Complete Poems Read Online

AURANTHE Out, villain! dastard!

ALBERT Look there to the door!

Who is it?

AURANTHE Conrad, traitor!

ALBERT Let him in.

[Enter CONRAD]

Do not affect amazement, hypocrite,

At seeing me in this chamber.

CONRAD Auranthe?

ALBERT Talk not with eyes, but speak your curses out

Against me, who would sooner crush and grind

A brace of toads, than league with them t’oppress

An innocent lady, gull an Emperor,

More generous to me than autumn sun

To ripening harvests.

AURANTHE No more insult, sir!

ALBERT Ay, clutch your scabbard; but, for prudence’ sake,

Draw not the sword; ’twould make an uproar, Duke,

You would not hear the end of. At nightfall

Your lady sister, if I guess aright,

Will leave this busy castle. You had best

Take farewell too of worldly vanities.

CONRAD Vassal!

ALBERT Tomorrow, when the Emperor sends

For loving Conrad, see you fawn on him.

Good even!

AURANTHE You’ll be seen!

ALBERT See the coast clear then.

AURANTHE [as he goes] Remorseless Albert! Cruel, cruel, wretch!

[She lets him out]

CONRAD So, we must lick the dust?

AURANTHE I follow him.

CONRAD How? Where? The plan of your escape?

AURANTHE He waits

For me with horses by the forest-side,

Northward.

CONRAD Good, good! he dies. You go, say you?

AURANTHE Perforce.

CONRAD Be speedy, darkness! Till that comes,

Fiends keep you company! [Exit]

AURANTHE And you! And you!

And all men! Vanish! Oh! Oh! Oh!

[Retires to an inner apartment]

PAGE Still very sick, my Lord; but now I went

[Knowing my duty to so good a Prince;]

And there her women in a mournful throng

Stood in the passage whispering: if any

Moved ’twas with careful steps and hushed as death;

They bade me stop.

LUDOLPHGood fellow, once again

Make soft enquiry; prithee be not stayed

By any hindrance, but with gentlest force

Break through her weeping servants, till thou com’st

E’en to her chamber door, and there, fair boy –

If with thy mother’s milk thou hast sucked in

Any diviner eloquence – woo her ears

With plaints for me, more tender than the voice

Of dying Echo, echoed.

PAGE Kindest master!

To know thee sad thus, will unloose my tongue

In mournful syllables. Let but my words reach

Her ears and she shall take them coupled with

Moans from my heart and sighs not counterfeit.

May I speed better! [Exit Page]

LUDOLPHAuranthe! My Life!

Long have I loved thee, yet till now not loved:

Remembering, as I do, hard-hearted times

When I had heard even of thy death perhaps,

And thoughtless! suffered thee to pass alone

Into Elysium! Now I follow thee

A substance or a shadow, wheresoe’er

Thou leadest me – whether thy white feet press,

With pleasant weight, the amorous-aching earth

Or through the air thou pioneerest me,

A shade! Yet sadly I predestinate!

O unbenignest Love, why wilt thou let

Darkness steal out upon the sleepy world

So wearily, as if night’s chariot wheels

Were clogged in some thick cloud. O, changeful Love,

Let not her steeds with drowsy-footed pace

Pass the high stars, before sweet embassage

Comes from the pillowed beauty of that fair

Completion of all delicate nature’s wit.

Pout her faint lips anew with rubious health,

And with thine infant fingers lift the fringe

Of her sick eyelids; that those eyes may glow

With wooing light upon me, ere the morn

Peers with disrelish, grey, barren, and cold.

[Enter GERSA and Courtiers]

Otho calls me his Lion – should I blush

To be so tamed? so –

GERSA Do me the courtesy

Gentlemen to pass on.

COURTIER We are your servants.

[Exeunt Courtiers]

LUDOLPH It seems then, Sir, you have found out the man

You would confer with – me?

GERSA If I break not

Too much upon your thoughtful mood, I will

Claim a brief while your patience.

LUDOLPHFor what cause

Soe’er I shall be honoured.

GERSA I not less.

LUDOLPH What may it be? No trifle can take place

Of such deliberate prologue, serious ’haviour.

But be it what it may I cannot fail

To listen with no common interest –

For though so new your presence is to me,

I have a soldier’s friendship for your fame –

Please you explain.

GERSA As thus – for, pardon me,

I cannot in plain terms grossly assault

A noble nature; and would faintly sketch

What your quick apprehension will fill up,

So finely I esteem you.

LUDOLPHI attend.

GERSA Your generous father, most illustrious Otho,

Sits in the banquet-room among his chiefs:

His wine is bitter, for you are not there,

His eyes are fixed still on the open doors,

And every passer in he frowns upon,

Seeing no Ludolph comes.

LUDOLPHI do neglect –

GERSA And for your absence, may I guess the cause?

