Complete Poems Read Online

120

Look, woman, look, your Albert is quite safe!

In haste it seems. Now shall I be in the way,

And wish’d with silent curses in my grave,

Or side by side with ’whelmèd mariners.

[Enter ALBERT]

ALBERT Fair on your graces fall this early morrow!

So it is like to do, without my prayers,

For your right noble names, like favourite tunes,

Have fall’n full frequent from our Emperor’s lips,

High commented with smiles.

AURANTHE Noble Albert!

CONRAD [aside] Noble!

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AURANTHE Such salutation argues a glad heart

In our prosperity. We thank you, sir.

ALBERT Lady! O, would to Heaven your poor servant

Could do you better service than mere words!

But I have other greeting than mine own,

From no less man than Otho, who has sent

This ring as pledge of dearest amity;

’Tis chosen I hear from Hymen’s jewel’ry,

And you will prize it, lady, I doubt not,

Beyond all pleasures past, and all to come.

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To you great duke –

CONRAD To me! What of me, ha?

ALBERT What pleased your grace to say?

CONRAD Your message, sir!

ALBERT You mean not this to me?

[Exeunt CONRAD and AURANTHE]

CONRAD Sister, this way;

For there shall be no ‘gentle Alberts’ now,

No ‘sweet Auranthes!’ [aside]

ALBERT (solus) The duke is out of temper; if he knows

More than a brother of a sister ought,

I should not quarrel with his peevishness.

Auranthe – Heaven preserve her always fair! –

Is in the heady, proud, ambitious vein;

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I bicker not with her – bid her farewell!

She has taken flight from me, then let her soar –

He is a fool who stands at pining gaze!

But for poor Ludolph, he is food for sorrow:

No levelling bluster of my licensed thoughts,

No military swagger of my mind,

Can smother from myself the wrong I’ve done him –

Without design, indeed – yet it is so –

And opiate for the conscience have I none! [Exit]

OTHO Where is my noble herald?

[Enter CONRAD, from the Castle, attended by two Knights and Servants, Albert following]

Well, hast told

Auranthe our intent imperial?

Lest our rent banners, too o’ the sudden shown,

Should fright her silken casements, and dismay

Her household to our lack of entertainment.

A victory!

CONRAD God save illustrious Otho!

OTHO Ay, Conrad, it will pluck out all grey hairs;

It is the best physician for the spleen;

The courtliest inviter to a feast;

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The subtlest excuser of small faults;

And a nice judge in the age and smack of wine.

[Enter, from the Castle, AURANTHE, followed by Pages holding up her robes, and a train of Women. She kneels]

Hail my sweet hostess! I do thank the stars,

Or my good soldiers, or their ladies’ eyes,

That, after such a merry battle fought,

I can, all safe in body and in soul,

Kiss your fair hand and Lady Fortune’s too.

My ring! now, on my life, it doth rejoice

These lips to feel’t on this soft ivory!

Keep it, my brightest daughter; it may prove

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The little prologue to a line of kings.

I strove against thee and my hot-blood son,

Dull blockhead that I was to be so blind,

But now my sight is clear; forgive me, lady.

AURANTHE My lord, I was a vassal to your frown,

And now your favour makes me but more humble;

In wintry winds the simple snow is safe,

But fadeth at the greeting of the sun:

Unto thine anger I might well have spoken,

Taking on me a woman’s privilege,

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But this so sudden kindness makes me dumb.

OTHO What need of this? Enough, if you will be

A potent tutoress to my wayward boy,

And teach him, what it seems his nurse could not,

To say, for once, I thank you, Sigifred!

ALBERT He has not yet returned, my gracious liege.

OTHO What then! No tidings of my friendly Arab?

CONRAD None, mighty Otho.

[To one of his Knights, who goes out]

Send forth instantly

An hundred horsemen from my honoured gates,

To scour the plains and search the cottages.

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Cry a reward, to him who shall first bring

News of that vanishèd Arabian,

A full-heaped helmet of the purest gold.

OTHO More thanks, good Conrad; for, except my son’s,

There is no face I rather would behold

Than that same quick-eyed pagan’s. By the saints,

This coming night of banquets must not light

Her dazzling torches; nor the music breathe

Smooth, without clashing cymbal, tones of peace

And in-door melodies; nor the ruddy wine

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Ebb spouting to the lees; if I pledge not,

In my first cup, that Arab!

ALBERT Mighty Monarch,

I wonder not this stranger’s victor-deeds

So hang upon your spirit. Twice in the fight

It was my chance to meet his olive brow,

Triumphant in the enemy’s shattered rhomb;

And, to say truth, in any Christian arm

I never saw such prowess.

OTHO Did you ever?

