Kitabı oku: «Don Carlos», sayfa 6

ACT III

SCENE I

The king's bedchamber. On the toilet two burning lights. In the background several pages asleep resting on their knees. The KING, in half undress, stands before the table, with one arm bent over the chair, in a reflecting posture. Before him is a medallion and papers.

KING

 
   Of a warm fancy she has ever been!
   Who can deny it? I could never love her,
   Yet has she never seemed to miss my love.
   And so 'tis plain – she's false!
      [Makes a movement which brings him to himself.
      He looks round with surprise.
                    Where have I been?
   Is no one watching here, then, save the king?
   The light's burnt out, and yet it is not day.
   I must forego my slumbers for to-night.
   Take it, kind nature, for enjoyed! No time
   Have monarchs to retrieve the nights they lose.
   I'm now awake, and day it shall be.
 

[He puts out the candles, and draws aside the window-curtain.

He observes the sleeping pages – remains for some time standing before them – then rings a bell.

 
                      All
   Asleep within the antechamber, too?
 

SCENE II

The KING, COUNT LERMA.

LERMA (surprised at seeing the KING)

 
   Does not your majesty feel well?
 

KING

 
   The left Pavilion of the palace was in flames:
   Did you not hear the alarum?
 

LERMA

 
                  No, my liege.
 

KING

 
   No! What? And did I only dream it then?
   'Twas surely real! Does not the queen sleep there?
 

LERMA

 
   She does, your majesty.
 

KING

 
                This dream affrights me!
   In future let the guards be doubled there
   As soon as it grows dark. Dost hear? And yet
   Let it be done in secret. I would not —
   Why do you gaze on me?
 

LERMA

 
               Your bloodshot eyes,
   I mark, that beg repose. Dare I remind
   My liege of an inestimable life,
   And of your subjects, who with pale dismay
   Would in such features read of restless nights?
   But two brief hours of morning sleep would —
 

KING (with troubled look)

 
   Shall I find sleep within the Escurial?
   Let the king sleep, and he may lose his crown,
   The husband, his wife's heart. But no! not so;
   This is but slander. Was it not a woman
   Whispered the crime to me? Woman, thy name
   Is calumny? The deed I'll hold unproved,
   Until a man confirms the fatal truth!
 

[To the pages, who in the meanwhile have awaked.

 
   Summon Duke Alva!
 

[Pages go.

 
   Count, come nearer to me.
 

[Fixes a searching look on the COUNT.

 
   Is all this true? Oh for omniscience now,
   Though but so long as a man's pulse might beat.
   Is it true? Upon your oath! Am I deceived?
 

LERMA

 
   My great, my best of kings!
 

KING (drawing back)

 
                  King! naught but king!
   And king again! No better answer than
   Mere hollow echo! When I strike this rock
   For water, to assuage my burning thirst,
   It gives me molten gold.
 

LERMA

 
                What true, my liege?
 

KING

 
   Oh, nothing, nothing! Leave me! Get thee gone!
 

[The COUNT going, the KING calls him back again.

 
   Say, are you married? and are you a father?
 

LERMA

 
   I am, your majesty.
 

KING

 
              What! married – yet
   You dare to watch a night here with your king!
   Your hair is gray, and yet you do not blush
   To think your wife is honest. Get thee home;
   You'll find her locked, this moment, in your son's
   Incestuous embrace. Believe your king.
   Now go; you stand amazed; you stare at me
   With searching eye, because of my gray hairs.
   Unhappy man, reflect. Queens never taint
   Their virtue thus: doubt it, and you shall die!
 

LERMA (with warmth)

 
   Who dare do so? In all my monarch's realms
   Who has the daring hardihood to breathe
   Suspicion on her angel purity?
   To slander thus the best of queens —
 

KING

 
                      The best!
   The best, from you, too! She has ardent friends,
   I find, around. It must have cost her much —
   More than methinks she could afford to give.
   You are dismissed; now send the duke to me.
 

LERMA

 
   I hear him in the antechamber.
 

[Going.

