The Wonder-Working Magician Part 9

CLARIN. A strange proceeding!-- Little time have we for reading, Idly pacing up and down.

CYPRIAN. Clarin, get thee home.

MOSCON. And I?

CLARIN. Sly-boots, would you rather stay?

CYPRIAN. Go: here leave me both; away!

CLARIN. Mind, he tells us both to fly.

[Exeunt CLARIN and MOSCON.

SCENE VI.

CYPRIAN. Memory of a maddened brain, Do not with such strong control Make me think another soul Is what in my heart doth reign.

Blind idolator I have been-- Lost in love's ambitious flight, Since such beauty met my sight, Since a G.o.ddess I have seen.

Yet in such a maze of woe Rigorous fate doth make me move, That I know but whom I love, And of whom I am jealous--no.

Yet this pa.s.sion is so strong-- Ah, so sweet this fascination, Driving my imagination With resistless force along-- That I would (I know too well How this madness doth degrade me) To some devilish power to aid me, Were it even to rise from h.e.l.l, Where some mightier power hath kept it,-- Sharing all its pains in common,-- I would, to possess this woman, Give my soul.

SCENE VII.

The Demon and CYPRIAN.

Demon [within]. And I accept it.

[A great tempest is heard, with thunder and lightning.

CYPRIAN. What's this, ye heavens so pure?

Clear but a moment hence and now obscure, Ye fright the gentle day!

The thunder-b.a.l.l.s, the lightning's forked ray, Leap from its riven breast-- Terrific shapes it cannot keep at rest; All the whole heaven a crown of clouds doth wear, And with the curling mist, like streaming hair, This mountain's brow is bound.

Outspread below, the whole horizon round Is one volcanic pyre.

The sun is dead, the air is smoke, heaven fire.

Philosophy, how far from thee I stray, When I cannot explain the marvels of this day!

And now the sea, upborne on clouds the while, Seems like some ruined pile, That crumbling down the wind as 'twere a wall, In dust not foam doth fall.

And struggling through the gloom, Facing the storm, a mighty ship seeks room On the open sea, whose rage it seems to court, Flying the dangerous pity of the port.

The noise, the terror, and that fearful cry, Give fatal augury Of the impending stroke. Death hesitates, For each already dies who death awaits.

With portents the whole atmosphere is rife, Nor is it all the effect of elemental strife.

The ship is rigged with tempest as it flies.*

It rushes on the lee, The war is now no longer of the sea; Upon a hidden rock It strikes: it breaks as with a thunder shock.

Blood flakes the foam where helpless it is tost.

[footnote] *Hartzenbusch remarks that there is no corresponding rhyme for this line in the original, and that both the sense and the versification are defective.--'Comedias de Calderon', t. 2, p. 178.

[The sound of the tempest increases, and voices are heard within.

VOICES WITHIN. We sink! we sink! we're lost!

DEMON [within]. For what I have in hand, I'll trust this plank to bear me to the land.

CYPRIAN. As scorning the wild wave One man alone his life attempts to save.

While lurching over, mid the billows' swell, The great ship sinks to where the Tritons dwell; There, with its mighty ribs asunder rent, It lies a corse of the sea, its grave and monument.

[Enter The Demon, dripping with wet, as if escaped from the sea.

DEMON [aside]. For the end I wish to gain It was of necessity That upon this sapphire sea I this fearful storm should feign, And in form unlike that one Which in this wild wood I wore, When I found my deepest lore By his keener wit outdone, Come again to a.s.sail him here, Trusting better now to prove Both his intellect and his love.-- [Aloud.

Earth, loved earth, O mother dear, From this monster, this wild sea, Give me shelter in thy arms.

CYPRIAN. Lose, my friend, the dread alarms, And the cruel memory Of thy peril happily past; Since we learn or late or soon, That beneath the inconstant moon Human bliss doth never last.

DEMON. Who are thou, at whose kind feet Has my fortune cast me here?

CYPRIAN. One who with a pitying tear, For a ruin so complete, Would alleviate your woe.

DEMON. Ah, impossible!--for me Never, never, can there be Any solace.

CYPRIAN. How, why so?

DEMON. All my priceless wealth I've lost...

But I'm wrong to thus complain, I'll forget, nay, think it gain, Since my life it hath not cost.

CYPRIAN. Now that the wild whirl malign Of this earthquake storm doth cease, And the sky returns to peace, Quiet, calm, and crystalline, And the bright succeeds the dark With such strange rapidity, That the storm would seem to be Only raised to sink thy bark, Tell me who thou art, repay Thus a sympathy so sincere.

DEMON. It has cost me to come here More than you have seen to-day, More than I can well express; Of the miseries I recall This ship's loss is least of all.

Would you see that clearly?

CYPRIAN. Yes.

DEMON. I am since you wish to know it, An epitome, a wonder*

Of all happiness and misfortune, One I have lost, I weep the other.

By my gifts was I so glorious, So conspicuous in my order, Of a lineage so ill.u.s.trious, With a mind so well informed, That my rare endowments feeling, A great king (in truth the n.o.blest King of Kings, for all would tremble If he looked in anger on them,) In his palace roofed with diamonds And with gems as bright as morning, (If I called them stars, 'tis certain The comparison were too modest,) His especial favourite called me.

Which high epithet of honour So enflamed my pride, as rival For his royal seat I plotted, Hoping soon my victor footsteps Would his golden thrones have trodden.

It was an unheard-of daring, THAT, chastized I must acknowledge, I was mad; but then repentance Were a still insaner folly.

Obstinate in my resistance, With my spirit yet unconquered, I preferred to fall with courage Than surrender with dishonour.

If the attempt was rash, the rashness Was not solely my misfortune, For among his numerous va.s.sals Not a few my standard followed.

From his court, in fine, thus vanquished, Though part victor in the contest, I went forth, my eyes outflashing Flames of anger and abhorrence, And my lips proclaiming vengeance For the public insult offered To my pride, among his people Scattering murder, rapine, horror.

Then a b.l.o.o.d.y pirate, I The wide plains of the sea ran over, Argus of its dangerous shallows, Lynx-eyed where the reefs lay covered; In that vessel which the wind Bit by bit so soon demolished, In that vessel which the sea As a dustless ruin swallowed, I to-day these fields of crystal Eagerly ran o'er, my object Being stone by stone to examine, Tree by tree to search this forest:-- For a man in it is living, Whom it is of great importance I should see, this day expecting The fulfilment of a promise Which he gave and I accepted.