Festus · Scene 15 (2/2) (2/3)

| Festus | Ah! thou hast dissolved the charm! Ah! thou hast outstepped the ring! Who shall answer for the harm Beauty on herself will bring? Come, I will conjure up again that smile⁠— The scarce departed spirit. There it is! Settling and hovering round thy lips the while, Like some bright angel o’er the gates of bliss. And I could sit and set that rose-bright smile, Until it seem to grow immortal there⁠— A something abstract even of all beauty, As though ’twere in the eye or in the air. Ah! never may a heavier shadow rest Than thine own ringlets’ on that brow so fair; Nor sob, nor sorrow, shake the perfect breast Which looks for love, as doth for death despair. And now the smile, the sigh, the blush, the tear⁠— Lo! all the elements of love are here. Oh, weep not⁠—wither not the soul Made saturate with bliss; I would not have one briny tear Embitter Beauty’s kiss. Nay, weep not, fear not! woe nor wrath Can touch a soul like thine, More than the lightning’s blinding path May strike the stars divine. Sing, then, while thy lover sips, And hear the truth that wine discloses; Music lives within thy lips Like a nightingale in roses. | | Helen | Sings. Oh! love is like the rose, And a month it may not see, Ere it withers where it grows⁠— Rosalie! I loved thee from afar; Oh! my heart was lift to thee Like a glass up to a star⁠— Rosalie! Thine eye was glassed in mine As the moon is in the sea, And its shin was on the brine⁠— Rosalie! The rose hath lost its red, And the star is in the sea, And the briny tear is shed⁠— Rosalie! | | Festus | What the stars are to the night, my love, What its pearls are to the sea⁠— What the dew is to the day, my love, Thy beauty is to me. | | Helen | I am but here die under-queen of beauty For yonder hangs the likeness of the goddess; And so to worship her is our first duty. The heavenly minds of old first taught the heavenly bodies Were to be worshipped; and the idolatry Holds to this hour; though. Beauty! but of thine. I am thy priestess, and will worship thee, With all this brave and lovely train of mine; Lo! we all kneel to thee before thy pictured shrine. Yes⁠—there, thou goddess of the heart, Immortal beauty, there! Thou glory of Jove’s free-love skies, E’en like thyself too fair, Too bright, too sweet for mortal eyes, For earthly hearts too strong; Thy golden girdle lift’s and drawest The heavens and earth along. Oh! thou art as the cloudless moon, Undimmed and unarrayed; No robe hast thou, no crown save yon⁠— Goddess! thy long locks’ soft and sunbright braid. And there’s thy son, Love⁠—beauty’s child⁠— World-known for strangest powers⁠— Boy-god thy place is blest o’er all! Smil’st thou at thoughts of ours? And there, by thy luxurious side, The Queen of Heaven and Jove Stands; and the deep delirious draught Drinks, from thy looks, of love, And lips, which oft have kissed away The thunders from his brow Who ruled, men say, the world of worlds, As God our God rules now. And thou art jet as great o’er this As erst o’er olden sky; Of all Heaven’s darkened deities The last live light on high. God after God hath left thee lone, Which lived on human breath; When prayers were breathed to them no more, The false ones pined to death. But in the service of young hearts To loveliness and love; Live thou shalt while yon wandering world Named unto thee shall move. No fabled dream art thou: all god, Our souls acknowledge thee; For what would life from love be worth, Or love from beauty be? Come, universal beauty, then, Thou apple of God’s eye, To and through which all things were made⁠— Things deathless⁠—things that die. Oh! lighten⁠—live before us there⁠— Leap in yon lovely form, And give a soul. She comes! it breathes⁠— So bright⁠—so sweet⁠—so warm. Our sacrifice is over: let us rise! For we have worshipped acceptably here; And let our glowing hearts and glimmering eyes, O’erstrained with gazing on thy light too near, Prove that our worship, Goddess, was sincere! | | Festus | I read that we are answered. The soft air Doubles its sweetness; and the fainting flowers, Down hanging on the walls in wreaths so fair, Bud forth afresh, as in their birth-day bowers, Dew-laden, as oppressed with love and shame, The rose-bud drops upon the lily’s breast; Brighter the wine, the lamps have softer flame, Thy kiss flows freer than the grape first pressed. | | Will | A dance, a dance! | | Helen | Let us remain! | | Festus | We will not tempt your sport again. | | Helen | Behold where Marian sits alone, The dance all sweeping round, Like to some goddess hewn in stone, With blooming garlands bound. | | Festus | Tell me, Marian, what those eyes Can discover in the skies?