel to you, my brother! Can blow away a desolate widow's curse! [Kneeling. And though thou spill thy heart's blood for atonement, Forgive me, Alvar --Curse me with forgiveness ! It will not weigh against an orphan's tear! ALVAR. Call back thy soul, Ordonio, and look round thee: But Alvar Now is the time for greatness! Think that Heaven TERESA. ORDONIO (pointing at the vacancy). Yes, mark his eye! there's fascination in it! Heap it like coals of fire upon my heart, Thou saidst thou didst not know him_That is he And shoot it hissing through my brain! He comes upon me! ALVAR. Heal, O heal him, Heaven' ALVAR ORDONIO. TERESA. ALHADRA. He would have died to save me, and I kill'd him, She hath avenged the blood of Isidore ! I stood in silence like a slave before her, That I might taste the wormwood and the gall, Some secret poison And satiate this self-accusing heart Drinks up his spirits ! With bitterer agonies than death can give Forgive me, Alvar! Oh! couldst thou forget me! [Dies Prepare my punishment in the obscure world- (ALVAR and Teresa bend over the body of ORDONIO I will not bear to live-to live-0 agony ! ALHADRA (to the Moors). And be myself alone my own sore torment! I thank thee, Heaven! thou hast ordaind it wisely, [The doors of the dungeon are broken open, and in That still extremes bring their own cure. That point rush ALHADRA, and the band of MORESCOES. In misery, which makes the oppressed Man Lord of the Oppressor's-Knew I a hundred men Seize first that man! [Alvar presses onward to defend ORDONIO. This arm should shake the Kingdoms of the World, Despairing, but not palsied by despair, The deep foundations of iniquity fall; And all that were, and had the Spirit of Life, Sang a new song to her who had gone forth, Conquering and still to conquer ! (ALHADRA hurries off with the Moors ; the stage fills with armed Peasants and Servants, ZULIMEZ ALVAR and TERESA. and Valdez at their head. VALDEZ rushes into O horrible! Alvar's arms. Turn not thy face that way, my father! hide, Flow in unmingled stream through thy first blessing I would have stood far off, quiet though dark, [Both kneel lo VALDEZ And bade the race of men raise up a mourning VALDEZ. For a deep horror of desolation, My Son! My Alvar! bless, Oh bless him, Heaven! Too great to be one soul's particular lot! TERESA. Brother of Zagri! let me lean upon thee. Me too, my Father? [Struggling to suppress her feelings. The time is not yet come for woman's anguish. Bless, Oh bless my children! I have not seen his blood-Within an hour Those little ones will crowd around and ask me, [Both rise. Where is our father? I shall curse thee then! Wert thou in heaven, my curse would pluck thee Delights so full, if unalloyd with grief, Were ominous. In these strange dread events thence! Just Heaven instructs us with an awful voice, That Conscience rules us e'en against our choice. He doth repent! See, see, I kneel to thee! Our inward monitress to guide or warn, If listen'd to; but if repell’d with scorn, At length as dire Remorse, she reappears, Works in our guilty hopes, and selfish fears ! [Shouls from the distance of, Rescue! Rescue! Still bids, Remember! and still cries, Too late! Alvar! Alvar! and the voice of VALDEZ heard. And while she scares us, goads us to our fate. ALHADRA. ALVAR. VALDEZ. ALVAR. TERESA ALHADRA. Rescue ?-and Isidore's Spirit unavenged ? APPENDIX. Atonement! Note 1, page 81, col. 1 You are a painter The following lines I have preserved in this place, not so much as explanatory of the picture of the Away! assassination, as (if I may say so without disrespect Brave not my father's rage! I thank thee! Thou- to the Public) to gratify my own feelings, the passage [Then turning his eyes languidly to Alvar. being no mere fancy portrait; but a slight, yet not OR DONIO. unfaithful profile of one,* who still lives, nobilitate felix, arte clarior, vità colendissimus. ZULIMEZ (speaking of Alvar in the third perlon). motion. ALHADRA. ALVAR. SELMA. My husband's father told it me, Poor old Sesina-angels rest his soul! He was a woodman, and could fell and saw With lusty arm. You know that huge round beam Which props the hanging wall of the old Chapel ? Beneath that tree, while yet it was a tree, He found a baby wrapt in mosses, lined With thistle-beards, and such small locks of wool As bang on brambles. Well, he brought him home, And reared him at the then Lord Valdez' cost. And so the babe grew up a pretty boy, A pretty boy, but most unteachableHe never learnt a prayer, nor told a bead, But knew the names of birds, and mock'd their notes, And whistled, as he were a bird himself: And all the autumn 't was his only play To gather seeds of wild flowers, and to plant them With earth and water on the stumps of trees. A Friar, who gather'd simples in the wood, A gray-bair'd man, he loved this little boy: The boy loved him, and, when the friar taught him, He soon could write with the pen; and from that time Lived chiefly at