No More Learning

MARMADUKE 'Twas dark--dark as the grave; yet did I see,
Saw him--his face turned toward me; and I tell thee
Idonea's filial countenance was there
To baffle me--it put me to my prayers.
Upwards I cast my eyes, and, through a crevice,
Beheld a star twinkling above my head,
And, by the living God, I could not do it.
[Sinks exhausted. ]


OSWALD (to himself)
Now may I perish if this turn do more
Than make me change my course.
(To MARMADUKE. ) Dear Marmaduke,
My words were rashly spoken; I recal them:
I feel my error; shedding human blood
Is a most serious thing.


MARMADUKE Not I alone,
Thou too art deep in guilt.


OSWALD We have indeed
Been most presumptuous. There _is_ guilt in this,
Else could so strong a mind have ever known
These trepidations? Plain it is that Heaven
Has marked out this foul Wretch as one whose crimes
Must never come before a mortal judgment-seat,
Or be chastised by mortal instruments.


MARMADUKE
A thought that's worth a thousand worlds!

[Goes towards the dungeon. ]


OSWALD I grieve
That, in my zeal, I have caused you so much pain.


MARMADUKE Think not of that! 'tis over--we are safe.


OSWALD (as if to himself, yet speaking aloud)
The truth is hideous, but how stifle it?
[Turning to MARMADUKE. ]
Give me your sword--nay, here are stones and fragments,
The least of which would beat out a man's brains;
Or you might drive your head against that wall.
No! this is not the place to hear the tale:
It should be told you pinioned in your bed,
Or on some vast and solitary plain
Blown to you from a trumpet.


MARMADUKE Why talk thus?
Whate'er the monster brooding in your breast
I care not: fear I have none, and cannot fear--
[The sound of a horn is heard. ]
That horn again--'Tis some one of our Troop;
What do they here? Listen!


OSWALD What! dogged like thieves!


[Enter WALLACE and LACY, etc. ]


LACY You are found at last, thanks to the vagrant Troop
For not misleading us.


OSWALD (looking at WALLACE)
That subtle Greybeard--
I'd rather see my father's ghost.


LACY (to MARMADUKE)
My Captain,
We come by order of the Band. Belike
You have not heard that Henry has at last
Dissolved the Barons' League, and sent abroad
His Sheriffs with fit force to reinstate
The genuine owners of such Lands and Baronies
As, in these long commotions, have been seized.
His Power is this way tending. It befits us
To stand upon our guard, and with our swords
Defend the innocent.


MARMADUKE Lacy! we look
But at the surfaces of things; we hear
Of towns in flames, fields ravaged, young and old
Driven out in troops to want and nakedness;
Then grasp our swords and rush upon a cure
That flatters us, because it asks not thought:
The deeper malady is better hid;
The world is poisoned at the heart.


LACY What mean you?


WALLACE (whose eye has been fixed suspiciously upon OSWALD)
Ay, what is it you mean?


MARMADUKE Hark'ee, my Friends;--
[Appearing gay. ]
Were there a Man who, being weak and helpless
And most forlorn, should bribe a Mother, pressed
By penury, to yield him up her Daughter,
A little Infant, and instruct the Babe,
Prattling upon his knee, to call him Father--


LACY Why, if his heart be tender, that offence
I could forgive him.


MARMADUKE (going on)
And should he make the Child
An instrument of falsehood, should he teach her
To stretch her arms, and dim the gladsome light
Of infant playfulness with piteous looks
Of misery that was not--

LACY
Troth, 'tis hard--
But in a world like ours--


MARMADUKE (changing his tone)
This self-same Man--
Even while he printed kisses on the cheek
Of this poor Babe, and taught its innocent tongue
To lisp the name of Father--could he look
To the unnatural harvest of that time
When he should give her up, a Woman grown,
To him who bid the highest in the market
Of foul pollution--


LACY The whole visible world
Contains not such a Monster!


MARMADUKE For this purpose
Should he resolve to taint her Soul by means
Which bathe the limbs in sweat to think of them;
Should he, by tales which would draw tears from iron,
Work on her nature, and so turn compassion
And gratitude to ministers of vice,
And make the spotless spirit of filial love
Prime mover in a plot to damn his Victim
Both soul and body--


WALLACE 'Tis too horrible;
Oswald, what say you to it?


