You are here
قراءة كتاب Charles Di Tocca: A Tragedy
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
اللغة: English
الصفحة رقم: 3
class="i0">Antonio: Two for so small a gloom?
(Kisses her again.)
Helena: So small!
Antonio: And still you sigh?
Helena: The vainest glooms
To-night seem ominous—as cloud-flakes flung
Upward before the heaving of the west.
(In fright) Oh!
To-night seem ominous—as cloud-flakes flung
Upward before the heaving of the west.
(In fright) Oh!
Antonio: Helena!
Helena: See, see! 'tis Agabus!
Enter Agabus unkempt and distracted.
Agabus: O—lovers! lovers! Lord have none of them!
Antonio: Good monk——
Agabus: O—yes, yes, yes. You'd give me gold
To pray for your two souls. (Crossing himself.) Not I! Not I!
Know you not love is brewed of lust and fire?
It gnaws and burns, until the Shadow—Sir,
(Searching about the air.)
Have you not seen a Shadow pass?
To pray for your two souls. (Crossing himself.) Not I! Not I!
Know you not love is brewed of lust and fire?
It gnaws and burns, until the Shadow—Sir,
(Searching about the air.)
Have you not seen a Shadow pass?
Antonio: A Shadow?
Agabus: Silent and cold. A-times they call him Death:
I'd have him for my brain—it shakes with fever.
(Goes searching anxiously.
I'd have him for my brain—it shakes with fever.
(Goes searching anxiously.
Helena: Antonio——
Antonio: You're calm?
Helena: Yes, very calm—
Of impotence—as one who in a tomb
Awakes and waits?
Of impotence—as one who in a tomb
Awakes and waits?
Antonio: He is but mad.
Helena: But mad.
Antonio: Yet fear you? still?
(A shout is heard.)
Helena: Who is it? soldiers come
From Arta?
From Arta?
Antonio: Yes.
Helena: And by this road!—They must
Not see us!
Not see us!
Antonio: No. But quick, within this breach!
(They conceal themselves in the breach. The soldiers pass across the stage. The last, as all shout "di Tocca!" strikes a column near him. It falls, and Helena starts forward shuddering.)
Helena: Fallen! Ah, fallen! See, Antonio!
Antonio: What now!
Helena (swaying): It is as if the earth were wind
Under my feet!
Under my feet!
Antonio: Are all things thus become
Omen and dread to you?
Omen and dread to you?
Helena: O, but it is
The pillar grieving Venus leant upon
Ere to forget she leapt, and wrote,
When falls this pillar tall and proud
Let surest lovers weave their shroud.
The pillar grieving Venus leant upon
Ere to forget she leapt, and wrote,
When falls this pillar tall and proud
Let surest lovers weave their shroud.
Antonio: Mere myth!
Helena: The shroud! It coldly winds about us—coldly!
Antonio: Should a vain hap so desperately move you?
Helena: The breath and secret soul of all this night
Are burdened with foreboding! And it seems—
Are burdened with foreboding! And it seems—
Antonio: You must not, Helena!
Helena: My love, my lord—
Touch me lest I forget my natural flesh
In this unnatural awe! (He takes her to him.)
Ah how thy arms
Warm the cold moan and misery of fear
Out of my veins!
Touch me lest I forget my natural flesh
In this unnatural awe! (He takes her to him.)
Ah how thy arms
Warm the cold moan and misery of fear
Out of my veins!
Antonio: You rave, but in me stir
Again the attraction of these dim portents.
Nay, quiver not! 'tis but a passing mist,
And this that runs in us is worthless dread!
Again the attraction of these dim portents.
Nay, quiver not! 'tis but a passing mist,
And this that runs in us is worthless dread!
Helena: But ah, the shroud! the shroud!
Antonio: We'll weave no shroud,
But wedding robes and wreaths and pageantry!
And you shall be my Sappho—but through joys
Such as shall legend ecstasy about
Our knitted names when distant lovers dream.
But wedding robes and wreaths and pageantry!
And you shall be my Sappho—but through joys
Such as shall legend ecstasy about
Our knitted names when distant lovers dream.
Helena: I'll fear no more, then——
Antonio: Yet?
Helena: My lord, let us
Unloose this strangling secrecy and be
Open in love. My brother, Hæmon, let
Our hearts betrothed exchange and hope be told
Him and thy father!
Unloose this strangling secrecy and be
Open in love. My brother, Hæmon, let
Our hearts betrothed exchange and hope be told
Him and thy father!