Eight Dramas of Calderon

_Lord._ At the very hour To which your Highness temper’d it. Yet not So wholly but some lingering mist still hung About his dawning senses—which to clear, We fill’d and handed h...

_Juan._ Why, when I came this way before, I told you (do you not remember it?) How teased I was by relatives and friends To marry—little then disposed to love— Marriage perhaps...

_Vic._ But some poor relic of our former life That yet will stick. Madam, permit me, If not to kiss your hand, nor ev’n your feet, At least the happy ground on which they walk.

_Cipr._ This is the place, this the sequester’d spot Where, in the flower about and leaf above, I find the shade and quiet that I love, And oft resort to rest a wearied wing; An...

_Clotaldo._ Princes and princesses, and counsellors Fluster’d to right and left—my life made at— But that was nothing— Even the white-hair’d, venerable King Seized on—Indeed, yo...

_Aur._ Among the rest this girl, Lisandro’s daughter, As you and I know, Fabio, to our cost: But now convicted and condemn’d is safe From troubling us or Antioch any more. Come,...

_Rosaura._ There, four-footed Fury, blast- -engender’d brute, without the wit Of brute, or mouth to match the bit Of man—art satisfied at last? Who, when thunder roll’d aloof, T...

_Gil._ This mountain then, upon whose wrinkled edge The weary moon reclines, must be our fort; Where, in some green and shady spot of it, (Hung round with savage, inaccessible r...

_Prince._ Rather, Arias, Doubled it. Whithersoever Donna Anna moved, My eyes, that ever follow’d hers along, Saw them pursue Don Cesar through the crowd And only rest on him; I...

_Astolfo._ My royal cousin, if so near in blood, Till this auspicious meeting scarcely known, Till all that beauty promised in the bud Is now to its consummate blossom blown, We...

_Men._ I tell you I would brain anybody who insinuated to me I had not dined—and on game too. But tell me, Nuño, haven’t the soldiers come into Zalamea this afternoon?

_Fife._ God save them both, and save them all! say I!— Oh—what hot work!—Whichever way one turns The whistling bullet at one’s ears—I’ve drifted Far from my mad young—master—who...

_Juan._ Shall I tell you why? Painters, you know, (just turn your head a little,) Are nature’s apes, whose uglier semblances, Made up of disproportion and excess, Like apes, the...

What! do the powers of earth, and air, and hell, Against their upstart emperor rebel? Lo, in obedience to the rubric dark The dusky cheek of earth with mystic mark Of pentagram...

_Alon._ You will fairly drive me out of my senses! Go, sir, directly, and put it back where you took it from, and for Heaven’s sake, no more of such folly!

_Alon._ (_talking to himself as he enters_). How lucky he should have pitcht on the very one I wanted! (_Aloud._) Oh, Eugenia, I would speak with you. Nay, retire not, Clara, fo...

_Cipriano_ (_cavalierly drest_). Oh, mad, mad, mad ambition! to the skies Lifting to drop me deep as Hades down!— What! Cipriano—what the once so wise Cipriano—quit his wonted e...

_Hern._ Oh, tip-top. Daughters of the rich old Indian has bought the house and gardens opposite, and who will give them all his wealth when they marry, which they say he has bro...

_Lisandro._ And in with it The impious acclamation that all day, Block up our doors and windows as we may, Insults our faith, and doubly threatens it. Is all made fast, Justina?

_Cipriano._ Now that at last in his eternal round Hyperion, after skirting either pole, Of his own race has set the flaming goal In heaven of my probation under-ground: Up from...

_Felix._ I only stay to thank your Highness, (both as subject and as servant,) for all the honour that you do us; may Heaven so prolong your life that even oblivion herself—

_Gil._ You say well your enemy, Who, if you do as you have done so long, Will one day bathe his sword in your heart’s blood, And after in his own, and so wipe out One scandal fr...

_Alv._ Yes, from the hour when, fainting in my arms, She pass’d from raging flame to the wild seas, And opening those heavenly eyes again, Still with the hue of death upon her c...

_Eug._ No—to me it seems A sort of out-court and repository, Fit but for old Hidalgos and Duennas, Too stale and wither’d for the blooming world, To wear away in.