LACY Hew him down,
And fling him to the ravens.


MARMADUKE But his aspect
It is so meek, his countenance so venerable.


WALLACE (with an appearance of mistrust)
But how, what say you, Oswald?


LACY (at the same moment)
Stab him, were it
Before the Altar.


MARMADUKE What, if he were sick,
Tottering upon the very verge of life,
And old, and blind--


LACY Blind, say you?


OSWALD (coming forward)
Are we Men,
Or own we baby Spirits? Genuine courage
Is not an accidental quality,
A thing dependent for its casual birth
On opposition and impediment.
Wisdom, if Justice speak the word, beats down
The giant's strength; and, at the voice of Justice,
Spares not the worm. The giant and the worm--
She weighs them in one scale. The wiles of woman,
And craft of age, seducing reason, first
Made weakness a protection, and obscured
The moral shapes of things. His tender cries
And helpless innocence--do they protect
The infant lamb? and shall the infirmities,
Which have enabled this enormous Culprit
To perpetrate his crimes, serve as a Sanctuary
To cover him from punishment? Shame! --Justice,
Admitting no resistance, bends alike
The feeble and the strong. She needs not here
Her bonds and chains, which make the mighty feeble.
--We recognise in this old Man a victim
Prepared already for the sacrifice.


LACY By heaven, his words are reason!


OSWALD Yes, my Friends,
His countenance is meek and venerable;
And, by the Mass, to see him at his prayers! --
I am of flesh and blood, and may I perish
When my heart does not ache to think of it! --
Poor Victim! not a virtue under heaven
But what was made an engine to ensnare thee;
But yet I trust, Idonea, thou art safe.


LACY Idonea!


WALLACE How! What? your Idonea?
[To MARMADUKE. ]


MARMADUKE _Mine;_
But now no longer mine. You know Lord Clifford;
He is the Man to whom the Maiden--pure
As beautiful, and gentle and benign,
And in her ample heart loving even me--
Was to be yielded up.


LACY Now, by the head
Of my own child, this Man must die; my hand,
A worthier wanting, shall itself entwine
In his grey hairs! --


MARMADUKE (to LACY)
I love the Father in thee.
You know me, Friends; I have a heart to feel,
And I have felt, more than perhaps becomes me
Or duty sanctions.


LACY We will have ample justice.
Who are we, Friends? Do we not live on ground
Where Souls are self-defended, free to grow
Like mountain oaks rocked by the stormy wind?
Mark the Almighty Wisdom, which decreed
This monstrous crime to be laid open--_here,_
Where Reason has an eye that she can use,
And Men alone are Umpires. To the Camp
He shall be led, and there, the Country round
All gathered to the spot, in open day
Shall Nature be avenged.


OSWALD 'Tis nobly thought;
His death will be a monument for ages.


MARMADUKE (to LACY)
I thank you for that hint. He shall be brought
Before the Camp, and would that best and wisest
Of every country might be present. There,
His crime shall be proclaimed; and for the rest
It shall be done as Wisdom shall decide:
Meanwhile, do you two hasten back and see
That all is well prepared.


WALLACE We will obey you.
(Aside. ) But softly! we must look a little nearer.


MARMADUKE Tell where you found us. At some future time
I will explain the cause.


[Exeunt. ]




ACT III


SCENE--The door of the Hostel, a group of Pilgrims as before; IDONEA and
the Host among them


HOST Lady, you'll find your Father at the Convent
As I have told you: He left us yesterday
With two Companions; one of them, as seemed,
His most familiar Friend.
(Going. ) There was a letter
Of which I heard them speak, but that I fancy
Has been forgotten.


IDONEA (to Host)
Farewell!


HOST
Gentle pilgrims,
St. Cuthbert speed you on your holy errand.


