Act the Second: Scene IX
CAPTAIN. The sad sentence of his deathHave I come, by the king's orders,Here to read to Luis Enius.--But what's this? The door lies open,And the tower deserted. Ha!Soldiers! No one answers. Ho, there!Guards, come hither, treason! treason!
KING. Why these outcries? this commotion?What is this?
CAPTAIN. That Luis EniusHas escaped, and from the fortressAll the guards have fled.
LEOGAIRE. My lord,I saw entering here Polonia.
PHILIP. Heavens! beyond all doubt 'twas sheWho released him. That her loverHe dared call him, you well know.Jealousy and rage provoke meTo pursue them. A new TroyWill to-day be Ireland's story.
KING. Give me, too, a horse; in personI these fugitives will follow.Ah, what Christians are these twoWho with actions so discordant,One deprives me of my rest,And the other robs my honour?But the twain shall feel the weightOf my vengeful hands fall on them;For not safe from me would beEven their sovereign Roman Pontiff.
Words in this poem
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- 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,]
- vengeful a.
- Vindictive; retributive; revengeful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Act the Second: Scene IX is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Purgatory of St. Patrick, Project Gutenberg ebook #6371, 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 IX, in The Purgatory of St. Patrick (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6371, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/calderon-purgatorio-san-patricio/act-the-second-scene-ix.html, id L26677.
Form and metre
Act the Second: Scene IX is 30 lines in 6 stanzas. 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.
- 5 A--A-- sheA · lover · know · meA · troy · story
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 |
|---|---|---|
| CAPTAIN. The sad sentence of his death | 9 | /˘··/˘··· |
| Have I come, by the king's orders, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Here to read to Luis Enius.-- | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| But what's this? The door lies open, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And the tower deserted. Ha! | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| Soldiers! No one answers. Ho, there! | 8 | /˘··/˘·· |
| Guards, come hither, treason! treason! | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| KING. Why these outcries? this commotion? | 9 | ···/··˘/˘ |
| What is this? | 3 | ··· |
| CAPTAIN. That Luis Enius | 7 | /˘·˘/·· |
| Has escaped, and from the fortress | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| All the guards have fled. | 5 | ····· |
| LEOGAIRE. My lord, | 4 | ···· |
| I saw entering here Polonia. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| PHILIP. Heavens! beyond all doubt 'twas she | 10 | /˘/˘······ |
| Who released him. That her lover | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| He dared call him, you well know. | 8 | ··˘····· |
| Jealousy and rage provoke me | 8 | /˘˘··˘/· |
| To pursue them. A new Troy | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Will to-day be Ireland's story. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| KING. Give me, too, a horse; in person | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| I these fugitives will follow. | 8 | ··/˘˘·/˘ |
| Ah, what Christians are these two | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Who with actions so discordant, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| One deprives me of my rest, | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| And the other robs my honour? | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| But the twain shall feel the weight | 7 | ······· |
| Of my vengeful hands fall on them; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| For not safe from me would be | 7 | ······· |
| Even their sovereign Roman Pontiff. | 9 | /˘·/˘/˘/˘ |
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.