Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

To a dark trick. That worst bad man shall find

A picture, which will wake the hell within him,

And rouse a fiery whirlwind in his conscience.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

A Hall of Armory, with an Altar at the back of the Stage. Soft Music

from an instrument of Glass or Steel.

VALDEZ, ORDONIO, and ALVAR in a Sorcerer’s robe, are discovered.

Ordonio. This was too melancholy, Father.

Valdez. Nay,

My Alvar lov’d sad music from a child.

Once he was lost; and after weary search

We found him in an open place in the wood.

To which spot he had followed a blind boy, 5

Who breath’d into a pipe of sycamore

Some strangely moving notes: and these, he said,

Were taught him in a dream. Him we first saw

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

And lower down poor Alvar, fast asleep, 10

His head upon the blind boy’s dog. It pleas’d me

To mark how he had fasten’d round the pipe

A silver toy his grandam had late given him.

Methinks I see him now as he then look’d —

Even so! — He had outgrown his infant dress, 15

Yet still he wore it.

Alvar (aside). My tears must not flow!

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

Enter TERESA and Attendants.

Teresa. Lord Valdez, you have asked my presence here,

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

My heart approves it not! ‘tis mockery. 20

Ordonio. Believe you then no preternatural influence:

Believe you not that spirits throng around us?

Teresa. Say rather that I have imagined it

A possible thing: and it has sooth’d my soul

As other fancies have; but ne’er seduced me 25

To traffic with the black and frenzied hope

That the dead hear the voice of witch or wizard. [To ALVAR.

Stranger, I mourn and blush to see you here,

On such employment! With far other thoughts

I left you. 30

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

Alvar. O high-soul’d Maiden! and more dear to me

Than suits the stranger’s name! —

I swear to thee

I will uncover all concealéd guilt.

Doubt, but decide not! Stand ye from the altar. 35

[Here a strain of music is heard from behind the scene.

Alvar. With no irreverent voice or uncouth charm

I call up the departed!

Soul of Alvar!

Hear our soft suit, and heed my milder spell:

So may the gates of Paradise, unbarr’d,

Cease thy swift toils! Since haply thou art one 40

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 oh, ye numberless, 45

And rapid travellers! what ear unstunn’d,

What sense unmadden’d, might bear up against

The rushing of your congregated wings? [Music.

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

Ye, as ye pass, toss high the desart sands, 50

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 upbuild on the becalmed waves

That whirling pillar, which from earth to heaven 55

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 gulfs

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

Then round and round the whirlpool’s marge ye dance, 60

Till from the blue swoln corse the soul toils out,

And joins your mighty army.

[Here behind the scenes a voice sings the three words,

‘Hear, Sweet Spirit.’

Soul of Alvar!

Hear the mild spell, and tempt no blacker charm!

By sighs unquiet, and the sickly pang

Of a half-dead, yet still undying hope, 65

Pass visible before our mortal sense!

So shall the Church’s cleansing rites be thine,

Her knells and masses that redeem the dead!

SONG

Behind the Scenes, accompanied by the same Instrument as

before.

Hear, sweet spirit, hear the spell,

Lest a blacker charm compel! 70

So shall the midnight breezes swell

With thy deep long-lingering knell.

And at evening evermore,

In a chapel on the shore,

Shall the chaunter, sad and saintly, 75

Yellow tapers burning faintly,

Doleful masses chaunt for thee,

Miserere Domine!

Hark! the cadence dies away

On the quiet moonlight sea: 80

The boatmen rest their oars and say,

Miserere Domine! [A long pause.

Ordonio. The innocent obey nor charm nor spell!

My brother is in heaven. Thou sainted spirit,

Burst on our sight, a passing visitant! 85

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

O ‘twere a joy to me!

Alvar. A joy to thee!

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

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

With many a stab from many a murderer’s poniard? 90

What if (his stedfast eye still beaming pity

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

Lest he should look at thee, and with one look

Hurl thee beyond all power of penitence?

Valdez. These are unholy fancies!

Ordonio. Yes, my father, 95

He is in Heaven!

Alvar (still to Ordonio). But what if he had a brother,

Who had lived even so, that at his dying hour,

The name of Heaven would have convulsed his face,

More than the death-pang?

Valdez. Idly prating man!

Thou hast guess’d ill: Don Alvar’s only brother 100

Stands here before thee — a father’s blessing on him!

He is most virtuous.

Alvar (still to Ordonio). What, if his very virtues

Had pampered his swoln heart and made him proud?

And what if pride had duped him into guilt?

Yet still he stalked a self-created god, 105

Not very bold, but exquisitely 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, 110

To see these most proud men, that loath mankind,

At every stir and buzz of coward conscience,

Trick, cant, and lie, most whining hypocrites!

Away, away! Now let me hear more music. [Music again.

Teresa. ‘Tis strange, I tremble at my own conjectures! 115

But whatsoe’er it mean, I dare no longer

Be present at these lawless mysteries,

This dark provoking of the hidden Powers!

Already I affront — if not high Heaven —

Yet Alvar’s memory! — Hark! I make appeal 120

Against the unholy rite, and hasten hence

To bend before a lawful shrine, and seek

That voice which whispers, when the still heart listens,

Comfort and faithful hope! Let us retire.

Alvar (to Teresa). O full of faith and guileless love, thy

Spirit 125

Still prompts thee wisely. Let the pangs of guilt

Surprise the guilty: thou art innocent!

[Exeunt TERESA and Attendant. Music as before.

The spell is mutter’d — Come, thou wandering shape,

Who own’st no master in a human eye,

Whate’er be this man’s doom, fair be it, or foul, 130

If he be dead, O come! and bring with thee

That which he grasp’d in death! But if he live,

Some token of his obscure perilous life.

[The whole Music dashes into a Chorus.

CHORUS

Wandering demons, hear the spell!

Lest a blacker charm compel — 135

[The incense on the altar takes fire suddenly, and an

illuminated picture of ALVAR’S assassination is