CLARIN AND MOSCON AS POOR SCHOLARS, WITH BOOKS.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
CYPRIAN:
In the sweet solitude of this calm place,
This intricate wild wilderness of trees
And flowers and undergrowth of odorous plants,
Leave me; the books you brought out of the house
To me are ever best society. _5
And while with glorious festival and song,
Antioch now celebrates the consecration
Of a proud temple to great Jupiter,
And bears his image in loud jubilee
To its new shrine, I would consume what still _10
Lives of the dying day in studious thought,
Far from the throng and turmoil. You, my friends,
Go, and enjoy the festival; it will
Be worth your pains. You may return for me
When the sun seeks its grave among the billows _15
Which, among dim gray clouds on the horizon,
Dance like white plumes upon a hearse;— and here
I shall expect you.
NOTES:
_14 So transcr.; Be worth the labour, and return for me 1824.
_16, _17 So 1824;
Hid among dim gray clouds on the horizon
Which dance like plumes—transcr., Forman.
MOSCON:
I cannot bring my mind,
Great as my haste to see the festival
Certainly is, to leave you, Sir, without _20
Just saying some three or four thousand words.
How is it possible that on a day
Of such festivity, you can be content
To come forth to a solitary country
With three or four old books, and turn your back _25
On all this mirth?
NOTES:
_21 thousand transcr.; hundred 1824.
_23 be content transcr.; bring your mind 1824.
CLARIN:
My master’s in the right;
There is not anything more tiresome
Than a procession day, with troops, and priests,
And dances, and all that.
NOTE:
_28 and priests transcr.; of men 1824.
MOSCON:
From first to last,
Clarin, you are a temporizing flatterer; _30
You praise not what you feel but what he does;—
Toadeater!
CLARIN:
You lie—under a mistake—
For this is the most civil sort of lie
That can be given to a man’s face. I now
Say what I think.
CYPRIAN:
Enough, you foolish fellows! _35
Puffed up with your own doting ignorance,
You always take the two sides of one question.
Now go; and as I said, return for me
When night falls, veiling in its shadows wide
This glorious fabric of the universe. _40
NOTE:
_36 doting ignorance transcr.; ignorance and pride 1824.
MOSCON:
How happens it, although you can maintain
The folly of enjoying festivals,
That yet you go there?
CLARIN:
Nay, the consequence
Is clear:—who ever did what he advises
Others to do?—
MOSCON:
Would that my feet were wings, _45
So would I fly to Livia.
[EXIT.]
CLARIN:
To speak truth,
Livia is she who has surprised my heart;
But he is more than half-way there.—Soho!
Livia, I come; good sport, Livia, soho!
[EXIT.]
CYPRIAN:
Now, since I am alone, let me examine _50
The question which has long disturbed my mind
With doubt, since first I read in Plinius
The words of mystic import and deep sense
In which he defines God. My intellect
Can find no God with whom these marks and signs _55
Fitly agree. It is a hidden truth
Which I must fathom.
[CYPRIAN READS;
THE DAEMON, DRESSED IN A COURT DRESS, ENTERS.]
NOTE:
_57 Stage Direction: So transcr. Reads. Enter the Devil as a fine
gentleman 1824.
DAEMON:
Search even as thou wilt,
But thou shalt never find what I can hide.
CYPRIAN:
What noise is that among the boughs? Who moves?
What art thou?—
DAEMON:
’Tis a foreign gentleman. _60
Even from this morning I have lost my way
In this wild place; and my poor horse at last,
Quite overcome, has stretched himself upon
The enamelled tapestry of this mossy mountain,
And feeds and rests at the same time. I was _65
Upon my way to Antioch upon business
Of some importance, but wrapped up in cares
(Who is exempt from this inheritance?)
I parted from my company, and lost
My way, and lost my servants and my comrades. _70
CYPRIAN:
’Tis singular that even within the sight
Of the high towers of Antioch you could lose
Your way. Of all the avenues and green paths
Of this wild wood there is not one but leads,
As to its centre, to the walls of Antioch; _75
Take which you will, you cannot miss your road.
DAEMON:
And such is ignorance! Even in the sight
Of knowledge, it can draw no profit from it.
But as it still is early, and as I
Have no acquaintances in Antioch, _80
Being a stranger there, I will even wait
The few surviving hours of the day,
Until the night shall conquer it. I see
Both by your dress and by the books in which
You find delight and company, that you _85
Are a great student;—for my part, I feel
Much sympathy in such pursuits.
NOTE:
_87 in transcr.; with 1824.
CYPRIAN:
Have you
Studied much?
DAEMON:
No,—and yet I know enough
Not to be wholly ignorant.
CYPRIAN:
Pray, Sir,
What science may you know?—
DAEMON:
Many.
