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Scenes From the Magico Prodigioso

Percy Bysshe Shelley·1792–1822
Lines:912Movement:Romanticism
FROM THE SPANISH OF CALDERON. SCENE 1: ENTER CYPRIAN, DRESSED AS A STUDENT;CLARIN AND MOSCON AS POOR SCHOLARS, WITH BOOKS. CYPRIAN:In the sweet solitude of this calm place,This intricate wild wilderness of treesAnd flowers and undergrowth of odorous plants,Leave me; the books you brought out of the houseTo me are ever best society.And while with glorious festival and song,Antioch now celebrates the consecrationOf a proud temple to great Jupiter,And bears his image in loud jubileeTo its new shrine, I would consume what stillLives of the dying day in studious thought,Far from the throng and turmoil. You, my friends,Go, and enjoy the festival; it willBe worth your pains. You may return for meWhen the sun seeks its grave among the billowsWhich, among dim gray clouds on the horizon,Dance like white plumes upon a hearse;-- and hereI shall expect you. MOSCON:I cannot bring my mind,Great as my haste to see the festivalCertainly is, to leave you, Sir, withoutJust saying some three or four thousand words.How is it possible that on a dayOf such festivity, you can be contentTo come forth to a solitary countryWith three or four old books, and turn your backOn all this mirth? CLARIN:My master's in the right;There is not anything more tiresomeThan a procession day, with troops, and priests,And dances, and all that. MOSCON:From first to last,Clarin, you are a temporizing flatterer;You praise not what you feel but what he does;--Toadeater! CLARIN:You lie--under a mistake--For this is the most civil sort of lieThat can be given to a man's face. I nowSay what I think. CYPRIAN:Enough, you foolish fellows!Puffed up with your own doting ignorance,You always take the two sides of one question.Now go; and as I said, return for meWhen night falls, veiling in its shadows wideThis glorious fabric of the universe. MOSCON:How happens it, although you can maintainThe folly of enjoying festivals,That yet you go there? CLARIN:Nay, the consequenceIs clear:--who ever did what he advisesOthers to do?-- MOSCON:Would that my feet were wings,So would I fly to Livia. [EXIT.] CLARIN:To speak truth,Livia is she who has surprised my heart;But he is more than half-way there.--Soho!Livia, I come; good sport, Livia, soho! [EXIT.] CYPRIAN:Now, since I am alone, let me examineThe question which has long disturbed my mindWith doubt, since first I read in PliniusThe words of mystic import and deep senseIn which he defines God. My intellectCan find no God with whom these marks and signsFitly agree. It is a hidden truthWhich I must fathom. [CYPRIAN READS;THE DAEMON, DRESSED IN A COURT DRESS, ENTERS.] DAEMON:Search even as thou wilt,But thou shalt never find what I can hide. CYPRIAN:What noise is that among the boughs? Who moves?What art thou?-- DAEMON:'Tis a foreign gentleman.Even from this morning I have lost my wayIn this wild place; and my poor horse at last,Quite overcome, has stretched himself uponThe enamelled tapestry of this mossy mountain,And feeds and rests at the same time. I wasUpon my way to Antioch upon businessOf some importance, but wrapped up in cares(Who is exempt from this inheritance?)I parted from my company, and lostMy way, and lost my servants and my comrades. CYPRIAN:'Tis singular that even within the sightOf the high towers of Antioch you could loseYour way. Of all the avenues and green pathsOf this wild wood there is not one but leads,As to its centre, to the walls of Antioch;Take which you will, you cannot miss your road. DAEMON:And such is ignorance! Even in the sightOf knowledge, it can draw no profit from it.But as it still is early, and as IHave no acquaintances in Antioch,Being a stranger there, I will even waitThe few surviving hours of the day,Until the night shall conquer it. I seeBoth by your dress and by the books in whichYou find delight and company, that youAre a great student;--for my part, I feelMuch sympathy in such pursuits. CYPRIAN:Have youStudied much? DAEMON:No,--and yet I know enoughNot to be wholly ignorant. CYPRIAN:Pray, Sir,What science may you know?