 | Videna ; Or, The Mother's Tragedy |  |
20
ACT II.
SCENE I.
—A BANQUET HALL.King, Videna, Dunwarro, Ferrex, Porreo, with the several Dukes, Dordan, and others, discovered seated.
King.
This crown having between you parted, sons,
Jove grant ye wear it well!
Dordan.
That wit were well,
Methinks, that could demonstrate, mathematically,
How two heads might, at once and in two places,
Sport the same cap.
Dunwarro.
Please now, your majesty,
Were it not seemly at this solemn tide,
A licence, by late manners ill permitted,
As my poor judgment goes, were mute for once?
King.
Dordan, we need not thee. Go forth!
[Exit Dordan with a dejected air.
Yet apt it was
What he propounded—but herein have we
Provision made. To Porreo we can lend
This iron crown; while, Ferrex, for thy brow
The golden round preparing we reserve,
As to the elder due.
Videna.
My royal Lord—
'Twere ominous to superstitious mind,
The younger should to full possession come,
While the duped elder, for his unreft half,
Should hold it only in reversion still.
King.
Fair Queen,—why, with a mind foretelling evil,
Division make where peace makes one of twain?
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Mother—misdoubt me not.
Nor need I care my brother now were crowned;
Waiting would gain my brows the richer show.
Pledge me, good brother; give me of thy cup,
And take thou mine. Thus, to the bottom, I
Drink to thy health, in love for thee as true
As thine for me.
Ferrex.
My love for thee has been
In no faint show avouched—nor am I slack
To meet thy pledge. Thus, then—
[As he is about to drink, Marcella enters, and taking the cup from his hand, pours forth its contents on the ground.]
Marcella.
Pernicious draught!
Sink to the centre! Shudder not, O earth!
As deep into thy veins the venom filters!
[All rise.
Porreo.
Confusion!
Ferrex.
Fair Marcella! wherefore this?
Marcella
(pointing to Porreo).
Ask him!—If in his eye no conscience lingers,
Then he is guiltless—
Porreo.
Me? Why question me?
What magic's round me? influence in the air
To madden men and maids?
Ferrex.
I know not, Porreo,
Whether assumed, or not, this wonder be;
But take this maid with thee unto thy realm,
As queen of thine estate, and part we now
As brothers should.
Marcella.
O, never, never!
Porreo.
She says well—
Never! Take her to thee who, with witch-charms,
Hast snared a heart her choice had pledged to me!
King.
Gods! Whence has grown this strife? Retire, Marcella!
[Dunwarro and Marcella withdraw up the stage.
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So happy in your loves? Which of you woos
Dunwarro's daughter?
Ferrex.
She is Porreo's bride!
Porreo.
'Tis false! She is thy mistress!
King.
Jupiter!
But I grow wroth! This jealousy doth lack
All basis for its standing. In my presence
The maid has walked, as if Diana's self;
And Ferrex' honour is a priceless gem!
Thy father is a witness for them both!
What! think'st thou that the court of Trinovant
Is as a Carthaginian cave, for sheltering
Impatient lovers in a thunder-storm?
Come—come! I see the manners of the coast
Blind thee to ours. We live not here, as they
Who couch among the rocks that barrier
The liberal tide of ocean. Thou must learn
To know us better, Porreo! Nor think, now,
I chide thee. 'Twas my fault that suffered thee
To grow up far away from our acquaintance,
Which soon will give thee cause to mend opinion
Too suddenly conceived.
Porreo.
I do begin
To see my error. I confess my failing.
But I'm of hasty mood, and must be doing.
Would I were north o' the Humber! Business there
Would drive these fancies from me!
King.
Heaven speed thee!
We doubt it nothing. Now, Videna, come—
Our state shall pass from toil and travail free,
Of royal care unrobed . . a fiery vest,
Such as besieged Alcides with hot pains—
These we are quit of!
Videna.
May the gods forfend,
That seeking peace too soon, we haste not on the end
[Exeunt all.
