The Wonder-Working Magician

DEMON. Since the hour that I have been In your house a guest, you ne'er Show a gay and cheerful air. Sadness in your face is seen. It is wrong your cure to shun, Seeking to misl...

CYPRIAN. What's this, ye heavens so pure? Clear but a moment hence and now obscure, Ye fright the gentle day! The thunder-balls, the lightning's forked ray, Leap from its riven...

DEMON. Sir, A mere stranger, who has ridden All this morning up and down These dark groves, not knowing whither, Having lost my way, my horse, To the emerald that encircles, Wit...

JUSTINA. Consolation, sir, is vain, After what I've seen to-day: The whole city, madly gay, Error-blinded and insane, Consecrating shrine and fane To an image, which I know, Can...

CYPRIAN. Scarcely o'er earth's wounded bosom Had I the true spell-word uttered, When in the ensuing action, She, of all my dreams the subject, My adored, divine Justina.... But...

CYPRIAN. No more: your gabble irks me.-- How? What's this? Two noble friends, Who in blood, in birth, in lineage, Are to-day of Antioch all Its expectancy, the city's Eye of fas...

CYPRIAN. A wish to serve you Is the sole cause of my presence. For on seeing the officials Issuing from your house, the friendship Which I owe unto Lysander Made me bold herein...

A VOICE. No creature lives on which love's flame Has not impressed its burning seal, The man feels more who love doth feel Than when Life's breath first warmed his frame. Love o...

CYPRIAN. In the pleasant solitude Of this tranquil spot, this thicket Formed of interlacing boughs, Buds, and flowers, and shrubs commingled, You may leave me, leaving also, As...

CYPRIAN. Governor of Antioch, Viceroy of great Caesar Decius, Florus, Lelius, my young friends, Whom I valued and respected, Proud nobility, great people, To my words be all att...

JUSTINA. What! without a word you leave me? When I come here, calm, contented, Even to die. Ah! wishing death, Am I then of death prevented?-- [She perceives CYPRIAN. But my pun...

JUSTINA. Then thou'lt reach not thy intent; For this passion, this strange pain, Which my thought doth so torment, Though my fancy it may gain, It will never my consent.

FLORUS. From which issued A most horrid, most repelling Shape, who on the scaly shells Of a mailed and mighty serpent, O'er the scaffold made a sign Motioning silence and attent...

DEMON. Why, how is this, that using your free-will More than my precept meant, Say for what end, what object, what intent, Through ignorance or boldness can it be, You thus come...

CLARIN. I struck this lofty note of admiration, Thou noble lackey, to express my wonder, How from this storm of lightning, rain, and thunder, Without a miracle he could survive.

[LELIUS appears at the door of the apartment. LELIUS [aside]. I begin now to believe, Since he is not in this chamber, Jealousy can cause these spectres. He, the man I saw, has...

FLORUS. Are you then that virtuous maiden, Who, the very breeze that flatters With its soft and sweet caresses, You would call rude, bold, unmannered? How then is it you surrend...

CLARIN. Ungrateful fair, who still my heart doth hold, Not burning Libya sure, but Livia cold, The time is come to show Whether in love you have been true or no, Whether, since...

LIVIA. Such a question, when the whole Of a day it was his lot With me here locked up to stay? For his comrade far away Must I not a tear then shed, Though I take this day inste...

LYSANDER. I regard What you saw but as the play Of your fancy and your fear. Melancholy surely may Have, the man that you saw here, Formed from atoms of the day.

FABIUS. In their church, as we suspected, We discovered them collected, Where before their God they prayed. With an armed guard I traced them To this secret sacred hall, Made th...

CLARIN. We both would show, If perchance you do not know, That we love you to distraction. On a murderous transaction We came here, to kill each other:-- So to put an end to the...

CYPRIAN [aside]. Where, presumptuous thoughts, ah! where, Would you lead me, whither go? If for certain now you know That the high attempts you dare Are delusive dreams of bliss...

CYPRIAN. Ungrateful beauty mine, At length the day, the happy day doth shine-- My hope's remotest range, The limits of my love and of thy change, Since I to-day will gain At las...

CYPRIAN [aside]. I must strive and be discreet, Feigning with a ready wit, Till my jealousy I can prove. I will only speak of love, If my jealousy will permit. Not in vain, seno...

GOVERNOR. In distinct and separate prisons, And with watchful eyes to guard them, Place the two.--And you, Lysander, Is it possible you have tarnished Such a noble reputation, S...

LELIUS. Ah, Justina, it were best That this language you addressed Unto him who nightly came Down here from this balcony;-- 'Tis enough for me to show All your lightness that I...

CLARIN. Not much more; for we must settle Our account now, though I own The occasion might be better, And the place too, still 'twere wrong To neglect the time that's present.

