Pedro Calderón de la Barca

“ CYPRIAN. Thou dost owe Him that, Justina, For thy God was thy defender, He watched o'er thee in His goodness. Get my prayers to Him accepted. JUSTINA. Pray with faith, and He will listen. CYPRIAN. Then with that I will address Him. Though a fear, that's not despair, Makes me for my great sins tremble. JUSTINA. Oh! have confidence. CYPRIAN. My crimes are So immense. JUSTINA. But more immense are His great mercies. CYPRIAN. Then, will He Pardon have on me? JUSTINA. 'Tis certain. CYPRIAN. How, if my soul surrendered To the Demon's self, as purchase Of thy beauty? ”

“ LELIUS. Cyprian, although respect Which on many grounds I give thee, Holds my sword suspended thus In due deference for an instant,— To the scabbard's calm repose It hath got no power to win it. Thou of science knowest more, Than the duel, pretermitting This, that when two nobles meet In the field, no power can link them Friends again, save this, that one Must his life give as a victim. FLORUS. This I also say, and ask thee, With thy people, that thou quittest, Leaving us to end our quarrel Without any help or hindrance. ”

“ 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 illustrious, With a mind so well informed, That my rare endowments feeling, A great king (in truth the noblest 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. ”

“ CYPRIAN. Why, we cannot reach even one After years of studious vigil, And can you (what vanity!) Without study know so many? DEMON. Yes; for I am of a country Where the most exalted science Needs no study to be known. CYPRIAN. Would I were a happy inmate Of that country! Here our studies Prove our ignorance more. DEMON. No figment Is the fact that without study, I had the superb ambition For the first Professor's chair To compete, and thought to win it, Having very numerous votes. And although I failed, sufficient Glory is it to have tried. For not always to the winner Is the fame. ”

“ 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... ”

“ If you are a judge, if Christians You pursue with bloody vengeance, I am one: for in these mountains A grave venerable elder The first sacrament conferring With its sacred sign impressed me. This being so, why wait? Your orders Give unto the bloody headsman, Tell him here to strike this neck And from it my head dissever. Try my firmness as you will, For I, resolute and determined, Will endure a thousand deaths Since this truth at last I've learned, That without the great God, whom Now I seek, adore, and reverence, Human glories are but ashes, Dust, smoke, wind, delusive, empty. ”

“ CYPRIAN. I am much surprised to learn That in view of the uplifted Towers of Antioch, you thus Lost your way. There's not a single Path that on this mountain side, More or less by feet imprinted, But doth lead unto its walls, As to its one central limit. By whatever path you take, You'll go right. DEMON. It is an instance Of that ignorance which in sight Even of truth the true goal misses. And as it appears not wise Thus to enter a strange city Unattended and unknown, Asking even my way, 'tis fitter That 'till night doth conquer day, Here while light doth last, to linger ”

“ Choose but one! My heart expanding, Beats so hard a strait to shun! I one only! 'Tis for fun That you ask me so to do. For with heart enough for two, Why require that I choose one? CLARIN. Two at once would you have to woo? Would not two embarrass you, pray? LIVIA. No, we women have a way To dispose of them two by two. MOSCON. What's the way? do tell us, do;— What is it? speak. LIVIA. You put one out!— I would love them, do not doubt.... MOSCON. How? LIVIA. ALTERNATIVELY. CLARIN. Eh, What's ALTERNATIVELY? LIVIA. 'Tis to say, That I would love them day about. ”

“ I can follow to the brink, Free to pause or to pursue, Move my foot, or backward shrink, For it is one thing to do, And another thing to think. DEMON. If a stronger power than thine, Drawn from a profounder source, With thine own desires combine, How resist the double force Which with force thy steps incline? JUSTINA. I will trust a safer spell:— My free will suffices me. DEMON. But my power will it excel. JUSTINA. Then the will no more were free If a force could it compel. DEMON. Come where every bliss thou'lt meet. ”

