Act the Second: Scene VII

Demon [within]. And I accept it.

CYPRIAN. What's this, ye heavens so pure?Clear but a moment hence and now obscure,Ye fright the gentle day!The thunder-balls, the lightning's forked ray,Leap from its riven breast--Terrific shapes it cannot keep at rest;All the whole heaven a crown of clouds doth wear,And with the curling mist, like streaming hair,This mountain's brow is bound.Outspread below, the whole horizon roundIs one volcanic pyre.The sun is dead, the air is smoke, heaven fire.Philosophy, how far from thee I stray,When I cannot explain the marvels of this day!And now the sea, upborne on clouds the while,Seems like some ruined pile,That crumbling down the wind as 'twere a wall,In dust not foam doth fall.And struggling through the gloom,Facing the storm, a mighty ship seeks roomOn the open sea, whose rage it seems to court,Flying the dangerous pity of the port.The noise, the terror, and that fearful cry,Give fatal auguryOf the impending stroke. Death hesitates,For each already dies who death awaits.With portents the whole atmosphere is rife,Nor is it all the effect of elemental strife.The ship is rigged with tempest as it flies.It rushes on the lee,The war is now no longer of the sea;Upon a hidden rockIt strikes: it breaks as with a thunder shock.Blood flakes the foam where helpless it is tost.

VOICES WITHIN. We sink! we sink! we're lost!

DEMON [within]. For what I have in hand,I'll trust this plank to bear me to the land.

CYPRIAN. As scorning the wild waveOne man alone his life attempts to save.While lurching over, mid the billows' swell,The great ship sinks to where the Tritons dwell;There, with its mighty ribs asunder rent,It lies a corse of the sea, its grave and monument.

DEMON [aside]. For the end I wish to gainIt was of necessityThat upon this sapphire seaI this fearful storm should feign,And in form unlike that oneWhich in this wild wood I wore,When I found my deepest loreBy his keener wit outdone,Come again to assail him here,Trusting better now to proveBoth his intellect and his love.--Earth, loved earth, O mother dear,From this monster, this wild sea,Give me shelter in thy arms.

CYPRIAN. Lose, my friend, the dread alarms,And the cruel memoryOf thy peril happily past;Since we learn or late or soon,That beneath the inconstant moonHuman bliss doth never last.

DEMON. Who are thou, at whose kind feetHas my fortune cast me here?

CYPRIAN. One who with a pitying tear,For a ruin so complete,Would alleviate your woe.

DEMON. Ah, impossible!--for meNever, never, can there beAny solace.

CYPRIAN. How, why so?

DEMON. All my priceless wealth I've lost...But I'm wrong to thus complain,I'll forget, nay, think it gain,Since my life it hath not cost.

CYPRIAN. Now that the wild whirl malignOf this earthquake storm doth cease,And the sky returns to peace,Quiet, calm, and crystalline,And the bright succeeds the darkWith such strange rapidity,That the storm would seem to beOnly raised to sink thy bark,Tell me who thou art, repayThus a sympathy so sincere.

DEMON. It has cost me to come hereMore than you have seen to-day,More than I can well express;Of the miseries I recallThis ship's loss is least of all.Would you see that clearly?

CYPRIAN. Yes.

DEMON. I am since you wish to know it,An epitome, a wonderOf all happiness and misfortune,One I have lost, I weep the other.By my gifts was I so glorious,So conspicuous in my order,Of a lineage so illustrious,With a mind so well informed,That my rare endowments feeling,A great king (in truth the noblestKing of Kings, for all would trembleIf he looked in anger on them,)In his palace roofed with diamondsAnd with gems as bright as morning,(If I called them stars, 'tis certainThe comparison were too modest,)His especial favourite called me.Which high epithet of honourSo enflamed my pride, as rivalFor his royal seat I plotted,Hoping soon my victor footstepsWould his golden thrones have trodden.It was an unheard-of daring,THAT, chastized I must acknowledge,I was mad; but then repentanceWere a still insaner folly.Obstinate in my resistance,With my spirit yet unconquered,I preferred to fall with courageThan surrender with dishonour.If the attempt was rash, the rashnessWas not solely my misfortune,For among his numerous vassalsNot a few my standard followed.From his court, in fine, thus vanquished,Though part victor in the contest,I went forth, my eyes outflashingFlames of anger and abhorrence,And my lips proclaiming vengeanceFor the public insult offeredTo my pride, among his peopleScattering murder, rapine, horror.Then a bloody pirate, IThe wide plains of the sea ran over,Argus of its dangerous shallows,Lynx-eyed where the reefs lay covered;In that vessel which the windBit by bit so soon demolished,In that vessel which the seaAs a dustless ruin swallowed,I to-day these fields of crystalEagerly ran o'er, my objectBeing stone by stone to examine,Tree by tree to search this forest:--For a man in it is living,Whom it is of great importanceI should see, this day expectingThe fulfilment of a promiseWhich he gave and I accepted.This infuriate tempest stopped me.And although my powerful geniusCould chain up east, south, and north wind,I cared not, as if despairingOf success, with other objects,Other aims in view, to turn themTo the west wind's summer softness.--(I have said I could, but did not,For I note the dangerous workingsOf his mind, and thus to magicBind him by these hints the stronger.)Let not my wild fury fright thee,Nor be at my power astonished,For I could my own death give me,If I were by rage so prompted,And so great that power, the sunlight,By my science could be blotted.I, in magic am so mighty,That I can describe the orbitsOf the stars, for I have travelledThrough the farthest and beyond them.And in order that this boastingMay not seem to you mere bombast,Look, if at this very instantYou desire it, this untroddenNimrod of rude rocks more savageThan of Babylon is recorded,Shall without a leaf being shaken,Show the most horrific portents.I am, then, the orphan guest hereOf these ash-trees, of these poplars,And though what I am, assistanceAt thy feet here I ask from thee:And I wish the good I purchaseTo repay thee with the productOf unnumbered years of study,Though it now slight effort costs me,Giving to your wildest wishes(Here I touch his love,) the fondestLongings of your heart, whateverPassion can desire or covet.If through courtesy or cautionYou should not accept my offer,Let my good intentions pay you,If from greater acts you stop me.For the pity that you show me,Which I thankfully acknowledge,I will be a friend so faithful,That henceforth the changeful monsterOf events and acts, called Fortune,Which 'twixt flattering words and scornful,Generous now, and now a miser,Shows a friendly face or hostile,Neither it nor that laboriousEver flying, running worker,Time, the loadstone of the ages,Nor even heaven itself, heaven proper,To whose stars the dark world owethAll its most divine adornment,Will have power to separate meFrom your side a single moment,Since you here have given me welcome.And even this is almost nothingWhen compared with what my wishesHope hereafter to accomplish.

CYPRIAN. Well to the sea, my thanks are due, that boreYou struggling to the shore,And led you to this grove,Where you will quickly proveThe friendly feelings that inflame my breast,If happily I merit such a guest.Then let us homeward wend,For I esteem you now as an old friend.My guest you are, and so you must not leave meWhile my house suits you.

DEMON. Do you then receive meWholly as yours?

CYPRIAN [embracing him]. This act doth prove it true,That seals an eternal bond betwixt us two.--Oh! if I could win o'erThis man to instruct me in his magic lore!Since by that art my love might gainSome solace for its pain;Or yielding to its mighty lawsMy love at length might win my love's sweet cause--The cause of all my torment, madness, rage.

DEMON [aside]. The working of his mind and love I gauge.