— Must I then with this
trembling
hand of mine
Plunge .
Plunge .
Warner - World's Best Literature - v01 - A to Apu
.
.
.
.
ACT V - SCENE II
ÆGISTHUS
CLYTEMNESTRA
Ægis. – Hast thou performed the deed ?
Cly. - Ægisthus . . .
Ægis. — What do I behold ? O woman,
What dost thou here, dissolved in useless tears ?
Tears are unprofitable, late, and vain;
And they may cost us dear.
Cly. — Thou here? . . . but how?
Wretch that I am! what have I promised thee?
What impious counsel ? . . .
Ægis. -- Was not thine the counsel ?
Love gave it thee, and fear recants it. — Now,
Since thou'rt repentant, I am satisfied;
## p. 378 (#412) ############################################
378
VITTORIO ALFIERI
Soothed by reflecting that thou art not guilty,
I shall at least expire. To thee I said
How difficult the enterprise would be;
But thou, depending more than it became thee
On that which is not in thee, virile courage,
Daredst thyself thy own unwarlike hand
For such a blow select. May Heaven permit
That the mere project of a deed like this
May not be fatal to thee! I by stealth,
Protected by the darkness, hither came,
And unobserved, I hope. I was constrained
To bring the news myself, that now my life
Is irrecoverably forfeited
To the king's vengeance .
Cly. —What is this I hear?
Whence didst thou learn it ?
Ægis. More than he would wish
Atrides hath discovered of our love;
And I already from him have received
A strict command not to depart from Argos.
And further, I am summoned to his presence
Soon as to-morrow dawns: thou seest well
That such a conference to me is death.
But fear not; for I will all means employ
To bear myself the undivided blame.
Cly. — What do I hear? Atrides knows it all ?
Ægis. - He knows too much: I have but one choice left:
It will be best for me to 'scape by death,
By self-inflicted death, this dangerous inquest.
I save my honor thus; and free myself
From an opprobrious end. I hither came
To give thee my last warning: and to take
My last farewell. . . Oh, live; and may thy fame
Live with thee, unimpeached! All thoughts of pity
For me now lay aside; if I'm allowed
By my own hand, for thy sake, to expire,
I am supremely blest.
Cly. - Alas! . . . Ægisthus.
What a tumultuous passion rages now
Within my bosom, when I hear thee speak! . . .
And is it true? . . . Thy death . . .
Ægis. - Is more than certain. . . .
Cly. — And I'm thy murderer! . .
Ægis. - I seek thy safety.
•
-
-
-
## p. 379 (#413) ############################################
VITTORIO ALFIERI
379
Cly. — What wicked fury from Avernus' shore,
Ægisthus, guides thy steps ? Oh, I had died
Of grief, if I had never seen thee more;
But guiltless I had died: spite of myself,
Now, by thy presence, I already am
Again impelled to this tremendous crime.
An anguish, an unutterable anguish,
Invades my bones, invades my every fibre. .
And can it be that this alone can save thee? . . .
But who revealed our love?
Ægis. — To speak of thee,
Who but Electra to her father dare ?
Who to the monarch breathe thy name but she ?
Thy impious daughter in thy bosom thrusts
The fatal sword; and ere she takes thy life,
Would rob thee of thy honor.
Cly. — And ought I
This to believe ? . . . Alas! . . .
Egis. Believe it, then,
On the authority of this my sword,
If thou believ'st it not on mine. At least
I'll die in time. . .
Cly. - O Heavens! what wouldst thou do?
Sheathe, I command thee, sheathe that fatal sword. -
Oh, night of horrors! . . . hear me . . . Perhaps Atrides
Has not resolved.
Ægis. – What boots this hesitation ? . . .
Atrides injured, and Atrides king,
Meditates nothing in his haughty mind
But blood and vengeance. Certain is my death,
Thine is uncertain: but reflect, О queen,
To what thou’rt destined, if he spare thy life.
And were I seen to enter here alone,
And at so late an hour . . . Alas, what fears
Harrow my bosom when I think of thee!
Soon will the dawn of day deliver thee
From racking doubt; that dawn I ne'er shall see:
I am resolved to die:. . . – Farewell . . . forever!
Cly. - Stay, stay. . Thou shalt not die.
Ægis. — By no man's hand
Assuredly, except my own:- or thine,
If so thou wilt. Ah, perpetrate the deed;
Kill me; and drag me, palpitating yet,
Before thy judge austere: my blood will be
A proud acquittance for thee.
## p. 380 (#414) ############################################
380
VITTORIO ALFIERI
Cly. - Maddning thought! .
Wretch that I am! . . . Shall I be thy assassin ? . . .
Ægis. - Shame on thy hand, that cannot either kill
Who most adores thee, or who most detests thee!
Mine then must serve.
Cly. — Ah! . . . no.
Egis. — Dost thou desire
Me, or Atrides, dead ?
Cly. — Ah! what a choice! . . .
