The Wonder-Working Magician Part 26

CLARIN. I have been Absent.

LIVIA. Speak.

CLARIN. The whole of a twelvemonth, When without my intermission Moscon in possession held thee.

Now my quota in the business, If we both have equal measure, Is that I must have my year.

LIVIA. Can it be that I'm suspected Of thus wronging thee so basely?

Why, I wept whole days together When it was the day for weeping.

MOSCON. Yes, for I myself was present: Every day that was not mine She thy friendship quite respected.

CLARIN. That's a bounce; for not a tear, When this day her house I entered, Did she shed, and there I found thee Sitting with her quite contented.

LIVIA. But this day is not a fast.

CLARIN. Yes, it is; for I remember That the day I went away Was my day.

LIVIA. Oh! that's an error.

MOSCON. Yes, I see how that arises, This year is a year biss.e.xtile, And our days are now the same.

CLARIN. Well, I'm satisfied, 'tis better That a man should not too deeply Pry into such things.--Good heavens!--

[The sound of a great tempest is heard.

SCENE XXVII.

The Governor, a crowd of People; then FABIUS, LELIUS, and FLORUS, all astonished; afterwards The Demon.

LIVIA. Sure the house is tumbling down.

MOSCON. How terrific! what a tempest!

GOVERNOR. Doubtless in disastrous ruin Topple down the walls of heaven

[The tempest is renewed, and enter FABIUS, LELIUS, and FLORUS.

FABIUS. Scarcely on the public scaffold Had the headsman's hand dissevered Cyprian and Justina's necks, When the earth, even to its centre, Seemed to tremble.

LELIUS. And a cloud, From whose burning womb extended The wild lightnings, the loud thunders, Awful embryos were projected, Fell upon us.

FLORUS. From which issued A most horrid, most repelling Shape, who on the scaly sh.e.l.ls Of a mailed and mighty serpent, O'er the scaffold made a sign Motioning silence and attention.

[The Scene opens, and a scaffold with the heads and bodies of JUSTINA and CYPRIAN is seen. Over it in the air, upon a winged serpent, is The Demon.

DEMON. Hear, O mortals, hear what I, By the orders of high Heaven, For Justina's exculpation, Must declare to all here present.

I it was, who to dishonour Her pure fame, in form dissembled For the purpose, scaled her house, And her very chamber entered.

And in order that her fame Should not by that fraud be lessened, I come here her injured honour To exhibit pure and perfect.

Cyprian, who with her lieth On a happy bier at rest there, Was my slave. But he effacing, With the blood his neck outsheddeth, The red signature, the linen Is now spotless and unblemished.

And the two, in spite of me, Having to the spheres ascended Of the sacred throne of G.o.d, Live there in a world far better.-- This, then, is the truth, which I Tell, because G.o.d makes me tell it, Much against my will, my practice Not being great as a truth-teller.

[He falls swiftly, and sinks into the earth.

LIVIA. Oh! what horror!

FLORUS. What confusion!

LIVIA. What a prodigy!

MOSCON. What terror!

GOVERNOR. These are all but the enchantments Which this sorcerer effected At his death.

FLORUS. I am in doubt To believe them or reject them.

LELIUS. The mere thought of them confounds me.

CLARIN. If magician, it is certain, As I hold, he must have been The magician then of heaven.

MOSCON. Leaving our part.i.tioned love In a rather odd dilemma, For "The Wonderful Magician"

Ask the pardon of its errors.