-- DAEMON:Many. CYPRIAN:Alas!Much pains must we expend on one alone,And even then attain it not;--but youHave the presumption to assert that youKnow many without study. DAEMON:And with truth.For in the country whence I come the sciencesRequire no learning,--they are known. CYPRIAN:Oh, wouldI were of that bright country! for in thisThe more we study, we the more discoverOur ignorance. DAEMON:It is so true, that IHad so much arrogance as to opposeThe chair of the most high Professorship,And obtained many votes, and, though I lost,The attempt was still more glorious, than the failureCould be dishonourable. If you believe not,Let us refer it to dispute respectingThat which you know the best, and although IKnow not the opinion you maintain, and thoughIt be the true one, I will take the contrary. CYPRIAN:The offer gives me pleasure. I am nowDebating with myself upon a passageOf Plinius, and my mind is racked with doubtTo understand and know who is the GodOf whom he speaks. DAEMON:It is a passage, ifI recollect it right, couched in these words'God is one supreme goodness, one pure essence,One substance, and one sense, all sight, all hands.' CYPRIAN:'Tis true. DAEMON:What difficulty find you here? CYPRIAN:I do not recognize among the GodsThe God defined by Plinius; if he mustBe supreme goodness, even JupiterIs not supremely good; because we seeHis deeds are evil, and his attributesTainted with mortal weakness; in what mannerCan supreme goodness be consistent withThe passions of humanity? DAEMON:The wisdomOf the old world masked with the names of GodsThe attributes of Nature and of Man;A sort of popular philosophy. CYPRIAN:This reply will not satisfy me, forSuch awe is due to the high name of GodThat ill should never be imputed. Then,Examining the question with more care,It follows, that the Gods would always willThat which is best, were they supremely good.How then does one will one thing, one another?And that you may not say that I allegePoetical or philosophic learning:--Consider the ambiguous responsesOf their oracular statues; from two shrinesTwo armies shall obtain the assurance ofOne victory. Is it not indisputableThat two contending wills can never leadTo the same end? And, being opposite,If one be good, is not the other evil?Evil in God is inconceivable;But supreme goodness fails among the GodsWithout their union. DAEMON:I deny your major.These responses are means towards some endUnfathomed by our intellectual beam.They are the work of Providence, and moreThe battle's loss may profit those who lose,Than victory advantage those who win. CYPRIAN:That I admit; and yet that God should not(Falsehood is incompatible with deity)Assure the victory; it would be enoughTo have permitted the defeat. If GodBe all sight,--God, who had beheld the truth,Would not have given assurance of an endNever to be accomplished: thus, althoughThe Deity may according to his attributesBe well distinguished into persons, yetEven in the minutest circumstanceHis essence must be one. DAEMON:To attain the endThe affections of the actors in the sceneMust have been thus influenced by his voice. CYPRIAN:But for a purpose thus subordinateHe might have employed Genii, good or evil,--A sort of spirits called so by the learned,Who roam about inspiring good or evil,And from whose influence and existence weMay well infer our immortality.Thus God might easily, without descentTo a gross falsehood in his proper person,Have moved the affections by this mediationTo the just point. DAEMON:These trifling contradictionsDo not suffice to impugn the unityOf the high Gods; in things of great importanceThey still appear unanimous; considerThat glorious fabric, man,--his workmanshipIs stamped with one conception. CYPRIAN:Who made manMust have, methinks, the