 | Prince Lucifer |  |
SCENE I
[Interior of Castle Tourbillon.]FATHER GABRIEL.
I, a poor priest, from you, a potent Prince,
Come craving audience.
LUCIFER.
Welcome, everywhere!
The Earth pertains to all; not more to me
Than any mortal wight whose wisdom spends
The rich unearned inheritance of life.
FATHER GABRIEL.
The Church to kings and offshoots of a king
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So, Prince! a priest's obeisance still allow.
LUCIFER.
Where is my Princedom? Where my potency?
My Court,—behold it! These ungilded walls,
Or, barer still, the palace of the hills,
Are all my Royalty.
FATHER GABRIEL.
It is not pomp,
Nor ostentatious servitors, though these
Are the legitimate clothing of a king,
But native chrism and self-anointed birth,
Assert the Prince. How will you disendue
The mantle dropped on Majesty from Heaven?
LUCIFER.
By hanging it against the wall and there
Letting time's cobwebs mildew in its folds.
The owner's soon forgot.
FATHER GABRIEL.
And yet there is
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'Gainst one not even regal.
LUCIFER.
What is that?
FATHER GABRIEL.
You have invaded and usurped my realm,
And with the sceptre you disown have seized
The dearest slice of all my territory.
O, give it back to me! You have so much.
Leave me my little!
LUCIFER.
What have I usurped,
More yours than mine, more mine than any one's,
More any one's than no one's, save it be
Freely by its sole owner, self, be given?
FATHER GABRIEL.
O, you have toppled me down from my high seat,
The pulpit and the altar! from my back
The robe of white authority have stripped,
Discrowning conscience!
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Conscience wears no crown,
Unless the crown of martyrdom, and reigns
Beyond attainder.
FATHER GABRIEL.
You have tainted it,
Melting the pearl of chastity in wine
Of splendid lust
LUCIFER.
I have been patient, priest,
And patient shall be still. But, patient, hear me.
You hail me Prince. My Principality
I have thrown off as lightly as a cloak
Too sultry for the season. Where is my sceptre?
Where splendour? And where lust? Why, dainty things
Deemed themselves daintier if I deigned to foul them.
Are they within these walls? . . . Yes, She is here,
Your lamb of yesterday, my lamb to-day,
And mine, I trust, for ever! Purity!
Pure is she still, even in the starveling sense
That satisfies the sacristy; in mine,
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Her conscience back to servitude, and cog
Her waking senses to an unloved touch
With opiate of marriage.
FATHER GABRIEL.
With what spells
Did you induce her here?
LUCIFER.
With spells of Nature;
With incantations of the forest-side,
And simples of the mountain. These black arts
On her were exercised;—but others, none.
The firs and pine-trees were my conjurors,
Waving their arms above her till she fell
Into fond dreaming. Fountains, and the wells
Of downward-dancing rivulets composed
The songful charm that lured her to my will.
Out of its seething foam the cataract
Mixed the strong philtre that enamoured her;
And clear and cloudy opals of the mist
Hung her all round with magic amulets.
For Nature is a wizard; whence it is
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She works her operations and intent
On hearts, true, simple, fair, and natural;
While those that think without her aid to taste
The morsels and still fresh delights of love,
Live on with baffled appetite, or, gorged
With lustful gobbets, vomit them forthwith
As soon as swallowed. Spells! What spells I used?
The spell that brings the dewdrop to the rose,
Without the rose's asking; Nature's spells,
Transcending mortal artifice.
FATHER GABRIEL.
You speak
Of Nature tenderly, and well she may
Serve one who loves her well. But why allow
E'en from her hand a gift you cannot own?
A simple shepherdess, a village suckling,—
You, you, the flower and seed of regal loins,
You cannot marry her.
LUCIFER.
How know you that?
I cannot marry her? Say, would not, rather.
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The rites you guard; heraldic blazonries
Are fireworks for the foolish. It is love
Enjoins me still leave Nature to complete
The piece she hath begun. Why interrupt
The slow sure weaving of love's natural bond
With marriage contract, sudden, forcible,
Strong till 'tis strained and snaps? That will I never.
For Marriage is the winding-sheet of love;
And, after it, most mortals in their hearts
Carry a coffin uninterred. Could I
On to the unwritten covenant of love
Append that clogging and unneeded seal,
This simple shepherdess, this village suckling,
This gossamer of the hills, this what you will,
This mine at least, if mine she wills to be,
Should buy your sanction.
FATHER GABRIEL.
Is she then to live
Your uncontracted and precarious toy?
LUCIFER.
My toy, my joy, my happy everything,
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All unto me, as I all unto her,
By lasting choice of unlocked liberty.
FATHER GABRIEL.
But think, sir! think! if she should here abide,
The unconsecrated consort of your roof,
She the crowned flower and lily of all our lilies,
How would that Grace, whose advocate I am,
Be wounded through her nature! I in vain
Should champion Grace to one so natural
As you, alas! But you will pity me,
And, as you are or might have been a king,
Spare my poor kingdom?
LUCIFER.
And surrender mine!
The only one I have, the only one
I care to have, no larger sure than yours,
And just as dear. I, who relinquished throne,
Sceptre, dominion, splendour, majesty,
The ownership of half the solid globe,
And the whole ocean, rather than consent
Love still shall be the altar's acolyte,
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The sword of conscience to a—nay, forgive!
Honest, I can revere your honesty,
But wherefore more? We lose ourselves in words
From the high road of action.
EVE.
(from within).
Lucifer!
LUCIFER.
You hear her voice? Hark to its purity!
Pure as the tinkle of the cattle-bells,
Pure as the mountain air she still doth breathe,
Pure as the snow on topmost Matterhorn,
Though haply not so cold, and O, be sure!
More steadfast if more melting.
EVE.
Lucifer!
LUCIFER.
Farewell. She shuts her book, and seeks my face.
My face must turn to seek her.
[Father Gabriel departs.]
| Prince Lucifer | |