Act the Third: Scene X

PRIOR. And those of heaven, O Lord, keep open wideTo penitent tears and sighs.May this poor sinner from these dungeons rise,This dark and dismal place,Where never shines the radiance of Thy face.

POLONIA. The gate is opened.

PRIOR. Oh, what happiness!

PHILIP. 'Tis Luis!

LUIS. Bless me, heaven! in pity bless!Ah! is it possible that I am hereAgain on earth after so many a year,And that once more I seeThe light of the sun?

CAPTAIN. How rapt!

LEOGAIRE. How dazed is he!

PRIOR. Embrace us all, my son.

LUIS. My arms were prison chains to every one.Polonia, since thou'rt here,Thy pity I may claim without a fear.And thou, O Philip, knowThat thrice an angel saved thee from the blowOf my sharp sword: two nights I watched for theeTo slay thee; may my error pardoned be.Now flying from myself, oh, let me hide,And in some wilderness abide --Far from the world in solitude and pain,For he who saw what I have seen would feign,So suffering live, so die.

PRIOR. Then on the part of God, O Enius! ICommand thee what thou hast seen at once to say.

LUIS. So sacred a command I must obey:--And that the startled world may now beginA better course, and man from mortal sinMy words may waken like some midnight wail,Listen, O grave assembly to my tale.After all the preparations,Fit and solemn were effected,Which in such a perilous caseMight be needed and expected,And when I from all around me,Firm in faith, with courage strengthened,Tenderly farewell had takenThis dark cavern here to enter,I my trust reposed in God,And my lips repeating everThose mysterious, mystic words,At which even the demons tremble,I then placed me on the threshold,Where, until, as I expected,They would close the gate, I stood.It was closed, and I rememberThen I found me in black night,Whence the light was so ejected,That I closed on it mine eyes.(A strange way it seems, but certainTo see better in the dark.)With my lids thus closed togetherOn I went, and felt a wallWhich in front of me extended;And by following it, and gropingFor about the length of twentyPaces, came upon some rocks,And perceived through a small creviceOf this rugged mountain wallThat a doubtful glimmer enteredOf a light that was not light,As when the day the dark disperses,If 'tis morning, or not morning,Oft the twilight is uncertain.With light steps a path pursuing,By the left-hand side I entered,When I felt a strange commotion;The firm earth began to tremble,And upheaving 'neath my feet,Ruin and convulsion threatened.Stupified I stopped there, whenWith a voice which woke my sensesFrom forgetfulness and fainting,Loud a thunder-clap re-echoed,And the ground on which I stoodBursting open in the centre,It appeared as if I fellTo a depth where I lay buriedIn the loosened stones and earthWhich had after me descended.Then I found me in a hallBuilt of jasper, where the presenceOf the chisel was made knownBy its ornate architecture.Through a door of bronze twelve menThen advanced and came directlyWhere I stood, who, clothed alikeIn unspotted snow-white dresses,With a courteous air received me,And too humbly did me reverence.One, who seemed to be among themThe superior, said: "RememberThat in God you place your faith,And that you be not dejectedIn your battle with the demons;For if moved by what they threaten,Or may promise, you turn back,You will have to dwell for everIn the lowest depths of hellAmid torments most excessive."Angels were these men for me,And so greatly was I strengthenedBy their counsel and adviceThat revived I once more felt me.On a sudden then the wholeHall unto mine eyes presentedNothing but infernal visions,Fallen angels, the first rebels,And in forms so horrible,So disgusting, that resemblanceIt would be in vain to look for;And one said to me: "DementedReckless fool, who here hast wishedPrematurely to present theeTo thy destined punishment,And the pains that thou deservest;If thy sins are so immense,That thyself must needs condemn them,Since thou in the eye of GodNever can have hope of mercy,Why has thou come here thyselfTo endure them? Back to earth, then,Go, oh! go, and end thy life;And as thou hast lived, so perish.Then again thou'lt come to see us;For hath hell prepared alreadyThat dread seat in which thou mustSit for ever and for ever."--I did answer not a word;And then giving me some heavyBlows, my hands and feet they bound,Tieing them with thongs together,And then caught and wounded meWith sharp hooks of burning metal,Dragging me through all the cloisters,Where they lit a fire and left meHeadlong plunged amid the flames.I but cried, "O Jesus! help me."At the words the demons fled,And the fire went out and endedThen they brought me to a plainWhere the blackened earth presentedFruits of thistles and of thorns,'Stead of pink and rose sweet scented.Here a biting wind passed by,Which with subtle sharpness enteredEven my bones, whose faintest breathLike the keenest sword-edge cleft me.Here in the profoundest depthsSadly, mournfully lamentedMyriad souls, their parents cursingFrom whose loins they had descended.Such despairing shrieks and cries,Such blaspheming screams were blended,Such atrocious oaths and cursesSo repeated and incessant,That the very demons shuddered.I passed on, and in a meadowFound me next, whose plants and grassesWere all flames, which waved and bent them,As when in the burning AugustWave the gold ears all together.So immense it was, the sightNever could make out where endedThis red field, and in it layAn uncountable assemblageAll recumbent in the fire;Through their bodies and their membersBurning spikes and nails were driven;These with feet and hands extendedWere held nailed upon the ground,Vipers of red fire the entrailsGnawed of some; while others lying,With their teeth in maniac frenzyBit the earth; and some there werePiecemeal who themselves dismembered,And who seemed to die, but onlyTo revive and die for ever.There the ministers of deathFlung me from them bound and helpless,But at the sweet name of JesusAll their fury fled and left me.I passed on, and found me whereSome were cured, by a strange method,Of their cruel wounds and torments;Lead and burning pitch were melted,And being poured upon their soresMade a cautery most dreadful.Who that hears me will not mourn?Who that hears this awful lessonWill not sigh and will not weep,Will not fear and will not tremble?Then I saw a certain building,Out of which bright rays extendedFrom the windows and the doors,As when conflagration settlesOn a house, the flame bursts forthWhere an opening is presented."This," they told me, "is the villaOf delights, the bath of pleasures,The abode of the luxurious,Where are punished all those womenWho were in the other life,From frivolity excessive,Too much given to scented waters,Unguents, rouges, baths, and perfumes."