Act the Second: Scene VI

BASILIUS. What's all this?

SIGISMUND. A trifling thing:One who teased and thwarted meI have just thrown into the sea.

CLARIN [to SIGISMUND]. Know, my lord, it is the King.

BASILIUS. Ere the first day's sun hath set,Has thy coming cost a life?

SIGISMUND Why he dared me to the strife,And I only won the bet.

BASILIUS. Prince, my grief, indeed is great,Coming here when I had thoughtThat admonished thou wert taughtTo o'ercome the stars and fate,Still to see such rage abideIn the heart I hoped was free,That thy first sad act should beA most fearful homicide.How could I, by love conducted,Trust me to thine arms' embracing,When their haughty interlacing,Has already been instructedHow to kill? For who could see,Say, some dagger bare and bloody,By some wretch's heart made ruddy,But would fear it? Who is he,Who may happen to beholdOn the ground the gory stainWhere another man was slainBut must shudder? The most boldYields at once to Nature's laws;Thus I, seeing in your armsThe dread weapon that alarms,And the stain, must fain withdraw;And though in embraces dearI would press you to my heart,I without them must depart,For, alas! your arms I fear.

SIGISMUND. Well, without them I must stay,As I've staid for many a year,For a father so severe,Who could treat me in this way,Whose unfeeling heart could tear meFrom his side even when a child,Who, a denizen of the wild,As a monster there could rear me,Any by many an artful planSought my death, it cannot grieve meMuch his arms will not receive meWho has scarcely left me man.

BASILIUS. Would to God it had not beenAct of mine that name conferred,Then thy voice I ne'er had heard,Then thy boldness ne'er had seen.

SIGISMUND. Did you manhood's right retain,I would then have nought to say,But to give and take awayGives me reason to complain;For although to give with graceIs the noblest act 'mongst men,To take back the gift againIs the basest of the base.

BASILIUS. This then is thy grateful moodFor my changing thy sad lotTo a prince's!

SIGISMUND. And for whatShould I show my gratitude!Tyrant of my will o'erthrown,If thou hoary art and gray,Dying, what do'st give me? Say,Do'st thou give what's not mine own?Thou'rt my father and my King,Then the pomp these walls presentComes to me by due descentAs a simple, natural thing.Yes, this sunshine pleaseth me,But 'tis not through thee I bask;Nay, a reckoning I might askFor the life, love, libertyThat through thee I've lost so long:Thine 'tis rather to thank me,That I do not claim from theeCompensation for my wrong.

BASILIUS. Still untamed and uncontrolled;--Heaven fulfils its word I feel,I to that same court appeal'Gainst thy taunts, thou vain and bold,But although the truth thou'st heard,And now know'st thy name and race,And do'st see thee in this place,Where to all thou art preferred,Yet be warned, and on thee takeWays more mild and more beseeming,For perhaps thou art but dreaming,When it seems that thou'rt awake.

SIGISMUND. Is this, then, a phantom scene? --Do I wake in seeming show?--No, I dream not, since I knowWhat I am and what I've been.And although thou should'st repent thee,Remedy is now too late.Who I am I know, and fate,Howsoe'er thou should'st lament thee,Cannot take from me my rightOf being born this kingdom's heir.If I saw myself erewhilePrisoned, bound, kept out of sight,'Twas that never on my mindDawned the truth; but now I knowWho I am -- a mingled showOf the man and beast combined.