Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

MS. III.

Remorse.

Table of Contents

SCENE THE FIRST. — A hall of armory, with an altar in the part farthest

from the stage.

VELEZ, OSORIO, MARIA.

Maria. Lord Velez! you have ask’d my presence here,

And I submit; but (Heaven bear witness for me!)

My heart approves it not! ‘tis mockery!

[Here ALBERT enters in a sorcerer’s robe.

Maria (to Albert). Stranger! I mourn and blush to see you here

On such employments! With far other thoughts 5

I left you.

Osorio (aside). Ha! he has been tampering with her!

Albert. O high-soul’d maiden, and more dear to me

Than suits the stranger’s name, I swear to thee,

I will uncover all concealed things!

Doubt, but decide not!

Stand from off the altar. 10

[Here a strain of music is heard from behind the

scenes, from an instrument of glass or

steel — the harmonica or Celestina stop, or

Clagget’s metallic organ.

Albert. With no irreverent voice or uncouth charm

I call up the departed. Soul of Albert!

Hear our soft suit, and heed my milder spells:

So may the gates of Paradise unbarr’d

Cease thy swift toils, since haply thou art one 15

Of that innumerable company,

Who in broad circle, lovelier than the rainbow,

Girdle this round earth in a dizzy motion,

With noise too vast and constant to be heard —

Fitliest unheard! For, O ye numberless 20

And rapid travellers! what ear unstun’d,

What sense unmadden’d, might bear up against

The rushing of your congregated wings?

Even now your living wheel turns o’er my head!

Ye, as ye pass, toss high the desart sands, 25

That roar and whiten, like a burst of waters,

A sweet appearance, but a dread illusion,

To the parch’d caravan that roams by night.

And ye build up on the becalmed waves

That whirling pillar, which from earth to heaven 30

Stands vast, and moves in blackness. Ye too split

The ice-mount, and with fragments many and huge,

Tempest the new-thaw’d sea, whose sudden gulphs

Suck in, perchance, some Lapland wizard’s skiff.

Then round and round the whirlpool’s marge ye dance, 35

Till from the blue-swoln corse the soul toils out,

And joins your mighty army.

Soul of Albert!

Hear the mild spell and tempt no blacker charm.

By sighs unquiet and the sickly pang

Of an half dead yet still undying hope, 40

Pass visible before our mortal sense;

So shall the Church’s cleansing rites be thine,

Her knells and masses that redeem the dead.

THE SONG

(Sung behind the scenes, accompanied by the same

instrument as before.)

Hear, sweet spirit! hear the spell

Lest a blacker charm compel! 45

So shall the midnight breezes swell

With thy deep long-lingering knell.

And at evening evermore

In a chapel on the shore

Shall the chanters sad and saintly, 50

Yellow tapers burning faintly,

Doleful masses chant for thee,

Miserere, Domine!

Hark! the cadence dies away

On the quiet moonlight sea, 55

The boatmen rest their oars, and say,

Miserere, Domine! [A long pause.

Osorio. This was too melancholy, father!

Velez. Nay!

My Albert lov’d sad music from a child.

Once he was lost; and after weary search 60

We found him in an open place of the wood,

To which spot he had follow’d a blind boy

Who breathed into a pipe of sycamore

Some strangely-moving notes, and these, he said,

Were taught him in a dream; him we first saw 65

Stretch’d on the broad top of a sunny heath-bank;

And, lower down, poor Albert fast asleep,

His head upon the blind boy’s dog — it pleased me

To mark, how he had fasten’d round the pipe

A silver toy, his grandmother had given him. 70

Methinks I see him now, as he then look’d.

His infant dress was grown too short for him,

Yet still he wore it.

Albert (aside). My tears must not flow —

I must not clasp his knees, and cry, my father!

Osorio. The innocent obey nor charm nor spell. 75

My brother is in heaven. Thou sainted spirit

Burst on our sight, a passing visitant!

Once more to hear thy voice, once more to see thee,

O ‘twere a joy to me.

Albert (abruptly). A joy to thee!

What if thou heard’st him now? What if his spirit 80

Re-enter’d its cold corse, and came upon thee,

With many a stab from many a murderer’s poniard?

What if, his steadfast eye still beaming pity

And brother’s love, he turn’d his head aside,

Lest he should look at thee, and with one look 85

Hurl thee beyond all power of penitence?

Velez. These are unholy fancies!

Osorio (struggling with his feelings). Yes, my father!

He is in heaven!

Albert (still to Osorio). But what if this same brother

Had lived even so, that at his dying hour

The name of heaven would have convuls’d his face 90

More than the death-pang?

Maria. Idly-prating man!

He was most virtuous.

Albert (still to Osorio). What if his very virtues

Had pamper’d his swoln heart, and made him proud?

And what if pride had duped him into guilt,

Yet still he stalk’d, a self-created God, 95

Not very bold, but excellently cunning;

And one that at his mother’s looking-glass,

Would force his features to a frowning sternness?

Young lord! I tell thee, that there are such beings, —

Yea, and it gives fierce merriment to the damn’d, 100

To see these most proud men, that loathe mankind,

At every stir and buz of coward conscience,

Trick, cant, and lie, most whining hypocrites!

Away! away! Now let me hear more music. [Music as before.

Albert. The spell is mutter’d — come, thou wandering shape, 105

Who own’st no master in an eye of flesh,

Whate’er be this man’s doom, fair be it or foul,

If he be dead, come quick, and bring with thee

That which he grasp’d in death; and if he lives,

Some token of his obscure perilous life. 110

[The whole orchestra crashes into one chorus.

Wandering demon! hear the spell

Lest a blacker charm compel!

[A thunder-clap. The incense on the altar takes

fire suddenly.

Maria. This is some trick — I know, it is a trick.

Yet my weak fancy, and these bodily creepings,

Would fain give substance to the shadow.

Velez (advancing to the altar). Hah! 115

A picture!

Maria. O God! my picture?

Albert (gazing at Maria with wild impatient distressfulness).

Pale — pale — deadly pale!

Maria. He grasp’d it when he died.

[She swoons. ALBERT rushes to her and supports her.

Albert. My love! my wife!

Pale — pale, and cold! My love! my wife! Maria!

[VELEZ is at the altar. OSORIO remains near him in a

state of stupor.

Osorio (rousing himself). Where am I? ‘Twas a lazy chilliness. 120

Velez (takes and conceals the picture in his robe). This way, my

son! She must not see this picture.

Go, call the attendants! Life will soon ebb back!

[VELEZ and OSORIO leave the stage.

Albert. Her pulse doth flutter. Maria! my Maria!

Maria (recovering — looks round). I heard a voice — but often in

my dreams,

I hear that voice, and wake; and try, and try, 125

To hear it waking — but I never could!

And ‘tis so now — even so! Well, he is dead,

Murder’d perhaps! and I am faint, and feel

As if it were no painful thing to die!

Albert (eagerly). Believe it not, sweet maid! believe it not, 130

Beloved woman! ‘Twas a low imposture