ACT III.
SCENE I.—The Tower, etc., as in Act I. Scene I.
(Segismund, as at first, and Clotaldo.)
CLOTALDO.
Princes and princesses, and counsellors
Fluster'd to right and left—my life at—
But that was nothing
Even the white-hair'd, King
Seized on—Indeed, you wild work of it;
And so discover'd in your action,
Flinging your arms about you in your sleep,
Grinding your teeth—and, as I now remember,
Woke out and execution,
On those about you.
SEG.
Ay, I did indeed.
CLO.
Ev'n now your wild; your up—
Your and flutter, still
Under the of such a dream—
SEG.
A dream!
That seem'd as reality
As what I wake in now.
CLO.
Ay—wondrous how
Imagination in a sleeping brain
Out of the draws
Sensations as from the touch;
That we not only laugh aloud, and drench
With our pillow; but in the agony
Of some conflict, fight
And struggle—ev'n as you did; some, 'tis thought,
Under the dreamt-of of death have died.
SEG.
And what so very too—In that world
Where place as well as people all was strange,
Ev'n I almost as myself,
You only, you, Clotaldo—you, as much
And as now you are,
Came in this very you wore,
By such a of the past, you said,
To me of that present.
CLO.
Ay?
SEG.
Ay; and told me of the very stars
You tell me here of—how in of them,
I was to all that glory.
CLO.
Ay, By the false spirits' thus
A little truth all the false,
The to us.
SEG.
For you know
'Tis nothing but a dream?
CLO.
Nay, you yourself
Know best how you from that
You know you to sleep on?—
Why, have you the like before?
SEG.
Never, to such reality.
CLO.
Such dreams
Are the sleeping exhalations
Of that that smouldering
Under the of the fortune;
By which, when slumbers, or has lost
The of comparison,
We at something higher than we are—
Scarce to lower—to be kings,
Or conquerors, crown'd with or with gold,
Nay, itself on wings.
Which, by the way, now that I think of it,
May us the key to this high flight
That Eagle we were watching, and
Talking of as you to sleep last night.
SEG.
Last night? Last night?
CLO.
Ay, do you not remember
Envying his of flight,
As, from his of rock, he sail'd
Above the into the West,
That burn'd about him, while with wings
He in it as a brand
Is to in the fire it feeds?
SEG.
Last night—last night—Oh, what a day was that
Between that last night and this sad To-day!
CLO.
And yet, perhaps,
Only some dark moments, into which
Imagination, once up within
And of time and space,
Can infinities.
SEG.
And I remember
How the old man they call'd the King, who wore
The of gold about his hair,
And a his waist,
Just when my was at its height,
And after which it all was dark again,
Bid me all should be a dream.
CLO.
Ay—there another of dreams,
That once the 'gins to he dreams,
His is on the very of waking.
SEG.
Would it had been upon the of death
That no waking—
Lifting me up to glory, to back,
Stunn'd, crippled—wretcheder than ev'n before.
CLO.
Yet not so glorious, Segismund, if you
Your so ill
As to work and on those
Who meant you well.
SEG.
Who meant me!—me! their Prince
Chain'd like a felon—
CLO.
Stay, stay—Not so fast,
You dream'd the Prince, remember.
SEG.
Then in dream
Revenged it only.
CLO.
True. But as they say
Dreams are copies of the soul
Yet of the higher Will,
So that men sometimes in their confess
An unsuspected, or forgotten, self;
One must to check—ay, if one may,
Stifle born, such in ourselves
As makes, we see, such with our sleep,
And upon the day.
And, by the bye, for one test, Segismund,
Between such realities—
Since Dreaming, Madness, Passion, are akin
In missing each that rein
Of reason, and the will of man:
One test, I think, of sanity
Shall be that power of self-control,
To all passion, but much most of all
That and vindictive, that squares
With human, and with less,
Which us ev'n our enemies,
And much more those who, out of no will,
Mistakenly have taken up the rod
Which heaven, they think, has put into their hands.