KING (with a milder tone)

 
                   Count,
   What you observed is very true. My head
   Burns with the fever of this sleepless night!
   What I have uttered in this waking dream,
   Mark you, forget! I am your gracious king!
 

[Presents his hand to kiss. Exit LERMA, opening

 
      the door at the same time to DUKE ALVA.
 

SCENE III

The KING and DUKE ALVA.

ALVA (approaching the KING with an air of doubt)

 
   This unexpected order, at so strange
   An hour!
 

[Starts on looking closer at the KING.

 
        And then those looks!
 

KING (has seated himself, and taken hold of the medallion on the table. Looks at the DUKE for some time in silence)

 
                   Is it true
   I have no faithful servant!
 

ALVA

 
                  How?
 

KING

 
                     A blow
   Aimed at my life in its most vital part!
   Full well 'twas known, yet no one warned me of it.
 

ALVA (with a look of astonishment)

 
   A blow aimed at your majesty! and yet
   Escape your Alva's eye?
 

KING (showing him letters)

 
                Know you this writing?
 

ALVA

 
   It is the prince's hand.
 

KING (a pause – watches the DUKE closely)

 
                Do you suspect
   Then nothing? Often have you cautioned me
   Gainst his ambition. Was there nothing more
   Than his ambition should have made me tremble?
 

ALVA

 
   Ambition is a word of largest import,
   And much it may comprise.
 

KING

 
                 And had you naught
   Of special purport to disclose?
 

ALVA (after a pause, mysteriously)

 
                    Your majesty
   Hath given the kingdom's welfare to my charge:
   On this my inmost, secret thoughts are bent,
   And my best vigilance. Beyond this charge
   What I may think, suspect, or know belongs
   To me alone. These are the sacred treasures
   Which not the vassal only, but the slave,
   The very slave, may from a king withhold.
   Not all that to my mind seems plain is yet
   Mature enough to meet the monarch's ear.
   Would he be answered – then must I implore
   He will not question as a king.
   KING (handing the letters).
                    Read these.
 

ALVA (reads them, and turns to the KING with a look of terror)

 
   Who was the madman placed these fatal papers
   In my king's hands?
 

KING

 
              You know, then, who is meant?
   No name you see is mentioned in the paper.
 

ALVA (stepping back confused)

 
   I was too hasty!
 

KING

 
            But you know!
 

ALVA (after some consideration)

 
                    'Tis spoken!
   The king commands, – I dare not now conceal.
   I'll not deny it – I do know the person.
 

KING (starting up in violent emotion)

 
   God of revenge! inspire me to invent
   Some new, unheard-of torture! Is their crime
   So clear, so plain, so public to the world,
   That without e'en the trouble of inquiry
   The veriest hint suffices to reveal it?
   This is too much! I did not dream of this!
   I am the last of all, then, to discern it —
   The last in all my realm?
 

ALVA (throwing himself at the KING'S feet)

 
                 Yes, I confess
   My guilt, most gracious monarch. I'm ashamed
   A coward prudence should have tied my tongue
   When truth, and justice, and my sovereign's honor
   Urged me to speak. But since all else are silent
   And since the magic spell of beauty binds
   All other tongues, I dare to give it voice;
   Though well I know a son's warm protestations,
   A wife's seductive charms and winning tears —
 

KING (suddenly with warmth)

 
   Rise, Alva! thou hast now my royal promise;
   Rise, and speak fearlessly!
 

ALVA (rising)

 
                  Your majesty,
   Perchance, may bear in your remembrance still
   What happened in the garden at Aranjuez.
   You found the queen deserted by her ladies,
   With looks confused – alone, within a bower, —
 

KING

 
   Proceed. What further have I yet to hear?
 

ALVA

 
   The Marchioness of Mondecar was banished
   Because she boldly sacrificed herself
   To save the queen! It has been since discovered
   She did no more than she had been commanded.
   Prince Carlos had been there.
 

KING (starting)

 
                   The prince! What more?
 

ALVA

 
   Upon the ground the footsteps of a man
   Were traced, till finally they disappeared
   Close to a grotto, leftward of the bower,
   Where lay a handkerchief the prince had dropped.
   This wakened our suspicions. But besides,
   The gardener met the prince upon the spot, —
   Just at the time, as near as we can guess,
   Your majesty appeared within the walk.
 

