University of Virginia Library

ACT FOURTH.

The Sultan's Palace.
Soliman. Zulima, his Wife. Gulnare. The Vizir. Saladin.
Soliman.
The grounds of the divorce are so peculiar,
And lie so very far beyond the bounds
Of what is either possible, or likely,
I'm fairly puzzled what reply to make.

Vizir.
Such, oh my liege, is my opinion too.
Experience shows, how readily the blood
Inflames the fancy with delirious dreams.

Soliman.
And yet that both of them should dream the same,
Is odd; yet is it not impossible.
And if we are to trust the tale at all,
'Tis better to believe it in the course
Of nature, than suppose a miracle.
In order to arrive, then, at the truth,
It will be best that we wait patiently,
And see the issue of the second night.
Then shall we both within the bridal room
Conceal ourselves, where we can see and hear,
And for ourselves decide upon the facts.

Vizir.
Thou art a sage, most mighty potentate!
If it was fancy, nothing shall we see;
But if the devil's hand be in the business,
Then we are sure to probe it to the root;
And in that case we may allow our children—
It cuts me to the heart, the very thought—
To be unfetter'd from the marriage bond.

Zulima.
What says my daughter to this fair resolve?

Gulnare.
I am submissive to my father's will.

Vizir.
We hold this business as concluded, then.

Saladin.
No, stop! I have some claim to be allowed
A little word or two in this affair.
I love your daughter, mighty Sultan, well;
My rare good fortune, too, I clearly see;
But not for her sake—no, not for the world,
Would I encounter such another night!
You have no notion what it is to stand
Stiff as a post, and rooted to the roof,
Contemplating the stars and milky way!
You have no notion what it is to be
By spirits pinched and squeezed, and pulled about!—
To see a strange man get into your bed,
And make himself at home there with your wife,
Whilst you aloft, like a mad dog, perforce
Must bay the dogstar and the grinning moon!
Gulnara there may well submit, for she
Stays in her warm and comfortable bed,
So wide and roomy, that the naked sword
Can do no harm; and, touching that same sworn,
I'm quite of your opinion, that 'tis hard
To credit what our own eyes have not seen.
Now I have really seen my bride abed,
With the enchanter nestling at her side;
But that same naked sword I have not seen!
Perhaps the thought of it is all a dream,
To follow your opinion, oh great Sultan!—
A mere creation of her virgin fancy.

Gulnare
(contemptuously).
Audacious wretch!

Zulima.
This language to my daughter!

Soliman.
Ha! by the Prophet, this is too absurd!
What! chafing still! There, fume away, my children!
Your peevish brawl is like the angry bay
Of a caged hound, that quarrels with the night,
Because the fleecy clouds play round the moon.

Vizir.
Call up your manhood, boy!

Saladin.
Not I, indeed;
I want to rid me of my womanhood.

Vizir.
Can you not brave the hazard one night more,
To win a pearl so far beyond all price?

Saladin.
Can you appraise his risk that dives for pearls?
If you can do so, multiply it o'er
An hundred thousand times. Such risk is mine.

Vizir.
By Mahomed, it might be dangerous
For some poor, puny, pitiful poltroon,
To find himself in such a case as yours;
But ne'er could I have dream'd such fears in you.

Saladin.
Make me not frantic! Tantalus was blest,
Compared with me: it was but water lapp'd
Against his baffled lips;—but I—oh hell!
Enough!—'Tis very palpable to me,
This business sets your reckonings all awry.
To be a sultan's brother is as fine,
I fancy, as to be his son-in-law.
Yet, father, you must arm yourself with patience!
'Tis a son's duty, doubtless, to obey;
But to stand nightly, for the family honour,
Cold sentry on the housetop, whilst another
Enjoys himself at leisure with my wife,
Is, you'll excuse me, Sir, too much to ask.

Vizir.
Forget not, boy, the pride, the self-respect,
Which your exalted station claims from you.

