The Cid | Page 3

[_lit._ repose] this day depends upon it. If love lives by hope, it perishes with it; it is a fire which becomes extinguished for want of fuel; and, in spite of the severity of my sad lot, if Chimène ever has Rodrigo for a husband, my hope is dead and my spirit, is healed. Meanwhile, I endure an incredible torture; even up to this bridal. Rodrigo is dear to me; I strive to lose him, and I lose him with regret, and hence my secret anxiety derives its origin. I see with sorrow that love compels me to utter sighs for that [object] which [as a princess] I must disdain. I feel my spirit divided into two portions; if my courage is high, my heart is inflamed [with love]. This bridal is fatal to me, I fear it, and [yet] I desire it; I dare to hope from it only an incomplete joy; my honor and my love have for me such attractions, that I [shall] die whether it be accomplished, or whether it be not accomplished.
_Leonora._ Dear lady, after that I have nothing more to say, except that, with you, I sigh for your misfortunes; I blamed you a short time since, now I pity you. But since in a misfortune [i.e. an ill-timed love] so sweet and so painful, your noble spirit [_lit._ virtue] contends against both its charm and its strength, and repulses its assault and regrets its allurements, it will restore calmness to your agitated feelings. Hope then every [good result] from it, and from the assistance of time; hope everything from heaven; it is too just [_lit._ it has too much justice] to leave virtue in such a long continued torture.
_Infanta._ My sweetest hope is to lose hope.
(_The Page re-enters._)
_Page._ By your commands, Chimène comes to see you.
Infanta (to _Leonora_). Go and converse with her in that gallery [yonder].
_Leonora._ Do you wish to continue in dreamland?
_Infanta._ No, I wish, only, in spite of my grief, to compose myself [_lit._ to put my features a little more at leisure]. I follow you.
[_Leonora goes out along with the Page._]
Scene III.--The INFANTA (alone).
Just heaven, from which I await my relief, put, at last, some limit to the misfortune which is overcoming [_lit._ possesses] me; secure my repose, secure my honor. In the happiness of others I seek my own. This bridal is equally important to three [parties]; render its completion more prompt, or my soul more enduring. To unite these two lovers with a marriage-tie is to break all my chains and to end all my sorrows. But I tarry a little too long; let us go to meet Chimène, and, by conversation, to relieve our grief.
Scene IV.--COUNT DE GORMAS and DON DIEGO (meeting).
_Count._ At last you have gained it [or, prevailed], and the favor of a King raises you to a rank which was due only to myself; he makes you Governor of the Prince of Castile.
_Don Diego._ This mark of distinction with which he distinguishes [_lit._ which he puts into] my family shows to all that he is just, and causes it to be sufficiently understood, that he knows how to recompense bygone services.
_Count._ However great kings may be, they are only men [_lit._ they are that which we are]; they can make mistakes like other men, and this choice serves as a proof to all courtiers that they know how to [or, can] badly recompense present services.
_Don Diego._ Let us speak no more of a choice at which your mind becomes exasperated. Favor may have been able to do as much as merit; but we owe this respect to absolute power, to question nothing when a king has wished it. To the honor which he has done me add another--let us join by a sacred tie my house to yours. You have an only daughter, and I have an only son; their marriage may render us for ever more than friends. Grant us this favor, and accept, him as a son-in-law.
_Count._ To higher alliances this precious son ought [or, is likely] to aspire; and the new splendor of your dignity ought to inflate his heart with another [higher] vanity. Exercise that [dignity], sir, and instruct the prince. Show him how it is necessary to rule a province: to make the people tremble everywhere under his law; to fill the good with love, and the wicked with terror. Add to these virtues those of a commander: show him how it is necessary to inure himself to fatigue; in the profession of a warrior [_lit._ of Mars] to render himself without an equal; to pass entire days and nights on horseback; to sleep all-armed: to storm a rampart, and to owe to himself alone the winning of a battle. Instruct him by example, and render him perfect,