“ DEMON. On impossible and false issues There can be no argument;— But your premises admitting, Say what then? CYPRIAN. That there must be One sole God, all hands, all vision, Good Supreme, supreme in grace, One who cannot err, omniscient, One the highest, none can equal, Not beginning, yet the Beginner, One pure essence, one sole substance, One wise worker, ozone sole willer;— And though He in one or two Or more persons be distinguished, Yet the sovereign Deity Must be one, sublime and single, The first cause of every cause, The first germ of all existence. ”

“ DEMON. 'Tis that passage which declares (Well I know the words) this dictum: "God is one supremest good, One pure essence, one existence, Self-sustained, all sight, all hands." CYPRIAN. Yes, 'tis true. DEMON. And what is in it So abstruse? CYPRIAN. I cannot find Such a god as Plinius figures. If he be the highest good, Then is Jupiter deficient In that attribute; we see him Acting like a mortal sinner Many a time,—this, Danae, This, Europa, too, doth witness. Can then, by the Highest Good, All whose actions, all whose instincts, Should be sacred and divine, Human frailty be committed? ”

“ CYPRIAN. Moscon, Clarin, both I bid ye Cease this silly altercation. It is ever thus betwixt ye, Puffed up with your little knowledge Each maintains his own opinion. Go, and (as I've said) here seek me When night falls, and with the thickness Of its shadows veils from view This most fair and wondrous system Of the universe. MOSCON. How comes it, That although you have admitted 'Tis not right to see the feast, Yet you go to see it? CLARIN. Simple Is the answer: no one follows The advice which he has given To another. MOSCON [aside] . To see Livia, Would the gods that I were winged. ”

“ AT THE EXTREMITY A GROTTO. CYPRIAN. CYPRIAN. Ungrateful beauty mine, At length the day, the happy day doth shine— My hope's remotest range, The limits of my love and of thy change, Since I to-day will gain At last my triumph over thy disdain. This lofty mountain nigh, Raised to the star-lit palace of the sky, And this dark cavern's gloom, Of two that live, so long the dismal tomb, Are the rough school wherein From magic art its mystic lore I win, And such perfection reach That I can now my mighty master teach. ”

“ A VOICE. No creature lives on which love's flame Has not impressed its burning seal, The man feels more who love doth feel Than when Life's breath first warmed his frame. Love owns one universal claim,— To Love, it only needs To Be,— Whether a bird, a flower, a tree: Then the chief glory, far above All else in life must be.... CHORUS [within] . Love, love. JUSTINA [alarmed and restless] . Fancy, flatter that thou art, Though thou should'st be sad to-day, When did I to thee impart, In this strange and sudden way, Licence to afflict my heart? ”

“ LELIUS enters. LELIUS. Be silent, Florus, Nor attack me in my absence; For of a rival to speak ill, Is the act but of a dastard. 'Tis to stop this I come forward, Angry after so many passes Which my sword has had with thine, That I have not yet dispatched thee. JUSTINA. Who, not guilty, ever saw her In such dangerous straits entangled? FLORUS. What behind your back was spoken, I before you will establish, Truth is truth where'er 'tis uttered. ”

“ Woman, thou has conquered me. Thy defence to God is due, And my counsel is disdained; Yes, but raging I'll renew My attempt and have thee feigned, If I cannot have thee true. To a spirit I will give Shape like thine though fugitive, It will counterfeit thy form, As with seeming life be warm, And in it disgraced thou'lt live. Thus two triumphs at one time I am sure to win by this, Be thy virtue so sublime, Since through an ideal bliss I will consummate a crime. ”

“ LIVIA. If THEY fancy to be Christians, What have WE done to offend them? MOSCON. Much: 'tis crime enough for us That we happen to be servants. CLARIN. Flying peril in the mountain, I find here a greater peril. SCENE XXV. A Servant.—THE SAME. SERVANT. The Lord Governor Aurelius Summons Cyprian to his presence, And Justina. JUSTINA. Ah! how happy, If 'tis for the wished-for ending. Do not, Cyprian, be disheartened. CYPRIAN. Faith, zeal, courage, all possess me: For if life must be the ransom Of my slavery to the devil, He who gave his soul for thee, Will he not give God his person? ”

