The Bride of Messina by Friedrich Schiller (great book club books TXT) 📕

hast thou said?

BEATRICE.
Thy mother and Don Caesar's? Never! never!

DON MANUEL.
Thou shudderest! Whence this horror? Hast thou known
My mother? Speak - -

BEATRICE.
O grief! O dire misfortune!
Alas! that e'er I live to see this day!

DON MANUEL.
What troubles thee? Thou know'st me, thou hast found,
In the poor stranger knight, Messina's prince!

BEATRICE.
Give me the dear unknown again! With him
On earth's remotest wilds I could be blest!

DON CAESAR (behind the scene).
Away! What rabble throng is here?

BEATRICE.
That voice!
Oh heavens! Where shall I fly!

DON MANUEL.
Know'st thou that voice?
No! thou hast never heard it; to thine ear
'Tis strange - -

BEATRICE.
Oh, come - delay not - -

DON MANUEL.
Wherefore I fly?
It is my brother's voice! He seeks me - how
He tracked my steps - -

BEATRICE.
By all the holy saints!
Brave not his wrath! oh quit this place - avoid him -
Meet not thy brother here!

DON MANUEL.
My soul! thy fears
Confound; thou hear'st me not; our strife is o'er.
Yes! we are reconciled.

BEATRICE.
Protect me, heaven,
In this dread hour!

DON MANUEL.
A sudden dire presage
Starts in my breast - I shudder at the thought:
If it be true! Oh, horror! Could she know
That voice! Wert thou - my tongue denies to utter
The words of fearful import - Beatrice!
Say, wert thou present at the funeral rites
Of my dead sire?

BEATRICE.
Alas!

DON MANUEL.
Thou wert!

BEATRICE.
Forgive me!

DON MANUEL.
Unhappy woman!

BEATRICE.
I was present!

DON MANUEL.
Horror!

BEATRICE.
Some mighty impulse urged me to the scene -
Oh, be not angry - to thyself I owned
The ardent fond desire; with darkening brow
Thou listened'st to my prayer, and I was silent,
But what misguiding inauspicious star
Allured, I know not; from my inmost soul
The wish, the dear emotion spoke; and vain
Aught else: - Diego gave consent - oh, pardon me!
I disobeyed thee.

[She advances towards him imploringly; at the same moment
DON CAESAR enters, accompanied by the whole Chorus.

BOTH BROTHERS, BOTH CHORUSES, BEATRICE.

Second Chorus (BOHEMUND) to DON CAESAR.
Thou heliev'st us not -
Believe thine eyes!

DON CAESAR (rushes forward furiously, and at the sight of his brother
starts back with horror).
Some hell-born magic cheats
My senses; in her arms! Envenomed snake!
Is this thy love? For this thy treacherous heart
Could lure with guise of friendship! Oh, from heaven
Breathed my immortal hate! Down, down to hell,
Thou soul of falsehood!

[He stabs him, DON MANUEL falls.

DON MANUEL.
Beatrice! - my brother!
I die!

[Dies. BEATRICE sinks lifeless at his side.

First Chorus (CAJETAN).
Help! Help! To arms! Avenge with blood
The bloody deed!

Second Chorus (BOHEMUND).
The fortune of the day
Is ours! The strife forever stilled: - Messina
Obeys one lord.

First Chorus (CAJETAN, BERENGAR, MANFRED).
Revenge! The murderer
Shall die! Quick, offer to your master's shade
Appeasing sacrifice!

Second Chorus (BOHEMUND, ROGER, HIPPOLYTE).
My prince! fear nothing,
Thy friends are true.

DON CAESAR (steps between them, looking around).
Be still! The foe is slain
That practised on my trusting, honest heart
With snares of brother's love. Oh, direful shows
The deed of death! But righteous heaven hath judged.

First Chorus (CAJETAN).
Alas to thee, Messina! Woe forever!
Sad city! From thy blood-stained walls this deed
Of nameless horror taints the skies; ill fare
Thy mothers and thy children, youth and age,
And offspring yet, unborn!

