Elvira A Tragedy |
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 | Elvira |  |
1
ACT I.
SCENE I.
RODRIGO, ALVAREZ.ALVAREZ.
Health to your highness!
RODRIGO.
Brave Alvarez, welcome.
This long-expected, this auspicious morn
Will see confirm'd the league of amity
Betwixt Castile and Portugal. You time
Your wish'd arrival well; to be at once
The witness and partaker of our joy.
ALVAREZ.
My absence, and th'unceasing cares of war
On Afric's plains, against her swarthy sons,
Where, till Don Pedro, our brave prince, return'd,
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Has left me ignorant, or ill-inform'd,
Of most particulars.
RODRIGO.
Then know, my Lord,
Our present queen, the mother of Almeyda,
Brought with her from Castile that blooming princess,
The wish of all beholders! And, no doubt,
You must have often heard her lover's voice
Most lavish in the praises of the fair one,
Whom he this day espouses, and in her
Whate'er is excellent or lovely.
ALVAREZ.
Never!
Don Pedro, with that chaste reserve and caution
Which would become the coldest virgin's fear,
Even on a theme so pleasing still was silent;
Or only, when alone, indulg'd his rapture.
RODRIGO.
So cold a lover, and so warm a hero,
Are contraries that seldom blend in youth.
'Tis most suprizing! for, as we have heard,
His heat of valor is a rapid flame,
Encreasing as it spreads—
ALVAREZ.
And yet his prudence,
Serenely cool, keeps measure with his fire.
Had you, in this last battle with the Moors,
Had you beheld the mutual poize of each,
As either was call'd forth by fair occasion,
Your praises would be transport!—but proceed.
RODRIGO.
The sum of all is this. To-day he weds
The bright Castilian princess; and this hour
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Has audience of our King—
[Trumpet sounds.
ALVAREZ.
That trumpet speaks
The happy moment come. May peace, my lord,
A long, a glorious peace be the fair issue!
SCENE II.
Trumpets sound again.ALONZO, the QUEEN, ELVIRA, RODRIGO, ALVAREZ, Courtiers.
ALONZO.
The heavens, my Queen, look smilingly upon us,
As pleas'd to see, thus solemnly secur'd,
The league that joins your Ferdinand to me
In one true bond of love—Where is my son?
Not follow us?
RODRIGO.
His modest fear avoids
To be the hearer of his own just praise.
ALONZO.
Such fear, attendant on successful arms,
Becomes the brave, and most of all in youth:
'Tis then the nobler conquest. Gentle cousin,
The ties of blood have made his glory yours:
I know they have, Rodrigo. You, Alvarez,
Were partner of his day; you nobly fought
And conquer'd with him. Both of you must share
The joy sincere that swells a father's bosom,
Made young again and blooming in a son.
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SCENE III.
ALONZO, the QUEEN, ELVIRA, RODRIGO, ALVAREZ, Courtier, &c.COURTIER.
The ambassador of Spain, my lord—
ALONZO.
'Tis well.
Conduct him hither.
SCENE IV.
ALONZO, the QUEEN, ELVIRA, RODRIGO, ALVAREZ.[The King ascends his throne, placing the Queen on his left, the Ambassador and his train range themselves.]
AMBASSADOR.
Sir, my royal master,
Don Ferdinand, by his ambassador
Thus speaks the true fraternal part he takes
In your full joy. He holds himself most happy,
That his lov'd parent shares a throne with you;
And that his sister, his Almeyda, weds
So great a monarch's heir, and who renews
The virtues of his race. Don Pedro's fame
Spreads not o'er Portugal more welcome beams
Than o'er our friendly Spain. And you enjoy
The bliss supreme, that noblest minds taste deepest,
A son that loves the sire he emulates!
Yes, you have seen him, from his earliest youth,
Pursue the path your valour trod before
To conquest and renown. Your arm, by him,
Has oft been felt in Afric; oft has shook
Her strongest forts, her deepest squadrons pierc'd;
And now, even now, of laurels fairly won
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Are link'd with ours by bonds of mutual friendship:
And where allies are mutual in their love,
The happiness is common. Our Castile,
Itself triumphant, triumphs too with you!