O, ’tis a noble boy! – tut! – what do I say?

I mean a triple Saladin, whose eyes,

60 When in the glorious scuffle they met mine,

Seemed to say – ‘Sleep, old man, in safety sleep;

I am the victory!’

CONRAD Pity he’s not here.

OTHO And my son too, pity he is not here.

Lady Auranthe, I would not make you blush,

But can you give a guess where Ludolph is?

Know you not of him?

AURANTHE Indeed, my liege, no secret –

OTHO Nay, nay, without more words, dost know of him?

AURANTHE I would I were so over-fortunate,

Both for his sake and mine, and to make glad

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A father’s ears with tidings of his son.

OTHO I see ’tis like to be a tedious day.

Were Theodore and Gonfrid and the rest

Sent forth with my commands?

ALBERT Ay, my lord.

OTHO And no news! No news! ’Faith! ’tis very strange

He thus avoids us. Lady, is’t not strange?

Will he be truant to you too? It is a shame.

CONRAD Will’t please your highness enter, and accept

The unworthy welcome of your servant’s house?

Leaving your cares to one whose diligence

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May in few hours make pleasures of them all.

OTHO Not so tedious, Conrad. No, no, no, no –

I must see Ludolph or the – What’s that shout!

VOICES WITHOUT Huzza! huzza! Long live the Emperor!

OTHER VOICES Fall back! Away there!

OTHO Say, what noise is that?

[ALBERT advancing from the back of the stage, whither he had hastened on hearing the cheers of the soldiery]

ALBERT It is young Gersa, the Hungarian prince,

Picked like a red stag from the fallow herd

Of prisoners. Poor prince, forlorn he steps,

Slow, and demure, and proud in his despair.

If I may judge by his so tragic bearing.

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His eye not downcast, and his folded arm,

He doth this moment wish himself asleep

Among his fallen captains on yon plains.

[Enter GERSA, in chains, and guarded]

OTHO Well said, Sir Albert.

GERSA Not a word of greeting,

No welcome to a princely visitor,

Most mighty Otho? Will not my great host

Vouchsafe a syllable, before he bids

His gentlemen conduct me with all care

To some securest lodging? – cold perhaps!

OTHO What mood is this? Hath fortune touched thy brain?

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GERSA O kings and princes of this feverous world,

What abject things, what mockeries must ye be,

What nerveless minions of safe palaces!

When here, a monarch, whose proud foot is used

To fallen princes’ necks, as to his stirrup,

Must needs exclaim that I am mad forsooth,

Because I cannot flatter with bent knees

My conqueror!

OTHO Gersa, I think you wrong me:

I think I have a better fame abroad.

GERSA I prithee mock me not with gentle speech,

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But, as a favour, bid me from thy presence;

Let me no longer be the wondering food

Of all these eyes; prithee command me hence!

OTHO Do not mistake me, Gersa. That you may not,

Come, fair Auranthe, try if your soft hands

Can manage those hard rivets to set free

So brave a prince and soldier.

AURANTHE [sets him free] Welcome task!

GERSA I am wound up in deep astonishment!

Thank you, fair lady. Otho! emperor!

You rob me of myself; my dignity

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Is now your infant; I am a weak child.

OTHO Give me your hand, and let this kindly grasp

Live in our memories.

GERSA In mine it will.

I blush to think of my unchastened tongue;

But I was haunted by the monstrous ghost

Of all our slain battalions. Sire, reflect,

And pardon you will grant, that, at this hour,

The bruisèd remnants of our stricken camp

Are huddling undistinguished, my dear friends

With common thousands, into shallow graves.

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OTHO Enough, most noble Gersa. You are free

To cheer the brave remainder of your host

By your own healing presence, and that too,

Not as their leader merely, but their king;

For, as I hear, the wily enemy,

Who eased the crownet from your infant brows

Bloody Taraxa, is among the dead.

GERSA Then I retire, so generous Otho please,

Bearing with me a weight of benefits

Too heavy to be borne.

OTHO It is not so;

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Still understand me, King of Hungary,

Nor judge my open purposes awry.

Though I did hold you high in my esteem

For your self’s sake, I do not personate

The stage-play emperor to entrap applause,

To set the silly sort o’ the world agape,

And make the politic smile; no, I have heard

How in the Council you condemned this war,

Urging the perfidy of broken faith –

For that I am your friend.

GERSA If ever, sire,

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You are my enemy, I dare here swear

‘Twill not be Gersa’s fault. Otho, farewell!

OTHO Will you return, Prince, to our banqueting?

GERSA As to my father’s board I will return.

OTHO Conrad, with all due ceremony, give

The prince a regal escort to his camp;

Albert, go thou and bear him company.