⁠— Those eyes, that look, so bright, so sweet their hue, As they had gained from gazing on that view, The high and starry beauty of their blue. | | Marian | For earth my soul hath lost all love, But Heaven still loves and watches o’er me; Why should I not, then, look above, And pass, and pity all before me? | | Festus | Oh! if yon worlds that shine o’er this, Have more of joy⁠—of passion less⁠— I would not change earth’s chequered bliss For thrice the joys those orbs possess; Which seem so strange their nature is, Faint with excess of happiness. | | Marian | Thy heart with others hath its rest, And it shall wake with me; And if within another breast Thy heart hath made itself a nest, Mine is no more for thee. Heart-breaker, go! I cannot choose But love thee, and thy love refuse; And if my brow grow lined while young, And youth fly cheated from my cheek, ’Tis, that there lies below my tongue A word I will not speak; For I would rather die than deem Thou art not the glory thou didst seem. But if engirt by flood or fire, Who would live that could expire? Who would not dream, and dreaming die, If to wake were misery? | | Festus | Whose woes are like to my woes? What is madness? The mind, exalted to a sense of ill, Soon sinks beyond it into utter sadness, And sees its grief before it like a hill. Oh! I have suffered till my brain became Distinct with woe, as is the skeleton leaf Whose green hath fretted off its fibrous frame, And bare to our immortality of grief. | | Marian | Like the light line that laughter leaves One moment on a bright young brow; So truth is lost ere love believes There can be aught save truth below. | | Festus | But as the eye aye brightlier beams For every fall the lid lets on it, So oft the fond heart happier dreams For the soft cheats love puts upon it. | | Marian | I never dreamed of wretchedness; I thought to love meant but to bless. | | Festus | It once was bliss to me to watch Thy passing smile, and sit and catch The sweet contagion of thy breath⁠— For love is catching⁠—from such teeth; Delicate little pearl-white wedges, All transparent at the edges. | | Marian | False flatterer, cease! | | Festus | It is my fate To love, and make who love me hate. | | Marian | No! ’tis to sue⁠—to gain⁠—deceive⁠— To tire of⁠—to neglect⁠—and leave: The desolation of the soul Is what I feel⁠— A sense of lostness that leaves death But little to reveal; For death is nothing but the thought Of something being again nought. | | Helen | Cease, lady, cease those aching sighs, Which shake the tear-drops from thine eyes, As morning wind, with wing fresh wet, Shakes dew out of the violet. Forgive me, if the love once thine Hath changed itself unsought to me; I did not tempt it from thy heart, I nothing knew of thee; And soon, perchance, ’twill be my part As thou now art, to be. | | Marian | I blame no heart, no love, no fate, And I have nothing to forgive; I wish for nought, repent of nought, Dislike nought but to live. | | Helen | Nay, sing; it will relieve thy heart | | Marian | I cannot sing a mirthful strain; And feel too much to act my part E’en of an ebbing vein. | | Festus | Our hearts are not in our own hands: Why wilt thou make me say I cannot love as once I loved? | | Marian | Hear!⁠—’tis for this I stay⁠— To say we part⁠—for ever part: But oh! how wide the line Between thy Marian’s bursting heart And that proud heart of thine. And thou wilt wander here and there, Ever the gay and free; To other maids wilt fondly swear, As thou hast sworn to me; And I⁠—oh! I shall but retire Into my grief alone; And kindle there the hidden fire, That burns, that wastes unknown. And love and life shall find their tomb In that sepulchral flame:⁠— Be happy⁠—none shall know for whom⁠— I will not dream thy name. | | Festus | As sings the swan with parting breath, So I to thee; While love is leaving⁠—worse than life⁠— Forewarningly. Speak not, nor think thou, any ill of me, If thou wouldst not die soon and wretchedly. I cannot waver on my path To shun fair lady’s love or wrath. Nor condescend the world to undeceive Which doth delight in error and believe. Thus then farewell, dear lady, ere I go: And dearly have I earned my lightest woe. Oh! if we e’er have loved, lady, We must forego it now; Though sore the heart be moved, lady, When bound to break its vow. I’ll alway think on thee, And thou sometimes⁠—on whom, lady? And yet those thoughts must be Like flowers flung on the tomb, lady, Then think that I am blest, lady, Though aye for thee I sigh; In peace and beauty rest, lady, Nor mourn and mourn as I. From one we love to part, lady, Is harder than to die; I see it by thy heart, lady, I feel it by thine eye. Thy lightest look can tell Thy heaviest thought to me, lady; Oh! I have loved thee well, But well seems ill with thee, lady; Though sore the heart be moved, lady, When bound to break its vow⁠— Yet if we ever loved, lady, We must forego it now.