Saladin.
The exalted station on the roof, you mean?
To that, methinks, I have already shown
All due respect.

Vizir.
You always will fall back
On this preposterous vision.

Gulnare.
Oh dear father,
Grant, I entreat you, Saladin's desire.

Soliman.
What do you say, Vizir? What shall we do?

Vizir.
The tale is simply ludicrous, my liege.

The Captain of the Body Guard
(enters).
Sire, Ali Baba, the astrologer,
Awaits outside, with bald, uncovered head;
Something of moment he has come to tell.

Soliman.
Let him come in! (exit Captain.)
A sage and learned man,
Skilled in the mystic volume of the stars.
Far on the plain I've built for him a tower,
Where all night long he sits, with sleepless eyes,
Reading the marvels which the stars portend.

Saladin.
Marvels, indeed! Believe me, oh great Sultan,
There's not one grain of marvel stirring there:
One stands, and gapes, and yawns—and that is all!

Ali Baba
(enters).
God send to Persia's Sultan peace and joy,
Firm stand his throne, and may his race increase!

Soliman.
I thank thee! Say, what vision of the night
Hath brought thee hither from thy tower in haste?
But for such cause thou scarcely hadst come here.
Thou lovest solitude.

Ali Baba.
Ah, good my Lord!
An old man I, and weary of the world.
Earth's baubles have no longer charms for me;
Its greatest things seem little to the sage.
When old age shades us with his silvery wings,
Then ever more and more the eye is bent
Up to the star-sown canopy of heaven;
Thither we look, as to our real home,
The haven of our earthly pilgrimage.
As for myself, it is my joy and solace,
To watch, serene of soul, night's feeble rays,
Till heaven its mighty gates wide open flings,
And floods me with the radiance of the dawn.

Soliman.
What revelation dost thou bring me now?

Ali Baba.
As I last night, according to my wont,
Had climb'd into my tower, and there had pray'd,
Upon the moon I let my eyes repose,
And mused, how our great Prophet, on a time,
In order to the unbelieving earth
To prove his mission, beckoned it from heaven,
When, clanging down to earth, it fell, and broke
On either side the mountain Elikais:
Whereon by his all-powerful command,
He welded it anew, and bade it rise,
And shine in ether, as it did before.
As I stood musing thus with gaze intent,
The moon grew suddenly so pitchy dark,
That under it the earth seemed black as coal.
The owls shrieked dismally within the wood,
The village mastiffs suddenly grew dumb,
But still I kept my place, though sore perplexed
By the mysterious darkness; the whole sky
Was clear, without a cloud; besides, no cloud
Could have thrown such a shadow on the earth.
I thought, Perhaps 'tis the Eternal's will,
This very night to judge creation;
The Angel hath He summoned now of Death,
The mighty Israfil, who evermore
Stands ready with his flashing trump, at once
With shattering blast to shake the universe
To crumbling ruin. I was calm as now.
Yet as upon my knees, resigned to Heaven,
I waited in the dark for what might come,
The moon regained its lustre by degrees,
And in the clear light palpably I saw,
It was a mighty angel's dusky wings
Had o'er the sky diffused this strange eclipse.
Along the air he floated with a bed
Of ebony and gold, whereon were laid,
Clear to the sight, a woman and a man.
What unto us this wondrous sign portends
Is more than I can fathom. But I come,
Impelled by duty, with my dearest speed,
To make all known, my liege, to thee. Heaven grant
It bode no evil swiftly to ensue!

Saladin.
Evil, forsooth! What evil could ensue
Hath, by my beard, ensued already.

Soliman.
Beard!
You have none.

Saladin.
But I hope for one in time.

Ali Baba.
What do you mean, fair sir?

Soliman.
Say, hast thou not
Descried me through thy telescope, great sage,
Upon a certain house-top yesternight,
Fixed, like yourself, contemplating the stars?

Ali Baba.
What time, fair sir?