Ægis. - Thou art compelled to choose.
Cly. - I death inflict . .
Ægis. - Or death receive; when thou hast witnessed mine.
Cly. — Ah, then the crime is too inevitable!
Ægis. — The time now presses.
Cly. — But . . . the courage . . . strength ? . .
Ægis. — Strength, courage, all, will love impart to thee.
Cly.
— Must I then with this trembling hand of mine
Plunge . . . in my husband's heart . . . the sword? . . .
Ægis. - The blows
Thou wilt redouble with a steady hand
In the hard heart of him who slew thy daughter.
Cly. - Far from my hand I hurled the sword in anguish.
Ægis. - Behold a steel, and of another temper:
The clotted blood-drops of Thyestes's sons
Still stiffen on its frame: do not delay
To furbish it once more in the vile blood
Of Atreus; go, be quick: there now remain
But a few moments; go. If awkwardly
The blow thou aimest, or if thou shouldst be
Again repentant, lady, ere 'tis struck,
Do not thou any more tow'rd these apartments
Thy footsteps turn: by my own hands destroyed,
Here wouldst thou find me in a sea of blood
Immersed. Now go, and tremble not; be bold.
Enter and save us by his death. —
SCENE III
ÆGISTHUS
Ægis. -Come forth,
Thyestes, from profound Avernus; come,
Now is the time; within this palace now
Display thy dreadful shade. A copious banquet
Of blood is now prepared for thee, enjoy it;
## p. 381 (#415) ############################################
VITTORIO ALFIERI
381
Already o'er the heart of thy foe's son
Hangs the suspended sword; now, now, he feels it:
An impious consort grasps it; it was fitting
That she, not I, did this: so much more sweet
To thee will be the vengeance, as the crime
Is more atrocious. . . . An attentive ear
Lend to the dire catastrophe with me;
Doubt not she will accomplish it: disdain,
Love, terror, to the necessary crime
Compel the impious woman. -
AGAMEMNON (within)
Aga. —Treason! Ah! . . .
My wife? . . 0 Heavens! . . I die. . 0 traitorous deed!
Ægis. Die, thou — yes, die! And thou redouble,
The blows redouble; all the weapon hide
woman,
Within his heart; shed, to the latest drop,
The blood of that fell miscreant: in our blood
He would have bathed his hands.
SCENE IV
CLYTEMNESTRA — ÆSGISTHUS
Cly. —What have I done?
Where am I? . . .
Egis. - Thou hast slain the tyrant: now
At length thou'rt worthy of me.
Cly. - See, with blood
The dagger drips; . . . my hands, my face, my garments,
All, all are blood . . . Oh, for a deed like this,
What vengeance will be wreaked! . . . I see already
Already to my breast that very steel
I see hurled back, and by what hand! I freeze,
I faint, I shudder, I dissolve with horror.
My strength, my utterance, fail me. Where am I?
What have I done? . . . Alas! . . .
Egis. -Tremendous cries
Resound on every side throughout the palace:
'Tis time to show the Argives what I am,
And reap the harvest of my long endurance.
## p. 382 (#416) ############################################
382
VITTORIO ALFIERI
SCENE V
ELECTRA — - ÆGISTHUS
Elec. - It still remains for thee to murder me,
Thou impious, vile assassin of my father . . .
But what do I behold ? O Heavens! . . . my mother? . . .
Flagitious woman, dost thou grasp the sword ?
Didst thou commit the murder ?
Ægis. - Hold thy peace.
Stop not my path thus; quickly I return;
Tremble: for now that I am king of Argos,
Far more important is it that I kill
Orestes than Electra.
SCENE VI
CLYTEMNESTRA-ELECTRA
Cly. - Heavens! . . . Orestes ? . . .
Ægisthus, now I know thee.
Elec. - Give it me:
Give me that steel.
Cly. - Ægisthus! . . . Stop! . . Wilt thou
Murder my son ? Thou first shalt murder me.
SCENE VII
ELECTRA
Elec. -0 night! . . O father! . . Ah, it was your deed,
Ye gods, this thought of mine to place Orestes
In safety first. — Thou wilt not find him, traitor. -
Ah live, Orestes, live: and I will keep
This impious steel for thy adult right hand.
The day, I hope, will come, when I in Argos
Shall see thee the avenger of thy father.
Translation of Edgar Alfred Bowring, Bohn's Library.
-
## p. 383 (#417) ############################################
383
ALFONSO THE WISE
(1221-1284)
(
was a
K
ING ALFONSO,” records the Jesuit historian, Mariana,
man of great sense, but more fit to be a scholar than a
king; for whilst he studied the heavens and the stars, he
lost the earth and his kingdom. Certainly it is for his services to
letters, and not for political or military successes, that the meditative
son of the valorous Ferdinand the Saint and the beautiful Beatrice
of Swabia will be remembered. The father conquered Seville, and
displaced the enterprising and infidel Moors with orthodox and indo-
lent Christians. The son could not keep what his sire had grasped.
