The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Illustrated Edition). Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Читать онлайн книгу.
With obscure memory of something past,
Which still escap’d my efforts, or presented
Tricks of a fancy pamper’d with long-wishing.
If (as it sometimes happens) our rude startling,
While your full heart was shaping out its dream, 340
Drove you to this, your not ungentle wildness,
You have my sympathy, and so farewell!
But if some undiscover’d wrongs oppress you,
And you need strength to drag them into light,
The generous Velez, and my Lord Osorio 345
Have arm and will to aid a noble sufferer,
Nor shall you want my favourable pleading.
[Exeunt MARIA and ALHADRA.
Albert (alone). ‘Tis strange! it cannot be! my Lord Osorio!
Her Lord Osorio! Nay, I will not do it.
I curs’d him once, and one curse is enough. 350
How sad she look’d and pale! but not like guilt,
And her calm tones — sweet as a song of mercy!
If the bad spirit retain’d his angel’s voice,
Hell scarce were hell. And why not innocent?
Who meant to murder me might well cheat her. 355
But ere she married him, he had stain’d her honour.
Ah! there I am hamper’d. What if this were a lie
Fram’d by the assassin? who should tell it him
If it were truth? Osorio would not tell him.
Yet why one lie? All else, I know, was truth. 360
No start! no jealousy of stirring conscience!
And she referr’d to me — fondly, methought!
Could she walk here, if that she were a traitress?
Here where we play’d together in our childhood?
Here where we plighted vows? Where her cold cheek 365
Received my last kiss, when with suppress’d feelings
She had fainted in my arms? It cannot be!
‘Tis not in nature! I will die, believing
That I shall meet her where no evil is,
No treachery, no cup dash’d from the lips! 370
I’ll haunt this scene no more — live she in peace!
Her husband — ay, her husband! May this Angel
New-mould his canker’d heart! Assist me, Heaven!
That I may pray for my poor guilty brother!
END OF ACT THE FIRST.
ALHADRA (aside).
I must reserve all knowledge of this Table
Till I can pierce the mystery of the slander —
Form, Look, Features, — the scar below the Temple
All, all are Isidore’s — and the whole Picture — (then to ALVAR.)
On matter of concerning Import . .
… I would discourse with you:
Thou hast ta’en up thy sojourn in the Dell,
Where Zagri liv’d — who dar’d avow the Prophet,
And died like one of the Faithful — there expect me.
Addition on margin of MS. III.
ACT THE SECOND
SCENE THE FIRST. — A wild and mountainous country. OSORIO and FERDINAND
are discovered at a little distance from a house, which stands under the
brow of a slate rock, the rock covered with vines.
FERDINAND and OSORIO.
Ferdinand. Thrice you have sav’d my life. Once in the battle
You gave it me, next rescued me from suicide,
When for my follies I was made to wander
With mouths to feed, and not a morsel for them.
Now, but for you, a dungeon’s slimy stones 5
Had pillow’d my snapt joints.
Osorio. Good Ferdinand!
Why this to me? It is enough you know it.
Ferdinand. A common trick of gratitude, my lord!
Seeking to ease her own full heart.
Osorio. Enough.
A debt repay’d ceases to be a debt. 10
You have it in your power to serve me greatly.
Ferdinand. As how, my lord? I pray you name the thing!
I would climb up an ice-glaz’d precipice
To pluck a weed you fancied.
Osorio (with embarrassment and hesitation). Why — that — lady —
Ferdinand. ‘Tis now three years, my lord! since last I saw you. 15
Have you a son, my lord?
Osorio. O miserable! [Aside.
Ferdinand! you are a man, and know this world.
I told you what I wish’d — now for the truth!
She lov’d the man you kill’d!
Ferdinand (looking as suddenly alarmed). You jest, my lord?
Osorio. And till his death is proved, she will not wed me. 20
Ferdinand. You sport with me, my lord?
Osorio. Come, come, this foolery
Lives only in thy looks — thy heart disowns it.
Ferdinand. I can bear this, and anything more grievous
From you, my lord! — but how can I serve you here?
Osorio. Why, you can mouth set speeches solemnly, 25
Wear a quaint garment, make mysterious antics.
[Ferdinand. I am dull, my lord! I do not comprehend you.
Osorio. In blunt terms] you can play the sorcerer.
She has no faith in Holy Church, ‘tis true.
Her lover school’d her in some newer nonsense: 30
Yet still a tale of spirits works on her.
She is a lone enthusiast, sensitive,
Shivers, and cannot keep the tears in her eye.
Such ones do love the marvellous too well
Not to believe it. We will wind her up 35
With a strange music, that she knows not of,
With fumes of frankincense, and mummery —
Then leave, as one sure token of his death,
That portrait, which from off the dead man’s neck
I bade thee take, the trophy of thy conquest. 40
Ferdinand (with hesitation). Just now I should have cursed the
man who told me
You could ask aught, my lord! and I refuse.
But this I cannot do.
Osorio.