Act the Third: Scene VII
CLOTALDO. Thanks be to God, I reach thy feet alive.
BASILIUS. What news of Sigismund, Clotaldo, say?
CLOTALDO. The crowd, whom frenzy and blind impulse drive,Into the tower resistless burst their way,Released the Prince, who seeing thus reviveThe honour he had tasted for one day,Looked brave, declaring, in a haughty tone,The truth at last that heaven must now make known.
BASILIUS. Give me a horse! In person forth I'll rideTo check the pride of this ungrateful son.Where Science erred let now the sword decide;By my own valour shall my throne be won!
ESTRELLA. Let me the glory of the fight divide --A twinkling star beside that royal sun --Bellona matched with Mars: for I would dareTo scale even heaven to rival Pallas there.
Words in this poem
- resistless a.
- Having no power to resist; making no opposition.
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
- ungrateful a.
- Not grateful; not thankful for favors; making no returns, or making ill return for kindness, attention, etc.; ingrateful. South.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- twinkling n.
- The act of one who, or of that which, twinkles; a quick movement of the eye; a wink; a twinkle. Holland.
- bellona n.
- The goddess of war. [L., from bellum war.]
- pallas n.
- Pallas Athene, the Grecian goddess of wisdom, called also Athene, and identified, at a later period, with the Roman Minerva.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the Third: Scene VII 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 Third: Scene VII, in Life Is a Dream (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6363, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-life-is-a-dream/act-the-third-scene-vii.html, id L26590.
Form and metre
Act the Third: Scene VII is 16 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 aliveA
- 2 B sayB
- 3 ABABCC driveA · wayB · reviveA · dayB · toneC · knownC
- 4 DEDE rideD · sonE · decideD · wonE
- 5 DEFF divideD · sunE · dareF · thereF
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| CLOTALDO. Thanks be to God, I reach thy feet alive. | 13 | ···········˘/ |
| BASILIUS. What news of Sigismund, Clotaldo, say? | 13 | ············· |
| CLOTALDO. The crowd, whom frenzy and blind impulse drive, | 13 | ······/˘··/˘· |
| Into the tower resistless burst their way, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Released the Prince, who seeing thus revive | 10 | ˘/···/˘·˘/ |
| The honour he had tasted for one day, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Looked brave, declaring, in a haughty tone, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| The truth at last that heaven must now make known. | 10 | ·····/···· |
| BASILIUS. Give me a horse! In person forth I'll ride | 13 | ········/˘··· |
| To check the pride of this ungrateful son. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Where Science erred let now the sword decide; | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| By my own valour shall my throne be won! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| ESTRELLA. Let me the glory of the fight divide -- | 13 | ·/˘···/˘···˘/ |
| A twinkling star beside that royal sun -- | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Bellona matched with Mars: for I would dare | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| To scale even heaven to rival Pallas there. | 10 | ··//·/˘··· |
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.