A Drawing Room
SCENE — A Drawing Room .
F ESTUS and E LISSA .
F ESTUS . Who says he loves and is not wretched, lies;
Or that love is madness came mad from his mother.
'T is the most reasonable thing in nature.
What can we do but love? It is our cup.
Love is the cross and passion of the heart,
Its end — its errand. In the name of God,
What made us love, Elissa?
E LISSA . I know not.
I am not happy. I have wept all day.
F ESTUS . 'T was thine own fault. What wouldst thou have of me?
I tell thee we must — no, I cannot tell thee.
Nor can I bear those tears. Thou know'st I love thee,
Worship thee ; oh! it's a world more than worship,
The cold obedience which we give to God.
Elissa ! turn to me !
E LISSA . I cannot. Go! —
F ESTUS . Thou hadst no need, no business to have loved me.
One loved thee well.
E LISSA . I could not help his loving
Me, nor my loving thee. It was our fate.
F ESTUS . Then Fate hath fee'd the passion for our death,
And we are sold.
E LISSA . Well! Let us die together.
Together we will quit our bodies here.
F ESTUS . Together will we go to God and judgment.
E LISSA . Festus! I will, I can love none but thee.
F ESTUS . Thou must not
E LISSA . But I must. I cannot help it.
Look at me — heart and arms, I am thine own.
Thou knowest I am and have been. Wilt not love me?
Festus! mine own and only! wilt thou not?
Have I done nothing, suffered and abandoned
Nothing for thee? Oh! I was happy once;
Ere I knew thee. Why wast thou kind to me?
Cruelly kind — or this had never been.
But now thou mayst be cruel if thou wilt.
Hate me! still I am thine: disown me, thine!
Desert me! no — thou canst not. I am thine;
I am ! look at me, Festus! look at me !
I am half blind with weeping; and mine eyes
Have not a tear left in them. But I know
How it will end. Thou wilt leave me as I am —
Loveless and lonely.
F ESTUS . Nay, not so; my love
Shall aye be with thee, and my soul with both.
But we must part! Think that I come again.
E LISSA . Not be again with thee ! nor thou with me!
It is too much. Let me go mad, or die.
F ESTUS . Live, mine Elissa! and thou shalt live with me,
And I will love thee ever as I now love.
Wilt thou?
E LISSA . Oh! make me happy! say I may
Believe thee.
F ESTUS . May? Thou must.
E LISSA . Say it again!
I cannot know too often of my bliss.
But dost thou love me? tell me — wilt thou love me?
F ESTUS . Since I have known thee I have done nought else.
All hours not spent with thee are blanks between stars.
I love thee! love thee ! love thee! madly love thee.
Oh! thou hast drank my heart dry of all love!
It will be empty to aught after thee.
Come, dry thine eyes. Blessings on those sweet eyes!
By Heaven ! they might a moment win the glance
Of any seraph gazing not on God.
E LISSA . No wonder they drew thine. There is a tear!
F ESTUS . Ay; strange and startling is the first hot tear
That we have shed for years; and which hath lain
Like to a water-fairy in the eye's
Blue depths — spell-bound in the socket of the soul.
Death brought it not — pain brought it not — nor shame;
Nor penitence — nor pity — nor despair:
Nothing but love could. For a fearful time
We can keep down the floodgates of the heart,
But we must draw them sometime; or it will burst
Like sand this brave embankment of the breast,
And drain itself to dry death. When pride thaws —
Look for floods!
E LISSA . Now, thou wilt be very kind
When next we meet? Our time will soon be gone.
F ESTUS . I cannot think of time: — there is no time!
Time! time! I hate thee — with the late of Hell
For aught that's good — but thou art infamous.
I will give thee half my immortality
To keep back for one hour. Leave me, to-night;
And wither me, to-morrow, like a weed!
E LISSA . Where is he now?
F ESTUS . In Hell, — I hope.
E LISSA . What mean'st thou?
He wronged thee never. Say, when cometh he?
F ESTUS . To-night.
E LISSA . He comes to sever us, like fate.
But shall he part us?
F ESTUS . Never! Let him part
The sun in two first.
E LISSA . It was ever thus:
I am made to make unhappy all around me.
F ESTUS . I will not hear of thy being wrong, — it is I.
I am the false usurper. And since one
Out of the three must be a sacrifice,
Let it be me. It shall be.
E LISSA . Thou didst swear,
Even now, to love me ever.
F ESTUS . Be it so.
I have sworn — and now and then I keep my oath —
I will not give thee up, so save me, God!
E LISSA . Oh! we have been too happy, have we not?
But, now I think of it, we might have known
It could not last. Woe follows bliss as close
As death does life — as naturally, may be.
We might have thought —
F ESTUS . I never thought about it.
My love — Elissa! ah, how cold thy hand is!
Here — warm it on my heart. Nay, let it be.
The hand that is on the heart is on the soul.
And it is thus some moments take the wheel,
And steer us through eternity. Believe me,
Could I but crowd life, love too, in one throb,
I would beat it out, this moment, in thy hand,
And would die blessing.
E LISSA . Give me my hand back!
F ESTUS . My sweet one! if this heart hath warmed thy hand,
It hath not beaten in vain — it but returns
A pleasure, and a passion, and a power:
For oft at touch of thine this bosom burns.
E LISSA . Love hath no end except itself. We only
Felt we loved and were happy.
F ESTUS . Ah: It was so.
E LISSA . Our sole misfortune is, we have been happy:
We never shall be happy here again.
