The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 117

[S. T. C.]

REMORSE[819:1]

A TRAGEDY IN FIVE ACTS[819:2]

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

1797. 1813-1834.

_VELEZ = MARQUIS VALDEZ, Father to the two brothers, and Dona Teresa's Guardian._ _ALBERT = DON ALVAR, the eldest son._ _OSORIO = DON ORDONIO, the youngest son._ _FRANCESCO = MONVIEDRO, a Dominican and Inquisitor._ _MAURICE = ZULIMEZ, the faithful attendant on Alvar._ _FERDINAND = ISIDORE, a Moresco Chieftain, ostensibly a Christian._ _Familiars of the Inquisition._ _NAOMI = NAOMI._ _Moors, Servants, &c._ _MARIA = DOnA TERESA, an Orphan Heiress._ _ALHADRA, wife } = _ALHADRA, Wife of Isidore._ of FERDINAND_, } _FAMILIARS OF THE INQUISITION._ _MOORS, SERVANTS_, &c.

_Time. The reign of Philip II., just at the close of the civil wars against the Moors, and during the heat of the persecution which raged against them, shortly after the edict which forbade the wearing of Moresco apparel under pain of death._

FOOTNOTES:

[819:1] _Remorse_, a recast of _Osorio_, was first played at Drury Lane Theatre, January 23, 1813, and had a run of twenty nights. It was first published as a pamphlet of seventy-two pages in 1813, and ran through three editions. The Second Edition, which numbered seventy-eight pages, was enlarged by an Appendix consisting of a pa.s.sage which formed part of Act IV, Scene 2 of _Osorio_, and had been published in the _Lyrical Ballads_ (1798, 1800, 1802, and 1805) as a separate poem ent.i.tled 'The Foster-Mother's Tale' (_vide ante_, pp. 182-4, 571-4), and of a second pa.s.sage numbering twenty-eight lines, which was afterwards printed as a footnote to _Remorse_, Act II, Scene 2, line 42 (_vide post_, p. 842) 'You are a painter, &c.' The Third Edition was a reissue of the Second.

In the _Athenaeum_, April 1, 1896, J. D. Campbell points out that there were three issues of the First Edition, of which he had only seen the first; viz. (1) the normal text [Edition I]; (2) a second issue [Edition I (_b_)] quoted by the Editor (R. H. Shepherd) of _Osorio_, 1877, as a variant of Act V, line 252; (3) a third issue quoted by the same writer in his edition of _P. W._, 1877-80, iii. 154, 155 [Edition I (_c_)].

There is a copy of Edition I (_b_) in the British Museum: save in respect of Act V, line 252, it does not vary from Edition I. I have not seen a copy of Edition I (_c_). Two copies of _Remorse_ annotated by S.

T. Coleridge have pa.s.sed through my hands, (1) a copy of the First Edition presented to the Manager of the Theatre, J. G. Raymond (_MS.

R._), and (2) a copy of the Second Edition presented to Miss Sarah Hutchinson (_MS. H._). _Remorse_ is included in 1828, 1829, and 1834.

[819:2] This Tragedy has a particular advantage--it has the _first_ scene, in which Prologue plays Dialogue with Dumby. (_MS. H._)

ACT I

SCENE I

_The Sea Sh.o.r.e on the Coast of Granada._

_DON ALVAR, wrapt in a Boat cloak, and ZULIMEZ (a Moresco), both as just landed._

_Zulimez._ No sound, no face of joy to welcome us!

_Alvar._ My faithful Zulimez, for one brief moment Let me forget my anguish and their crimes.

If aught on earth demand an unmix'd feeling, 'Tis surely this--after long years of exile, 5 To step forth on firm land, and gazing round us, To hail at once our country, and our birth-place.

Hail, Spain! Granada, hail! once more I press Thy sands with filial awe, land of my fathers!

_Zulimez._ Then claim your rights in it! O, revered Don Alvar, 10 Yet, yet give up your all too gentle purpose.

It is too hazardous! reveal yourself, And let the guilty meet the doom of guilt!

