Life Is a Dream Part 13

CAPT.

Enough: whatever be to be retrieved No moment to be lost. For though Clotaldo Have no revolt to tell of in the tower, The capital will soon awake to ours, And the King's force come blazing after us.

Where is the Prince?

SOL.

Within; so fast asleep We woke him not ev'n striking off the chain We had so cursedly help bind him with, Not knowing what we did; but too ashamed Not to undo ourselves what we had done.

CAPT.

No matter, nor by whosesoever hands, Provided done. Come; we will bring him forth Out of that stony darkness here abroad, Where air and suns.h.i.+ne sooner shall disperse The sleepy fume which they have drugg'd him with.

(They enter the tower, and thence bring out Segismund asleep on a pallet, and set him in the middle of the stage.)

CAPT.

Still, still so dead asleep, the very noise And motion that we make in carrying him Stirs not a leaf in all the living tree.

SOLDIERS.

If living--But if by some inward blow For ever and irrevocably fell'd By what strikes deeper to the root than sleep?

--He's dead! He's dead! They've kill'd him-- --No--he breathes-- And the heart beats--and now he breathes again Deeply, as one about to shake away The load of sleep.

CAPT.

Come, let us all kneel round, And with a blast of warlike instruments, And acclamation of all loyal hearts, Rouse and restore him to his royal right, From which no royal wrong shall drive him more.

(They all kneel round his bed: trumpets, drums, etc.)

SOLDIERS.

--Segismund! Segismund! Prince Segismund!

--King Segismund! Down with Basilio!

--Down with Astolfo! Segismund our King! etc.

--He stares 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 faithful soldiery and subjects, now About you kneeling, but on fire to rise And cleave a pa.s.sage through your enemies, Until we seat you on your lawful throne.

For though your father, King Basilio, Now King of Poland, jealous of the stars That prophesy his setting with your rise, Here holds you ignominiously eclipsed, And would Astolfo, Duke of Muscovy, Mount to the throne of Poland after him; So will not we, your loyal soldiery And subjects; neither those of us now first Apprised of your existence and your right: Nor those that hitherto deluded by Allegiance false, their vizors now fling down, And craving pardon on their knees with us For that unconscious 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 vindicating with our lives 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 lay down, To bury in the depth of your own sea You that infest its shallows.

CAPT.

Sir!

SEG.

And now, Not in a palace, not in the fine clothes We all were in; but here, in the old place, And in our old accoutrement-- Only your vizors off, and lips unlock'd To mock me with that idle t.i.tle--

CAPT.

Nay, Indeed no idle t.i.tle, but your own, Then, now, and now for ever. For, behold, Ev'n as I speak, the mountain pa.s.ses fill And bristle with the advancing soldiery That glitters in your rising glory, sir; And, at our signal, echo to our cry, 'Segismund, King of Poland!' etc.

(Shouts, trumpets, etc.)

SEG.

Oh, how cheap The muster of a countless host of shadows, As impotent to do with as to keep!

All this they said before--to softer music.

CAPT.

Soft music, sir, to what indeed were shadows, That, following the suns.h.i.+ne of a Court, Shall back be brought with it--if shadows still, Yet to substantial reckoning.

SEG.

They shall?

The white-hair'd and white-wanded chamberlain, So busy with his wand too--the old King That I was somewhat hard on--he had been Hard upon me--and the fine feather'd Prince Who crow'd so loud--my cousin,--and another, Another cousin, we will not bear hard on-- And--But Clotaldo?

CAPT.

Fled, my lord, but close Pursued; and then--

SEG.

Then, as he fled before, And after he had sworn it on his knees, Came back to take me--where I am!--No more, No more of this! Away with you! Begone!

Whether but visions of ambitious night That morning ought to scatter, or grown out Of night's proportions you invade the day To scare me from my little wits yet left, Begone! I know I must be near awake, Knowing I dream; or, if not at my voice, Then vanish at the clapping of my hands, Or take this foolish fellow for your sport: Dressing me up in visionary glories, Which the first air of waking consciousness Scatters as fast as from the almander-- That, waking one fine morning in full flower, One rougher insurrection of the breeze Of all her sudden honour disadorns To the last blossom, and she stands again The winter-naked scare-crow that she was!

CAPT.

I know not what to do, nor what to say, With all this dreaming; I begin to doubt They have driv'n him mad indeed, and he and we Are lost together.

A SOLDIER (to Captain).

Stay, stay; I remember-- Hark in your ear a moment.

(Whispers.)

CAPT.

So--so--so?-- Oh, now indeed I do not wonder, sir, Your senses dazzle under practices Which treason, shrinking from its own device, Would now persuade you only was a dream; But waking was as absolute 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 wipe out that shame, have been the first To stir and lead us--Hark!

(Shouts, trumpets, etc.)

A SOLDIER.

Our forces, sir, Challenging King Basilio's, now in sight, And bearing down upon us.

CAPT.

Sir, you hear; A little hesitation 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.