The Poetical Works of Milton, Young, Gray, Beattie, and Collins

Alon. Oh, Leonora !
What could I do? in duty to my friend,
I saw you; and to see is to admire.
For Carlos did I plead, and most sincerely.
Witness the thousand agonies it cost me.
You know I did. I sought but your esteem;
If that is guilt, an angel had been guilty.

"I often sighed, nay, wept, but could not help it:
And sure it is no crime to be in pain.

But grant my crime was great; I'm greatly curst;
What would you more? am I not most undone?
This usage is like stamping on the murdered,
When life is fled; most barbarous and unjust.
Leon. If from your guilt none suffered but your-
self,

Alon. Is not the day then fixed for your espousals?
Leon. Indeed my father once had thought that

way:

But marking how the marriage pained my heart,
Long he stood doubtful; but at last resolved,
Your counsel, which determines him in all,
Should finish the debate.

Alon. Oh, agony!

Must I not only lose her, but be made
Myself the instrument? not only die,
But plunge the dagger in my heart myself?
This is refining on calamity.

Leon. What, do you tremble lest you should be
mine?

For what else can you tremble? not for that [going] My father places in your power to alter.

Leon. Enjoy your ignorance, and let me go.
Alon. Alas! what is there I can fear to know,
Since I already know your hate? your actions
Have long since told me that.

Leon. They flattered you.
Alon. How flattered me?

Leon. Oh, search in fate no farther!

I hate thee-oh, Alonzo! how I hate thee!
Alon. Indeed! and do you weep for hatred too!
Oh, what a doubtful torment heaves my heart!
I hope it most, and yet I dread it more.
Should it be so-should her tears flow from thence;
How would my soul blaze up in ecstacy!
Ah, no! how sink into the depth of horrors!
Leon. Why would you force my stay?
Alon. What mean these tears?

Leon. I weep by chance: nor have my tears a
meaning.

But, oh, when first I saw Alonzo's tears,

I knew their meaning well.

Alon. What's in my power? oh, yes, to stab

my friend!

Leon. Tostab your friend were barbarous indeed!
Spare him-and murder me. I own, Alonzo,
You well may wonder at such words as these;
I start at them myself; they fright my nature.
Great is my fault; but blame not me alone;
Give him a little blame who took such pains
To make me guilty.

Alon. Torment!

Leon. [after a pause] Oh, my shame!
I sue, and sue in vain: it is most just,
When women sue, they sue to be denied.
You hate me, you despise me! you do well;
For what I've done I hate and scorn myself.
Oh, night, fall on me! I shall blush to death.
Alon. First perish all!

Leon. Say, what have you resolved?
My father comes; what answer will you give him?
Alon. What answer? let me look upon that face,
And read it there.-Devote thee to another!

[Alonzo falls passionately on his knees, and kisses Not to be borne! a second look undoes me.

her hand.]

Leon. And why undo you? is it then, my lord,

Alon. Heavens! what is this? that excellence, So terrible to yield to your own wishes,

for which

Desire was planted in the heart of man;
Virtue's supreme reward on this side heaven;
The cordial of my soul; and this destroys me-
Indeed, I fiattered me that thou did'st hate.
Leon. Alonzo, pardon me the injury

Of loving you. I struggled with my passion,
And struggled long: let that be some excuse.

Because they happen to concur with mine?
Cruel! to take such pains to win a heart,
Which you was conscious you must break with
parting.

Alon. No, Leonora, I am thine for ever.
[runs and embraces her.
In spite of Carlos-ha! who's that? my friend?
[starts wide from her.

Alon. Unkind! you know I think your love a Alas! I see him pale! I hear his groan!

blessing

Beyond all human blessings: 'tis the price

Of sighs and groans, and a whole year of dying.
But, oh the curse of curses!—oh, my friend!-
Leon. Alas!

Alon. What says my love? speak, Leonora.
Leon. Was it for you, my lord, to be so quick
In finding out objections to our love?
Think you so strong my love, or weak my virtue,
It was unsafe to leave that part to me

He foams, he tears his hair, he raves, he bleeds,

I know him by myself, he dies distracted!
Leon. How dreadful to be cut from what we love!

Alon. Ah, speak no more!

Leon. And tied to what we hate!
Alon. Oh!

Leon. Is it possible?
Alon. Death!

Leon. Can you?
Alon. Oh-

Yes, take a limb; but let my virtue 'scape. Alas, my soul, this moment I die for thee!

[breaks away.

Leon. And are you perjured then for virtue's sake?