_Alvar._ Remember, Zulimez! I am his brother, Injured indeed! O deeply injured! yet 15 Ordonio's brother.

_Zulimez._ n.o.bly-minded Alvar!

This sure but gives his guilt a blacker dye.

_Alvar._ The more behoves it I should rouse within him Remorse! that I should save him from himself.

_Zulimez._ Remorse is as the heart in which it grows: 20 If that be gentle, it drops balmy dews Of true repentance; but if proud and gloomy, It is a poison-tree, that pierced to the inmost Weeps only tears of poison!

_Alvar._ And of a brother, Dare I hold this, unproved? nor make one effort 25 To save him?--Hear me, friend! I have yet to tell thee, That this same life, which he conspired to take, Himself once rescued from the angry flood, And at the imminent hazard of his own.

Add too my oath--

_Zulimez._ You have thrice told already 30 The years of absence and of secrecy, To which a forced oath bound you; if in truth A suborned murderer have the power to dictate A binding oath--

_Alvar._ My long captivity Left me no choice: the very wish too languished 35 With the fond hope that nursed it; the sick babe Drooped at the bosom of its famished mother.

But (more than all) Teresa's perfidy; The a.s.sa.s.sin's strong a.s.surance, when no interest, No motive could have tempted him to falsehood: 40 In the first pangs of his awaken'd conscience, When with abhorrence of his own black purpose The murderous weapon, pointed at my breast, Fell from his palsied hand--

_Zulimez._ Heavy presumption!

_Alvar._ It weighed not with me--Hark! I will tell thee all; 45 As we pa.s.sed by, I bade thee mark the base Of yonder cliff--

_Zulimez._ That rocky seat you mean, Shaped by the billows?--

_Alvar._ There Teresa met me The morning of the day of my departure.

We were alone: the purple hue of dawn 50 Fell from the kindling east aslant upon us, And blending with the blushes on her cheek, Suffused the tear-drops there with rosy light.

There seemed a glory round us, and Teresa The angel of the vision![821:1]

Had'st thou seen 55 How in each motion her most innocent soul Beamed forth and brightened, thou thyself would'st tell me, Guilt is a thing impossible in her!

She must be innocent!

_Zulimez._ Proceed, my lord!

_Alvar._ A portrait which she had procured by stealth, 60 (For even then it seems her heart foreboded Or knew Ordonio's moody rivalry) A portrait of herself with thrilling hand She tied around my neck, conjuring me, With earnest prayers, that I would keep it sacred 65 To my own knowledge: nor did she desist, Till she had won a solemn promise from me, That (save my own) no eye should e'er behold it Till my return. Yet this the a.s.sa.s.sin knew, Knew that which none but she could have disclosed. 70

_Zulimez._ A d.a.m.ning proof!

_Alvar._ My own life wearied me!

And but for the imperative voice within, With mine own hand I had thrown off the burthen.

That voice, which quelled me, calmed me: and I sought The Belgic states: there joined the better cause; 75 And there too fought as one that courted death!

Wounded, I fell among the dead and dying, In death-like trance: a long imprisonment followed.

The fulness of my anguish by degrees Waned to a meditative melancholy; 80 And still the more I mused, my soul became More doubtful, more perplexed; and still Teresa, Night after night, she visited my sleep, Now as a saintly sufferer, wan and tearful, Now as a saint in glory beckoning to me! 85 Yes, still as in contempt of proof and reason, I cherish the fond faith that she is guiltless!

Hear then my fix'd resolve: I'll linger here In the disguise of a Moresco chieftain.-- The Moorish robes?--

_Zulimez._ All, all are in the sea-cave, 90 Some furlong hence. I bade our mariners Secrete the boat there.

_Alvar._ Above all, the picture Of the a.s.sa.s.sination--

_Zulimez._ Be a.s.sured That it remains uninjured.

_Alvar._ Thus disguised I will first seek to meet Ordonio's--wife! 95 If possible, alone too. This was her wonted walk, And this the hour; her words, her very looks Will acquit her or convict.