Born in 1226, the fortunate young prince, at the age of twenty-five,
was proclaimed king of the newly conquered and united Castile and
Leon. He was very young: he was everywhere admired and honored
for skill in war, for learning, and for piety: he was everywhere loved
for his heritage of a great name and his kindly and gracious manners.
In the first year of his reign, however, he began debasing the
coinage,-a favorite device of needy monarchs in his day,-- and his
people never forgave the injury. He coveted, naturally enough, the
throne of the Empire, for which he was long a favorite candidate;
and for twenty years he wasted time, money, and purpose, heart and
hope, in pursuit of the vain bauble. His kingdom fell into confus-
ion, his eldest son died, his second son Sancho rebelled against him
and finally deposed him. Courageous and determined to the last,
defying the league of Church and State against him, he appealed to
the king of Morocco for men and money to reinstate his fortunes.
In Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature may be found his
touching letter to De Guzman at the Moorish court. He is, like
Lear, poor and discrowned, but not like him, weak. His prelates have
stirred up strife, his nobles have betrayed him. If Heaven wills, he
is ready to pay generously for help. If not, says the royal philoso-
pher, still, generosity and loyalty exalt the soul that cherishes them.
« Therefore, my cousin, Alonzo Perez de Guzman, so treat with your
master and my friend (the king of Morocco) that he may lend me, on my
richest crown and on the jewels in it, as much as shall seem good to him:
and if you should be able to obtain his help for me, do not deprive me of it,
which I think you will not do; rather I hold that all the good offices which
my master may do me, by your hand they will come, and may the hand of
God be with you.
«Given in my only loyal city of Seville, the thirtieth year of my reign
and the first of my misfortunes.
“The King. "
## p. 384 (#418) ############################################
384
ALFONSO THE WISE
In his "only loyal city” the broken man remained, until the Pope
excommunicated Sancho, and till neighboring towns began to capit-
ulate. But he had been wounded past healing. There was no med-
icine for a mind diseased, no charm to raze out the written troubles
of the brain. He fell ill in Seville, so that he drew nigh unto
death.
And when the sickness had run its course, he said
before them all: that he pardoned the Infante Don Sancho, his heir,
all that out of malice he had done against him, and to his subjects
the wrong they had wrought towards him, ordering that letters con-
firming the same should be written — sealed with his golden seal, so
that all his subjects should be certain that he had put away his
quarrel with them, and desired that no blame whatever should rest
upon them.
And when he had said this, he received the body of
God with great devotion, and in a little while gave up his soul to
God. ”
This was in 1284, when he was fifty-eight years old.
At this age,
had a private lot been his, — that of a statesman, jurist, man of sci-
ence, annalist, philosopher, troubadour, mathematician, historian,
poet, — he would but have entered his golden prime, rich in promise,
fruitful in performance. Yet Alfonso, uniting in himself all these
vocations, seemed at his death to have left behind him a wide waste
of opportunities, a dreary dearth of accomplishment. Looking back,
however, it is seen that the balance swings even. While his kingdom
was slipping away, he was conquering a wider domain.
He was
creating Spanish Law, protecting the followers of learning, cherish-
ing the universities, restricting privilege, breaking up time-honored
abuses. He prohibited the use of Latin in public acts. He adopted
the native tongue in all his own works, and thus gave to Spanish an
honorable eminence, while French and German struggled long for a
learning from scholars, and English was to wait a hundred years for
the advent of Dan Chaucer.
Greatest achievement of all, he codified the common law of Spain
in 'Las Siete Partidas' (The Seven Parts). Still accepted as a legal
authority in the kingdom, the work is much more valuable as a com-
pendium of general knowledge than as an exposition of law. The
studious king with astonishing catholicity examined alike both Christ-
ian and Arabic traditions, customs, and codes, paying a scholarly
respect to the greatness of a hostile language and literature. This
meditative monarch recognized that public office is a public trust,
and wrote:
«Vicars of God are the kings, each one in his kingdom, placed over the
people to maintain them in justice and in truth. They have been called the
heart and soul of the people. For as the soul lies in the heart of men, and
by it the body lives and is maintained, so in the king lies justice, which is
the life and maintenance of the people of his lordship.