KING (recovering from gloomy thought)

 
   And yet she wept when I but seemed to doubt!
   She made me blush before the assembled court,
   Blush to my very self! By heaven! I stood
   In presence of her virtue, like a culprit.
 

[A long and deep silence. He sits down and hides his face.

 
   Yes, Alva, you are right! All this may lead
   To something dreadful – leave me for a moment —
 

ALVA

 
   But, gracious sire, all this is not enough —
 

KING (snatching up the papers)

 
   Nor this, nor this? – nor all the harmony
   Of these most damning proofs? 'Tis clear as day —
   I knew it long ago – their heinous guilt
   Began when first I took her from your hands,
   Here in Madrid. I think I see her now,
   With look of horror, pale as midnight ghost,
   Fixing her eyes upon my hoary hair!
   'Twas then the treacherous game began!
 

ALVA

 
                       The prince,
   In welcoming a mother – lost his bride!
   Long had they nursed a mutual passion, long
   Each other's ardent feelings understood,
   Which her new state forbade her to indulge.
   The fear which still attends love's first avowal
   Was long subdued. Seduction, bolder grown,
   Spoke in those forms of easy confidence
   Which recollections of the past allowed.
   Allied by harmony of souls and years,
   And now by similar restraints provoked,
   They readily obeyed their wild desires.
   Reasons of state opposed their early union —
   But can it, sire, be thought she ever gave
   To the state council such authority?
   That she subdued the passion of her soul
   To scrutinize with more attentive eye
   The election of the cabinet. Her heart
   Was bent on love, and won a diadem.
 

KING (offended, and with bitterness)

 
   You are a nice observer, duke, and I
   Admire your eloquence. I thank you truly.
 

[Rising coldly and haughtily.

 
   But you are right. The queen has deeply erred
   In keeping from me letters of such import,
   And in concealing the intrusive visit
   The prince paid in the garden: – from a false
   Mistaken honor she has deeply erred
   And I shall question further.
 

[Ringing the bell.

 
                   Who waits now
   Within the antechamber? You, Duke Alva,
   I need no longer. Go.
 

ALVA

 
               And has my zeal
   A second time displeased your majesty?
 

KING (to a page who enters)

 
   Summon Domingo. Duke, I pardon you
   For having made me tremble for a moment,
   With secret apprehension, lest yourself
   Might fall a victim to a foul misdeed.
 

[Exit ALVA.

SCENE IV

The KING, DOMINGO.

KING walks up and down the room to collect his thoughts.

DOMINGO (after contemplating the KING for some time with a respectful silence)

 
   How joyfully surprised I am to find
   Your majesty so tranquil and collected.
 

KING

 
   Surprised!
 

DOMINGO

 
         And heaven be thanked my fears were groundless!
   Now may I hope the best.
 

KING

 
                Your fears! What feared you?
 

DOMINGO

 
   I dare not hide it from your majesty
   That I had learned a secret —
 

KING (gloomily)

 
                   And have I
   Expressed a wish to share your secret with you?
   Who ventures to anticipate me thus?
   Too forward, by mine honor!
 

DOMINGO

 
                  Gracious monarch!
   The place, the occasion, seal of secrecy
   'Neath which I learned it – free me from this charge.
   It was intrusted to me at the seat
   Of penitence – intrusted as a crime
   That deeply weighed upon the tender soul
   Of the fair sinner who confessed her guilt,
   And sought the pardon of offended heaven.
   Too late the princess weeps a foul misdeed
   That may involve the queen herself in ruin.
 

KING

 
   Indeed! Kind soul! You have correctly guessed
   The occasion of your summons. You must guide me
   Through this dark labyrinth wherein blind zeal
   Has tangled me. From you I hope for truth.
   Be candid with me; what must I believe,
   And what determine? From your sacred office
   I look for strictest truth.
 

