University of Virginia Library

Scene II.

The Garden of Donna Anna's House: Donna Anna and Elvira at a window.—Dawn.
Elv.
Yet once more to the window?

Anna.
Oh Elvira,
For the last time! now undeceiv'd to know
How much deceiv'd I was!
Alas, until I find myself despis'd,
Methought I was desir'd, till hated, lov'd;
Was't not enough to know himself belov'd,
Without insulting her who told him so!
Was't not enough—
Oh wonder not, Elvira, at my passion;
Of all these men's enchantments, none more potent
Than what might seem unlikeliest—their disdain.

Elv.
Indeed you have good cause for anger, madam:
But yet one trial more.

Anna.
And to what end?
I'll not play Tantalus again for him.
Oh shameful insult! had I dream'd of it,
Would I have written him so tenderly?
Told my whole heart?—But, once in love, what woman
Can trust herself, alas, with pen and ink!

Elv.
Were he to come now after all, how then?
Would you reproach, or turn your back on him,
Or—

Anna.
Nay, I know not. Is't not possible,
He is detain'd, Elvira, by the Prince
Upon state business?

Elv.
You excuse him then!

Anna.
Oh, any thing to soothe me!

Elv.
Who excuses
Will quickly pardon.

Anna.
Ay, if he came now,
Now, as you say, Elvira,
And made excuses which I knew were false,
I would believe them still. Would he were come
Only to try. Could I be so deceiv'd!

Enter Cesar and Lazaro, below.
Laz.
See you not day has dawn'd, sir?

Ces.
Mine, I doubt,
Is set for ever. Yet, in sheer despair,
I come to gaze upon the empty east!
But look!

Laz.
Well, sir?

Ces.
See you not through the twilight?

Laz.
Yes, sir; a woman: and when I say a woman,
I mean two women.

Ces.
Oh see if it be she.

Laz.
'Twould make Elvira jealous, sir.

Ces.
Oh lady,
Is it you?

Anna.
Yes I, Don Cesar: who all night
Have waited on your pleasure, unsuspecting
What now too well I know.
My foolish passion, sir, is well reveng'd
By shamed repentance. Oh, you come at last,
Thinking belike, sir, with the morning star
Retrieve the waste of night; oh, you lov'd me, sir,
Or seem'd to do, till having won from me
Confession of a love I feel no more,
You turn it to disdain. Oh think not, sir,
That by one little deed in love, like law,
You gain the full possession of my heart
For ever; and for this idle interview,
Do you so profit by it as to learn
Courtesy to a lady; which when learn'd
Come and repeat to me.

[Retires from window.
Ces.
And having now
Arraign'd me of the crime, why do you leave me
To plead my exculpation to the winds?
O Donna Anna, I call Heav'n to witness
'Twas not my negligence, but my ill star
That envied me such ill-deserv'd delight.
If it be otherwise,
Or even you suspect it otherwise,
Spurn me, not only now, but ever, from you.
Since better were it with a conscience clear
Rejected, than suspiciously receiv'd.
The Prince has kept me all the night with him
About the city streets: your brother, who
Was with us, can bear witness. Yet if still
You think me guilty, but come back to say so,
And let me plead once more, and you once more
Condemn, and yet once more, and all in vain,
If you will only but come back again!

Anna
(returning to the window).
And this is true?

Ces.
So help me Heav'n, it is!
Why, could you, Anna, in your heart believe
I could forget you?

Anna.
And, Don Cesar, you
That, were it so, I could forget my love?
But see, the sun above the mountain-tops
Begins to peep, and morn to welcome him
With all her smiles and tears. We must begone.
I shall another quick occasion find,
When I shall call, and you—not lag behind?

Ces.
Oh once more taken to your heart again,
My shame turns glory, and delight my pain.
Yet tell me—

Anna.
Well?

Ces.
Of your suspicions one
Lingers within you?

Anna.
Ay, a legion,
That at your presence to their mistress' pride
Turn traitors, and all fight on Cesar's side!

Ces.
Farewell then, my divine implacable!

Anna.
Victim and idol of my eyes, farewell!

[Exeunt severally.
Laz.
Well, and what has my mistress to say to me?
Does she also play the scornful lady?

Elv.
I? why?

Laz.

Because my mistress' mistress does so to my master,
whose love I follow in shadow.

Elv.
Oh, I did not understand.

Laz.
When he's happy then I'm jolly;
When he's sad I'm melancholy:
When he's love-infected, I
With the self-same fever fretted,
Either am bound like him to fry,
Or if he chooses to forget it,
I must even take his cue,
And, Elvira, forget you.
Do you enact your lady. Now,
Begin. Be angry first—

Elv.
But how?

Laz.
Hide up, no matter how or why,
Behind the window-blind, while I
Underneath it caterwaul;—

Elv.
What are the odds I don't reply?

Laz.
Just the odds that I don't call.