the Convent or the Castle. So he became a rare and learned youth: But O! poor wretch! he read, and read, and read, Till his brain turn'd; and ere his twentieth year He had unlawful thoughts of many things: And though he pray'd, he never loved to pray With holy men, nor in a holy place. But yet his speech, it was so soft and sweet, The late Lord Valdez ne'er was wearied with him. And once, as by the north side of the chapel They stood together, chain'd in deep discourse, The earth heaved under them with such a groan, That the wall totter'd, and had well-nigh fallen Right on their heads. My Lord was sorely frightend, A fever seized him, and he made confession Of all the heretical and lawless talk Which brought this judgment : so the youth was seized And cast into that hole. My husband's father Sobb'd like a child-it almost broke his heart: And once as he was working near this dungeon, He heard a voice distinctly; 'twas the youth's, Who sung a doleful song about green fields, How sweet it were on lake or wide savanna To hunt for food, and be a naked man, And wander up and down at liberty. He always doted on the youth, and now His love grew desperate; and defying death, He made that cunning entrance I described, And the young man escaped. TERESA. 'Tis a sweet tale: Such as would lull a listening child to sleep, His rosy face besojld with unwiped tears. And what became of him? Note 2, page 89, col. 1. The following Scene, as unfit for the stage, was taken from the Tragedy, in the year 1797, and published in the Lyrical Ballads. But this work having been long out of print, I have been advised to reprint it, as a Note to the second Scene of Act the Fourth, p. 89. Enter TERESA and SELMA. TERESA. 'Tis said, he spake of you familiarly, As mine and Alvar's common foster-mother. SELMA. Now blessings on the man, whoe'er he be, That join'd your names with mine! O my sweet Lady, As often as I think of those dear times, When you two little ones would stand, at eve, On each side of my chair, and make me learn All you had learnt in the day; and how to talk In gentle phrase; then bid me sing to you'Tis more like heaven to come, than what has been! TERESA. SELMA SELMA. He went on shipboard With those bold voyagers who made discovery of golden lands. Sesina's younger brother Went likewise, and when he return'd to Spain, He told Sesina, that the poor mad youth, Soon after they arrived in that new world, In spite of his dissuasion, seized a boat, And all alone set sail by silent moonlight Up a great river, great as any sea, And ne'er was heard of more: but 'tis supposed, He lived and died among the savage men, TERESA. No one. * Sir George Beaumont. (Written 1814.) Zapolya; A CHRISTMAS TALE. IN TWO PARTS. Παρ πυρί χρή τοιαύτα λέγειν χειμώνος εν ώρα. Apud ATHENÆUM. CHIEF RAGOZZI. RAAB KIUPRILI. CHEF RAGOZZI. ADVERTISEMENT. But Raab Kiuprili moves with such a gait? But agitates, not quells, its majesty. The form of the following dramatic poem is in hum- My patron! my commander! yes, 't is he! ble imitation of the Winter's Tale of Shakspeare, Call out the guards. The Lord Kiuprili comes. except that I have called the first part a Prelude in Enter RAAB stead of a first Act, as a somewhat nearer resem- Drums beal, etc. the Guard turns out. KIUPRILI. blance to the plan of the ancients, of which one specimen is left us in the Æschylian Trilogy of the RAAB KIUPRILI (making a signal to stop the drums, etc.) Agamemnon, the Orestes, and the Eumenides. Though Silence! enough! This is no time, young friend! a matter of form merely, yet two plays, on different For ceremonious dues. This summoning drum, periods of the same tale, might seem less bold, than Th' air-shattering trumpet, and the horseman's clatter, an interval of twenty years between the first and Are insults to a dying sovereign's ear. second act. This is, however, in mere obedience to Soldiers, 't is well! Retire! your general greets you, custom. The effect does not, in reality, at all de- lis loyal fellow-warriors. [Guards retire. pend on the Time of the interval; but on a very different principle. There are cases in which an inter Pardon my surprise. val of twenty hours between the acts would have a Thus sudden from the camp, and unattended ! worse effect (i.e. render the imagination less disposed What may these wonders prophesy? to take the position required) than twenty years in other cases. For the rest, I shall be well content if Tell me first, my readers will take it up, read and judge it, as a How fares the king ? His majesty still lives? Christmas tale. We know no otherwise ; but Emerick's friends (And none but they approach him) scoff at hope. CHARACTERS. Ragozzi! I have reard thee from a child, And as a child I have rear'd thee. Whence this air MEN. EMERICK, usurping King of Illyria. Of mystery? That face was wont to open RAAB KIUPRILI, an Illyrian Chieftain. Clear as the morning to me, showing all things Casimir, Son of Kiuprili. Hide