[Exeunt IDONEA and Pilgrims. ]


[SCENE--A desolate Moor]


[OSWALD (alone)]


OSWALD Carry him to the Camp! Yes, to the Camp.
Oh, Wisdom! a most wise resolve! and then,
That half a word should blow it to the winds!
This last device must end my work. --Methinks
It were a pleasant pastime to construct
A scale and table of belief--as thus--
Two columns, one for passion, one for proof;
Each rises as the other falls: and first,
Passion a unit and _against_ us--proof--
Nay, we must travel in another path,
Or we're stuck fast for ever;--passion, then,
Shall be a unit _for_ us; proof--no, passion!
We'll not insult thy majesty by time,
Person, and place--the where, the when, the how,
And all particulars that dull brains require
To constitute the spiritless shape of Fact,
They bow to, calling the idol, Demonstration.
A whipping to the Moralists who preach
That misery is a sacred thing: for me,
I know no cheaper engine to degrade a man,
Nor any half so sure. This Stripling's mind
Is shaken till the dregs float on the surface;
And, in the storm and anguish of the heart,
He talks of a transition in his Soul,
And dreams that he is happy. We dissect
The senseless body, and why not the mind? --
These are strange sights--the mind of man, upturned,
Is in all natures a strange spectacle;
In some a hideous one--hem! shall I stop?
No. --Thoughts and feelings will sink deep, but then
They have no substance. Pass but a few minutes,
And something shall be done which Memory
May touch, whene'er her Vassals are at work.


[Enter MARMADUKE, from behind]


OSWALD (turning to meet him)
But listen, for my peace--


MARMADUKE
Why, I _believe_ you.


OSWALD But hear the proofs--


MARMADUKE Ay, prove that when two peas
Lie snugly in a pod, the pod must then
Be larger than the peas--prove this--'twere matter
Worthy the hearing. Fool was I to dream
It ever could be otherwise!


OSWALD Last night
When I returned with water from the brook,
I overheard the Villains--every word
Like red-hot iron burnt into my heart.
Said one, "It is agreed on. The blind Man
Shall feign a sudden illness, and the Girl,
Who on her journey must proceed alone,
Under pretence of violence, be seized.
She is," continued the detested Slave,
"She is right willing--strange if she were not! --
They say, Lord Clifford is a savage man;
But, faith, to see him in his silken tunic,
Fitting his low voice to the minstrel's harp,
There's witchery in't. I never knew a maid
That could withstand it. True," continued he,
"When we arranged the affair, she wept a little
(Not the less welcome to my Lord for that)
And said, 'My Father he will have it so. '"


MARMADUKE I am your hearer.

OSWALD This I caught, and more
That may not be retold to any ear.
The obstinate bolt of a small iron door
Detained them near the gateway of the Castle.
By a dim lantern's light I saw that wreaths
Of flowers were in their hands, as if designed
For festive decoration; and they said,
With brutal laughter and most foul allusion,
That they should share the banquet with their Lord
And his new Favorite.


MARMADUKE
Misery! --

OSWALD I knew
How you would be disturbed by this dire news,
And therefore chose this solitary Moor,
Here to impart the tale, of which, last night,
I strove to ease my mind, when our two Comrades,
Commissioned by the Band, burst in upon us.


MARMADUKE Last night, when moved to lift the avenging steel,
I did believe all things were shadows--yea,
Living or dead all things were bodiless,
Or but the mutual mockeries of body,
Till that same star summoned me back again.
Now I could laugh till my ribs ached. Fool!
To let a creed, built in the heart of things,
Dissolve before a twinkling atom! --Oswald,
I could fetch lessons out of wiser schools
Than you have entered, were it worth the pains.
Young as I am, I might go forth a teacher,
And you should see how deeply I could reason
Of love in all its shapes, beginnings, ends;
Of moral qualities in their diverse aspects;
Of actions, and their laws and tendencies.


OSWALD You take it as it merits--


MARMADUKE One a King,
General or Cham, Sultan or Emperor,
Strews twenty acres of good meadow-ground
With carcases, in lineament and shape
And substance, nothing differing from his own,
But that they cannot stand up of themselves;
Another sits i' th' sun, and by the hour
Floats kingcups in the brook--a Hero one
We call, and scorn the other as Time's spendthrift;
But have they not a world of common ground
To occupy--both fools, or wise alike,
Each in his way?


OSWALD Troth, I begin to think so.


