Robert Browning

“ TRESHAM. Mildred, I do believe a brother's love For a sole sister must exceed them all. For see now, only see! there's no alloy Of earth that creeps into the perfect'st gold Of other loves—no gratitude to claim; You never gave her life, not even aught That keeps life—never tended her, instructed, Enriched her—so, your love can claim no right O'er her save pure love's claim: that's what I call Freedom from earthliness. You'll never hope To be such friends, for instance, she and you, As when you hunted cowslips in the woods, Or played together in the meadow hay. ”

“ But do not plunge me into other guilt! Oh, guilt enough! I cannot tell his name. TRESHAM. Then judge yourself! How should I act? Pronounce! MILDRED. Oh, Thorold, you must never tempt me thus! To die here in this chamber by that sword Would seem like punishment: so should I glide, Like an arch-cheat, into extremest bliss! 'Twere easily arranged for me: but you— What would become of you? TRESHAM. And what will now Become of me? I'll hide your shame and mine From every eye; the dead must heave their hearts Under the marble of our chapel-floor; They cannot rise and blast you. ”

“ Has Thorold gone, and are you here? GUENDOLEN. Here, Mildred, we two friends of yours will wait Your bidding; be you silent, sleep or muse! Only, when you shall want your bidding done, How can we do it if we are not by? Here's Austin waiting patiently your will! One spirit to command, and one to love And to believe in it and do its best, Poor as that is, to help it—why, the world Has been won many a time, its length and breadth, By just such a beginning! MILDRED. I believe If once I threw my arms about your neck And sunk my head upon your breast, that I Should weep again. ”

“ Die, Mildred! Leave Their honourable world to them! For God We're good enough, though the world casts us out. [A whistle is heard.] TRESHAM. Ho, Gerard! Enter GERARD, AUSTIN and GUENDOLEN, with lights No one speak! You see what's done. I cannot bear another voice. MERTOUN. There's light— Light all about me, and I move to it. Tresham, did I not tell you—did you not Just promise to deliver words of mine To Mildred? TRESHAM. I will bear those words to her. MERTOUN. Now? TRESHAM. Now. Lift you the body, and leave me The head. [As they have half raised MERTOUN, he turns suddenly.] ”

“ Of this last deed Another's judge: whose doom I wait in doubt, despondency and fear. MILDRED. Oh, true! There's nought for me to pardon! True! You loose my soul of all its cares at once. Death makes me sure of him for ever! You Tell me his last words? He shall tell me them, And take my answer—not in words, but reading Himself the heart I had to read him late, Which death... TRESHAM. Death? You are dying too? Well said Of Guendolen! I dared not hope you'd die: But she was sure of it. MILDRED. Tell Guendolen I loved her, and tell Austin... TRESHAM. Him you loved: And me? MILDRED. Ah, Thorold! ”

“ MERTOUN. Oh, trust me! Then our final meeting's fixed To-morrow night? MILDRED. Farewell! stay, Henry... wherefore? His foot is on the yew-tree bough; the turf Receives him: now the moonlight as he runs Embraces him—but he must go—is gone. Ah, once again he turns—thanks, thanks, my Love! He's gone. Oh, I'll believe him every word! I was so young, I loved him so, I had No mother, God forgot me, and I fell. There may be pardon yet: all's doubt beyond! Surely the bitterness of death is past.
ACT II SCENE.—The Library Enter LORD TRESHAM, hastily TRESHAM. This way! In, Gerard, quick! ”

“ So much the more delicious task to watch Mildred revive: to pluck out, thorn by thorn, All traces of the rough forbidden path My rash love lured her to! Each day must see Some fear of hers effaced, some hope renewed: Then there will be surprises, unforeseen Delights in store. I'll not regret the past. [The light is placed above in the purple pane.] And see, my signal rises, Mildred's star! I never saw it lovelier than now It rises for the last time. If it sets, 'Tis that the re-assuring sun may dawn. [As he prepares to ascend the last tree of the avenue, TRESHAM arrests his arm.] ”

“ No doubt 'twas you Taught Mildred still to keep that face and sin. We should join hands in frantic sympathy If you once taught me the unteachable, Explained how you can live so and so lie. With God's help I retain, despite my sense, The old belief—a life like yours is still Impossible. Now draw! MERTOUN. Not for my sake, Do I entreat a hearing—for your sake, And most, for her sake! TRESHAM. Ha, ha, what should I Know of your ways? A miscreant like yourself, How must one rouse his ire? ”