SEG.
I think I soon shall have to try again—
Sleep has not yet done with me.
CLO.
Such a sleep.
Take my advice—'tis early yet—the sun
Scarce up above the mountain; go within,
And if the night you, try anew
With morning; they say come true.
SEG.
Oh, pray for me a sleep so fast
As shall and too.
(Exit into the tower.)
CLO.
So sleep; sleep fast: and sleep away those two
Night-potions, and the between
Which must believe; and, if to see
Again, Segismund! that must be.—
And yet, and yet, in these our lives,
Half night, day, sleeping, awake,
How if our life, like that of sleep,
Be all a in that life
To which we wake not till we sleep in death?
How if, I say, the we now trust
For date of comparison,—
Ay, ev'n the Reason's self that with them,
Should be in or intensity
Hereafter so transcended, and awake
To a so keen
As to themselves befool'd before,
In all that now they will for most?
One man—like this—but only so much longer
As life is longer than a summer's day,
Believed himself a king upon his throne,
And play'd at with his fellows' lives,
Who dream'd away their to him.
The dream'd of on the flood:
The soldier of his in blood:
The lover of the that he knew
Must yet to residue:
The merchant and the of his bags
Of finger'd gold; the of his rags:
And all this stage of earth on which we seem
Such actors, and the parts we play'd,
Substantial as the of a shade,
And Dreaming but a a dream!
FIFE.
Was it not said, sir,
By some as yet unborn,
That any chimney-sweep who for twelve hours
Dreams himself king is happy as the king
Who himself twelve hours a chimney-sweep?
CLO.
A for than yours
To upon—How came you here?—
FIFE.
Not of my own will, I you, sir.
No for myself: but I would know
About my mistress—I mean, master—
CLO.
Oh, Now I remember—Well, your master-mistress
Is well, and on its speeds,
As you shall—if you can but your tongue.
Can you?
FIFE.
I'd be at home again.
CLO.
Where you shall be the if while here
You can keep silence.
FIFE.
I may whistle, then?
Which by the of my name I do,
And also as a test
Of sanity—
CLO.
Well, then;
And for another you forgot,
That while you whistle, you can not.
Only remember—if you this pass—
FIFE.
(His are out, or he had call'd it spot)—
CLO.
A you to.
I must to to tell the King
The issue of this day,
That all his in night.
(To FIFE.)
Farewell. Remember.
FIFE.
But a moment—but a word!
When shall I see my mis—mas—
CLO.
Be content:
All in good time; and then, and not before,
Never to miss your master any more.
(Exit.)
FIFE.
Such talk of dreaming—dreaming—I begin
To if I be I am Fife,
Who with a who call'd herself a boy
Because—I there's some here—
He no petticoat, came on a time
Riding from Muscovy on a horse,
Who must have she was a entire,
To cant me off upon my face
Under this tower, wall-eyed and musket-tongued,
With a-pacing up and down,
Crying All's well when all is from well,
All the day long, and all the night, until
I dream—if what is be not waking—
Of a-tolling and rolling
With candles, crosses, banners, San-benitos,
Of which I wear the flamy-finingest,
Through and places throng'd with faces
To some platform—
Oh, I shall take a fire into my hand
With of my own dear Muscovy—
Only just over that Sierra there,
By which we into—No-land.
Now, if without a after me,
I but a of my old home
Perhaps of my own to take me there—
All's still—perhaps the within
Are it is night their masks—
God send 'em a good nightmare!—Now then—Hark!
Voices—and up the rocks—and men
Climbing like cats—Puss in the then.
(He hides.)
(Enter Soldiers up the rocks.)
CAPTAIN.
This is the pass, at any rate,
Where Poland ends and Muscovy begins.
SOLDIER.
We must be close upon the tower, I know,
That way up the ensconced.
CAPT.
How know you that?
SOL.
He told me so—the Page
Who put us on the scent.
SOL. 2.
And, as I think,
Will soon be here to it with us.