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SCENE II.
—GROVE NEAR THE PALACE.Enter Dunwarro and Marcella.
Dunwarro.
Thy father's prudence I perceive in thee,
Who of a doubt a certainty hast made,
At least on safety's side.
Marcella.
The sacrifice!
To me Prince Porreo now is lost for ever!
He'll not forgive what I could not omit!
Dunwarro.
Herein thou shouldst have sought my counsel first,
Who warned thee against loving, though not much,
Not dreading much his influence, form or manners—
But time has bettered . . .
Marcella.
No—my grandsire's skill—
Nor took I slender care to woo him on
To gentler arts.
Dunwarro.
Marcella! my sweet daughter!
How like thy blessèd mother, when she lived—
A flower that made elysium of the earth—
Soon lost to me, my child! What could I do,
But leave thee, an infant to thy grandam's care,
While here at Britain's court I shook off grief,
In chasing fortune? Ah! how oft the love
Of this world's power or goods is but a mock,
Hiding the countenance of that other world—
A world of holy sighs, of secret tears,
And thoughts whose consecration is a veil
More sacred than a vestal's.
How now, Philander?
Enter Philander.
Philander.
The queen would see Marcella.
Dunwarro.
She shall come.
[Exit Philander.
Marcella! to thy duty. I'll to mine.
[Exeunt at different sides.
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SCENE III.
—A CHAMBER IN THE PALACE; AT THE BACK A SPLENDID CURTAINED ARCHWAY.Videna and Ferrex discovered.
Videna
(walking up and down, much agitated).
By the adorèd sanctity of Justice!
I swear thy father hath much wronged my son—
My eldest born!—My indignation boils
Within me, though repressed!—Wronged thee, for whom?
My son, I grant him too. Methought I loved him,
When first he stood before me. Can I now?
Tell me, great gods!—was poison in the cup?
Ferrex.
Marcella knew not; 'twas suspicion only.
Videna.
In her suspicion, jealousy in him;
A cursèd bridal, were they wed together!
Enter Marcella suddenly, and kneel to Videna.
Marcella.
Pardon, dear lady—beauteous majesty!
The innocent cause of strife 'twixt princely brethren,
I prostrate at thy feet this worthless form.
Ferrex.
Up, from the ground, thou maiden paragon!
Videna.
That strain no more.—She is thy brother's vow!
His jealousy at least must have no cause;
As little thy suspicion, fair Marcella.
Marcella.
Stern as he is, my heart is yet his own.
Videna.
I trust it is;—else were my younger son
Wronged all as much by thee, as by his father
My elder is. Justice supreme be worshipt!
And I will prove if he be child of mine
In soul as well as fleshly lineaments.
The project is prepared that shall essay him;—
(Thanks to the wit of Dordan, whom we know,
A better man than to the most he seems)—
If of my mind he be not the true son,
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Let passion rule!—rule thoroughly! Half means,
Half ends, for fools! I've sent for him. He's here.
[Videna and Ferrex retire up the stage.
Enter Porreo.
Marcella
(rushing to him).
Speak not a word until thou list to me!
What have I done, that thou shouldst spurn me thus?
What crime have I committed?
Porreo.
Crime?—what, thou?
Thou'rt innocent! too innocent! I'm sad
At heart, Marcella!
Marcella.
Thou art calm again.
Porreo.
Calm as the sea, reposing from the blast
It loves, as I love thee—to war and death!
But these rough moods suit not their courtly manners;
And I thank much the instinct guided thee
To spare me groundless vengeance. I believe
My royal father's word, that thou art pure!
Marcella.
Pure?—was there then—
Porreo
(interrupting her).
My royal mother sent
For me to attend her hither, ere I parted.
Videna
(coming forward with dignity).
And now awaits the homage of thy knee.
Porreo.
Thou, and my brother?—spies upon my wooing?
Spies on the unguarded utterance of my heart?
Videna.
Low-thoughted man, who knowst Videna not—
Incapable of aught may honour stain;
She lives in ether thou hast never breathed.
