Count Alarcos | Page 2

PAGE. I were a sorry messenger to tell My mission to the first
who asks its aim.
I:1:19 2ND COURT. The Count Alarcos is my friend and chief.
I:1:20 PAGE. Then better reason I should trusty be, For you can be a
witness to my trust.
I:1:21 1ST COURT. A forward youth!
I:1:22 2ND COURT. A page is ever pert
I:1:23 PAGE. Ay! ever pert is youth that baffles age.
[Exit PAGE.]
I:1:24 1ST COURT. The Count is married?
I:1:25 2ND COURT. To a beauteous lady; And blessed with a fair race.
A happy man Indeed is Count Alarcos.
[A trumpet sounds.]
I:1:26 1ST COURT. Prithee, see; Passes he now?
I:1:27 2ND COURT. Long since. Yon banner tells The Count Sidonia.
Let us on, and view The passage of his pomp. His Moorish steeds,
They say, are very choice.
[Exeunt Two Courtiers.]

SCENE 2.
A Chamber in the Palace of Alarcos. The COUNTESS seated and
working at her tapestry; the COUNT pacing the Chamber.
I:2:1 COUN. You are disturbed, Alarcos?
I:2:2 ALAR. 'Tis the stir And tumult of this morn. I am not used To
Courts.
I:2:3 COUN. I know not why, it is a name That makes me tremble.
I:2:4 ALAR. Tremble, Florimonde, Why should you tremble?
I:2:5 COUN. Sooth I cannot say. Methinks the Court but little suits my
kind; I love our quiet home.
I:2:6 ALAR. This is our home,
I:2:7 COUN. When you are here.
I:2:8 ALAR. I will be always here.
I:2:9 COUN. Thou canst not, sweet Alarcos. Happy hours, When we
were parted but to hear thy horn Sound in our native woods!
I:2:10 ALAR. Why, this is humour! We're courtiers now; and we must

smile and smirk.
I:2:11 COUN. Methinks your tongue is gayer than your glance. The
King, I hope, was gracious?
I:2:12 ALAR. Were he not, My frown's as prompt as his. He was most
gracious.
I:2:13 COUN. Something has chafed thee?
I:2:14 ALAR. What should chafe me, child, And when should hearts be
light, if mine be dull? Is not mine exile over? Is it nought To breathe in
the same house where we were born, And sleep where slept our fathers?
Should that chafe?
I:2:15 COUN. Yet didst then leave my side this very morn, And with a
vow this day should ever count Amid thy life most happy; when we
meet Thy brow is clouded.
I:2:16 ALAR. Joy is sometimes grave, And deepest when 'tis calm.
And I am joyful If it be joy, this long forbidden hall Once more to pace,
and feel each fearless step Tread on a baffled foe.
I:2:17 COUN. Hast thou still foes
I:2:18 ALAR. I trust so; I should not be what I am, Still less what I will
be, if hate did not Pursue me as my shadow. Ah! fair wife, Thou
knowest not Burgos. Thou hast yet to fathom The depths of thy new
world.
I:2:19 COUN. I do recoil As from some unknown woo, from this same
world. I thought we came for peace.
I:2:20 ALAR. Peace dwells within No lordly roof in Burgos. We have
come For triumph.
I:2:21 COUN. So I share thy lot, Alarcos, All feelings are the same.
I:2:22 ALAR. My Florimonde, I took thee from a fair and pleasant
home In a soft land, where, like the air they live in, Men's hearts are
mild. This proud and fierce Castille Resembles not thy gentle Aquitaine,
More than the eagle may a dove, and yet It is my country. Danger in its
bounds Weighs more than foreign safety. But why speak Of what exists
not?
I:2:23 COUN. And I hope may never!
I:2:24 ALAR. And if it come, what then? This chance shall find me
Not unprepared.
I:2:25 COUN. But why should there be danger? And why should'st
thou, the foremost prince of Spain, Fear or make foes? Thou standest in

no light Would fall on other shoulders; thou hast no height To climb,
and nought to gain. Thou art complete; The King alone above thee, and
thy friend.
I:2:26 ALAR. So I would deem. I did not speak of fear.
I:2:27 COUN. Of danger?
I:2:28 ALAR. That's delight, when it may lead To mighty ends. Ah,
Florimonde! thou art too pure; Unsoiled in the rough and miry paths Of
ibis same trampling world; unskilled in heats Of fierce and emulous
spirits. There's a rapture In the strife of factions, that a woman's soul
Can never reach. Men smiled on me to-day Would gladly dig my grave;
and yet I smiled, And gave them coin as ready as their own, And not
less base.
I:2:29 COUN. And can there be such men, And canst thou live with
them?
I:2:30 ALAR. Ay! and they saw Me ride this morning in my state again;
The people cried 'Alarcos