 | Evadne ; or, The Statue |  |
SCENE II.
—A Room in Colonna's Palace.Enter Evadne, M. D. looking at a picture.
Evad.
'Tis strange he comes not! thro' the city's gates
His panting courser passed before the sun
Had climbed to his meridian, yet he comes not!—
Ah! Vicentio,
To know thee near me, yet behold thee not,
Is sadder than to think thee far away;
For I had rather that a thousand leagues
Of mountain ocean should dissever us,
Than thine own heart, Vicentio.—Sure, Vicentio,
If thou didst know with what a pining gaze
I feed mine eyes upon thine image here,
Thou wouldst not now leave thine Evadne's love
To this same cold idolatry.
18
I will swear
That smile's a false one, for it sweetly tells
No tarrying indifference.—Olivia!
Oliv.
I have stolen unperceived upon your hours
Of lonely meditation, and surprised
Your soft soliloquies to that fair face.—
Nay, do not blush—reserve that rosy dawn
For the soft pressure of Vicentio's lips.
Evad.
You mock me, fair Olivia,—I confess
That musing on my cold Vicentio's absence,
I quarrelled with the blameless ivory.
Oliv.
He was compelled as soon as he arrived,
To wait upon the great Ludovico;
Meanwhile your soft, expecting moments flow
In tender meditation on the face,
You dare to gaze upon in ivory
With fonder aspect, than when you behold
Its bright original; for then 'tis meet
Your pensive brows be bent upon the ground,
And sighs as soft as zephyrs on the wave
Should gently heave your heart.—Is it not so?
Nay, do not now rehearse your part, I pray;—
Reserve those downcast lookings for Vicentio;
That's a fair picture—let me, if you dare
Entrust the treasure to another's hand,
Let me look on it.
(Takes Vicentio's picture.)
What a sweetness plays
On those half-opened lips!—He gazed on you
When those bright eyes were painted.
Evad.
You have got
A heart so free of care, that you can mock
Your pensive friend with such light merriment.
But hark! I hear a step.
Oliv.
(Aside.)
Now fortune aid me
In her precipitation.
Evad.
It is himself!—
Olivia, he is coming.—Well I know
19
The picture—pr'ythee give it back to me—
I must constrain you to it.
Oliv.
(Who has substituted the picture of the king.)
It is in vain
To struggle with you then—with what a grasp
You rend it from my hand, as if it were
Vicentio that I had stolen away.
(Gives her the king's picture, which Evadne places in her bosom.)
I triumph!— (Aside.)
—He is coming—I must leave you,
Nor interrupt the meeting of your hearts
By my officious presence.
[Exit, L. H.
Evad.
It is himself!
Swiftly he passes through the colonnade,
Oh! Vicentio,
Thy coming bears me joy as bright as e'er
Beat thro' the heart of woman, that was made
For suffering, and for transport!—Oh, Vicentio!
Enter Vicentio, R. H.
Are you then come at last?—do I once more
Behold my bosom's lord, whose tender sight
Is necessary for my happiness
As light for heaven!—My lord!—Vicentio!—
I blush to speak the transport in my heart,
But I am rapt to see you.
Vic.
Dissembling woman!
(Aside.)
Evad.
How is this, my lord?
You look altered.
Vic.
But you do not look altered—would you did!
Let me peruse the face where loveliness
Stays, like the light after the sun is set.
Sphered in the stillness of those heaven-blue eyes,
The soul sits beautiful; the high white front,
Smooth as the brow of Pallas, seems a temple
Sacred to holy thinking! and those lips
Wear the sweet smile of sleeping infancy,
20
Thou art not altered—would thou wert!
Evad.
Vicentio,
This strangeness I scarce hoped for.—Say, Vicentio,
Has any ill befallen you?—I perceive
That its warm bloom hath parted from your cheek,
Ah me! you are not well, Vicentio.
Vic.
In sooth, I am not.—There is in my breast
A wound that mocks all cure—no salve, nor anodyne,
Nor medicinal herb, can e'er allay
The festering of that agonizing wound
You have driven into my heart!
Evad.
I?
Vic.
Why, Evadne,
Why did you ever tell me that you loved me?
Why was I not in mercy spurned away,
Scorned, like Ludovico? for unto him
You dealt in honour, and despised his love:
But me you soothed and flattered—sighed and blushed—
And smiled and wept, for you can weep; (even now
Your tears flow by volition, and your eyes
Convenient fountains have begun to gush,)
To stab me with a falsehood yet unknown
In falsest woman's perfidy?
Evad.
Vicentio,
Why am I thus accused? What have I done?
Vic.
What!—are you grown already an adept
In cold dissimulation? Have you stopped
All access from your heart into your face?
Do you not blush?
Evad.
I do, indeed, for you!
Vic.
The king?
Evad.
The king?
Vic.
Come, come, confess at once, and wear it high
Upon your towering forehead—swell your port—
Away with this unseemly bashfulness,
That will be deemed a savageness at court—
Confront the talking of the busy world—
Tell them you are the mistress of the king,
Tell them you are Colonna's sister too;
21
You are Vicentio's wife!
(Crosses to L. H.)
Evad.
Injurious man!
Vic.
The very winds from the four parts of heaven
Blew it throughout the city—
Evad.
And if angels
Cried, trumpet-tongued, that I was false to you,
You should not have believed it.—You forget
Who dares to stain a woman's honesty,
Does her a wrong, as deadly as the brand
He fears upon himself.—Go, go, Vicentio—
You are not what I deemed you!—Mistress? fie!
Go, go, Vicentio! let me not behold
The man who has reviled me with a thought
Dishonouring as that one!— (Crosses to L. H.)
—Oh! Vicentio,
Do I deserve this of you?