Porreo.
Thy pardon, lady; I have not had the means
Of knowledge long.
Videna.
Woe worth the truth thou speakest.
Yet no long knowledge, none indeed, was wanted;
The guiltless bosom dreads no listener—
The guilty soul to think should even fear,
For the most secret gods our thoughts can hear.
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Now it comes back on me; all that so late
I had set free my soul from. Watched and springed,
And she the engine. She, who snared my heart,
Set by my brother and my mother on
The scent. False, I do swear. False in her wish,
If not in deed. 'Tis plain as these two hands—
Hands, I have hands—nay, nor am I unweaponed.
[Rushes frantically upon Ferrex.
Thy heart shall show me of what hue it is—
I'll judge it by its blood.
Videna
(to Ferrex).
My part is here; not thine.
(To Porreo)
Nor this the greeting I did hope from thee,
When I desired thy presence, in the faith
That, to my reasons, I should find thee pliant;
A generous offspring like its parent stock.
I now call on thee to forego advantage
By chance obtained, and win her praise whose love
Was born with thee; and now, on thy return,
Yearns to complete the circle long deferred.
Ferrex.
My royal mother, let him keep the half
The realm my father has bestowed on him;
For if he give it back I needs must spurn it,
Ungenerous to receive as to refuse—
I feel that never more it can be mine.
Porreo.
It shall not be.
Marcella.
O Prince, believe Marcella.
Richer wert thou to her, a stainless man,
Than were the crowns of earth upon thy brow,
With shame upon thy cheek.
Porreo.
Poor should I be
With all the crowns of earth and heaven to boot,
Could false Marcella now be rich in me.
Videna.
Hard man art thou to say it—fierce and cruel.
Take her unto thy bosom, and confess
Her love more worth than twenty thousand kingdoms.
Porreo.
I will try one without it, please you, lady.
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Pitiful scorner, to thy father's robe
I'll cling in menial supplication, till
He yield a right decree. Thou knowest him not.
His spirit, clear, heroic, and sublime,
Believes not in earth's evil, least of all
That aught of such could issue from his goodness—
Hence, thou art trusted, as he would a god,
Being himself a god, in all but fear,
Suspicion, and distrust. Think him not weak,
Or thou mistakest him. That to the carnal
Appears as weakness, which the moral knows
To be the strength of heaven.—Let it be proved
That thou art worthless—
Porreo
(with sudden coolness).
Mother, I am warned—
Videna.
Warned? (Trumpets.)
Hark, he comes.
Enter King, in procession, with Dunwarro, the Dukes, Philander, and the Court, also Enyon.
King.
Here, Princes, they are found—
The Queen and her right-royal progeny.
We know that she had redde their presence here,
And have made bold to guard King Porreo forth
In honour. So, with valediction proud,
We shall pursue his steps, far as we may,
On the glad road that leads him to a throne.
Videna.
That throne, great monarch, ne'er let Porreo mount;
The king in office should be king in worth.
King.
What now, our queen?—why should dissention be?
All quarrel hushed—all terms made free and plain—
Know we not that our eldest fairly grants
What we have gladly promised?
Ferrex.
Father-king,
Ill would it me beseem to stop thy bounty;
Worse ill to him, my brother. Be thy gift
Thy gift. I have no choice to say, Reclaim it.
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By bright Apollo, and it shall be so.
The word of a true king is very truth,
And as the truth immortal. Never mine
Shall die, not even as dies in the soil the seed,
But flower without corruption, deathless birth
Consummate in conception, and at once
Burst to a godlike life. Most just Videna,
Grace our procession with thy port of pride.
Videna.
Here will I stay; and here stay thee with me,—
So long as thou wilt listen to the peal
Of my loud speech, which I do wish were thunder,
For Britain's sake, and thine.
King.
