The Wonder-Working Magician, Pedro Calderón de la Barca [finding audrey .TXT] 📗

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