ALONZO.
Your sovereign is the partner of my heart.
His mother, now my queen, and who adorns
The seat she fills, has made our nations one:
And that same treaty, which declar'd her mine,
Assures Don Pedro to her daughter's arms;
Assures my kingdom's safety: for these nuptials,
Tho by the guilt of intervening war
Too long delay'd, shall be accomplish'd now;
While, to the holy temple, Peace and Leisure,
His best attendants, wait in Hymen's train.
Go, bear this message to my brother back;
That all Castile may share the joy it gives.
SCENE V.
ALONZO, the QUEEN, ELVIRA.ALONZO.
Yes, madam, your lov'd daughter soon shall see
This happy union fix her future fate.
QUEEN.
I could have wish'd the same propitious morn,
That join'd our hands, had seen compleated too
Their plighted vows.
ALONZO.
It was my fondest aim.
But could a father's love to such a son
Deny what his impatient courage urg'd?
Some short delay, some respite, till his arm
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The blessing he aspir'd to.
QUEEN.
Yet, my lord—
ALONZO.
I plac'd myself the sword within his hand,
And whetted his young spirit. Fortune oft
Companions youth most willingly, and leads
The nearest road to fame. I then foresaw,
He would be all that I had been before.
I thenceforth ceas'd to conquer, but by him:
And, thanks to heaven! his actions have outgone
A parent's warmest hope.
QUEEN.
To this my heart
Gives unrestrain'd assent.
ALONZO.
The Moors, you see,
Reduc'd to sue for mercy. Part, in chains,
His conquering arm confess, and grace his triumph:
The rest, subdu'd by his victorious name,
Lie trembling in the depth of distant desarts.
To him what glory! what true joy to me!
I now dare hope, he may deserve to wed
The beauty he desires.
QUEEN.
Forgive me, Sir—
Have you no doubt, no foresight of resistance,
Nay of refusal, on the prince's part?
For me, in spite of all my partial hopes,
I dread some bar, some obstacle unknown
Betwixt us and our wishes.
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Whence can rise
Suspicions so unlikely?
QUEEN.
I have mark'd,
With all a mother's watchfulness of fear,
His strange demeanor. Gloomy, lost in thought,
He sees his bride, as if he saw her not.
No beam of kindness brightens in his eye;
No word of tenderness melts from his lip;
As if nor bloom, nor grace, nor gentle spirit
Grew with her opening years.
ALONZO.
Th'alarm is vain.
Grant some indulgence to the pride of youth,
An early hero's ardor, with the blaze
Of his first conquest dazzled and engag'd.
A softer passion, doubt it not, will soon
Dispel that gaudy dream, and leave his breast
All-open to the better bliss that waits him.
QUEEN.
And yet, my busy fears still whisper to me,
Why was he absent this distinguish'd day?
Why, with his presence, deign'd he not to grace
My Ferdinand, your brother and ally,
Here in the person of his minister?
Should he resist, my Lord?
ALONZO.
Resist? Just heaven!
I shudder at the thought. In such resistance
The rebel would at once efface the son.
Ha! should he push his pride to that extreme,
More guilty as the more with glory bright,
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That even the bonds of nature, cannot free
A subject from the laws; that all are light
As the blown bubble, weigh'd with a king's honor
QUEEN.
Sir, I would yet advise—
ALONZO.
No: a first subject,
From whose example each descending rank
Should learn obedience, is himself most bound.
In him resistance would be deepest treason.
It cannot be, my queen: turn we our thoughts
From such forebodings of imagin'd guilt.
I will, this coming moment, to the princess
Disclose what I have fix'd. That done, the prince
Shall know my last resolve.
QUEEN.
Ah! in what words?
How will a father speak it?
ALONZO.
As his king!
SCENE VI.
The QUEEN, ELVIRA.QUEEN.
Elvira—You have heard your queen's complaints;
Have heard too what Alonzo, fix'd as fate
And resolutely just, has now determin'd.