Gersa, farewell!

GERSA All happiness attend you!

OTHO Return with what good speed you may; for soon

We must consult upon our terms of peace.

[Exeunt GERSA and ALBERT with others]

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And thus a marble column do I build

To prop my empire’s dome. Conrad, in thee

I have another steadfast one, to uphold

The portals of my state; and, for my own

Pre-eminence and safety, I will strive

To keep thy strength upon its pedestal.

For, without thee, this day I might have been

A show-monster about the streets of Prague,

In chains, as just now stood that noble prince:

And then to me no mercy had been shown,

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For when the conquered lion is once dungeoned,

Who lets him forth again? or dares to give

An old lion sugar-cates of mild reprieve?

Not to thine ear alone I make confession,

But to all here, as, by experience,

I know how the great basement of all power

Is frankness, and a true tongue to the world;

And how intriguing secrecy is proof

Of fear and weakness, and a hollow state.

Conrad, I owe thee much.

CONRAD To kiss that hand,

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My emperor, is ample recompense,

For a mere act of duty.

OTHO Thou art wrong;

For what can any man on earth do more?

We will make trial of your house’s welcome,

My bright Auranthe!

CONRAD How is Friedburg honoured!

[Enter ETHELBERT and six Monks]

ETHELBERT The benison of heaven on your head,

Imperial Otho!

OTHO Who stays me? Speak! Quick!

ETHELBERT Pause but one moment, mighty conqueror,

Upon the threshold of this house of joy.

OTHO Pray, do not prose, good Ethelbert, but speak

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What is your purpose.

ETHELBERT The restoration of some captive maids,

Devoted to Heaven’s pious ministries,

Who, driven forth from their religious cells,

And kept in thraldom by our enemy,

When late this province was a lawless spoil,

Still weep amid the wild Hungarian camp,

Though hemmed around by thy victorious arms.

OTHO Demand the holy sisterhood in our name

From Gersa’s tents. Farewell, old Ethelbert.

ETHELBERT The saints will bless you for this pious care.

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OTHO Daughter, your hand; Ludolph’s would fit it best.

CONRAD Ho! let the music sound!

[Music. ETHELBERT raises his hands, as in benediction of OTHO. Exeunt severally. The scene closes on them]

LUDOLPH You have my secret; let it not be breath’d.

SIGIFRED Still give me leave to wonder that the Prince

Ludolph and the swift Arab are the same;

Still to rejoice that ’twas a German arm

Death doing in a turbaned masquerade.

LUDOLPH The Emperor must not know it, Sigifred.

SIGIFRED I prithee, why? What happier hour of time

Could thy pleased star point down upon from heaven

With silver index, bidding thee make peace?

10

LUDOLPH Still it must not be known, good Sigifred;

The star may point oblique.

SIGIFRED If Otho knew

His son to be that unknown Mussulman

After whose spurring heels he sent me forth,

With one of his well-pleased Olympian oaths,

The charters of man’s greatness, at this hour

He would be watching round the castle walls,

And, like an anxious warder, strain his sight

For the first glimpse of such a son returned –

Ludolph, that blast of the Hungarians,

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That Saracenic meteor of the fight,

That silent fury, whose fell scimitar

Kept danger all aloof from Otho’s head,

And left him space for wonder.

LUDOLPH Say no more.

Not as a swordsman would I pardon claim,

But as a son. The bronzed centurion,

Long toiled in foreign wars, and whose high deeds

Are shaded in a forest of tall spears,

Known only to his troop, hath greater plea

Of favour with my sire than I can have.

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SIGIFRED My lord, forgive me that I cannot see

How this proud temper with clear reason squares.

What made you then, with such an anxious love,

Hover around that life, whose bitter days

You vexed with bad revolt? Was’t opium,

Or the mad-fumèd wine? Nay, do not frown,

I rather would grieve with you than upbraid.

LUDOLPH I do believe you. No, ’twas not to make

A father his son’s debtor, or to heal

His deep heart-sickness for a rebel child.

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’Twas done in memory of my boyish days,

Poor cancel for his kindness to my youth,

For all his calming of my childish griefs,

And all his smiles upon my merriment.

No, not a thousand foughten fields could sponge

Those days paternal from my memory,

Though now upon my head he heaps disgrace.

SIGIFRED My Prince, you think too harshly –

LUDOLPHCan I so?

Hath he not galled my spirit to the quick?

And with a sullen rigour obstinate

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Poured out a phial of wrath upon my faults?

Hunted me as a Tartar does the boar,

Driven me to the very edge o’ the world,

And almost put a price upon my head?

SIGIFRED Remember how he spared the rebel lords.

