Walter Savage Landor

“ Muza. Away with him.
Jul. Slaves! not before I lift
My voice to heaven and man: though enemies
Surround me, and none else, yet other men
And other times shall hear: the agony
Of an opprest and of a bursting heart
No violence can silence; at its voice
The trumpet is o’erpowered, and glory mute,
And peace and war hide all their charms alike.
Surely the guests and ministers of heaven
Scatter it forth thro’ all the elements,
So suddenly, so widely, it extends,
So fearfully men breathe it, shuddering
To ask or fancy how it first arose.
Muza. ”

“ Thine than his own? is there no Judge of all?
Shall mortal hand seize with impunity
The sword of vengeance, from the armory
Of the Most High? easy to wield, and starred
With glory it appears; but all the host
Of the archangels, should they strive at once,
Would never close again its widening blade
Jul. He who provokes it hath so much to rue.
Where’er he turn, whether to earth or heaven,
He finds an enemy, or raises one. ”

“ Rod. Hear me, Don Julian; I have heard thy wrath
Who am thy king, nor heard man’s wrath before.
Jul. Thou shalt hear mine, for thou art not my king.
Rod. Knowest thou not the alter’d face of war?
Xeres is ours; from every region round
True loyal Spaniards throng into our camp:
Nay, thy own friends and thy own family,
From the remotest provinces, advance
To crush rebellion: Sisabert is come,
Disclaiming thee and thine; the Asturian hills
Opposed to him their icy chains in vain ”

“ Violence, by man or nature, must be theirs;
Thine it must be, and who to pity thee?
p. 53Rod. Behold my solace! none. I want no pity.
Opas. Proclaim we those the happiest of mankind
Who never knew a want? O what a curse
To thee this utter ignorance of thine!
Julian, whom all the good commiserate,
Sees thee below him far in happiness:
A state indeed: of no quick restlesness,
No glancing agitation—one vast swell
Of melancholy, deep, impassable,
Interminable, where his spirit alone
Broods and o’ershadows all, bears him from earth
And purifies his chasten’d soul for heaven. ”

“ It kindled vengeance thro’ the Asturian ranks,
And they soon scatter’d, as the blasts of heaven
Scatter the leaves and dust, the astonished foe.
Opas. And doubtest thou his truth?
Sis. I love—and doubt—
Fight—and believe: Roderigo spoke untruths,
In him I place no trust; but Julian holds
Truths in reserve—how should I quite confide!
Opas. By sorrows thou beholdest him opprest;
Doubt the more prosperous: march, Sisabert,
Once more against his enemy and ours ”

“ Muza. Their father’s.
Jul. O support me, Heaven!
Against this blow! all others I have borne.
p. 117Ermenegild! thou mightest, sure, have lived!
A father’s name awoke no dread of thee!
Only thy mother’s early bloom was thine!
There dwelt on Julian’s brow—thine was serene—
The brightened clouds of elevated souls,
Feared by the most below: those who looked up
Saw, at their season, in clear signs, advance
Rapturous valour, calm solicitude,
All that impatient youth would press from age,
Or sparing age sigh and detract from youth:
Hence was his fall! my hope! myself! my Julian! ”

“ And Egilona—what hath she deserved,
The good, the lovely?
Rod. But the realm in vain
Hoped a succession.
Jul. Thou hast torn away
The roots of royalty.
Rod. For her, for thee.
Jul. Blind insolence! base insincerity!
Power and renown no mortal ever shared
Who could retain, or grasp them, to himself:
p. 13And, for Covilla? patience! peace! for her?
She call upon her God, and outrage him
At his own altar! she repeat the vows
She violates in repeating! who abhors
Thee and thy crimes, and wants no crown of thine. ”

