University of Virginia Library

Act I

Scene I

A magnificent apartment in the palace of Count Alvar. Enter Count Alvar and Leoni.
Count Alvar
You know what pains most people take to lie.
What said Elvira on thy quick return?

Leoni
She bade me keep the face of Virtue bright.

Count Alvar
That means that thou shalt shun my company?

Leoni
Nay! give me but one atom of thy love,
And like the healing medicine of old,
'Twill cure the heart that thou hast wounded so!
For there are priceless joys along our path—
They scatter now their rich perfumes to Heaven.

Count Alvar
I cannot swallow down Elvira's words. (Starting away.)


Leoni
Nay, stay but one sweet moment, that my life
May not be darkened longing for thy love!
The Dove will love but one fond mate through life,
And if the fowler's hand should lay that low,
Thou mayest at noontide in the sultry sun,
When wanton zephyrs play around her wings,
Stand auditor beneath the much loved pine,
And hear her plead the merits of his cause—
'Twould lend affection to the hardest heart!

Count Alvar
My soul must link itself with larger views
Than with Leoni's love.

Leoni
What! sayst thou so?
Would'st thou betray the trust reposed in thee,
For that poor paltry recompense called pride,
And drive me loathesome from myself and Heaven!

Count Alvar
(Aside.)
What if the link that bind me to the world,
Should break in nature's chain? 'Twould let me down
To dark nonentity with Devil's damned
To rise no more! But Gods! It must be done!
(Aloud.)
So now, Leoni, fare thee well!

Leoni
What! now?
And break the chain that binds me unto Heaven?

Count Alvar
If that will break it, it must break.

Leoni
And you,
Have sworn this from your heart?

Count Alvar
I have not sworn—
But it must be.

Leoni
So, you will leave me now,
And yield me for another's love.

Count Alvar
I must.

Leoni
Then, by the eternal Gods, there is no hope—
No recompense beneath the sun!

Count Alvar
There is—
Go, marry with your cousin now in Rome.

Leoni
I thank thee for that noble thought, my lord!
I thank thee for that thought! for after this,
Methinks the wretched lies that thou hast told,
Will make each second of thy dying life
A thousand years of misery! Hear me now!
(Dashing away her jewels.)
I would not wear another gift of thine,
If every hair upon thy head were gold!
But this fond heart—so full it fain would burst—
That would not harm the simplest thing on earth—
As both to scorn as fierce to insult given—
(Until despite is on its honor thrown!)
Shall turn an August for thy dying life,
And thirst for every drop that fills thy heart!
So now, farewell! (Weeping.)


Count Alvar
Leoni, fare the well!
(Exit Count Alvar.)

Enter Elvira.
Elvira
Leoni, why have you been shedding tears?

Leoni
My soul is full of sorrow and my heart
Is crushed beneath the mountain of my woes!

Elvira
Count Alvar has deceived you then!

Leoni
He has,
And bitterly shall he repent the deed!

Elvira
Perhaps he loves Theresa better then?

Leoni
An enemy to virtue, love? Tell me
That Heaven is Hell! that he will go to Heaven!
The mountains' heights are ascertained—the seas
Are fathomed, and the oceans' depths are known—
The Heavens are fettered by material space—
Revenge in woman hath no limitations!

Elvira
Revenge? Why talk you of revenge?

Leoni
'Tis sweet!
I tell you there is in my breaking heart,
A chronic sorrow most incurable!
A fell disease, unequalled by the worst
Of all contagions, striking to the soul!
Then mark me well! Keep this, my secret hate,
As silent as the grave confines the dead,
And go to Carlos—tell him that my soul
Desires that he should watch the perjured Count,
And then report to me what he may see
Between Count Rodolph's daughter and himself.

Elvira
I will. It shall be done this very night.
(Exit Elvira.)

Leoni
And now, by yon eternal sun that rolls
His chariot through the confines of the sky;
And every star that gems the arch of Heaven,
I swear that never shall my soul find rest,
Until the purple mirror of his blood
Reflect the deep damnation of his deeds
And make Seduction stare him in the face!

(Exit.)

Scene II

A magnificent apartment in Count Rodolph's palace.
Enter Count Alvar and Theresa. Don Carlos enters, unobserved, behind them.
Count Alvar
The air is filled with freshness from the sea,
And all the winds seem laden down with balm.
And now, Theresa, blessed of my heart,
How sweet to trace the outlines of thy face,
And drink the living music of thy voice,
Whose tones first taught me what it was to love!
How sweet to hear the softness of thy sighs,
And fold thee gently on my bosom thus!

