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Read Ebook: The Purgatory of St. Patrick by Calder N De La Barca Pedro MacCarthy Denis Florence Translator
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Ebook has 218 lines and 26393 words, and 5 pages
POLONIA. How could a dream, my lord, provoke you so?
PATRICK, and then LUIS ENIUS.
PATRICK . Ah me!
LEOGAIRE. Some mournful voice.
KING. What's this?
CAPTAIN. The form, As of a man who has escaped the storm, Swims yonder to the land.
LESBIA. And strives to give a life-sustaining hand Unto another wretch, when he Appeared about to sink in death's last agony.
POLONIA. Poor traveller from afar, Whom evil fate and thy malignant star On this far shore have cast, Let my voice guide thee, if amid the blast My accents thou canst hear; since it is only To rouse thy courage that I speak to thee. Come!
KING. Silence, miserable Christian, For my very soul seems fastened On thy words, compelling me, How I know not, to regard thee With strange reverence and fear, Thinking thou must be that vassal -- That poor slave whom in my dream I beheld outbreathing flashes, Saw outflashing living fire, In whose flame, so lithe and lambent, My Polonia and my Lesbia Like poor moths were burned to ashes.
PATRICK. Know, the flame that from my mouth Issued, is the true Evangel, Is the doctrine of the Gospel:-- 'Tis the word which I'm commanded Unto thee to preach, O King! To thy subjects and thy vassals, To thy daughters, who shall be Christians through its means.
KING. Cease, fasten Thy presumptuous lips, vile Christian, For thy words insult and stab me.
LESBIA. Stay!
POLONIA. And wilt thou in thy pity Try to save him from his anger?
LESBIA. Yes.
POLONIA. Forbear, and let him die.
LESBIA. Thus to die by a king's hands here Were unjust.
POLONIA. If this second Joseph then, Like the first one, would unravel, Would interpret the king's dreams, Do not dread the result, my father; For if my being seen to burn Indicates in any manner I should ever be a Christian, As impossible a marvel Such would be, as if, being dead, I could rise and live thereafter. But in order that your mind May be turned from such just anger, Let us hear now who this other Stranger is.
"They knelt: on their heads the wave he poured Thrice, in the name of the Triune Lord: And their foreheads he signed with the Sign adored. On Fedelm the 'Red Rose,' on Ethna 'The Fair,' God's dew shone bright in that morning air." - AUBREY DE VERE'S "Legends of St. Patrick".
PATRICK and LUIS.
PATRICK. Luis, though a low position Mine is here, and I observe thee Raised to fortune's highest summit, Yet I feel more grief than envy At thy rise. Thou art a Christian; Show thyself one now in earnest.
LUIS. Patrick, let me now enjoy The first favours fate has sent me After so much sad misfortune.
PATRICK. One word, then , I ask of thee.
LUIS. What is that?
PATRICK. Upon this earth here, Once again, alive or dead, That we two shall meet together.
LUIS. Such a word dost ask me?
PATRICK. Yes.
LUIS. Then I give it.
PATRICK. I accept it. . Eh, sirs! what is this I see? Some one here my wife's embracing. What's to do? I burn, I burst. Kill her? Yes. 'Twas fortune sent me. One thing only doth prevent me, Which is, she might kill me first.
PHILIP. For your hospitable care, Beauteous mountaineer, I would That this ring's bright diamond could Far outshine a star of air.
LUCY. Think me not a woman who Lives intent her gain to make; But I take it for your sake.
PAUL. . As he's gone, I'll louder speak.-- This time, Lucy mine, I've caught you, So a present I have brought you: See this window-bar, 'twill wreak My revenge.
LUCY. Oh, how malicious! Bless me, grumbler, what grimaces!
PAUL. Then to witness two embraces Does not look at all suspicious?-- Was it malice, then, in me, Not plain seeing?
LUCY. Malice merely: For a husband, how so nearly He may pry, should never see More than half his wife doth do.
PAUL. Well, with that I'm quite content, To that condition I assent, And since twice embraced by you Has that rascal soldier been, Whom the sea spewed out in spite, I will juggle with my sight, And pretend but once to have seen; And as I for two embraces Meant to give a hundred blows, I but fifty now propose For one half of my disgraces. I have totted up the score; You yourself the sentence gave; Yes, by God I swear, you'll have Fifty strokes and not one more.
LUCY. I've admitted far too much. For a husband it would be Quite preposterous; he should see But the quarter.
PAUL. Even as such I acknowledge the appeal. Patience, and your back prepare, For the now admitted share, Five-and-twenty blows you'll feel.
LUCY. No, not so; you're still astray.
PAUL. Then say what?
LUCY. Between us two, You're to trust not what you view, But what I am pleased to say.
PAUL. Better far, I think, 'twould be, Daughter of the devil, that you Held the stick and used it too, With it well belabouring me; Is't agreed what I propose? Yes; then let us both change places. Give to him the two embraces, And to me the hundred blows.
. Has the peasant gone, I wonder?
PAUL. At the nick of time you're here, So, Sir Soldier, lend an ear. Obligation I am under For the favours you have meant To bestow so liberally On my cot, my wife, and me; And although I'm well content With you, yet as you're progressing Day by day and getting stronger, It is best you stay no longer. Take the road, then, with God's blessing, Leave my house, for it would be Sad in it to raise my hand, Leaving you dead flesh on land Who wert living fish at sea.
PHILIP. The suspicion that you show Is quite groundless, do not doubt it.
PAUL. Zounds! with reason or without it, Am I married, sir, or no?
LEOGAIRE, an Old Peasant, and PATRICK.
LEOGAIRE. So 'tis ordered, and that he Serving here from day to day, In the open field should stay.
OLD MAN. Yes; I say it so shall be.
LEOGAIRE. But who's this? O happiness! Since 'tis Philip's form I greet. Mighty lord, I kiss thy feet.
PAUL. Mighty lord does he call him?
LUCY. Yes. Now lay on the blows you owe. Now, friend Paul, the moment charms.
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