The Cid | Page 7

courage which appears in the language you hold has shown itself each day by your eyes; and, believing that I saw in you the honor of Castile, my soul with pleasure was destining for you my daughter. I know thy passion, and I am delighted to see that all its impulses yield to thy duty; that they have not weakened this magnanimous ardor; that thy proud manliness merits my esteem; and that, desiring as a son-in-law an accomplished cavalier, I was not deceived in the choice which I had made. But I feel that for thee my compassion is touched. I admire thy courage, and I pity thy youth. Seek not to make thy first attempt [or, maiden-stroke] fatal. Release my valor from an unequal conflict; too little honor for me would attend this victory. In conquering without danger we triumph without glory. Men would always believe that thou wert overpowered without an effort, and I should have only regret for thy death.
_Don Rodrigo._ Thy presumption is followed by a despicable [_lit._ unworthy] pity! The man who dares to deprive me of honor, fears to deprive me of life!
_Count._ Withdraw from this place.
_Don Rodrigo._ Let us proceed without further parley.
_Count._ Art thou so tired of life?
_Don Rodrigo._ Hast thou such a dread of death?
_Count._ Come, thou art doing thy duty, and the son becomes degenerate who survives for one instant the honor of his father.
Scene III.--The INFANTA, CHIMèNE and LEONORA.
_Infanta._ Soothe, my Chimène, soothe thy grief; summon up thy firmness in this sudden misfortune. Thou shalt see a calm again after this short-lived [_lit._ feeble] storm. Thy happiness is overcast [_lit._ covered] only by a slight cloud, and thou hast lost nothing in seeing it [i.e. thine happiness] delayed.
_Chimène._ My heart, overwhelmed with sorrows, dares to hope for nothing; a storm so sudden, which agitates a calm at sea, conveys to us a threat of an inevitable [_lit._ certain] shipwreck. I cannot doubt it: I am being shipwrecked [_lit._ I am perishing], even in harbor. I was loving, I was beloved, and our fathers were consenting [_lit._ in harmony], and I was recounting to you the delightful intelligence of this at the fatal moment when this quarrel originated, the fatal recital of which, as soon as it has been given to you, has ruined the effect of such a dear [_lit._ sweet] expectation. Accursed ambition! hateful madness! whose tyranny the most generous souls are suffering. O [sense of] honor!-merciless to my dearest desires, how many tears and sighs art thou going to cost me?
_Infanta._ Thou hast, in their quarrel, no reason to be alarmed; one moment has created it, one moment will extinguish it. It has made too much noise not to be settled amicably, since already the king wishes to reconcile them; and thou knowest that my zeal [_lit._ soul], keenly alive to thy sorrows, will do its utmost [_lit._ impossibilities] to dry up their source.
_Chimène._ Reconciliations are not effected in such a feud [or, in this manner]; such deadly insults are not [easily] repaired; in vain one uses [_lit._ causes to act] force or prudence. If the evil be cured, it is [cured] only in appearance; the hatred which hearts preserve within feeds fires hidden, but so much the more ardent.
_Infanta._ The sacred tie which will unite Don Rodrigo and Chimène will dispel the hatred of their hostile sires, and we shall soon see the stronger [feeling], love, by a happy bridal, extinguish this discord.
_Chimène._ I desire it may be so, more than I expect it. Don Diego is too proud, and I know my father. I feel tears flow, which I wish to restrain; the past afflicts me, and I fear the future.
_Infanta._ What dost thou fear? Is it the impotent weakness of an old man?
_Chimène._ Rodrigo has courage.
_Infanta._ He is too young.
_Chimène._ Courageous men become so [i.e. courageous] at once.
_Infanta._ You ought not, however, to dread him much. He is too much enamored to wish to displease you, and two words from thy lips would arrest his rage.
_Chimène._ If he does not obey me, what a consummation of my sorrow! And, if he can obey me, what will men say of him? being of such noble birth, to endure such an insult! Whether he yields to, or resists the passion which binds him to me, my mind can not be otherwise than either ashamed of his too great deference, or shocked at a just refusal.
_Infanta._ Chimène has a proud soul, and, though deeply interested, she cannot endure one base [_lit._ low] thought. But, if up to the day of reconciliation I make this model lover my prisoner, and I thus prevent the effect of his courage, will thine enamored soul take no umbrage at it?
_Chimène._ Ah! dear lady, in that case I have no more anxiety.
Scene