The Two Lovers of Heaven: Chrysanthus and Daria - Pedro Calderón de la Barca (microsoft ebook reader TXT) 📗

bade us do.

CHRYSANTHUS. 'T is because he never knew Pain like that which me tormenteth. For if he that pang incessant Felt, he would not wish to cure it, He would love it and endure it.

POLEMIUS. Think, my son, that I am present, And that I am not ambitious To assume your evil mood, But to find that it is good.

CHRYSANTHUS. No, sir, you mistake my wishes. I would not through you relieve me Of my care; my former state Seemed, though, more to mitigate What I suffer: why not leave me There to die?

POLEMIUS.
That yet I may, Pitying your sad condition, Work your cure:-A great physician Comes to visit you to-day.

CHRYSANTHUS (aside). Who do I behold? ah, me!

CARPOPHORUS. I will speak to him with your leave.

CHRYSANTHUS (aside). No, my eyes do not deceive, 'T is Carpophorus that I see! I my pleasure must conceal.

CARPOPHORUS. Sir, of what do you complain?

CHRYSANTHUS. Since you come to cure my pain, I will tell you how I feel. A great sadness hath been thrown O'er my mind and o'er my feelings, A dark blank whose dim revealings Make their sombre tints mine own.

CARPOPHORUS. Can you any cause assign me Whence this sadness is proceeding?

CHRYSANTHUS. From my earliest years to reading Did my studious tastes incline me. Something thus acquired doth wake Doubts, and fears, and hopes, ah me! That the things I read may be.

CARPOPHORUS. Then from me this lesson take. Every mystery how obscure, Is explained by faith alone; All is clear when that is known: 'T is through faith I 'll work your cure. Since in that your healing lies, Take it then from me.

CHRYSANTHUS.
From you I infer all good: that true Faith I hope which you advise.

CARPOPHORUS (to Polemius). Give me leave, sir, to address Some few words to him alone, Less reserve will then be shown. (The two retire to one side. Have you recognized me?

CHRYSANTHUS.
Yes, Every sign shows you are he Who in my most perilous strait Fled and left me to my fate.

CARPOPHORUS. God did that; and would you see That it was His own work, say, If I did not then absent me Through His means, could I present me As your teacher here to-day?

CHRYSANTHUS. No.

CARPOPHORUS.
How just His providence! Since I was preserved, that I Here might seek you, and more nigh Give you full intelligence Leisurely of every doubt Which disturbs you when you read.

CHRYSANTHUS. Mysteries they are indeed, Difficult to be made out.

CARPOPHORUS. To the believer all is plain.

CHRYSANTHUS. I would believe, what must I do?-

CARPOPHORUS. Your intellectual pride subdue.

CHRYSANTHUS. I will subdue it, since 't is vain.

CARPOPHORUS. Then the first thing to be done Is to be baptized.

CHRYSANTHUS.
I bow, Father, and implore it now.

CARPOPHORUS. Let us for the present shun Further notice; lest suspicion Should betray what we would smother; Every day we 'll see each other, When I 'll execute my mission: I, to cure sin's primal scath, Will at fitting time baptize you, Taking care to catechise you In the principles of the faith; Only now one admonition Must I give; be armed, be ready For the fight most fierce and steady Ever fought for man's perdition; Oh! take heed, amid the advances Of the fair who wish to win you, 'Mid the fires that burn within you, 'Mid lascivious looks and glances, 'Mid such various foes enlisted, That you are not conquered by them.

CHRYSANTHUS. Women! oh! who dare defy them By such dread allies assisted?

CARPOPHORUS. He whom God assists.

CHRYSANTHUS.
Be swayed By my tears, and ask him.

CARPOPHORUS.
You Must too ask him: for he who Aids himself, him God doth aid.

POLEMIUS. What, sir, think you of his case?

CARPOPHORUS. I have ordered him a bath, Strong restoring powers it hath, Which his illness must displace:-

POLEMIUS. Sir, relying on you then, I will give you ample wealth, If you can restore his health.

CARPOPHORUS. Still I cannot tell you when, But I shall return and see him Frequently; in fact 'till he Is from all his ailment free, From my hand I will not free him.

POLEMIUS. For your kindness I am grateful.

CHRYSANTHUS. He alone has power to cure me. Since he knows what will allure me, When all other modes are hateful. [Exit Carpophorus.

(Enter Escarpin.)

ESCARPIN. All this garden of delight Must be beauty's birth-place sure, Here the fresh rose doubly pure, Here the jasmin doubly white, Learn to-day a newer grace, Lovelier red, more dazzling snow.

POLEMIUS. Why?

ESCARPIN.
Because the world doth show Naught so fair as this sweet place. Falsely boasts th' Elysian bower Peerless beauty, here to-day More, far more, these groves display:- Not a fountain, tree, or flower . . .

