Count Alarcos | Page 6

word of fear! Why
now To cloud my light? I had forgotten fate; But he recalls it. O my
bright Alarcos! My love must fly. Nay, not one word of care; Love
only from those lips. Yet, ere we part, Seal our sweet faith renewed.
I:3:57 ALAR. And never broken.
[Exit Alarcos.]
I:3:58 SOL. Why has he gone? Why did I bid him go? And let this
jewel I so daring plucked Slip in the waves again? I'm sure there's time
To call him back, and say farewell once more. I'll say farewell no more;
it was a word Ever harsh music when the morrow brought Welcomes
renewed of love, No more farewells. O when will he be mine! I cannot
wait, I cannot tarry, now I know he loves me; Each hour, each instant
that I see him not, Is usurpation of my right. O joy! Am I the same
Solisa, that this morn Breathed forth her orison with humbler spirit
Than the surrounding acolytes? Thou'st smiled, Sweet Virgin, on my
prayers. Twice fifty tapers Shall burn before thy shrine. Guard over me
O! mother of my soul, and let me prosper In my great enterprise! O
hope! O love! O sharp remembrance of long baffled joy! Inspire me
now.

SCENE 4.
The KING; the INFANTA.
I:4:1 KING. I see my daughter?
I:4:2 SOL. Sir, your duteous child.
I:4:3 KING. Art thou indeed my child? I had some doubt I was a father.
I:4:4 SOL. These are bitter words.
I:4:5 KING. Even as thy conduct.
I:4:6 SOL. Then it would appear My conduct and my life are but the
same.
I:4:7 KING. I thought thou wert the Infanta of Castille, Heir to our
realm, the paragon of Spain The Princess for whose smiles crowned
Christendom Sends forth its sceptred rivals. Is that bitter? Or bitter is it
with such privilege, And standing on life's vantage ground, to cross A
nation's hope, that on thy nice career Has gaged its heart?
I:4:8 SOL. Have I no heart to gage? A sacrificial virgin, must I bind

My life to the altar, to redeem a state, Or heal some doomed People?
I:4:9 KING. Is it so? Is this an office alien to thy sex? Or what thy
youth repudiates? We but ask What nature sanctions.
I:4:10 SOL. Nature sanctions Love; Your charter is more liberal. Let
that pass. I am no stranger to my duty, sir, And read it thus. The blood
that shares my sceptre Should be august as mine. A woman loses In
love what she may gain in rank, who tops Her husband's place; though
throned, I would exchange An equal glance. His name should be a
spell · To rally soldiers. Politic he should be; And skilled in climes and
tongues; that stranger knights Should bruit on, high Castillian
courtesies. Such chief might please a state?
I:4:11 KING. Fortunate realm!
I:4:12 SOL. And shall I own less niceness than my realm? No! I would
have him handsome a god; Hyperion in his splendor, or the mien Of
conquering Bacchus, one whose very step Should guide a limner, and
whose common words Are caught by Troubadours to frame their songs!
And O, my father, what if this bright prince Should I have a heart as
tender as his soul Was high and peerless? If with this same heart He
loved thy daughter?
I:4:13 KING. Close the airy page Of thy romance; such princes are not
found Except in lays and legends! yet a man Who would become a
throne, I found thee, girl; The princely Hungary.
I:4:14 SOL. A more princely fate, Than an unwilling wife, he did
deserve.
I:4:15 KING. Yet wherefore didst thou pledge thy troth to him?
I:4:16 SOL. And wherefore do I smile when I should sigh? And
wherefore do I feed when I would fast? And wherefore do I dance
when I should pray? And wherefore do I live when I should die? Canst
answer that, good Sir? O there are women The world deem mad, or
worse, whose life but seems One vile caprice, a freakish thing of whims
And restless nothingness; yet if we pierce The soul, may be we'll touch
some cause profound For what seems causeless. Early love despised,
Or baffled, which is worse; a faith betrayed, For vanity or lucre; chill
regards, Where to gain constant glances we have paid Some fearful
forfeit: here are many springs, Unmarked by shallow eyes, and some,
or all Of these, or none, may prompt my conduct now -- But I'll not
have thy prince.

I:4:17 KING. My, gentle child --
I:4:18 SOL. I am not gentle. I might have been once; But gentle
thoughts and I have parted long; The cause of such partition thou
shouldst know If memories were just.
I:4:19 KING.