Part 16 (2/2)

DEMON. You come with us.-- [Aside.

O'er my great foe I've got the better.

CYPRIAN. Ah, how happy my desires, If I reach to such possession!--

DEMON [aside]. Never will my envy rest Till I gain both souls to serve me.-- Let us go, and in the deepest Cavern this wild world presenteth You to-day will learn in magic Your first lesson.

CYPRIAN. Let us enter, For my mind with such a master, For my love with such incentive, Will the sorcerer Cyprian's name Live before the world for ever.

ACT THE THIRD.

SCENE I.

A WOOD; AT THE EXTREMITY A GROTTO.

CYPRIAN.

CYPRIAN. Ungrateful beauty mine, At length the day, the happy day doth s.h.i.+ne-- My hope's remotest range, The limits of my love and of thy change, Since I to-day will gain At last my triumph over thy disdain.

This lofty mountain nigh, Raised to the star-lit palace of the sky, And this dark cavern's gloom, Of two that live, so long the dismal tomb, Are the rough school wherein From magic art its mystic lore I win, And such perfection reach That I can now my mighty master teach.

Seeing, that on this day, since I came here The sun completes its course from sphere to sphere, I from my prison cell come forth to view What in the light I now have power to do.

Ye skies of cloudless day List to my magic spell-words and obey; Swift zephyrs that rejoice In heaven's warm light, stand still and hear my voice; Stupendous mountain rock Shake at my words as at an earthquake shock; Ye trees in rough bark drest Be frightened at the groanings of my breast; Ye flowers so fair and frail Faint at the echoing terror of my wail; Ye sweet melodious birds Hush all your songs before my awful words; Ye cruel beasts of prey See the first fruits of my long toil to-day; For blinded, dazzled, dazed, Confused, disturbed, astonished and amazed, Ye skies and zephyrs, rocks, and trees, and flowers, And birds, and beasts, behold my magic powers, And thus to all make plain Cyprian's infernal study is not vain.

SCENE II.

The Demon and CYPRIAN.

DEMON. Cyprian!

CYPRIAN. Wise friend and master still!

DEMON. Why, how is this, that using your free-will More than my precept meant, Say for what end, what object, what intent, Through ignorance or boldness can it be, You thus come forth the sun's bright face to see?

CYPRIAN. Seeing that now my spell Can fill with fear, with horror even h.e.l.l, Since I, with so much care Have studied magic and its depths laid bare, So that yourself can scarcely tell Whether 'tis I or you that most excel, Seeing that now there is no place or part That I with study, diligence and art, have not attained, Since necromancy's secret I have gained, That art whose lines of gloom Can ope to me the dark funereal tomb, And bring before mine eyes Each corpse that in it lies, Regaining them, as 'twere by a new birth From the hard avarice of the grasping earth.

The pale ghosts, one and all, Rise and respond my call;-- And seeing that at length the sun My goal of life had won, Since from its innate force Swift-speeding on its course, Climbing the heavens each day, It turns as 'twere reluctantly away, And with a natural fear Completes to-day the lifetime of a year, I wish to attain the scope To last of all my dreams, of all my hope.

To-day the rare, the beautiful, the divine Justina will be mine, Here summoned by my charms, Here lured by love she'll come unto my arms, For you from me no longer can require Postponement of my hope's, my heart's desire.

DEMON. Nor do I wish to do it, no, Since thus so earnestly you wish it so.

Now trace upon the ground Mute mystic symbols, and the deep profound Of air, with powerful incantations move Obedient to your hope and to your love.

CYPRIAN. For that I will retire; You soon shall see the heaven and earth admire.

[Exit.

DEMON. I give you leave to go, Because our science being the same, I know That the abyss of h.e.l.l Obedient to your spell Will yield through me, this way, The fair Justina to your arms to-day: For, though my mighty power Cannot enslave free-will even for an hour, It may present The outward show of rapture and content, Suggesting thoughts impure:-- If force I cannot use, at least I lure.

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