The Wonder-Working Magician by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (thriller books to read .TXT) 📖

firmness fling to tears, Courage I resign to fears, And my hopes I give the wind. I have said, and so will do, That to some infernal sprite I would offer with delight (And the pledge I now renew) Even my soul for her I woo. But my offer is in vain, Hell rejects it with disdain, For my soul, it may allege, Is a disproportionate pledge For the interest I would gain.

DEMON. Is this, then your boasted courage, In the footsteps of dejected* Swains to follow, who grow timid When their first assault's rejected? Are examples then so distant Of fair ladies who surrender All their vanities to entreaties, All their pride to fond addresses? Would you make your breast the prison Of your love, your arms her fetters?


[footnote] *Asonante in e-e to the end of the Act.


CYPRIAN. Can you doubt it?

DEMON. Then command them To retire, those two, your servants, So that we remain here only.

CYPRIAN. Go: both leave me for the present.

MOSCON. I obey. [Exit.

CLARIN. And I as well.- [Aside, concealing himself. Such a guest must be the devil.

CYPRIAN. They are gone.

DEMON [aside]. That Clarin's hiding, Is to me of small concernment.

CYPRIAN. What more wish you now?

DEMON. First fasten Well this door.

CYPRIAN. Yes; none can enter.

DEMON. For the possession of this woman, With your lips you have asserted You would give your soul.

CYPRIAN. 'Tis so.

DEMON. Then the contract is accepted.

CYPRIAN. What do you say?

DEMON. That I accept it.

CYPRIAN. How?

DEMON. So much have I effected By my science, that I will teach you How by it to get possession Of the woman that you worship; For I (though so wise and learned) Have no other means to win her. Let us now in writing settle What we have resolved between us.

CYPRIAN. Do you wish by new pretences To prolong the pains I suffer? In my hand is what I tender, But in yours is not the offer That you make me; no, for never Conjurations or enchantments Can free will control or fetter.

DEMON. Give me, on the terms you spoke of, Your signed bond.

CLARIN. [peeping]. The deuce! This fellow Is no fool, I see. No greenhorn In his business is this devil. I give him my bond! No, truly, Though my lodgings wanted a tenant For the space of twenty ages, I wouldn't do it.

CYPRIAN. Sir, much jesting May with merry friends be pastime, Not with those who are dejected.

DEMON. I, in proof of what I am able To effect, will now present you With an example, though it faintly Shows the power my art possesses. From this gallery what is seen?

CYPRIAN. Much of sky, and much of meadow, Wood, a rivulet, and a mountain.

DEMON. Which to you doth seem most pleasant?

CYPRIAN. The proud mountain, for in it Is my adored one represented.

DEMON. Proud competitor of time, Rival of the years for ever, Who as king of fields and plains Crown'st thee with the cloud and tempest, Move thyself, change earth and air; Look, see who I am that tell thee.- And, look thou, too, since a mountain I can move, thou mayest a maiden.

[The mountain moves from one side to the other in the perspective of the theatre.

CYPRIAN. Never saw I such a wonder! Ne'er a sight of so much terror!

CLARIN [peeping]. With the fright and with the fear, I enjoy a twofold tremble.

CYPRIAN. Mighty mountain bird that fliest, Trees for wings replacing feathers, Boat, whose rocks supply the tackle, As thou furrowest through the zephyr, To thy centre back return thee, And so end this fear, this terror.

[The mountain returns to its original position.

DEMON. If one proof is not sufficient, I will give you then a second. Do you wish to see the woman You adore?

CYPRIAN. Yes.

DEMON. Then, thy entrails Ope, thou monster, to whose being The four elements are servants. Show to us the perfect beauty That thou hidest in thy centre. [A rock opens and JUSTINA is seen sleeping. Is this she whom you adore?

CYPRIAN. Whom I idolize beyond measure.

DEMON. But since I have power to give her, I can take her too, remember.

CYPRIAN. Now impossible dream of mine, Now thy arms will be the centre Of my love, thy lips the sun, Burning, brimming as with nectar.