## p. 385 (#419) ############################################
ALFONSO THE WISE
385
«And let the king guard the thoughts of his heart in three manners:
firstly let him not desire nor greatly care to have superfluous and worthless
honors. Superfluous and worthless honors the king ought not to desire. For
that which is beyond necessity cannot last, and being lost. and come short
of, turns to dishonor. Moreover, the wise men have said that it is no less a
virtue for a man to keep that which he has than to gain that which he has
not; because keeping comes of judgment, but gain of good fortune. And the
king who keeps his honor in such a manner that every day and by all means
it is increased, lacking nothing, and does not lose that which he has for that
which he desires to have, – he is held for a man of right judgment, who
loves his own people, and desires to lead them to all good. And God will
keep him in this world from the dishonoring of men, and in the next from
the dishonor of the wicked in hell. ”
Besides the Siete Partidas,' the royal philosopher was the author,
or compiler, of a Book of Hunting'; a treatise on Chess; a sys-
tem of law, the Fuero Castellano' (Spanish Code), - an attempt to
check the monstrous irregularities of municipal privilege; 'La Gran
Conquista d'Ultramar (The Great Conquest Beyond the Sea), an
account of the wars of the Crusades, which is the earliest known
specimen of Castilian prose; and several smaller works, now col-
lected under the general title of Opuscules Legales(Minor Legal
Writings). It was long supposed that he wrote the "Tesoro (The-
saurus), a curious medley of ignorance and superstition, much of it
silly, and all of it curiously inconsistent with the acknowledged char-
acter of the enlightened King. Modern scholarship, however, dis-
cards this petty treatise from the list of his productions.
His "Tablas Alfonsinas) (Alfonsine Tables), to which Chaucer
refers in the Frankeleine's Tale, though curiously mystical, yet were
really scientific, and rank among the most famous of mediæval books.
Alfonso had the courage and the wisdom to recall to Toledo the
heirs and successors of the great Arabian philosophers and the
learned Rabbis, who had been banished by religious fanaticism, and
there to establish a permanent council --- a medieval Academy of
Sciences - which devoted itself to the study of the heavens and the
making of astronomical calculations. “This was the first time,” says
the Spanish historian, “that in barbarous times the Republic of
Letters was invited to contemplate a great school of learning, - men
occupied through many years in rectifying the old planetary observa-
tions, in disputing about the most abstruse details of this science, in
constructing new instruments, and observing, by means of them, the
courses of the stars, their declensions, their ascensions, eclipses, longi-
tudes, and latitudes. ” It was the vision of Roger Bacon fulfilled.
At his own expense, for years together, the King entertained in
his palace at Burgos, that their knowledge might enrich the nation,
not only certain free-thinking followers of Averroës and Avicebron,
1-25
## p. 386 (#420) ############################################
386
ALFONSO THE WISE
but infidel disciples of the Koran, and learned Rabbis who denied the
true faith. That creed must not interfere with deed, was an aston-
ishing mental attitude for the thirteenth century, and invited a gen-
eral suspicion of the King's orthodoxy. His religious sense was
really strong, however, and appears most impressively in the Can-
tigas à la Vergen Maria' (Songs to the Virgin), which were sung
over his grave by priests and acolytes for hundreds of years. They
are sometimes melancholy and sometimes joyous, always simple and
genuine, and, written in Galician, reflect the trustful piety and hap-
piness of his youth in remote hill provinces where the thought of
empire had not penetrated. It was his keen intelligence that ex-
pressed itself in the saying popularly attributed to him, “Had I been
present at the creation, I might have offered some useful sugges-
tions. It was his reverent spirit that made mention in his will of
the sacred songs as the testimony to his faith. So lived and died
Alfonso the Tenth, the father of Spanish literature, and the reviver
of Spanish learning.
«WHAT MEANETH A TYRANT, AND HOW HE USETH HIS POWER
IN A KINGDOM WHEN HE HATH OBTAINED IT »
"A
TYRANT,” says this law, doth signify a cruel lord, who,
by force or by craft, or by treachery, hath obtained
power over any realm or country; and such men be of
such nature, that when once they have grown strong in the
land, they love rather to work their own profit, though it be in
harm of the land, than the common profit of all, for they always
live in an ill fear of losing it. And that they may be able to
fulfill this their purpose unincumbered, the wise of old have said
that they use their power against the people in three manners.
The first is, that they strive that those under their mastery be
ever ignorant and timorous, because, when they be such, they
may not be bold to rise against them, nor to resist their wills;
and the second is, that they be not kindly and united among
themselves, in such wise that they trust not one another, for
while they live in disagreement, they shall not dare to make any
discourse against their lord, for fear faith and secrecy should not
be kept among themselves; and the third way is, that they strive
to make them poor, and to put them upon great undertakings,
which they never can finish, whereby they may have so much
harm that it may never come into their hearts to devise any-
thing against their ruler. And above all this, have tyrants ever
## p. 387 (#421) ############################################
ALFONSO THE WISE
387
striven to make spoil of the strong and to destroy the wise; and
have forbidden fellowship and assemblies of men in their land,
and striven always to know what men said or did; and do trust
their counsel and the guard of their person rather to foreigners,
who will serve at their will, than to them of the land, who
serve from oppression. And moreover, we say that though any
man may have gained mastery of a kingdom by any of the law-
ful means whereof we have spoken in the laws going before this,
yet, if he use his power ill, in the ways whereof we speak in
this law, him may the people still call tyrant; for he turneth his
mastery which was rightful into wrongful, as Aristotle hath said
in the book which treateth of the rule and government of king-
doms. »
From Las Siete Partidas, quoted in Ticknor's (Spanish Literature.
