 | Runnamede |  |
SCENE, A solitary Heath, marked with the Ruins of an old Castle, here and there a blasted Tree.
Elvine, Edgar.
Edgar.
Forgive me, noble youth! if I presume
To rush unbidden on your secret hour.
Alas! my Lord, you come not near the camp.
From lovers and from friends you stand afar.
Even from their tents you turn away your eye.
Alone you stalk, with a disorder'd step,
And a wild eye, as if indeed you stood
A friendless man, and outcast from the world.
Elvine.
'Tis past. What have I more to do with man?
I am no member of the living world.
No friend have I among the human kind.
Edgar.
My gracious master! Heaven prevent my fears!
Alas, my aged heart will burst in twain
To see this day!—
[bursting into tears.
Elvine.
Come near me, O my friend,
Say, dost thou know me?—
Edgar.
Know you? good my Lord!
Descend, ye blessed angels, to his aid?
Elvine.
Edgar, the time has been when I was blest!
That time can come no more. In yonder camp
They think me happy, and they call me great.
—There is not such a wretch in the wide world!—
Edgar.
O might I know what wounds your peace?
Elvine
, pointing to his heart.
'Tis here,
The unseen dart that gives the mortal wound—
The malady of mind—You've known Elvina—
She is a fiend of hell—
Edgar.
My gracious master,
If right you study your repose or peace,
O judge not rashly of the maid you love!
Elvine.
I judged not rashly. Gods! what would I give
To think her innocent? But, I've such proof:
Such shining, flaming, damning proof; her hand,
Her own hand-writing—Ah! departed hours
That saw us happy, ye can ne'er return!
The circle of my friends was all my world;
That world has vanish'd—Oh! the dreadful fall
Of those we love from honour and from fame,
Comes like the general wreck—No future time,
Not all the vast variety of thought,
Can bring one smiling image to my mind;
Can raise one ray of hope to break the gloom
That closes o'er my head.—From thought to thought
Restless I plunge; 'tis darkness; 'tis despair.
Would I could think no more!—
Edgar.
Forget the false one.
A worthless woman merits not a thought;
Your country calls you. Rise to higher thoughts.
The Dauphin comes.
Elvine.
Enter Elvina.
Elvine.
I've known the time
When Elvine's name, from his Elvina's voice,
Which knows its tender way yet to my heart,
Would have seduced me from my post in war.
Now thou art chang'd!—
Elvina.
Chang'd! I can never change.
O Elvine let me know—
Elvine.
Yes. Thou shalt know;
And thou shalt hear me—for the last time hear me.
For to the field of battle straight I go,
From which, if steel can pierce an open breast,
I never shall return. For Oh! Elvina,
I cannot with thee—nor without thee, live!
Elvina.
My Lord, thy words I cannot comprehend;
But, Oh! I tremble at thy look so wild.
Elvine.
Oh! once I loved thee! Gods! Gods, how I loved thee!
Each night, retiring from the ranks of war,
You came an angel to my constant dream.
The dear idea met me in the morning.
I ne'er put on my armour but I thought
On her whose knight I was, whose scarf I wore.
Even in the wildness of my youthful mind
I never wandered from Elvina's charms.
While she—O heavens!—
Elvina.
Guard me, ye gracious powers!
Dark are your words, but they are daggers, Elvine!
Have I deserv'd reproach from him I loved?
O it was all my pleasure, all my pride,
My joy in secret, and my public vaunt;
It soothed me in the hour of my despair,
That when your friends forsook you, I alone
Was just and grateful to an injur'd youth;
More just, more grateful, than he proves to me!
Elvine.
Elvina.
Done, my Lord!
I am afraid you are disturb'd in mind.
Elvine.
Disturb'd in mind! Yes, I'm disturb'd in mind.
I've that within which none of all the damn'd
Can bear in burning hell—for I have lost—
O, I have lost the treasure of my soul!
My heart is torn from all that it held dear—
Elvina.
I fear some traitor has abused thine ear.
Come to particulars, I charge thee. Speak.
Elvine.
O woman! Woman! woman! ask thy heart.
Elvina.
O Elvine, 'tis a kind one! how it beats!
Elvine.
