Act the Second: Scene XV
ESTRELLA. Give me now the other portrait;For -- although perhaps I neverMay again address or see you --I desire not, no, to let itIn your hands remain, if onlyFor my folly in requestingYou to give it.
ASTOLFO [aside]. How escapeFrom this singular dilemma?--Though I wish, most beauteous Princess,To obey thee and to serve thee,Still I cannot give the portraitThou dost ask for, since . . . .
ESTRELLA. A wretchedAnd false-hearted lover art thou.Now I wish it not presented,So to give thee no pretextFor reminding me that everI had asked it at thy hands.
ASTOLFO. Hear me! listen! wait! I remember! --God, what has thou done, Rosaura?Why, or wherefore, on what errand,To destroy thyself and meHast thou Poland rashly entered?
Words in this poem
- singular a.
- Separate or apart from others; single; distinct. [OE. singuler, F. singulier, fr. L. singularius, singularis, fr. singulus single. See Single, a.]
- dilemma n.
- An argument which presents an antagonist with two or more alternatives, but is equally conclusive against him, whichever alternative he chooses. [L. dilemma, Gr. Lemma.]
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- princess n.
- A female prince; a woman having sovereign power, or the rank of a prince. [F. princesse. See Prince, and cf. Princesse.]
- pretext n.
- Ostensible reason or motive assigned or assumed as a color or cover for the real reason or motive; pretense; disguise. [F. prétexte, L. praetextum, fr. praetextus, p. p. of praetexere to weave before, allege as an excuse; prae before + texere to weave. See Text.]
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the Second: Scene XV is in the public domain. This text is taken from Life Is a Dream, Project Gutenberg ebook #6363, the Denis Florence MacCarthy translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Act the Second: Scene XV, in Life Is a Dream (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6363, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-life-is-a-dream/act-the-second-scene-xv.html, id L26580.
Form and metre
Act the Second: Scene XV is 24 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A--A--A portraitA · never · you · itA · only · requesting · itA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| ESTRELLA. Give me now the other portrait; | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| For -- although perhaps I never | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| May again address or see you -- | 8 | ·˘/˘/··· |
| I desire not, no, to let it | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| In your hands remain, if only | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| For my folly in requesting | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| You to give it. | 4 | ···· |
| ASTOLFO [aside]. How escape | 8 | ···˘/·˘/ |
| From this singular dilemma?-- | 8 | ··/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Though I wish, most beauteous Princess, | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| To obey thee and to serve thee, | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| Still I cannot give the portrait | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Thou dost ask for, since . . . . | 5 | ····· |
| ESTRELLA. A wretched | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| And false-hearted lover art thou. | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| Now I wish it not presented, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| So to give thee no pretext | 7 | ·····/· |
| For reminding me that ever | 8 | ·˘/˘··/˘ |
| I had asked it at thy hands. | 8 | ···˘···· |
| ASTOLFO. Hear me! listen! wait! I remember! -- | 12 | ·····/˘··˘/˘ |
| God, what has thou done, Rosaura? | 8 | ········ |
| Why, or wherefore, on what errand, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| To destroy thyself and me | 7 | ·˘/˘/·· |
| Hast thou Poland rashly entered? | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.