登陆注册
5694900000012

第12章 ACT III(2)

TRESHAM.Mertoun,haste And anger have undone us.'Tis not you Should tell me for a novelty you're young,Thoughtless,unable to recall the past.

Be but your pardon ample as my own!

MERTOUN.Ah,Tresham,that a sword-stroke and a drop Of blood or two,should bring all this about Why,'twas my very fear of you,my love Of you--(what passion like a boy's for one Like you?)--that ruined me!I dreamed of you--

You,all accomplished,courted everywhere,The scholar and the gentleman.I burned To knit myself to you:but I was young,And your surpassing reputation kept me So far aloof!Oh,wherefore all that love?

With less of love,my glorious yesterday Of praise and gentlest words and kindest looks,Had taken place perchance six months ago.

Even now,how happy we had been!And yet I know the thought of this escaped you,Tresham!

Let me look up into your face;I feel 'Tis changed above me:yet my eyes are glazed.

Where?where?

[As he endeavours to raise himself,his eye catches the lamp.]

Ah,Mildred!What will Mildred do?

Tresham,her life is bound up in the life That's bleeding fast away!I'll live--must live,There,if you'll only turn me I shall live And save her!Tresham--oh,had you but heard!

Had you but heard!What right was yours to set The thoughtless foot upon her life and mine,And then say,as we perish,"Had I thought,All had gone otherwise"?We've sinned and die:

Never you sin,Lord Tresham!for you'll die,And God will judge you.

TRESHAM.Yes,be satisfied!

That process is begun.

MERTOUN.And she sits there Waiting for me!Now,say you this to her--

You,not another--say,I saw him die As he breathed this,"I love her"--you don't know What those three small words mean!Say,loving her Lowers me down the bloody slope to death With memories...I speak to her,not you,Who had no pity,will have no remorse,Perchance intend her...Die along with me,Dear Mildred!'tis so easy,and you'll 'scape So much unkindness!Can I lie at rest,With rude speech spoken to you,ruder deeds Done to you?--heartless men shall have my heart,And I tied down with grave-clothes and the worm,Aware,perhaps,of every blow--oh God!--

Upon those lips--yet of no power to tear The felon stripe by stripe!Die,Mildred!Leave Their honourable world to them!For God We're good enough,though the world casts us out.

[A whistle is heard.]

TRESHAM.Ho,Gerard!

Enter GERARD,AUSTIN and GUENDOLEN,with lights No one speak!You see what's done.

I cannot bear another voice.

MERTOUN.There's light--

Light all about me,and I move to it.

Tresham,did I not tell you--did you not Just promise to deliver words of mine To Mildred?

TRESHAM.I will bear those words to her.

MERTOUN.Now?

TRESHAM.Now.Lift you the body,and leave me The head.

[As they have half raised MERTOUN,he turns suddenly.]

MERTOUN.I knew they turned me:turn me not from her!

There!stay you!there!

[Dies.]

GUENDOLEN [after a pause].Austin,remain you here With Thorold until Gerard comes with help:

Then lead him to his chamber.I must go To Mildred.

TRESHAM.Guendolen,I hear each word You utter.Did you hear him bid me give His message?Did you hear my promise?I,And only I,see Mildred.

GUENDOLEN.She will die.

TRESHAM.Oh no,she will not die!I dare not hope She'll die.What ground have you to think she'll die?

Why,Austin's with you!

AUSTIN.Had we but arrived Before you fought!

TRESHAM.There was no fight at all.

He let me slaughter him--the boy!I'll trust The body there to you and Gerard--thus!

Now bear him on before me.

AUSTIN.Whither bear him?

TRESHAM.Oh,to my chamber!When we meet there next,We shall be friends.

[They bear out the body of MERTOUN.]

Will she die,Guendolen?

GUENDOLEN.Where are you taking me?

TRESHAM.He fell just here.

Now answer me.Shall you in your whole life --You who have nought to do with Mertoun's fate,Now you have seen his breast upon the turf,Shall you e'er walk this way if you can help?

When you and Austin wander arm-in-arm Through our ancestral grounds,will not a shade Be ever on the meadow and the waste--

Another kind of shade than when the night Shuts the woodside with all its whispers up?

But will you ever so forget his breast As carelessly to cross this bloody turf Under the black yew avenue?That's well!

You turn your head:and I then?--

GUENDOLEN.What is done Is done.My care is for the living.Thorold,Bear up against this burden:more remains To set the neck to!

TRESHAM.Dear and ancient trees My fathers planted,and I loved so well!

What have I done that,like some fabled crime Of yore,lets loose a Fury leading thus Her miserable dance amidst you all?