advantage of the others.If they are equal, might they not have risenIn opposition to the work, and beingAll hands, according to our author here,Have still destroyed even as the other made?If equal in their power, unequal onlyIn opportunity, which of the twoWill remain conqueror? DAEMON:On impossibleAnd false hypothesis there can be builtNo argument. Say, what do you inferFrom this? CYPRIAN:That there must be a mighty GodOf supreme goodness and of highest grace,All sight, all hands, all truth, infallible,Without an equal and without a rival,The cause of all things and the effect of nothing,One power, one will, one substance, and one essence.And, in whatever persons, one or two,His attributes may be distinguished, oneSovereign power, one solitary essence,One cause of all cause. [THEY RISE.] DAEMON:How can I impugnSo clear a consequence? CYPRIAN:Do you regretMy victory? DAEMON:Who but regrets a checkIn rivalry of wit? I could replyAnd urge new difficulties, but will nowDepart, for I hear steps of men approaching,And it is time that I should now pursueMy journey to the city. CYPRIAN:Go in peace! DAEMON:Remain in peace!--Since thus it profits himTo study, I will wrap his senses upIn sweet oblivion of all thought but ofA piece of excellent beauty; and, as IHave power given me to wage enmityAgainst Justina's soul, I will extractFrom one effect two vengeances. [ASIDE AND EXIT.] CYPRIAN:I neverMet a more learned person. Let me nowRevolve this doubt again with careful mind. [HE READS.] [FLORO AND LELIO ENTER.] LELIO:Here stop. These toppling rocks and tangled boughs,Impenetrable by the noonday beam,Shall be sole witnesses of what we-- FLORO:Draw!If there were words, here is the place for deeds. LELIO:Thou needest not instruct me; well I knowThat in the field, the silent tongue of steelSpeaks thus,-- [THEY FIGHT.] CYPRIAN:Ha! what is this? Lelio,--Floro,Be it enough that Cyprian stands between you,Although unarmed. LELIO:Whence comest thou, to standBetween me and my vengeance? FLORO:From what rocksAnd desert cells? [ENTER MOSCON AND CLARIN.] MOSCON:Run! run! for where we leftMy master. I now hear the clash of swords. CLARIN:I never run to approach things of this sortBut only to avoid them. Sir! Cyprian! sir! CYPRIAN:Be silent, fellows! What! two friends who areIn blood and fame the eyes and hope of Antioch,One of the noble race of the Colalti,The other son o' the Governor, adventureAnd cast away, on some slight cause no doubt,Two lives, the honour of their country? LELIO:Cyprian!Although my high respect towards your personHolds now my sword suspended, thou canst notRestore it to the slumber of the scabbard:Thou knowest more of science than the duel;For when two men of honour take the field,No counsel nor respect can make them friendsBut one must die in the dispute. FLORO:I prayThat you depart hence with your people, andLeave us to finish what we have begunWithout advantage.-- CYPRIAN:Though you may imagineThat I know little of the laws of duel,Which vanity and valour instituted,You are in error. By my birth I amHeld no less than yourselves to know the limitsOf honour and of infamy, nor has studyQuenched the free spirit which first ordered them;And thus to me, as one well experiencedIn the false quicksands of the sea of honour,You may refer the merits of the case;And if I should perceive in your relationThat either has the right to satisfactionFrom the other, I give you my word of honourTo leave you. LELIO:Under this condition thenI will relate the cause, and you will cedeAnd must confess the impossibilityOf compromise; for the same lady isBeloved by Floro and myself. FLORO:It seemsMuch to me that the light of day should lookUpon that idol of my heart--but he--Leave us to fight, according to thy word. CYPRIAN:Permit one question further: is the ladyImpossible to hope or not? LELIO:She isSo excellent, that if the light of dayShould excite Floro's jealousy, it wereWithout just cause, for even the