_Man._ Ah, my love! That you should wander thus about with me And find no home! Gallicia, that I thought Should be our port, unkindly storm’d us out To Salvatierra, whence befor...

_Ces._ O Lazaro, half drunk with my success, I lose my wits when most I’ve need of them. She writes to me, my lady writes to me So sweetly, yea, so lovingly; Methinks I want to...

_Vic._ Oh, noble captain, We found this lady resting from the sun Under the trees, with a small retinue, Who of course fled. All but this ancient gentleman, who still Holds out...

_Prince._ I saw her from her carriage, Arias, As from her East, alight, another sun New ris’n, or doubling him whose envious ray Seem’d as I watch’d her down the corridor, To sw...

_Juan._ Felix, the strangest thing But now we are alone I’ll tell you all. Last night—the very moment that I saw That angel at the window, as at Heaven’s gate— The fire that I m...

_Anna._ I have written, Not finisht writing. That could never be; Each sentence, yea, each letter, as I write it, Suggesting others still. I had hoped, Elvira, To sum my story u...

_Blan._ Who is this man, That in the gathering dusk enters our house, Enmaskt and muffled thus? what is ’t you want? To croak new evil in my ears? for none But ravens now come n...

_Guil._ Such bosom friends, sir, as from infancy Your son and I have been, I were ashamed, You being in such trouble, not to offer My help and consolation. Tell me aught That I...

_Cres._ And now, sir, that I have used my authority to make you listen, I will lay it by, and talk to you as man to man. (_He lays down the wand._) We are alone, Don Alvaro, and...

Tantara, tantara, come follow me all, Carnival, Carnival, Carnival. Follow me, follow me, nobody ask; Crazy is Carnival under the mask. Follow me, follow me, nobody knows; Under...

_Adm._ It is indeed a noble imitation Of noblest war. As when a white-tuskt boar Holds out alone against the yelling pack, Gores one, o’erthrows another, all the while Bristling...

_Ces._ (_aside_). To think, alas! The first sweet vintage of my love thus lost, And, as my lady must too surely think, By my forgetfulness. (_Aloud._) My lord, indeed The night...

_Lope._ Soldiers, there is the prison where your captain lies. If he be not given up instantly at my last asking, set fire to the prison; and, if further resistance be made, to...

_Gil._ I marvel much They should have dragg’d your lordship from the city And from the court that you so much adorn, Into this beggarly place, to try a cause That happens almost...

_Isab._ A moment, sir! This poor man has flown to our feet for protection; I appeal to you for it; and no man, and least of all an officer, will refuse that to any woman.

_Alon._ You could not Long for ’t, Otañez, more than I myself. What wonder, when my daughters, who, you know, Are the two halves that make up my whole heart, Silently called me...

Here she mostly comes of an evening, poor lady, to soothe herself, walking and sitting here by the hour together. This is where you are to be. Go in; and mind you make no noise.

_Juan._ Why, what a fate is mine! All of a sudden—but I dare not say it; Scarce could I of myself believe it, if I told it to myself; so with some things ’Tis easier to bear, th...

_Prince._ Ah, Celio, so strange a thing is love, The sighs you think are melancholy sighs, Yet are not so; I have indeed drunk poison, But love the taste of it.

_Reb._ And where will be the good of that if I’m dead before I get there? And if not, ’twill only be from bad to worse: for if we all reach the place alive, as sure as death up...

_Lope._ I have much to thank you for, Crespo, but for nothing so much as for giving me your son for a soldier. I do thank you for that with all my heart.

_Fel._ She who has enslaved Don Juan and Don Pedro has fetter’d me, at last! I should care little for their rivalry, had not each made me keeper of his love, so that—Hark!

_Cres._ Oh, a little strip my daughter amuses herself with; sit down, sir. In place of the fine voices and instruments you are used to, you must put up with only the breeze play...

_Alon._ If you really affect Eugenia, nephew——(_aside_) as I wished,—I will communicate with her after church, and if all be well (as I cannot doubt) get a dispensation forthwit...

_Blan._ How happy am I that so fair a guest Honours my house by making it her own, And me her servant! To welcome and to wait on Violante I have thus far intruded.

