SCENE I. АСТ І. The COUNT OF LARA's chambers. Night. The COUNT in his dressing-gown, smoking and conversing with Don Carlos. LARA.-You were not at the play to-night, Don Carlos; How happened it? DON CARLOS.- LARA.- I had engagements elsewhere. Why, all the town and court. LARA. It was a dull affair; One of those comedies in which you see, As Lope says,20 the history of the world Brought down from Genesis to the Day of Judgment. Laying their hands upon their hearts, and saying, 66 An old hidalgo, and a gay Don Juan, A Doña Inez with a black mantilla, Followed at twilight by an unknown lover, I think the girl extremely beautiful. DON CARLOS.-Almost beyond the privilege of woman! Her step was royal, queen-like, and her face DON CARLOS. Why do you ask? DON CARLOS.-You do her wrong; indeed you do her wrong! LARA.-How credulous you are! Why, look you, friend, In this whole city! And would you persuade me A model for her virtue? DON CARLOS.— She is a Gipsy girl. LARA. The easier. You forget And therefore won DON CARLOS. Nay, not to be won at all! Is chastity. That is her only virtue. She turned upon him with a look of scorn, LARA. And does that prove DON CARLOS.-It proves a nobleman may be repulsed. I am sure of it. DON CARLOS.-'Tis late. I must begone; for if I stay LARA. Yes; persuade me. DON CARLOS.-No one so deaf as he who will not hear! DON CARLOS. And so good night. I wish you pleasant dreams, And greater faith in woman. LARA. Greater faith! That I shall be to-morrow; and thereafter (Enter FRANCISCO with a casket.) What speed with Preciosa? FRANCISCO. Well, Francisco, None, my lord. She sends your jewels back, and bids me tell you LARA. Then I will try some other way to win her. I saw him at the jeweller's to-day. Yes, my lord; I saw him buy A golden ring that had a ruby in it. One so like it, I could not choose between them. LARA. It is well. To-morrow morning bring that ring to me. [Exit. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A street in Madrid. Enter CHISPA, followed by musicians, with a bagpipe, guitars, and other instruments. CHISPA.-Abernuncio Satanas! 21 and a plague on all lovers who ramble about at night, drinking the elements, instead of sleeping quietly in their beds. Every dead man to his cemetery, say I; and every friar to his monastery. Now, here's my master Victorian, yesterday a cowkeeper, and to-day a gentleman; yesterday a student, and to-day a lover; and I must be up later than the nightingale; for, as the abbot sings, so must the sacristan respond. God grant he may soon be married, for then shall all this serenading cease. Ay, marry! marry! marry! Mother, what does marry mean? It means to spin, to bear children, and to weep, my daughter! And, of a truth, there is something more in matrimony than the wedding-ring. [To the musicians.] And now, gentlemen, Pax vobiscum! as the ass said to the cabbages. Pray, walk this way; and don't hang down your heads. It is no disgrace to have an old father and a ragged shirt. Now, look you, you are gentlemen who lead the life of crickets; you enjoy hunger by day and noise by night. Yet, I beseech you, for this once be not loud, but pathetic; for it is a serenade to a damsel in bed, and not to the Man in the Moon. Your object is not to arouse and terrify, but to soothe and bring lulling dreams. Therefore, each shall not play upon his instrument as if it were the only one in the universe, but gently, and with a certain modesty, according with the others. Pray, how may I call thy name, friend? FIRST MUSICIAN.-Gerónimo Gil, at your service. CHISPA. Every tub smells of the wine that is in it. Pray, Gerónimo, is not Saturday an unpleasant day with thee? FIRST MUSICIAN.-Why so? CHISPA. Because I have heard it said that Saturday is an unpleasant day with those who have but one shirt. Moreover, I have seen thee at the tavern; and if thou canst run as fast as thou canst drink, I should like to hunt hares with thee. What instrument is that? FIRST MUSICIAN.-An Aragonese bagpipe. CHISPA.-Pray, art thou related to the bagpiper of Bujalance, who asked a maravedi for playing, and ten for leaving off? FIRST MUSICIAN.-No, your honour. CHISPA.-I am glad of it. What other instruments have we? FOURTH MUSICIAN.-The fife. CHISPA. I like it; it has a cheerful, soul-stirring sound, that soars up to my lady's window like the song of a swallow. And you others? OTHER MUSICIANS.-We are the singers, please your honour. CHISPA. You are too many. Do you think we are going to sing mass in the cathedral of Córdova? Four men can make but little use of one shoe, and I see not how you can all sing in one song. But follow me along the garden-wall. That is the way my master climbs to the lady's window. It is by the vicar's skirts that the devil climbs into the belfry. Come, follow me, and make no noise. [Exeunt. SCENE III. PRECIOSA'S chamber. She stands at the open window. PRECIOSA. HOW slowly through the lilac-scented air VICTORIAN.-Poor little dove! thou tremblest like a leaf! VICTORIAN. None, my love, but thou. PRECIOSA.-'Tis very dangerous; and when thou art gone I chide myself for letting thee come here Thus stealthily by night. Where hast thou been? PRECIOSA.— An honest thief, to steal but what thou givest. K |