MARMADUKE Now for the corner-stone of my philosophy:
I would not give a denier for the man
Who, on such provocation as this earth
Yields, could not chuck his babe beneath the chin,
And send it with a fillip to its grave.


OSWALD Nay, you leave me behind.


MARMADUKE That such a One,
So pious in demeanour! in his look
So saintly and so pure! --Hark'ee, my Friend,
I'll plant myself before Lord Clifford's Castle,
A surly mastiff kennels at the gate,
And he shall howl and I will laugh, a medley
Most tunable.

OSWALD In faith, a pleasant scheme;
But take your sword along with you, for that
Might in such neighbourhood find seemly use. --
But first, how wash our hands of this old Man?


MARMADUKE Oh yes, that mole, that viper in the path;
Plague on my memory, him I had forgotten.


OSWALD You know we left him sitting--see him yonder.


MARMADUKE Ha! ha! --


OSWALD As 'twill be but a moment's work,
I will stroll on; you follow when 'tis done.


[Exeunt. ]


SCENE changes to another part of the Moor at a short distance--HERBERT
is discovered seated on a stone


HERBERT A sound of laughter, too! --'tis well--I feared,
The Stranger had some pitiable sorrow
Pressing upon his solitary heart.
Hush! --'tis the feeble and earth-loving wind
That creeps along the bells of the crisp heather.
Alas! 'tis cold--I shiver in the sunshine--
What can this mean? There is a psalm that speaks
Of God's parental mercies--with Idonea
I used to sing it. --Listen! --what foot is there?


[Enter MARMADUKE]


MARMADUKE (aside--looking at HERBERT)
And I have loved this Man! and _she_ hath loved him!
And I loved her, and she loves the Lord Clifford!
And there it ends;--if this be not enough
To make mankind merry for evermore,
Then plain it is as day, that eyes were made
For a wise purpose--verily to weep with!
[Looking round. ]
A pretty prospect this, a masterpiece
Of Nature, finished with most curious skill!
(To HERBERT. ) Good Baron, have you ever practised tillage?
Pray tell me what this land is worth by the acre?


HERBERT How glad I am to hear your voice! I know not
Wherein I have offended you;--last night
I found in you the kindest of Protectors;
This morning, when I spoke of weariness,
You from my shoulder took my scrip and threw it
About your own; but for these two hours past
Once only have you spoken, when the lark
Whirred from among the fern beneath our feet,
And I, no coward in my better days,
Was almost terrified.


MARMADUKE That's excellent! --
So, you bethought you of the many ways
In which a man may come to his end, whose crimes
Have roused all Nature up against him--pshaw! --


HERBERT For mercy's sake, is nobody in sight?
No traveller, peasant, herdsman?


MARMADUKE Not a soul:
Here is a tree, ragged, and bent, and bare,
That turns its goat's-beard flakes of pea-green moss
From the stern breathing of the rough sea-wind;
This have we, but no other company:
Commend me to the place. If a man should die
And leave his body here, it were all one
As he were twenty fathoms underground.


HERBERT Where is our common Friend?


MARMADUKE A ghost, methinks--
The Spirit of a murdered man, for instance--
Might have fine room to ramble about here,
A grand domain to squeak and gibber in.


HERBERT Lost Man! if thou have any close-pent guilt
Pressing upon thy heart, and this the hour
Of visitation--


MARMADUKE A bold word from _you_!


HERBERT Restore him, Heaven!


MARMADUKE The desperate Wretch! --A Flower,
Fairest of all flowers, was she once, but now
They have snapped her from the stem--Poh! let her lie
Besoiled with mire, and let the houseless snail
Feed on her leaves. You knew her well--ay, there,
Old Man! you were a very Lynx, you knew
The worm was in her--


HERBERT Mercy! Sir, what mean you?


MARMADUKE You have a Daughter!


HERBERT Oh that she were here! --
She hath an eye that sinks into all hearts,
And if I have in aught offended you,
Soon would her gentle voice make peace between us.


