THE "MAGICO PRODIGIOSO" OF CALDERON.
CYPRIAN as a Student; CLARIN and MoscoN as poor
In the sweet solitude of this calm place, This intricate wild wilderness of trees
And flowers and undergrowth of odorous plants, Leave me ; the books you brought out of the house To me are ever best society.
And whilst with glorious festival and song Antioch now celebrates the consecration Of a proud temple to great Jupiter, And bears his image in loud jubilee
To its new shrine, I would consume what still Lives of the dying day, in studious thought,
Far from the throng and turmoil. You, my friends, Go and enjoy the festival; it will
Be worth the labour, and return for me When the sun seeks its grave among the billows, Which among dim grey clouds on the horizon Dance like white plumes upon a hearse ;—and here I shall expect you.
I cannot bring my mind, Great as my haste to see the festival Certainly is, to leave you, Sir, without Just saying some three or four hundred words. How is it possible that on a day
Of such festivity, you can bring your mind To come forth to a solitary country
With three or four old books, and turn your back On all this mirth?
My master's in the right; There is not anything more tiresome Than a procession day, with troops of men, And dances, and all that.
Clarin, you are a temporizing flatterer;
You praise not what you feel, but what he does ;Toadeater!
You lie under a mistake— For this is the most civil sort of lie
That can be given to a man's face. I now Say what I think.
Of the old world masked with the names of Gods The attributes of Nature and of Man; A sort of popular philosophy.
This reply will not satisfy me, for
Such awe is due to the high name of God, That ill should never be imputed. Then, Examining the question with more care,
It follows, that the gods should always will That which is best, were they supremely good. How then does one will one thing-one another? And you may not say that I allege Poetical or philosophic learning :- Consider the ambiguous responses
Of their oracular statues; from two shrines Two armies shall obtain the assurance of
One victory. Is it not indisputable That two contending wills can never lead To the same end? And, being opposite, If one be good is not the other evil? Evil in God is inconceivable ;
But supreme goodness fails among the gods Without their union.
I deny your major. These responses are means towards some end Unfathomed by our intellectual beam. They are the work of providence, and more The battle's loss may profit those who lose, Than victory advantage those who win.
That I admit, and yet that God should not (Falsehood is incompatible with deity)
Though you may imagine
That I know little of the laws of duel, Which vanity and valour instituted, You are in error. By my birth I am Held no less than yourselves to know the limits Of honour and of infamy, nor has study
Quenched the free spirit which first ordered them; And thus to me, as to one well experienced In the false quicksands of the sea of honour, You may refer the merits of the case; And if I should perceive in your relation That either has the right to satisfaction From the other, I give you my word of honour To leave you.
O memory! permit it not That the tyrant of my thought Be another soul that still Holds dominion o'er the will; That would refuse, but can no more, To bend, to tremble, and adore. Vain idolatry!—I saw,
And gazing became blind with error; Weak ambition, which the awe Of her presence bound to terror! So beautiful she was—and I, Between my love and jealousy,
Am so convulsed with hope and fear, Unworthy as it may appear;- So bitter is the life I live,
That, hear me, Hell! I now would give To thy most detested spirit
My soul, for ever to inherit,
To suffer punishment and pine,
So this woman may be mine.
Hear'st thou, Hell! dost thou reject it? My soul is offered!
As in contempt of the elemental rage
A man comes forth in safety, while the ship's Great form is in a watery eclipse Obliterated from the Ocean's page,
And round its wreck the huge sea-monsters sit, A horrid conclave, and the whistling wave Is heaped over its carcase, like a grave.
The DEMON enters as escaped from the sea. DÆMON (aside).
It was essential to my purposes To wake a tumult on the sapphire ocean, That in this unknown form I might at length Wipe out the blot of the discomfiture Sustained upon the mountain, and assail With a new war the soul of Cyprian, Forging the instruments of his destruction Even from his love and from his wisdom.-0 Beloved earth, dear mother, in thy bosom I seek a refuge from the monster who Precipitates itself upon me.
Of this earthquaking hurricane is still, And the crystalline heaven has reassumed Its windless calm so quickly, that it seems As if its heavy wrath had been awakened Only to overwhelm that vessel,—speak, Who art thou, and whence comest thou!
My coming hither cost than thou hast seen, Or I can tell. Among my misadventures This shipwreck is the least. Wilt thou hear!
Since thou desirest, I will then unveil Myself to thee;-for in myself I am A world of happiness and misery ; This I have lost, and that I must lament For ever. In my attributes I stood So high and so heroically great,
In lineage so supreme, and with a genius Which penetrated with a glance the world Beneath my feet, that won by my high merit A king-whom I may call the King of kings, Because all others tremble in their pride Before the terrors of his countenance, In his high palace roofed with brightest gems Of living light-call them the stars of Heaven- Named me his counsellor. But the high praise Stung me with pride and envy, and I rose In mighty competition, to ascend
His seat, and place my foot triumphantly Upon his subject thrones. Chastised, I know The depth to which ambition falls; too mad Was the attempt, and yet more mad were now Repentance of the irrevocable deed :- Therefore I chose this ruin with the glory Of not to be subdued, before the shame Of reconciling me with him who reigns By coward cession.-Nor was I alone, Nor am I now, nor shall I be alone; And there was hope, and there may still be hope, For many suffrages among his vassals Hailed me their lord and king, and many still Are mine, and many more perchance shall be. Thus vanquished, though in fact victorious, I left his seat of empire, from mine eye Shooting forth poisonous lightning, while my words With inauspicious thunderings shook Heaven, Proclaiming vengeance, public as my wrong, And imprecating on his prostrate slaves One who, moved with pity, Over the mighty fabric of the world, Rapine and death, and outrage. Then I sailed
Collect thyself; and be the memory Of thy late suffering, and thy greatest sorrow But as a shadow of the past,-for nothing Beneath the circle of the moon but flows And changes, and can never know repose.
And who art thou, before whose feet my fate Has prostrated me?
A pirate ambushed in its pathless sands, A lynx crouched watchfully among its caves And craggy shores; and I have wandered over The expanse of these wide wildernesses In this great ship, whose bulk is now dissolved In the light breathings of the invisible wind, And which the sea has made a dustless ruin, Seeking ever a mountain, through whose forests I seek a man, whom I must now compel To keep his word with me. I came arrayed In tempest, and, although my power could well Bridle the forest winds in their career,
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