but humane in you.
But when arriv'd your dismal news? |
|
Man. This hour. |
|
Zan. What, not a vessel sav'd? |
|
Man. All, all, the storm |
Devour'd; and now o'er his late envy'd fortune |
The dolphins bound, and wat'ry mountains roar, |
Triumphant in his ruin. |
|
Zan. Is Alvarez |
Determin'd to deny his daughter to him. |
That treasure was on shore; must that too join |
The common wreck? |
|
Man. Alvarez pleads, indeed, |
That Leonora's heart is disinclin'd, |
And pleads that only; so it was this morning, |
When he coucurr'd: the tempest broke the match; |
And sunk his favour, when it sunk the gold. |
The love of gold is double in his heart; |
The vice of age, and of Alvarez too. |
|
Zan. How does don Carlos bear it? |
|
Man. Like a man |
Whose heart feels most a human heart can feel, |
And reasons best a human head can reason. |
|
Zan. But is he then in absolute despair? |
|
Man. Never to see his Leonora more. |
And, quite to quench all future hope, Alvarez |
Urges Alonzo to espouse his daughter |
This very day; for he has learn'd their loves. |
|
Zan. Ha! was not that receiv'd with ecstasy |
By don Alonzo? |
|
Man. Yes, at first; but soon |
A damp came o'er him, it would kill his friend. |
|
Zan. Not if his friend consented: and since now |
He can't himself espouse her— |
|
Man. Yet, to ask it |
Has something shocking to a gen'rous mind; |
At least, Alonzo's spirit startles at it. |
Wide is the distance between our despair, |
And giving up a mistress to another. |
But I must leave you. Carlos wants support |
In his severe affliction.[exit. |
|
Zan. Ha, it dawns!— |
It rises to me, like a new-found world |
To mariners long time distress'd at sea, |
Sore from a storm, and all their viands spent; |
Or like the sun just rising out of chaos, |
Some dregs of ancient night not quite purg'd off. |
But shall I finish it?—Hoa, Isabella! |
|
Enter Isabella. |
|
I thought of dying; better things come forward; |
Vengeance is still alive! from her dark covert, |
With all her snakes erect upon her crest, |
She stalks in view, and fires me with her charms. |
When, Isabella, arriv'd don Carlos here? |
|
Isa. Two nights ago. |
|
Zan. That was the very night |
Before the battle—Mem'ry, set down that; |
It has the essence of a crocodile, |
Though yet but in the shell—I'll give it birth— |
What time did he return? |
|
Isa. At midnight. |
|
Zan. So— |
Say, did he see that night his Leonora? |
|
Isa. No, my good lord. |
|
Zan. No matter—tell me, woman, |
Is not Alonzo rather brave than cautious, |
Honest than subtle, above fraud himself, |
Slow, therefore, to suspect it in another? |
|
Isa. You best can judge; but so the world thinks of him. |
|
Zan. Why, that was well—go, fetch my tablets hither. |
[exit Isabella. |
Two nights ago my father's sacred shade |
Thrice stalk'd around my bed, and smil'd upon me: |
He smil'd, a joy then little understood— |
It must be so—and if so, it is vengeance |
Worth waking of the dead for. |
|
Re-enter Isabella, with the tablets; Zanga writes, |
then reads as to himself. |
|
Thus it stands— |
The father's fix'd—Don Carlos cannot wed— |
Alonzo may—but that will hurt his friend— |
Nor can he ask his leave—or, if he did, |
He might not gain it—It is hard to give |
Our own consent to ills, though we must bear them. |
Were it not then a master-piece worth all |
The wisdom I can boast, first to persuade |
Alonzo to request it of his friend, |
His friend to grant—then from that very grant, |
The strongest proof of friendship man can give |
(And other motives), to work out a cause |
Of jealousy, to rack Alonzo's peace? |
I have turn'd o'er the catalogue of human woes, |
Which sting the heart of man, and find none equal. |
It is the hydra of calamities, |
The sev'nfold death; the jealous are the damn'd. |
Oh, jealousy, each other passion's calm |
|