Charles Di Tocca Part 23

ANTONIO: But you grasped----?

You held her?

BARDAS: Yes----

ANTONIO: Then--well?

BARDAS: She had a phial.

ANTONIO: G.o.d! G.o.d!

BARDAS: Out of her breast she drew it swift, And instant of it drank.

ANTONIO: Drank? and she fell?

No?--no?--Ah but you dashed it from her lips?

She did but taste?----

BARDAS: Only: and then----

ANTONIO: More? more?

BARDAS: "Is 't not enough," she pled to me, "Enough That I must wander the cold way of death Unto his arms? Go hence! There is no rest.

I will go down and clasp him, drift with him To some unhabited gray ocean vale G.o.d hath forgot. There will we dwell away From destiny and weeping, from despair!"

CHARLES: You left her?

BARDAS: As I held her piteous hand Came revellers who saw us--jested her Of taking a new love. She broke my grasp----

ANTONIO: And leapt?--down the wide air?

BARDAS: Swifter than all Prevention.

ANTONIO: Helena! O Helena!

That all thy loveliness should fare to this, Thy glory go in dark calamity!

BARDAS: I saw her as she leapt and until death Shall see no more.

ANTONIO (_drawing_): Blot it from you! Her face, Her sorrow and her fairness shall not stand Imprisoned in your eye, tho' 'twere to cry Relentlessly your crime.--But no--but no!

(_Sheathing his sword, he pauses, then staggers suddenly out._)

PAULA: Let me go to my lady!

CHARLES: Still her! She Forever hath a fluttering, a cry, Undurably. It presses the lone air With sensitive and aching agony.

PAULA (_witlessly, in tears_): I know thy song, my lady, I know, I know!

'Twas pretty and 'twas strange, but now I know.

(_Sings._) Sappho! Sappho!

In maiden woe (Let alone love, it spurns and burns!) Wept--wept, and leapt-- O love is so!

(Let alone love, it burns!)

My lady! O my lady! my sweet lady!

(_She is led out._)

FULVIA: This is most sad--most sad, and pitiful.

CHARLES: I cannot bear her voice upon my heart

_Enter AGABUS gazing into the air._

Again this monk? this dog of death?--and now?

AGABUS: My trusty Shadow (_Laughs madly._) Ha, he has been here!

My king o' the worms and all corruption!-- (_Approaching CHARLES._) Lovers, and lovers! O she leapt as 'twere To Christ and not sin's Pit! And he is gone To follow her! The devil's nine wits are Too many!

(_Wanders about._)

FULVIA: My lord! Your limbs are frozen, And bloodlessly you stand! Move, rouse, O breathe!

It is not truth but madness that he speaks.

(_A cry and clanking of armor are heard in the Hall. A SOLDIER bursts into the chamber._)

SOLDIER: O duke! O duke! (_Sinks to his knee._)

CHARLES: (_gazes at him, struggling to speak_): Rise--go--and, if thou canst-- To pray.

SOLDIER: O sir----!

CHARLES: You have no tidings.

SOLDIER: Sir----

CHARLES (_desperately_): None, fool! but come to say what silence groans, What earth numb and in deadness raves to me.

To tell Antonio hath gone out and o'er A precipice hath stepped for sake of love.

This is not tidings--hath it not on me Been fixed forever? It is older than Despair, as old as pain! (_To HaeMON, who has entered._) Your sister----

BARDAS: Haemon----!

CARDINAL: Hold him not in this anguish.

FULVIA: She and our Antonio have left us to our tears.

(_HaeMON stands motionless._)

CHARLES: Let no one groan. I say let no one groan-- Fury on him that groans! (_He blindly rocks to and fro._)

FULVIA: My lord!