How often have you sworn!-but go, for ever. [swoons.

Alon. Heart of my heart, and essence of my joy! Where art thou? oh, I am thine, and thine for ever! The groans of friendship shall be heard no more. For whatsoever crime I can commit,

I've felt the pains already.

Leon. Hold, Alonzo,

And hear a maid whom doubly thou hast conquered.
I love thy virtue as I love thy person,
And I adore thee for the pains it gave me ;
But as I felt the pains, I'll reap the fruit;
I'll shine out in my turn, and show the world
Thy great example was not lost upon me.
Be it enough that I have once been guilty;
In sight of such a pattern, to persist,
Ill suits a person honoured with your love.
My other titles to that bliss are weak;
I must deserve it by refusing it.

Thus then I tear me from thy hopes for ever.
Shall I contribute to Alonzo's crime?

No, though the life blood gushes from my heart,
You shall not be ashamed of Leonora ;
Or that late time may put our names together.
Nay, never shrink; take back the bright example
You lately lent; oh, take it while you may,
While I can give it you, and be immortal. [exit.
Alon. She's gone, and I shall see her face no
more;

But pine in absence, and till death adore.
When with cold dew my fainting brow is hung,
And my eyes darken, from my faltering tongue
Her name will tremble with a feeble moan,
And love with fate divide my dying groan. [erit.

Man. Alvarez pleads, indeed, That Leonora's heart is disinclined,

And pleads that only; so it was this morning,
When he concurred; the tempest broke the match,
And sunk his favour, when it sunk the gold.
The love of gold is double in his heart.
The voice of age, and of Alvarez too.

Zan. How does Don Carlos bear it?
Man. Like a man

Whose heart feels most a human heart can feel,
And reasons best a human heart can reason.
Zan. But is he then in absolute despair?
Man. Never to see his Leonora more.
And, quite to quench all future hope, Alvarez
Urges Alonzo to espouse his daughter

This very day; for he has learnt their loves.
Zan. Ha! was not that received with ecstacy
By Don Alonzo?

Man. Yes, at first; but soon

A damp came o'er him, it would kill his friend. Zan. Not if his friend consented! and since now He can't himself espouse her

The father's fixt-Don Carlos can not wed-
Alonzo may-but that will hurt his friend-
Nor can he ask his leave-or, if he did,
He might not gain it it is hard to give

Our consent to ills, though we must bear them.
Were it not then a master-piece, worth all
The wisdom I can boast, first to persuade
Alonzo to request it of his friend,

His friend to grant-then from that very grant,
The strongest proof of friendship man can give,
And other motives, to work out a cause
Of jealousy, to rack Alonzo's peace?

I have turned o'er the catalogue of human woes, Which sting the heart of man, and find none equal.

It is the hydra of calamities,

The seven-fold death! the jealous are the damned.
Oh, jealousy, each other passion's calm
To thee, thou conflagration of the soul!
Thou king of torments, thou grand counterpoise
For all the transports beauty can inspire!
Isa. Alonzo comes this way.
Zan. Most opportunely.
Withdraw, (Exit Isa.) "Ye subtle demons,
which reside

In courts, and do your work with bows and smiles,
That little enginery, more mischievous
Than fleets and armies, and the cannon's murder,
Teach me to look a lie; give me your maze
Of gloomy thought and intricate design,
To catch the man I hate, and then devour."

Enter DON ALONZO.

My lord, I give you joy.

Alon. Of what, good Zanga?

Zan. Is not the lovely Leonora yours?
Alon. What will become of Carlos?
Zan. He's your friend;

And since he can't espouse the fair himself,
Will take some comfort from Alonzo's fortune.
Alon. Alas, thou little know'st the force of love!
Love reigns a sultan with unrivalled sway;
Puts all relations, friendship's self to death,
If once he's jealous of it. I love Carlos;

Yet well I know what pangs I felt this morning,
At his intended nuptials. For myself
I then felt pains which now for him I feel.
Zan. You will not wed her then?

Insult his broken heart the very moment!

Zan. I understand you: but you'll wed her hereafter,

When your friend's gone, and his first pain assuaged.

Alon. Am I to blame in that?

Zan. My lord, I love

Your very errors: they are born from virtue. Your friendship, and what nobler passion claims The heart? does lead you blindfold to your ruin. Consider, wherefore did Alvarez break

Don Carlos' match, and wherefore urge Alonzo's? 'Twas the same cause, the love of wealth. To

morrow

May see Alonzo in Don Carlos' fortune;

A higher bidder is a better friend,

And there are princes sigh for Leonora.
When your friend's gone, you'll wed; why, when

the cause

Carlos has lost her; should you lose her too,
Which gives you Leonora now will cease.
Why, then you heap new torments on your friend,
By that respect which laboured to relieve him-
'Tis well he is disturbed; it makes him pause.