“ Under their star the blooming Egilona
Would watch for thee the nuptial lamp in vain.
Jul. Never, oh never, hast thou worked a wile
So barren of all good! speak out at once,
What hopest thou by striking this alarm?
It shocks my reason, not my fears or fondness.
Muza. Be happy then as ignorance can be;
Soon wilt thou hear it shouted from our ranks.
Those who once hurled defiance o’er our heads,
Scorning our arms, and scoffing at our faith,
The nightly wolf hath visited, unscared,
And loathed ’em as her prey ”

“ Soldier, and steed, and engine—don Roderigo,
The truly and the falsely great here differ,
These by dull wealth or daring fraud advance,
Him the Almighty calls amidst his people
To sway the wills and passions of mankind.
The weak of heart and intellect beheld
Thy splendour, and adored thee lord of Spain—
I rose—Roderigo lords o’er Spain no more.
Rod. Now to a traitor’s add a boaster’s name.
Jul. Shameless and arrogant, dost thou believe
I boast for pride or pastime? forced to boast,
Truth costs me more than falsehood e’er cost thee. ”

“ Opas. O Julian! such a refuge! such a race!
Jul. Calamities like mine alone implore.
No virtues have redeemed them from their bonds;
p. 6Wily ferocity, keen idleness,
And the close cringes of ill-whispering want,
Educate them to plunder and obey:
Active to serve him best whom most they fear,
They show no mercy to the merciful,
And racks alone remind them of the name.
Opas. O everlasting curse for Spain and thee!
Jul. Spain should have vindicated then her wrongs
In mine, a Spaniard’s and a soldier’s wrongs.
Opas. Julian, are thine the only wrongs on earth? ”

“ But God alone sees thee.
Rod. What hopest thou?
To conquer Spain, and rule a ravaged land?
To compass me around, to murder me?
Jul. No, Don Roderigo: swear thou, in the fight
p. 12That thou wilt meet me, hand to hand, alone,
That, if I ever save thee from a foe—
Rod. I swear what honour asks—First, to Covilla
Do thou present my crown and dignity.
Jul. Darest thou offer any price for shame?
Rod. Love and repentance.
Jul. Egilona lives:
And were she buried with her ancestors,
Covilla should not be the gaze of men,
Should not, despoil’d of honour, rule the free. ”

“ Abdalazis to Julian.
Was he not in thy camp? and in disguise?
Tarik. No: I will answer thee.
Muza. Audacious man!
Had not the Kalif Walid placed thee here,
Chains, and a traitor’s death, should be thy doom.
Speak, Abdalazis! Egilona, speak.
Were ye not present? was not I, myself,
And aided not this Julian his escape?
Jul. ’Tis true.
p. 109Tarik. Away then friendship; to thy fate
I leave thee: thou hast render’d Muza just,
Me hostile to thee. Who is safe! a man
Arm’d with such power and with such perfidy!
Jul. Stay, Tarik! hear me; for, to thee alone
Would I reply. ”

“ And yet encounter’d; could they see your Julian
Receiving orders from and answering
These desperate and heaven-abandoned slaves,
They might perceive some few external pangs,
Some glimpses of the hell wherein I move,
Who never have been fathers.
Opas. These are they
To whom brave Spaniards must refer their wrongs!
Jul. Muza, that cruel and suspicious chief,
Distrusts his friends more than his enemies,
Me more than either; fraud he loves and fears,
And watches her still footfall day and night. ”

“ Rod. Methinks, most reverend Opas, not inapt
Are these fair views; arise they from Seville?
Opas. He, who can scoff at them, may scoff at me.
Such are we, that the giver of all good
Shall, in the heart he purifies, posess
p. 55The latest love—the earliest, no, not there!
I’ve known the firm and faithful; even from these
Life’s eddying spring shed the first bloom on earth.
I pity them, but ask their pity too.
I love the happiness of men, and praise
And sanctify the blessings I renounce.
Rod. Yet would thy baleful influence undermine
The heaven-appointed throne.
Opas. ”