CAPT.
Meantime, our on these rocks
Useless, and than with their clatter—
Leave them behind, with one or two in charge,
And softly, softly, softly.
SOLDIERS.
—There it is!
—There what?
—The tower—the fortress—
—That the tower!—
—That mouse-trap! We it the rocks
With our own hands.
—The it among
Dwarf its and its strength;
Larger and than you think.
—No matter;
No place for Poland's Prince to be up in.
At it at once!
CAPT.
No—no—I tell you wait—
Till those give signal. For as yet
We know not who with us, and the fort
Is in man and musket.
SOL.
Shame to wait
For with such a at stake.
CAPT.
Because
Of such a at we wait for odds—
For if not at once, for lost:
For any long on their part
Would Basilio's to them
Ere we had him we come to rescue.
So softly, softly, softly, still—
A SOLDIER (discovering Fife).
Hilloa!
SOLDIERS.
—Hilloa! Here's some one skulking—
—Seize and him!
—Stab him at once, say I: the only way
To make all sure.
—Hold, every man of you!
And upon your knees!—Why, 'tis the Prince!
—The Prince!—
—Oh, I should know him anywhere,
And disguised.
—But the Prince is chain'd.
—And of a presence—
—'Tis he, I tell you;
Only bewilder'd as he was before.
God save your Royal Highness! On our knees
Beseech you answer us!
FIFE.
Just as you please.
Well—'tis this country's custom, I suppose,
To take a man every now and then
And set him ON the throne; just for the fun
Of him again into the dirt.
And now my turn is come. 'Tis very pretty.
SOL.
His have been distemper'd with their drugs.
But do you ask him, Captain.
CAPT.
On my knees,
And in the name of all who with me,
I do your Highness answer to
Your title.
FIFE.
Still, just as you please.
In my own opinion of myself—
But that may all be dreaming, which it seems
Is very much the fashion in this country
No Polish at all, but a lad
From Muscovy; where only help me back,
I promise to the crown
Of Poland with gentleman
You to set up.
SOLDIERS.
—From Muscovy?
—A then—
—Of Astolfo's—
—Spy! a spy
—Hang him at once!
FIFE.
No, pray don't of that!
SOL.
How you then set up for our Prince Segismund?
FIFE.
I set up!—I like that
When 'twas yourselves be-siegesmunded me.
CAPT.
No matter—Look!—The from the tower.
Prince Segismund!
SOL. (from the tower).
Prince Segismund!
CAPT.
All's well. Clotaldo safe secured?—
SOL. (from the tower).
No—by luck,
Instead of in, as we had look'd for,
He on at once, and off at gallop.
CAPT.
To Court, no doubt—a that—And yet
Perchance a that may work as well
As forethought. Having no suspicion
So will he none where his not going
Were of itself suspicious. But of those
Within, who with us?
SOL.
Oh, one and all
To the last man, or compell'd.
CAPT.
Enough: be to be retrieved
No moment to be lost. For though Clotaldo
Have no to tell of in the tower,
The will soon to ours,
And the King's come after us.
Where is the Prince?
SOL.
Within; so fast asleep
We him not ev'n off the chain
We had so help him with,
Not what we did; but too ashamed
Not to ourselves what we had done.
CAPT.
No matter, by hands,
Provided done. Come; we will him forth
Out of that here abroad,
Where air and sooner shall disperse
The which they have drugg'd him with.
(They enter the tower, and out Segismund asleep on a
pallet, and set him in the middle of the stage.)
CAPT.
Still, still so asleep, the very noise
And motion that we make in him
Stirs not a in all the tree.
SOLDIERS.
If living—But if by some blow
For and fell'd
By what to the than sleep?
—He's dead! He's dead! They've kill'd him—
—No—he breathes—
And the beats—and now he again
Deeply, as one about to shake away
The of sleep.
CAPT.
Come, let us all round,
And with a blast of instruments,
And of all hearts,
Rouse and him to his right,
From which no shall drive him more.
