Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Hence! leave my presence! and you, Laska! mark me!

Those rioters are no longer of my household!

If we but shake a dewdrop from a rose 150

In vain would we replace it, and as vainly

Restore the tear of wounded modesty

To a maiden’s eye familiarized to licence. —

But these men, Laska —

Laska (aside). Yes, now ‘tis coming.

Sarolta. Brutal aggressors first, then baffled dastards, 155

That they have sought to piece out their revenge

With a tale of words lured from the lips of anger

Stamps them most dangerous; and till I want

Fit means for wicked ends, we shall not need

Their services. Discharge them! You, Bathory! 160

Are henceforth of my household! I shall place you

Near my own person. When your son returns,

Present him to us!

Old Bathory. Ha! what strangers here!Your goodness, lady — and it came so sudden — 165

I can not — must not — let you be deceived.

I have yet another tale, but — [Then to SAROLTA aside.

not for all ears!

Sarolta. I oft have passed your cottage, and still praised

Its beauty, and that trim orchard-plot, whose blossoms

The gusts of April showered aslant its thatch. 170

Come, you shall show it me! And, while you bid it

Farewell, be not ashamed that I should witness

The oil of gladness glittering on the water

Of an ebbing grief. [BATHORY shows her into his cottage.

Laska (alone). Vexation! baffled! school’d!

Ho! Laska! wake! why? what can all this mean? 175

She sent away that cockatrice in anger!

Oh the false witch! It is too plain, she loves him.

And now, the old man near my lady’s person,

She’ll see this Bethlen hourly!

[LASKA flings himself into the seat. GLYCINE peeps in.

Glycine. Laska! Laska!

Is my lady gone?

Laska. Gone.

Glycine. Have you yet seen him? 180

Is he returned? [LASKA starts up.

Has the seat stung you, Laska?

Laska. No, serpent! no; ‘tis you that sting me; you!

What! you would cling to him again?

Glycine. Whom?

Laska. Bethlen! Bethlen!

Yes; gaze as if your very eyes embraced him! 185

Ha! you forget the scene of yesterday!

Mute ere he came, but then — Out on your screams,

And your pretended fears!

Glycine. Your fears, at least,

Were real, Laska! or your trembling limbs

And white cheeks played the hypocrites most vilely! 190

Laska. I fear! whom? what?

Glycine. I know what I should fear,

Were I in Laska’s place.

Laska. What?

Glycine. My own conscience,

For having fed my jealousy and envy

With a plot, made out of other men’s revenges,

Against a brave and innocent young man’s life! 195

Yet, yet, pray tell me!

Laska. You will know too soon.

Glycine. Would I could find my lady! though she chid me —

Yet this suspense — [Going.

Laska. Stop! stop! one question only —

I am quite calm —

Glycine. Ay, as the old song says,

Calm as a tiger, valiant as a dove. 200

Nay now, I have marred the verse: well! this one question —

Laska. Are you not bound to me by your own promise?

And is it not as plain —

Glycine. Halt! that’s two questions.

Laska. Pshaw! Is it not as plain as impudence,

That you’re in love with this young swaggering beggar, 205

Bethlen Bathory? When he was accused,

Why pressed you forward? Why did you defend him?

Glycine. Question meet question: that’s a woman’s privilege,

Why, Laska, did you urge Lord Casimir

To make my lady force that promise from me? 210

Laska. So then, you say, Lady Sarolta, forced you?

Glycine. Could I look up to her dear countenance,

And say her nay? As far back as I wot of

All her commands were gracious, sweet requests.

How could it be then, but that her requests 215

Must needs have sounded to me as commands?

And as for love, had I a score of loves,

I’d keep them all for my dear, kind, good mistress.

Laska. Not one for Bethlen?

Glycine. Oh! that’s a different thing.

To be sure he’s brave, and handsome, and so pious 220

To his good old father. But for loving him —

Nay, there, indeed you are mistaken, Laska!

Poor youth! I rather think I grieve for him;

For I sigh so deeply when I think of him!

And if I see him, the tears come in my eyes, 225

And my heart beats; and all because I dreamt

That the war-wolf had gored him as he hunted

In the haunted forest!

Laska. You dare own all this?

Your lady will not warrant promise-breach.

Mine, pampered Miss! you shall be; and I’ll make you 230

Grieve for him with a vengeance. Odd’s, my fingers

Tingle already! [Makes threatening signs.

Glycine (aside). Ha! Bethlen coming this way!

[GLYCINE then cries out.

Oh, save me! save me! Pray don’t kill me, Laska!

Enter BETHLEN in a Hunting Dress.

Bethlen. What, beat a woman!

Laska (to Glycine). O you cockatrice!

Bethlen. Unmanly dastard, hold!

Laska. Do you chance to know 235

Who — I — am, Sir? — (‘Sdeath! how black he looks!)

Bethlen. I have started many strange beasts in my time,

But none less like a man, than this before me

That lifts his hand against a timid female.

Laska. Bold youth! she’s mine.

Glycine. No, not my master yet, 240

But only is to be; and all, because

Two years ago my lady asked me, and

I promised her, not him; and if she’ll let me,

I’ll hate you, my lord’s steward.

Bethlen. Hush, Glycine!

Glycine. Yes, I do, Bethlen; for he just now brought 245

False witnesses to swear away your life:

Your life, and old Bathory’s too.

Bethlen. Bathory’s!

Where is my father? Answer, or —— Ha! gone!

[LASKA during this time retires from the Stage.

Glycine. Oh, heed not him! I saw you pressing onward,

And did but feign alarm. Dear gallant youth, 250

It is your life they seek!

Bethlen. My life?

Glycine. Alas,

Lady Sarolta even —

Bethlen. She does not know me!

Glycine. Oh that she did! she could not then have spoken

With such stern countenance. But though she spurn me,

I will kneel, Bethlen —

Bethlen. Not for me, Glycine! 255

What have I done? or whom have I offended?

Glycine. Rash words, ‘tis said, and treasonous of the king.

[BETHLEN mutters to himself.

Glycine (aside). So looks the statue, in our hall, o’ the god,

The shaft just flown that killed the serpent!

Bethlen. King!

Glycine. Ah, often have I wished you were a king. 260

You would protect the helpless every where,

As you did us. And I, too, should not then

Grieve for you, Bethlen, as I do; nor have

The tears come in my eyes; nor dream bad dreams

That you were killed in the forest; and then Laska 265

Would have no right to rail at me, nor say

(Yes, the base man, he says,) that I — I love you.

Bethlen. Pretty Glycine! wert thou not betrothed —

But in good truth I know not what I speak.

This luckless morning I have been so haunted 270

With my own fancies, starting up like omens,

That I feel like one, who waking from a dream

Both asks and answers wildly. — But Bathory?

Glycine. Hist! ‘tis my lady’s step! She must not see you!

[BETHLEN retires.

Enter from the Cottage SAROLTA and BATHORY.

Sarolta. Go, seek your son! I need not add, be speedy — 275

You here, Glycine? [Exit BATHORY.

Glycine. Pardon, pardon, Madam!

If you but saw the old man’s son, you would not,

You could not have him harmed.