.
.
ACT V - SCENE II
ÆGISTHUS
CLYTEMNESTRA
Ægis. – Hast thou performed the deed ?
Cly. - Ægisthus . . .
Ægis. — What do I behold ? O woman,
What dost thou here, dissolved in useless tears ?
Tears are unprofitable, late, and vain;
And they may cost us dear.
Cly. — Thou here? . . . but how?
Wretch that I am! what have I promised thee?
What impious counsel ? . . .
Ægis. -- Was not thine the counsel ?
Love gave it thee, and fear recants it. — Now,
Since thou'rt repentant, I am satisfied;
## p. 378 (#412) ############################################
378
VITTORIO ALFIERI
Soothed by reflecting that thou art not guilty,
I shall at least expire. To thee I said
How difficult the enterprise would be;
But thou, depending more than it became thee
On that which is not in thee, virile courage,
Daredst thyself thy own unwarlike hand
For such a blow select. May Heaven permit
That the mere project of a deed like this
May not be fatal to thee! I by stealth,
Protected by the darkness, hither came,
And unobserved, I hope. I was constrained
To bring the news myself, that now my life
Is irrecoverably forfeited
To the king's vengeance .
Cly. —What is this I hear?
Whence didst thou learn it ?
Ægis. More than he would wish
Atrides hath discovered of our love;
And I already from him have received
A strict command not to depart from Argos.
And further, I am summoned to his presence
Soon as to-morrow dawns: thou seest well
That such a conference to me is death.
But fear not; for I will all means employ
To bear myself the undivided blame.
Cly. — What do I hear? Atrides knows it all ?
Ægis. - He knows too much: I have but one choice left:
It will be best for me to 'scape by death,
By self-inflicted death, this dangerous inquest.
I save my honor thus; and free myself
From an opprobrious end. I hither came
To give thee my last warning: and to take
My last farewell. . . Oh, live; and may thy fame
Live with thee, unimpeached! All thoughts of pity
For me now lay aside; if I'm allowed
By my own hand, for thy sake, to expire,
I am supremely blest.
Cly. - Alas! . . . Ægisthus.
What a tumultuous passion rages now
Within my bosom, when I hear thee speak! . . .
And is it true? . . . Thy death . . .
Ægis. - Is more than certain. . . .
Cly. — And I'm thy murderer! . .
Ægis. - I seek thy safety.
•
-
-
-
## p. 379 (#413) ############################################
VITTORIO ALFIERI
379
Cly. — What wicked fury from Avernus' shore,
Ægisthus, guides thy steps ? Oh, I had died
Of grief, if I had never seen thee more;
But guiltless I had died: spite of myself,
Now, by thy presence, I already am
Again impelled to this tremendous crime.
An anguish, an unutterable anguish,
Invades my bones, invades my every fibre. .
And can it be that this alone can save thee? . . .
But who revealed our love?
Ægis. — To speak of thee,
Who but Electra to her father dare ?
Who to the monarch breathe thy name but she ?
Thy impious daughter in thy bosom thrusts
The fatal sword; and ere she takes thy life,
Would rob thee of thy honor.
Cly. — And ought I
This to believe ? . . . Alas! . . .
Egis. Believe it, then,
On the authority of this my sword,
If thou believ'st it not on mine. At least
I'll die in time. . .
Cly. - O Heavens! what wouldst thou do?
Sheathe, I command thee, sheathe that fatal sword. -
Oh, night of horrors! . . . hear me . . . Perhaps Atrides
Has not resolved.
Ægis. – What boots this hesitation ? . . .
Atrides injured, and Atrides king,
Meditates nothing in his haughty mind
But blood and vengeance. Certain is my death,
Thine is uncertain: but reflect, О queen,
To what thou’rt destined, if he spare thy life.
And were I seen to enter here alone,
And at so late an hour . . . Alas, what fears
Harrow my bosom when I think of thee!
Soon will the dawn of day deliver thee
From racking doubt; that dawn I ne'er shall see:
I am resolved to die:. . . – Farewell . . . forever!
Cly. - Stay, stay. . Thou shalt not die.
Ægis. — By no man's hand
Assuredly, except my own:- or thine,
If so thou wilt. Ah, perpetrate the deed;
Kill me; and drag me, palpitating yet,
Before thy judge austere: my blood will be
A proud acquittance for thee.
## p. 380 (#414) ############################################
380
VITTORIO ALFIERI
Cly. - Maddning thought! .
Wretch that I am! . . . Shall I be thy assassin ? . . .
Ægis. - Shame on thy hand, that cannot either kill
Who most adores thee, or who most detests thee!
Mine then must serve.
Cly. — Ah! . . . no.
Egis. — Dost thou desire
Me, or Atrides, dead ?
Cly. — Ah! what a choice! . . .
Ægis. - Thou art compelled to choose.
Cly. - I death inflict . .