⁠— | | Lucifer | Come, I must separate you two: Such wretchedness will never do. The little cloud of grief which just appears, If left to spread, will drown us all in tears. | | Emma | Oblige us, pray, then, with a song. | | Charles | I am sure he has a singing face. | | Will | At church I heard him loud and long. | | Lucifer | Pardon⁠—bu you are doubly wrong. | | Helen | Obey, I beg. Here⁠—give him place. | | Lucifer | I have not sung for ages, mind; So you must take me as you find. This is a song supposed of one⁠— A fallen spirit⁠—name unknown⁠— Fettered upon his fiery throne⁠— Calling on his once angel-love, Who still remaineth true above. Sings. Thou hast more music in thy voice Than to the spheres is given, And more temptations on thy lips Than lost the angels Heaven. Thou hast more brightness in thine eyes Than all the stars which burn, More dazzling art thou than the throne We fallen dared to spurn. Go search through Heaven⁠—the sweetest smile That lightens there is thine; And through Hell’s burning darkness breaks No frown so fell as mine. One smile⁠—’twill light, one tear⁠—’twill cool; These will be more to me Than all the wealth of all the worlds, Or boundless power could be. | | Helen | Entreat him, pray, to sing again. | | Lucifer | Any thing any one desires. | | Festus | Your loveliness hath but to deign To will, and he’ll do all that will requires. | | Lucifer | Sings. Oh! many a cloud Hath lift its wing, And many a leaf Hath clad the spring; But there shall be thrice The leaf and cloud, And thrice shall the world Have worn her shroud, Ere there’s any like thee, But where thou wilt be. Oh! many a storm Hath drenched the sun, And many a stream To sea hath run; But there shall be thrice The storm and stream, Ere there’s any like thee, But in angel’s dream; Or in look, or in love, But in Heaven above. | | Lucy | What is love? Oh! I wonder so, Do tell me⁠—who pretends to know? | | Frank | Ask not of me, love, what is love? Ask what is good of God above⁠— Ask of the great sun what is light⁠— Ask what is darkness of the night⁠— Ask sin of what may be forgiven⁠— Ask what is happiness of Heaven⁠— Ask what is folly of the crowd⁠— Ask what is fashion of the shroud⁠— Ask what is sweetness of thy kiss⁠— Ask of thyself what beauty is; And, if they each should answer, I! Let me, too, join them with a sigh. Oh I let me pray my life may prove, When thus, with thee, that I am love. | | Festus | I cannot love as I have loved, And yet I know not why; It is the one great woe of life To feel all feeling die; And one by one the heartstrings snap, As age comes on so chill; And hope seems left that hope may cease, And all will soon be still. And the strong passions, like to storms, Soon rage themselves to rest, Or leave a desolated calm⁠— A worn and wasted breast; A heart that like the Geyser spring, Amidst its bosomed snows, May shrink, not rest⁠—but with its blood Boils even in repose. And yet the things one might have loved Remain as they have been⁠— Truth ever lovely, and one heart Still sacred and serene; But lower, less, and grosser things Eclipse the world-like mind, And leave their cold dark shadow where Most to the light inclined. And then it ends as it began, The orbit of our race, In pains and tears, and fears of life, And the new dwelling place. From life to death⁠—from death to life We hurry round to God, And leave behind us nothing but The path that we have trod. | | Helen | In vain I try to lure thy heart From grief to mirth. It were as easy to ward off Night from the earth. | | Festus | Fill! I’ll drink it till I die⁠— Helen’s lip and Helen’s eye! An eye which outsparkles The beads of the wine, With a hue which outdarkles The deeps where they shine. Come! with that lightly flushing brow, And darkly splendid eye, And white and wavy arms which now, Like snow-wreaths on the dark brown bough, So softly on me lie. Come! let us love, while love we may, Ere youth’s bright sands be run; The hour is nigh when every soul Which ’scapeth evil’s dread control, Nor drains the furies’ fiery bowl, Shall into Heaven for aye, And love its God alone. | | Helen | Now let me leave my throne; and if the hours Have measured every moment by a kiss, As I do think, since first ye gave these flowers, It was to teach us how to dial bliss. Farewell, dear crown, thy mistress will not wear, Save when she sitteth royally alone. Farewell, too, throne! not quickly wilt thou bear A happier form, if fairer than mine own. | | Will | The ladies leave us! | | Lucifer | Oh! by all means let them; But say, for Heaven itself, we’ll not forget them; Say we will pledge them to the top of breath, As loud as thunder, and as deep as death. |