Early Plays, Henrik Ibsen [best historical fiction books of all time TXT] 📗

the vaunting tyrants boast!

I shall--!  If but the brave old band were here,

My comrades of the battlefield!  But no;

The greater part of them, alas, is dead;

The rest live scattering in many lands.--

 

MANLIUS.  Oh, what are you, the younger blood, to them?

You bend and cringe before authority;

You dare not break the chains that bind you fast;

You suffer patiently this life of bondage!

 

LENTULUS.  By all the Gods,--although indeed he taunts us,

Yet, Romans, is there truth in what he says.

 

CETHEGUS.  Oh, well,--what of it?  He is right, we grant,

But where shall we begin?  Ay, there's the rub.

 

LENTULUS.  Yes, it is true.  Too long have we endured

This great oppression.  Now--now is the time

To break the bonds asunder that injustice

And vain ambition have about us forged.

 

STATILIUS.  Ah, Lentulus, I understand.  Yet hold;

For such a thing we need a mighty leader,--

With pluck and vision.  Where can he be found?

 

LENTULUS.  I know a man who has the power to lead us.

 

MANLIUS.  Ah, you mean Catiline?

 

LENTULUS.  The very man.

 

CETHEGUS.  Yes, Catiline perchance is just the man.

 

MANLIUS.  I know him well.  I was his father's friend;

Many a battle side by side we fought.

Often his young son went with him to war.

Even his early years were wild and headstrong;

Yet he gave open proof of rare endowments,--

His mind was noble, dauntless was his courage.

 

LENTULUS.  We'll find him, as I think, most prompt and willing.

I met him late this evening much depressed;

He meditates in secret some bold plan;--

Some desperate scheme he long has had in mind.

 

STATILIUS.  No doubt; the consulate he long has sought.

 

LENTULUS.  His efforts are in vain; his enemies

Have madly raged against him in the senate;--

He was himself among them; full of wrath

He left the council--brooding on revenge.

 

STATILIUS.  Then will he surely welcome our proposal.

 

LENTULUS.  I hope so.  Yet must we in secret weigh

Our enterprise.  The time is opportune.

 

[They go.]

 

                *       *       *       *       *

 

[In the Temple of Vesta in Rome.  On an altar in the

background burns a lamp with the sacred fire.]

 

[CATILINE, followed by CURIUS, comes stealing in

between the pillars.]

 

CURIUS.  What, Catiline,--you mean to bring me here?

In Vesta's temple!

 

CATILINE.  [Laughing.]  Well, yes; so you see!

 

CURIUS.  Ye gods,--what folly!  On this very day

Has Cicero denounced you in the council;

And yet you dare--

 

CATILINE.  Oh, let that be forgotten!

 

CURIUS.  You are in danger, and forget it thus--

By rushing blindly into some new peril.

 

CATILINE.  [Gaily.]  Well, change is my delight.  I never knew

Ere now a vestal's love,--forbidden fruit;--

Wherefore I came to try my fortune here.

 

CURIUS.  What,--here, you say?  Impossible!  A jest!

 

CATILINE.  A jest?  Why, yes,--as all my loving is.

And yet I was in earnest when I spoke.

During the recent games I chanced to see

The priestesses in long and pompous train.

By accident I cast my roving eye

On one of them,--and with a hasty glance

She met my gaze.  It pierced me to the soul.

Ah, the expression in those midnight eyes

I never saw before in any woman.

 

CURIUS.  Yes, yes, I know.  But speak--what followed

then?

 

CATILINE.  A way into the temple I have found,

And more than once I've seen and spoken to her.

Oh, what a difference between this woman

And my Aurelia!

 

CURIUS.  And you love them both

At once?  No,--that I cannot understand.

 

CATILINE.  Yes, strange, indeed; I scarcely understand myself.

And yet--I love them both, as you have said.

But oh, how vastly different is this love!

The one is kind: Aurelia often lulls

With soothing words my soul to peace and rest;--

But Furia--.  Come, away; some one approaches.

 

[They hide themselves among the pillars.]

 

FURIA.  [Enters from the opposite side.]

Oh, hated walls,--witnesses of my anguish.

Home of the torment I must suffer still!

My hopes and cherished aspirations languish

Within my bosom,--now with feverish chill

Pervaded, now with all the heat of passion,

More hot and burning than yon vestal fire.

 

FURIA.  Ah, what a fate!  And what was my transgression

That chained me to this temple-prison dire,--

That robbed my life of every youthful pleasure,--

In life's warm spring each innocent delight?

 

FURIA.  Yet tears I shall not shed in undue measure;

Hatred and vengeance shall my heart excite.

 

CATILINE.  [Comes forward.]