F ESTUS . Nay, say not so. Let us be happy now
Happy? To fling aside thy wavy locks,
And feed mine eyes on thy white brow — to look
Deep in thine eyes till I feel mine have drank
Full of that soft, wet fire which floats in thine —
Eyes which I ne'er would leave — yet when most near,
Then most astray I — oh! to lay my cheek
Upon thy sweet and awelling bosom thus;
Where midst upon the beauty of thy breast
Sits love like God between the cherubim —
To crop the red budding kisses from thy lips —
To name thee, make thee, but one moment, mine —
Delights me more than all that earth can lend
The good or bad — or Heaven can give the saved.
One long, wild kiss of sunny sweets, till each
Lack breath, the lips half bleed, and, come — thou knowest!
I ask but one such — let it last for ever!
E LISSA . Now, Festus! this is wrong.
F ESTUS . What? — what is wrong?
Shall my blood never bound beneath beauty's touch.
Heart throb, nor eye thaw with hers — when her tears
Drop, quick and bright, upon the glowing brow
Plunged in her bosom — because, forsooth, it is wrong?
Let it be wrong ! it is wrong, it is wretchedness
That I would lose both sense and soul to suffer.
E LISSA . How dare we love each other as we do?
F ESTUS . Give me some wine! more — more, love!
E LISSA . Drink and drain
The bowl! the vintage of a hundred years
Would never slake the memory of shame;
Nor quench the thirst of folly.
F ESTUS . Fill again!
My beauty! sing to me, and make me glad.
Thy sweet words drop upon the ear as soft
As rose leaves on a well: and I could listen,
As though the immortal melody of Heaven
Were wrought into one word — that word a whisper
That whisper all I want from all I love.
E LISSA . I am not happy, and I cannot sing.
Thou lookest happy. I wish I were so.
F ESTUS . They tell us that the body of the sun
Is dark, and hard, and hollow; and that light
Is but a floating fluid veiling him.
Ah! how oft, and how much, the heart is like him!
Despite the electric light it lives and hides in.
S ERVANT entering . A singer who was told to come is here.
F ESTUS . Wilt hear him ?
E LISSA . Yes, love — gladly.
F ESTUS . Show him in.
What have you there ?
S INGER . Oh! I think, every thing.
F ESTUS . Well, any thing will be enough this once.
The last new song?
S INGER . Certainly; here it is.[ Sings .
Oh! let not a lovely form
With feeling fill thine eye;
Oh! let not the bosom warm
At love-lorn lady's sigh —
For how false is the fairest breast;
How little worth, if true:
And who would wish possessed,
What all must scorn or rue?
Then pass by beauty with looks above;
Oh! seek never — share never — woman's love
Oh! let not a planet-like eye
Inbeam its tale on thine;
In truth 'tis a lie — though a lie
Scarce less than truth divine.
And the light of its look on the young
Is wildfire with the soul;
Ye follow and follow it long,
But find nor good nor goal.
Then pass by beauty with looks above;
Oh! seek never — share never — woman's love
E LISSA . Methinks I must have heard that voice before,
F ESTUS . And I.
E LISSA . Where?
F ESTUS . I forget.
E LISSA . And so do I.
S INGER . Oh! let not a wildering tongue
Weave bright webs o'er thine ear;
Nor thy spirit be said nor sung
To the air of smile or tear.
And say it hath melody far
More than the spheres of Heaven,
Though to man and the Morning star
They sang, Ye be forgiven!
Yet pass by beauty with looks above;
Oh! seek never — share never — woman's love
Oh! let not a soft bosom pour
Itself in thine! It is vain.
Love cheatcth the heart, oh! be sure,
Worse even than wine the brain.
Then snatch up thy lip from the brim,
Nor drain its dreamlike death;
For Love loves to lie down and dim
The bright soul with his breath.
Then pass by beauty with looks above;
Oh! seek never — share never — woman's love!
F ESTUS . Come hither, man! I wish to look at thee
A moment. No! it can't be. Yet I have seen
Some one much like thee.
E LISSA . It was a brother, may be
S INGER . I have none, lady. Have ye done with me?
F ESTUS . Yes — go! and we will take your song of you.
S ERVANT . Here, follow me![ They go
F ESTUS . Weeping again, my love
Thou art, by turns, the proudest and the humblest
Creature I ever met with. The least thing
Dints thy soft heart. Come, cheer thee, sweet one — do!
Oh! if to say, I love, laid all the sins
Of all the worlds upon me, I would say it
Till I was out of breath: and will till I die.
E LISSA . If Love be blind, it must be by his tears;
For love and sorrow alway come together —
Love with his sister, sorrow, by the hand.
F ESTUS . Nay, I will conquer thee again to smile,
Or lose my right to love thee. Let me kneel!
Come! I will have no other gods but thee;
To none but thee will I bow down and worship;
Thy bosom is mine altar — and thine eyes
Are the divinity that preys upon me.
Oh! cruel as the week-day gods of old,
Thou wilt have human victims; not content
With tears and kisses — fire and water — thou
Wilt have the subtler element of life;
Thou needs must live on immortality!
Here — take me then! I offer up myself
A sacrifice to thee.
E LISSA . Thou foolish boy
Where will thy passionate folly end? I love thee.
F ESTUS . Well, then, let me conjure thee! let me swear
By some sweet oath that shall to both be holy, —
By arms which hold, by knees which worship thee,
By that dark eye, the dark divine of beauty,
Yet trembling o'er its lid all tears and light —
Glory and eye of eyes which yet have shone!
By this lone heart, which longeth for a mate!
By love's sweet will, and sweeter way! by all
I love — by thyself, myself! let me, let me,
Let me — but draw the lightning from thine eye: —
Kisses are my conductors: do not frown;
Nor look so temptingly angry. I was but trifling.