light of dayTrembles to gaze on her. CYPRIAN:Would you for yourPart, marry her? FLORO:Such is my confidence. CYPRIAN:And you? LELIO:Oh! would that I could lift my hopeSo high, for though she is extremely poor,Her virtue is her dowry. CYPRIAN:And if you bothWould marry her, is it not weak and vain,Culpable and unworthy, thus beforehandTo slur her honour? What would the world sayIf one should slay the other, and if sheShould afterwards espouse the murderer? [THE RIVALS AGREE TO REFER THEIR QUARREL TO CYPRIAN; WHO IN CONSEQUENCEVISITS JUSTINA, AND BECOMES ENAMOURED OF HER; SHE DISDAINS HIM, AND HERETIRES TO A SOLITARY SEA-SHORE.] SCENE 2. CYPRIAN:O memory! permit it notThat the tyrant of my thoughtBe another soul that stillHolds dominion o'er the will,That would refuse, but can no more,To bend, to tremble, and adore.Vain idolatry!--I saw,And gazing, became blind with error;Weak ambition, which the aweOf her presence bound to terror!So beautiful she was--and I,Between my love and jealousy,Am so convulsed with hope and fear,Unworthy as it may appear;--So bitter is the life I live,That, hear me, Hell! I now would giveTo thy most detested spiritMy soul, for ever to inherit,To suffer punishment and pine,So this woman may be mine.Hear'st thou, Hell! dost thou reject it?My soul is offered! DAEMON (UNSEEN):I accept it. [TEMPEST, WITH THUNDER AND LIGHTNING.] CYPRIAN:What is this? ye heavens for ever pure,At once intensely radiant and obscure!Athwart the aethereal hallsThe lightning's arrow and the thunder-ballsThe day affright,As from the horizon round,Burst with earthquake sound,In mighty torrents the electric fountains;--Clouds quench the sun, and thunder-smokeStrangles the air, and fire eclipses Heaven.Philosophy, thou canst not evenCompel their causes underneath thy yoke:From yonder clouds even to the waves belowThe fragments of a single ruin chokeImagination's flight;For, on flakes of surge, like feathers light,The ashes of the desolation, castUpon the gloomy blast,Tell of the footsteps of the storm;And nearer, see, the melancholy formOf a great ship, the outcast of the sea,Drives miserably!And it must fly the pity of the port,Or perish, and its last and sole resortIs its own raging enemy.The terror of the thrilling cryWas a fatal prophecyOf coming death, who hovers nowUpon that shattered prow,That they who die not may be dying still.And not alone the insane elementsAre populous with wild portents,But that sad ship is as a miracleOf sudden ruin, for it drives so fastIt seems as if it had arrayed its formWith the headlong storm.It strikes--I almost feel the shock,--It stumbles on a jagged rock,--Sparkles of blood on the white foam are cast. [A TEMPEST.] ALL EXCLAIM [WITHIN]:We are all lost! DAEMON [WITHIN]:Now from this plank will IPass to the land and thus fulfil my scheme. CYPRIAN:As in contempt of the elemental rageA man comes forth in safety, while the ship'sGreat form is in a watery eclipseObliterated from the Oceans page,And round its wreck the huge sea-monsters sit,A horrid conclave, and the whistling waveIs heaped over its carcase, like a grave. [THE DAEMON ENTERS, AS ESCAPED FROM THE SEA.] DAEMON [ASIDE]:It was essential to my purposesTo wake a tumult on the sapphire ocean,That in this unknown form I might at lengthWipe out the blot of the discomfitureSustained upon the mountain, and assailWith a new war the soul of Cyprian,Forging the instruments of his destructionEven from his love and from his wisdom.