Yes it can beat—can beat for all mankind.
I am your fool no more.—
Elvina.
Suspicion, Heavens!
Dost thou not know me? What is there on earth
Whereon to rest, but that eternal rock,
The heart of those we love? And can that fail?—
Alas! why didst thou save me from the sword
To kill me thus? Would I had died this day!
For then I suffered, then I would have died
For thee!—
Elvine.
For me! This is th'extreme of guilt:
Th'unpardonable crime! Serene to give
The front of virtue to the soul of vice.
For me!
Elvina.
Perhaps we ne'er shall meet again!
In this last moment, Elvine! I conjure thee
By the bless'd memory of what we were!
By all the tender hours that we have pass'd!
The days of dearness, and the loves of youth!
Our fond romantic hopes of future bliss!
The sighs we breath'd in sympathy of soul,
The tears we mingled in that tender hour,
You laid your cheek to mine, and fervent seal'd
The sacred vow of everlasting love!
By all that's past, I charge thee, tell me, tell
What is that crime, so flagrant and so foul,
To cast me from thy bosom?
Elvine
, in tender emotion.
Oh! Elvina.
Elvina.
Elvine.
Oh! Elvina!
Tho' lost, I cannot see thee thus.
Elvina.
Then thus,
Elvine, I claim my empire in thy arms.
[Rushing to his arms.
Elvine
repulsing her.
Off, off, false woman!—Ah! there was a time—
Elvina
with a broken voice.
Heavens!
Elvine.
Hell! that is thy element.
Elvina.
What crime?
Elvine.
Oh! Infidelity.
Elvina.
What villain hath belied me?
Elvine.
No villain.
Elvina.
Who then?
Elvine.
Thy father.
Elvina.
What evidence?
Elvine.
Thy letter.
Elvina.
Where?
Elvine.
I tore it in my wrath,
As I will rend that ruffian of a lover,
And give his spirit to the shades of hell.
[The trumpet sounds for battle.
Lady, we part for ever and for ever!
I go without a tear; for thou art fallen
Below the most abandoned of thy kind.
God! has that sex thy sanction to deceive?
To shew a daemon in the shape of heaven,
And look like angels, while the're devils damn'd!
[Elvina standing fixed in astonishment and despair, Albemarle and Emma come up to her; she faints in their arms.
Emma.
She's gone! my noble Lady, gone!—
Albemarle.
Help, Heaven!
Ye saints and angels, help—!
[Bending over her in silence,
Ha! she revives!—
Elvina.
Where am I now? Ah! it avails me not,
For I can never be what once I was.
Elvine is parted, never to return.
Albemarle.
The battle is begun. The sword is drawn.
Convicted of thy falsehood, Elvine goes.
Wild in the field to throw his life away,
And bare his bosom to the certain sword
Held out.—
Elvina.
He might have known, he should have known,
That his Elvina never would prove false.
Albemarle.
How could he doubt it when I told him so?
Elvina.
My father my accuser!
Albemarle.
O, my child!
Thy letter to the Dauphin—
Elvina.
To the Dauphin!
No letter to the Dauphin I e'er sent.
Albemarle.
This morn the French Ambassador produced it
Before the Barons: We have read it all.
Elvina.
O Heaven! that letter was address'd to him,
To Elvine.—
Albemarle.
Elvine? Have a care, my child!—
Elvina.
To Elvine it was written—Emma knows it.
Ha! when I ponder!—My disordered mind
Forgot th'address.—The curs'd Ambassador
Supplied the blank, and mark'd it for the Dauphin.
Albemarle.
O, this unfolds the fatal mystery!
My child is innocent.
[Taking her in his arms.
Elvina.
But I'm undone.
Eternal destiny! this is thy work.
Ready to rush upon the certain sword
He goes devoted—Oh! he never knew
How much I loved him! to distraction lov'd him!
Knew not the throbs, the palpitations wild,
Th'unutterable heavings of a heart
Where reign'd his image.—Now to death he goes,
And thinks me false—O heaven, amid my woes,
My flowing miseries, for him I weep:
For Elvine is as wretched—as Elvina!
Albemarle.
[Sounds heard.
'Tis o'er. The signal of pursuit is given.
Emma.