DOMINGO

 
                  And if, my liege,
   The mildness ever incident to this
   My holy calling, did not such restraint
   Impose upon me, still I would entreat
   Your majesty, for your own peace of mind,
   To urge no further this discovery,
   And cease forever to pursue a secret
   Which never can be happily explained.
   All that is yet discovered may be pardoned.
   Let the king say the word – and then the queen
   Has never sinned. The monarch's will bestows
   Virtue and fortune, both with equal ease.
   And the king's undisturbed tranquillity
   Is, in itself, sufficient to destroy
   The rumors set on foot by calumny.
 

KING

 
   What! Rumors! and of me! among my subjects!
 

DOMINGO

 
   All falsehood, sire! Naught but the vilest falsehood!
   I'll swear 'tis false! Yet what's believed by all,
   Groundless and unconfirmed although it be,
   Works its effect, as sure as truth itself.
 

KING

 
   Not in this case, by heaven!
 

DOMINGO

 
                  A virtuous name
   Is, after all, my liege, the only prize
   Which queens and peasants' wives contest together.
 

KING

 
   For which I surely have no need to tremble.
      [He looks doubtingly at DOMINGO. After a pause.
   Priest, thou hast something fearful to impart.
   Delay it not. I read it plainly stamped
   In thy ill-boding looks. Then out with it,
   Whate'er it be. Let me no longer tremble
   Upon the rack. What do the people say?
 

DOMINGO

 
   The people, sire, are liable to err,
   Nay err assuredly. What people think
   Should not alarm the king. Yet that they should
   Presume so far as to indulge such thoughts —
 

KING

 
   Why must I beg this poisonous draught so long?
 

DOMINGO

 
   The people often muse upon that month
   Which brought your majesty so near the grave,
   From that time, thirty weeks had scarce elapsed,
   Before the queen's delivery was announced.
 

[The KING rises and rings the bell. DUKE ALVA enters. DOMINGO alarmed.

 
   I am amazed, your majesty!
 

KING (going towards ALVA)

 
                 Toledo!
   You are a man – defend me from this priest!
 

DOMINGO (he and DUKE ALVA exchange embarrassed looks. After a pause)

 
   Could we have but foreseen that this occurrence
   Would be avenged upon its mere relater.
 

KING

 
   Said you a bastard? I had scarce, you say,
   Escaped the pangs of death when first she felt
   She should, in nature's time, become a mother.
   Explain how this occurred! 'Twas then, if I
   Remember right, that you, in every church,
   Ordered devotions to St. Dominick,
   For the especial wonder he vouchsafed.
   On one side or the other, then, you lie!
   What would you have me credit? Oh, I see
   Full plainly through you now! If this dark plot
   Had then been ripe your saint had lost his fame.
 

ALVA

 
   This plot?
 

KING

 
         How can you with a harmony
   So unexampled in your very thoughts
   Concur, and not have first conspired together?
   Would you persuade me thus? Think you that I
   Perceived not with what eagerness you pounced
   Upon your prey? With what delight you fed
   Upon my pain, – my agony of grief?
   Full well I marked the ardent, burning zeal
   With which the duke forestalled the mark of grace
   I destined for my son. And how this priest
   Presumed to fortify his petty spleen
   With my wrath's giant arm! I am, forsooth,
   A bow which each of you may bend at pleasure
   But I have yet a will. And if I needs
   Must doubt – perhaps I may begin with you.
 

ALVA

 
   Reward like this our truth did ne'er expect.
 

KING

 
   Your truth! Truth warns of apprehended danger.
   'Tis malice that speaks only of the past.
   What can I gain by your officiousness?
   Should your suspicion ripen to full truth,
   What follows but the pangs of separation,
   The melancholy triumphs of revenge?
   But no: you only fear – you feed me with
   Conjectures vague. To hell's profound abyss
   You lead me on, then flee yourself away.
 

DOMINGO

 
   What other proofs than these are possible,
   When our own eyes can scarcely trust themselves?
 