--OBeloved earth, dear mother, in thy bosomI seek a refuge from the monster whoPrecipitates itself upon me. CYPRIAN:Friend,Collect thyself; and be the memoryOf thy late suffering, and thy greatest sorrowBut as a shadow of the past,--for nothingBeneath the circle of the moon, but flowsAnd changes, and can never know repose. DAEMON:And who art thou, before whose feet my fateHas prostrated me? CYPRIAN:One who, moved with pity,Would soothe its stings. DAEMON:Oh, that can never be!No solace can my lasting sorrows find. CYPRIAN:Wherefore? DAEMON:Because my happiness is lost.Yet I lament what has long ceased to beThe object of desire or memory,And my life is not life. CYPRIAN:Now, since the furyOf this earthquaking hurricane is still,And the crystalline Heaven has reassumedIts windless calm so quickly, that it seemsAs if its heavy wrath had been awakenedOnly to overwhelm that vessel,--speak,Who art thou, and whence comest thou? DAEMON:Far moreMy coming hither cost, than thou hast seenOr I can tell. Among my misadventuresThis shipwreck is the least. Wilt thou hear? CYPRIAN:Speak. DAEMON:Since thou desirest, I will then unveilMyself to thee;--for in myself I amA world of happiness and misery;This I have lost, and that I must lamentForever. In my attributes I stoodSo high and so heroically great,In lineage so supreme, and with a geniusWhich penetrated with a glance the worldBeneath my feet, that, won by my high merit,A king--whom I may call the King of kings,Because all others tremble in their prideBefore the terrors of His countenance,In His high palace roofed with brightest gemsOf living light--call them the stars of Heaven--Named me His counsellor. But the high praiseStung me with pride and envy, and I roseIn mighty competition, to ascendHis seat and place my foot triumphantlyUpon His subject thrones. Chastised, I knowThe depth to which ambition falls; too madWas the attempt, and yet more mad were nowRepentance of the irrevocable deed:--Therefore I chose this ruin, with the gloryOf not to be subdued, before the shameOf reconciling me with Him who reignsBy coward cession.--Nor was I alone,Nor am I now, nor shall I be alone;And there was hope, and there may still be hope,For many suffrages among His vassalsHailed me their lord and king, and many stillAre mine, and many more, perchance shall be.Thus vanquished, though in fact victorious,I left His seat of empire, from mine eyeShooting forth poisonous lightning, while my wordsWith inauspicious thunderings shook Heaven,Proclaiming vengeance, public as my wrong,And imprecating on His prostrate slavesRapine, and death, and outrage. Then I sailedOver the mighty fabric of the world,--A pirate ambushed in its pathless sands,A lynx crouched watchfully among its cavesAnd craggy shores; and I have wandered overThe expanse of these wide wildernessesIn this great ship, whose bulk is now dissolvedIn the light breathings of the invisible wind,And which the sea has made a dustless ruin,Seeking ever a mountain, through whose forestsI seek a man, whom I must now compelTo keep his word with me. I came arrayedIn tempest, and although my power could wellBridle the forest winds in their career,For other causes I forbore to sootheTheir fury to Favonian gentleness;I could and would not;[ASIDE.](thus I wake in himA love of magic art). Let not this tempest,Nor the succeeding calm excite thy wonder;For by my art the sun would turn as paleAs his weak sister with unwonted fear;And in my wisdom are the orbs of HeavenWritten as in a record; I have piercedThe flaming circles of their wondrous spheresAnd know them as thou knowest every cornerOf this dim spot. Let it not seem to theeThat I boast vainly; wouldst thou that I workA charm over this waste and savage wood,This Babylon of crags and aged trees,Filling its leafy coverts with a horrorThrilling and strange? I am the friendless guestOf these wild oaks and pines--and as from theeI have received the hospitalityOf this rude place, I offer thee the fruitOf years of toil in recompense; whate'erThy wildest dream presented to thy thoughtAs object of desire, that shall be thine. ... And thenceforth shall so firm an amity'Twixt thee and me be, that neither Fortune,The monstrous phantom which pursues success,That careful miser, that free prodigal,Who ever alternates, with changeful hand,Evil and good, reproach and fame; nor Time,That lodestar of the ages, to whose beamThe winged years speed o'er the intervalsOf their unequal