Part 5 (1/2)

COV. I attend Ever most humbly and most gratefully My too kind sovereign, cousin now no more; Could I perform but half the services I owe her, I were happy for a time; Or dared I show her half my love, 'twere bliss.

EGI. Oh! I sink under gentleness like thine.

Thy sight is death to me; and yet 'tis dear.

The gaudy trappings of a.s.sumptive state Drop at the voice of nature to the earth, Before thy feet--I cannot force myself To hate thee, to renounce thee; yet--Covilla!

Yet--oh distracting thought! 'tis hard to see, Hard to converse with, to admire, to love - As from my soul I do, and must do, thee - One who hath robbed me of all pride and joy, All dignity, all fondness. I adored Roderigo--he was brave, and in discourse Most voluble; the ma.s.ses of his mind Were vast, but varied; now absorbed in gloom, Majestic, not austere; now their extent Opening, and waving in bright levity -

JUL. Depart, my daughter--'twere as well to bear His presence as his praise--go--she will dream This phantasm out, nor notice thee depart.

[COVILLA goes.

EGI. What pliancy! what tenderness! what life!

Oh for the smiles of those who smile so seldom, The love of those who know no other love!

Such he was, Egilona, who was thine.

JUL. While he was worthy of the realm and thee.

EGI. Can it be true, then, Julian, that thy aim Is sovereignty? not virtue, nor revenge?

JUL. I swear to Heaven, nor I nor child of mine Ever shall mount to this polluted throne.

EGI. Then am I still a queen. The savage Moor Who could not conquer Ceuta from thy sword, In his own country, not with every wile Of his whole race, not with his myriad crests Of cavalry, seen from the Calpian heights Like locusts on the parched and gleamy coast, Will never conquer Spain.

JUL. Spain then was conquered When fell her laws before time traitor king.

SECOND ACT: FOURTH SCENE.

Officer announces OPAS.

O queen, the metropolitan attends On matters of high import to the state, And wishes to confer in privacy.

EGI. [to JULIAN.] Adieu then; and whate'er betide the country, Sustain at least the honours of our house.

[JULIAN goes before OPAS enters.

OPAS. I cannot but commend, O Egilona, Such resignation and such dignity.

Indeed he is unworthy; yet a queen Rather to look for peace, and live remote From cities, and from courts, and from her lord, I hardly could expect in one so young, So early, widely, wondrously admired.

EGI. I am resolved: religious men, good Opas, In this resemble the vain libertine; They find in woman no consistency, No virtue but devotion, such as comes To infancy or age, or fear or love, Seeking a place of rest, and finding none Until it soar to heaven.

OPAS. A spring of mind That rises when all pressure is removed, Firmness in pious and in chaste resolves, But weakness in much fondness; these, O queen, I did expect, I own.

EGI. The better part Be mine; the worst hath been--and is no more.

OPAS. But if Roderigo have at length prevailed That Egilona willingly resigns All claim to royalty, and casts away, Indifferent or estranged, the marriage-bond His perjury tore asunder, still the church Hardly can sanction his new nuptial rites.

EGI. What art thou saying! what new nuptial rites?

OPAS. Thou knowest not?

EGI. Am I a wife; a queen?

Abandon it! my claim to royalty!