The cold calm kiss which cometh as a gift,
Not a necessity, is not for me,
Whose bliss, whose woe, whose life, whose all is love.
E LISSA . We both wrong whom we love, love whom we wrong.
F ESTUS . But I am as a dog that fondles o'er
And licks the wound he dies of. Would I could
Suffer or feel enough of love to kill!
E LISSA . Thou lovest one whom thou oughtst not to love.
F ESTUS . And what of that? Love hath its own belief —
Own worship — own morality — own laws:
And it were better that all love were sin
Than that love were not. It must have by-laws —
Exceptions to the rules of earth and Heaven —
For it means not the good it doth nor ill.
E LISSA . It is wrong — it is unjust — unkind.
F ESTUS . It is.
But I am half mad and half dead with it.
I have loved thee till I can love nought beside.
My heart is drenched with love as with a cloud.
I have too much of life, that I scarce can live.
I hate all things but thee — shun men, like snakes —
Women, like pits. To me thou art all woman —
All life — all love, and more than all my kind.
I love thee more than I shall love and look for
Death, if he takes thee from me. But who dreams
Of death and thee together!
E LISSA . I do oft:
And as oft wish dreams would, for once, come true.
The best of all things are dreams realized.
F ESTUS . Dreams such as gods may dream thy soul possess
For ever in the Hadeän Eden — Death:
But bless thy lover with reality !
Then, thou shalt live for ever, and with me.
I have gone round the compass of all life,
And can find nought worthy of thee. I but feel,
That were I — as I ought to be — a god,
I would just sacrifice the sun to thee,
In bright and burning honor of thy love.
Miracles are not miracles with gods.
E LISSA . Dearer thou canst not be to me, unless
I die in telling how dear.
F ESTUS . My Elissa !
I — I am bewildered: open but thine arms !
And make me happy and all wise of thee.
My soul is stung with thy beauty to the quick.
Oh! but thou art too good, or else too bad:
Be colder or be warmer !
E LISSA . Leave me !
F ESTUS . Well:
It is most cruel — first, to light the heart
With love completely — boundlessly; and then
Moonlike, slowly to edge aside, and leave
One only little line of all so bright,
Once — teach and unteach — nay, to use more arts
Than would outdo the devil of his throne,
To make us ignorant of all we know: —
To take the heart to pieces carefully —
For it is love alone can build the heart —
To root the tree up 'neath whose shade we have lived,
And give us back a sliver. Let it die !
E LISSA . Hark ! he is coming.
F ESTUS . No ! He cannot come
For I have driven an oath into his heart,
And I have hung a curse about his neck
Might sink the prince of air into the centre.
E LISSA . All I have done, I have done to save ourselves.
F ESTUS . Then let us perish ! But unless we sin
We cannot perish. Have ! Have ! cries a voice,
As of a crowd, within me. I would do aught
To throw this dark desire which wrestles with me.
It answers not to hold it at arms' length:
It must be hurled, dashed, trampled down. — I can't.
Lady ! how long am I to love thee thus ?
Never did angel love its Heaven — nor God
Man, as I thee.
E LISSA . I feared how it would end.
Can nothing less than sinning sate the soul ?
Can nothing but perdition serve to nest
Our hearts, after so sweet a flight of love ?
F ESTUS . The might and truth of hearts is never shown
But in loving those whom we ought not to love —
Or cannot have. The wrong, the suffering is
Its own reward.
E LISSA . Let me not wrong thee, Festus.
Let me not think I have thought too well of thee.
Be as thou wast. What will become of us ?
F ESTUS . Be mine ! be me ! be aught but so far from me !
Give me thyself ! It is not enough for me,
That I have gazed and doted on thee till
Mine eye is dazzled and my brain is dizzied:
Thou must exhaust all senses; not enough
That in long dreams my soul hath spread itself
Like water over every living line
Of this sweet make, dreaming thou wast all lips;
Nor that it now sinks in the face of thee,
Like a sea sunset, hot and tired with the long,
Long day of love; — it is not enough. I must
Have more — have all ! For I have sworn to fill
Mine arms with bliss — thus — thus — thus !
E LISSA . Festus !
L UCIFER , entering . Friend
Did ye not know me ? It was I who sang.
E LISSA . It was he!
F ESTUS . Thou —
L UCIFER . Hush ! thou art not to utter what
I am. Bethink thee; it was our covenant.
I said that I would see thee once again.
E LISSA . Thou didst; and I must thank thee.
L UCIFER . Hear me now !
Thou knowest well what once I was to thee:
One who for love of one I loved — for thee —
Would have done or borne the sins of all the world;
Who did thy bidding at thy lightest look;
And had it been to have snatched an angel's crown
Off her bright brow as she sat singing, throned,
I would have cut these heartstrings that tie down,
And let my soul have sailed to Heaven, and done it —
Spite of the thunder and the sacrilege,
And laid it at thy feet. I loved thee, lady !
I am one whose love was greater than the world's,
And might have vied with God's; a boundless ring,
All pressing on one point — that point thy heart.
And now — but shall I call on my revenge ? —
It is at hand in armies. Thou art a woman ;
And that is saying the best and worst of thee.
I know that vengeance is the part of God:
And can make myself almighty for the moment.
For what ? for nothing. Thou art utter nothing.
Thus it was always with me when with thee;
And I forgot my purpose and my wrongs,
In looking and in loving. But I hate thee.
To say thou didst love me ! Curse the air
That bore the sound to me! Forgive me, God !
If I blaspheme, it is not at Thee, but her.
