 | Count Julian |  |
FIRST SCENE.
Tent of Julian.Roderigo and Julian.
Julian.
The people had deserted thee, and throng'd
My standard, had I raised it, at the first;
But once subsiding, and no voice of mine
Calling by name each grievance to each man,
They, silent and submissive by degrees,
Bore thy hard yoke, and hadst thou but opprest,
Would still have borne it: thou hast now deceived;
Thou hast done all a foreign foe could do
And more against them; with ingratitude
Not hell itself could arm the foreign foe;
'Tis forged at home and kills not from afar.
Amid whate'er vain glories fell upon
Thy rainbow span of power, which I dissolve,
Boast not how thou conferredst wealth and rank,
How thou preservedst me, my family,
All my distinctions, all my offices,
When Witiza was murder'd; that I stand
Count Julian at this hour by special grace.
The sword of Julian saved the walls of Ceuta,
And not the shadow that attends his name:
It was no badge, no title, that o'erthrew
Soldier and steed and engine. Don Roderigo!
The truly and the falsely great here differ:
These by dull wealth or daring fraud advance;
Him the Almighty calls amid his people
To sway the wills and passions of mankind.
The weak of heart and intellect beheld
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I rose .. Roderigo lords o'er Spain no more.
Roderigo.
Now to a traitor's add a boaster's name.
Julian.
Shameless and arrogant, dost thou believe
I boast for pride or pastime? forced to boast,
Truth cost me more than falsehood e'er cost thee.
Divested of that purple of the soul,
That potency, that palm of wise ambition,
Cast headlong by thy madness from that high,
That only eminence 'twixt earth and heaven,
Virtue, which some desert, but none despise,
Whether thou art beheld again on earth,
Whether a captive or a fugitive,
Miner or galley-slave, depends on me;
But he alone who made me what I am
Can make me greater or can make me less.
Roderigo.
Chance, and chance only, threw me in thy power;
Give me my sword again and try my strength.
Julian.
I tried it in the front of thousands.
Roderigo.
Death
At least vouchsafe me from a soldier's hand.
Julian.
I love to hear thee ask it: now my own
Would not be bitter; no, nor immature.
Roderigo.
Defy it, say thou rather.
Julian.
Death itself
Shall not be granted thee, unless from God;
A dole from his and from no other hand.
Thou shalt now hear and own thine infamy.
Roderigo.
Chains, dungeons, tortures .. but I hear no more.
Julian.
Silence, thou wretch! live on .. ay, live .. abhorr'd.
Thou shalt have tortures, dungeons, chains enough;
They naturally rise and grow around
Monsters like thee, everywhere, and for ever.
Roderigo.
Insulter of the fallen! must I endure
Commands as well as threats? my vassal's too?
Nor breathe from underneath his trampling feet?
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Could I speak patiently who speak to thee,
I would say more: part of thy punishment
It should be, to be taught.
Roderigo.
Reserve thy wisdom
Until thy patience come, its best ally:
I learn no lore, of peace or war, from thee.
Julian.
No, thou shalt study soon another tongue,
And suns more ardent shall mature thy mind.
Either the cross thou bearest, and thy knees
Among the silent caves of Palestine
Wear the sharp flints away with midnight prayer,
Or thou shalt keep the fasts of Barbary,
Shalt wait amid the crowds that throng the well
From sultry noon till the skies fade again,
To draw up water and to bring it home
In the crackt gourd of some vile testy knave,
Who spurns thee back with bastinaded foot
For ignorance or delay of his command.
Roderigo.
Rather the poison or the bowstring.
Julian.
Slaves
To other's passions die such deaths as those:
Slaves to their own should die ..
Roderigo.
What worse?
Julian.
Their own.
Roderigo.
Is this thy counsel, renegade?
Julian.
Not mine:
I point a better path, nay, force thee on.
I shelter thee from every brave man's sword
While I am near thee: I bestow on thee
Life: if thou die, 'tis when thou sojournest
Protected by this arm and voice no more:
'Tis slavishly, 'tis ignominiously,
'Tis by a villian's knive.