CYPRIAN:
Alas! _90
Much pains must we expend on one alone,
And even then attain it not;—but you
Have the presumption to assert that you
Know many without study.
DAEMON:
And with truth.
For in the country whence I come the sciences _95
Require no learning,—they are known.
NOTE:
_95 come the sciences]come sciences 1824.
CYPRIAN:
Oh, would
I were of that bright country! for in this
The more we study, we the more discover
Our ignorance.
DAEMON:
It is so true, that I
Had so much arrogance as to oppose _100
The chair of the most high Professorship,
And obtained many votes, and, though I lost,
The attempt was still more glorious, than the failure
Could be dishonourable. If you believe not,
Let us refer it to dispute respecting _105
That which you know the best, and although I
Know not the opinion you maintain, and though
It be the true one, I will take the contrary.
NOTE:
_106 the transcr.; wanting, 1824.
CYPRIAN:
The offer gives me pleasure. I am now
Debating with myself upon a passage _110
Of Plinius, and my mind is racked with doubt
To understand and know who is the God
Of whom he speaks.
DAEMON:
It is a passage, if
I recollect it right, couched in these words
‘God is one supreme goodness, one pure essence, _115
One substance, and one sense, all sight, all hands.’
CYPRIAN:
’Tis true.
DAEMON:
What difficulty find you here?
CYPRIAN:
I do not recognize among the Gods
The God defined by Plinius; if he must
Be supreme goodness, even Jupiter _120
Is not supremely good; because we see
His deeds are evil, and his attributes
Tainted with mortal weakness; in what manner
Can supreme goodness be consistent with
The passions of humanity?
DAEMON:
The wisdom _125
Of the old world masked with the names of Gods
The attributes of Nature and of Man;
A sort of popular philosophy.
CYPRIAN:
This reply will not satisfy me, for
Such awe is due to the high name of God _130
That ill should never be imputed. Then,
Examining the question with more care,
It follows, that the Gods would always will
That which is best, were they supremely good.
How then does one will one thing, one another? _135
And that you may not say that I allege
Poetical or philosophic learning:—
Consider the ambiguous responses
Of their oracular statues; from two shrines
Two armies shall obtain the assurance of _140
One victory. Is it not indisputable
That two contending wills can never lead
To the same end? And, being opposite,
If one be good, is not the other evil?
Evil in God is inconceivable; _145
But supreme goodness fails among the Gods
Without their union.
NOTE:
_133 would transcr.; should 1824.
DAEMON:
I deny your major.
These responses are means towards some end
Unfathomed by our intellectual beam.
They are the work of Providence, and more _150
The battle’s loss may profit those who lose,
Than victory advantage those who win.
CYPRIAN:
That I admit; and yet that God should not
(Falsehood is incompatible with deity)
Assure the victory; it would be enough _155
To have permitted the defeat. If God
Be all sight,—God, who had beheld the truth,
Would not have given assurance of an end
Never to be accomplished: thus, although
The Deity may according to his attributes _160
Be well distinguished into persons, yet
Even in the minutest circumstance
His essence must be one.
NOTE:
_157 had transcr.; wanting, 1824.
DAEMON:
To attain the end
The affections of the actors in the scene
Must have been thus influenced by his voice. _165
CYPRIAN:
But for a purpose thus subordinate
He might have employed Genii, good or evil,—
A sort of spirits called so by the learned,
Who roam about inspiring good or evil,
And from whose influence and existence we _170
May well infer our immortality.
Thus God might easily, without descent
To a gross falsehood in his proper person,
Have moved the affections by this mediation
To the just point.
NOTE:
_172 descent transcr.; descending 1824.
DAEMON:
These trifling contradictions _175
Do not suffice to impugn the unity
Of the high Gods; in things of great importance
They still appear unanimous; consider
That glorious fabric, man,—his workmanship
Is stamped with one conception.
CYPRIAN:
Who made man _180
Must have, methinks, the advantage of the others.
If they are equal, might they not have risen
In opposition to the work, and being
All hands, according to our author here,
Have still destroyed even as the other made? _185
If equal in their power, unequal only
In opportunity, which of the two
Will remain conqueror?
NOTE:
_186 unequal only transcr.; and only unequal 1824.
DAEMON:
On impossible
And false hypothesis there can be built
No argument. Say, what do you infer _190
From this?
CYPRIAN:
That there must be a mighty God
Of supreme goodness and of highest grace,
All sight, all hands, all truth, infallible,
Without an equal and without a rival,
The cause of all things and the effect of nothing, _195
One power, one will, one substance, and one essence.
And, in whatever persons, one or two,
His attributes may be distinguished, one
Sovereign power, one solitary essence,
One cause of all cause.
NOTE:
_197 And]query, Ay?
[THEY RISE.]