“ Does a new life, like a young sunrise, break On the strange unrest of our night, confused With rain and stormy flaw—and will you see No dripping blossoms, no fire-tinted drops On each live spray, no vapour steaming up, And no expressless glory in the East? When I am by you, to be ever by you, When I have won you and may worship you, Oh, Mildred, can you say "this will not be"? MILDRED. Sin has surprised us, so will punishment. MERTOUN. No—me alone, who sinned alone! MILDRED. The night You likened our past life to—was it storm Throughout to you then, Henry? ”

“ Yes, Lord Tresham, I love your sister—as you'd have one love That lady... oh more, more I love her! Wealth, Rank, all the world thinks me, they're yours, you know, To hold or part with, at your choice—but grant My true self, me without a rood of land, A piece of gold, a name of yesterday, Grant me that lady, and you... Death or life? GUENDOLEN. [apart to AUSTIN] . Why, this is loving, Austin! AUSTIN. He's so young! GUENDOLEN. Young? Old enough, I think, to half surmise He never had obtained an entrance here, Were all this fear and trembling needed. ”

“ I may enter at her portal soon, as now her lattice takes me, And by noontide as by midnight make her mine, as hers she makes me! [The EARL throws off his slouched hat and long cloak.] My very heart sings, so I sing, Beloved! MILDRED. Sit, Henry—do not take my hand! MERTOUN. 'Tis mine. The meeting that appalled us both so much Is ended. MILDRED. What begins now? MERTOUN. Happiness Such as the world contains not. MILDRED. That is it. Our happiness would, as you say, exceed The whole world's best of blisses: we—do we Deserve that? ”

“ One spurns him, does one not? Or sets the foot upon his mouth, or spits Into his face! Come! Which, or all of these? MERTOUN. 'Twixt him and me and Mildred, Heaven be judge! Can I avoid this? Have your will, my lord! [He draws and, after a few passes, falls.] TRESHAM. You are not hurt? MERTOUN. You'll hear me now! TRESHAM. But rise! MERTOUN. Ah, Tresham, say I not "you'll hear me now!" And what procures a man the right to speak In his defence before his fellow man, But—I suppose—the thought that presently He may have leave to speak before his God His whole defence? TRESHAM. Not hurt? ”

“ Shall you in your whole life —You who have nought to do with Mertoun's fate, Now you have seen his breast upon the turf, Shall you e'er walk this way if you can help? When you and Austin wander arm-in-arm Through our ancestral grounds, will not a shade Be ever on the meadow and the waste— Another kind of shade than when the night Shuts the woodside with all its whispers up? But will you ever so forget his breast As carelessly to cross this bloody turf Under the black yew avenue? That's well! You turn your head: and I then?— GUENDOLEN. What is done Is done. My care is for the living. ”

“ TRESHAM. Since when? GERARD. At least A month—each midnight has some man access To Lady Mildred's chamber. TRESHAM. Tush, "access"— No wide words like "access" to me! GERARD. He runs Along the woodside, crosses to the South, Takes the left tree that ends the avenue... TRESHAM. The last great yew-tree? GERARD. You might stand upon The main boughs like a platform. Then he... TRESHAM. Quick! GERARD. Climbs up, and, where they lessen at the top, —I cannot see distinctly, but he throws, I think—for this I do not vouch—a line That reaches to the lady's casement— TRESHAM. —Which He enters not! ”

“ I stand for father too. Her beauty is not strange to you, it seems— You cannot know the good and tender heart, Its girl's trust and its woman's constancy, How pure yet passionate, how calm yet kind, How grave yet joyous, how reserved yet free As light where friends are—how imbued with lore The world most prizes, yet the simplest, yet The... one might know I talked of Mildred—thus We brothers talk! MERTOUN. I thank you. TRESHAM. In a word, Control's not for this lady; but her wish To please me outstrips in its subtlety My power of being pleased: herself creates The want she means to satisfy. ”

“ Mildred and Mertoun! Mildred, with consent Of all the world and Thorold, Mertoun's bride! Too late! 'Tis sweet to think of, sweeter still To hope for, that this blessed end soothes up The curse of the beginning; but I know It comes too late: 'twill sweetest be of all To dream my soul away and die upon. [A noise without.] The voice! Oh why, why glided sin the snake Into the paradise Heaven meant us both? [The window opens softly. A low voice sings.] There's a woman like a dew-drop, she's so purer than the purest ”