MARMADUKE (aside)
I do believe he weeps--I could weep too--
There is a vein of her voice that runs through his:
Even such a Man my fancy bodied forth
From the first moment that I loved the Maid;
And for his sake I loved her more: these tears--
I did not think that aught was left in me
Of what I have been--yes, I thank thee, Heaven!
One happy thought has passed across my mind.
--It may not be--I am cut off from man;
No more shall I be man--no more shall I
Have human feelings! --
(To HERBERT) --Now, for a little more
About your Daughter!


HERBERT Troops of armed men,
Met in the roads, would bless us; little children,
Rushing along in the full tide of play,
Stood silent as we passed them! I have heard
The boisterous carman, in the miry road,
Check his loud whip and hail us with mild voice,
And speak with milder voice to his poor beasts.


MARMADUKE And whither were you going?


HERBERT Learn, young Man,--
To fear the virtuous, and reverence misery,
Whether too much for patience, or, like mine,
Softened till it becomes a gift of mercy.


MARMADUKE Now, this is as it should be!


HERBERT I am weak! --
My Daughter does not know how weak I am;
And, as thou see'st, under the arch of heaven
Here do I stand, alone, to helplessness,
By the good God, our common Father, doomed! --
But I had once a spirit and an arm--


MARMADUKE Now, for a word about your Barony:
I fancy when you left the Holy Land,
And came to--what's your title--eh?
your claims
Were undisputed!

HERBERT Like a mendicant,
Whom no one comes to meet, I stood alone;--
I murmured--but, remembering Him who feeds
The pelican and ostrich of the desert,
From my own threshold I looked up to Heaven
And did not want glimmerings of quiet hope.
So, from the court I passed, and down the brook,
Led by its murmur, to the ancient oak
I came; and when I felt its cooling shade,
I sate me down, and cannot but believe--
While in my lap I held my little Babe
And clasped her to my heart, my heart that ached
More with delight than grief--I heard a voice
Such as by Cherith on Elijah called;
It said, "I will be with thee. " A little boy,
A shepherd-lad, ere yet my trance was gone,
Hailed us as if he had been sent from heaven,
And said, with tears, that he would be our guide:
I had a better guide--that innocent Babe--
Her, who hath saved me, to this hour, from harm,
From cold, from hunger, penury, and death;
To whom I owe the best of all the good
I have, or wish for, upon earth--and more
And higher far than lies within earth's bounds:
Therefore I bless her: when I think of Man,
I bless her with sad spirit,--when of God,
I bless her in the fulness of my joy!


MARMADUKE The name of daughter in his mouth, he prays!
With nerves so steady, that the very flies
Sit unmolested on his staff. --Innocent! --
If he were innocent--then he would tremble
And be disturbed, as I am.
(Turning aside. ) I have read
In Story, what men now alive have witnessed,
How, when the People's mind was racked with doubt,
Appeal was made to the great Judge: the Accused
With naked feet walked over burning ploughshares.
Here is a Man by Nature's hand prepared
For a like trial, but more merciful.
Why else have I been led to this bleak Waste?
Bare is it, without house or track, and destitute
Of obvious shelter, as a shipless sea.
Here will I leave him--here--All-seeing God!
Such as _he_ is, and sore perplexed as I am,
I will commit him to this final _Ordeal! _--
He heard a voice--a shepherd-lad came to him
And was his guide; if once, why not again,
And in this desert? If never--then the whole
Of what he says, and looks, and does, and is,
Makes up one damning falsehood. Leave him here
To cold and hunger! --Pain is of the heart,
And what are a few throes of bodily suffering
If they can waken one pang of remorse?
[Goes up to HERBERT. ]
Old Man! my wrath is as a flame burnt out,
It cannot be rekindled. Thou art here
Led by my hand to save thee from perdition:
Thou wilt have time to breathe and think--


HERBERT Oh, Mercy!


MARMADUKE I know the need that all men have of mercy,
And therefore leave thee to a righteous judgment.


HERBERT My Child, my blessed Child!

MARMADUKE No more of that;
Thou wilt have many guides if thou art innocent;
Yea, from the utmost corners of the earth,
That Woman will come o'er this Waste to save thee.
[He pauses and looks at HERBERT'S staff. ]
Ha! what is here? and carved by her own hand!
[Reads upon the staff. ]
"I am eyes to the blind, saith the Lord.
He that puts his trust in me shall not fail! "
Yes, be it so;--repent and be forgiven--
God and that staff are now thy only guides.
[He leaves HERBERT on the Moor. ]




SCENE--An eminence, a Beacon on the summit

LACY, WALLACE, LENNOX, etc. etc.


