Charles Di Tocca - LightNovelsOnl.com
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I care not!--I care not! We must have mirth!
Have mirth! though it be laughter at d.a.m.ned souls.
HaeMON: And I must wake it? I with laugh and lay, Doting upon dishonor?
CHARLES: What means he?
HaeMON: Give me again my sister from these walls, Since might is yours, strip from me wealth and life And more, and all--but let her not, no, no, Meet here the touch and leprosy of shame!
CHARLES (_laughing_): Said I not, said I, friends, we should have mirth?
You shall laugh with me laughter bright as wine.
ANTONIO: But, sir, this is not good for laughter! Sir!
HaeMON (_to ANTONIO_): Ah, put the lamb on--bleat mock sympathy!
CHARLES (_still laughing_): Fulvia, O, he foots it in the tracks Of your own fear! and wanders to delusion!
HaeMON: Will you laugh at me, fiend!
CHARLES: Boy!
HaeMON: Had I but Omnipotence a moment and could dash Annihilation on you and your race!
(_Throws his glove in ANTONIO'S face._)
HELENA: Haemon!
FULVIA (_restraining her_): No, Helena.
CHARLES: Omnipotence?
And could Omnipotence make such a fool?
There must be two G.o.ds in the world to do it.
HaeMON: She shall not----!
(_Attempts to kill HELENA._)
ANTONIO (_preventing_): Fury!--Ah! what would you do?
CHARLES: Such things can be? A sister, yet he strikes?
(_HaeMON is seized._)
HELENA: O let me speak with him, sir, let me speak!
CHARLES: Not now, girl, no, not now--lest in his breath Be venom for thee! (_To soldiers._) Shut him from our gates Till he repent this fever.
(_HaeMON goes quietly out._) (_To guests who are suspicious and undetermined._) If you stare so Will the skies stop! Have I not arm in arm Friended this youth and meant him honor still?
Leave me. I had a thing to tell; but it Must wait more seasonable festivity.
(_To PAULA._) See to thy mistress, child. Antonio, stay.
(_All go but ANTONIO and CHARLES, who leaves his chair slowly and with dejection._)
ANTONIO: Father----
CHARLES (_unheeding_): Did I not humble me?
ANTONIO: Father----?
CHARLES: Or ask more than a brevity of joy To bud on my life's withering close?
ANTONIO: But, sir----!
CHARLES: If it bud not----!
ANTONIO: What thought impels and wrings These angers from your eyes?
CHARLES (_slowly, gazing at him_): You're like your mother.
ANTONIO: In trouble for your peace, more than in feature.
CHARLES: Peace--peace? Antonio, a dream has come: To stir--to wake--to learn it is a dream-- I must not, will not look on such abyss.
You love me, boy?
ANTONIO: Sir, well: you cannot doubt it.
CHARLES: There has been darkness in me--and it seems Such night as would put out a heaven of hope, Quench an eternity of flaming joy!
I have sunk down under the world and hit On nethermost despair: flown blind across An infinite unrest!
ANTONIO: Forget it, now.
CHARLES: Had I drunk Lethe's all 'twould not have stilled The crying of my desolation's want.
Within me tenderness to iron turned, Gladness to worm and gloom.--But 'tis o'erpast.
A rift, a smile, a breath has come--blown me From torture to an ecstasy.
ANTONIO: To----?
CHARLES: Ecstasy!
Such as surrounds Hyperion on his sun, Or Pleiads sweeping seven-fold the night.
ANTONIO: And you--this breath----?
CHARLES: Is--you are pale!
And press your lips from trembling!
ANTONIO: No--yes--well-- This ecstasy?
CHARLES: Is love! is love that-- How?
You feign! distress and groaning tear in you!
ANTONIO: No. She you love----
CHARLES: O, Eve new-burst on Eden, All pure with the prime beauty of G.o.d's breath, Was not so!