Saladin.
Why, shortly after you
Beheld that monster in the air.

Ali Baba.
Not I.

Saladin.
'Twas me you saw up yonder in the air.

Ali Baba.
You lay hard names upon yourself, young sir.

Saladin.
Ha, take me not for yonder devil's spawn!
Yonder great, black, unsightly vampire-bat!
I was but one of the two persons, you
Beheld reclining on the handsome bed.

Vizir.
Were you the woman, milkbeard, or the man?

Saladin.
The man! Good gracious! had I been the woman,
I should have been more pleasantly employed,
Than in research of that celestial lore,
Which, to my thinking, might be better styled
A lore downright infernal.

Ali Baba.
Sir, you rave.

Gulnare.
Beloved father, hesitate no longer.
Now thou must see, it was no feverish dream.

Soliman.
The ways of God are oft inscrutable;
Yet that this marriage is not blessed of heaven,
I see beyond all question. Be it then
Dissolved from this hour forth.

Gulnare.
Oh father, thanks!

Saladin.
Thanks, mighty Sultan, for this blest release
From bondage dire, that would have driven me mad!

Vizir
(aside).
Oh wretched churl! By heaven, he's not my son!
Such a vile recreant I could ne'er beget.
Ha, all my hopes are torn up by the roots,
And yet—I must be grateful to my liege.
Grateful? Oh Allah! (Aloud.)
Thanks, great Sultan; thanks!

Soliman.
Most strange! Now follow me to the Divan!

[Exeunt the Sultan and the Vizir. Gulnare follows her mother.
Ali Baba
(to Saladin).
Will you inform me, sir, what all this means?

Saladin.
Go goggle at the stars, and learn of them.
But, for myself, the world can't flout me now;
The cuckold's horns no longer grace my brow.

[Exit.
[Ali Baba returns to his tower.
The Divan.
Soliman; the Vizir; Spectators; the Council. Morgiana at the door.
Morgiana
(to a drunken peasant).
Good gracious me! don't poke me in the ribs!
Wait till you're call'd, and don't come bouncing so
Against a frail old woman like myself!

Peasant.
What business have you here? Go, get along!
You can't speak with his Majesty to-day.
He only talks to people of my rank,
Who come to see him on important business.

Morgiana.
Important business? Marry and indeed!
And don't I come upon important business?
I come, if you must know it, to arrange
The marriage of his daughter with my son.

Soliman.
Nuschirwan, dost thou see there, by the door,
The woman who, last week, presented me
With yonder glorious treasure?

Vizir.
Impudence!
The guard shall instantly—

Soliman.
Hold, Vizir, hold!
Remember what beseems my dignity,
And what doth wrong it. In the flush of joy
A promise 'scaped my lips, which cannot now
Be kept, indeed; but which with violence
I will not break; for violence begets
Anger, and anger generates revenge:
Where by a momentary prudence this
Can be avoided, it behoves it should.

Vizir.
My Sultan's words do make me smile perforce.
Anger, revenge! Revenge and anger! What!
A tailor lad and Sultan Soliman!

Soliman.
And what of that? Be who he may, he is
My subject still, and am I not his prince?
My state demands that I should tend the flock
Entrusted to my charge with loving care.
To treat it with a brutelike recklessness,
Were but to prove myself a sorry shepherd.

Vizir.
Forgive, my Lord, the outburst of my wrath,
And unto me, too, let your grace extend:
The coldest nature shows a hasty spark,
When its green wounds are roughly touched; and mine—
Need I add more?

Soliman.
Well, well—I understand.
Yet these green wounds, which gall us both alike,
You promised me, Nuschirwan, not to touch.
Let me forget them, then; and tell me what
You think is best and fittest to be done.

Vizir.
If all you wish be to get rid, my Lord,
Of the old fool, and not to punish her,
'Tis but to ask her love-sick son, what he
Can by no possibility fulfil.
This will effectually conclude the matter.