I'd not believe her were she saved in Heaven !
There is no blasphemy in love but doubt;
No sin, but to deceive.
F ESTUS . Then is she sinless.
She loved thee first — then me. What wouldst thou more?
Thy heart's embrace, though close, was snake-like cold;
And mine was warm, and what is more, was welcome.
L UCIFER . Patience ! I spake not, cared not, thought not, of thee. —
Now I forgive thy having loved another;
And I forgive — but never mind it now;
I have forgiven so much, there is nothing left
To make more words about; but, for the future,
I will as soon attempt to entice a star
To perch upon my finger; or the wind
To follow me like a dog, as think to keep
A woman's heart again. Answer me not !
Let me say what I have to say and go.
Thou art all will and passion ; that is thine
Excuse and condemnation.
E LISSA . While that will
Was love to thee, I saw no harm, nor thou.
And if my heart hath gained, it was not I
Who put it on — nor could help it going wrong.
L UCIFER . Oh ! I have heard, what rather than have heard,
I would have stopped mine ears with thunder: words,
That have gone singing through my soul, like arrows
Through the air.
E LISSA . I never will defend myself.
For I despise defence like accusation —
And now look down on them and thee together.
L UCIFER . Now let us part, or I shall die of wrath.
Be my estrangement perfect as my love !
E LISSA . Part then!
L UCIFER . Thank God it is for eternity.
E LISSA . I do. Away.
L UCIFER . Festus! I wait for thee.
F ESTUS . Come, thou art not the first deceived in love;
Yet love is not so much love as a dream,
Which hath, it seems, like guerdon with the thing —
The staring madness when we wake and find
That what we have loved, must love, is not that
We meant to love. Perhaps I profited
Too much by thy good lessons. Go! I follow.
L UCIFER , going . Now therefore would I wager, and I might
The great archangel's trump to a dog-whistle,
That whatsoever happens, worse ensues.
F ESTUS . Forgive me, love, for having brought this on thee.
E LISSA . The love which giveth all, forgiveth aught.
And thou art more to me than earth or Heaven.
They have but given life: thou gavest me love,
The lord of life — thou, my life! love, and lord!
Take me again! my kindest — dearest — best!
Him who hath gone I never loved like thee.
There was a desolation in his eye
I could not brook to look on; for it seemed
As though it ate the light out of mine own.
I think that thou dost love me.
F ESTUS . And I think,
For perfect love there should be but one god —
One worshipper.
E LISSA . We know the gods of old
Worshipped each other — equal deities.
For the sweet poets surely spake the truth
About the gods; they dare not speak but truth.
F ESTUS . Who but thyself would speak of poetry,
While thou art by? who art the very breathing
Beauty which bards may seek ideally.
And dost thou, then, believe the gods of old —
Those toys and playthings of an infant world?
E LISSA . If I do not believe, I do not scorn them.
Nay, I could mourn for them and pray for them.
I can scorn nothing which a nation's heart
Hath held, for ages, holy: for the heart
Is alike holy in its strength and weakness:
It ought not to be jested with, nor scorned.
All things, to me, are sacred that have been.
And, though earth, like a river, streaked with blood,
Which tells a long and silent tale of death,
May blush her history and hide her eyes,
The past is sacred — it is God's, not ours.
Let her and us do better if we can.
F ESTUS . There are whole veins of diamonds in thine eyes,
Might furnish crowns for all the Queens of earth.
Oh! I could sooner set a price on the sun,
My love, than on thy lightest look. Look on me!
Speak! if it only be to say thou wilt not.
Look! I would rather look on thee one minute,
Than paradise for a whole day — such days
As are in Heaven. I love thee more and more.
E LISSA . To love, and say we love — to suck the sting
Out of the heart, and put its poison on
The tongue.
F ESTUS . Yet it is luxury to feel
Inflamed — to glow within ourselves, like fire-opals.
Now, stay thy pretty little tuneful tongue,
Nor silver o'er thy syllables! They will not
Pass. No, not one more word! I must away;
I have staid too long, already, for my word.
E LISSA . I cannot part with thee: nay, sit again!
Parted from thee I feel like one half riven,
And my soul acheth to spring to — as thus!
F ESTUS . There! let me leave love! let me loose these arms.
Another time and, ah! well — never mind!
We shall be happier — I know we shall.
Thou hast been mine — thou art mine — and thou shalt be!
E LISSA . My life is one long loving thought of thee.
If any ask me what I do, I could say
I love, and that is all.
F ESTUS . It is enough.
One kiss! another! one more — there! farewell!
[ Goes .
E LISSA . And he is gone! and the world seems gone with him.
Shine on, ye Heavens! why can ye not impart
Light to my heart? Have ye no feeling in ye?
Why are ye bright when I am so unhappy?
But oh! I would not change my woes for thrice
The bliss of others, since they are for thee, love.
Our very wretchedness grows dear to us
When suffering for one we love. Sweet stars!
I cannot look upon your loveliness
Without sadness, for ye are too beautiful;
And beauty makes unhappy : so men say.
Ye stars! it is true — we read our fate in ye.
Bright through all ages, are ye not happy there?
With years, many as your light-rays, are ye not
Immortal? Space-pervading, oh! ye must be,
Spirit-like, infinite. All-being God!
Who art in all things, and in whom all are! —
And it is thus we worship Thee the most;
When heart to heart with one we love we are gods; —
Let us believe that if Thou gavest earth
For our bodies, then the stars were for our souls;
For perfect beauty and unbounded love!
Let us believe they look upon us here
As their inheritors, and save themselves
For us, as we for Thee, and Thou for all!