DEMON. Stay; for till the word you gave me Is affirmed, and well attested, You can touch her not.

[CYPRIAN rushes towards the rock, which closes. CYPRIAN. Oh, stay Cloud that hides the most resplendent Sun, that on my bliss e'er dawned!- But 'tis air my void arm presses.- I believe your art, acknowledge Now I am your slave for ever. What do you wish I do for thee? What do you ask?

DEMON. To be protected By your signature here written In your blood, at the foot of a letter.

CLARIN [peeping]. Oh! I'd give my soul that I To stay here had not been tempted.

CYPRIAN. For my pen I use this dagger, Paper let this white cloth serve for, And the ink wherewith I write it, Be the blood my arm presents me. [He writes with the point of a dagger upon a piece of linen, having drawn blood from one of his arms.

CYPRIAN [Aside]. Oh! I freeze with fear, with horror! I, great Cyprian, say expressly I will give my immortal soul, (Oh! what lethargy, what frenzy!) Unto him whose art will teach me (What confusion! what strange terror!) How I may of fair Justina, Haughty mistress mine, possess me. I have signed it with my name.

DEMON [aside]. Now to my deceits is rendered Valid homage, when such reason, When discourse like his must tremble Even when my help is sought for.- Have you written?

CYPRIAN. And signed the letter.

DEMON. Then the sun you adore is thine.

CYPRIAN. Thine too, for the years eternal, Is the soul I offer thee.

DEMON. Soul for soul I pay my debtors, Then for thine I give to thee Thy Justina's

CYPRIAN. In what term then, Think you you can teach to me All your magic art?

DEMON. A twelvemonth; But on this condition . . . .

CYPRIAN. Speak.

DEMON. That within a cavern buried, Without any other study, We may live there both together, In our service having no one For us two but this attendant, [Drags out CLARIN. Who being curious hid him here;- By securing thus his person That our secret is well kept, We, I think, may be quite certain.

CLARIN [aside]. Oh, that I had never waited! How does it happen though, so many Neighbours prone to pry, as I am, Are not caught thus by the devil?

CYPRIAN. So far well. My love, my genius Have this happy end effected: First Justina will be mine, Then by my new lights, new learning, I will wake the world's surprise.

DEMON. I have gained what I intended.

CLARIN. I not so.

DEMON. You come with us.- [Aside. O'er my great foe I've got the better.

CYPRIAN. Ah, how happy my desires, If I reach to such possession!-

DEMON [aside]. Never will my envy rest Till I gain both souls to serve me.- Let us go, and in the deepest Cavern this wild world presenteth You to-day will learn in magic Your first lesson.

CYPRIAN. Let us enter, For my mind with such a master, For my love with such incentive, Will the sorcerer Cyprian's name Live before the world for ever.


* * * * *


ACT THE THIRD.

SCENE I.

A WOOD; 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. Seeing, that on this day, since I came here The sun completes its course from sphere to sphere, I from my prison cell come forth to view What in the light I now have power to do. Ye skies of cloudless day List to my magic spell-words and obey; Swift zephyrs that rejoice In heaven's warm light, stand still and hear my voice; Stupendous mountain rock Shake at my words as at an earthquake shock; Ye trees in rough bark drest Be frightened at the groanings of my breast; Ye flowers so fair and frail Faint at the echoing terror of my wail; Ye sweet melodious birds Hush all your songs before my awful words; Ye cruel beasts of prey See the first fruits of my long toil to-day; For blinded, dazzled, dazed, Confused, disturbed, astonished and amazed, Ye skies and zephyrs, rocks, and trees, and flowers, And birds, and beasts, behold my magic powers, And thus to all make plain Cyprian's infernal study is not vain.


* * * * *


SCENE II.

The Demon and CYPRIAN.

DEMON. Cyprian!

CYPRIAN. Wise friend and master still!

DEMON. Why, how is this, that using your free-will More than my precept meant, Say for what end, what object, what intent, Through ignorance or boldness can it be, You thus come forth the sun's bright face to see?

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. The pale ghosts, one and all,