Early Plays - Catiline, the Warrior's Barrow, Olaf Liljekrans - LightNovelsOnl.com
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CATILINE. Aurelia, alas, past is your happiness;-- There we can never, never think of going.
There we can never go!
AURELIA. You frighten me!
Yet, surely,--you are jesting, Catiline?
CATILINE. I jest! Would only that it were a jest!
Each word you speak, like the avenging dart Of Nemesis, pierces my heavy heart, Which fate will never grant a moment's rest.
AURELIA. O G.o.ds! speak, speak! What do you mean?
CATILINE. See here!
Here is your villa,--here your future joys!
[He draws out a purse filled with gold and throws it on the table.]
AURELIA. Oh, you have sold--?
CATILINE. Yes,--all I sold today;-- And to what end? In order to corrupt--
AURELIA. O Catiline, no more! Let us not think On this affair; sorrow is all it brings.
CATILINE. Your quiet-patience wounds me tenfold more Than would a cry of anguish from your lips!
[An old SOLDIER enters and approaches CATILINE.]
THE SOLDIER. Forgive me, master, that thus unannounced I enter your abode at this late hour.
Ah, be not wroth--
CATILINE. What is your errand here?
THE SOLDIER. My errand here is but a humble prayer, Which you will hear. I am a needy man, One who has sacrificed his strength for Rome.
Now I am feeble, can no longer serve; Unused my weapons rust away at home.
The hope of my old age was in a son, Who labored hard and was my one support.
Alas,--in prison now he's held for debt.
And not a ray of hope--. Oh, help me, master!
[Kneeling.]
THE SOLDIER. If but a penny! I have gone on foot From house to house; each door is long since closed.
I know not what to do--
CATILINE. The paltry knaves!
A picture this is of the many's want.
Thus they reward the old brave company.
No longer grat.i.tude is found in Rome!
Time was I might have wished in righteous wrath To punish them with sword and crimson flames; But tender words have just been spoken here; My soul is moved; I do not wish to punish;-- To ease misfortune likewise is a deed.-- Take this, old warrior;--clear with this your debt.
[He hands him the purse with the gold.]
THE SOLDIER. [Rising.]
O gracious lord,--dare I believe your words?
CATILINE. Yes; but be quick, old man; go free your son.
[The SOLDIER goes hurriedly out.]
CATILINE. A better use,--not so, Aurelia dear?-- Than bribery and purchasing of votes?
n.o.ble it is to crush the tyrant's might; Yet quiet solace too has its reward.
AURELIA. [Throws herself in his arms.]
Oh, rich and n.o.ble is your spirit still.
Yes,--now I know my Catiline again.
[An underground tomb with a freshly walled-in pa.s.sage high on the rear wall. A lamp burns faintly.]
[FURIA, in long black robes, is standing in the tomb as if listening.]
FURIA. A hollow sound. 'Tis thunder rolls above.
I hear its rumble even in the tomb.
Yet is the tomb itself so still--so still!
Am I forever d.a.m.ned to drowsy rest?
Never again am I to wander forth By winding paths, as ever was my wish?
FURIA. [After a pause.]
A strange, strange life it was;--as strange a fate.
Meteor-like all came--and disappeared.
He met me. A mysterious magic force, An inner harmony, together drew us.
I was his Nemesis;--and he my victim;-- Yet punishment soon followed the avenger.
FURIA. [Another pause.]
Now daylight rules the earth.--Am I perchance To slip--unknowing--from the realm of light?
'Tis well, if so it be,--if this delay Within the tomb be nothing but a flight Upon the wings of lightning into Hades,-- If I be nearing even now the Styx!
There roll the leaden billows on the sh.o.r.e; There silently old Charon plies his boat.
Soon am I there! Then shall I seat myself Beside the ferry,--question every spirit, Each fleeting shadow from the land of life, As light of foot he nears the river of death,-- Shall ask each one in turn how Catiline Fares now among the mortals of the earth,-- Shall ask each one how he has kept his oath.
I shall illumine with blue sulphur light Each spectral countenance and hollow eye,-- To ascertain if it be Catiline.
And when he comes, then shall I follow him;-- Together we shall make the journey hence, Together enter Pluto's silent hall.
I too a shadow shall his shade pursue;-- Where Catiline is, must Furia also be!
FURIA. [After a pause, more faintly.]
The air is growing close and clammy here,-- And every breath in turn more difficult.-- Thus am I drawing near the gloomy swamps, Where creep the rivers of the underworld.
FURIA. [She listens; a dull noise is heard.]
A m.u.f.fled sound? 'Tis like the stroke of oars.
It is the ferryman of shades who comes To take me hence. No, here--here will I wait!
[The stones in the freshly walled-in pa.s.sage are broken asunder.
