Act the First: Scene VIII
LIVIA. Sir,The same tradesman who so pressesTo be paid, comes here to seek you,By the magistrate attended.That you were not in, I told him:By that door you have an exit.
JUSTINA. This untimely interruptionBy their coming, how it frets me!For upon your tragic storyLife, soul, reason, all depended!--But retire, sir, lest the justiceShould here meet you, if he enters.
LYSANDER. Ah! with what indignitiesPoverty must be contented!
JUSTINA. They are coming here, no doubt,Outside I can hear some persons.
LIVIA. No, they are not they. I seeIt is Cyprian.
JUSTINA. How? what sendethCyprian here?
Words in this poem
- tradesman n.
- One who trades; a shopkeeper.
- cyprian a.
- Belonging to Cyprus.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the First: Scene VIII is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Wonder-Working Magician, Project Gutenberg ebook #6372, 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 First: Scene VIII, in The Wonder-Working Magician (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6372, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-magico-prodigioso/act-the-first-scene-viii.html, id L26605.
Form and metre
Act the First: Scene VIII is 20 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| LIVIA. Sir, | 4 | /˘˘· |
| The same tradesman who so presses | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| To be paid, comes here to seek you, | 8 | ········ |
| By the magistrate attended. | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| That you were not in, I told him: | 8 | ········ |
| By that door you have an exit. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| JUSTINA. This untimely interruption | 11 | ˘/˘·˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| By their coming, how it frets me! | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| For upon your tragic story | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Life, soul, reason, all depended!-- | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| But retire, sir, lest the justice | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| Should here meet you, if he enters. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| LYSANDER. Ah! with what indignities | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| Poverty must be contented! | 8 | /˘˘··˘/˘ |
| JUSTINA. They are coming here, no doubt, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Outside I can hear some persons. | 8 | //····/˘ |
| LIVIA. No, they are not they. I see | 9 | /˘······· |
| It is Cyprian. | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| JUSTINA. How? what sendeth | 7 | ˘/˘··/˘ |
| Cyprian here? | 4 | /˘˘· |
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.