The fatal secret that alarms us both,
I think, is in your keeping.
ELVIRA.
Heaven! in mine?
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In yours. Whene'er the prince vouchsafes a visit
To my poor court, his eyes are ever turn'd,
Are ever fix'd on you—What should that mean?
ELVIRA.
Your words amaze me!—
QUEEN.
Are Almeyda's charms,
Whatever Nature's kindest hand can lavish
On favor'd youth, to justify at full
A mother's fondness—tell me, are those charms
Hid but from him? while all beholders else
Divide, with mine, the transports they confess.
They see in her combin'd each brighter grace
Of look and air, see virtue's fairest stamp
Upon her brow imprest, and over all
And all exalting, modest ignorance
Of her own worth: And have I yet to fear,
For such a daughter, coldness or disdain?
ELVIRA.
How can you deem the prince so stern of nature,
That beauty has no power upon his heart?
No, Madam, he has felt it, and admires
Its awful influence in Almeyda's eyes!
QUEEN.
You know it then?
ELVIRA.
It is not mine to read
The secret of his bosom; but he oft,
With me confessing her superior charms,
And that true virtue, lovely as unfeign'd,
The beam that lights those beauties into blaze,
Has oft proclaim'd her all your fondness thinks.
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And sought out you, and only you, to pour
His amorous rapture in your willing ear?
Indeed!—Elvira—tremble! You but pull
Destruction on your head—yes, sure destruction,
By daring to deceive me! No: not her,
When you are by, his theme is not Almeyda.
Of you he talks!
ELVIRA.
Of me!
QUEEN.
Of you alone!
You either dare to love—or, calm my fears,
And point me to the bosom I should pierce!
For here—I here disclose my inmost soul—
She, the rash fair one, who should lift her eyes
To that forbidden height; should wound my breast,
A parent's breast, in its most tender sense,
She, the devoted victim of my rage,
The wretch, the vain presumer, then should feel
How far a mother and a queen can punish!
ELVIRA.
Ye saints and angels!—Madam, let calm reason—
QUEEN.
My daughter is to me health, pleasure, fame!
My sum of good or ill is wrapt in her!
Mine her affront, her rival too is mine!
And to revenge her, earth and heaven in vain
Would bar my way. I am on fire to know
Where I should strike. Then—mark me—find her out,
This guilty head—or ruin hangs o'er thine!
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SCENE VII.
ELVIRA.What have I heard! If my stun'd ear may credit
Her direful threats, the tempest is at hand
That must o'erwhelm us both! And yet how firm,
Amid these horrors, would my heart be found,
If only I stood obvious to the bolt!
If all my fears were for myself alone!
SCENE VIII.
ELVIRA, DON PEDRO, RAMIREZ.DON PEDRO.
Elvira! my soul's happiness—
ELVIRA.
Ah! Prince!
I have to tell—O heaven!—But look that none,
No eye may here surprize us.
DON PEDRO.
You, Ramirez,
Will watch without. Now, in the name of love,
What mean these streaming eyes? this face o'ercast
With dark despair? Speak, save me from my fears.
Suspence is torture!
ELVIRA.
And discovery, death!
My Lord! my husband! now the hour is come,
The fatal moment my sad thought presag'd!
Even at the sacred altar, when our hearts
Were wedded with our hands, even then I fear'd it—
O were the threaten'd ruin all my own!
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Our fate is one; our happiness or woe
Inseparably link'd—But whence, my love,
This deep alarm?
ELVIRA.
Your marriage with the Princess—
O thence it springs! Alonzo too has nam'd
Th'approaching hour to tell you, it is fix'd!
Yet more, th'offended Queen suspects our loves!
Had you beheld the rage to which her soul
Abandons all its faculties!—And now,
Made furious by despair, to what a height
Will jealousy transport her, when its eye,
In this suspected mistress, finds a wife!
DON PEDRO.