Crowds chacing crowds, and flashing arms I see,
And garments stain'd with blood. 'Tis like the storm,
When heaven, and earth, and ocean mingle war.
Enter suddenly Edgar.
The battle's over, and the foe is fled.
Her sudden effort made, vain-glorious France
Forsook the field.
Elvina.
Ha! Elvine? Where?—
Edgar.
Aghast,
Long did he look this way, with aspect wild:
His hands in agony extreme he wrung;
With faultering voice, in broken sounds, he cried
“I've conquered—now I perish—Oh! Elvina!”
Then, with determin'd hand, his sword he drew,
And instant plung'd amid the hostile ranks,
Which clos'd behind him.
Albemarle.
Elvina.
Aye: To the grave.
Albemarle.
O look not on me with that eye forlorn!
Elvina.
Never, Ah! never shall I see him more!—
Albemarle.
No friend, no comforter have I on earth
But thee, my child! My daughter, live for me.—
Elvina.
It glooms! Shall I not find thee in the tomb.
Oh! Elvine! Elvine!—
Enter suddenly Elvine.
Here I am, Elvina—
Forgive me, O my love! I knew thee not,
I sought the Dauphin thro' the ranks of war;
We fought; he fell the victim of my sword:
It was th'Ambassador, like him array'd,
Who told his guilt; thy innocence; and died.
Angelic goodness! What can e'er attone
For foul suspicion of thy spotless fame;
Thou fairest, and thou best of woman kind?
Elvina.
Words cannot speak the language of my heart.
'Twas fatal destiny. Yet Elvine, know,
The pang which pierc'd me most, was what thou felt.
Elvine.
Look on the past as but a dreary dream.
Oh! let me find forgiveness in thy arms!
[Embracing.
Albemarle.
Heavens bless you both, my children! Now, in peace,
My hoary head shall to the grave descend.
Elvine, Edgar.
Edgar.
Forgive me, noble youth! if I presume
To rush unbidden on your secret hour.
Alas! my Lord, you come not near the camp.
From lovers and from friends you stand afar.
Even from their tents you turn away your eye.
Alone you stalk, with a disorder'd step,
And a wild eye, as if indeed you stood
A friendless man, and outcast from the world.
Elvine.
'Tis past. What have I more to do with man?
I am no member of the living world.
No friend have I among the human kind.
83
My gracious master! Heaven prevent my fears!
Alas, my aged heart will burst in twain
To see this day!—
[bursting into tears.
Elvine.
Come near me, O my friend,
Say, dost thou know me?—
Edgar.
Know you? good my Lord!
Descend, ye blessed angels, to his aid?
Elvine.
Edgar, the time has been when I was blest!
That time can come no more. In yonder camp
They think me happy, and they call me great.
—There is not such a wretch in the wide world!—
Edgar.
O might I know what wounds your peace?
Elvine
, pointing to his heart.
'Tis here,
The unseen dart that gives the mortal wound—
The malady of mind—You've known Elvina—
She is a fiend of hell—
84
My gracious master,
If right you study your repose or peace,
O judge not rashly of the maid you love!
Elvine.
I judged not rashly. Gods! what would I give
To think her innocent? But, I've such proof:
Such shining, flaming, damning proof; her hand,
Her own hand-writing—Ah! departed hours
That saw us happy, ye can ne'er return!
The circle of my friends was all my world;
That world has vanish'd—Oh! the dreadful fall
Of those we love from honour and from fame,
Comes like the general wreck—No future time,
Not all the vast variety of thought,
Can bring one smiling image to my mind;
Can raise one ray of hope to break the gloom
That closes o'er my head.—From thought to thought
Restless I plunge; 'tis darkness; 'tis despair.
Would I could think no more!—
Edgar.
Forget the false one.
A worthless woman merits not a thought;
Your country calls you. Rise to higher thoughts.
The Dauphin comes.
85
Perdition on his name!—
By heaven! he shall not find me unprepared!—
O for the trumpet's sound! that I might rush
To victory, to vengeance, and the grave!
By heaven! he shall not find me unprepared!—
O for the trumpet's sound! that I might rush
To victory, to vengeance, and the grave!