Soliman.
You counsel sagely. Bring the woman in,
And let the others for to-day depart.

[The Vizir calls in Morgiana, who throws herself down before the throne. The others retire.
Soliman
(sternly).
I recognise you, know why you are here;
My promise also have I not forgotten.
I said to you, the man who could afford
Such gifts to our exchequer as the last,
Might, if the rest were equal to the first,
Conceive the hope to wed a prince's daughter.
What then I said, old woman, I say still;
For if your son in treasure be so rich,
As his last gift doth give us cause to hope,
To such a bride he fairly may aspire.
Then, to make sure of this—for it might be,
Mere chance had thrown that treasure in his way—
I now desire, that he send here to me,
To-morrow at this hour, forty large vases,
Curiously carved, and of the purest gold.
These also he must fill with precious stones,
Much better than the former; every vase
Must by a handsome negro slave be borne;
And forty more white slaves must follow these.
Let this be done, and by my word I stand,
And give my daughter to your son for bride.
But if this be not done, let me no more
Have word or sign from you. Remembering
The gift which late you brought me, I forgive
Your son's audacious insolence this once;
But let him dare no farther to offend
With his unblushing importunity.

[Rises, and exit with the Vizir.
Morgiana.
Ay, ay; just so, just so! Did I not say it?
Have I not warned him as a mother should?
Not said a thousand times, Boy, stretch your hand
No farther out than you can draw it back?
Red shoes alone wont make a body dance.
Need you be told, that rotten eggs must make
Unsavoury cakes—that wooden covers go
With wooden bowls? That he who has no cat
Must catch his mice with owls, or let them gnaw;
And he that lacks for lime must build with loam?
Why, then, the Princess?—why but her? If you
Have neither horse nor ox, boy, take an ass.
But 'twas mere preaching in a deaf man's ear.
A buckler's no defence against a noose.
He'd have his way, because he had this lamp,
And our good Sultan courteous is and kind.
But never wake a sleeping dog; nor pull
A donkey's girth too tight! Beware of cats
That lap before, and use their claws behind.
We tread upon the worm until it turns.
Now, what a howl he'll make! Why did he then
Lie down between the corner and the door?
Like yarn, like cloth;—laugh in the morning, cry
Before the night. An oaken cudgel is
The true fool's towel;—as you make your bed,
So you must lie in't;—as the clay, the pay!

[Exit.
A Room.
Aladdin. (To him enters Morgiana).
Aladdin
(runs to meet her).
Well, dearest mother?

Morgiana.
Well, my dearest son?
(Aside.)
I've not the heart to let him know the truth.

Aladdin.
Well, mother!—Well now, tell me,—you have been—

Morgiana.
At the butcher's? Yes, boy, that indeed I have,
And got a famous joint of venison.

Aladdin.
That's not the question. You've—

Morgiana.
Been at the tailor's?
Oh yes; I just look'd in upon him! Dear,
What a good, kindly, honest soul it is!
Your father and himself were ever friends,—
Ay, though they both were tailors to their craft.
Your father, none could match him at a cloak:
The genius of the other lay in hose.
And so they rubbed along, the best of friends,
Each in his line a master of his needle.
They never fell to loggerheads, these two;
He always trumpeted your father's cloaks,
Who always trumpeted his hose in turn.
So all went bravely many and many a year.
That was the golden age of tailorhood!

Aladdin.
But, mother, tell me—

Morgiana.
What the tailor said?
Good dame, you may be sure of this, said he,
That I will stitch as soundly for your son,
As for himself he could have stitched, if he
Had followed out his father's handicraft.

Aladdin.
Who, in the fiend's name, asked about the tailor?

Morgiana.
Who soars too high, my son, must have a fall.

Aladdin.
Now do I see, too plainly, what the bell
Has struck; but, by mine honour, he shall find,—
This Sultan,—that he plays a dangerous game.