KING (after a long pause, turning earnestly and solemnly

 
      towards DOMINGO).
   The grandees of the realm shall be convened,
   And I will sit in judgment. Then step forth
   In front of all, if you have courage for it,
   And charge her as a strumpet. She shall die —
   Die without mercy – and the prince, too, with her!
   But mark me well: if she but clear herself
   That doom shall fall on you. Now, dare you show
   Honor to truth by such a sacrifice?
   Determine. No, you dare not. You are silent.
   Such is the zeal of liars!
 

ALVA (who has stood at a distance, answers coldly and calmly)

 
                 I will do it.
 

KING (turns round with astonishment and looks at the DUKE for a long time without moving)

 
   That's boldly said! But thou hast risked thy life
   In stubborn conflicts for far less a prize.
   Has risked it with a gamester's recklessness —
   For honor's empty bubble. What is life
   To thee? I'll not expose the royal blood
   To such a madman's power, whose highest hope
   Must be to yield his wretched being up
   With some renown. I spurn your offer. Go;
   And wait my orders in the audience chamber.
 

[Exeunt.

SCENE V

The KING alone.

 
   Now give me, gracious Providence! a man.
   Thou'st given me much already. Now vouchsafe me
   A man! for thou alone canst grant the boon.
   Thine eye doth penetrate all hidden things
   Oh! give me but a friend: for I am not
   Omniscient like to thee. The ministers
   Whom thou hast chosen for me thou dost know —
   And their deserts: and as their merits claim,
   I value them. Their subjugated vices,
   Coerced by rein severe, serve all my ends,
   As thy storms purify this nether world.
   I thirst for truth. To reach its tranquil spring,
   Through the dark heaps of thick surrounding error,
   Is not the lot of kings. Give me the man,
   So rarely found, of pure and open heart,
   Of judgment clear, and eye unprejudiced,
   To aid me in the search. I cast the lots.
   And may I find that man, among the thousands
   Who flutter in the sunshine of a court.
 

[He opens an escritoire and takes out a portfolio.

 
      After turning over the leaves a long time.
   Nothing but names, mere names are here: – no note
   E'en of the services to which they owe
   Their place upon the roll! Oh, what can be
   Of shorter memory than gratitude!
   Here, in this other list, I read each fault
   Most accurately marked. That is not well!
   Can vengeance stand in need of such a help?
 

[He reads further.

 
   Count Egmont! What doth he here? Long ago
   The victory of St. Quentin is forgotten.
   I place him with the dead.
 

[He effaces this name and writes it on the other roll after he has read further.

 
                 The Marquis Posa!
   The Marquis Posa! I can scarce recall
   This person to mind. And doubly marked!
   A proof I destined him for some great purpose.
   How is it possible? This man, till now,
   Has ever shunned my presence – still has fled
   His royal debtor's eye? The only man,
   By heaven, within the compass of my realm,
   Who does not court my favor. Did he burn
   With avarice, or ambition, long ago
   He had appeared before my throne. I'll try
   This wondrous man. He who can thus dispense
   With royalty will doubtless speak the truth.
 

SCENE VI

The Audience Chamber.

DON CARLOS in conversation with the PRINCE of PARMA. DUKES ALVA, FERIA, and MEDINA SIDONIA, COUNT LERMA, and other GRANDEES, with papers in their hands, awaiting the KING.

MEDINA SIDONIA (seems to be shunned by all the GRANDEES, turns towards DUKE ALVA, who, alone and absorbed in himself, walks up and down)

 
   Duke, you have had an audience of the king?
   How did you find him minded?
 

ALVA

 
                  Somewhat ill
   For you, and for the news you bring.
 

MEDINA SIDONIA

 
                      My heart
   Was lighter 'mid the roar of English cannon
   Than here on Spanish ground.
 

[CARLOS, who had regarded him with silent sympathy, now approaches him and presses his hand.

 
                  My warmest thanks,
   Prince, for this generous tear. You may perceive
   How all avoid me. Now my fate is sealed.
 

CARLOS

 
   Still hope the best both from my father's favor,
   And your own innocence.
 

MEDINA SIDONIA

 
                Prince, I have lost
   A fleet more mighty than e'er ploughed the waves.
   And what is such a head as mine to set
   'Gainst seventy sunken galleons? And therewith
   Five hopeful sons! Alas! that breaks my heart.