(Embracing her.)
Theresa
When next we meet, my lord, this hand of mine
Will have the privilege of grasping thine
In everlasting love.

Count Alvar
Then shall thine eyes,
Twin-born divinities, gaze into all
The secret sanctuary of my soul,
And learn the richness of my love for thee.

Don Carlos
(Aside.)
That voice reminds me of my native land.

Count Alvar
(Observing him.)
What brought you here?

Don Carlos
(Aside.)
Foul fiend!
(Aloud.)
When that is told,
Thou wilt not hate Leoni's love.

Count Alvar
(Drawing his sword.)
Begone!

Theresa
(Preventing him.)
What, would you have his blood upon your sword?

Count Alvar
(Putting up his sword.)
No, by the Gods! Retire awhile, farewell!
(Exit Theresa.)
Well, Carlos, stealing on me as thou hast,
What business have you with me at this hour?

Don Carlos
(Aside.)
If that is not the everlasting voice
Which drowned the music of my soul, there is
No discord in the language of the damned. (Aloud.)

I come as some dark whirlwind from the sea,
Crushing the oak amid the silent woods,
When from the forest boughs the morning dew,
Is shaken by the mighty sound in rain.

Count Alvar
Who made thee bearer of such wondrous news?

Don Carlos
Leoni, she who was betrayed by thee!

Count Alvar
What could have urged her on to this extreme?

Don Carlos
Revenge! Ay, deeper than thy perjury,
And stronger than the whirlwinds of the sea!

Count Alvar
Then go, foul braggart! tell her that the down
Upon the turtle's wing were better armed
Against the furious hurricane!—Revenge!

Don Carlos
You know that schoolboy friend of hers,
Who means to marry her on his return?

Count Alvar
By heavens, if that is all, he will do well.

Don Carlos
By Jove, that is not all. He will do well!

Count Alvar
(Aside.)
He will do well. By Heavens, he is too bold!
There must be something devilish in his talk.
(Aloud.)
What, heard you Leoni was his bride?

Don Carlos
I did not come to tell you what I heard.

Count Alvar
I trace the outlines of some devilish deed,
Upon the marble of thy lofty brow.

Don Carlos
But if Count Alvar would advise me how
To shame the Devil of the mask he wears,
I would unfold to him the foulest crime
That ever stained the Annals of the damned.

Count Alvar
Foul crime! Will Carlos tell me what he means?

Don Carlos
With joy if you will listen to my tale.

Count Alvar
I will with all my heart. Speak on.

Don Carlos
Then mark,
It was the gentlest of those summer eves,
When day stood pausing on the hills of Spain,
That, wandering through the orange groves alone,
I met Almeda coming from the sea-
A sweeter spirit never came from Heaven.
She stood so sinless that you might have plucked
Perfection from her lofty brow.

Count Alvar
And then—

Don Carlos
As innocence hath ever done, she sought
Protection, due her gentler sex, within
My arms.

Count Alvar
Which bore her soon away.

Don Carlos
I did,
Alas!

Count Alvar
And married her that night.

Don Carlos
I did.
But Gods! it ended sooner than 'twas done.
Two years had scarcely told our hopes were crowned,
When late one night about the hour of ten,
A villian came tapping upon my door,
And waking her from slumber by my side,
Playing upon his lute, won her heart.
She rose like Venus from her downy sea,
And leaping in his arms with frantic joy,
There, Devil-like, forgot that she was mine!
Oh, God, such earthquake vengeance rent my heart,
I chased her Paris with Achille's speed,
And like another Grecian—

Count Alvar
Stabbed him dead!

Don Carlos
No, by the eternal Gods, the villain lives!

Count Alvar
And did she die?

Don Carlos
I neither knew nor cared.
I left my perjured Helen from that hour,
A jewel worn upon my breast in joy—
And from that fatal hour, now twenty years,
I have not seen my childhood's native land.

Count Alvar
And did you ever learn that villain's name?

Don Carlos
I did—although he traveled in disguise—
A Florentine, who courted with his lute,
And oft repeated songs—who never knew
Nor cared what garment virtue wore, so he
Could win her by the sorcery of false smiles,
To his lascivious arms. Should he not die?
By Heavens, the answer stifles in thy throat!

Count Alvar
Away!

Don Carlos
Count Alvar, thou shalt die tonight!