“ CYPRIAN. Seeing that now my spell Can fill with fear, with horror even hell, Since I, with so much care Have studied magic and its depths laid bare, So that yourself can scarcely tell Whether 'tis I or you that most excel, Seeing that now there is no place or part That I with study, diligence and art, have not attained, Since necromancy's secret I have gained, That art whose lines of gloom Can ope to me the dark funereal tomb, And bring before mine eyes Each corpse that in it lies, Regaining them, as 'twere by a new birth From the hard avarice of the grasping earth. ”

“ They fight. CYPRIAN. What's this? Hold, good Florus! Lelius, listen!— Here until your rage is calmed, Even unarmed I stand betwixt ye. LELIUS. Thus to interrupt my vengeance, Whence, O Cyprian, have you risen Like a spectre? FLORUS. A wild wood-god, Have you from these tree-trunks issued? SCENE V. Enter MOSCON and CLARIN. MOSCON. Yonder, where we left our master, I hear sword-strokes; run, run quickly. CLARIN. Well, except to run away, I am anything but nimble;— Truly a retiring person. MOSCON and CLARIN. Sir.... CYPRIAN. No more: your gabble irks me.— How? ”

“ DEMON. Consider, That these seeming contradictions Cannot our firm faith diminish In the oneness of the gods, If in things of higher import They know naught of dissonance. Take man's wondrous frame, for instance, Surely that majestic structure Once conception doth exhibit. CYPRIAN. If man's maker then were one He some vantage must have given him O'er the others; and if they All are equal,—'tis admitted That they are so, from the fact Of their mutual opposition To each other,—when the thought Of creating man was hinted By one god, another could Say, "No, no, I do not wish it." ”

“ The green bay that will not shun, Though the heavens are all aglow, For its feet a bath of snow,— Green Narcissus of the brook, Fearless leaning o'er to look, Though the stream runs chill below In a word, the crimson dawn, Sun, mead, streamlet, rosebud, May Bird that sings his amorous lay, April's laugh that gems the lawn, Pink that sips the dews up-drawn, Rock that stands in storm and shine, Bay-tree that delights to twine Round its fadeless leaves the sun, All are parts which met in one Form this woman most divine. ”

“ 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. ”

“ LELIUS. Yes; the life that I deplore I return to seek once more Where 'twas lost. Ah! guide my feet, Love, to find it!— FABIUS. That house there Is Justina's; come away. LELIUS. Wherefore, when I will to-day Once again my love declare. And as she, I saw it plain, Trusted some one else at night, 'Tis not strange, in open light, That I try to soothe my pain. Leave me, go; for it is best That I enter here alone. My rank in Antioch is known, My father Governor; thus drest In his robe as 'twere, my strong Passion listening to no mentor, I Justina's house will enter To protest against my wrong. ”

“ For there's nothing more insipid Than a grand procession day, Half fandangos, priests, and fiddles. MOSCON. Clarin, from the first to last, All your life you've been a trickster, A smart temporizing toady, A bold flatterer, a trimmer, Since you praise the thoughts of others, And ne'er speak your own. CLARIN. The civil Way to tell a man he lies Is to say he's wrong:—you twig me, Now I think I speak my mind. ”

“ DEMON. In thy arms I saw her struggle. CYPRIAN. 'Twas a phantom. DEMON. 'Twas a portent. CYPRIAN. Worked by whom? DEMON. By one who worked it To protect her. CYPRIAN. Who was he? DEMON [trembling] . I don't wish the name to utter. CYPRIAN. I will turn my magic science 'Gainst thyself. By its compulsion Speak, inform me who he is. DEMON. Well, a god who takes this trouble For Justina. CYPRIAN. What's one God, When of gods there's such a number? DEMON. All their power in Him is centred. CYPRIAN. Then One only, sole and sovereign, Must He be, whose single will Their united wills outworketh. ”