Morgiana.
'Tis bad, my son, to eat cherries with great folks,
For they are apt in very wantonness
To throw the stones into your face.

Aladdin.
I'll stone him!
But quick, quick, mother,—tell me everything!

Morgiana.
What shall I tell you, boy? You know the truth.
You have already guessed it to a turn.
It's no use stirring in this business more.
Best, once for all, to let the stone lie still,
You find too hard to lift: this sort of thing
Is just like writing black upon the chimney.

Aladdin.
I almost burst. Ha, Sultan, wait awhile!
Thou beggar king! Just wait, thou haughty churl;
I'll teach thee what it is to play with me,
As though I were the meanest of thy slaves!
I'll teach thee to fulfil thy plighted word!
Not long shalt thou contemn me, like the sheep,
That from the rocks bleats mockery at the wolf,
Because I cannot reach thee. Reach thee I shall!
Yes, by the Prophet's beard I swear it here!

Morgiana.
Pray curb these hasty paroxysms, boy.
They make you most unhappy—that they do.

Aladdin.
Unhappy? And what makes my happiness,
Or my unhappiness? Canst tell me that?
To live a noble life, unsoiled by shame,
That constitutes my happiness; to be
Abased and scorned, my chiefest misery.
To vanquish obstacles, be what they may,
Hath Allah gifted me with strength and will,
With so much pride and constancy combined,
That though my love should bring disaster, death,
Yet shall I triumph even in my fall.

Morgiana.
Snap goes the bowstring that's too highly strung.

Aladdin.
Yes, if 'twas never fit to bear a strain.
Great Heaven! Shall the free spirit ne'er aspire!
Must we for ever stoop, for ever crawl?
But, psha! Enough of this! Tell me what passed.
He ordered you away, no doubt, at once?
No doubt he chid you for audacity,
And did not choose to recognise you?

Morgiana.
No,
That he did not, but, on the contrary,
Stuck to the promise which he gave before.
But what can all his promises avail?
They leave us just precisely where we were.

Aladdin.
What did he say?

Morgiana.
He said, if you to-morrow
Should send him forty vases, all of gold,
And filled with painted crystal, like the last,
That you should have his daughter for your wife.
But, look you! every vase was to be brought
By a black slave, and he,—his very words,—
Must be attended by another, white.
But how is all this to be brought about?

Aladdin.
How, mother, how! And this is all he asked?

Morgiana.
All! And a mighty deal too much, say I.

Aladdin.
Why did you fire my blood without a cause,
And stir my anger 'gainst the Sultan thus?
Most moderate, in sooth, is his demand,
And by to-morrow it shall be fulfilled.

Morgiana.
To-morrow! By to-morrow! Well, and how?

Aladdin.
How? By the lamp!

Morgiana.
The lamp! Ods pitikins!
The lamp! That's true! I never thought of that.
Who can remember an old rusty lamp?
The lamp, boy! So you really think, the lamp—

Aladdin.
Yes, mother, certainly—beyond a doubt.

Morgiana.
You and the lamp be blessed! Nobody has
A lamp like this, of course, but you; I mean,
That everybody has a lamp, but this—

Aladdin.
Is a lamp, mother, of no common kind.

Morgiana.
Still, boy, I have my doubts. To do all this
May be beyond the Spirit.

Aladdin.
We shall see.
What is beyond his power, and what is not,
The Spirit for himself can best decide;
We'll ascertain at once. (Takes out the lamp.)


Morgiana.
Just wait a bit,
I want to purchase something in the town,
And, as it's growing dark, I must be off. (Runs out.)


Aladdin.
She cannot get the lamp into her head!
She always will forget it. Strange enough!
While for my life she plans and schemes all day,
Her thoughts should never turn upon the lamp!
To her I'm but her son, not the lamp's lord;
Now, if I be its lord, this test will show.

(Rubs the lamp.)
The Spirit
(appears).
Lord, what will'st thou? Straight give order! All thy wishes to fulfil,
Hath Almighty Allah gifted me with power and strength and will.