(Exit.)
Count Alvar
Tonight, by Heavens, the villain said tonight!
As if there were no time to die but night!
The reed that cannot stay the torrent's course,
Must die beneath the glory of its force.

(Exit.)

Scene III

A magnificent apartment in Don Carlos' palace.
Enter Leoni, attended by Elvira.
Let nature reinstate herself again.
The past in happiness has gone forever,
And lends the present only sterner grief.
We cannot feel the joys we have enjoyed,
And only know the joys we now enjoy.

Leoni
The fiery blood leaps through my burning brain,
And there enkindles thoughts too wild too name—
Foul, murderous thoughts!

Elvira
Thy vengeance then will seek
The villain throughout all the world?

Leoni
It will;
And finding him will open every vein,
And filling each foul tube with molten lead,
Shall hang him up for mockery to the world,
Till he has grown so old in ugliness,
That every fowl that soars through Heaven shall scream,
And every wolf stand howling at his course!
But did your brother watch him to my wish?

Elvira
He did. He has more in his heart against
The Count, than ever entered thy soft soul.

Leoni
Then he has watched the fiend for something more
Than friendship for an injured girl?

Elvira
He has;
But every fibre of thy tender heart
Will echo back the justness of the cause.

Leoni
The cause? What cause is that?

Elvira
Revenge! revenge!
But see, my brother comes.

Enter Don Carlos
Don Carlos
Leoni weeps
Would that my hand could stay those gentle tears.

Leoni
Ah, know you not some way to wipe them off,
And make the cheeks of poor Leoni smile?

Don Carlos
If I could muster in my faithful soul
A single thought that would, when called to act,
Be beneficial to thy injured cause,
I would devote the remnant of my days
In exercising it for thee!

Leoni
Then mark,
I would not have him chronicled on earth,
But have thee dip thy dagger in his blood,
And write upon the tablet of his heart
The fulness of the vengeance of my hate.

Don Carlos
Then glut the hunger of my own revenge!
But then his wife—

Leoni
His wife?

Don Carlos
Ay, wife, by Heaven!

Leoni
Then you have seen her with the Count.

Don Carlos
I have;
And told him if every hair upon
His head were gifted with ten thousand lives,
And every life were punished by the inch
Through all eternity, that he would not
Repay you for the injury he has done.

Leoni
But why not blast him to Theresa's face!

Don Carlos
I would have told her of the blackest crime
That ever lashed the groping soul to Hell,
Had it not been that, when he drew his sword,
She spat upon me with her words and said,
“What, would you have your blood upon his sword?”
As if she looked upon me with disdain!
Then pity, that moment, left my heart,
And such eternal vengeance took its place,
I said, “Now may his pestilential breath
Contaminate the air in which she lives,
Breed foul consumption in her honored blood,
And rot her bones through all eternity!”

Leoni
Then, in the name of all that is most dear,
Let not another day roll round!

Don Carlos
But stay!
What if she heard me tell him he would die?

Leoni
Well, did you say it, Carlos?

Don Carlos
Yes, I did.
And sorry am I that the word was said.

Leoni
Why so? Alas, all false!

Don Carlos
You called me false!
How false, Leoni?

Leoni
Puerile as the child,
That over-fed will vomit in its sleep.
I thought thou wert the thorn among the flowers,
Who stood to wound the hand that came to pluck
The rose. But, like the Dead Sea Apples, thou
Hast won upon my appetite to taste
The hope that turns to ashes on my lips!

Don Carlos
By Jove, you wrong me!

Leoni
Then, revenge thyself!
Revenge thyself upon Theresa's lord!
Wait not another day—not even an hour!

Don Carlos
I told the villain he should die tonight.

Leoni
Then let it be tonight—the dead of night!

Don Carlos
Nay, wronged Leoni, that would never do.
She may have heard my threat, which, if she did,
Such foul suspicion would be fixed upon
Me from that hour, that all would say at once,
“'Twas Carlos killed the Count!” No—mark me now!
Let not the fragment of an evil thought
Give utterance to the breathing of his name,
And write Alvino to return from Rome.

Leoni
Alvino, call that blessed name again,
And let the music settle in my soul,
And tune the discord of my broken heart
To childhood melody!

Don Carlos
And when he comes—

Leoni
The Count—

Don Carlos
But let no human being know
That Carlos ever knew the Count—

Leoni
Shall die!
I thank thee for that blessed thought, good friend!
I thank you for that thought—Count Alvar dies!

(Exeunt omnes.)
Curtain falls. End of Act First.