LUDOLPH Yes, yes, I know he hath a noble nature

That cannot trample on the fallen. But his

Is not the only proud heart in his realm.

He hath wronged me, and I have done him wrong;

He hath loved me, and I have shown him kindness;

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We should be almost equal.

SIGIFREDYet, for all this,

I would you had appeared among those lords,

And taken his favour.

LUDOLPHHa! till now I thought

My friend had held poor Ludolph’s honour dear.

What! would you have me sue before his throne

And kiss the courtier’s missal, its silk steps?

Or hug the golden housings of his steed,

Amid a camp, whose steelèd swarms I dared

But yesterday? And, at the trumpet sound,

Bow like some unknown mercenary’s flag,

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And lick the soilèd grass? No, no, my friend,

I would not, I, be pardoned in the heap,

And bless indemnity with all that scum –

Those men I mean, who on my shoulders propped

Their weak rebellion, winning me with lies,

And pitying forsooth my many wrongs;

Poor self-deceivèd wretches, who must think

Each one himself a king in embryo,

Because some dozen vassals cried – ‘My Lord!’

Cowards, who never knew their little hearts,

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Till flurried danger held the mirror up,

And then they owned themselves without a blush,

Curling, like spaniels, round my father’s feet.

Such things deserted me and are forgiven,

While I, least guilty, am an outcast still,

And will be, for I love such fair disgrace.

SIGIFRED I know the clear truth; so would Otho see,

For he is just and noble. Fain would I

Be pleader for you –

LUDOLPHHe’ll hear none of it;

You know his temper, hot, proud, obstinate;

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Endanger not yourself so uselessly.

I will encounter his thwart spleen myself,

To-day, at the Duke Conrad’s, where he keeps

His crowded state after the victory,

There will I be, a most unwelcome guest,

And parley with him, as a son should do,

Who doubly loathes a father’s tyranny;

Tell him how feeble is that tyranny;

How the relationship of father and son

Is no more valid than a silken leash

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Where lions tug adverse, if love grow not

From interchangèd love through many years.

Ay, and those turreted Franconian walls,

Like to a jealous casket, hold my pearl –

My fair Auranthe! Yes, I will be there.

SIGIFRED Be not so rash; wait till his wrath shall pass,

Until his royal spirit softly ebbs

Self-influenced; then, in his morning dreams

He will forgive thee, and awake in grief

To have not thy good morrow.

LUDOLPH Yes, today

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I must be there, while her young pulses beat

Among the new-plumed minions of the war.

Have you seen her of late? No? Auranthe,

Franconia’s fair sister, ’tis I mean.

She should be paler for my troublous days –

And there it is – my father’s iron lips

Have sworn divorcement ’twixt me and my right.

SIGIFRED [aside] Auranthe! I had hoped this whim had passed.

LUDOLPH And, Sigifred, with all his love of justice,

When will he take that grandchild in his arms,

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That, by my love I swear, shall soon be his?

This reconcilement is impossible,

For see – but who are these?

SIGIFRED They are messengers

From our great emperor; to you, I doubt not,

For couriers are abroad to seek you out.

[Enter THEODORE and GONFRID]

THEODORE Seeing so many vigilant eyes explore

The province to invite your highness back

To your high dignities, we are too happy.

GONFRID We have no eloquence to colour justly

The emperor’s anxious wishes.

LUDOLPHGo. I follow you.

[Exeunt THEODORE and GONFRID]

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I play the prude: it is but venturing –

Why should he be so earnest? Come, my friend,

Let us to Friedburg castle.

LUDOLPH No more advices, no more cautioning:

I leave it all to fate – to any thing!

I cannot square my conduct to time, place,

Or circumstance; to me ’tis all a mist!

SIGIFRED I say no more.

LUDOLPHIt seems I am to wait

Here in the anteroom – that may be a trifle.

You see now how I dance attendance here,

Without that tyrant temper, you so blame,

Snapping the rein. You have medicined me

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With good advices; and I here remain,

In this most honourable anteroom,

Your patient scholar.

SIGIFREDDo not wrong me, Prince.

By Heavens, I’d rather kiss Duke Conrad’s slipper,

When in the morning he doth yawn with pride,

Than see you humbled but a half-degree!

Truth is, the Emperor would fain dismiss

The nobles ere he sees you.

[Enter GONFRID, from the Council-room]

LUDOLPHWell, sir! what?

GONFRID Great honour to the Prince! The Emperor,

Hearing that his brave son had re-appeared,

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Instant dismissed the Council from his sight,

As Jove fans off the clouds. Even now they pass.

[Enter the Nobles from the Council-room. They cross the stage, bowing with respect to LUDOLPH, he frowning on them. CONRAD follows.