F ESTUS and E LISSA .
F ESTUS . Who says he loves and is not wretched, lies;
Or that love is madness came mad from his mother.
'T is the most reasonable thing in nature.
What can we do but love? It is our cup.
Love is the cross and passion of the heart,
Its end — its errand. In the name of God,
What made us love, Elissa?
E LISSA . I know not.
I am not happy. I have wept all day.
F ESTUS . 'T was thine own fault. What wouldst thou have of me?
I tell thee we must — no, I cannot tell thee.
Nor can I bear those tears. Thou know'st I love thee,
Worship thee ; oh! it's a world more than worship,
The cold obedience which we give to God.
Elissa ! turn to me !
E LISSA . I cannot. Go! —
F ESTUS . Thou hadst no need, no business to have loved me.
One loved thee well.
E LISSA . I could not help his loving
Me, nor my loving thee. It was our fate.
F ESTUS . Then Fate hath fee'd the passion for our death,
And we are sold.
E LISSA . Well! Let us die together.
Together we will quit our bodies here.
F ESTUS . Together will we go to God and judgment.
E LISSA . Festus! I will, I can love none but thee.
F ESTUS . Thou must not
E LISSA . But I must. I cannot help it.
Look at me — heart and arms, I am thine own.
Thou knowest I am and have been. Wilt not love me?
Festus! mine own and only! wilt thou not?
Have I done nothing, suffered and abandoned
Nothing for thee? Oh! I was happy once;
Ere I knew thee. Why wast thou kind to me?
Cruelly kind — or this had never been.
But now thou mayst be cruel if thou wilt.
Hate me! still I am thine: disown me, thine!
Desert me! no — thou canst not. I am thine;
I am ! look at me, Festus! look at me !
I am half blind with weeping; and mine eyes
Have not a tear left in them. But I know
How it will end. Thou wilt leave me as I am —
Loveless and lonely.
F ESTUS . Nay, not so; my love
Shall aye be with thee, and my soul with both.
But we must part! Think that I come again.
E LISSA . Not be again with thee ! nor thou with me!
It is too much. Let me go mad, or die.
F ESTUS . Live, mine Elissa! and thou shalt live with me,
And I will love thee ever as I now love.
Wilt thou?
E LISSA . Oh! make me happy! say I may
Believe thee.
F ESTUS . May? Thou must.
E LISSA . Say it again!
I cannot know too often of my bliss.
But dost thou love me? tell me — wilt thou love me?
F ESTUS . Since I have known thee I have done nought else.
All hours not spent with thee are blanks between stars.
I love thee! love thee ! love thee! madly love thee.
Oh! thou hast drank my heart dry of all love!
It will be empty to aught after thee.
Come, dry thine eyes. Blessings on those sweet eyes!
By Heaven ! they might a moment win the glance
Of any seraph gazing not on God.
E LISSA . No wonder they drew thine. There is a tear!
F ESTUS . Ay; strange and startling is the first hot tear
That we have shed for years; and which hath lain
Like to a water-fairy in the eye's
Blue depths — spell-bound in the socket of the soul.
Death brought it not — pain brought it not — nor shame;
Nor penitence — nor pity — nor despair:
Nothing but love could. For a fearful time
We can keep down the floodgates of the heart,
But we must draw them sometime; or it will burst
Like sand this brave embankment of the breast,
And drain itself to dry death. When pride thaws —
Look for floods!
E LISSA . Now, thou wilt be very kind
When next we meet? Our time will soon be gone.
F ESTUS . I cannot think of time: — there is no time!
Time! time! I hate thee — with the late of Hell
For aught that's good — but thou art infamous.
I will give thee half my immortality
To keep back for one hour. Leave me, to-night;
And wither me, to-morrow, like a weed!
E LISSA . Where is he now?
F ESTUS . In Hell, — I hope.
E LISSA . What mean'st thou?
He wronged thee never. Say, when cometh he?
F ESTUS . To-night.
E LISSA . He comes to sever us, like fate.
But shall he part us?
F ESTUS . Never! Let him part
The sun in two first.
E LISSA . It was ever thus:
I am made to make unhappy all around me.
F ESTUS . I will not hear of thy being wrong, — it is I.
I am the false usurper. And since one
Out of the three must be a sacrifice,
Let it be me. It shall be.
E LISSA . Thou didst swear,
Even now, to love me ever.
F ESTUS . Be it so.
I have sworn — and now and then I keep my oath —
I will not give thee up, so save me, God!
E LISSA . Oh! we have been too happy, have we not?
But, now I think of it, we might have known
It could not last. Woe follows bliss as close
As death does life — as naturally, may be.
We might have thought —
F ESTUS . I never thought about it.
My love — Elissa! ah, how cold thy hand is!
Here — warm it on my heart. Nay, let it be.
The hand that is on the heart is on the soul.
And it is thus some moments take the wheel,
And steer us through eternity. Believe me,
Could I but crowd life, love too, in one throb,
I would beat it out, this moment, in thy hand,
And would die blessing.
E LISSA . Give me my hand back!
F ESTUS . My sweet one! if this heart hath warmed thy hand,
It hath not beaten in vain — it but returns
A pleasure, and a passion, and a power:
For oft at touch of thine this bosom burns.
E LISSA . Love hath no end except itself. We only
Felt we loved and were happy.
F ESTUS . Ah: It was so.
E LISSA . Our sole misfortune is, we have been happy:
We never shall be happy here again.