False as she is, yet I would wish to meet her;
To see Elvina e'er we part forever!
To pierce her with her perfidy, her baseness;
To utter all the fullness of my heart,
To vent the secret fondness of my soul;
To let her know how blest she might have been!
Heaven bless her still!—
To see Elvina e'er we part forever!
To pierce her with her perfidy, her baseness;
To utter all the fullness of my heart,
To vent the secret fondness of my soul;
To let her know how blest she might have been!
Heaven bless her still!—
Behold she comes! Depart—
Enter Elvina.
And have I lived to hear the public voice
Proclaim thy praise, and join a people's joy,
To hail thee hero of this happy day?
While with the shouts of freedom and of fame
The camp re-echoes, and the nation rings;
Say, Elvine, will the gentle voice of love
Be grateful to thine ear? From tent to tent,
Round all the camp, I ran to meet my love,
And spring into his arms!—
[He turns aside from her.
Proclaim thy praise, and join a people's joy,
To hail thee hero of this happy day?
While with the shouts of freedom and of fame
The camp re-echoes, and the nation rings;
Say, Elvine, will the gentle voice of love
Be grateful to thine ear? From tent to tent,
Round all the camp, I ran to meet my love,
And spring into his arms!—
86
Defend me, Heaven!
What secret stroke has blasted all thy joy
Amid thy fame? Why dost thou turn thine eyes
From thy Elvina? Dost thou hide a grief
Which I cannot partake, cannot console?
O my heart beats for thee! Look on my face,
O Elvine! O my love!—
What secret stroke has blasted all thy joy
Amid thy fame? Why dost thou turn thine eyes
From thy Elvina? Dost thou hide a grief
Which I cannot partake, cannot console?
O my heart beats for thee! Look on my face,
O Elvine! O my love!—
Elvine.
I've known the time
When Elvine's name, from his Elvina's voice,
Which knows its tender way yet to my heart,
Would have seduced me from my post in war.
Now thou art chang'd!—
Elvina.
Chang'd! I can never change.
O Elvine let me know—
Elvine.
Yes. Thou shalt know;
And thou shalt hear me—for the last time hear me.
For to the field of battle straight I go,
From which, if steel can pierce an open breast,
I never shall return. For Oh! Elvina,
I cannot with thee—nor without thee, live!
87
My Lord, thy words I cannot comprehend;
But, Oh! I tremble at thy look so wild.
Elvine.
Oh! once I loved thee! Gods! Gods, how I loved thee!
Each night, retiring from the ranks of war,
You came an angel to my constant dream.
The dear idea met me in the morning.
I ne'er put on my armour but I thought
On her whose knight I was, whose scarf I wore.
Even in the wildness of my youthful mind
I never wandered from Elvina's charms.
While she—O heavens!—
Elvina.
Guard me, ye gracious powers!
Dark are your words, but they are daggers, Elvine!
Have I deserv'd reproach from him I loved?
O it was all my pleasure, all my pride,
My joy in secret, and my public vaunt;
It soothed me in the hour of my despair,
That when your friends forsook you, I alone
Was just and grateful to an injur'd youth;
More just, more grateful, than he proves to me!
88
The child of fancy, and the fool of love,
What golden scenes I figured to myself!
In the day-dreams of my romantic mind,
You rose in beauty, smiling by my side,
My sweet companion in the path of life,
The wife of youth, the mistress of my mind,
The friend that never failed. O God! O God!
The thought was heaven, when wearied of the world
Upon that bosom to recline my head,
To hear the music of that tender tongue,
To drink enchantment from those radiant eyes,
To feel the pressure of those circling arms!
What golden scenes I figured to myself!
In the day-dreams of my romantic mind,
You rose in beauty, smiling by my side,
My sweet companion in the path of life,
The wife of youth, the mistress of my mind,
The friend that never failed. O God! O God!
The thought was heaven, when wearied of the world
Upon that bosom to recline my head,
To hear the music of that tender tongue,
To drink enchantment from those radiant eyes,
To feel the pressure of those circling arms!
My God! from what a dream do I awake!
The spell is broken, and the vision's fled.
Witness these tears wrung from a tortured heart,
The first that Elvine for himself has shed!
