Act the Third: Scene XXII
GOVERNOR [aside]. I must go, her face unnerves me.--With this living corse here lyingLet us leave her for the present.For the two being here confined,It may alter their intentions,Seeing that they are condemnedBoth to die: if not, 'tis certain,That unless they adore our godsFrightful torments soon shall end them.
LELIUS [aside]. I remain 'twixt love and fearQuite bewildered and suspended.
FLORUS [aside]. So affected have I been,I scarce know what most affects me.
Words in this poem
- corse n.
- A living body or its bulk. [OF. cors, F. corps. See Corpse.]
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- frightful a.
- Full of fright; affrighted; frightened.
- 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,]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the Third: Scene XXII 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 Third: Scene XXII, in The Wonder-Working Magician (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6372, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-magico-prodigioso/act-the-third-scene-xxii.html, id L26653.
Form and metre
Act the Third: Scene XXII is 13 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
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 |
|---|---|---|
| GOVERNOR [aside]. I must go, her face unnerves me.-- | 12 | /˘˘/·····˘/· |
| With this living corse here lying | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Let us leave her for the present. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| For the two being here confined, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| It may alter their intentions, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Seeing that they are condemned | 8 | /˘···˘/˘ |
| Both to die: if not, 'tis certain, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| That unless they adore our gods | 8 | ····˘//· |
| Frightful torments soon shall end them. | 8 | /˘/····· |
| LELIUS [aside]. I remain 'twixt love and fear | 11 | ··˘/·˘/···· |
| Quite bewildered and suspended. | 8 | ·˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| FLORUS [aside]. So affected have I been, | 11 | ··˘/·˘/˘··· |
| I scarce know what most affects me. | 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.