Count Alarcos; a Tragedy. Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli
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1ST COURT.
Hush! hush! a passenger.
I:1:16 PAGE.
Most noble Cavaliers, I pray, inform me
Where the great Count Alarcos holds his quarter.
I:1:17 2ND COURT.
In the chief square. His banner tells the roof;
Your pleasure with the Count, my gentle youth?
I:1:18 PAGE.
I were a sorry messenger to tell
My mission to the first who asks its aim.
I:1:19 2ND COURT.
The Count Alarcos is my friend and chief.
I:1:20 PAGE.
Then better reason I should trusty be,
For you can be a witness to my trust.
I:1:21 1ST COURT.
A forward youth!
I:1:22 2ND COURT.
A page is ever pert
I:1:23 PAGE.
Ay! ever pert is youth that baffles age.
[Exit PAGE.]
I:1:24 1ST COURT.
The Count is married?
I:1:25 2ND COURT.
To a beauteous lady;
And blessed with a fair race. A happy man
Indeed is Count Alarcos.
[A trumpet sounds.]
I:1:26 1ST COURT.
Prithee, see;
Passes he now?
I:1:27 2ND COURT.
Long since. Yon banner tells
The Count Sidonia. Let us on, and view
The passage of his pomp. His Moorish steeds,
They say, are very choice.
[Exeunt Two Courtiers.]
SCENE 2.
A Chamber in the Palace of Alarcos. The COUNTESS seated and
working at her tapestry; the COUNT pacing the Chamber.
I:2:1 COUN.
You are disturbed, Alarcos?
I:2:2 ALAR.
’Tis the stir
And tumult of this morn. I am not used
To Courts.
I:2:3 COUN.
I know not why, it is a name
That makes me tremble.
I:2:4 ALAR.
Tremble, Florimonde,
Why should you tremble?
I:2:5 COUN.
Sooth I cannot say.
Methinks the Court but little suits my kind;
I love our quiet home.
I:2:6 ALAR.
This is our home,
I:2:7 COUN.
When you are here.
I:2:8 ALAR.
I will be always here.
I:2:9 COUN.
Thou canst not, sweet Alarcos. Happy hours,
When we were parted but to hear thy horn
Sound in our native woods!
I:2:10 ALAR.
Why, this is humour!
We’re courtiers now; and we must smile and smirk.
I:2:11 COUN.
Methinks your tongue is gayer than your glance.
The King, I hope, was gracious?
I:2:12 ALAR.
Were he not,
My frown’s as prompt as his. He was most gracious.
I:2:13 COUN.
Something has chafed thee?
I:2:14 ALAR.
What should chafe me, child,
And when should hearts be light, if mine be dull?
Is not mine exile over? Is it nought
To breathe in the same house where we were born,
And sleep where slept our fathers? Should that chafe?
I:2:15 COUN.
Yet didst then leave my side this very morn,
And with a vow this day should ever count
Amid thy life most happy; when we meet
Thy brow is clouded.
I:2:16 ALAR.
Joy is sometimes grave,
And deepest when ’tis calm. And I am joyful
If it be joy, this long forbidden hall
Once more to pace, and feel each fearless step
Tread on a baffled foe.
I:2:17 COUN.
Hast thou still foes
I:2:18 ALAR.
I trust so; I should not be what I am,
Still less what I will be, if hate did not
Pursue me as my shadow. Ah! fair wife,
Thou knowest not Burgos. Thou hast yet to fathom
The depths of thy new world.
I:2:19 COUN.
I do recoil
As from some unknown woo, from this same world.
I thought we came for peace.
I:2:20 ALAR.
Peace dwells within
No lordly roof in Burgos. We have come
For triumph.
I:2:21 COUN.
So I share thy lot, Alarcos,
All feelings are the same.
I:2:22 ALAR.
My Florimonde,
I took thee from a fair and pleasant home
In a soft land, where, like the air they live in,
Men’s hearts are mild. This proud and fierce Castille
Resembles not thy gentle Aquitaine,
More than the eagle may a dove, and yet
It is my country. Danger in its bounds
Weighs more than foreign safety. But why speak
Of what exists not?
I:2:23 COUN.
And I hope may never!
I:2:24 ALAR.
And if it come, what then? This chance shall find me
Not unprepared.
I:2:25 COUN.
But why should there be danger?
And why should’st thou, the foremost prince of Spain,
Fear or make foes? Thou standest in no light
Would fall on other shoulders; thou hast no height
To climb, and nought to gain. Thou art complete;
The King alone above thee, and thy friend.
I:2:26 ALAR.
So I would