SEVERAL OF THE BAND (confusedly) But patience!


ONE OF THE BAND Curses on that Traitor, Oswald! --
Our Captain made a prey to foul device! --


LENNOX (to WALLACE)
His tool, the wandering Beggar, made last night
A plain confession, such as leaves no doubt,
Knowing what otherwise we know too well,
That she revealed the truth. Stand by me now;
For rather would I have a nest of vipers
Between my breast-plate and my skin, than make
Oswald my special enemy, if you
Deny me your support.


LACY We have been fooled--
But for the motive?


WALLACE Natures such as his
Spin motives out of their own bowels, Lacy!
I learn'd this when I was a Confessor.
I know him well; there needs no other motive
Than that most strange incontinence in crime
Which haunts this Oswald. Power is life to him
And breath and being; where he cannot govern,
He will destroy.


LACY To have been trapped like moles! --
Yes, you are right, we need not hunt for motives:
There is no crime from which this man would shrink;
He recks not human law; and I have noticed
That often when the name of God is uttered,
A sudden blankness overspreads his face.


LENNOX Yet, reasoner as he is, his pride has built
Some uncouth superstition of its own.


WALLACE I have seen traces of it.


LENNOX Once he headed
A band of Pirates in the Norway seas;
And when the King of Denmark summoned him
To the oath of fealty, I well remember,
'Twas a strange answer that he made; he said,
"I hold of Spirits, and the Sun in heaven. "


LACY
He is no madman.

WALLACE
A most subtle doctor
Were that man, who could draw the line that parts
Pride and her daughter, Cruelty, from Madness,
That should be scourged, not pitied. Restless Minds,
Such Minds as find amid their fellow-men
No heart that loves them, none that they can love,
Will turn perforce and seek for sympathy
In dim relation to imagined Beings.


ONE OF THE BAND
What if he mean to offer up our Captain
An expiation and a sacrifice
To those infernal fiends!


WALLACE Now, if the event
Should be as Lennox has foretold, then swear,
My Friends, his heart shall have as many wounds
As there are daggers here.


LACY What need of swearing!


ONE OF THE BAND Let us away!


ANOTHER Away!


A THIRD Hark! how the horns
Of those Scotch Rovers echo through the vale.


LACY Stay you behind; and when the sun is down,
Light up this beacon.

ONE OF THE BAND You shall be obeyed.


[They go out together. ]



SCENE--The Wood on the edge of the Moor.

MARMADUKE (alone)


MARMADUKE Deep, deep and vast, vast beyond human thought,
Yet calm. --I could believe, that there was here
The only quiet heart on earth. In terror,
Remembered terror, there is peace and rest.


[Enter OSWALD]


OSWALD Ha! my dear Captain.



MARMADUKE A later meeting, Oswald,
Would have been better timed.


OSWALD Alone, I see;
You have done your duty. I had hopes, which now
I feel that you will justify.


MARMADUKE I had fears,
From which I have freed myself--but 'tis my wish
To be alone, and therefore we must part.


OSWALD Nay, then--I am mistaken. There's a weakness
About you still; you talk of solitude--
I am your friend.


MARMADUKE What need of this assurance
At any time? and why given now?


OSWALD Because
You are now in truth my Master; you have taught me
What there is not another living man
Had strength to teach;--and therefore gratitude
Is bold, and would relieve itself by praise.


MARMADUKE Wherefore press this on me?

OSWALD Because I feel
That you have shown, and by a signal instance,
How they who would be just must seek the rule
By diving for it into their own bosoms.
To-day you have thrown off a tyranny
That lives but in the torpid acquiescence
Of our emasculated souls, the tyranny
Of the world's masters, with the musty rules
By which they uphold their craft from age to age:
You have obeyed the only law that sense
Submits to recognise; the immediate law,
From the clear light of circumstances, flashed
Upon an independent Intellect.
Henceforth new prospects open on your path;
Your faculties should grow with the demand;
I still will be your friend, will cleave to you
Through good and evil, obloquy and scorn,
Oft as they dare to follow on your steps.