F ESTUS . Nay, say not so. Let us be happy now
Happy? To fling aside thy wavy locks,
And feed mine eyes on thy white brow — to look
Deep in thine eyes till I feel mine have drank
Full of that soft, wet fire which floats in thine —
Eyes which I ne'er would leave — yet when most near,
Then most astray I — oh! to lay my cheek
Upon thy sweet and awelling bosom thus;
Where midst upon the beauty of thy breast
Sits love like God between the cherubim —
To crop the red budding kisses from thy lips —
To name thee, make thee, but one moment, mine —
Delights me more than all that earth can lend
The good or bad — or Heaven can give the saved.
One long, wild kiss of sunny sweets, till each
Lack breath, the lips half bleed, and, come — thou knowest!
I ask but one such — let it last for ever!
E LISSA . Now, Festus! this is wrong.
F ESTUS . What? — what is wrong?
Shall my blood never bound beneath beauty's touch.
Heart throb, nor eye thaw with hers — when her tears
Drop, quick and bright, upon the glowing brow
Plunged in her bosom — because, forsooth, it is wrong?
Let it be wrong ! it is wrong, it is wretchedness
That I would lose both sense and soul to suffer.
E LISSA . How dare we love each other as we do?
F ESTUS . Give me some wine! more — more, love!
E LISSA . Drink and drain
The bowl! the vintage of a hundred years
Would never slake the memory of shame;
Nor quench the thirst of folly.
F ESTUS . Fill again!
My beauty! sing to me, and make me glad.
Thy sweet words drop upon the ear as soft
As rose leaves on a well: and I could listen,
As though the immortal melody of Heaven
Were wrought into one word — that word a whisper
That whisper all I want from all I love.
E LISSA . I am not happy, and I cannot sing.
Thou lookest happy. I wish I were so.
F ESTUS . They tell us that the body of the sun
Is dark, and hard, and hollow; and that light
Is but a floating fluid veiling him.
Ah! how oft, and how much, the heart is like him!
Despite the electric light it lives and hides in.
S ERVANT entering . A singer who was told to come is here.
F ESTUS . Wilt hear him ?
E LISSA . Yes, love — gladly.
F ESTUS . Show him in.
What have you there ?
S INGER . Oh! I think, every thing.
F ESTUS . Well, any thing will be enough this once.
The last new song?
S INGER . Certainly; here it is.[ Sings .
Oh! let not a lovely form
With feeling fill thine eye;
Oh! let not the bosom warm
At love-lorn lady's sigh —
For how false is the fairest breast;
How little worth, if true:
And who would wish possessed,
What all must scorn or rue?
Then pass by beauty with looks above;
Oh! seek never — share never — woman's love
Oh! let not a planet-like eye
Inbeam its tale on thine;
In truth 'tis a lie — though a lie
Scarce less than truth divine.
And the light of its look on the young
Is wildfire with the soul;
Ye follow and follow it long,
But find nor good nor goal.
Then pass by beauty with looks above;
Oh! seek never — share never — woman's love
E LISSA . Methinks I must have heard that voice before,
F ESTUS . And I.
E LISSA . Where?
F ESTUS . I forget.
E LISSA . And so do I.
S INGER . Oh! let not a wildering tongue
Weave bright webs o'er thine ear;
Nor thy spirit be said nor sung
To the air of smile or tear.
And say it hath melody far
More than the spheres of Heaven,
Though to man and the Morning star
They sang, Ye be forgiven!
Yet pass by beauty with looks above;
Oh! seek never — share never — woman's love
Oh! let not a soft bosom pour
Itself in thine! It is vain.
Love cheatcth the heart, oh! be sure,
Worse even than wine the brain.
Then snatch up thy lip from the brim,
Nor drain its dreamlike death;
For Love loves to lie down and dim
The bright soul with his breath.
Then pass by beauty with looks above;
Oh! seek never — share never — woman's love!
F ESTUS . Come hither, man! I wish to look at thee
A moment. No! it can't be. Yet I have seen
Some one much like thee.
E LISSA . It was a brother, may be
S INGER . I have none, lady. Have ye done with me?
F ESTUS . Yes — go! and we will take your song of you.
S ERVANT . Here, follow me![ They go
F ESTUS . Weeping again, my love
Thou art, by turns, the proudest and the humblest
Creature I ever met with. The least thing
Dints thy soft heart. Come, cheer thee, sweet one — do!
Oh! if to say, I love, laid all the sins
Of all the worlds upon me, I would say it
Till I was out of breath: and will till I die.
E LISSA . If Love be blind, it must be by his tears;
For love and sorrow alway come together —
Love with his sister, sorrow, by the hand.
F ESTUS . Nay, I will conquer thee again to smile,
Or lose my right to love thee. Let me kneel!
Come! I will have no other gods but thee;
To none but thee will I bow down and worship;
Thy bosom is mine altar — and thine eyes
Are the divinity that preys upon me.
Oh! cruel as the week-day gods of old,
Thou wilt have human victims; not content
With tears and kisses — fire and water — thou
Wilt have the subtler element of life;
Thou needs must live on immortality!
Here — take me then! I offer up myself
A sacrifice to thee.
E LISSA . Thou foolish boy
Where will thy passionate folly end? I love thee.
F ESTUS . Well, then, let me conjure thee! let me swear
By some sweet oath that shall to both be holy, —
By arms which hold, by knees which worship thee,
By that dark eye, the dark divine of beauty,
Yet trembling o'er its lid all tears and light —
Glory and eye of eyes which yet have shone!
By this lone heart, which longeth for a mate!
By love's sweet will, and sweeter way! by all
I love — by thyself, myself! let me, let me,
Let me — but draw the lightning from thine eye: —
Kisses are my conductors: do not frown;
Nor look so temptingly angry. I was but trifling.