revolutions; norHeaven itself, whose beautiful bright starsRule and adorn the world, can ever makeThe least division between thee and me,Since now I find a refuge in thy favour. SCENE 3. THE DAEMON TEMPTS JUSTINA, WHO IS A CHRISTIAN. DAEMON:Abyss of Hell! I call on thee,Thou wild misrule of thine own anarchy!From thy prison-house set freeThe spirits of voluptuous death,That with their mighty breathThey may destroy a world of virgin thoughts;Let her chaste mind with fancies thick as motesBe peopled from thy shadowy deep,Till her guiltless fantasyFull to overflowing be!And with sweetest harmony,Let birds, and flowers, and leaves, and all things moveTo love, only to love.Let nothing meet her eyesBut signs of Love's soft victories;Let nothing meet her earBut sounds of Love's sweet sorrow,So that from faith no succour she may borrow,But, guided by my spirit blindAnd in a magic snare entwined,She may now seek Cyprian.Begin, while I in silence bindMy voice, when thy sweet song thou hast began. A VOICE [WITHIN]:What is the glory far aboveAll else in human life? ALL:Love! love! [WHILE THESE WORDS ARE SUNG,THE DAEMON GOES OUT AT ONE DOOR,AND JUSTINA ENTERS AT ANOTHER.] THE FIRST VOICE:There is no form in which the fireOf love its traces has impressed not.Man lives far more in love's desireThan by life's breath, soon possessed not.If all that lives must love or die,All shapes on earth, or sea, or sky,With one consent to Heaven cryThat the glory far aboveAll else in life is-- ALL:Love! oh, Love! JUSTINA:Thou melancholy Thought which artSo flattering and so sweet, to theeWhen did I give the libertyThus to afflict my heart?What is the cause of this new PowerWhich doth my fevered being move,Momently raging more and more?What subtle Pain is kindled nowWhich from my heart doth overflowInto my senses?-- ALL:Love! oh, Love! JUSTINA:'Tis that enamoured NightingaleWho gives me the reply;He ever tells the same soft taleOf passion and of constancyTo his mate, who rapt and fond,Listening sits, a bough beyond. Be silent, Nightingale--no moreMake me think, in hearing theeThus tenderly thy love deplore,If a bird can feel his so,What a man would feel for me.And, voluptuous Vine, O thouWho seekest most when least pursuing,--To the trunk thou interlacestArt the verdure which embracest,And the weight which is its ruin,--No more, with green embraces, Vine,Make me think on what thou lovest,--For whilst thus thy boughs entwineI fear lest thou shouldst teach me, sophist,How arms might be entangled too. Light-enchanted Sunflower, thouWho gazest ever true and tenderOn the sun's revolving splendour!Follow not his faithless glanceWith thy faded countenance,Nor teach my beating heart to fear,If leaves can mourn without a tear,How eyes must weep! O Nightingale,Cease from thy enamoured tale,--Leafy Vine, unwreathe thy bower,Restless Sunflower, cease to move,--Or tell me all, what poisonous PowerYe use against me-- ALL:Love! Love! Love! JUSTINA:It cannot be!--Whom have I ever loved?Trophies of my oblivion and disdain,Floro and Lelio did I not reject?And Cyprian?--[SHE BECOMES TROUBLED AT THE NAME OF CYPRIAN.]Did I not requite himWith such severity, that he has fledWhere none has ever heard of him again?--Alas! I now begin to fear that thisMay be the occasion whence desire grows bold,As if there were no danger. From the momentThat I pronounced to my own listening heart,'Cyprian is absent!'--O me miserable!I know not what I feel![MORE CALMLY.]It must be pityTo think that such a man, whom all the worldAdmired, should be forgot by all the world,And I the cause.[SHE AGAIN BECOMES TROUBLED.]And yet if it were pity,Floro and Lelio might have equal share,For they are both imprisoned for my sake.