University of Virginia Library

Scene 2.

Dark Chamber in the Palace. (Gonseres alone.)
Like the breath
Of humid dragons in their charnel dens
Whose fingered fumes work upward to men's throats
And strangle all the senses of sweet life,
So labours the gross air of this drear place.
Is't possible
He hath inveigled me by his feign'd compliance
Into those mazy and mysterious vaults
T'insure my silence and alone, masked in
His rank, his age and past fidelity,
Clutch up the treasure? A fool's fancy this!
Such daring to put hand to is not in
His abject nature; nor to purpose it
Befits the unhinged condition of his fortunes.
Yon ray of distant light breaks cheerily
And all the thronging spectres of distrust
Retreat into their sullen crevices.
The diamond of diamonds is light—
The eye of all things rare and radiant—
Their arbiter and their artificer.
These walls grow friendly under its kind magic
And seem familiar to my apprehension
As I advance. Ha! the key
Leaps to its office, like a thing bewitched
And in the ear of the obedient lock
Drops its persuasive whisper.
[Opens the casket.
A rare stone
Filched from the gleaming quarries of the sun
By some bold searcher of infinitude!
'Tis pity that a gem of such renown
Should be decreed to dark forgetfulness.
No, no, Soartes, I have found a service
Pertaining to it which befitteth more
My humour and its fortunes than thou dream'st of.
Earth's lap hath treasures hoarded in't enow,
To need such acquisition. Oh! this jewel
Hath wrought but half its destiny. Too long
It hath lain buried at the king's caprice
Which holds it in disfavour, as a charm
Linked with rebellion and calamity.
Now, it must forth to supplement its fame
And do the bidding, braving royal decree,
Of the stern fates. Both, both it shall involve
Her and the haughty Count. Pity henceforth
Be banished from my bosom! Come Revenge!
Come Hate! come every fiendish form
And take up room in't! There is space enough
For all the drifting demons of despair
To harbour here. I now devote, before you,
This jewel to the cause of scorned love!
Aid me, avenging spirits! Let my wrongs
Work out their expiation, so that kings
When to their privileged, anointed brows
Reclimbs the fatal star-stone, shall allot
To the red legend of Gonseres' love,
A place in its eventful history.

[Exit Gonseres.