Ægis. - Or death receive; when thou hast witnessed mine.
Cly. — Ah, then the crime is too inevitable!
Ægis. — The time now presses.
Cly. — But . . . the courage . . . strength ? . .
Ægis. — Strength, courage, all, will love impart to thee.
Cly.
— Must I then with this trembling hand of mine
Plunge . . . in my husband's heart . . . the sword? . . .
Ægis. - The blows
Thou wilt redouble with a steady hand
In the hard heart of him who slew thy daughter.
Cly. - Far from my hand I hurled the sword in anguish.
Ægis. - Behold a steel, and of another temper:
The clotted blood-drops of Thyestes's sons
Still stiffen on its frame: do not delay
To furbish it once more in the vile blood
Of Atreus; go, be quick: there now remain
But a few moments; go. If awkwardly
The blow thou aimest, or if thou shouldst be
Again repentant, lady, ere 'tis struck,
Do not thou any more tow'rd these apartments
Thy footsteps turn: by my own hands destroyed,
Here wouldst thou find me in a sea of blood
Immersed. Now go, and tremble not; be bold.
Enter and save us by his death. —
SCENE III
ÆGISTHUS
Ægis. -Come forth,
Thyestes, from profound Avernus; come,
Now is the time; within this palace now
Display thy dreadful shade. A copious banquet
Of blood is now prepared for thee, enjoy it;
## p. 381 (#415) ############################################
VITTORIO ALFIERI
381
Already o'er the heart of thy foe's son
Hangs the suspended sword; now, now, he feels it:
An impious consort grasps it; it was fitting
That she, not I, did this: so much more sweet
To thee will be the vengeance, as the crime
Is more atrocious. . . . An attentive ear
Lend to the dire catastrophe with me;
Doubt not she will accomplish it: disdain,
Love, terror, to the necessary crime
Compel the impious woman. -
AGAMEMNON (within)
Aga. —Treason! Ah! . . .
My wife? . . 0 Heavens! . . I die. . 0 traitorous deed!
Ægis. Die, thou — yes, die! And thou redouble,
The blows redouble; all the weapon hide
woman,
Within his heart; shed, to the latest drop,
The blood of that fell miscreant: in our blood
He would have bathed his hands.
SCENE IV
CLYTEMNESTRA — ÆSGISTHUS
Cly. —What have I done?
Where am I? . . .
Egis. - Thou hast slain the tyrant: now
At length thou'rt worthy of me.
Cly. - See, with blood
The dagger drips; . . . my hands, my face, my garments,
All, all are blood . . . Oh, for a deed like this,
What vengeance will be wreaked! . . . I see already
Already to my breast that very steel
I see hurled back, and by what hand! I freeze,
I faint, I shudder, I dissolve with horror.
My strength, my utterance, fail me. Where am I?
What have I done? . . . Alas! . . .
Egis. -Tremendous cries
Resound on every side throughout the palace:
'Tis time to show the Argives what I am,
And reap the harvest of my long endurance.
## p. 382 (#416) ############################################
382
VITTORIO ALFIERI
SCENE V
ELECTRA — - ÆGISTHUS
Elec. - It still remains for thee to murder me,
Thou impious, vile assassin of my father . . .
But what do I behold ? O Heavens! . . . my mother? . . .
Flagitious woman, dost thou grasp the sword ?
Didst thou commit the murder ?
Ægis. - Hold thy peace.
Stop not my path thus; quickly I return;
Tremble: for now that I am king of Argos,
Far more important is it that I kill
Orestes than Electra.
SCENE VI
CLYTEMNESTRA-ELECTRA
Cly. - Heavens! . . . Orestes ? . . .
Ægisthus, now I know thee.
Elec. - Give it me:
Give me that steel.
Cly. - Ægisthus! . . . Stop! . . Wilt thou
Murder my son ? Thou first shalt murder me.
SCENE VII
ELECTRA
Elec. -0 night! . . O father! . . Ah, it was your deed,
Ye gods, this thought of mine to place Orestes
In safety first. — Thou wilt not find him, traitor. -
Ah live, Orestes, live: and I will keep
This impious steel for thy adult right hand.
The day, I hope, will come, when I in Argos
Shall see thee the avenger of thy father.
Translation of Edgar Alfred Bowring, Bohn's Library.
-
## p. 383 (#417) ############################################
383
ALFONSO THE WISE
(1221-1284)
(
was a
K
ING ALFONSO,” records the Jesuit historian, Mariana,
man of great sense, but more fit to be a scholar than a
king; for whilst he studied the heavens and the stars, he
lost the earth and his kingdom. Certainly it is for his services to
letters, and not for political or military successes, that the meditative
son of the valorous Ferdinand the Saint and the beautiful Beatrice
of Swabia will be remembered. The father conquered Seville, and
displaced the enterprising and infidel Moors with orthodox and indo-
lent Christians. The son could not keep what his sire had grasped.
