University of Virginia Library

Scene II

A parlour in the convent of Santa Maria della Pieta, as in Act First, Scene Second. Enter Angela and the Madre to Francisco the Monk.)
Angela
Francisco, you are welcome home again.
Where is my son?

Monk
Why did you bar the gates?
Had you not done so, you had seen him long
Ago.

Angela
How is Fernando? Is he well?

Monk
The great enigma must be solved.

Angela
What great
Enigma? Speak! Fernando is not dead?

Monk
That will be known when you have solved this great
Enigma.

Angela
Strange how he can sport with us,
As if Fernando's death were naught to me;
Oh, speak! if he is dead why, tell me so!

Monk
You have the name of that which you have not.
Now, if you solve it, you shall hear if your
Fernando live or not.

Angela
But if not solved—

Monk
You cannot hear.

Angela
Then I can never hear,
For I can solve no riddle like to that;
And, not to know, is but to feel his death.

Madre
You have learned much since you first went away.

Monk
I have learned much, but chief of all that I
Have learned is to believe not what I see,
Nor what I hear.

Angela
Why so?

Monk
Because we see,
And do not see, and hear, and do not hear.

Angela
He speaks in parables.

Monk
I speak in truth.

Madre
What good is truth in such disguise?

Monk
'Tis truth.

Angela
(To Madre)
What can he mean?

Madre
I think he is deranged.

Monk
Had you but seen what I have seen, you had
Been wise.

Angela
What have you seen? Come, tell us that.

Monk
Where is the Prince's daughter? Tell me that.

Angela
She is within.

Monk
Then bring her forth.

Madre
I will.

(Exit.)
Angela
What do you mean by this strange talk?
I pray
You pardon me—I do not mean to tell.

Angela
Why not?
Have you not been to Scotland yet?

Monk
I have.

Angela
And seen Fernando?

Monk
Ay, I have—have not.

Angela
Alas, I know he's dead.

Monk
How know you that?

Angela
You seem to say he is. But here she comes.

(Reenter Madre leading in Madalena.)
Madalena
(Grasping his hand)
Oh, holy father, you have come again!
Speak, where is Fernando? Where is my lord?

Monk
What is thy name?

Madalena
My name? Why ask me that?

Monk
I wish to know.

Madalena
You frighten me.

Monk
You will
Be more frightened than that before you die.
Your name?

Madalena
My name is Madalena? Why?

Monk
You are—yet you are not.

Madalena
He is not dead?
Has he returned?

Monk
He has—yet he has not.

Madalena
Oh, do not grieve me thus! Has he returned?
Where is your father?

Madalena
Dead.

Monk
Your mother?

Madalena
Dead!

Monk
(To Angela)
What think you of this talk?

Angela
It is most strange.
We are mislead; but who shall set us right?

Monk
You heard her say her sire was dead.

Angela
We did.

Monk
That Madalena was her name?

Angela
We did.
We heard all that.

Monk
She is—yet she is not.
She is the Madalena that you have,
But not the Madalena that you seek,
If Stuart's daughter is the one you wish.
She bears the name of her, but that is all.

Angela
It is most strange! The more we see of her,
The more we wish to see, which, seeing, makes
Us only see the less. Nay—speak to me!
Are you not Stuart's daughter?

Madalena
No, he is
No sire of mine.

Angela
But you are like to her,
As if you were the same. Now we can see
Wherein you spoke the truth.

Monk
There are more ways
To speak the truth than one.

Angela
You are most learned.

Monk
This proves that every like is not the same.
Fernando did not go. I was deceived.
'Twas Stuart's daughter went as Page.

Angela
As Page?
What mysteries on mysteries? Then, you have been
To Scotland, all for naught?

Monk
And learned by it,
More than thy son will ever know.

Madalena
Could you
Not tell a woman from a man?

Monk
I have
Seen people worse deceived than that. She drest
Her as a Page and called herself thy son.

Angela
And was her father, too, deceived?

Monk
He was,
Until he came to Boradale, where she
Unsexed herself.

Madalena
Then let me go.

Angela
Nay, stay,
I must inquire about this marriage with
My son.

Monk
And I will seek him in her stead.

Angela
Yes, go (Exit Francisco.)
Was ever mystery like to this?

(Exeunt omnes.)