Thunder's not reason,
But anger—and that's madness, or divine,
Or human. Reason is the spirit of
The soul, that speaks, with still small voice, the truths
Too fine for mortal ear, yet audible—
Mind lists that spherey music, and looks up,
And sees the starry light, from which come down
Its all but silent prophecies.
Videna.
Not silent!
The harmonies of reason listen now!
Sound, music!
[Music behind the scenes, and
Song.
1.
Ancestral memories, shineWith light divine!
There's joyance and might
In the gleam of your light!
2.
Our fathers! let their nameBe their son's fame!
Thought is throned on their brow—
Man! behold! worship now!
[Curtains unfold—present an illuminated circle of statues, representing the Kings of Brutus' line.—1. Brutus, with a bow, having just sped
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Videna.
Keep ye silence! All be mute!
Look, Porreo, look, ere thou departest hence,
Upon thy royal ancestry, thyself
About to be a king! Of them whose blood
Is in thy veins 'tis fit thou wisdom learn!
Behold great Brutus, from old Troy renowned,
The son of Sylvius—who, by error led,
Came to this land, then savage Albion,
And quelled the giants that its wild woods roamed:
For his unwitting shaft had slain his Sire;
Wherefore, 'tis said, his line shall one day end,
When heavenly vengeance, for that hapless deed,
Shall finish, and the Parent slay the Son—
'Twas thence these toils he bore, that Fate might find
Scope for its will, arena for its act.
Porreo.
His story lacks, methinks, of good example.
Videna.
Irreverent boy; religion contemplates
The inmost soul, not the external bearing.
He was the Founder of the state of Britain,
Loved by his friends, and dreaded by his foes,
Whose first misfortunes only made him greater,
Gave him to wife Italian Imogene,
Whose three fair sons thou seest. There Locrine,
There Albanact, there Camber, who in peace
Ruled o'er the land.
King.
Thus rule ye, O my sons;
Coheirs of empire!
Porreo.
Witness for me, Brutus.
King.
'Tis fairly sworn.
Videna.
Right valiant deeds were theirs,
'Gainst Humber, Hunnish king, whose name still bears
30
But ah, Estrilda, his fair captive, won
On weak Locrine, though Guendolen's espoused,
The great Corineus' daughter, he whom Brutus
Found near the Tyrrhene sea; a Trojan famed,
Who with Antenor entered Italy,
Tamer of monsters, victor over giants;
Of whom our legends a grand fable cherish,
How, at a solemn feast beside the shore,
Broke on the Britons' mirth a savage crew,
Led by Goemagog, who, the rest conquered,
Reserved for wrestle with Corineus,
Seized, and aloft swung the brave chief, thus breaking
Three of his ribs. But he, thereat enraged,
Heaved the strong bulk, and bore him on his shoulders,
Throwing him headlong shattered from a rock,
Since Langoemagog, into the sea.
Porreo.
A giant's leap, indeed. A worthy feat,
Which still in Cornwall we do celebrate.
O, that my foes were thus within my grasp,
Thus bravely should they suffer my resentment.
Videna.
Nay, nay, my son; take rather warning thou
From Locrine's tale; on whom his Queen divorced
Made justest war, wherein the King was slain,
His leman and her daughter likewise drowned,
Fair Sabra, in the Severn's thence-named stream;
Hence fear thou to do wrong, albeit a King.
Be ye like Madan—be ye most unlike
Malim and bad Mempricius, fratricide,
Whom wolves devoured. Look ye on Ebranc's form,
And cities build like him. Look, too, upon
The second Brutus, who redeemed the loss
His father had in Gaul. Look, too, on Leil,
Who peace enjoyed while he maintained the right,
And fell to discord when he fell to wrong.
Now, turn at once to Leir and his three daughters,
31
Think, Gorbudoc, of Leir.
King.
I think of him
Who did unwisely, trusting woman's word.
But Brutus, our renownèd ancestor,
Confiding in his sons, was justified.
Porreo.
The lesson that my fathers read, I learn
With all humility. Men were they all,
Some weak, some strong.
Videna.