The cold calm kiss which cometh as a gift,
Not a necessity, is not for me,
Whose bliss, whose woe, whose life, whose all is love.
E LISSA . We both wrong whom we love, love whom we wrong.
F ESTUS . But I am as a dog that fondles o'er
And licks the wound he dies of. Would I could
Suffer or feel enough of love to kill!
E LISSA . Thou lovest one whom thou oughtst not to love.
F ESTUS . And what of that? Love hath its own belief —
Own worship — own morality — own laws:
And it were better that all love were sin
Than that love were not. It must have by-laws —
Exceptions to the rules of earth and Heaven —
For it means not the good it doth nor ill.
E LISSA . It is wrong — it is unjust — unkind.
F ESTUS . It is.
But I am half mad and half dead with it.
I have loved thee till I can love nought beside.
My heart is drenched with love as with a cloud.
I have too much of life, that I scarce can live.
I hate all things but thee — shun men, like snakes —
Women, like pits. To me thou art all woman —
All life — all love, and more than all my kind.
I love thee more than I shall love and look for
Death, if he takes thee from me. But who dreams
Of death and thee together!
E LISSA . I do oft:
And as oft wish dreams would, for once, come true.
The best of all things are dreams realized.
F ESTUS . Dreams such as gods may dream thy soul possess
For ever in the Hadeän Eden — Death:
But bless thy lover with reality !
Then, thou shalt live for ever, and with me.
I have gone round the compass of all life,
And can find nought worthy of thee. I but feel,
That were I — as I ought to be — a god,
I would just sacrifice the sun to thee,
In bright and burning honor of thy love.
Miracles are not miracles with gods.
E LISSA . Dearer thou canst not be to me, unless
I die in telling how dear.
F ESTUS . My Elissa !
I — I am bewildered: open but thine arms !
And make me happy and all wise of thee.
My soul is stung with thy beauty to the quick.
Oh! but thou art too good, or else too bad:
Be colder or be warmer !
E LISSA . Leave me !
F ESTUS . Well:
It is most cruel — first, to light the heart
With love completely — boundlessly; and then
Moonlike, slowly to edge aside, and leave
One only little line of all so bright,
Once — teach and unteach — nay, to use more arts
Than would outdo the devil of his throne,
To make us ignorant of all we know: —
To take the heart to pieces carefully —
For it is love alone can build the heart —
To root the tree up 'neath whose shade we have lived,
And give us back a sliver. Let it die !
E LISSA . Hark ! he is coming.
F ESTUS . No ! He cannot come
For I have driven an oath into his heart,
And I have hung a curse about his neck
Might sink the prince of air into the centre.
E LISSA . All I have done, I have done to save ourselves.
F ESTUS . Then let us perish ! But unless we sin
We cannot perish. Have ! Have ! cries a voice,
As of a crowd, within me. I would do aught
To throw this dark desire which wrestles with me.
It answers not to hold it at arms' length:
It must be hurled, dashed, trampled down. — I can't.
Lady ! how long am I to love thee thus ?
Never did angel love its Heaven — nor God
Man, as I thee.
E LISSA . I feared how it would end.
Can nothing less than sinning sate the soul ?
Can nothing but perdition serve to nest
Our hearts, after so sweet a flight of love ?
F ESTUS . The might and truth of hearts is never shown
But in loving those whom we ought not to love —
Or cannot have. The wrong, the suffering is
Its own reward.
E LISSA . Let me not wrong thee, Festus.
Let me not think I have thought too well of thee.
Be as thou wast. What will become of us ?
F ESTUS . Be mine ! be me ! be aught but so far from me !
Give me thyself ! It is not enough for me,
That I have gazed and doted on thee till
Mine eye is dazzled and my brain is dizzied:
Thou must exhaust all senses; not enough
That in long dreams my soul hath spread itself
Like water over every living line
Of this sweet make, dreaming thou wast all lips;
Nor that it now sinks in the face of thee,
Like a sea sunset, hot and tired with the long,
Long day of love; — it is not enough. I must
Have more — have all ! For I have sworn to fill
Mine arms with bliss — thus — thus — thus !
E LISSA . Festus !
L UCIFER , entering . Friend
Did ye not know me ? It was I who sang.
E LISSA . It was he!
F ESTUS . Thou —
L UCIFER . Hush ! thou art not to utter what
I am. Bethink thee; it was our covenant.
I said that I would see thee once again.
E LISSA . Thou didst; and I must thank thee.
L UCIFER . Hear me now !
Thou knowest well what once I was to thee:
One who for love of one I loved — for thee —
Would have done or borne the sins of all the world;
Who did thy bidding at thy lightest look;
And had it been to have snatched an angel's crown
Off her bright brow as she sat singing, throned,
I would have cut these heartstrings that tie down,
And let my soul have sailed to Heaven, and done it —
Spite of the thunder and the sacrilege,
And laid it at thy feet. I loved thee, lady !
I am one whose love was greater than the world's,
And might have vied with God's; a boundless ring,
All pressing on one point — that point thy heart.
And now — but shall I call on my revenge ? —
It is at hand in armies. Thou art a woman ;
And that is saying the best and worst of thee.
I know that vengeance is the part of God:
And can make myself almighty for the moment.
For what ? for nothing. Thou art utter nothing.
Thus it was always with me when with thee;
And I forgot my purpose and my wrongs,
In looking and in loving. But I hate thee.
To say thou didst love me ! Curse the air
That bore the sound to me! Forgive me, God !
If I blaspheme, it is not at Thee, but her.