LUDOLPH Stay there! No! Guess? More princely you must be

Than to make guesses at me. ’Tis enough.

I’m sorry I can hear no more.

GERSA And I

As grieved to force it on you so abrupt;

Yet, one day, you must know a grief whose sting

Will sharpen more the longer ’tis concealed.

LUDOLPH Say it at once, sir! Dead – dead – is she dead?

GERSA Mine is a cruel task: she is not dead –

And would, for your sake, she were innocent.

LUDOLPH Hungarian! thou amazest me beyond

All scope of thought; convulsest my heart’s blood

To deadly churning! – Gersa, you are young

As I am; let me observe you face to face:

Not grey-browed like the poisonous Ethelbert,

No rheumèd eyes, no furrowing of age,

No wrinkles where all vices nestle in

Like crannied vermin – no! but fresh and young

And hopeful featured. Ha! by Heaven you weep

Tears, human tears! Do you repent you then

Of a cursed torturer’s office! Why shouldst join –

Tell me – the league of Devils? Confess – confess

The lie!

GERSA Lie! – but begone all ceremonious points

Of honour battailous! I could not turn

My wrath against thee for the orbèd world.

LUDOLPH Your wrath, weak boy? Tremble at mine unless

Retraction follow close upon the heels

Of that late stounding insult. Why has my sword

Not done already a sheer judgement on thee?

Despair, or eat thy words! Why, thou wast nigh

Whimpering away my reason! Harkee, Sir,

It is no secret that Erminia,

Erminia, Sir, was hidden in your tent –

O blessed asylum! Comfortable home!

Begone! I pity thee; thou art a gull –

Erminia’s fresh puppet –

GERSA Furious fire!

Thou mak’st me boil as hot as thou canst flame!

And in thy teeth I give thee back the lie!

Thou liest! Thou, Auranthe’s fool! A wittol!

LUDOLPH Look! look at this bright sword;

There is no part of it to the very hilt

But shall indulge itself about thine heart!

Draw! but remember thou must cower thy plumes,

As yesterday the Arab made thee stoop.

GERSA Patience! Not here, I would not spill thy blood

Here underneath this roof where Otho breathes,

Thy father – almost mine –

LUDOLPH O faltering coward!

[Re-enter Page]

Stay, stay; here is one I have half a word with –

Well? What ails thee, child?

PAGE My lord…

LUDOLPHWhat wouldst say?

PAGE They are fled!

LUDOLPHThey! Who?

PAGE When anxiously

I hastened back, your grieving messenger,

I found the stairs all dark, the lamps extinct,

And not a foot or whisper to be heard.

I thought her dead, and on the lowest step

Sat listening; when presently came by

Two muffled up – one sighing heavily,

The other cursing low, whose voice I knew

For the Duke Conrad’s. Close I followed them

Through the dark ways they chose to the open air;

And, as I followed, heard my lady speak.

LUDOLPH Thy life answer the truth!

PAGE The chamber’s empty!

LUDOLPH As I will be of mercy! So, at last,

This nail is in my temples!

GERSA Be calm in this.

LUDOLPH I am.

GERSA And Albert too has disappeared;

Ere I met you, I sought him everywhere;

You would not hearken.

LUDOLPHWhich way went they, boy?

GERSA I’ll hunt with you.

LUDOLPH No, no, no. My senses are

Still whole. I have survived. My arm is strong,

My appetite sharp – for revenge! I’ll no sharer

In my feast; my injury is all my own,

And so is my revenge, my lawful chattels!

Terrier, ferret them out! Burn – burn the witch!

Trace me their footsteps! Away! [Exeunt]

AURANTHE Go no further; not a step more. Thou art

A master-plague in the midst of miseries.

Go – I fear thee! I tremble every limb,

Who never shook before. There’s moody death

In thy resolvèd looks! Yes, I could kneel

To pray thee far away. Conrad, go! go! –

There! yonder underneath the boughs I see

Our horses!

CONRAD Aye, and the man.

AURANTHE Yes, he is there!

Go, go – no blood! no blood! Go, gentle Conrad!

10

CONRAD Farewell!

AURANTHE Farewell, for this Heaven pardon you.

[Exit AURANTHE]

CONRAD If he survive one hour, then may I die

In unimagined tortures – or breathe through

A long life in the foulest sink o’ the world!

He dies. ’Tis well she do not advertize

The caitiff of the cold steel at his back. [Exit CONRAD]

[Enter LUDOLPH and Page]

LUDOLPH Missed the way, boy? Say not that on your peril!

PAGE Indeed, indeed I cannot trace them further.

LUDOLPH Must I stop here? Here solitary die?

Stifled beneath the thick oppressive shade

Of these dull boughs – this oven of dark thickets –

Silent – without revenge? Pshaw! – bitter end –

A bitter death – a suffocating death –

A gnawing – silent – deadly, quiet death!

