Act the Second: Scene III
CLARIN. Livia, while my master yonder,Like a living skeleton,Life and motion being gone,On his luckless love doth ponder,Give me an embrace.
LIVIA. Stay, stay.Patience, man! until I see,For I like my conscience free,If to-day is your right day.--Tuesday, yes, and Wednesday, no.
CLARIN. What are you counting there? Awake!Moscon's mum.
LIVIA. He might mistake,And I wish not to act so.For, desiring to pursueA just course betwixt you both,Turn about, I would be lothNot to give you each his due.But I see that you are right,'Tis your day.
CLARIN. Embrace me, then.
LIVIA. Yes, again, and yet again.
MOSCON. Hark to me, my lady bright,May I from your ardour borrowA good omen in my case;And as Clarin you embrace,Moscon you'll embrace to-morrow!
LIVIA. Your suspicion is, in fact,Quite absurd; on me rely.Jupiter forbid that IShould commit so bad an actAs to be cool in any wayTo a friend. I will to theeGive an embrace in equity,When it is your worship's day.
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- luckless a.
- Being without luck; unpropitious; unfortunate; unlucky; meeting with ill success or bad fortune; as, a luckless gamester; a luckless maid.
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
- betwixt prep.
- In the space which separates; between. [OE. betwix, bitwix, rarely bitwixt, AS. betweox, betweohs, betweoh, betwih; pref. be- by + a form fr. AS. twa two. See Between.]
- ardour n.
- Heat, in a literal sense; as, the ardor of the sun's rays. [L. ardor, fr. ardere to burn: cf. OF. ardor, ardur, F. ardeur.]
- borrow v. t.
- To receive from another as a loan, with the implied or expressed intention of returning the identical article or its equivalent in kind; -- the opposite of lend. [OE. borwen, AS. borgian, fr. borg, borh, pledge; akin to D. borg, G. borg; prob. fr. root of AS. beorgan to protect. Borough.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the Second: Scene III 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 Second: Scene III, in The Wonder-Working Magician (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6372, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-magico-prodigioso/act-the-second-scene-iii.html, id L26616.
Form and metre
Act the Second: Scene III is 35 lines in 8 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
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- yonderA · skeleton · gone · ponderA · embrace
- 2 BCCBD stayB · seeC · freeC · dayB · noD
- 3 E- awakeE · mum
- 4 EDF--FG- mistakeE · soD · pursueF · both · loth · dueF · rightG · day
- 5 H thenH
- 6 H againH
- 7 G-II- brightG · borrow · caseI · embraceI · morrow
- 8 JKKJL--L factJ · relyK · iK · actJ · wayL · thee · equity · dayL
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 |
|---|---|---|
| CLARIN. Livia, while my master yonder, | 10 | ··/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Like a living skeleton, | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Life and motion being gone, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| On his luckless love doth ponder, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Give me an embrace. | 5 | ···˘/ |
| LIVIA. Stay, stay. | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| Patience, man! until I see, | 7 | /˘····· |
| For I like my conscience free, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| If to-day is your right day.-- | 7 | ······· |
| Tuesday, yes, and Wednesday, no. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| CLARIN. What are you counting there? Awake! | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Moscon's mum. | 3 | ··· |
| LIVIA. He might mistake, | 7 | /˘˘··˘/ |
| And I wish not to act so. | 7 | ······· |
| For, desiring to pursue | 8 | ·˘/˘˘·˘/ |
| A just course betwixt you both, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Turn about, I would be loth | 7 | ······· |
| Not to give you each his due. | 7 | ······· |
| But I see that you are right, | 7 | ······· |
| 'Tis your day. | 3 | ··· |
| CLARIN. Embrace me, then. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| LIVIA. Yes, again, and yet again. | 9 | /˘·˘/··˘/ |
| MOSCON. Hark to me, my lady bright, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| May I from your ardour borrow | 8 | ····/˘/· |
| A good omen in my case; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And as Clarin you embrace, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Moscon you'll embrace to-morrow! | 8 | ···˘/·/˘ |
| LIVIA. Your suspicion is, in fact, | 9 | /˘·˘/˘··· |
| Quite absurd; on me rely. | 7 | ·˘/··˘/ |
| Jupiter forbid that I | 7 | /˘˘˘/·· |
| Should commit so bad an act | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| As to be cool in any way | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To a friend. I will to thee | 7 | ······· |
| Give an embrace in equity, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘˘ |
| When it is your worship's day. | 7 | ····/˘· |
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.