Oh,never more for me shall winds intone With all your tops a vast antiphony,Demanding and responding in God's praise!

Hers ye are now,not mine!Farewell--farewell!

SCENE II.

MILDRED'S Chamber MILDRED alone He comes not!I have heard of those who seemed Resourceless in prosperity,--you thought Sorrow might slay them when she listed;yet Did they so gather up their diffused strength At her first menace,that they bade her strike,And stood and laughed her subtlest skill to scorn.

Oh,'tis not so with me!The first woe fell,And the rest fall upon it,not on me:

Else should I bear that Henry comes not?--fails Just this first night out of so many nights?

Loving is done with.Were he sitting now,As so few hours since,on that seat,we'd love No more--contrive no thousand happy ways To hide love from the loveless,any more.

I think I might have urged some little point In my defence,to Thorold;he was breathless For the least hint of a defence:but no,The first shame over,all that would might fall.

No Henry!Yet I merely sit and think The morn's deed o'er and o'er.I must have crept Out of myself.A Mildred that has lost Her lover--oh,I dare not look upon Such woe!I crouch away from it!'Tis she,Mildred,will break her heart,not I!The world Forsakes me:only Henry's left me--left?

When I have lost him,for he does not come,And I sit stupidly...Oh Heaven,break up This worse than anguish,this mad apathy,By any means or any messenger!

同类推荐
  • 天请问经

    天请问经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • THE EVIL GENIUS

    THE EVIL GENIUS

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大乘经纂要义

    大乘经纂要义

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 仁王般若实相论

    仁王般若实相论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 艺堂

    艺堂

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 郁离子

    郁离子

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 逐鹿诸天

    逐鹿诸天

    混沌未寂,诸天林立,神皇魔帝,逐鹿天地,只为争夺那一丝超脱的契机……
  • 新史太阁记(全集)

    新史太阁记(全集)

    日本最受大众欢迎的历史小说家司马辽太郎,讲述战国第一出人头地之人丰臣秀吉传奇的一生。自幼出身寒微、少年饱尝苦难的丰臣秀吉,得到织田信长赏识,在战国乱世大放异彩。墨股“一夜城”,金崎退却战,粮困鸟取城,水攻高松城。中国大反攻,平息光秀叛乱;决战贱岳岭,消灭胜家势力;安抚毛利,怀柔家康,最终结束战国乱世,统一日本全国,完成称霸天下大业。
  • 唐风吹过

    唐风吹过

    巍巍大唐,多少华夏儿女魂牵梦绕的晃晃盛世。一个流浪的灵魂,穿梭在大唐与梦境之间,期间嬉笑怒骂,看精怪挣扎祈活,看仙佛俯视众生,孤寂的灵魂要带领大唐铁骑恢复我华夏,让人族主角名副其实。唐风吹过,皆为唐土,唐风过后,尽入华夏版图。
  • 请再给我一次机会

    请再给我一次机会

    《请再给我一次机会》阐述成功与失败的辩证关系,通过不同境遇中,面对不同机会、经历了不相同奋斗历程的人物事例,阐释机会改变人生的哲理。
  • 不聊斋

    不聊斋

    我有剑三尺,寒锋出鞘,敢问天下不平事;我有笔一支,浓墨入骨,能写春秋分曲直!——读者书友群:213142008,恭候大驾!
  • 用企业家精神点燃时代引擎

    用企业家精神点燃时代引擎

    本书作者站在社会精神转型和民族文化复兴的角度,以跨文明、跨文化、跨制度和跨历史的视野研究企业家精神。着重阐释了中国企业家精神特质及其建构条件。从企业家精神的内涵和意义、历史上企业家精神的形成和建构、中国企业家精神的制度和文化土壤、士大夫精神到企业家精神的转型等几个方面展开论述。适合关注社会发展转型、企业经营的相关人士阅读。
  • 重生娱乐之我为王

    重生娱乐之我为王

    我的人生只为随心所欲四个字,所以妨碍我的要么自己滚,要么我让你滚。这就是一个女汉子,用女神的外表欺骗世人,欺世盗名的故事。
  • 谁将平生葬倾城

    谁将平生葬倾城

    前世,墨瑶将误闯进谷里的萧凌捡了回去,全心全意的待他,没曾想却落个扒皮抽筋的下场。重生后,她将萧凌扔出了谷,以为只要不出谷便能一世太平。谁知道她前脚刚送走一个,后脚就又捡回来一个。而且,这个新捡回来的青年似乎……墨玠:“合着萧家丢的人都让你捡回来了是吧?”墨瑶:“……”那能怎么办,她也很绝望啊!
  • 中俄伊犁交涉始末

    中俄伊犁交涉始末

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。