Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

White Blossom of the Myrtle!

Associates of thy name, sweet Child!

These Virtues may’st thou win;

With face as eloquently mild

To say, they lodge within. 20

So, when her tale of days all flown,

Thy mother shall be miss’d here;

When Heaven at length shall claim its own

And Angels snatch their Sister;

Some hoary-headed friend, perchance, 25

May gaze with stifled breath;

And oft, in momentary trance,

Forget the waste of death.

Even thus a lovely rose I’ve view’d

In summer-swelling pride; 30

Nor mark’d the bud, that green and rude

Peep’d at the rose’s side.

It chanc’d I pass’d again that way

In Autumn’s latest hour,

And wond’ring saw the selfsame spray 35

Rich with the selfsame flower.

Ah fond deceit! the rude green bud

Alike in shape, place, name,

Had bloom’d where bloom’d its parent stud,

Another and the same! 40

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT THE FIRST

ACT THE SECOND

SCENE II.

ACT THE THIRD

ACT THE FOURTH

SCENE II

SCENE III

ACT THE FIFTH

Table of Contents

[Not in MSS.]

Osorio, 1797. Remorse.

VELEZ MARQUIS VALDEZ, Father to the two brothers, and

Doña Teresa’s Guardian.

ALBERT DON ALVAR, the eldest son.

OSORIO DON ORDONIO, the youngest son.

FRANCESCO MONVIEDRO, a Dominican and Inquisitor.

MAURICE ZULIMEZ, the faithful attendant on Alvar.

FERDINAND ISIDORE, a Moresco Chieftain, ostensibly a

Christian.

NAOMI NAOMI.

MARIA DOÑA TERESA, an Orphan Heiress.

ALHADRA, wife

of FERDINAND ALHADRA, Wife of Isidore.

FAMILIARS OF THE INQUISITION.

MOORS, SERVANTS, &C.

Time. The reign of Philip II., just at the close of the civil wars against the Moors, and during the heat of the persecution which raged against them, shortly after the edict which forbad the wearing of Moresco apparel under pain of death.

Table of Contents

SCENE — The sea shore on the coast of Granada.

VELEZ, MARIA.

Maria. I hold Osorio dear: he is your son,

And Albert’s brother.

Velez. Love him for himself,

Nor make the living wretched for the dead.

Maria. I mourn that you should plead in vain, Lord Velez!

But Heaven hath heard my vow, and I remain 5

Faithful to Albert, be he dead or living.

Velez. Heaven knows with what delight I saw your loves;

And could my heart’s blood give him back to thee

I would die smiling. But these are idle thoughts!

Thy dying father comes upon my soul 10

With that same look, with which he gave thee to me:

I held thee in mine arms, a powerless babe,

While thy poor mother with a mute entreaty

Fix’d her faint eyes on mine: ah, not for this,

That I should let thee feed thy soul with gloom, 15

And with slow anguish wear away thy life,

The victim of a useless constancy.

I must not see thee wretched.

Maria. There are woes

Ill-barter’d for the garishness of joy!

If it be wretched with an untired eye 20

To watch those skiey tints, and this green ocean;

Or in the sultry hour beneath some rock,

My hair dishevell’d by the pleasant sea-breeze,

To shape sweet visions, and live o’er again

All past hours of delight; if it be wretched 25

To watch some bark, and fancy Albert there;

To go through each minutest circumstance

Of the bless’d meeting, and to frame adventures

Most terrible and strange, and hear him tell them:

(As once I knew a crazy Moorish maid, 30

Who dress’d her in her buried lover’s cloaths,

And o’er the smooth spring in the mountain cleft

Hung with her lute, and play’d the selfsame tune

He used to play, and listen’d to the shadow

Herself had made); if this be wretchedness, 35

And if indeed it be a wretched thing

To trick out mine own deathbed, and imagine

That I had died — died, just ere his return;

Then see him listening to my constancy;

And hover round, as he at midnight ever 40

Sits on my grave and gazes at the moon;

Or haply in some more fantastic mood

To be in Paradise, and with choice flowers

Build up a bower where he and I might dwell,

And there to wait his coming! O my sire! 45

My Albert’s sire! if this be wretchedness

That eats away the life, what were it, think you,

If in a most assur’d reality

He should return, and see a brother’s infant

Smile at him from my arms? [Clasping her forehead.

O what a thought! 50

‘Twas horrible! it pass’d my brain like lightning.

Velez. ‘Twere horrible, if but one doubt remain’d

The very week he promised his return.

Maria. Ah, what a busy joy was ours — to see him

After his three years’ travels! tho’ that absence 55

His still-expected, never-failing letters

Almost endear’d to me! Even then what tumult!

Velez. O power of youth to feed on pleasant thoughts

Spite of conviction! I am old and heartless!

Yes, I am old — I have no pleasant dreams — 60

Hectic and unrefresh’d with rest.

Maria (with great tenderness). My father!

Velez. Aye, ‘twas the morning thou didst try to cheer me

With a fond gaiety. My heart was bursting,

And yet I could not tell me, how my sleep

Was throng’d with swarthy faces, and I saw 65

The merchant-ship in which my son was captured —

Well, well, enough — captured in sight of land —

We might almost have seen it from our house-top!

Maria (abruptly). He did not perish there!

Velez (impatiently). Nay, nay — how aptly thou forgett’st a tale 70

Thou ne’er didst wish to learn — my brave Osorio

Saw them both founder in the storm that parted

Him and the pirate: both the vessels founder’d.

Gallant Osorio! [Pauses, then tenderly.

O belov’d Maria,

Would’st thou best prove thy faith to generous Albert 75

And most delight his spirit, go and make

His brother happy, make his agéd father

Sink to the grave with joy!

Maria. For mercy’s sake

Press me no more. I have no power to love him!

His proud forbidding eye, and his dark brow 80

Chill me, like dew-damps of the unwholesome night.

My love, a timorous and tender flower,

Closes beneath his touch.

Velez. You wrong him, maiden.

You wrong him, by my soul! Nor was it well

To character by such unkindly phrases 85

The stir and workings of that love for you

Which he has toil’d to smother. ‘Twas not well —

Nor is it grateful in you to forget

His wounds and perilous voyages, and how

With an heroic fearlessness of danger 90

He roamed the coast of Afric for your Albert.

It was not well — you have moved me even to tears.

Maria. O pardon me, my father! pardon me.

It was a foolish and ungrateful speech,

A most ungrateful speech! But I am hurried 95

Beyond myself, if I but dream of one

Who aims to rival Albert. Were we not

Born on one day, like twins of the same parent?

Nursed in one cradle? Pardon me, my father!

A six years’ absence is an heavy thing; 100

Yet still the hope survives ——

Velez (looking forwards). Hush — hush! Maria.

Maria. It is Francesco, our Inquisitor;

That busy man, gross, ignorant, and cruel!

Enter FRANCESCO and ALHADRA.

Francesco (to Velez). Where is your son, my lord? Oh! here he