Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

My children! — Isidore’s children! — Son of Valdez,

This hath new strung mine arm. Thou coward tyrant!

To stupify a woman’s heart with anguish

Till she forgot — even that she was a mother!

[She fixes her eye on the earth. Then drop in one after

another, from different parts of the stage, a

considerable number of Morescoes, all in Moorish

garments and Moorish armour. They form a circle at

a distance round ALHADRA, and remain silent till

NAOMI enters.

Naomi. Woman! May Alla and the Prophet bless thee! 25

We have obeyed thy call. Where is our chief?

And why didst thou enjoin these Moorish garments?

Alhadra (raising her eyes, and looking round on the circle).

Warriors of Mahomet! faithful in the battle!

My countrymen! Come ye prepared to work

An honourable deed? And would ye work it 30

In the slave’s garb? Curse on those Christian robes!

They are spell-blasted: and whoever wears them,

His arm shrinks wither’d, his heart melts away,

And his bones soften.

Naomi. Where is Isidore?

Alhadra. This night I went from forth my house, and left 35

His children all asleep: and he was living!

And I return’d and found them still asleep,

But he had perished ——

All Morescoes. Perished?

Alhadra. He had perished!

Sleep on, poor babes! not one of you doth know

That he is fatherless — a desolate orphan! 40

Why should we wake them? Can an infant’s arm

Revenge his murder?

One Moresco (to another). Did she say his murder?

Naomi. Murder? Not murdered?

Alhadra. Murdered by a Christian!

[They all at once draw their sabres.

Alhadra (to Naomi, who advances from the circle). Brother of

Zagri! fling away thy sword;

This is thy chieftain’s! [He steps forward to take it.

Dost thou dare receive it? 45

For I have sworn by Alla and the Prophet,

No tear shall dim these eyes, this woman’s heart

Shall heave no groan, till I have seen that sword

Wet with the lifeblood of the son of Valdez! [A pause.

Ordonio was your chieftain’s murderer! 50

Naomi. He dies, by Alla!

All (kneeling). By Alla!

Alhadra. This night your chieftain armed himself,

And hurried from me. But I followed him

At distance, till I saw him enter — there!

Naomi. The cavern?

Alhadra. Yes, the mouth of yonder cavern 55

After a while I saw the son of Valdez

Rush by with flaring torch; he likewise entered.

There was another and a longer pause;

And once, methought I heard the clash of swords!

And soon the son of Valdez reappeared: 60

He flung his torch towards the moon in sport,

And seemed as he were mirthful! I stood listening,

Impatient for the footsteps of my husband!

Naomi. Thou called’st him?

Alhadra. I crept into the cavern —

‘Twas dark and very silent.

What said’st thou? 65

No! no! I did not dare call, Isidore,

Lest I should hear no answer! A brief while,

Belike, I lost all thought and memory

Of that for which I came! After that pause,

O Heaven! I heard a groan, and followed it: 70

And yet another groan, which guided me

Into a strange recess — and there was light,

A hideous light! his torch lay on the ground;

Its flame burnt dimly o’er a chasm’s brink:

I spake; and whilst I spake, a feeble groan 75

Came from that chasm! it was his last! his death-groan!

Naomi. Comfort her, Alla!

Alhadra. I stood in unimaginable trance

And agony that cannot be remembered,

Listening with horrid hope to hear a groan! 80

But I had heard his last: my husband’s death-groan!

Naomi. Haste! let us onward.

Alhadra. I looked far down the pit —

My sight was bounded by a jutting fragment:

And it was stained with blood. Then first I shrieked,

My eyeballs burnt, my brain grew hot as fire, 85

And all the hanging drops of the wet roof

Turned into blood — I saw them turn to blood!

And I was leaping wildly down the chasm,

When on the farther brink I saw his sword,

And it said, Vengeance! — Curses on my tongue! 90

The moon hath moved in Heaven, and I am here,

And he hath not had vengeance! Isidore!

Spirit of Isidore! thy murderer lives!

Away! away!

All. Away! away!

[She rushes off, all following her.

[Before 25]

The mountains by moonlight. ALHADRA alone in a Moorish dress; her eye

fixed on the earth. Then drop in one after another, from different parts

of the stage, a considerable number of Morescoes, all in Moorish

garments. They form a circle at a distance round ALHADRA.

A Moresco, NAOMI, advances from out the circle.

Naomi. Woman! may Alla, &c.

Edition 1.

Stage-direction after 24 [She fixes … and remain silent till the

Second in Command, NAOMI, enters, distinguished by his dress and armour,

and by the silent obeisance paid to him on his entrance by the other

Moors. Editions 2, 3, 1829.

[Before 28] Alhadra (lifting up eyes, and looking, &c.). Edition 1.

‘Twas dark and very silent. [Then wildly.

Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

[After 77] All. Haste, let us seek the murderer. Edition 1.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

A Dungeon.

ALVAR (alone) rises slowly from a bed of reeds.

Alvar. And this place my forefathers made for man!

This is the process of our love and wisdom

To each poor brother who offends against us —

Most innocent, perhaps — and what if guilty?

Is this the only cure? Merciful God! 5

Each pore and natural outlet shrivelled up

By ignorance and parching poverty,

His energies roll back upon his heart,

And stagnate and corrupt, till, chang’d to poison,

They break out on him, like a loathsome plague-spot! 10

Then we call in our pampered mountebanks:

And this is their best cure! uncomforted

And friendless solitude, groaning and tears,

And savage faces, at the clanking hour,

Seen through the steam and vapours of his dungeon 15

By the lamp’s dismal twilight! So he lies

Circled with evil, till his very soul

Unmoulds its essence, hopelessly deformed

By sights of evermore deformity!

With other ministrations thou, O Nature! 20

Healest thy wandering and distempered child:

Thou pourest on him thy soft influences,

Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets;

Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters!

Till he relent, and can no more endure 25

To be a jarring and a dissonant thing

Amid this general dance and minstrelsy;

But, bursting into tears, wins back his way,

His angry spirit healed and harmonized

By the benignant touch of love and beauty. 30

I am chill and weary! Yon rude bench of stone,

In that dark angle, the sole resting-place!

But the self-approving mind is its own light

And life’s best warmth still radiates from the heart

Where love sits brooding, and an honest purpose. 35

[Retires out of sight.

Enter TERESA with a taper.

Teresa. It has chilled my very life —— my own voice scares me;

Yet when I hear it not I seem to lose

The substance of my being — my strongest grasp

Sends inwards but weak witness that I am.

I seek to cheat the echo. — How the half sounds 40

Blend with this strangled light! Is he not here —

[Looking round.

O for one human face here — but to see

One human face here to sustain me. — Courage!

It is but my own fear! The life within me,