Roderigo.
By whose?
Julian.
Roderigo's.
Roderigo.
O powers of vengeance! must I hear? .. endure? ..
Live?
Julian.
Call thy vassals: no? then wipe the drops
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So! thou canst weep for passion; not for pity.
Roderigo.
One hour ago I ruled all Spain! a camp
Not larger than a sheepfold stood alone
Against me: now, no friend throughout the world
Follows my steps or hearkens to my call.
Behold the turns of fortune, and expect
No better: of all faithless men the Moors
Are the most faithless: from thy own experience
Thou canst not value nor rely on them.
Julian.
I value not the mass that makes my sword,
Yet while I use it I rely on it.
Roderigo.
Julian, thy gloomy soul still meditates ..
Plainly I see it .. death to me .. pursue
The dictates of thy leaders, let revenge
Have its full sway, let Barbary prevail,
And the pure creed her elders have embraced:
Those placid sages hold assassination
A most compendious supplement to law.
Julian.
Thou knowest not the one, nor I the other.
Torn hast thou from me all my soul held dear,
Her form, her voice, all, hast thou banisht from me,
Nor dare I, wretched as I am! recall
Those solaces of every grief erewhile.
I stand abased before insulting crime,
I falter like a criminal myself;
The hand that hurl'd thy chariot o'er its wheels,
That held thy steeds erect and motionless
As molten statues on some palace-gate,
Shakes as with palsied age before thee now.
Gone is the treasure of my heart for ever,
Without a father, mother, friend, or name.
Daughter of Julian .. Such was her delight ..
Such was mine too! what pride more innocent,
What surely less deserving pangs like these,
Than springs from filial and parental love!
Debarr'd from every hope that issues forth
To meet the balmy breath of early life,
Her sadden'd days, all cold and colourless,
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Amid the sameness of obscurity.
She wanted not seclusion to unveil
Her thoughts to heaven, cloister, nor midnight bell;
She found it in all places, at all hours:
While to assuage my labours she indulged
A playfulness that shunn'd a mother's eye,
Still to avert my perils there arose
A piety that even from me retired.
Roderigo.
Such was she! what am I! those are the arms
That are triumphant when the battle fails.
O Julian! Julian! all thy former words
Struck but the imbecile plumes of vanity,
These thro' its steely coverings pierce the heart.
I ask not life nor death; but, if I live,
Send my most bitter enemy to watch
My secret paths, send poverty, send pain ..
I will add more .. wise as thou art, thou knowest
No foe more furious than forgiven kings.
I ask not then what thou would'st never grant:
May heaven, O Julian, from thy hand receive
A pardon'd man, a chasten'd criminal.
Julian.
This further curse hast thou inflicted; wretch!
I can not pardon thee.
Roderigo.
Thy tone, thy mien,
Refute those words.
Julian.
No .. I can not forgive.
Roderigo.
Upon my knee, my conqueror, I implore!
Upon the earth, before thy feet .. hard heart!
Julian.
Audacious! hast thou never heard that prayer
And scorn'd it? 'tis the last thou shouldst repeat.
Upon the earth! upon her knees, O God?
Roderigo.
Resemble not a wretch so lost as I:
Be better; O! be happier; and pronounce it.
Julian.
I swerve not from my purpose: thou art mine,
Conquered; and I have sworn to dedicate,
Like a torn banner on my chapel's roof,
Thee to that power from whom thou hast rebell'd.
Expiate thy crimes by prayer, by penances.
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Hasten the hour of trial, speak of peace.
Pardon me not then, but with purer lips
Implore of God, who would hear thee, to pardon.
Julian.
Hope it I may .. pronounce it .. O Roderigo!
Ask it of him who can; I too will ask,
And, in my own transgressions, pray for thine.
Roderigo.
One name I dare not ..
Julian.
Go; abstain from that;
I do conjure thee, raise not in my soul
Again the tempest that has wreckt my fame;
Thou shalt not breathe in the same clime with her.
Far o'er the unebbing sea thou shalt adore
The eastern star, and may thy end be peace.
| Count Julian | |