Escaped? – Fled? – Vanished? Melted into air?

She’s gone! I cannot clutch her! No revenge!

A muffled death, ensnared in horrid silence!

Sucked to my grave amid a dreary calm!

O, where is that illustrious noise of war,

To smother up this sound of labouring breath,

This rustle of the trees!

[AURANTHE shrieks at a distance]

PAGE My Lord, a noise!

This way – hark!

LUDOLPHYes, yes! A hope! A music!

A glorious clamour! Now I live again! [Exeunt]

ALBERT O for enough life to support me on

To Otho’s feet!

[Enter LUDOLPH]

LUDOLPHThrice villainous, stay there!

Tell me where that detested woman is,

Or this is through thee!

ALBERT My good Prince, with me

The sword has done its worst; not without worst

Done to another – Conrad has it home!

I see you know it all!

LUDOLPHWhere is his sister?

[AURANTHE rushes in]

AURANTHE Albert!

LUDOLPH Ha! There! there! – He is the paramour! –

There – hug him – dying! O, thou innocence,

Shrive him and comfort him at his last gasp,

Kiss down his eyelids! Was he not thy love?

Wilt thou forsake him at his latest hour?

Keep fearful and aloof from his last gaze,

His most uneasy moments, when cold death

Stands with the door ajar to let him in?

ALBERT O, that that door with hollow slam would close

Upon me sudden, for I cannot meet,

In all the unknown chambers of the dead,

ucorrors

LUDOLPH Auranthe! what can he mean?

What horrors? Is it not a joyous time?

Am I not married to a paragon

‘Of personal beauty and untainted soul?’

A blushing fair-eyed purity! A sylph,

Whose snowy timid hand has never sinned

Beyond a flower plucked, white as itself?

Albert, you do insult my bride – your mistress –

To talk of horrors on our wedding night.

ALBERT Alas! poor Prince, I would you knew my heart!

’Tis not so guilty –

LUDOLPHHear, he pleads not guilty!

You are not? or, if so, what matters it?

You have escaped me, free as the dusk air,

Hid in the forest – safe from my revenge.

I cannot catch you! You should laugh at me,

Poor cheated Ludolph! Make the forest hiss

With jeers at me! You tremble – faint at once,

You will come to again. O cockatrice,

I have you! Whither wander those fair eyes

To entice the Devil to your help, that he

May change you to a spider, so to crawl

Into some cranny to escape my wrath?

ALBERT Sometimes the counsel of a dying man

Doth operate quietly when his breath is gone:

Disjoin those hands – part – part, do not destroy

Each other – forget her! Our miseries

Are equal shared, and mercy is –

[ALBERT dies]

There goes a spotted soul

LUDOLPHA boon

When one can compass it. Auranthe, try

Your oratory; your breath is not so hitched –

Ay, stare for help –

Howling in vain along the hollow night!

Hear him! He calls you – sweet Auranthe, come!

AURANTHE Kill me!

LUDOLPHNo! What? Upon our marriage-night?

The earth would shudder at so foul a deed –

A fair bride! A sweet bride! An innocent bride!

No, we must revel it, as ’tis in use

In times of delicate brilliant ceremony:

Come, let me lead you to our halls again!

Nay, linger not – make no resistance, sweet –

Will you? – Ah wretch, thou canst not, for I have

The strength of twenty lions ’gainst a lamb!

Now – one adieu for Albert! – Come away! [Exeunt]

THEODORE Was ever such a night?

SIGIFREDWhat horrors more?

Things unbelieved one hour, so strange they are,

The next hour stamps with credit.

THEODORE Your last news?

GONFRID After the page’s story of the death

Of Albert and Duke Conrad?

SIGIFREDAnd the return

Of Ludolph with the Princess.

GONFRIDNo more, save

Prince Gersa’s freeing Abbot Ethelbert,

And the sweet lady, fair Erminia,

From prison.

THEODORE Where are they now? Hast yet heard?

GONFRID With the sad Emperor they are closeted;

I saw the three pass slowly up the stairs,

The lady weeping, the old Abbot cowled.

SIGIFRED What next?

THEODORE I ache to think on’t.

GONFRID ’Tis with fate.

THEODORE One while these proud towers are hushed as death.

GONFRID The next our poor Prince fills the arched rooms

With ghastly ravings.

SIGIFREDI do fear his brain.

[Exeunt into the Castle.]

GONFRID I will see more. Bear you so stout a heart?

OTHO O, my poor boy! My son! My son! My Ludolph!

Have ye no comfort for me, ye physicians

Of the weak body and soul?

ETHELBERT ’Tis not in medicine

Either of heaven or earth can cure, unless

Fit time be chosen to administer.