POLEMIUS. Well?

ESCARPIN.
But by a nymph more fair Is surpassed.

POLEMIUS.
Come, Claudius, come, He will be but dull and dumb, Shy the proffered bliss to share, Through the fear and the respect Which, as son, he owes to me.

CLAUDIUS. He who gave the advice should see Also after the effect. Let us all from this withdraw.

POLEMIUS. Great results I hope to gather:

ESCARPIN (aside). Well, you 're the first pander-father Ever in my life I saw.

CHRYSANTHUS. What, Escarpin, you, as well, Going to leave me? Mum for once.

ESCARPIN. Silence suits me for the nonce.

CHRYSANTHUS. Why?

ESCARPIN.
A tale in point I 'll tell: Once a snuffler, by a pirate Moor was captured, who in some Way affected to be dumb, That his ransom at no high rate Might be purchased: when his owner This defect perceived, the shuffle Made him sell this Mr. Snuffle Very cheaply: to the donor Of his freedom, through his nose, Half in snuffle, half in squeak, Then he said, "Oh! Moor, I speak, I 'm not dumb as you suppose". "Fool, to let your folly lead you So astray", replied the Moor. "Had I heard you speak, be sure I for nothing would have freed you". Thus it is I moderate me In the use of tongue and cheek, Lest when you have heard me speak, Still more cheaply you may rate me.

CHRYSANTHUS. You must know the estimation I have held you in so long.

ESCARPIN. Well, my memory is not strong. It requires consideration To admit that pleasant fact.

CHRYSANTHUS. What of me do people say?-

ESCARPIN. Shall I speak it?

CHRYSANTHUS.
Speak.

ESCARPIN.
Why, they Say, my lord, that you are cracked.

CHRYSANTHUS. For what reason? Why this blame?

ESCARPIN. Reason, sir, need not be had, For the wisest man is mad If he only gets the name.

CHRYSANTHUS. Well, it was not wrongly given, If they only knew that I Have consented even to die So to reach the wished-for heaven Of a sovereign beauty's favour.

ESCARPIN. For a lady's favour you Have agreed to die?

CHRYSANTHUS.
'T is true.

ESCARPIN. Does not this a certain savour Of insanity give your sadness?

CHRYSANTHUS. Were I certain as of breath I could claim it after death, There was method in my madness.

ESCARPIN. A brave soldier of the line, On his death-bed lying ill, Spoke thus, "Item, 't is my will, Gallant friends and comrades mine, That you 'll bear me to my grave, And although I 've little wealth, Thirty reals to drink my health Shall you for your kindness have". Thus the hope as vain must be After death one's love to wed, As to drink one's health when dead. [Nisida advances from the garden.]

CHRYSANTHUS. But what maid is this I see Hither through the garden wending?

ESCARPIN. If you take a stroll with me Plenty of her sort you 'll see.

NISIDA. One who would effect the ending Of thy sadness.

CHRYSANTHUS (aside).
Now comes near thee, O my heart, thy threatened trial! Lady, pardon the denial, But I would nor see nor hear thee.

NISIDA. Not so ungallantly surely Wilt thou act, as not to see One who comes to speak with thee?

CHRYSANTHUS. To see one who thinks so poorly Of herself, and with such lightness Owns she comes to speak with me, Rather would appear to be Want of sense than of politeness.

NISIDA. All discourse is not so slight That thou need'st decline it so.

CHRYSANTHUS. No, I will not see thee, no. Thus I shut thee from my sight.

NISIDA. Vainly art thou cold and wise, Other senses thou shouldst fear, Since I enter by the ear, Though thou shut me from the eyes.

Sings. "The bless`ed rapture of forgetting Never doth my heart deserve, What my memory would preserve Is the memory I 'm regretting".

CHRYSANTHUS. That melting voice, that melody Spell-bound holds th' entranc`ed soul. Ah! from such divine control Who his fettered soul could free?- Human Siren, leave me, go! Too well I feel its fatal power. I faint before it like a flower By warm-winds wooed in noontide's glow. The close-pressed lips the mouth can lock, And so repress the vain reply, The lid can veil th' unwilling eye From all that may offend and shock,- Nature doth seem a niggard here, Unequally her gifts disposing, For no instinctive means of closing She gives the unprotected ear.

(Enter Cynthia.)

CYNTHIA. Since then the ear cannot be closed, And thou resistance need'st not try, Listen to the gloss that I On this sweet conceit composed: "The bless`ed rapture of forgetting Never doth my heart deserve; What my memory would preserve Is the memory I 'm regretting". When Nature from the void obscure Her varied world to life awakes, All things find use and so endure:- Thus she a poison never makes Without its corresponding cure: Each thing of Nature's careful setting, Each plant that grows in field or grove Hath got its opposite flower or weed; The cure is with the pain