Vic.
If I had wronged her!—
Evad.
I will not descend
To vindicate myself—dare to suspect me—
My lord, I am to guess that you came here,
To speak your soul's revolt, and to demand
Your plighted vows again.—If for this
You tarry here, I freely give you back
Your late repented faith—Farewell for ever!
(As she is going out, L. H.)
Vic.
Evadne!
Evad.
Well, my lord?—
Vic.
Evadne, stay!—
Evad.
Vicentio!
(With a look of reproaching remonstrance.)
Vic.
Let me look in thy face—
Oh! 'tis impossible!—I was bemocked,
And cheated by that villain!—nothing false
Sure ever looked like thee, and yet wilt thou
But swear—
Evad.
What should I swear?—
Vic.
That you did not
Betray me to the king
Evad.
Never!—
22
Nor e'er
Didst write in love to him!
Evad.
Oh! never, never!—I perceive, Vicentio,
Some villain hath abused thy credulous ear—
But no!—I will not now inquire it of thee—
When I am calmer—I must hence betimes,
To chase these blots of sorrow from my face,—
For if Colonna should behold me weep,
So tenderly he loves me, that I fear
His hot, tempestuous nature—Why, Vicentio,
Do you still wrong me with a wildered eye
That sheds suspicion?
Vic.
I now remember
Another circumstance, Ludovico
Did tell me as I came—I do not see
My picture on her bosom.
(Aside.)
Evad.
Well, Vicentio?
Vic.
When I departed hence, about your neck
I hung my pictured likeness, which mine eyes,
Made keen by jealous vigilance, perchance
Desire upon your breast.
Evad.
And, is that all?
And in such fond and petty circumstance
Seek you suspicion's nourishment?—Vicentio,
I must disclose my weakness—here, Vicentio,
I have pillowed your dear image on a heart
You should not have distrusted.
(She draws the king's picture from her bosom.)
Here it is—
And now, my lord, suspect me, if you can.
Vic.
(Starting.)
A horrid phantom, more accursed than e'er
Yet crossed the sleep of frenzy, stares upon me—
Speak—speak at once—
Or—let it blast thee too.
Evad.
Sure some dark spell,
Some fearful witchery; I am struck to ashes,—
Amazement, like the lightning—give it me,
And I will fix it in my very eyes,
Clasp it against my sight—'Tis not Vicentio!—
23
It is the king!—
Evad.
Oh! do not yield it faith,—
Give not thy senses credence! Oh, Vicentio,
I am confounded, maddened, lost, Vicentio!
Some dæmon paints it on the coloured air—
'Tis not reality that stares upon me!—
Oh! hide it from my sight!—
Vic.
Chance has betrayed thee,
And saves my periled honour—Here, thou all fraud,
Thou mass of painted perjury,—thou woman!—
And now I have done with thee, and pray to heaven
I ne'er may see thee more—But, hold!—
Recall that wish again—The time will come
When I would look on thee—then, Evadne, then,
When the world's scorn is on thee, let me see
Thee, old in youth, and bending 'neath the load
Of sorrow, not of time—then let me see thee,
And mayest thou, as I pass, lift up thy head
But once from the sad earth, and then Evadne,
Look down again for ever!
[Exit, R. H.
Enter Colonna, M. D. in time to see Vicentio go off.
(Evadne at first not perceiving that he is gone, and recovering from her stupefaction.)
Evad.
I will swear—
Give it back to me—Oh! I am innocent!
(She rushes up to Colonna, who advances to R. H. mistaking him for a moment for Vicentio.)
By heaven, I am innocent!
Col.
Who dares to doubt it,—
Who knows thee of that noble family
That cowardice in man, or wantonness
In woman never tarnished?—
Evad.
He is gone!—
(Aside.)
Col.
But how is this, Evadne? In your face
I read a wildered air has ta'en the place
Of that placidity that used to shine
For ever on thy holy countenance.
Evad.
Now, as I value my Vicentio's life—
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One of love's summer clouds, I doubt me, sister,
Hath floated o'er you, tho' 'twere better far
That it had left no rain drops.—What has happened?
Evad.
There's nothing has befallen, only—
Col.
What, only?
Evad.
I pray your pardon me—I must begone!
Col.
Evadne, stay! let me behold you well—
Why do you stand at distance? nearer still,
Evadne!—
Evad.
Well?
Col.
Vicentio—
Evad.
(Assuming an affected lightness of manner.)
Why, Colonna—
Think you that I'm without my sex's arts,
And did not practise all the torturings
That make a woman's triumph?
Col.
'Twas not well.
I hoped thee raised above all artifice
That makes thy sex but infancy matured.
I was at first inclined to follow him,
And ask what this might mean?
Evad.
Then he had told
That I had played the tyrant.—Had you seen
How like my peevish lap-dog he appeared
Just beaten with a fan.—Ha! ha! Colonna,
You will find us all alike.—Ha! ha! my heart
Will break.
(Bursts into tears.)
Col.
Farewell!
Evad.
What would you do?
Col.
Let all the world
Hold me a slave, and hoard upon my head
Its gathered infamy—be all who bear
Colonna's name scorn-blighted—may disgrace
Gnaw off all honour from my family,
If I permit an injury to thee
To 'scape Colonna's vengeance!—
Evad.
Hold, my brother!
I will not leave thy sight!
Col.
Then follow me,
25
Vicentio's plighted faith, thou shalt behold—
By heavens, an emperor should not do thee wrong,
Or if he did, tho' I had a thousand lives,
I had given them all to avenge thee.—I'll inquire
Into this business; and if I find
Thou hast lost a lover, I will give him proof,
I've my right arm, and thou thy brother still.
[Exeunt, R. H.
| Evadne ; or, The Statue | |