Aladdin.
Precious to me is thine aidance; strong and great art thou, and I
Therefore with a bold assurance on thy potent help rely.

Spirit.
What thou wishest, say, and waste not praises of my skill and might.

Aladdin.
Forty mighty golden vases, as the flashing sunbeams bright,
Through the filmy streams of ether must thou bring me, brimming o'er
With the diamond's lustrous water, with the ruby's rosy gore;
With the emerald's earthy verdure, with the sapphire's heavenly blue,
As they gleam and glow in beauty in the mountain's spring-tide dew,
Large and lustrous, each a marvel, with no flaw in all their sheen,
As they bloomed within the garden, hidden deep the rocks between.
There no black stone intermingles, to set off the radiance gay,
But black slaves must bear the vases, night shall bring the glorious day.
And, a more imposing contrast to the mingling hues to lend,
Forty white slaves you must find me, with that dusky train to blend.
Pair by pair these slaves shall mingle, white and black and black and white;
Lay on every vase a napkin, woven with tissues dipt in light,
Where on ground of softest velvet, copied in the silk, are seen,
Rose and tulip and carnation, budding from the meadow green.
All this by to-morrow bring me, then thy power is firm and good.

Spirit
(in the act of vanishing).
They shall stand, great lord and master, there where even now I stood.

Aladdin
(rubs the lamp).
Not so fast, thou best of servants; stay, my further 'hests to hear!

Spirit
(reappears).
Thou hast but to rub, oh master! and straightway I reappear.

Aladdin.
List, then, to what more I order! Dexterous art thou, and swift:
All these treasures, I have ordered, for the Sultan are a gift;
And already thou divinest, I must come in such array,
As beseems a prince, before him such a princely gift to lay.
First a bath must thou prepare me, where on every wall doth shine
Marble, agate stone, and jasper, quaintly carved and polished fine.
Let two streams of purest water, hot and cold, be flowing still,
So contrived that I may mingle either current at my will.
There, attending on my pleasure, must be maidens fair and bright,
With sweet balsams to anoint me, and to steep me in delight.
Then the finest kaftan bring me, diapered with jewels rare,
Next a sabre of Damascus, and a wild Arabian mare,
Wild, but which the costly bridle at my will can turn and wind;
Fetch my mother, too, all vestments whereunto she hath a mind.
Bring her trusty handmaids also, oh thou Spirit good and great!
Who, to execute her wishes, on her every step shall wait.
Do thou this, and do it swiftly, and thy praise I'll sound alway!

Spirit.
All which thou hast yet commanded is to me but baby's play.

[Vanishes.
Aladdin
(rubs the lamp).
Servant, I again must call thee; doubly long thou mak'st thy flight.

Spirit
(appears).
Thou wilt sooner tire of rubbing, than will I of toil so light.

Aladdin.
When now all is fairly ordered, and when all is now complete,
When the nuptial hour approaches, hour of rapture heavenly sweet!
Then shalt thou a palace rear me, all of pure white marble, there,
Full before the Sultan's harem, in the midst of the great square;
After thine own wisdom rear it; but let it be gorgeous all,
Store it with the costliest treasures, and within it build a hall,
Vast, four-square, and highly vaulted, peerless for its pomp and pride;
Four-and-twenty spacious windows make for me on every side:
Yet of these so matchless windows one imperfect thou shalt leave,
Wherefore thus I do command thee, thou, true servant, wilt conceive.
Solemnize my nuptials nobly, make all sumptuous, festive, bright,
Let the torches fume with amber, day arise from dusky night.
Choirs of nimbly-footing fairies bring to lead the dance along,
Whilst a throng of loveliest damsels thrill all hearts with lute and song.
Canst thou do this? Of my wishes this within my heart is chief.

Spirit.
Yes; as easily, oh master! as the zephyr stirs the leaf.

[Vanishes.