--I went in, and there beheld,In a tank of cold snow melted,Many lovely women bathing,With an upturned look of terror;Underneath the water theyWere the prey of snakes and serpents,For the fishes and the sirensOf this sea they represented;In the clear transparent crystalStiff and frozen were their members,Icy hard their hair was lifted,Chattering struck their teeth together.Passing out, the demons brought meTo a mountain so tremendousIn its height, that as it roseThrough the sky its peak dissevered,If it did not tear and rend,The vast azure veil celestial;In the middle of this peakA volcano stood, which, belchingFlames, appeared as if to spit themIn the very face of heaven.From this burning cone, this crater,Fire at intervals ascendedIn which issued many souls,Who again its womb re-entered,Oft repeating and renewingThis ascending and descending.At this time a scorching windCaught me when I least expected,Blowing me from where I stood,So that instantly it set meIn the depths of that abyss.I too was shot up: a secondWind-gust came, that with it broughtMyriad legions, who impelled meRudely to another part,Where it seemed I saw assembledAll the other souls I had seen,But who here were all collected;And though this was the abodeWhere the pains were most excessive,I remarked that all thereinFaces bore of glad expression,Countenances calm and sweet,No impatience in their gesturesOr their words; but with their eyesFixed on heaven, as if thus set thereTo ask mercy, ever weepingTears of tenderness and penance.That it was the PurgatoryI at once by this detected,Where the happy souls are purged fromTheir more venial offences.I was not subdued even here,Though the demons stormed and threatenedMe the more: I rather feltBy the sight renewed and strengthened.Then they, seeing that they could notShake my constancy, presentedTo my eyes their greatest torments,That which is in an especialSense called hell; and so they brought meTo a river, all the herbageOf whose banks was flowers of fire,And whose stream was sulphur melted;The dread monsters of its tideWere the hydras and the serpents;It was very wide, and o'er itWas a narrow bridge suspended,Which but seemed a line, no more,And so delicate and slenderThat in my opinion no oneWithout breaking it could everPass across. "Look here," they said,"By this narrow way 'tis destinedThou must cross; see thou the means.And for thy o'erwhelming terrorSee how those have fared who triedBefore thee." and then directlyI saw those who tried to passFall into the stream, where serpentsTore them in a thousand piecesWith their claws and teeth's sharp edges.I invoked the name of God,And could dare with it to ventureTo the other side to pass,Without yielding to the terrorOf the winds and of the waves,Though they fearfully beset me.Yes I passed, and in a wood,So delightful and so fertile,Found me, that in it I could,After what had passed, refresh me.On my way as I advanced,Cedars, palms, their boughs extended,Trees of paradise indeed,As I may with strictness term them;All the ground being covered overWith the rose and pink togetherFormed a carpet, in whose huesWhite and green and red were blended.There the amorous song-birds sangTenderly their sweet distresses,Keeping, with the thousand fountainsOf the streams, due time and measure.Then upon my vision brokeA great city, proud and splendid,Which had even the sun itselfFor its towers' and turrets' endings;All the gates were of pure gold,Into which had been insertedExquisitely, diamonds, rubies,Topaz, chrysolite, and emerald.Ere I reached the gates they opened,And the saints in long processionSolemnly advanced to meet me,Men and women, youths and elders,Boys and girls and children came,All so joyful and contented.Then the seraphim and angels,In a thousand choirs advancing,To their golden instrumentsSang the symphonies of heaven;After them at last approachedThe most glorious and resplendentPatrick, the great patriarch,Who his gratulations tellingThat I had fulfilled my wordEre I died, as he expected,He embraced me; all displayingJoy and gladness in my welfare.Thus encouraged he dismissed me,Telling me no mortal ever,While in life, that glorious cityOf the saints could hope to enter;That once more unto the worldI should go my days to end there.Finally my way retracing,I came back, quite unmolestedBy the dark infernal spirits,And at last the gate of entranceHaving reached, you all came forwardTo receive me and attend me.And since I from so much dangerHave escaped, oh! deign to let me,Pious fathers, here remainTill my life is happily ended.

For with this the history closes,As it is to us presentedBy Dionysius the Carthusian,With Henricus Salteriensis,Matthew Paris, Ranulph Higden,And Caesarius Heisterbacensis,Marcus Marulus, Mombritius,David Rothe, the prudent prelate,And Vice-Primate of all Ireland,Belarminus, Dimas Serpi,Bede, Jacobus, and Solinus,Messingham, and to express itIn a word, the Christian faithAnd true piety that defend it.For the play is ended whereIts applause, I hope, commences.