(They all his bed: trumpets, drums, etc.)
SOLDIERS.
—Segismund! Segismund! Prince Segismund!
—King Segismund! Down with Basilio!
—Down with Astolfo! Segismund our King! etc.
—He upon us wildly. He cannot speak.
—I said so—driv'n him mad.
—Speak to him, Captain.
CAPTAIN.
Oh Royal Segismund, our Prince and King,
Look on us—listen to us—answer us,
Your and subjects, now
About you kneeling, but on fire to rise
And a passage through your enemies,
Until we seat you on your throne.
For though your father, King Basilio,
Now King of Poland, of the stars
That his setting with your rise,
Here you eclipsed,
And would Astolfo, Duke of Muscovy,
Mount to the of Poland after him;
So will not we, your soldiery
And subjects; neither those of us now first
Apprised of your and your right:
Nor those that by
Allegiance false, their now down,
And on their with us
For that disloyalty,
Offer with us the service of their blood;
Not only we and they; but at our heels
The heart, if not the bulk, of Poland follows
To join their voices and their arms with ours,
In with our our own
Prince Segismund to Poland and her throne.
SOLDIERS.
—Segismund, Segismund, Prince Segismund!
—Our own King Segismund, etc.
(They all rise.)
SEG.
Again? So soon?—What, not yet done with me?
The sun is little higher up, I think,
Than when I last down,
To in the of your own sea
You that its shallows.
CAPT.
Sir!
SEG.
And now,
Not in a palace, not in the clothes
We all were in; but here, in the old place,
And in our old accoutrement—
Only your off, and unlock'd
To me with that title—
CAPT.
Nay,
Indeed no title, but your own,
Then, now, and now for ever. For, behold,
Ev'n as I speak, the fill
And with the soldiery
That in your glory, sir;
And, at our signal, echo to our cry,
'Segismund, King of Poland!' etc.
(Shouts, trumpets, etc.)
SEG.
Oh, how cheap
The of a of shadows,
As to do with as to keep!
All this they said before—to music.
CAPT.
Soft music, sir, to what were shadows,
That, the of a Court,
Shall be with it—if still,
Yet to reckoning.
SEG.
They shall?
The white-hair'd and white-wanded chamberlain,
So with his too—the old King
That I was hard on—he had been
Hard upon me—and the feather'd Prince
Who crow'd so loud—my cousin,—and another,
Another cousin, we will not hard on—
And—But Clotaldo?
CAPT.
Fled, my lord, but close
Pursued; and then—
SEG.
Then, as he before,
And after he had it on his knees,
Came to take me—where I am!—No more,
No more of this! Away with you! Begone!
Whether but of night
That ought to scatter, or out
Of night's you the day
To me from my little yet left,
Begone! I know I must be near awake,
Knowing I dream; or, if not at my voice,
Then at the of my hands,
Or take this for your sport:
Dressing me up in glories,
Which the air of consciousness
Scatters as fast as from the almander—
That, one in full flower,
One of the breeze
Of all her disadorns
To the last blossom, and she again
The winter-naked scare-crow that she was!
CAPT.
I know not what to do, what to say,
With all this dreaming; I to doubt
They have driv'n him indeed, and he and we
Are together.
A SOLDIER (to Captain).
Stay, stay; I remember—
Hark in your ear a moment.
(Whispers.)
CAPT.
So—so—so?—
Oh, now I do not wonder, sir,
Your under practices
Which treason, from its own device,
Would now you only was a dream;
But was as as this
You wake in now, as some who saw you then,
Prince as you were and are, can testify:
Not only saw, but under false allegiance
Laid hands upon—
SOLDIER 1.
I, to my shame!
SOLDIER 2.
And I!
CAPT.
Who, to out that shame, have been the first
To and lead us—Hark!
(Shouts, trumpets, etc.)
A SOLDIER.
Our forces, sir,
Challenging King Basilio's, now in sight,
And upon us.
CAPT.