DAEMON:
How can I impugn _200
So clear a consequence?
NOTE:
_200 all cause 1824; all things transcr.
CYPRIAN:
Do you regret
My victory?
DAEMON:
Who but regrets a check
In rivalry of wit? I could reply
And urge new difficulties, but will now
Depart, for I hear steps of men approaching, _205
And it is time that I should now pursue
My journey to the city.
CYPRIAN:
Go in peace!
DAEMON:
Remain in peace!—Since thus it profits him
To study, I will wrap his senses up
In sweet oblivion of all thought but of _210
A piece of excellent beauty; and, as I
Have power given me to wage enmity
Against Justina’s soul, I will extract
From one effect two vengeances.
[ASIDE AND EXIT.]
NOTE:
_214 Stage direction So transcr.; Exit 1824.
CYPRIAN:
I never
Met a more learned person. Let me now _215
Revolve this doubt again with careful mind.
[HE READS.]
[FLORO AND LELIO ENTER.]
LELIO:
Here stop. These toppling rocks and tangled boughs,
Impenetrable by the noonday beam,
Shall be sole witnesses of what we—
FLORO:
Draw!
If there were words, here is the place for deeds. _220
LELIO:
Thou needest not instruct me; well I know
That in the field, the silent tongue of steel
Speaks thus,—
[THEY FIGHT.]
CYPRIAN:
Ha! what is this? Lelio,—Floro,
Be it enough that Cyprian stands between you,
Although unarmed.
LELIO:
Whence comest thou, to stand _225
Between me and my vengeance?
FLORO:
From what rocks
And desert cells?
[ENTER MOSCON AND CLARIN.]
MOSCON:
Run! run! for where we left
My master. I now hear the clash of swords.
NOTES:
_228 I now hear transcr.; we hear 1824.
_227-_229 lines of otherwise arranged, 1824.
CLARIN:
I never run to approach things of this sort
But only to avoid them. Sir! Cyprian! sir! _230
CYPRIAN:
Be silent, fellows! What! two friends who are
In blood and fame the eyes and hope of Antioch,
One of the noble race of the Colalti,
The other son o’ the Governor, adventure
And cast away, on some slight cause no doubt, _235
Two lives, the honour of their country?
NOTE:
_233 race transcr.; men 1824. Colalti]Colatti 1824.
LELIO:
Cyprian!
Although my high respect towards your person
Holds now my sword suspended, thou canst not
Restore it to the slumber of the scabbard:
Thou knowest more of science than the duel; _240
For when two men of honour take the field,
No counsel nor respect can make them friends
But one must die in the dispute.
NOTE:
_239 of the transcr.; of its 1824.
_242 No counsel nor 1839, 1st edition;
No [...] or 1824; No reasoning or transcr.
_243 dispute transcr. pursuit 1824.
FLORO:
I pray
That you depart hence with your people, and
Leave us to finish what we have begun _245
Without advantage.—
CYPRIAN:
Though you may imagine
That I know little of the laws of duel,
Which vanity and valour instituted,
You are in error. By my birth I am
Held no less than yourselves to know the limits _250
Of honour and of infamy, nor has study
Quenched the free spirit which first ordered them;
And thus to me, as one well experienced
In the false quicksands of the sea of honour,
You may refer the merits of the case; _255
And if I should perceive in your relation
That either has the right to satisfaction
From the other, I give you my word of honour
To leave you.
NOTE:
_253 well omit, cj. Forman.
LELIO:
Under this condition then
I will relate the cause, and you will cede _260
And must confess the impossibility
Of compromise; for the same lady is
Beloved by Floro and myself.
FLORO:
It seems
Much to me that the light of day should look
Upon that idol of my heart—but he— _265
Leave us to fight, according to thy word.
CYPRIAN:
Permit one question further: is the lady
Impossible to hope or not?
LELIO:
She is
So excellent, that if the light of day
Should excite Floro’s jealousy, it were _270
Without just cause, for even the light of day
Trembles to gaze on her.
CYPRIAN:
Would you for your
Part, marry her?
FLORO:
Such is my confidence.
CYPRIAN:
And you?
LELIO:
Oh! would that I could lift my hope
So high, for though she is extremely poor, _275
Her virtue is her dowry.
CYPRIAN:
And if you both
Would marry her, is it not weak and vain,
Culpable and unworthy, thus beforehand
To slur her honour? What would the world say
If one should slay the other, and if she _280
Should afterwards espouse the murderer?
[THE RIVALS AGREE TO REFER THEIR QUARREL TO CYPRIAN; WHO IN CONSEQUENCE
VISITS JUSTINA, AND BECOMES ENAMOURED OF HER; SHE DISDAINS HIM, AND HE
RETIRES TO A SOLITARY SEA-SHORE.]