Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

[CASIMIR enters the Cavern.

SCENE. — Chamber in CASIMIR’S Castle. Confederates discovered.

First Confederate. It cannot but succeed, friends. From this palace

E’en to the wood, our messengers are posted

With such short interspace, that fast as sound

Can travel to us, we shall learn the event! 320

Enter another Confederate.

What tidings from Temeswar?

Second Confederate. With one voice

Th’ assembled chieftains have deposed the tyrant:

He is proclaimed the public enemy,

And the protection of the law withdrawn.

First Confederate. Just doom for him, who governs without law! 325

Is it known on whom the sov’reignty will fall?

Second Confederate. Nothing is yet decided: but report

Points to Lord Casimir. The grateful memory

Of his renownéd father ——

Enter SAROLTA.

Hail to Sarolta!

Sarolta. Confederate friends! I bring to you a joy 330

Worthy your noble cause! Kiuprili lives,

And from his obscure exile, hath returned

To bless our country. More and greater tidings

Might I disclose; but that a woman’s voice

Would mar the wondrous tale. Wait we for him, 335

The partner of the glory — Raab Kiuprili;

For he alone is worthy to announce it.

[Shouts of ‘Kiuprili, Kiuprili,’ and ‘The Tyrant’s

fallen,’ without. Enter KIUPRILI, CASIMIR,

RUDOLPH, BATHORY, and Attendants.

Raab Kiuprili. Spare yet your joy, my friends! A higher waits you:

Behold, your Queen!

[Enter ZAPOLYA and ANDREAS royally attired, with

GLYCINE.

Confederate. Comes she from heaven to bless us?

Other Confederates. It is! it is!

Zapolya. Heaven’s work of grace is

full! 340

Kiuprili, thou art safe!

Raab Kiuprili. Royal Zapolya!

To the heavenly powers, pay we our duty first;

Who not alone preserved thee, but for thee

And for our country, the one precious branch

Of Andreas’ royal house. O countrymen, 345

Behold your King! And thank our country’s genius,

That the same means which have preserved our sovereign,

Have likewise reared him worthier of the throne

By virtue than by birth. The undoubted proofs

Pledged by his royal mother, and this old man, 350

(Whose name henceforth be dear to all Illyrians)

We haste to lay before the assembled council.

All. Hail, Andreas! Hail, Illyria’s rightful king!

Andreas. Supported thus, O friends! ‘twere cowardice

Unworthy of a royal birth, to shrink 355

From the appointed charge. Yet, while we wait

The awful sanction of convened Illyria,

In this brief while, O let me feel myself

The child, the friend, the debtor! — Heroic mother! —

But what can breath add to that sacred name? 360

Kiuprili! gift of Providence, to teach us

That loyalty is but the public form

Of the sublimest friendship, let my youth

Climb round thee, as the vine around its elm:

Thou my support and I thy faithful fruitage. 365

My heart is full, and these poor words express not,

They are but an art to check its over-swelling.

Bathory! shrink not from my filial arms!

Now, and from henceforth thou shalt not forbid me

To call thee father! And dare I forget 370

The powerful intercession of thy virtue,

Lady Sarolta? Still acknowledge me

Thy faithful soldier! — But what invocation

Shall my full soul address to thee, Glycine?

Thou sword that leap’dst forth from a bed of roses: 375

Thou falcon-hearted dove?

Zapolya. Hear that from me, son!

For ere she lived, her father saved thy life,

Thine, and thy fugitive mother’s!

Casimir. Chef Ragozzi!

O shame upon my head! I would have given her

To a base slave!

Zapolya. Heaven overruled thy purpose, 380

And sent an angel to thy house to guard her!

Thou precious bark! freighted with all our treasures!

The sports of tempests, and yet ne’er the victim,

How many may claim salvage in thee! Take her, son!

A queen that brings with her a richer dowry 385

Than orient kings can give!

Sarolta. A banquet waits! —

On this auspicious day, for some few hours

I claim to be your hostess. Scenes so awful

With flashing light, force wisdom on us all!

E’en women at the distaff hence may see, 390

That bad men may rebel, but ne’er be free;

May whisper, when the waves of faction foam,

None love their country, but who love their home:

For freedom can with those alone abide,

Who wear the golden chain, with honest pride, 395

Of love and duty, at their own fireside:

While mad ambition ever doth caress

Its own sure fate, in its own restlessness!

END OF ZAPOLYA.

[After 16] [They take hands, &c. 1817, 1828, 1829.

Casimir. Mark too, the edges of yon lurid mass!

Restless and vext, as if some angering hand,

With fitful, tetchy snatch, unrolled and pluck’d

The jetting ringlets of the vaporous fleece!

These are sure signs of conflict nigh at hand,

And elemental war!

1817-1851.

[Note. — The text of 1829, 1831 is inscribed in Notebook 20 (1808-1825).]

Neighs at the gate. [A volley of Trumpets.

1817, 1828, 1829.

[After 68: [Exit RUDOLPH and manet CASIMIR.

That but oppressed me hitherto, now scares me.

You will ken Bethlen?

Glycine. O at farthest distance,

Yea, oft where Light’s own courier-beam exhausted

Drops at the threshold, and forgets its message,

A something round me of a wider reach

Feels his approach, and trembles back to tell me.

MS. correction (in the margin of Zapolya 1817) inserted in text of P.

and D. W. 1877, iv. pp. 270-71.

[After 99] [ZAPOLYA, who had been gazing affectionately after GLYCINE,

starts at BATHORY’S voice. 1817, 1828, 1829.

[Before 128] Pestalutz (affecting to start). 1817, 1828, 1829.

[Before 134] Laska (pompously). 1817, 1828, 1829.

[Before 139] Laska (throwing down a bow and arrows). 1817, 1828, 1829.

These points are tipt with venom.

[Starts and sees GLYCINE without.

1817, 1828, 1829.

[After 141] [They run … GLYCINE, and she shrieks without: then

enter, &c. 1817, 1828, 1829.

The shriek came thence. [Clash of swords, and BETHLEN’S voice heard

from behind the scenes; GLYCINE enters

alarmed; then, as seeing LASKA’S bow

and arrows.

1817, 1828, 1829.

[After 146] [She seizes … following her. Lively and irregular

music, and Peasants with hunting spears, &c. 1817, 1828, 1829.]

[After 162] Re-enter, as the Huntsmen pass off, BATHORY, &c. 1817,

1828, 1829.

[Before 163] Glycine (leaning on Bethlen). 1817, 1828, 1829.

[Before 166] Bathory (to Bethlen exultingly). 1817, 1828, 1829.

[Linenote Before 181: Bethlen (hastily). 1817, 1828, 1829.

Bathory. Hail … my king! [Triumphantly.

1817, 1828, 1829.

Has scattered them! [Horns heard as from different places at a

distance.

1817, 1828, 1829.

[After 209] [Thunder again. 1817, 1828, 1829.

[After 211] [Pointing without to the body of PESTALUTZ. 1817, 1828,

1829.

[After 215] [Exeunt … GLYCINE, ANDREAS, having in haste dropt his

sword. Manet BATHORY. 1817, 1828, 1829.

1829.

I’ll drag it hither. [Exit BATHORY. After awhile several Hunters

cross the stage as scattered. Some time

after, enter KIUPRILI in his disguise,

fainting with fatigue, and as pursued.

1817, 1828, 1829.

Shall be my trust. [Then speaking as to ZAPOLYA in the Cavern.

Haste! … flee!

[He enters the Cavern, and then returns in alarm.

1817, 1828, 1829.