What hast thou done, Elvina?—
The spell is broken, and the vision's fled.
Witness these tears wrung from a tortured heart,
The first that Elvine for himself has shed!
What hast thou done, Elvina?—
Elvina.
Done, my Lord!
I am afraid you are disturb'd in mind.
Elvine.
Disturb'd in mind! Yes, I'm disturb'd in mind.
I've that within which none of all the damn'd
Can bear in burning hell—for I have lost—
89
My heart is torn from all that it held dear—
Elvina.
I fear some traitor has abused thine ear.
Come to particulars, I charge thee. Speak.
Elvine.
O woman! Woman! woman! ask thy heart.
Elvina.
O Elvine, 'tis a kind one! how it beats!
Elvine.
Yes it can beat—can beat for all mankind.
I am your fool no more.—
Elvina.
Suspicion, Heavens!
Dost thou not know me? What is there on earth
Whereon to rest, but that eternal rock,
The heart of those we love? And can that fail?—
Alas! why didst thou save me from the sword
To kill me thus? Would I had died this day!
For then I suffered, then I would have died
For thee!—
90
For me! This is th'extreme of guilt:
Th'unpardonable crime! Serene to give
The front of virtue to the soul of vice.
For me!
Elvina.
Perhaps we ne'er shall meet again!
In this last moment, Elvine! I conjure thee
By the bless'd memory of what we were!
By all the tender hours that we have pass'd!
The days of dearness, and the loves of youth!
Our fond romantic hopes of future bliss!
The sighs we breath'd in sympathy of soul,
The tears we mingled in that tender hour,
You laid your cheek to mine, and fervent seal'd
The sacred vow of everlasting love!
By all that's past, I charge thee, tell me, tell
What is that crime, so flagrant and so foul,
To cast me from thy bosom?
Elvine
, in tender emotion.
Oh! Elvina.
Elvina.
Oh! by the present sorrows of my soul!
Plaints, which have sometimes touch'd a lover's heart;
Tears! which a tender hand has wip'd away!
Plaints, which have sometimes touch'd a lover's heart;
Tears! which a tender hand has wip'd away!
91
And am I now an alien to thy love?
Unfelt, unpitied, canst thou hear my voice
Of lamentation, and unmoved behold
The tears of her thou lovedst?—
Unfelt, unpitied, canst thou hear my voice
Of lamentation, and unmoved behold
The tears of her thou lovedst?—
Elvine.
Oh! Elvina!
Tho' lost, I cannot see thee thus.
Elvina.
Then thus,
Elvine, I claim my empire in thy arms.
[Rushing to his arms.
Elvine
repulsing her.
Off, off, false woman!—Ah! there was a time—
Elvina
with a broken voice.
Heavens!
Elvine.
Hell! that is thy element.
Elvina.
What crime?
Elvine.
Oh! Infidelity.
92
What villain hath belied me?
Elvine.
No villain.
Elvina.
Who then?
Elvine.
Thy father.
Elvina.
What evidence?
Elvine.
Thy letter.
Elvina.
Where?
Elvine.
I tore it in my wrath,
As I will rend that ruffian of a lover,
And give his spirit to the shades of hell.
[The trumpet sounds for battle.
Lady, we part for ever and for ever!
I go without a tear; for thou art fallen
Below the most abandoned of thy kind.
93
To shew a daemon in the shape of heaven,
And look like angels, while the're devils damn'd!
[Elvina standing fixed in astonishment and despair, Albemarle and Emma come up to her; she faints in their arms.
Emma.
She's gone! my noble Lady, gone!—
Albemarle.
Help, Heaven!
Ye saints and angels, help—!
[Bending over her in silence,
Ha! she revives!—
Elvina.
Where am I now? Ah! it avails me not,
For I can never be what once I was.
Elvine is parted, never to return.
Albemarle.
The battle is begun. The sword is drawn.
Convicted of thy falsehood, Elvine goes.
Wild in the field to throw his life away,
And bare his bosom to the certain sword
Held out.—
94
He might have known, he should have known,
That his Elvina never would prove false.
Albemarle.
How could he doubt it when I told him so?
Elvina.
My father my accuser!
Albemarle.
O, my child!
Thy letter to the Dauphin—
Elvina.