(aside.)

Alon. Think'st thou, my Zanga, should I ask

Don Carlos,

His goodness would consent that I should wed

her?

Zun. I know it would.

Alon. But then the cruelty

To ask it, and for me to ask it of him!

Zan. Methinks you are severe upon your friend.

Who was it gave him liberty and life?

Alon. That is the very reason which forbids it. Were I a stranger I could freely speak: In me it so resembles a demand, Exacting of a debt, it shocks my nature.

Zan. My lord, you know the sad alternative. Is Leonora worth one pang or not?

It hurts not me, my lord, but as I love you:
Warmly as you I wish Don Carlos well;
But I am likewise Don Alonzo's friend:
There all the difference lies between us two.
In me, my lord, you hear another self:
And, give me leave to add, a better too,
Cleared from these errors, which, though caused

by virtue,

Are such as may hereafter give you pain—
Don Lopez of Castile would not demur thus.

Alon. Perish the name! what, sacrifice the fair
To age and agliness, because set in gold?
I'll to Don Carlos, if my heart will let me.
I have not seen him since his sore affliction;
But shunned it, as too terrible to bear;
How shall I bear it now? I'm struck already.

[Erit.

Zan. Half of my work is done. I must secure He can't persuade his heart to wed the maid
Don Carlos, ere Alonzo speak with him.

[He gives a message to a servant, then returns]
Proud hated Spain, oft drenched in Moorish blood!
Dost thou not feel a deadly foe within thee?
Shake not the towers where'er I pass along.
Conscious of ruin, and their great destroyer?
Shake to the centre if Alonzo's dear.

Look down, oh holy Prophet! see me torture
This Christian dog, this infidel, which dares
To smite thy votaries, and spurn thy law;
And yet hopes pleasure from two radiant eyes,
Which look as they were lighted up for thee!
Shall he enjoy thy paradise below?

Blast the bold thought, and curse him with her
charms!

Enter DON CARLOS.

Without your leave, and that he fears to ask.
In perfect tenderness I urged him to it.
Knowing the deadly sickness of his heart,
Your overflowing goodness to your friend,
Your wisdom, and despair yourself to wed her,
I wrung a promise from him he would try:
And now I come, a mutual friend to both,
Without his privacy to let you know it,
And to prepare you kindly to receive him.
Car. Ha! if he weds I am undone indeed:
Not Don Alvarez' self can relieve me.

Zun. Alas, my lord, you know his heart is steel; 'Tis fixt, 'tis past, 'tis absolute despair.

Car. Oh, cruel heaven! and is it not enough
That I must never, never see her more?
Say, is it not enough that I must die;
But I must be tormented in the grave?-

Car. Hope, thou hast told me lies from day to Ask my consent! must 1 then give her to him?

I mourn your fate: but are no hopes surviving? Car. No hopes. Alvarez has a heart of steel. 'Tis fixt-'tis past-'tis absolute despair!

Zan. You wanted not to have your heart made
tender,

By your own pains, to feel a friend's distress.
Cur. I understand you well. Alonzo loves;
I pity him.

Zan. I dare be sworn you do.
Yet he has other thoughts.

Car. What can'st thou mean?

Zan. Indeed he has; and fears to ask a favour
A stranger from a stranger might request;
What costs you nothing, yet is all to him:
Nay, what indeed will to your glory add,
For nothing more than wishing your friend well.
Car. I pray be plain; his happiness is mine.
Zan. He loves to death; but so reveres his
friend,

Lead to his nuptial sheets the blushing maid?
-Leonora! never, never, never!

Oh!

Or worse- -alas! and can there be a worse?
A worse there is; nor can my nature bear it.
Zan. You have convinced me 'tis a dreadful
task.

I find Alonzo's quitting her this morning
For Carlos' sake, in tenderness to you,
Betrayed me to believe it less severe
Than I perceive it is.

Car. Thou dost upbraid me?

Zan. No, my good lord; but since you can't
comply,

'Tis my misfortune that I mentioned it;
For had I not, Alonzo would indeed
Have died, as now, but not by your decree.
Car. By my decree! do I decree his death?
I do shall I then lead her to his arms?
Oh, which side shall I take? be stabbed, or stab?
'Tis equal death! a choice of agonies!