Born in 1226, the fortunate young prince, at the age of twenty-five,
was proclaimed king of the newly conquered and united Castile and
Leon. He was very young: he was everywhere admired and honored
for skill in war, for learning, and for piety: he was everywhere loved
for his heritage of a great name and his kindly and gracious manners.
In the first year of his reign, however, he began debasing the
coinage,-a favorite device of needy monarchs in his day,-- and his
people never forgave the injury. He coveted, naturally enough, the
throne of the Empire, for which he was long a favorite candidate;
and for twenty years he wasted time, money, and purpose, heart and
hope, in pursuit of the vain bauble. His kingdom fell into confus-
ion, his eldest son died, his second son Sancho rebelled against him
and finally deposed him. Courageous and determined to the last,
defying the league of Church and State against him, he appealed to
the king of Morocco for men and money to reinstate his fortunes.
In Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature may be found his
touching letter to De Guzman at the Moorish court. He is, like
Lear, poor and discrowned, but not like him, weak. His prelates have
stirred up strife, his nobles have betrayed him. If Heaven wills, he
is ready to pay generously for help. If not, says the royal philoso-
pher, still, generosity and loyalty exalt the soul that cherishes them.
« Therefore, my cousin, Alonzo Perez de Guzman, so treat with your
master and my friend (the king of Morocco) that he may lend me, on my
richest crown and on the jewels in it, as much as shall seem good to him:
and if you should be able to obtain his help for me, do not deprive me of it,
which I think you will not do; rather I hold that all the good offices which
my master may do me, by your hand they will come, and may the hand of
God be with you.
«Given in my only loyal city of Seville, the thirtieth year of my reign
and the first of my misfortunes.
“The King. "
## p. 384 (#418) ############################################
384
ALFONSO THE WISE
In his "only loyal city” the broken man remained, until the Pope
excommunicated Sancho, and till neighboring towns began to capit-
ulate. But he had been wounded past healing. There was no med-
icine for a mind diseased, no charm to raze out the written troubles
of the brain. He fell ill in Seville, so that he drew nigh unto
death.
And when the sickness had run its course, he said
before them all: that he pardoned the Infante Don Sancho, his heir,
all that out of malice he had done against him, and to his subjects
the wrong they had wrought towards him, ordering that letters con-
firming the same should be written — sealed with his golden seal, so
that all his subjects should be certain that he had put away his
quarrel with them, and desired that no blame whatever should rest
upon them.
And when he had said this, he received the body of
God with great devotion, and in a little while gave up his soul to
God. ”
This was in 1284, when he was fifty-eight years old.
At this age,
had a private lot been his, — that of a statesman, jurist, man of sci-
ence, annalist, philosopher, troubadour, mathematician, historian,
poet, — he would but have entered his golden prime, rich in promise,
fruitful in performance. Yet Alfonso, uniting in himself all these
vocations, seemed at his death to have left behind him a wide waste
of opportunities, a dreary dearth of accomplishment. Looking back,
however, it is seen that the balance swings even. While his kingdom
was slipping away, he was conquering a wider domain.
He was
creating Spanish Law, protecting the followers of learning, cherish-
ing the universities, restricting privilege, breaking up time-honored
abuses. He prohibited the use of Latin in public acts. He adopted
the native tongue in all his own works, and thus gave to Spanish an
honorable eminence, while French and German struggled long for a
learning from scholars, and English was to wait a hundred years for
the advent of Dan Chaucer.
Greatest achievement of all, he codified the common law of Spain
in 'Las Siete Partidas' (The Seven Parts). Still accepted as a legal
authority in the kingdom, the work is much more valuable as a com-
pendium of general knowledge than as an exposition of law. The
studious king with astonishing catholicity examined alike both Christ-
ian and Arabic traditions, customs, and codes, paying a scholarly
respect to the greatness of a hostile language and literature. This
meditative monarch recognized that public office is a public trust,
and wrote:
«Vicars of God are the kings, each one in his kingdom, placed over the
people to maintain them in justice and in truth. They have been called the
heart and soul of the people. For as the soul lies in the heart of men, and
by it the body lives and is maintained, so in the king lies justice, which is
the life and maintenance of the people of his lordship.