Not even for me, my Furia, do you cherish

Another feeling,--one more mild than this?

 

FURIA.  Ye gods! you, reckless man,--you here again?

Do you not fear to come--?

 

CATILINE.  I know no fear.

'Twas always my delight to mock at danger.

 

FURIA.  Oh, splendid!  Such is also my delight;--

This peaceful temple here I hate the more,

Because I live in everlasting calm,

And danger never lurks within its walls.

 

FURIA.  Oh, this monotonous, inactive life,

A life faint as the flicker of the lamp--!

How cramped a field it is for all my sum

Of fervid longings and far-reaching plans!

Oh, to be crushed between these narrow walls;--

Life here grows stagnant; every hope is quenched;

The day creeps slowly on in drowsiness,--

And not one single thought is turned to deeds.

 

CATILINE.  O Furia, strange, in truth, is your complaint!

It seems an echo out of my own soul,--

As if with flaming script you sought to paint

My every longing towards a worthy goal.

Rancour and hate in my soul likewise flourish;

My heart--as yours--hate tempers into steel;

I too was robbed of hopes I used to nourish;

An aim in life I now no longer feel.

 

CATILINE.  In silence still I mask my grief, my want;

And none can guess what smoulders in my breast.

They scoff and sneer at me,--these paltry things;

They can not grasp how high my bosom beats

For right and freedom, all the noble thoughts

That ever stirred within a Roman mind.

 

FURIA.  I knew it!  Ah, your soul, and yours alone,

Is born for me,--thus clearly speaks a voice

That never fails and never plays me false.

Then come!  Oh, come--and let us heed the call.

 

CATILINE.  What do you mean, my sweet enthusiast?

 

FURIA.  Come,--let us leave this place, flee far away,

And seek a new and better fatherland.

Here is the spirit's lofty pride repressed;

Here baseness smothers each auspicious spark

Ere it can break into a burning flame.

Come, let us fly;--lo, to the free-born mind

The world's wide compass is a fatherland!

 

CATILINE.  Oh, irresistibly you lure me on--

 

FURIA.  Come, let us use the present moment then!

High o'er the hills, beyond the sea's expanse,--

Far, far from Rome we first will stay our journey.

Thousands of friends will follow you outright;

In foreign lands we shall a home design;

There shall we rule; 'twill there be brought to light

That no hearts ever beat as yours and mine.

 

CATILINE.  Oh, wonderful!--But flee?  Why must we flee?

Here too our love for freedom can be nourished;

Here also is a field for thought and action,

As vast as any that your soul desires.

 

FURIA.  Here, do you say?  Here, in this paltry Rome,

Where naught exists but thraldom and oppression?

Ah, Lucius, are you likewise one of those

Who can Rome's past recall without confession

Of shame?  Who ruled here then?  Who rule to-day?

Then an heroic race--and now a rabble,

The slaves of other slaves--

 

CATILINE.  Mock me you may;--

Yet know,--to save Rome's freedom from this babble,

To see yet once again her vanished splendor,

Gladly I should, like Curtius, throw myself

Into the abyss--

 

FURIA.  I trust you, you alone;

Your eyes glow bright; I know you speak the truth.

Yet go; the priestesses will soon appear;

Their wont it is to meet here at this hour.

 

CATILINE.  I go; but only to return again.

A magic power binds me to your side;--

So proud a woman have I never seen.

 

FURIA.  [With a wild smile.]  Then pledge me this; and

swear that you will keep

Whatever you may promise.  Will you, Lucius?

 

CATILINE.  I will do aught my Furia may require;

Command me,--tell me what am I to promise.

 

FURIA.  Then listen.  Though I dwell a captive here,

I know there lives a man somewhere in Rome

Whom I have sworn deep enmity to death--

And hatred even beyond the gloomy grave.

 

CATILINE.  And then--?

 

FURIA.  Then swear, my enemy shall be

Your enemy till death.  Will you, my Lucius?

 

CATILINE.  I swear it here by all the mighty gods!

I swear it by my father's honored name

And by my mother's memory--!  But, Furia,--

What troubles you?  Your eyes are wildly flaming,--

And white as marble, deathlike, are your cheeks.

 

FURIA.  I do not know myself.  A fiery stream

Flows through my veins.  Swear to the end your oath!

 

CATILINE.  Oh, mighty powers, pour out upon this head

Your boundless fury, let your lightning wrath

Annihilate me, if I break my oath;

Aye, like a demon I shall follow him!

 

FURIA.  Enough!  I trust you.  Ah, my heart is eased.

In your hand now indeed rests my revenge.

 

CATILINE.  It shall be carried out.  But tell me this,--

Who is your foe?  And what was his transgression?

 

FURIA.  Close by the Tiber, far from the city's tumult,

My cradle stood; it was a quiet home!