“ O were he dead! tho’ then revenge were o’er!
ACT V. SCENE 5. Officer. Thy wife, Count Julian!
Jul. Speak!
Offi. Is dead!
Jul. Adieu
Earth, and the humblest of all earthly hopes,
To hear of comfort, tho’ to find it vain.
Thou murderer of the helpless! shame of man!
Shame of thy own base nature! ’tis an act
He who could perpetrate could not avow,
Stained, as he boasts to be, with innocent blood,
Deaf to reproach, and blind to retribution. ”

“ We never held to thee the vain pretence
That ’twas thy quarrel our brave youth espoused,
Thine, who hast wrought us much disgrace and woe.
From perils and from losses, here we rest
And drink of the fresh fountain at our feet,
p. 110Not madly following such illusive streams
As overspread the dizzy wilderness,
And vanish from the thirst they have seduced.
Ours was the enterprise, the land is ours:
What gain we by our toils if he escape
Whom we came hither solely to subdue?
Jul. Is there no gain to live in amity?
Muza. The gain of traffickers and idle men ”

“ Kind Abdalazis, mayst thou never feel
The rancour that consumes thy father’s breast,
p. 125Nor want the pity thou hast sought for me.
Muza. Now hast thou sealed thy doom.
Jul. And thou thy crimes.
Abd. O father, heed him not: those evil words
Leave neither blight nor blemish—let him go.
Muza. A boy, a very boy, art thou indeed!
One who in early day would sally out
To chase the lion, and would call it sport,
But, when more wary steps had closed him round,
Slink from the circle, drop the toils, and blanch
Like a lithe plant from under snow in spring. ”

“ Roderigo, unnoticed by Abdalazis.
Rod. And shrink, but to advance.
Abd. Thou tremblest! whence, O Julian! whence this change?
Thou lovest still thy country.
Jul. Abdalazis!
All men with human feelings love their country. ”

“ I love to hear thee ask it—now my own
Would not be bitter; no, nor immature.
Rod. Defy it, say thou rather.
Jul. Death itself
Shall not be granted thee, unless from God;
A dole from his and from no other hand.
Thou shalt now hear and own thine infamy—
Rod. Chains, dungeons, tortures—but I hear no more.
Jul. Silence, thou wretch, live on—aye, live—abhor’d.
Thou shalt have tortures, dungeons, chains, enough—
p. 78They naturally rise and grow around
Monsters like thee, everywhere, and for ever. ”

“ Have I not sworne Covilla weds no other?
Sis. Her persecutor have not I chastized,
Have not I fought for Julian, won the town,
And liberated thee?
Opas. But left for him
The dangers of pursuit, of ambuscade,
Of absence from thy high and splendid name.
p. 65Sis. Do probity and truth want such supports?
Opas. Gryphens and eagles, ivory and gold,
Can add no clearness to the lamp above,
But many look for them in palaces
Who have them not, and want them not, at home.
Virtue and valour and experience
Are never trusted by themselves alone
Further than infancy and idiocy ”

“ Implore of God, who would hear thee, to pardon.
Jul. Hope it I may—pronounce it—O Roderigo!
Ask it of him who can; I too will ask,
And, in my own transgressions, pray for thine.
Rod. One name I dare not—
Jul. Go—abstain from that,
I do conjure thee; raise not in my soul
Again the tempest that has wrecked my fame;
Thou shalt not breathe in the same clime with her.
Far o’er the unebbing sea thou shalt adore
The eastern star, and—may thy end be peace.
p. 85ACT IV. SCENE 2. Julian and Hernando.
Her. From the prince Tarik I am sent, my lord.
Jul. A welcome messager, my brave Hernando. ”