“ What a shame I was your cousin, tamely from the first Your bride, and all this fervour's run to waste! Do you know you speak sensibly to-day? The Earl's a fool. AUSTIN. Here's Thorold. Tell him so! TRESHAM [returning] . Now, voices, voices! 'St! the lady's first! How seems he?—seems he not... come, faith give fraud The mercy-stroke whenever they engage! Down with fraud, up with faith! How seems the Earl? A name! a blazon! if you knew their worth, As you will never! come—the Earl? GUENDOLEN. He's young. TRESHAM. What's she? an infant save in heart and brain. Young! Mildred is fourteen, remark! ”

“ MERTOUN. I knew they turned me: turn me not from her! There! stay you! there! [Dies.] GUENDOLEN [after a pause] . Austin, remain you here With Thorold until Gerard comes with help: Then lead him to his chamber. I must go To Mildred. TRESHAM. Guendolen, I hear each word You utter. Did you hear him bid me give His message? Did you hear my promise? I, And only I, see Mildred. GUENDOLEN. She will die. TRESHAM. Oh no, she will not die! I dare not hope She'll die. What ground have you to think she'll die? Why, Austin's with you! AUSTIN. Had we but arrived Before you fought! ”

“ Move Some of the miserable weight away That presses lower than the grave. Not speak? Some of the dead weight, Mildred! Ah, if I Could bring myself to plainly make their charge Against you! Must I, Mildred? Silent still? [After a pause.] Is there a gallant that has night by night Admittance to your chamber? [After a pause.] Then, his name! Till now, I only had a thought for you: But now,—his name! MILDRED. Thorold, do you devise Fit expiation for my guilt, if fit There be! ”

“ To have reared a towering scheme Of happiness, and to behold it razed, Were nothing: all men hope, and see their hopes Frustrate, and grieve awhile, and hope anew. But I... to hope that from a line like ours No horrid prodigy like this would spring, Were just as though I hoped that from these old Confederates against the sovereign day, Children of older and yet older sires, Whose living coral berries dropped, as now On me, on many a baron's surcoat once, On many a beauty's whimple—would proceed No poison-tree, to thrust, from hell its root, Hither and thither its strange snaky arms. ”

“ So long as fifty eyes await the turn Of yours to forestall its yet half-formed wish, I'll proffer my assistance you'll not need— When every tongue is praising you, I'll join The praisers' chorus—when you're hemmed about With lives between you and detraction—lives To be laid down if a rude voice, rash eye, Rough hand should violate the sacred ring Their worship throws about you,—then indeed, Who'll stand up for you stout as I? ”

“ Enter MILDRED MILDRED. What book Is it I wanted, Thorold? Guendolen Thought you were pale; you are not pale. That book? That's Latin surely. TRESHAM. Mildred, here's a line, (Don't lean on me: I'll English it for you) "Love conquers all things." What love conquers them? What love should you esteem—best love? MILDRED. True love. TRESHAM. I mean, and should have said, whose love is best Of all that love or that profess to love? MILDRED. The list's so long: there's father's, mother's, husband's... ”

“ The Earl descends. Well, Gerard, see The Earl at least! Come, there's a proper man, I hope! Why, Ralph, no falcon, Pole or Swede, Has got a starrier eye. THIRD RETAINER. His eyes are blue: But leave my hawks alone! FOURTH RETAINER. So young, and yet So tall and shapely! FIFTH RETAINER. Here's Lord Tresham's self! There now—there's what a nobleman should be! He's older, graver, loftier, he's more like A House's head. SECOND RETAINER. But you'd not have a boy —And what's the Earl beside?—possess too soon That stateliness? ”

“ I... our two demesnes, remember, touch, I have beer used to wander carelessly After my stricken game: the heron roused Deep in my woods, has trailed its broken wing Thro' thicks and glades a mile in yours,—or else Some eyass ill-reclaimed has taken flight And lured me after her from tree to tree, I marked not whither. I have come upon The lady's wondrous beauty unaware, And—and then... I have seen her. GUENDOLEN [aside to AUSTIN] . Note that mode Of faltering out that, when a lady passed, He, having eyes, did see her! ”