DEMON [aside]. For the deep design I handle, For my double plot I come Raging to this simple home, Now to work the greatest scandal Ever seen. Here, brooding o'er him, This wild...

LELIUS. Sir, whoever You may be, it doth import me To know who you are directly; So at every risk I come here, On this resolute quest determined. Say who are you.

CYPRIAN. I am prevented [To Florus. Now from standing at your side, Since between you I present me. How is this? In one day twice Have I your disputes to settle!--

FLORUS [aside]. Licence has a jealous lover, Who but enters to unmask here A pretended purity, To forego politer manners. I come here with that intention... But as she is with h...

LELIUS. I, whose wish it is to be Welcomed as thy son this time, With no consciousness of crime Do not see a judge in thee, I an angry sire may see With a son's respectful fear...

LIVIA. He might mistake, And I wish not to act so. For, desiring to pursue A just course betwixt you both, Turn about, I would be loth Not to give you each his due. But I see th...

MOSCON. Excellent, faith! the fancy tickles Quite my fancy. Let her say Who it is that annoys or nicks her To a nicety. Let's go see her, And she'll choose.

CYPRIAN. Now, O beautiful Justina, In this sweet and secret covert, Where no beam of sun can enter, Nor the breeze of heaven blow roughly, Now the trophy of thy beauty Makes my...

DEMON [aside]. Not alone Justina's fame Do I by this act discredit, But dissensions, perhaps murders, Thus provoke. Ope, earth's dark centre, And receive me, leaving here This c...

MOSCON. This makes my point more strong, Since to me it were no wrong If it chanced not on my day. But our master yonder, see, How absorbed he seems.

CYPRIAN. Doubtless something must have happened 'Mong the stars; imperial clusters,* Since I find their influences To my wishes so repugnant. Up from the profound abysses Some d...

CYPRIAN. Listen, hear me, stay, Justina! But why linger spell-bound, stunned here? I'll pursue her, and this forest, Whither by my spells conducted She has flown, will be the le...

CYPRIAN. Did you in the air's void spaces, Or earth's caverns yawning under, See an icy corse here vanish, See to dust and ashes turning All the freshness and the beauty That it...

LYSANDER. Tears as vain as they are tardy. What an act was mine, Justina, When to thee my lips imparted Who thou art! Oh, would I never Told thee, that upon the margin Of a rivu...

LELIUS [aside]. Scarcely has the darksome night O'er the brow of heaven extended* Its black veil, when I come hither To adore this sacred threshold; For although at Cyprian's pr...

DEMON. Abyss of hell prepare! Thyself the region of thine own despair.-- From out each dungeon's dark recess Let loose the spirits of voluptuousness, To rain and o'erthrow Justi...

CYPRIAN. Memory of a maddened brain, Do not with such strong control Make me think another soul Is what in my heart doth reign. Blind idolator I have been-- Lost in love's ambit...

CLARIN. Stop: Renuncio Bride like this who smells of smoke Stronger than a blacksmith's furnace. But perhaps the incantation, Being so extremely sudden, Caught her leaning o'er...

LELIUS. Wherefore, when I will to-day Once again my love declare. And as she, I saw it plain, Trusted some one else at night, 'Tis not strange, in open light, That I try to soot...

CYPRIAN [aside]. What is this, O heavens! I hear? Can it be the two are jealous Of each other at one time? And I too of both together?-- Doubtless from some strange delusion The...

LIVIA. Sir, The same tradesman who so presses To be paid, comes here to seek you, By the magistrate attended. That you were not in, I told him: By that door you have an exit.

DEMON [aside]. Just heavens, If my nature, in conjunction, Once possessed both grace and science, When 'mongst angels I was numbered, Grace alone is what I've lost, Science no....

GOVERNOR [aside]. I must go, her face unnerves me.-- With this living corse here lying [Aside to his retinue. Let us leave her for the present. For the two being here confined,...

CYPRIAN. You must not follow him, [Aside. (Oh, this news with death o'erwhelms me!) Since if he who is the loser Of what you have gained, expressly Says he would forget it, you...

CYPRIAN. Faith, zeal, courage, all possess me: For if life must be the ransom Of my slavery to the devil, He who gave his soul for thee, Will he not give God his person?

JUSTINA. 'Gainst the clouds that round me lower I appeal to heaven's high power; Let this spectre of my fame-- As before the wind the flame-- As before the frost the flower, Van...

GOVERNOR. And since now this fair pretence, This hypocritical deceit, In my power at last doth lie, Wherefore my revenge postpone For the sorrows I have known Through her fault?...

CYPRIAN. Now I am alone, and may, If my mind can be so lifted, Study the great problem which Keeps my soul disturbed, bewilder'd, Since I read in Pliny's page The mysterious wor...