MARMADUKE I would be left alone.


OSWALD (exultingly)
I know your motives!
I am not of the world's presumptuous judges,
Who damn where they can neither see nor feel,
With a hard-hearted ignorance; your struggles
I witness'd, and now hail your victory.


MARMADUKE Spare me awhile that greeting.


OSWALD It may be,
That some there are, squeamish half-thinking cowards,
Who will turn pale upon you, call you murderer,
And you will walk in solitude among them.
A mighty evil for a strong-built mind! --
Join twenty tapers of unequal height
And light them joined, and you will see the less
How 'twill burn down the taller; and they all
Shall prey upon the tallest. Solitude! --
The Eagle lives in Solitude!


MARMADUKE Even so,
The Sparrow so on the house-top, and I,
The weakest of God's creatures, stand resolved
To abide the issue of my act, alone.


OSWALD _Now_ would you? and for ever? --My young Friend,
As time advances either we become
The prey or masters of our own past deeds.
Fellowship we _must_ have, willing or no;
And if good Angels fail, slack in their duty,
Substitutes, turn our faces where we may,
Are still forthcoming; some which, though they bear
Ill names, can render no ill services,
In recompense for what themselves required.
So meet extremes in this mysterious world,
And opposites thus melt into each other.


MARMADUKE Time, since Man first drew breath, has never moved
With such a weight upon his wings as now;
But they will soon be lightened.


OSWALD Ay, look up--
Cast round you your mind's eye, and you will learn
Fortitude is the child of Enterprise:
Great actions move our admiration, chiefly
Because they carry in themselves an earnest
That we can suffer greatly.


MARMADUKE Very true.


OSWALD Action is transitory--a step, a blow,
The motion of a muscle--this way or that--
'Tis done, and in the after-vacancy
We wonder at ourselves like men betrayed:
Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark,
And shares the nature of infinity.


MARMADUKE Truth--and I feel it.


OSWALD What! if you had bid
Eternal farewell to unmingled joy
And the light dancing of the thoughtless heart;
It is the toy of fools, and little fit
For such a world as this. The wise abjure
All thoughts whose idle composition lives
In the entire forgetfulness of pain.
--I see I have disturbed you.


MARMADUKE By no means.


OSWALD Compassion! --pity! --pride can do without them;
And what if you should never know them more! --
He is a puny soul who, feeling pain,
Finds ease because another feels it too.
If e'er I open out this heart of mine
It shall be for a nobler end--to teach
And not to purchase puling sympathy.
--Nay, you are pale.


MARMADUKE
It may be so.


OSWALD Remorse--
It cannot live with thought; think on, think on,
And it will die. What! in this universe,
Where the least things control the greatest, where
The faintest breath that breathes can move a world;
What! feel remorse, where, if a cat had sneezed,
A leaf had fallen, the thing had never been
Whose very shadow gnaws us to the vitals.


MARMADUKE Now, whither are you wandering? That a man
So used to suit his language to the time,
Should thus so widely differ from himself--
It is most strange.


OSWALD Murder! --what's in the word! --
I have no cases by me ready made
To fit all deeds. Carry him to the Camp! --
A shallow project;--you of late have seen
More deeply, taught us that the institutes
Of Nature, by a cunning usurpation
Banished from human intercourse, exist
Only in our relations to the brutes
That make the fields their dwelling. If a snake
Crawl from beneath our feet we do not ask
A license to destroy him: our good governors
Hedge in the life of every pest and plague
That bears the shape of man; and for what purpose,
But to protect themselves from extirpation? --
This flimsy barrier you have overleaped.


MARMADUKE My Office is fulfilled--the Man is now
Delivered to the Judge of all things.


OSWALD
Dead!

MARMADUKE I have borne my burthen to its destined end.


OSWALD This instant we'll return to our Companions--
Oh how I long to see their faces again!


[Enter IDONEA with Pilgrims who continue their journey. ]


IDONEA (after some time)
What, Marmaduke! now thou art mine for ever.
And Oswald, too!
(To MARMADUKE. ) On will we to my Father
With the glad tidings which this day hath brought;
We'll go together, and, such proof received
Of his own rights restored, his gratitude
To God above will make him feel for ours.


