Orval, or The Fool of Time :: :: University of Virginia Library

Scene I.—Sunset. Mountain and Valley near the Castle of Orval, which is partly visible in the background. Mists forming over the landscape. Distant joy-bells, which cease as the scene opens. The Guardian Angel descends.
Guardian Angel.

From soul to soul hath war been waged,
From star to star, from sun to sun:
Nor e'er shall be the strife assuaged
That's hourly lost and hourly won.
Ancient of Days, that here in light,
And there in darkness, dost array Thee,
Thou madest day, Thou madest night,
And both obey Thee.

The sons of night Thy servants are:
They work Thy will, no less than we,
The sons of light, that with them war
Unwearied where no end can be.

But woe to man, if light in vain
He sees, and seeks the darkness rather!
From seed of evil, evil grain
That man shall gather.

Dreams fade, deeds fail, and days depart,
And all is changed in time and place.
Thrice blessèd are the pure in heart:
For only they shall see God's face.
Man's life from cradle leads to tomb:
Man's love from Earth may lead to Heaven:
Be thankful, therefore, thou to whom
A heart was given.

Hold fast, O man, to whom God gives,
To keep thy heart still undefiled,
The holy human love that lives
In kiss of wife, and kiss of child,
Hold fast the gift! The hour, that now
To Heaven returns, to Heaven is bearing
A husband's sacramental vow,
Vow'd in God's hearing.

The pure in heart God's face shall see.
They of the Blest are blessèd most.
Man's heart, O Lord, lies bare to Thee:
Shall this man, Lord, be saved, or lost?
Though o'er his soul be cast the net
That Satan weights with strong temptation,
He that hath yet a heart may yet
Escape damnation.

(The Guardian Angel ascends.)

Evil Spirits
(rising with the mist).

With the vapours arising from earth arise,
Shadows of Falsehood, whose shapes are lies,
And enter where ye are waited!
Phantoms, and films, and illusions,
That mimic the light you loathe,
With deliriums, dreams, and confusions
The creature that calls you, clothe!
Choke the conscience, and cheat the eyes,
Strangle the spirit, but stifle its cries:
For the fall of the fool is fated.
Love to lust, and courage to crime,
And sense to sin, for the fool of time,
Orval! Orval!

Thou, first, loved beauty of youth's lost bloom,
The Departed of Yesterday, rise from the tomb,
And bewilder him that bewails thee.
Too soon to the darkness hurried,
Wan ghost, to the light rearise,
And, haunting him, dead but unburied,
Reappear in a dream to his eyes.
In the dews of the night be thou bathed, and bound
With the blossoms that grow upon graves, and crown'd,
By the heart of the fool that hails thee,
With the stars of the night, till the grave-worm's slime
Be as glow-worm lights to the fool of time,
Orval! Orval!

Thou also, old picture of Paradise, well
In the cobwebb'd lumber-chamber of Hell

Hast thou rested, rotted, and rusted:
Beëlzebub's masterpiece, painted
Long since, though thy canvas be old,
And the hues of it tarnisht and fainted,
Yet retoucht with our purple and gold,
Thou shalt brighten, and glitter, and glow, for him,
With the colours of Eden ere they wax'd dim.
Come forth, and be furbisht and dusted!
O Nature, mother of sins sublime,
Fair be thy face to the fool of time,
Orval! Orval!

Last, thou, too, carrion bird of prey,
Whose name upon earth is Ambition, away,
Where the huntsman to hunt thee hastens!
Stuff'd with Hell's ashes and cinders,
Famed Bird of Perdition, depart
From thy perch on the Past. Nothing hinders
Thy flight, though a scarecrow thou art.
Spread thy wings in the ardours of morn, and bright
As the sunrise, and swift as the wind, be thy flight,
Till firmly thy talon fastens,
Red with carnage, and crooked with crime,
On the ruin'd heart of the fool of time,
Orval! Orval!