To the Dauphin!
No letter to the Dauphin I e'er sent.
Albemarle.
This morn the French Ambassador produced it
Before the Barons: We have read it all.
Elvina.
O Heaven! that letter was address'd to him,
To Elvine.—
Albemarle.
Elvine? Have a care, my child!—
95
To Elvine it was written—Emma knows it.
Ha! when I ponder!—My disordered mind
Forgot th'address.—The curs'd Ambassador
Supplied the blank, and mark'd it for the Dauphin.
Albemarle.
O, this unfolds the fatal mystery!
My child is innocent.
[Taking her in his arms.
Elvina.
But I'm undone.
Eternal destiny! this is thy work.
Ready to rush upon the certain sword
He goes devoted—Oh! he never knew
How much I loved him! to distraction lov'd him!
Knew not the throbs, the palpitations wild,
Th'unutterable heavings of a heart
Where reign'd his image.—Now to death he goes,
And thinks me false—O heaven, amid my woes,
My flowing miseries, for him I weep:
For Elvine is as wretched—as Elvina!
Albemarle.
[Sounds heard.
'Tis o'er. The signal of pursuit is given.
96
Crowds chacing crowds, and flashing arms I see,
And garments stain'd with blood. 'Tis like the storm,
When heaven, and earth, and ocean mingle war.
Enter suddenly Edgar.
The battle's over, and the foe is fled.
Her sudden effort made, vain-glorious France
Forsook the field.
Elvina.
Ha! Elvine? Where?—
Edgar.
Aghast,
Long did he look this way, with aspect wild:
His hands in agony extreme he wrung;
With faultering voice, in broken sounds, he cried
“I've conquered—now I perish—Oh! Elvina!”
Then, with determin'd hand, his sword he drew,
And instant plung'd amid the hostile ranks,
Which clos'd behind him.
Albemarle.
Ah! illustrious youth,
Cut off untimely in thy bright career,
And all thy honours withered in the dust!
Cold in the silent tomb, thou shalt not hear
The song of triumph which thy country sings
In honour of thy deeds; shalt not behold
The tears of England which embalm thy name.
Almighty! where was thine outstretched arm,
When virtue struggled in the toils of fate,
When honour perish'd in the villain's snare?—
Cut off untimely in thy bright career,
And all thy honours withered in the dust!
97
The song of triumph which thy country sings
In honour of thy deeds; shalt not behold
The tears of England which embalm thy name.
Almighty! where was thine outstretched arm,
When virtue struggled in the toils of fate,
When honour perish'd in the villain's snare?—
Elvina! mute and motionless you stand,
No tender drops bedew thy fixed eye.
A sullen sorrow darkens all thy features.
Ah! save me Heaven! from that foreboding look—
My daughter, shun the hour of desperation.
Let us withdraw our steps.
No tender drops bedew thy fixed eye.
A sullen sorrow darkens all thy features.
Ah! save me Heaven! from that foreboding look—
My daughter, shun the hour of desperation.
Let us withdraw our steps.
Elvina.
Aye: To the grave.
Albemarle.
O look not on me with that eye forlorn!
Elvina.
Never, Ah! never shall I see him more!—
Albemarle.
No friend, no comforter have I on earth
But thee, my child! My daughter, live for me.—
98
It glooms! Shall I not find thee in the tomb.
Oh! Elvine! Elvine!—
Enter suddenly Elvine.
Here I am, Elvina—
Forgive me, O my love! I knew thee not,
I sought the Dauphin thro' the ranks of war;
We fought; he fell the victim of my sword:
It was th'Ambassador, like him array'd,
Who told his guilt; thy innocence; and died.
Angelic goodness! What can e'er attone
For foul suspicion of thy spotless fame;
Thou fairest, and thou best of woman kind?
Elvina.
Words cannot speak the language of my heart.
'Twas fatal destiny. Yet Elvine, know,
The pang which pierc'd me most, was what thou felt.
Elvine.
Look on the past as but a dreary dream.
Oh! let me find forgiveness in thy arms!
[Embracing.
Albemarle.
Heavens bless you both, my children! Now, in peace,
My hoary head shall to the grave descend.
| Runnamede | |