SCENE I.
THE STREET IN FRONT OF LYSANDER'S HOUSE.
Enter CYPRIAN, MOSCON, and CLARIN, in gala dresses.
CYPRIAN [aside]. Where, presumptuous thoughts, ah! where,
Would you lead me, whither go?
If for certain now you know
That the high attempts you dare
Are delusive dreams of bliss,
Since you strive to scale heaven's wall,
But from that proud height to fall
Headlong down a dark abyss?
I Justina saw..... So near
Would to God I had not seen her,
Nor in her divine demeanour
All the light of heaven's fourth sphere.
Lovers twain for her contend,
Both being jealous each should woo,
And I, jealous of the two,
Know not which doth most offend.
All I know is, that suspicion,
Her disdain, my own desires,
Fill my heart with furious fires—
Drive me, ah! to my perdition.
This I know, and know no more,
This I feel in all my strait;
Heavens! Justina is my fate!
Heavens! Justina I adore!—
Moscon.
MOSCON. Sir.
CYPRIAN. Inquire, I pray,
If Lysander's in.
MOSCON. I fly.
CLARIN. No, sir, no. On me rely,—
Moscon can't go there to-day.
CYPRIAN. Ever wrangling in this way,
How ye both my patience try!
Why can he not go? Say why?
CLARIN. Because to-day is not his day.
Mine it is, sir, to his sorrow.
So your message I will bear.
Moscon can't to-day go there;
He will have his turn to-morrow.
CYPRIAN. What new madness can this be
Which your usual feud doth show?
But now neither of you go,
Since in all her brilliancy
Comes Justina.
CLARIN. From the street
To her house she goes.
SCENE II.
Enter JUSTINA and LIVIA, veiled.—CYPRIAN, MOSCON, and CLARIN.
JUSTINA. Ah, me!
Cyprian's here. [Aside to her.] See, Livia, see!
CYPRIAN [aside]. I must strive and be discreet,
Feigning with a ready wit,
Till my jealousy I can prove.
I will only speak of love,
If my jealousy will permit.
Not in vain, senora sweet,—
Have I changed my student's dress,
The livery of thy loveliness,
As a servant at thy feet,
Thus I wear. If sighs could move thee
I would labour to deserve thee;
Give me leave at least to serve thee,
Since thou wilt not let me love thee.
JUSTINA. Slight effect, sir, as I see,
Have my words produced on you,
Since they have not brought....
CYPRIAN. Too true!
JUSTINA. A forgetfulness of me.
In what way must I explain
Clearer than I have done before,
That persistence at my door
Is and ever must be vain?
If a day, a month, a year,
If for ages there you stay,
Naught but this that now I say
Ever can you hope to hear.
As it were my latest breath,
Let this sad assurance move thee,—
Fate forbids that I should love thee,
Cyprian, except in death.
[She moves towards the house.
CYPRIAN. At these words my hopes revive:—
Sad! no, no, to joy they move me,
For if thou in death canst love me,
Soon for me will death arrive.
Be it so; and since so nigh
Comes the hour your words to prove—
Ah! even now begin to love,
Since I now begin to die.
[JUSTINA enters.
SCENE III.
CYPRIAN, MOSCON, CLARIN, and LIVIA.
CLARIN. Livia, while my master yonder,
Like a living skeleton,
Life and motion being gone,
On his luckless love doth ponder,
Give me an embrace.
LIVIA. Stay, stay.
Patience, man! until I see,
For I like my conscience free,
If to-day is your right day.—
Tuesday, yes, and Wednesday, no.
CLARIN. What are you counting there? Awake!
Moscon's mum.
LIVIA. He might mistake,
And I wish not to act so.
For, desiring to pursue
A just course betwixt you both,
Turn about, I would be loth
Not to give you each his due.
But I see that you are right,
'Tis your day.
CLARIN. Embrace me, then.
LIVIA. Yes, again, and yet again.
MOSCON. Hark to me, my lady bright,
May I from your ardour borrow
A good omen in my case;
And as Clarin you embrace,
Moscon you'll embrace to-morrow!
LIVIA. Your suspicion is, in fact,
Quite absurd; on me rely.
Jupiter forbid that I
Should commit so bad an act
As to be cool in any way
To a friend. I will to thee
Give an embrace in equity,
When it is your worship's day.
[Exit.
SCENE IV.
CYPRIAN, MOSCON, and CLARIN.
CLARIN. Well, I'll not be by to see,
That's a comfort.
MOSCON. How? why so?
Need I be chagrined to know,
If the girl's not mine, that she
Thus to you her debt did pay.
CLARIN. No.
MOSCON. This makes my point more strong,
Since to me it were no wrong
If it chanced not on my day.
But our master yonder, see,
How absorbed he seems.
CLARIN. More near,
If he speaks I'd like to hear.
MOSCON. And I, too, would like.
CYPRIAN. Ah me!
[As MOSCON and CLARIN approach CYPRIAN from opposite sides, he
gesticulates with his arms, and accidentally strikes both.
Love, how great thy agonies!—
CLARIN. Ah! ah, me!
MOSCON. Ah, me! I bawl.
CLARIN. Well, I think that we may call
This the land of the 'sigh-ah-mes'!
CYPRIAN. What! and have you both been here?
CLARIN. I, at least, was here, I'll swear.
MOSCON. And I, also.
CYPRIAN. O, despair
End at once my sad career!
Ah, what human heart to woe
Like to mine has given a home?
SCENE V.
THE COUNTRY.
CYPRIAN, CLARIN, and MOSCON.
CLARIN. Whither Moscon, do we roam?
MOSCON. When we've reached the end, we'll know.
Leagues behind us lies the town,
Still we go.
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 goddess 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 passion 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 hell,
Where some mightier power hath kept it,—
Sharing all its pains in common,—
I would, to possess this woman,
Give my soul.