## p. 385 (#419) ############################################
ALFONSO THE WISE
385
«And let the king guard the thoughts of his heart in three manners:
firstly let him not desire nor greatly care to have superfluous and worthless
honors. Superfluous and worthless honors the king ought not to desire. For
that which is beyond necessity cannot last, and being lost. and come short
of, turns to dishonor. Moreover, the wise men have said that it is no less a
virtue for a man to keep that which he has than to gain that which he has
not; because keeping comes of judgment, but gain of good fortune. And the
king who keeps his honor in such a manner that every day and by all means
it is increased, lacking nothing, and does not lose that which he has for that
which he desires to have, – he is held for a man of right judgment, who
loves his own people, and desires to lead them to all good. And God will
keep him in this world from the dishonoring of men, and in the next from
the dishonor of the wicked in hell. ”
Besides the Siete Partidas,' the royal philosopher was the author,
or compiler, of a Book of Hunting'; a treatise on Chess; a sys-
tem of law, the Fuero Castellano' (Spanish Code), - an attempt to
check the monstrous irregularities of municipal privilege; 'La Gran
Conquista d'Ultramar (The Great Conquest Beyond the Sea), an
account of the wars of the Crusades, which is the earliest known
specimen of Castilian prose; and several smaller works, now col-
lected under the general title of Opuscules Legales(Minor Legal
Writings). It was long supposed that he wrote the "Tesoro (The-
saurus), a curious medley of ignorance and superstition, much of it
silly, and all of it curiously inconsistent with the acknowledged char-
acter of the enlightened King. Modern scholarship, however, dis-
cards this petty treatise from the list of his productions.
His "Tablas Alfonsinas) (Alfonsine Tables), to which Chaucer
refers in the Frankeleine's Tale, though curiously mystical, yet were
really scientific, and rank among the most famous of mediæval books.
Alfonso had the courage and the wisdom to recall to Toledo the
heirs and successors of the great Arabian philosophers and the
learned Rabbis, who had been banished by religious fanaticism, and
there to establish a permanent council --- a medieval Academy of
Sciences - which devoted itself to the study of the heavens and the
making of astronomical calculations. “This was the first time,” says
the Spanish historian, “that in barbarous times the Republic of
Letters was invited to contemplate a great school of learning, - men
occupied through many years in rectifying the old planetary observa-
tions, in disputing about the most abstruse details of this science, in
constructing new instruments, and observing, by means of them, the
courses of the stars, their declensions, their ascensions, eclipses, longi-
tudes, and latitudes. ” It was the vision of Roger Bacon fulfilled.
At his own expense, for years together, the King entertained in
his palace at Burgos, that their knowledge might enrich the nation,
not only certain free-thinking followers of Averroës and Avicebron,
1-25
## p. 386 (#420) ############################################
386
ALFONSO THE WISE
but infidel disciples of the Koran, and learned Rabbis who denied the
true faith. That creed must not interfere with deed, was an aston-
ishing mental attitude for the thirteenth century, and invited a gen-
eral suspicion of the King's orthodoxy. His religious sense was
really strong, however, and appears most impressively in the Can-
tigas à la Vergen Maria' (Songs to the Virgin), which were sung
over his grave by priests and acolytes for hundreds of years. They
are sometimes melancholy and sometimes joyous, always simple and
genuine, and, written in Galician, reflect the trustful piety and hap-
piness of his youth in remote hill provinces where the thought of
empire had not penetrated. It was his keen intelligence that ex-
pressed itself in the saying popularly attributed to him, “Had I been
present at the creation, I might have offered some useful sugges-
tions. It was his reverent spirit that made mention in his will of
the sacred songs as the testimony to his faith. So lived and died
Alfonso the Tenth, the father of Spanish literature, and the reviver
of Spanish learning.
«WHAT MEANETH A TYRANT, AND HOW HE USETH HIS POWER
IN A KINGDOM WHEN HE HATH OBTAINED IT »
"A
TYRANT,” says this law, doth signify a cruel lord, who,
by force or by craft, or by treachery, hath obtained
power over any realm or country; and such men be of
such nature, that when once they have grown strong in the
land, they love rather to work their own profit, though it be in
harm of the land, than the common profit of all, for they always
live in an ill fear of losing it. And that they may be able to
fulfill this their purpose unincumbered, the wise of old have said
that they use their power against the people in three manners.
The first is, that they strive that those under their mastery be
ever ignorant and timorous, because, when they be such, they
may not be bold to rise against them, nor to resist their wills;
and the second is, that they be not kindly and united among
themselves, in such wise that they trust not one another, for
while they live in disagreement, they shall not dare to make any
discourse against their lord, for fear faith and secrecy should not
be kept among themselves; and the third way is, that they strive
to make them poor, and to put them upon great undertakings,
which they never can finish, whereby they may have so much
harm that it may never come into their hearts to devise any-
thing against their ruler. And above all this, have tyrants ever
## p. 387 (#421) ############################################
ALFONSO THE WISE
387
striven to make spoil of the strong and to destroy the wise; and
have forbidden fellowship and assemblies of men in their land,
and striven always to know what men said or did; and do trust
their counsel and the guard of their person rather to foreigners,
who will serve at their will, than to them of the land, who
serve from oppression. And moreover, we say that though any
man may have gained mastery of a kingdom by any of the law-
ful means whereof we have spoken in the laws going before this,
yet, if he use his power ill, in the ways whereof we speak in
this law, him may the people still call tyrant; for he turneth his
mastery which was rightful into wrongful, as Aristotle hath said
in the book which treateth of the rule and government of king-
doms. »
From Las Siete Partidas, quoted in Ticknor's (Spanish Literature.
