Act the First: Scene XVI
CYPRIAN [aside]. What is this, O heavens! I hear?Can it be the two are jealousOf each other at one time?And I too of both together?--Doubtless from some strange delusionThe two suffer, which I welcomeWith a sort of satisfaction,For to it I am indebtedFor the fact of their desistingFrom their suit and their pretension.--Moscon, have for me by morningA rich court-suit; sword and feathers,Clarin, be thy care; for loveIn a certain airy splendourTakes delight; for now no longerBooks or studies give me pleasure;--Love they say doth murder mind,Learning dies when he is present.
Words in this poem
- cyprian a.
- Belonging to Cyprus.
- doubtless a.
- Free from fear or suspicion.
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the First: Scene XVI 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 XVI, in The Wonder-Working Magician (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6372, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-magico-prodigioso/act-the-first-scene-xvi.html, id L26613.
Form and metre
Act the First: Scene XVI is 18 lines in a single stanza. 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------------ hear · jealous · timeA · together · delusion · welcomeA · satisfaction · indebted · desisting · pretension · morning · feathers · love · splendour · longer · pleasure · mind · present
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 |
|---|---|---|
| CYPRIAN [aside]. What is this, O heavens! I hear? | 12 | /˘˘/····/˘·· |
| Can it be the two are jealous | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Of each other at one time? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And I too of both together?-- | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Doubtless from some strange delusion | 8 | /˘···˘/˘ |
| The two suffer, which I welcome | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| With a sort of satisfaction, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| For to it I am indebted | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| For the fact of their desisting | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| From their suit and their pretension.-- | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Moscon, have for me by morning | 8 | ······/˘ |
| A rich court-suit; sword and feathers, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Clarin, be thy care; for love | 7 | ······· |
| In a certain airy splendour | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Takes delight; for now no longer | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| Books or studies give me pleasure;-- | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Love they say doth murder mind, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Learning dies when he is present. | 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.