Sir, you hear;
A little and delay,
And all is lost—your own right, and the lives
Of those who now maintain it at that cost;
With you all saved and won; without, all lost.
That of your right
Grant but a dream, if you will have it so;
Great themselves by great:
Or will you have it, this like that too,
People, and place, and time itself, all dream
Yet, being in't, and as the come
Quicker and than you can escape,
Adopt your soldiery,
Who, having a solid away,
Now put an into your hand,
And you piece-meal till you stand
Amidst us all complete in glittering,
If unsubstantial, steel—
ROSAURA (without).
The Prince! The Prince!
CAPT.
Who calls for him?
SOL.
The Page who spurr'd us hither,
And now, from a horse—
(Enter Rosaura)
ROSAURA.
Where is—but where I need no ask
Where the presence, all in arms,
Mutely and himself.
FIFE.
My Lady-lord—
ROS.
My own good Fife,
Keep to my side—and silence!—Oh, my Lord,
For the third time me here where first
You saw me, by a happy misadventure
Losing my own way here to it out
For you to with these men,
Adding the moment of my little cause
To yours; which, so much as it is,
By a hand in hand with mine;
The self-same who now your right,
Withholding mine—that, of itself alone,
I know the blood that in you
Would vindicate, of your own:
The right of innocence; and, more,
Spite of this attire, a woman's;
And of a stock I will not name
Till I, who it, have the shame.
Whom Duke Astolfo, Prince of Muscovy,
With all the of won,
And would have wedded, as I do believe,
Had not the of Poland for a Prince
Call'd him from Muscovy to join the prize
Of Poland with the Estrella's eyes.
I, him hither, as you saw,
Was upon these rocks; by
Clotaldo: who, for an old of love
He my family, with all his might
Served, and had me further, till my cause
Clash'd with his to his sovereign,
Which, as a subject, sir,
(And had a loyaller,)
Was still his first. He me to Court,
Where, for the second time, I your path;
Where, as I watch'd my opportunity,
Suddenly this public out;
Which, private into public wrong,
Yet it to along.
SEG.
Oh God, if this be dreaming, it not
To the of sleep
And the reason! Not to dream
Only what shall once or twice again
Return to about the sleeping brain
Till off for ever—
But one so quick, so thick—
The very and the circumstance
Of sense-confess'd foregone
In so-call'd so repeated,
The copy so like the original,
We know not which is which; and so-call'd
Itself so inextricably
Into the of truth;
The very that it
Returning to themselves no phantoms
In something so much like day,
And in the very place that not my worst
And shall deny
For the too well-remember'd theatre
Of my long tragedy—Strike up the drums!
If this be Truth, and all of us awake,
Indeed a famous is at stake:
If but a Vision I will see it out,
And, drive the Dream, I can but join the rout.
CAPT.
And in good time, sir, for a palpable
Touchstone of truth and too,
Here is Clotaldo taken.
SOLDIERS.
In with him!
In with the traitor!
(Clotaldo in.)
SEG.
Ay, Clotaldo, indeed—
Himself—in his old habit—his old self—
What! again, Clotaldo, for a while
To me this for truth, and afterwards
All for a lie?
CLO.
Awake or dreaming,
Down with that sword, and these theirs,
Drawn in 'gainst their Sovereign.
SEG. (about to strike).
Traitor! Traitor yourself!—
But soft—soft—soft!—
You told me, not so very long ago,
Awake or dreaming—I forget—my brain
Is not so clear about it—but I know
One test you gave me to between,
Which and people cannot master;
Or if the could, so best secure
A waking—Was't not so?
(To Rosaura).
Needs not your now, you see,
As in the before—
Clotaldo, old nurse and too
That only wert, to me if true—
Give him his sword; set him on a fresh horse;
Conduct him safely through my force;
And so God speed him to his sovereign's side!
Give me your hand; and all awake
Or all a-dreaming, ride, Clotaldo, ride—
Dream-swift—for we should overtake.
(A Battle may be to take place; after which)s