“ I will rely on fortune and on thee
Nor fear my future lot: sure, Abdalazis,
A fall so great can never happen twice,
Nor man again be faithless, like Roderigo.
p. 106Abd. Faithless he may be still, never so faithless.
Fainter must be the charms, remote the days,
When memory and dread example die,
When love and terror thrill the heart no more,
And Egilona is herself forgotten.
ACT V. SCENE 4. Julian enters.
Tarik. Turn, and behold him! who is now confounded?
Ye who awaited him, where are ye? speak—
Is some close comet blazing o’er your tents?
Muza! Abdalazis! ”

“ Avows no sentiment so vile as thine.
Rod. Nor feels?
Opas. O human nature! I have heard
The secrets of the soul, and pitied thee.
Bad and accursed things have men confest
Before me, but have left them unarrayed,
p. 54Naked, and shivering with deformity.
The troubled dreams and deafening gush of youth
Fling o’er the fancy, struggling to be free,
Discordant and impracticable things:
If the good shudder at their past escapes,
Shall not the wicked shudder at their crimes?
They shall—and I denounce upon thy head
God’s vengeance—thou shalt rule this land no more. ”

“ Opas. But Egilona.
Sis. Vainly she upbraids
Roderigo.
Opas. She divorces him, abjures,
And carries vengeance to that hideous highth
Which piety and chastity would shrink
To look from, on the world, or on themselves.
Sis. She may forgive him yet.
Opas. Ah Sisabert!
Wretched are those a woman has forgiven;
With her forgiveness ne’er hath love return’d:
Ye know not, till too late, the filmy tie
That holds heaven’s precious boon, eternally
To those who fondly cherish her; once go
Driven by mad passion, strike but at her peace,
And, tho’ she step aside from broad reproach,
p. ”

“ My world and thine are not that distant one.
Is age less wise, less merciful, than grief,
To keep this secret from thee, poor old man?
Thou canst not lessen, canst not aggravate
My sufferings, canst not shorten nor extend
Half a sword’s length between my God and me.
I thank thee for that better thought than fame,
p. 122Which none however, who deserve, despise,
Nor lose from view till all things else are lost.
Abd. Julian, respect his age, regard his power.
Many who feared not death, have dragged along
A piteous life in darkness and in chains. ”

“ Smote their high masts and swelling rampires down;
And Cadiz wept in fear o’er Trafalgar.
Who that beheld our sails from off the hights,
p. 90Like the white birds, nor larger, tempt the gale
In sunshine and in shade, now almost touch
The solitary shore, glance, turn, retire,
Would think these lovely playmates could portend
Such mischief to the world; such blood, such woe;
Could draw to them from far the peaceful hinds,
Cull the gay flower of cities, and divide
Friends, children, every bond of human life ”

“ Muza. Who shuns thee—
Abd. —Whose desertion interdicts
Homage, authority, precedency—
Muza. Till war shall rescue them—
Abd. —And love restore.
Egil. O generous Abdalazis! never! never!
My enemies—Julian alone remains—
The worst, in safety, far beyond my reach,
Breathe freely on the summit of their hopes;
Because they never stopt, because they sprang
From crime to crime, and trampled down remorse.
Oh! if her heart knew tenderness like mine!
p. 102Grant vengeance on the guilty; grant but that,
I ask no more; my hand, my crown, is thine. ”

“ Those promises, those tears, those last adieus,
And those long vigils for the morrow’s dawn.
Opas. Arouse thee! be thyself. O Sisabert,
Awake to glory from these feverish dreams;
The enemy is in our land—two enemies—
We must quell both—shame on us, if we fail.
p. 70Sis. Incredible; a nation be subdued
Peopled as ours!
Opas. Corruption may subvert
What force could never.
Sis. Traitors may.
Opas. Alas!
If traitors can, the basis is but frail. ”

“ Small and obscure places, occasionally, receive what their neighbours throw against them; as Puerto de la mala muger in Murcia. A generous and enthusiastic people, beyond all others in existence or on record, would affix no stigma to innocence and misfortune.
It is remarkable that the most important era in Spanish history should be the most obscure. This is propitious to the poet, and above all to the tragedian. ”