nothing from me. O most loved, most honor'd, The mystery that struggles in my looks, Betray'd my whole tale to thee, if it told thee And mystery is contagious. All things here Are full of motion : and yet all is silent: RAAB KIUPRILI (his hand to his heart). I have trembling proof within, how true thou speakest. That the prince Emerick feasts the soldiery, Gives splendid arms, pays the commanders' debts, And (it is whisper'd) by sworn promises Front of the Palace with a magnificent Colonnade. On Makes himself debtor-hearing this, thou hast heard one side a military Guard-House. Sentries pacing All- (Then in a subdued and saddened voice.) backward und forward before the Palace. Cher But what my Lord will learn too soon himself. Ragozzi, at the door of the Guard-House, as looking forwards at some ohject in the distance. Ha -Well then, let it come! Worse scarce can RAAB KIUPRILI. CHEF RAGOZZI. CHEF RAGOZZI. RAAB KIUPRILI. CHEF RAGOZZI come. My eyes deceive me not, it must be he! This letter, written by the trembling hand a CHEF RAGOZZI. RAAB KIUPRILI. CHEF RAGOZZI. CHEF RAGOZZI. RAAB KIUPRILI. CHEF RAGOZZI. To his immediate presence. It appoints me, Did my King love me? Did I earn his love? The Queen, and Emerick, guardians of the realm, Have we embraced as brothers would embrace ? And of the royal infant. Day by day, Was I his arm, his thunder-bolt? And now Robb'd of Zapolya's soothing cares, the king Must I, hag-ridden, pant as in a dream? Yearns only to behold one precious boon, Or, like an eagle, whose strong wings press up And with his life breathe forth a father's blessing. Against a coiling serpent's folds, can I CHEF RAGOZZI. Strike but for mockery, and with restless beak Here before Heaven I dedicate my faith To the royal line of Andreas. RAAB KIUPRILI. (More courteously, I own, than pleased myself), Hark, Ragozzi! Guilt is a timorous thing ere perpetration : Despair alone makes wicked men be bold. To him in chief Come thou with me! They have heard my voice in Prince Emerick trusts his royal brother's health. flight, Have faced round, terror-struck, and fear'd no longer The whistling javelins of their fell pursuers. Hide nothing, I conjure you! What of him ? Ha! what is this? With pomp of words beyond a soldier's cunning, [Black Flag displayed from the Tower of the Pal. ace: a death-bell tolls, elc. Vengeance of Heaven! He is dead. At length then 'tis announced. Alas! I fear, That these black death-flags are but treason's signals However vain, that soothes him : and, in fine, RAAB KIUPRILI (looking forwards anxiously). Denies all chance of offspring from the Queen. A prophecy too soon fulfilld! See yonder ! O rank and ravenous wolves! the death-bell echoes The venomous snake! My heel was on its head, Suill in the doleful air-and see! they come. And (fool!) I did not crush it! CHEF RAGOZZI. Precise and faithful in their villany, Even to the moment, that the master traitor Had preordain'd them. RAAB KIUPRILI. Was it over-haste, Half makes me an accomplice-If he live), Or is it scorn, that in this race of treason [Is moving toward the palace. Their guilt thus drops its mask, and blazons forth If he but live and know me, all may, Their infamous plot even to an idiot's sense. CHEF RAGOZZI. Doubtless they deem Heaven too usurp'd! Heaven's To stop all ingress to the palace. justice Bought like themselves! [During this conversation music is heard, at first solemn and funereal, and then changing to No place, no name, no rank excepted spirited and triumphal. Being equal all in crime, RAAB KIUPRILI. Thou ! Do you press on, ye spotted parricides ! For the one sole pre-eminence yet doubtful, The prize of foremost impudence in guilt? RAAB KIUPRILI. Mine own no longer. Guardian of Illyria, The bad man's cunning still prepares the way Useless to thee, 't is worthless to myself. For its own outwitting. I applaud, Ragozzi! Thou art the framer of my nobler being : [Musing to himself-then Nor does there live one virtue in my soul, Raguzzi ! I applaud, One honorable hope, but calls thee father. In thee, the virtuous hope that dares look onward Yet ere thou dost resolve, know that yon palace And keeps the life-spark warm of future action Is guarded from within, that each access Beneath the cloak of patient sufferance. Is throng'd by arm'd conspirators, watch'd by ruffians Act and appear as time and prudence prompt thee; Pamper'd with gists, and hot upon the spoil I shall not misconceive the part thou playest. Which that false promiser still trails before them. Mine is an easier part-to brave the Usurper. I ask but this one boon-reserve my life (Enter a procession of EMERICK'S Adherents Till I can lose it for the realm and thee! Nobles, Chieftains, and Soldiers, with Music. They advance toward the front of the Stage My heart is rent asunder. O my country, KIUPRILI makes the signal for them to stop O fallen Illyria! stand I here spell-bound ? The Music ceases. CHEF RAGOZZI. RAAB KIUPRILI. |