A sister much beloved lived with me there,

A chosen vestal from her childhood days.--

Then came a coward to our distant valley;--

He saw the fair, young priestess of the future--

 

CATILINE.  [Surprised.]  A priestess?  Tell me--!  Speak--!

 

FURIA.  He ravished her.

She sought a grave beneath the Tiber's stream.

 

CATILINE.  [Uneasy.]  You know him?

 

FURIA.  I have never seen the man.

When first I heard the tidings, all was past.

His name is all I know.

 

CATILINE.  Then speak it out!

 

FURIA.  Now is it famed.  His name is Catiline.

 

CATILINE.  [Taken aback.]

What do you say?  Oh, horrors!  Furia, speak--!

 

FURIA.  Calm yourself!  What perturbs you?  You grow pale.

My Lucius,--is this man perhaps your friend?

 

CATILINE.  My friend?  Ah, Furia, no;--no longer now.

For I have cursed,--and sworn eternal hate

Against myself.

 

FURIA.  You--you are Catiline?

 

CATILINE.  Yes, I am he.

 

FURIA.  My Sylvia you disgraced?

Nemesis then indeed has heard my prayer;--

Vengeance you have invoked on your own head!

Woe on you, man of violence!  Woe!

 

CATILINE.  How blank

The stare is in your eye.  Like Sylvia's shade

You seem to me in this dim candle light.

 

[He rushes out; the lamp with the sacred fire goes out.]

 

FURIA.  [After a pause.]  Yes, now I understand it.  From my eyes

The veil is fallen,--in the dark I see.

Hatred it was that settled in my breast,

When first I spied him in the market-place.

A strange emotion; like a crimson flame!

Ah, he shall know what such a hate as mine,

Constantly brewing, never satisfied,

Can fashion out in ruin and revenge!

 

A VESTAL.  [Enters.]  Go, Furia, go; your watch is at an end;

Therefore I came--.  Yet, sacred goddess, here--

Woe unto you!  The vestal fire is dead!

 

FURIA.  [Bewildered.]

Dead, did you say?  So bright it never burned;--

'Twill never, never die!

 

THE VESTAL.  Great heavens,--what is this?

 

FURIA.  The fires of hate are not thus lightly quenched!

Behold, love bursts forth of a sudden,--dies

Within the hour; but hate--

 

THE VESTAL.  By all the gods,--

This is sheer madness!

 

[Calls out.]

 

THE VESTAL.  Come!  Oh, help!  Come, help!

 

[VESTALS and temple SERVANTS rush in.]

 

SOME.  What is amiss?

 

OTHERS.  The vestal fire is dead!

 

FURIA.  But hate burns on; revenge still blazes high!

 

THE VESTALS.  Away with her to trial and punishment!

 

[They carry her out between them.]

 

CURIUS.  [Comes forward.]

To prison now they take her.  Thence to death.--

No, no, by all the gods, this shall not be!

Must she, most glorious of womankind,

Thus perish in disgrace, entombed alive?--

Oh, never have I felt so strangely moved.

Is this then love?  Yes, love it is indeed.--

Then shall I set her free!--But Catiline?

With hate and vengeance will she follow him.

Has he maligners not enough already?

Dare I still others to their number add?

He was to me as were an elder brother;

And gratitude now bids me that I shield him.--

But what of love?  Ah, what does it command?

And should he quake, the fearless Catiline,

Before the intrigues of a woman?  No;--

Then to the rescue work this very hour!

Wait, Furia;--I shall drag you from your grave

To life again,--though at the risk of death!

 

[He goes away quickly.]

 

                *       *       *       *       *

 

[A room in CATILINE's house.]

 

CATILINE.  [Enters impetuous and uneasy.]

"Nemesis then indeed has heard my prayer,

Vengeance you have invoked on your own head!"

Such were the words from the enchantress' lips.

Remarkable!  Perchance it was a sign,--

A warning of what time will bring to me.

 

CATILINE.  Now therefore I have pledged myself on oath

The blood avenger of my own misdeed.

Ah, Furia,--still I seem to see your eye,

Wildly aflame like that of death's own goddess!

Your words still echo hollow in my ears;--

The oath I shall remember all my life.

 

[During the following AURELIA enters and approaches him

unnoticed.]

 

CATILINE.  Yet, it is folly now to go on brooding

Upon this nonsense; it is nothing else.

Far better things there are to think upon;

A greater work awaits my energies.

The restless age is urgent with its plea;

Toward this I must direct my thought in season;

Of hope and doubt I am a stormy sea--

 

AURELIA.  [Seizes his hand.]

And may not your Aurelia know the reason?

May she not know what moves within your breast,

What stirs