The Purgatory of St. Patrick Part 14

PHILIP. If important Business in this street detains you (Not a word whereon I offer), Give me room that I may pa.s.s.

PAUL [aside]. Somewhat timid, though quite proper, Goblins can be cowards too.-- Yes, sir, for a certain office I am here; go in, and welcome; I no gentleman would stop here Bound for bed, nor is it right.

PHILIP. The condition I acknowledge.-- [Aside.

Well, fine spectres, to be sure, Haunt this street: each night I notice That a man here comes before me, But when I approach him softly, Hereabouts on my own threshold, I, as now, have always lost him.

But what matters this to me?

[Exit.

[PAUL draws his sword and makes several flourishes.

PAUL. As he's gone, the right and proper Thing is this:-- Stay, stay, cold shadow, Whether you're a ghost or ghostess, I can't reach it. Why, by heaven!

Air alone I cut and chop here.

But if this is he we wait for In the night-time like two blockheads Faith! he is a lucky fellow To have got to bed so promptly.

But another noise I hear Sounding from that dark street yonder.

'Tis of swords and angry voices:-- There I run to reconnoitre.

[Exit.

SCENE IV.

ANOTHER STREET.

The m.u.f.fled Figure and LUIS.

LUIS. Sir, already we have issued From that street; if aught there stopped us, We are here alone, and may Hand to hand resume the combat.

And since powerless is my sword Thee to wound, I throw me on thee To know who thou art. Declare, Art thou demon, man, or monster?

What! no answer? Then I thus Dare myself to solve the problem, [He tears the cloak from the Figure, and finds beneath it a skeleton.

And find out . . . . Oh, save me, heaven!

G.o.d! what's this I see? what horrid Spectacle! What frightful vision!

What death-threatening fearful portent!

Stiff and stony corse, who art thou?

That of dust and ashes formed Now dost live?

THE FIGURE. Not know thyself?

This is thy most faithful portrait; I, alas! am Luis Enius.

[Disappears.*

[footnote] *The interview between Luis Enius and the Skeleton, says a recent writer, "is a scene truly Calderonic -- the hour, the place, the intended a.s.sa.s.sin, and the sudden reflection of himself, with his guilty conscience impersonate before him; it reminds us of that wild fable of Jeremy Taylor or Fuller, about the bird with a human face, that feeds on human flesh until it chances to see its reflection in a stream, and then it pines away for grief that it has killed its fellow." -- WESTMINSTER REVIEW, vol. liv. p. 306.

LUIS. Save me, heaven! what words of horror!

Save me, heaven! what sight of woe!

Prey of shadows and misfortunes.

Ah, I die.

[He falls on the ground.

SCENE V.

PAUL. -- LUIS.

PAUL. It is the voice Of my master. Succour cometh Opportunely now in me.

Sir!

LUIS. Ah! why return, dread monster?

I am overwhelmed, I faint here At your voice.

PAUL [aside]. G.o.d help his noddle!

He's gone mad! -- Dread monster? No, [Aloud.

I am Juan Paul, that donkey Who, not knowing why or wherefore, Is your servant.

LUIS. Ah! good, honest Paul, I knew you not, so frightened Am I. But at that why wonder, If myself I do not know?

Did you see a fearful corse here, A dead body with a soul, An apparent man supported By his skeleton alone, Bones from which the flesh had rotted, Fingers rigid, gaunt, and cold, Naked trunk, uncouth, abhorrent, Vacant s.p.a.ces whence the eyes, Having fallen, left bare the sockets?-- Whither has he gone?

PAUL. If I Saw that ghost, upon my honour, I could never say I saw it; For more dead than that dead body I had fallen on the other side At the moment.

LUIS. And no wonder; For my voice was mute, my breath Choked, my heart's warm beat forgotten, Clothed with ice were all my senses, Shod with lead my feet, my forehead Cold with sweat, I saw suspended Heaven's two mighty poles upon me, The brief Atlases sustaining Such a burden being my shoulders.

It appeared as if there started Rocks from every tender blossom, Giants from each opening rose; For the earth's disrupted hollows Wished from out their graves to cast Forth the dead who lay there rotten; Ah, among them I beheld Luis Enius! Heaven be softened!

Hide me, hide me, from myself!

Bury me in some deep corner Of earth's centre! Let me never See myself, since no self-knowledge Have I had! But now I have it; Now I know I am that monster Of rebellion, who defied, In my madness, pride, and folly, G.o.d Himself; the same, whose crimes Are so numerous and so horrid, That it were slight punishment, If the whole wrath of the G.o.dhead Was outpoured on me, and whilst G.o.d was G.o.d, eternal torments I should have to bear in h.e.l.l.

But I have this further knowledge, They were done against a G.o.d So divine, that He has promised To grant pardon, if my sins I with penitent tears acknowledge.

Such I shed; and, Lord, to prove That to-day to be another I begin, being born anew, To Thy hands my soul I offer.

Not as a strict judge then judge me, For the attributes of the G.o.dhead Are His justice and His mercy; With the latter, not the former, Judge me, then, and fix what penance I shall do to gain that object.

What will be the satisfaction Of my life?

[Music (within). The Purgatory.

LUIS. Bless me, heaven! what's this I hear?

A sweet strain divine and solemn; It appears a revelation From on high, since heaven doth often Help mysteriously the sinner.

And since I herein acknowledge A divine interposition, I will go into the Purgatory, Called, of Patrick, and fulfil, Humbly, faithfully, the promise Which I gave him long ago, If it is my happy fortune To see Patrick. If the attempt Is, as rumour hath informed me, Most terrific, since no human Strength avails against the horrors Of the place, or resolution To endure the demons' torments, Still my sins I must remember Were as dreadful. Skilful doctors Give for dangerous diseases Dangerous remedies to stop them.-- Come, then, with me, Paul, and see How here penitent and prostrate At the bishop's feet I'll kneel, And confess, for greater wonder, All my awful sins aloud.

PAUL. Go alone, then, for that project, Since so brave a man as you are Has no need of an accomplice; And there's no one I have heard of Who e'er went to h.e.l.l escorted By his servant. I'll go home, And live pleasantly in my cottage Without care. If ghosts there be, I'm content with matrimony.

[Exit.

LUIS. Public were my sins, and so Public penance I will offer In atonement. Like one crazed, Crying in the crowded cross-ways, I'll confess aloud my crimes.

Men, wild beasts, rude mountains, forests, Globes celestial, flinty rocks, Tender plants, dry elms, thick coppice, Know that I am Luis Enius, Tremble at my name, that monster Once of pride, as now I am Of humility the wonder.

I have faith and certain hope Of great happiness before me, If in G.o.d's great name shall Patrick Aid me in the Purgatory.

[Exit.