I'd not believe her were she saved in Heaven !
There is no blasphemy in love but doubt;
No sin, but to deceive.
F ESTUS . Then is she sinless.
She loved thee first — then me. What wouldst thou more?
Thy heart's embrace, though close, was snake-like cold;
And mine was warm, and what is more, was welcome.
L UCIFER . Patience ! I spake not, cared not, thought not, of thee. —
Now I forgive thy having loved another;
And I forgive — but never mind it now;
I have forgiven so much, there is nothing left
To make more words about; but, for the future,
I will as soon attempt to entice a star
To perch upon my finger; or the wind
To follow me like a dog, as think to keep
A woman's heart again. Answer me not !
Let me say what I have to say and go.
Thou art all will and passion ; that is thine
Excuse and condemnation.
E LISSA . While that will
Was love to thee, I saw no harm, nor thou.
And if my heart hath gained, it was not I
Who put it on — nor could help it going wrong.
L UCIFER . Oh ! I have heard, what rather than have heard,
I would have stopped mine ears with thunder: words,
That have gone singing through my soul, like arrows
Through the air.
E LISSA . I never will defend myself.
For I despise defence like accusation —
And now look down on them and thee together.
L UCIFER . Now let us part, or I shall die of wrath.
Be my estrangement perfect as my love !
E LISSA . Part then!
L UCIFER . Thank God it is for eternity.
E LISSA . I do. Away.
L UCIFER . Festus! I wait for thee.
F ESTUS . Come, thou art not the first deceived in love;
Yet love is not so much love as a dream,
Which hath, it seems, like guerdon with the thing —
The staring madness when we wake and find
That what we have loved, must love, is not that
We meant to love. Perhaps I profited
Too much by thy good lessons. Go! I follow.
L UCIFER , going . Now therefore would I wager, and I might
The great archangel's trump to a dog-whistle,
That whatsoever happens, worse ensues.
F ESTUS . Forgive me, love, for having brought this on thee.
E LISSA . The love which giveth all, forgiveth aught.
And thou art more to me than earth or Heaven.
They have but given life: thou gavest me love,
The lord of life — thou, my life! love, and lord!
Take me again! my kindest — dearest — best!
Him who hath gone I never loved like thee.
There was a desolation in his eye
I could not brook to look on; for it seemed
As though it ate the light out of mine own.
I think that thou dost love me.
F ESTUS . And I think,
For perfect love there should be but one god —
One worshipper.
E LISSA . We know the gods of old
Worshipped each other — equal deities.
For the sweet poets surely spake the truth
About the gods; they dare not speak but truth.
F ESTUS . Who but thyself would speak of poetry,
While thou art by? who art the very breathing
Beauty which bards may seek ideally.
And dost thou, then, believe the gods of old —
Those toys and playthings of an infant world?
E LISSA . If I do not believe, I do not scorn them.
Nay, I could mourn for them and pray for them.
I can scorn nothing which a nation's heart
Hath held, for ages, holy: for the heart
Is alike holy in its strength and weakness:
It ought not to be jested with, nor scorned.
All things, to me, are sacred that have been.
And, though earth, like a river, streaked with blood,
Which tells a long and silent tale of death,
May blush her history and hide her eyes,
The past is sacred — it is God's, not ours.
Let her and us do better if we can.
F ESTUS . There are whole veins of diamonds in thine eyes,
Might furnish crowns for all the Queens of earth.
Oh! I could sooner set a price on the sun,
My love, than on thy lightest look. Look on me!
Speak! if it only be to say thou wilt not.
Look! I would rather look on thee one minute,
Than paradise for a whole day — such days
As are in Heaven. I love thee more and more.
E LISSA . To love, and say we love — to suck the sting
Out of the heart, and put its poison on
The tongue.
F ESTUS . Yet it is luxury to feel
Inflamed — to glow within ourselves, like fire-opals.
Now, stay thy pretty little tuneful tongue,
Nor silver o'er thy syllables! They will not
Pass. No, not one more word! I must away;
I have staid too long, already, for my word.
E LISSA . I cannot part with thee: nay, sit again!
Parted from thee I feel like one half riven,
And my soul acheth to spring to — as thus!
F ESTUS . There! let me leave love! let me loose these arms.
Another time and, ah! well — never mind!
We shall be happier — I know we shall.
Thou hast been mine — thou art mine — and thou shalt be!
E LISSA . My life is one long loving thought of thee.
If any ask me what I do, I could say
I love, and that is all.
F ESTUS . It is enough.
One kiss! another! one more — there! farewell!
[ Goes .
E LISSA . And he is gone! and the world seems gone with him.
Shine on, ye Heavens! why can ye not impart
Light to my heart? Have ye no feeling in ye?
Why are ye bright when I am so unhappy?
But oh! I would not change my woes for thrice
The bliss of others, since they are for thee, love.
Our very wretchedness grows dear to us
When suffering for one we love. Sweet stars!
I cannot look upon your loveliness
Without sadness, for ye are too beautiful;
And beauty makes unhappy : so men say.
Ye stars! it is true — we read our fate in ye.
Bright through all ages, are ye not happy there?
With years, many as your light-rays, are ye not
Immortal? Space-pervading, oh! ye must be,
Spirit-like, infinite. All-being God!
Who art in all things, and in whom all are! —
And it is thus we worship Thee the most;
When heart to heart with one we love we are gods; —
Let us believe that if Thou gavest earth
For our bodies, then the stars were for our souls;
For perfect beauty and unbounded love!
Let us believe they look upon us here
As their inheritors, and save themselves
For us, as we for Thee, and Thou for all!
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