Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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SCENE THE FIRST. — A cavern, dark except where a gleam of moonlight is

seen on one side of the further end of it, supposed to be cast on it

from a cranny [crevice Remorse] in a part of the cavern out of

sight.

[FERDINAND alone, an extinguished torch in his hand.

Ferdinand. Drip! drip! drip! drip! — in such a place as this

It has nothing else to do but drip! drip! drip!

I wish it had not dripp’d upon my torch.

Faith ‘twas a moving letter — very moving!

His life in danger — no place safe but this. 5

‘Twas his turn now to talk of gratitude!

And yet — but no! there can’t be such a villain.

It cannot be!

Thanks to that little cranny

Which lets the moonlight in! I’ll go and sit by it.

To peep at a tree, or see a he-goat’s beard, 10

Or hear a cow or two breathe loud in their sleep,

‘Twere better than this dreary noise of water-drops!

[He goes out of sight, opposite to the patch of

moonlight, [and returns. Remorse]

returns after a minute’s elapse in an

ecstasy of fear.

A hellish pit! O God—’tis like my night-mair!

I was just in! — and those damn’d fingers of ice

Which clutch’d my hair up! Ha! what’s that? it moved! 15

[FERDINAND stands [motionless MS. III erased]

staring at another recess in the cavern. In

the mean time OSORIO enters with a torch and

hollas to him [halloes to ISIDORE Remorse].

Ferdinand. I swear, I saw a something moving there!

The moonshine came and went, like a flash of lightning.

I swear, I saw it move!

[OSORIO goes into the recess, then returns, and with

great scorn.

Osorio. A jutting clay-stone

Drips on the long lank weed that grows beneath;

And the weed nods and drips.

Ferdinand (forcing a faint laugh). A joke to laugh at! 20

It was not that which frighten’d me, my lord!

Osorio. What frighten’d you?

Ferdinand. You see that little cranny?

But first permit me,

[Lights his torch at OSORIO’S, and while lighting it.

(A lighted torch in the hand

Is no unpleasant object here — one’s breath

Floats round the flame, and makes as many colours 25

As the thin clouds that travel near the moon.)

You see that cranny there?

Osorio. Well, what of that?

Ferdinand. I walk’d up to it, meaning to sit there.

When I had reach’d it within twenty paces ——

[FERDINAND starts as if he felt the terror over again.

Merciful Heaven! Do go, my lord! and look. 30

[OSORIO goes and returns.

Osorio. It must have shot some pleasant feelings thro’ you?

Ferdinand. If every atom of a dead man’s flesh

Should move, each one with a particular life,

Yet all as cold as ever—’twas just so!

Or if it drizzled needle-points of frost 35

Upon a feverish head made suddenly bald —

Osorio (interrupting him). Why, Ferdinand! I blush for thy

cowardice.

It would have startled any man, I grant thee.

But such a panic.

Ferdinand. When a boy, my lord!

I could have sat whole hours beside that chasm, 40

Push’d in huge stones and heard them thump and rattle

Against its horrid sides; and hung my head

Low down, and listen’d till the heavy fragments

Sunk, with faint crash, in that still groaning well,

Which never thirsty pilgrim blest, which never 45

A living thing came near; unless, perchance,

Some blind-worm battens on the ropy mould,

Close at its edge.

Osorio. Art thou more coward now?

Ferdinand. Call him that fears his fellow-men a coward.

I fear not man. But this inhuman cavern 50

It were too bad a prison-house for goblins.

Besides (you’ll laugh, my lord!) but true it is,

My last night’s sleep was very sorely haunted

By what had pass’d between us in the morning.

I saw you in a thousand hideous ways, 55

And doz’d and started, doz’d again and started.

I do entreat your lordship to believe me,

In my last dream ——

Osorio. Well?

Ferdinand. I was in the act

Of falling down that chasm, when Alhadra

Waked me. She heard my heart beat!

Osorio. Strange enough! 60

Had you been here before?

Ferdinand. Never, my lord!

But my eyes do not see it now more clearly

Than in my dream I saw that very chasm.

[OSORIO stands in a deep study — then, after a pause.

Osorio. There is no reason why it should be so.

And yet it is.

Ferdinand. What is, my lord?

Osorio. Unpleasant 65

To kill a man!

Ferdinand. Except in self-defence.

Osorio. Why that’s my case: and yet ‘tis still unpleasant.

At least I find it so! But you, perhaps,

Have stronger nerves?

Ferdinand. Something doth trouble you.

How can I serve you? By the life you gave me, 70

By all that makes that life of value to me,

My wife, my babes, my honour, I swear to you,

Name it, and I will toil to do the thing,

If it be innocent! But this, my lord!

Is not a place where you could perpetrate, 75

No, nor propose a wicked thing. The darkness

(When ten yards off, we know, ‘tis chearful moonlight)

Collects the guilt and crowds it round the heart.

It must be innocent.

Osorio. Thyself be judge.

[OSORIO walks round the cavern — then looking round it.

One of our family knew this place well. 80

Ferdinand. Who? when? my lord.

Osorio. What boots it who or when?

Hang up the torch. I’ll tell his tale to thee.

[They hang [up] their torches in some shelf of

[on some ridge in Remorse] the cavern.

Osorio. He was a man different from other men,

And he despised them, yet revered himself.

Ferdinand. What? he was mad?

Osorio. All men seem’d mad to him, 85

Their actions noisome folly, and their talk —

A goose’s gabble was more musical.

Nature had made him for some other planet,

And press’d his soul into a human shape

By accident or malice. In this world 90

He found no fit companion!

Ferdinand. Ah, poor wretch!

Madmen are mostly proud.

Osorio. He walk’d alone,

And phantasies, unsought for, troubled him.

Something within would still be shadowing out

All possibilities, and with these shadows 95

His mind held dalliance. Once, as so it happen’d,

A fancy cross’d him wilder than the rest:

To this in moody murmur, and low voice,

He yielded utterance as some talk in sleep.

The man who heard him ——

Why didst thou look round? 100

Ferdinand. I have a prattler three years old, my lord!

In truth he is my darling. As I went

From forth my door, he made a moan in sleep —

But I am talking idly — pray go on!

And what did this man?

Osorio. With his human hand 105

He gave a being and reality

To that wild fancy of a possible thing.

Well it was done. [Then very wildly.

Why babblest thou of guilt?

The deed was done, and it pass’d fairly off.

And he, whose tale I tell thee — dost thou listen? 110

Ferdinand. I would, my lord, you were by my fireside!

I’d listen to you with an eager eye,

Tho’ you began this cloudy tale at midnight.

But I do listen — pray proceed, my lord!

Osorio. Where was I?

Ferdinand. He of whom you tell the tale — 115

Osorio. Surveying all things with a quiet scorn

Tamed himself down to living purposes,

The occupations and the semblances

Of ordinary men — and such he seem’d.

But that some over-ready agent — he —— 120