[CALMLY.]Alas! what reasonings are these? it isEnough I pity him, and that, in vain,Without this ceremonious subtlety.And, woe is me! I know not where to find him now,Even should I seek him through this wide world. [ENTER DAEMON.] DAEMON:Follow, and I will lead thee where he is. JUSTINA:And who art thou, who hast found entrance hither,Into my chamber through the doors and locks?Art thou a monstrous shadow which my madnessHas formed in the idle air? DAEMON:No. I am oneCalled by the Thought which tyrannizes theeFrom his eternal dwelling; who this dayIs pledged to bear thee unto Cyprian. JUSTINA:So shall thy promise fail. This agonyOf passion which afflicts my heart and soulMay sweep imagination in its storm;The will is firm. DAEMON:Already half is doneIn the imagination of an act.The sin incurred, the pleasure then remains;Let not the will stop half-way on the road. JUSTINA:I will not be discouraged, nor despair,Although I thought it, and although 'tis trueThat thought is but a prelude to the deed:--Thought is not in my power, but action is:I will not move my foot to follow thee. DAEMON:But a far mightier wisdom than thine ownExerts itself within thee, with such powerCompelling thee to that which it inclinesThat it shall force thy step; how wilt thou thenResist, Justina? JUSTINA:By my free-will. DAEMON:IMust force thy will. JUSTINA:It is invincible;It were not free if thou hadst power upon it. [HE DRAWS, BUT CANNOT MOVE HER.] DAEMON:Come, where a pleasure waits thee. JUSTINA:It were boughtToo dear. DAEMON:'Twill soothe thy heart to softest peace. JUSTINA:'Tis dread captivity. DAEMON:'Tis joy, 'tis glory. JUSTINA:'Tis shame, 'tis torment, 'tis despair. DAEMON:But howCanst thou defend thyself from that or me,If my power drags thee onward? JUSTINA:My defenceConsists in God. [HE VAINLY ENDEAVOURS TO FORCE HER, AND AT LAST RELEASES HER.] DAEMON:Woman, thou hast subdued me,Only by not owning thyself subdued.But since thou thus findest defence in God,I will assume a feigned form, and thusMake thee a victim of my baffled rage.For I will mask a spirit in thy formWho will betray thy name to infamy,And doubly shall I triumph in thy loss,First by dishonouring thee, and then by turningFalse pleasure to true ignominy. [EXIT.] JUSTINA: IAppeal to Heaven against thee; so that HeavenMay scatter thy delusions, and the blotUpon my fame vanish in idle thought,Even as flame dies in the envious air,And as the floweret wanes at morning frost;And thou shouldst never--But, alas! to whomDo I still speak?--Did not a man but nowStand here before me?--No, I am alone,And yet I saw him. Is he gone so quickly?Or can the heated mind engender shapesFrom its own fear? Some terrible and strangePeril is near. Lisander! father! lord!Livia!-- [ENTER LISANDER AND LIVIA.] LISANDER:Oh, my daughter! What? LIVIA:What! JUSTINA:Saw youA man go forth from my apartment now?--I scarce contain myself! LISANDER:A man here! JUSTINA:Have you not seen him? LIVIA:No, Lady. JUSTINA: I saw him. LISANDER: 'Tis impossible; the doorsWhich led to this apartment were all locked. LIVIA [ASIDE]:I daresay it was Moscon whom she saw,For he was locked up in my room. LISANDER:It mustHave been some image of thy fantasy.Such melancholy as thou feedest isSkilful in forming such in the vain airOut of the motes and atoms of the day. LIVIA:My master's in the right. JUSTINA:Oh, would it wereDelusion; but I fear some greater ill.I feel as if out of my bleeding bosomMy heart was torn in fragments; ay,Some mortal spell is wrought against my frame;So potent was the charm that, had not GodShielded my humble innocence from wrong,I should have sought my sorrow and my shameWith willing steps.--Livia, quick, bring my cloak,For I must seek refuge from these extremesEven in the temple of the highest GodWhere secretly the faithful worship. LIVIA:Here. JUSTINA [PUTTING ON HER CLOAK]:In this, as in a shroud of snow, may IQuench the consuming fire in which I burn,Wasting away! LISANDER:And I will go with thee. LIVIA:When I once see them safe out of the houseI shall breathe freely. JUSTINA:So do I confideIn thy just favour, Heaven! LISANDER:Let us go. JUSTINA:Thine is the cause, great God! turn for my sake,And for Thine own, mercifully to me!