DON CAESAR.
Too late your grief -
Here give your help.
[Pointing to BEATRICE.
Call her to life, and quick
Depart this scene of terror and of death.
I must away and seek my sister: - Hence!
Conduct her to my mother -
And tell her that her son, Don Caesar, sends her!

[Exit.

[The senseless BEATRICE is placed on a litter and
carried away by the Second Chorus. The First Chorus
remains with the body, round which the boys who bear
the bridal presents range themselves in a semicircle.

Chorus (CAJETAN).

List, how with dreaded mystery
Was signed to my prophetic soul,
Of kindred blood the dire decree: -
Hither with noiseless, giant stride
I saw the hideous fiend of terror glide!
'Tis past! I strive not to control
My shuddering awe - so swift of ill
The Fates the warning sign fulfil.
Lo! to my sense dismayed,
Sudden the deed of death has shown
Whate'er my boding fears portrayed.
The visioned thought was pain;
The present horror curdles every vein

One of the Chorus (MANFRED).

Sound, sound the plaint of woe!
Beautiful youth!
Outstretched and pale he lies,
Untimely cropped in early bloom;
The heavy night of death has sealed his eyes; -
In this glad hour of nuptial joy,
Snatched by relentless doom,
He sleeps - while echoing to the sky,
Of sorrow bursts the loud, despairing cry!

A second (CAJETAN).

We come, we come, in festal pride,
To greet the beauteous bride;
Behold! the nuptial gifts, the rich attire
The banquet waits, the guests are there;
They bid thee to the solemn rite
Of hymen quick repair.
Thou hear'st them not - the sportive lyre,
The frolic dance, shall ne'er invite;
Nor wake thee from thy lowly bed,
For deep the slumber of the dead!

The whole Chorus.

No more the echoing horn shall cheer
Nor bride with tones of sweetness charm his ear.
On the cold earth he lies,
In death's eternal slumber closed his eyes.

A third (CAJETAN).

What are the hopes, and fond desires
Of mortals' transitory race?
This day, with harmony of voice and soul,
Ye woke the long-extinguished fires
Of brothers' love - yon flaming orb
Lit with his earliest beams your dear embrace
At eve, upon the gory sand
Thou liest - a reeking corpse!
Stretched by a brother's murderous hand.
Vain projects, treacherous hopes,
Child of the fleeting hour are thine;
Fond man! thou rear'st on dust each bold design,

Chorus (BERENGAR).

To thy mother I will bear
The burden of unutterable woe!
Quick shall yon cypress, blooming fair,
Bend to the axe's murderous blow
Then twine the mournful bier!
For ne'er with verdant life the tree shall smile
That grew on death's devoted soil;
Ne'er in the breeze the branches play,
Nor shade the wanderer in the noontide ray;
'Twas marked to bear the fruits of doom,
Cursed to the service of the tomb.

First (CAJETAN).

Woe to the murderer! Woe
That sped exulting in his pride,
Behold! the parched earth drinks the crimson tide.
Down, down it flows, unceasingly,
To the dim caverned halls below,
Where throned in kindred gloom the sister train,
Of Themis progeny severe,
Brood in their songless, silent reign!
Stern minister of wrath's decree,
They catch in swarthy cups thy streaming gore,
And pledge with horrid rites for vengeance evermore.

Second (BERENGAR).

Though swift of deed the traces fade
From earth, before the enlivening ray;
As o'er the brow the transient shade
Of thought, the hues of fancy flit away: -
Yet in the mystic womb unseen,
Of the dark ruling hours that sway
Our mortal lot, whate'er has been,
With new creative germ defies decay.
The blooming field is time
For nature's ever-teeming shoot,
And all is seed, and all is fruit.

[The Chorus goes away, bearing the corpse of DON MANUEL on a bier.


SCENE - The hall of pillars. It is night.

The stage is lighted from above by a single large lamp.
DONNA ISABELLA and DIEGO