OSWALD I interrupt you?


IDONEA Think not so.


MARMADUKE Idonea,
That I should ever live to see this moment!


IDONEA Forgive me. --Oswald knows it all--he knows,
Each word of that unhappy letter fell
As a blood drop from my heart.


OSWALD 'Twas even so.


MARMADUKE I have much to say, but for whose ear? --not thine.


IDONEA Ill can I bear that look--Plead for me, Oswald!
You are my Father's Friend.
(To MARMADUKE. ) Alas, you know not,
And never _can_ you know, how much he loved me.
Twice had he been to me a father, twice
Had given me breath, and was I not to be
His daughter, once his daughter? could I withstand
His pleading face, and feel his clasping arms,
And hear his prayer that I would not forsake him
In his old age--
[Hides her face. ]


MARMADUKE Patience--Heaven grant me patience! --
She weeps, she weeps--_my_ brain shall burn for hours
Ere _I_ can shed a tear.


IDONEA I was a woman;
And, balancing the hopes that are the dearest
To womankind with duty to my Father,
I yielded up those precious hopes, which nought
On earth could else have wrested from me;--if erring,
Oh let me be forgiven!


MARMADUKE I _do_ forgive thee.


IDONEA But take me to your arms--this breast, alas!
It throbs, and you have a heart that does not feel it.


MARMADUKE (exultingly)
She is innocent. [He embraces her. ]


OSWALD (aside)
Were I a Moralist,
I should make wondrous revolution here;
It were a quaint experiment to show
The beauty of truth-- [Addressing them. ]
I see I interrupt you;
I shall have business with you, Marmaduke;
Follow me to the Hostel.

[Exit OSWALD. ]


IDONEA Marmaduke,
This is a happy day. My Father soon
Shall sun himself before his native doors;
The lame, the hungry, will be welcome there.
No more shall he complain of wasted strength,
Of thoughts that fail, and a decaying heart;
His good works will be balm and life to him.


MARMADUKE This is most strange! --I know not what it was,
But there was something which most plainly said,
That thou wert innocent.


IDONEA How innocent! --
Oh heavens! you've been deceived.


MARMADUKE Thou art a Woman
To bring perdition on the universe.


IDONEA Already I've been punished to the height
Of my offence.
[Smiling affectionately. ]
I see you love me still,
The labours of my hand are still your joy;
Bethink you of the hour when on your shoulder
I hung this belt.
[Pointing to the belt on which was suspended HERBERT'S scrip. ]


MARMADUKE Mercy of Heaven! [Sinks. ]


IDONEA What ails you? [Distractedly. ]


MARMADUKE The scrip that held his food, and I forgot
To give it back again!


IDONEA What mean your words?


MARMADUKE I know not what I said--all may be well.


IDONEA That smile hath life in it!


MARMADUKE This road is perilous;
I will attend you to a Hut that stands
Near the wood's edge--rest there to-night, I pray you:
For me, I have business, as you heard, with Oswald,
But will return to you by break of day.


[Exeunt. ]




ACT IV

SCENE--A desolate prospect--a ridge of rocks--a Chapel on the summit of
one--Moon behind the rocks--night stormy--irregular sound of a
bell--HERBERT enters exhausted.


HERBERT That Chapel-bell in mercy seemed to guide me,
But now it mocks my steps; its fitful stroke
Can scarcely be the work of human hands.
Hear me, ye Men, upon the cliffs, if such
There be who pray nightly before the Altar.
Oh that I had but strength to reach the place!
My Child--my Child--dark--dark--I faint--this wind--
These stifling blasts--God help me!


[Enter ELDRED. ]


ELDRED Better this bare rock,
Though it were tottering over a man's head,
Than a tight case of dungeon walls for shelter
From such rough dealing.
[A moaning voice is heard. ]
Ha! what sound is that?
Trees creaking in the wind (but none are here)
Send forth such noises--and that weary bell!
Surely some evil Spirit abroad to-night
Is ringing it--'twould stop a Saint in prayer,
And that--what is it? never was sound so like
A human groan. Ha!