_Anna._ Oh Elvira, For the last time! now undeceived to know How much deceived I was! Alas, until I find myself despised, Methought I was desired, till hated, loved; Was ’t not...

_Luis._ ‘You bid me tell you why it is Don Juan Roca has not written to you so long: and though it be pain to do so, I dare no longer defer answering you. At a carnival dance he...

_Vicente_ (_talking as he enters_). In the devil’s name was there ever such a clutter made about a blow? People all up in arms, and running here and there, and up and down, and...

_Alv._ Now, sir, that (thanks to Porcia) you have open’d Your arms to me once more, I cannot rest (So favour ever calls for favour) till You tell me what the inward trouble is T...

_Clara._ Yes; to think of two cavaliers after her at once! I look upon it as my duty to set all to right; to do this I must once more speak to him who warned me of it; and I wan...

_Ped._ I might have guessed it! Let me be in the bilboes, on the very scaffold, he must be with me: he will die on purpose to lie in the same grave with me, I think!

_Cres._ Ay, sir, my own father, if he transgressed the law I am made guardian of. Off with him! (_They carry off JUAN._) So I shall keep him out of harm’s way at least. And now...

_Nuñ._ So as he has as little of comfort in his quarters as we of eatable in ours—ever under her window, sending her messages and tokens by a nasty little soldier of his.

There once was a certain Sampayo Of Andalusia the fair; A Major he was in the service, And a very fine coat did he wear. And one night, as to-night it might happen, That as he w...

_Isab._ Listen for the last time. You know how, sitting last night under the shelter of those white hairs in which my maiden youth had grown, those wretches, whose only law is f...

_Isab._ Against my brother too! O Casilda, is it not shameful that Juan Baptista should revenge with slanders behind my brother’s back whom he dares not meet face to face! Nay,...

_Anna._ Beside the charge of my own love, Elvira, Whose crosses, I believe, will slay me soon, My brother has confided to me at last His passion for the Princess Nisida; And, fo...

_Prince._ Not sad, Don Felix: Oh would it were some certain shape of sorrow That I might grapple with, not a vague host Of undefined emotions! Oh how oft The patching up of but...

_King._ Don Mendo comes not back, and must not come, Till he have done his errand. I myself Can have no rest till justice have her due. A son to strike his father in my realm Un...

Oh, what a fate is mine, Having to seek what most I dread to find, Once thought the curse of jealousy alone! The iron King will see my face no more Unless I bring Don Lope to hi...

_Isab._ Casilda, now the flaming sun has set, See to the doors; and you and Ines there Sing to me—’twill beguile my melancholy. No merry song, however; something sad As my own f...

_Men._ I know not. Oh, ’tis false! I know too well, and you must know it too. My daughter, the poor prisoner who lies there Is my own son, not Blanca’s, not Urrea’s, But my own...

_Man._ O my Juana, The love such beauty as your own inspires, Surmounts impossibilities. However, I needed not go on to Salvatierra, Lighting on what I look’d for by the way, Am...

_Laz._ (_aside_). That my master should trust that babbler who let out about my wooden sword to the Prince! my life upon ’t, he’ll do the same to him; for he who sucks in gossip...

_Reb._ Isabel’s brother. Don Lope and the lad took a fancy to each other and have persuaded the old father to let him go for a soldier; and I have only just met him as proud as...

_Lope._ Whither then have they brought me? Ah, Violante, Your beauty costs me dear! And even now I count the little I have yet to live Minute by minute, like one last sweet drau...

_Isab._ That arquebuss! of which only the thunder Has reach’d us of perhaps some deadly bolt On one of those we love! Why tarry they so long? What think you, Juana?

_Isab._ Oh never, never might the light of day arise and show me to myself in my shame! Oh, fleeting morning star, mightest thou never yield to the dawn that even now presses on...

_Fab._ And no doubt, sir, you will find good opportunity of talking to her. ’Tis the old and acknowledged usage of this season, that any one may accost any one so long as both a...

_Viol._ Yours will do, give it me. I am desperate, Elvira, and in his danger drown my maiden shame; see him I will at least. Do you rest here and give me a warning if a footstep...