Lost—lost is he who deems
His sires of old not gods. Removed from presence,
Their memories are divine; and, in our hearts,
The motives, too, that prompt us piously
To virtuous deeds, lest we dishonour them.
Porreo.
Who sometimes yet, since opposites cannot
Be alike virtuous, oft themselves dishonoured.
Videna
(in agony).
O, ye great gods! lost, lost to piety,
With me is lost to hope. Burst not, my heart,
And, my big soul, restrain thee!
King.
Wrong him not,
Videna! Blind belief is witnessed null;
Discrimination is not evil doubt.
Videna
(rushing into the semicircle of the statues, and kneeling in the midst).
O thou long line of sacred ancestry!
Ye royal fathers! Race of godlike Brutus!
Heroes and demigods! O pardon me,
That I call not the thunder down—but nature
Is strong in me for them in whose veins flows
The blood that was in yours! But well I note
The ominous anger on your clouded brows,
That he who lacks of reverence should divide
The crown that they have sanctioned!
[Rises and comes forward.
Thou, Marcella,
Plead with me.
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'Tis too much! Marcella! Nay,
Thy lover shall, despite thee, be a King,
Were it only for thy sake, thou virtuous maid.
Let him but reach his realm, and form his court,
And feel him safe upon his local throne,
Then claim the bridal, which, I promise him,
Shall be most prompt and happy.
Porreo.
To thy will,
Most royal father, I submit myself,
In everything obedient. Nor lacks aught,
But that my mother's blessing on my knee
I crave, ere hence I wend; for I would not
Her state diminish so, that, for my sake,
She now should tend on me, or show herself
In chafed mood abroad.
King.
'Tis ill—'tis ill—
Make clear thy queenly brow! I marvel one
Who is, as 'twere, the Astrea to this orb,
Should let her star be quenched in our rebuke.
A waywardness most strange. But we are man;
Whom woman rules is none. What, rebel still?
Shame to thy state. An unsubmissive wife
Makes disobedient children. This example's
[Videna stands in a fixed statuesque attitude of offended indignation.]
Of evil auspice. Come, bestow the boy
His blessing.
Porreo.
When my Queen and mother shall
Have known me better, she will proffer that
Which now she pauses o'er. I'll rise, great King,
And win, ere long, by merit, such a blessing,
That summer showers upon the thirsty land
Shall be to earth but as the winter's snow
Upon the ocean's foam. Mother, farewell!
Farewell, my bride! till fate evolve the time
For which my bosom pants. Brother!
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Thy way
I'll honour, Porreo, with our royal sire,
And his return defend.
King.
A duteous thought.
Let the loud trumpet blare—the train move on.
[Flourish. Exeunt in procession omnes, except Videna and Marcella.]
Videna
(gradually recovering).
He has gone forth without his mother's blessing.
Marcella.
He has gone forth without his maiden's promise.
Videna.
Motherless—lovelorn—have we let him go.
I could not find a blessing in my heart,
I could not bring a blessing to my lips.
There are no tears within my marble orbs,
There is no pulse within my bloodless veins;
Cold, cold, and still I stand. A wife's authority
Outmatch'd by a son's cunning. Pride, thou'rt shamed;
Matron prerogative, thou art disrobed;
Fool! 'twas my woman's babbling cautioned him—
Warned! was he warned? Warned—warned—
Marcella.
O righteous queen!
See, in thy son, my lover. Frequent duty,
In me, shall render compensation full;
So, taking me for him, thou shalt not lack
Of reverence one mere jot. Nay, I will be
Thy path to tread on, soften it with tears;
The tresses of my hair—
Videna.
Upbind thy tresses—
Thou art a foolish maid, whom I will love.
Let my hair fall, who am dishonourèd;
Whose mother's pride is stung by her own brood.
—O most brave anger! To my chamber, in—
In—in—Marcella, ere the train return,
And see me weeping. I am still a Queen.
[Exeunt.
END OF ACT II.
| Videna ; Or, The Mother's Tragedy | |