OTHO A kind forbearance, holy Abbot – come

Erminia; here, sit by me, gentle girl;

Give me thy hand – hast thou forgiven me?

ERMINIA Would I were with the saints to pray for you!

10

OTHO Why will ye keep me from my darling child?

PHYSICIAN Forgive me, but he must not see thy face.

OTHO Is then a father’s countenance a Gorgon?

Hath it not comfort in it? Would it not

Console my poor boy, cheer him, heal his spirits?

Let me embrace him, let me speak to him;

I will! Who hinders me? Who’s Emperor?

PHYSICIAN You may not, Sire; ’twould overwhelm him quite,

He is so full of grief and passionate wrath;

Too heavy a sigh would kill him or do worse.

He must be saved by fine contrivances,

And most especially we must keep clear

Out of his sight a father whom he loves;

His heart is full, it can contain no more,

And do its ruddy office.

ETHELBERT Sage advice;

We must endeavour how to ease and slacken

The tight-wound energies of his despair,

Not make them tenser.

OTHO Enough! I hear, I hear.

Yet you were about to advise more – I listen.

ETHELBERT This learned doctor will agree with me,

That not in the smallest point should he be thwarted,

Or gainsaid by one word; his very motions,

Nods, becks and hints, should be obeyed with care,

Even on the moment: so his troubled mind

May cure itself.

PHYSICIAN There are no other means.

OTHO Open the door: let’s hear if all is quiet.

PHYSICIAN Beseech you, Sire, forbear.

ERMINIADo, do.

OTHO I command!

Open it straight – hush! – quiet! – my lost boy!

My miserable child!

LUDOLPH [indistinctly without] Fill fill my goblet – here’s a health!

40

ERMINIA O, close the door!

OTHO Let, let me hear his voice; this cannot last –

And fain would I catch up his dying words

Though my own knell they be – this cannot last –

O let me catch his voice – for lo! I hear

A whisper in this silence that he’s dead!

It is so! Gersa?

[Enter GERSA]

PHYSICIAN Say, how fares the prince?

GERSA More calm – his features are less wild and flushed;

Once he complained of weariness.

PHYSICIAN Indeed!

’Tis good – ’tis good; let him but fall asleep,

That saves him.

OTHO Gersa, watch him like a child;

Ward him from harm – and bring me better news!

PHYSICIAN Humour him to the height. I fear to go;

For should he catch a glimpse of my dull garb,

It might affright him, fill him with suspicion

That we believe him sick, which must not be.

GERSA I will invent what soothing means I can.

[Exit GERSA]

PHYSICIAN This should cheer up your Highness; the weariness

Is a good symptom, and most favourable;

It gives me pleasant hopes. Please you, walk forth

Upon the terrace; the refreshing air

Will blow one half of your sad doubts away. [Exeunt]

FIRST KNIGHT Grievously are we tantalized, one and all;

Swayed here and there, commanded to and fro

As though we were the shadows of a sleep,

And linked to a dreaming fancy. What do we here?

GONFRID I am no seer; you know we must obey

The Prince from A to Z, though it should be

To set the place in flames. I pray hast heard

Where the most wicked Princess is?

FIRST KNIGHTThere, sir,

In the next room. Have you remarked those two

Stout soldiers posted at the door?

GONFRIDFor what? [They whisper]

FIRST LADY How ghast a train!

SECOND LADY Sure this should be some splendid burial.

FIRST LADY What fearful whispering! See, see – Gersa there!

[Enter GERSA]

GERSA Put on your brightest looks; smile if you can;

Behave as all were happy; keep your eyes

From the least watch upon him; if he speaks

To any one, answer collectedly,

Without surprise, his questions, howe’er strange.

Do this to the utmost – though, alas! with me

The remedy grows hopeless! Here he comes –

Observe what I have said – show no surprise.

[Enter LUDOLPH, followed by SIGIFRED and Page]

LUDOLPH A splendid company! rare beauties here!

I should have Orphean lips, and Plato’s fancy,

Amphion’s utterance, tonèd with his lyre,

Or the deep key of Jove’s sonorous mouth,

To give fit salutation. Methought I heard,

As I came in, some whispers – what of that?

’Tis natural men should whisper; at the kiss

Of Psyche given by Love, there was a buzz

Among the gods! – and silence is as natural.

These draperies are fine, and, being a mortal,

I should desire no better; yet, in truth,

There must be some superior costliness,

Some wider-domèd high magnificence!

I would have, as a mortal I may not,

Hangings of heaven’s clouds, purple and gold,

Slung from the spheres; gauzes of silver mist,

Looped up with cords of twisted wreathèd light,

And tasselled round with weeping meteors!

These pendent lamps and chandeliers are bright

As earthly fires from dull dross can be cleansed;

Yet could my eyes drink up intenser beams

Undazzled – this is darkness.