Yet, calm thy fears. Since on Don Pedro's faith
Depends the sacred charge of saving thee,
His sum of bliss! what anger, whose revenge
Should wake such tempest in Elvira's bosom?
ELVIRA.
Prince, judge more nobly of me. This alarm
Is all for him, whose every pain is mine.
My dangers touch me, but as your distress;
As they must wound—for Oh too sure they will!
Thy generous breast. And it will witness for me,
The splendor of a crown, that worship'd sun
Of vulgar eyes, could never dazzle mine:
For when I dar'd, in giving you my hand,
To violate the law, the rigid law,
That makes a marriage, such as mine, rebellion;
I came the willing victim of your love,
Resign'd, devoted to whatever fate
Heaven may reserve for either!
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Yes, Elvira,
Thy generous virtue was the charm supreme
That made me first, and binds me thine, for ever!
ELVIRA.
Nor do I now repent me. No, my Lord:
Even on the scaffold, at the lifted ax
My heart could smile; remembring it had once,
By being yours, brought happiness to both.
DON PEDRO.
The same bright flame, which angels might avow,
Inspires thy lover's breast—for such I am,
Such will to death be found. The name of wife,
While it refines this passion, makes it duty:
And if I needs must tremble for thy days,
All other names, however holy deem'd,
Son, subject, father, king, are light as air,
When in the ballance laid to counterpoise
Those, still more sacred, that connubial love
Has rais'd, has sanctify'd—
ELVIRA.
My soul shrinks back
With horror from these transports. O remember,
When Hymen's secret rite first join'd our hands,
Remember what my tenderness exacted,
And what your vows assur'd me—still to hold
Elvira dear; but still, as death, to shun
The crime of civil war! and O what doom,
What fate soever heaven may have in store
For her you honor'd, never to forget,
Your father is your sovereign!
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By the Power,
Whose primal law has made our being one!
No promises shall stay a husband's arm
From sheltering thee. There is on earth no claim,
No tie of duty strong enough to hold
My fierce impatience. Thou to me art all,
Faith, virtue, honor: or these shadowy names
All vanish at the brightness of thine eye!
ELVIRA.
My Lord, I must not hear you—
DON PEDRO.
Then—retire:
Fly, if it must be, this tumultuous court,
This scene of storm and danger. To the shade,
To that sweet solitude where first our loves
Were ratify'd and blest, where calm Content
And true Repose have fix'd their soft abode,
Return, Elvira: safety there awaits thee.
ELVIRA.
O dear remember'd scene! O hours of peace
That are no more! Beneath its pensive pines,
And by the murmurs of its mazy stream
That breath'd out freshness on our secret walk,
The morn arose, the peaceful evening clos'd
On our united hearts! All fear was far,
All jealousy of courts; for Love himself
Stood guardian of the shade!
DON PEDRO.
No more, no more:
These thoughts but soothe, but soften both to weakness.
For me, no color of delay remains.
I know Alonzo well; his eye severe,
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Must meet their utmost terror. Then the Queen—
Should her unsleeping jealousy at last
Surprize the dangerous secret of our loves,
The King, most sure, to her insulted pride,
And to the voice of Justice, would give up
Elvira's head—O fly, and guard my soul
From this distracting fear!
ELVIRA.
It must not be.
For me to fly at present would be fatal:
At once disclosing what with all our care
We should conceal. 'Tis safer to remain;
To guide our steps with prudence, and our breasts
With firmness arm. From this alarming hour,
We meet no more—and is it I, O heaven!
Who give the hard advice?—no more exchange
A look, a smile, where other eyes are present;
For all around are hostile!
DON PEDRO.
Be it so.
I go resolv'd—But, O my soul's best treasure!
O'er every motion, every look and word,
Let close-ey'd Caution watch.
ELVIRA.
Alas, my Lord!
All that a woman's feeble reason can,
Elvira will attempt. Ye pitying powers,
Who see with what reluctance from his sight
I turn my parting steps, around his head
Spread your protecting wings! for oh! who knows
What can assure us, but we both receive,
And both an everlasting farewel give!
End of the first ACT.
| Elvira | |