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

this grove, Where you will quickly prove The friendly feelings that inflame my breast, If happily I merit such a guest. Then let us homeward wend, For I esteem you now as an old friend. My guest you are, and so you must not leave me While my house suits you.

DEMON. Do you then receive me Wholly as yours?

CYPRIAN [embracing him]. This act doth prove it true, That seals an eternal bond betwixt us two.- [Aside. Oh! if I could win o'er This man to instruct me in his magic lore! Since by that art my love might gain Some solace for its pain; Or yielding to its mighty laws My love at length might win my love's sweet cause - The cause of all my torment, madness, rage.

DEMON [aside]. The working of his mind and love I gauge.


* * * * *


SCENE VIII.

CLARIN and MOSCON enter running from opposite sides. CYPRIAN and The Demon.

CLARIN. Oh! are you sir, alive?

MOSCON. My friend, do you Speak civilly for once as something new? That he's alive requires no demonstration.

CLARIN. I struck this lofty note of admiration, Thou noble lackey, to express my wonder, How from this storm of lightning, rain, and thunder, Without a miracle he could survive.

MOSCON. Will you stop wondering, now you see him alive?

CYPRIAN. These are my servants, sir.- What brings you here?

MOSCON. Your spleen once more to stir.

DEMON. They have a pleasant humour.

CYPRIAN. Foolish pair, Their weary wit is oft too hard to bear.

MOSCON. This man, sir, waiting here, Who is he?

CYPRIAN. He's my guest, so do not fear.

CLARIN. Wherefore have guests at such a time as this?

CYPRIAN [to The Demon]. Your worth is lost on ignorance such as his.

MOSCON. My master's right. Are you, forsooth, his heir?

CLARIN. No; but our new friend there, Looks like a guest, unless I deceive me, who Will honour our poor house a year or two.

MOSCON. Why?

CLARIN. When a guest soon means to go away, Well, he'll not make much smoke in the house, we say. But this . . . .

MOSCON. Speak out.

CLARIN. Will make, I do not joke . .

MOSCON. What?

CLARIN. In the house a deuced deal of smoke.

CYPRIAN. In order to repair The danger done by the rude sea and air, Come thou with me.

DEMON. [Aside.] I'm thine, while thou hast breath.

CYPRIAN. I go to prepare thy rest.

DEMON [aside]. And I thy death:- An entrance having gained Within his breast, and thus my end obtained; My rage insatiate now without control Seeks by another way to win Justina's soul. [Exit.

CLARIN. Guess, if you can, what I am thinking about.

MOSCON. What is it?

CLARIN. That a new volcano has burst out In the late storm, there's such a sulphur smell.

MOSCON. It came from the guest, as my good nose could tell.

CLARIN. He uses bad pastilles, then; but I can Infer the cause.

MOSCON. What is it?

CLARIN. The poor gentleman Has a slight rash on his skin, a ticklish glow, And uses sulphur ointment.

MOSCON. Gad! 'tis so. [Exeunt.


* * * * *


SCENE IX.

THE STREET.

LELIUS and FABIUS.

FABIUS. You return, then, to this street.

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. [Exeunt.


* * * * *


SCENE X.

A HALL IN THE HOUSE OF LYSANDER.

JUSTINA, and afterwards LELIUS.

JUSTINA. Livia . . . . But a step! who's there?

[LELIUS enters LELIUS. It is I.

JUSTINA. What novelty, What extreme temerity, Thus, my lord, compels you? . . .

LELIUS. Spare Your reproaches. Jealous-grown, I can bear that you reprove. Pardon me, for with my love My respect has also flown.

JUSTINA. Why, at such a perilous cost Have you dared . . .

LELIUS. Because I'm mad.

JUSTINA. To intrude . . . .

LELIUS. Heart-broken, sad.

JUSTINA. Here . . . .

LELIUS. Because, in truth, I'm lost.

JUSTINA. Nor perceive how scandal views Such an act as now you do 'Gainst . . . .

LELIUS. Be not so moved, for you Little honour now can lose.

JUSTINA. Lelius, spare at least my fame.

