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Don Carlos

Год написания книги
2017
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I'll open then myself; the increasing danger
Must justify my boldness.

[As he is on the point of approaching the door it opens, and the KING comes out.

FERIA

'Tis himself.

SCENE IX

The KING. The preceding.

All are alarmed at his appearance, fall back, and let him pass through them. He appears to be in a waking dream, like a sleep-walker. His dress and figure indicate the disorder caused by his late fainting. With slow steps he walks past the GRANDEES and looks at each with a fixed eye, but without recognizing any of them. At last he stands still, wrapped in thought, his eyes fixed on the ground, till the emotions of his mind gradually express themselves in words.

KING

Restore me back the dead! Yes, I must have him.

DOMINGO (whispering to ALVA)

Speak to him, duke.

KING

He died despising me!
Have him again I must, and make him think
More nobly of me.

ALVA (approaching with fear)

Sire!

KING (looking round the circle)

Who speaks to me!
Have you forgotten who I am? Why not
Upon your knees, before your king, ye creatures!
Am I not still your king? I must command
Submission from you. Do you all then slight me
Because one man despised me?

ALVA

Gracious king!
No more of him: a new and mightier foe
Arises in the bosom of your realm.

FERIA

Prince Carlos —

KING

Had a friend who died for him;
For him! With me he might have shared an empire.
How he looked down upon me! From the throne
Kings look not down so proudly. It was plain
How vain his conquest made him. His keen sorrow
Confessed how great his loss. Man weeps not so
For aught that's perishable. Oh, that he might
But live again! I'd give my Indies for it!
Omnipotence! thou bring'st no comfort to me:
Thou canst not stretch thine arm into the grave
To rectify one little act, committed
With hasty rashness, 'gainst the life of man.
The dead return no more. Who dare affirm
That I am happy? In the tomb he dwells,
Who scorned to flatter me. What care I now
For all who live? One spirit, one free being,
And one alone, arose in all this age!
He died despising me!

ALVA

Our lives are useless!
Spaniards, let's die at once! E'en in the grave
This man still robs us of our monarch's heart.

KING (sits down, and leans his head on his arm)

Oh! had he died for me! I loved him, too,
And much. Dear to me was he as a son.
In his young mind there brightly rose for me
A new and beauteous morning. Who can say
What I had destined for him? He to me
Was a first love. All Europe may condemn me,
Europe may overwhelm me with its curse,
But I deserved his thanks.

DOMINGO

What spell is this?

KING

And, say, for whom did he desert me thus?
A boy, – my son? Oh, no, believe it not!
A Posa would not perish for a boy;
The scanty flame of friendship could not fill
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