Ah, no!-all other agonies are ease
To one-oh, Leonora! never, never!
Go, Zanga, go, defer the dreadful trial,
Though but a day, something, perchance, may
happen

To soften all to friendship and to love.

Go, stop my friend, let me not see him now;
But save us from an interview of death.

Zan. My lord, I'm bound in duty to obey you-
If I do not bring him, may Alonzo prosper.

[aside and exit. Car. What is this world?-thy school, oh, misery!

Our only lesson is to learn to suffer;

And he who knows not that, was born for nothing.
Though deep my pangs, and heavy at my heart,
My comfort is, each moment takes away

A grain, at least, from the dead load that's on me,
And gives a nearer prospect of the grave.
But put it most severely-should I live-
Live long-alas, there is no length in time!
Norin thy time, oh, man!—what's fourscore years?
Nay, what, indeed, the age of time itself,
Since cut out from Eternity's wide round!
Away, then, to a mind resolved and wise,
There is an impotence in misery,

Though well I knew that dreadful post of honour
gave thee to maintain. Ah! who could bear
Those eyes unhurt? the wounds myself have felt;
Which wounds alone should cause me to condemn
thee,

They plead in thy excuse; for I too strove
To shun those fires, and found 'twas not in man.

Alon. You cast in shades the failure of a friend,
And soften all; but think not you deceive me;
I know my guilt, and I implore your pardon,
As the sole glimpse I can obtain of peace.

Car. Pardon for him, who but this morning
threw

Fair Leonora from his heart all bathed
In ceaseless tears, and blushing for her love!
Who, like a rose-leaf wet with morning dew,
Would have stuck close, and clung for ever there!
But 'twas in thee, through fondness for thy friend,
To shut thy bosom against ecstacies;
For which, while this pulse beats, it beats to thee:

Which makes me smile, when all its shafts are in While this blood flows, it flows for my Alonzo,

me.

Yet Leonora she can make time long,
Its nature alter, as she altered mine.

While in the lustre of her charms I lay,
Whole summer suns roll unperceived away;
I years for days, and days for moments told,
And was surprized to hear that I grew old,
Now fate does rigidly its dues regain,
And every moment is an age of pain.

As he is going out, enter ZANGA and DON ALONZO.
ZANGA stops DON CARLOS.

fore is the worst ;

For 'tis his kindness which I fear to hurt.
Shall the same moment see him sink in woes,
And me providing for a flood of joys,
Rich in the plunder of his happiness?
No, I may die; but I can never speak.

Car. Now, now it comes; they are concerting it:
The first word strikes me dead-oh, Leonora !

Zan. Is this Don Carlos? this the boasted And shall another taste her fragrant breath?

friend?

How can you turn your back upon his sadness?
Look on him, and then leave him if you can.
Whose sorrows thus depress him? not his own;
This moment he could wed without your leave,
Car. I can not yield; nor can I bear his griefs.
Alonzo! [going to him and taking his hand.]
Alon. Oh, Carlos!

Car. Pray, forbear.

Alon. Art thou undone, and shall Alonzo smile?
Alonzo, who perhaps, in some degree
Contributed to cause thy dreadful fate?
I was deputed guardian of thy love;
But, oh, I loved myself! pour down afflictions
On this devoted head; make me your mark;
And be the world by my example taught,
How sacred it should hold the name of friend.
Car. You charge yourself unjustly: well I know
The only cause of my severe affliction.
Alvarez, curst Alvarez !—so much anguish
Felt for so small a failure, is one merit

Who knows what after-time may bring to pass?
Fathers may change, and I may wed her still.

[aside]

Alon. [to Zanga] Do I not see him quite pos

sessed with anguish,

Which, like a demon, writhes him to and fro;
And shall I pour in new? no fond desire,
No love: one pang at parting, and farewell.
I have no other love but Carlos now.

Car. Alas, my friend, why with such eager grasp
Dost press my hand, and weep upon my cheek?

Alon. If, after death our forms, as some believe,
Shall be transparent, naked every thought,
And friends meet friends, and read each other's
hearts,

Thoul't know one day that thou wast held most dear.
Farewell.

Car. Alonzo, stay-he can not speak---[holds him]
Lest it should grieve me-shall I be outdone?
And lose in glory, as I lose in love? [aside]
I take it much unkindly, my Alonzo,

Which faultless virtue wants. The crime was You think so meanly of me, not to speak, mine, When well I know your heart is near to bursting. Who placed thee there, where only thou could'st Have you forgot how you have bound me to you? fail; Your smallest friendship's liberty and life.

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