LELIUS. Ah, Justina, it were best That this language you addressed Unto him who nightly came Down here from this balcony;- 'Tis enough for me to show All your lightness that I know, That less coy and cold to me Your pretended honour prove. If I am disdained, displaced, 'Tis another suits your taste, Not that you your honour love.

JUSTINA. Silence, cease, your words withhold. Who with insult e'er before Dared to pass my threshold's door? Are you then so blind and bold, So audacious, so insane, As my pure light to eclipse, Through the libel of your lips, By chimeras false and vain?- In my house a man?

LELIUS. 'Tis so.

JUSTINA. From my balcony?

LELIUS. With shame I repeat it.

JUSTINA. O, my fame, O'er us twain your Aegis throw.


* * * * *


SCENE XI.

THE SAME.

The Demon appears at the door which is behind JUSTINA.

DEMON [aside]. For the deep design I handle, For my double plot I come Raging to this simple home, Now to work the greatest scandal Ever seen. Here, brooding o'er him, This wild lover mad with ire, I will fan his jealous fire, I will place myself before him, Catch his eye, and then as fleeing, In invisible gloom array me. [He affects to come in, and being seen by LELIUS muffles himself in his cloak, and re-enters the inner apartment.

JUSTINA. Man, do you come here to slay me?

LELIUS. No, to die.

JUSTINA. What object seeing Paralyses thus your senses?

LELIUS. What I see is your untruth. Tell me now, the wish, forsooth, Has invented my offences. From that very chamber there Came a man, I turned my head, When he saw my face he fled Back into the room.

JUSTINA. The air Must this phantasy display - This illusion.

LELIUS. Oh, that sight!

JUSTINA. Is it not enough by night, Lelius, but in open day Thus fictitious forms to see?

LELIUS. Phantom shape or real lover, Now the truth I will discover. [He goes into the room where The Demon had disappeared.

JUSTINA. I no hindrance offer thee, For my innocence, a way, At the cost of this permission, Thus finds out the night's submission To correct by the light of day.


* * * * *


SCENE XII.

LYSANDER and JUSTINA; LELIUS, within.

LYSANDER. My Justina.

JUSTINA [aside]. Woe is me! Ah, if here before Lysander* Lelius from that room comes forth!


[footnote] *Asonante in a-i to the end of Scene XVII.


LYSANDER. My misfortunes, my disasters Fly to be consoled by thee.

JUSTINA. What can be the grief, the sadness, That your face betrays so plainly?

LYSANDER. And no wonder, when the pallor Springs even from the heart. This sobbing Stops my weak words in their passage.

[LELIUS appears at the door of the apartment. LELIUS [aside]. I begin now to believe, Since he is not in this chamber, Jealousy can cause these spectres. He, the man I saw, has vanished, How I know not.

JUSTINA [aside to Lelius]. Come not forth, Lelius, here before my father.

LELIUS. Convalescent in my sickness I will wait till he is absent. [Retires.

JUSTINA. Why this weeping? why this sighing? What, sir, moves thee, what unmans thee?

LYSANDER. I am moved by a misfortune, I'm unmanned by a disaster, Greater far than tender pity Ever wept,- the dread example Cruelty has sworn to make In the innocent blood of martyrs. To the Governor of this city Decius Caesar a strict mandate Has despatched . . . I can speak no more.

JUSTINA [aside]. What position e'er was harder? Moved with pity for the Christians Hither comes to me Lysander The sad news to tell, not knowing Lelius to his words may hearken,- Lelius, the Governor's son.

LYSANDER. So Justina . . .

JUSTINA. Sir, no farther, Since you feel it so acutely, Speak upon this painful matter.

LYSANDER. Let me, for I'll feel some solace When to thee it is imparted. In it he commands . . .

JUSTINA. Proceed not Further now, when you should rather Cheat your years with more repose.

LYSANDER. How? when I, to make you partner In those lively fears whose bodings Are sufficient to despatch me, Would inform you of the edict, The most cruel that the margin Of the Tiber ever saw Writ in blood to stain its waters, Do you stop me? Ah, Justina, You were wont