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life is a dream-第7部分

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SEG。

And what care I? She is my cousin too:

And if you be a Princewell; am not I

Lord of the very soil you stand upon?

By that; and by that right beside of blood

That like a fiery fountain hitherto

Pent in the rock leaps toward her at her touch;

Mine; before all the cousins in Muscovy!

You call me Prince of Poland; and yourselves

My subjectstraitors therefore to this hour;

Who let me perish all my youth away

Chain'd there among the mountains; till; forsooth;

Terrified at your treachery foregone;

You spirit me up here; I know not how;

Popinjay…like invest me like yourselves;

Choke me with scent and music that I loathe;

And; worse than all the music and the scent;

With false; long…winded; fulsome compliment;

That 'Oh; you are my subjects!' and in word

Reiterating still obedience;

Thwart me in deed at every step I take:

When just about to wreak a just revenge

Upon that old arch…traitor of you all;

Filch from my vengeance him I hate; and him

I lovedthe first and only facetill this

I cared to look on in your ugly court

And now when palpably I grasp at last

What hitherto but shadow'd in my dreams

Affiances and interferences;

The first who dares to meddle with me more

Princes and chamberlains and counsellors;

Touch her who dares!



AST。

That dare I



SEG。 (seizing him by the throat)。

You dare!



CHAMB。

My Lord!



A LORD。

His strength's a lion's



(Voices within。 The King! The King!)



(Enter King。)



A LORD。

And on a sudden how he stands at gaze

As might a wolf just fasten'd on his prey;

Glaring at a suddenly encounter'd lion。



KING。

And I that hither flew with open arms

To fold them round my son; must now return

To press them to an empty heart again!

(He sits on the throne。)



SEG。

That is the King?My father?

(After a long pause。)

I have heard

That sometimes some blind instinct has been known

To draw to mutual recognition those

Of the same blood; beyond all memory

Divided; or ev'n never met before。

I know not how this isperhaps in brutes

That live by kindlier instinctsbut I know

That looking now upon that head whose crown

Pronounces him a sovereign king; I feel

No setting of the current in my blood

Tow'rd him as sire。 How is't with you; old man;

Tow'rd him they call your son?



KING。

Alas! Alas!



SEG。

Your sorrow; then?



KING。

Beholding what I do。



SEG。

Ay; but how know this sorrow that has grown

And moulded to this present shape of man;

As of your own creation?



KING。

Ev'n from birth。



SEG。

But from that hour to this; near; as I think;

Some twenty such renewals of the year

As trace themselves upon the barren rocks;

I never saw you; nor you meunless;

Unless; indeed; through one of those dark masks

Through which a son might fail to recognize

The best of fathers。



KING。

Be that as you will:

But; now we see each other face to face;

Know me as you I know; which did I not;

By whatsoever signs; assuredly

You were not here to prove it at my risk。



SEG。

You are my father。

And is it true then; as Clotaldo swears;

'Twas you that from the dawning birth of one

Yourself brought into being;you; I say;

Who stole his very birthright; not alone

That secondary and peculiar right

Of sovereignty; but even that prime

Inheritance that all men share alike;

And chain'd himchain'd him!like a wild beast's whelp。

Among as savage mountains; to this hour?

Answer if this be thus。



KING。

Oh; Segismund;

In all that I have done that seems to you;

And; without further hearing; fairly seems;

Unnatural and cruel'twas not I;

But One who writes His order in the sky

I dared not misinterpret nor neglect;

Who knows with what reluctance



SEG。

Oh; those stars;

Those stars; that too far up from human blame

To clear themselves; or careless of the charge;

Still bear upon their shining shoulders all

The guilt men shift upon them!



KING。

Nay; but think:

Not only on the common score of kind;

But that peculiar count of sovereignty

If not behind the beast in brain as heart;

How should I thus deal with my innocent child;

Doubly desired; and doubly dear when come;

As that sweet second…self that all desire;

And princes more than all; to root themselves

By that succession in their people's hearts;

Unless at that superior Will; to which

Not kings alone; but sovereign nature bows?



SEG。

And what had those same stars to tell of me

That should compel a father and a king

So much against that double instinct?



KING。

That;

Which I have brought you hither; at my peril;

Against their written warning; to disprove;

By justice; mercy; human kindliness。



SEG。

And therefore made yourself their instrument

To make your son the savage and the brute

They only prophesied?Are you not afear'd;

Lest; irrespective as such creatures are

Of such relationship; the brute you made

Revenge the man you marr'dlike sire; like son。

To do by you as you by me have done?



KING。

You never had a savage heart from me;

I may appeal to Poland。



SEG。

Then from whom?

If pure in fountain; poison'd by yourself

When scarce begun to flow。To make a man

Not; as I see; degraded from the mould

I came from; nor compared to those about;

And then to throw your own flesh to the dogs!

Why not at once; I say; if terrified

At the prophetic omens of my birth;

Have drown'd or stifled me; as they do whelps

Too costly or too dangerous to keep?



KING。

That; living; you might learn to live; and rule

Yourself and Poland。



SEG。

By the means you took

To spoil for either?



KING。

Nay; but; Segismund!

You know notcannot knowhappily wanting

The sad experience on which knowledge grows;

How the too early consciousness of power

Spoils the best blood; nor whether for your long

Constrain'd disheritance (which; but for me;

Remember; and for my relenting love

Bursting the bond of fate; had been eternal)

You have not now a full indemnity;

Wearing the blossom of your youth unspent

In the voluptuous sunshine of a court;

That often; by too early blossoming;

Too soon deflowers the rose of royalty。



SEG。

Ay; but what some precocious warmth may spill;

May not an early frost as surely kill?



KING。

But; Segismund; my son; whose quick discourse

Proves I have not extinguish'd and destroy'd

The Man you charge me with extinguishing;

However it condemn me for the fault

Of keeping a good light so long eclipsed;

Reflect! This is the moment upon which

Those stars; whose eyes; although we see them not;

By day as well as night are on us still;

Hang watching up in the meridian heaven

Which way the balance turns; and if to you

As by your dealing God decide it may;

To my confusion!let me answer it

Unto yourself alone; who shall at once

Approve yourself to be your father's judge;

And sovereign of Poland in his stead;

By justice; mercy; self…sobriety;

And all the reasonable attributes

Without which; impotent to rule himself;

Others one cannot; and one must not rule;

But which if you but show the blossom of

All that is past we shall but look upon

As the first out…fling of a generous nature

Rioting in first liberty; and if

This blossom do but promise such a flower

As promises in turn its kindly fruit:

Forthwith upon your brows the royal crown;

That now weighs heavy on my aged brows;

I will devolve; and while I pass away

Into some cloister; with my Maker there

To make my peace in penitence and prayer;

Happily settle the disorder'd realm

That now cries loudly for a lineal heir。



SEG。

And so

When the crown falters on your shaking head;

And slips the sceptre from your palsied hand;

And Poland for her rightful heir cries out;

When not only your stol'n monopoly

Fails you of earthly power; but 'cross the grave

The judgment…trumpet of another world

Calls you to count for your abuse of this;

Then; oh then; terrified by the double danger;

You drag me from my den

Boast not of giving up at last the power

You can no longer hold; and never rightly

Held; but in fee for him you robb'd it from;

And be assured your Savage; once let loose;

Will not be caged again so quickly; not

By threat or adulation to be tamed;

Till he have had his quarrel out with those

Who made him what he is。



KING。

Beware! Beware!

Subdue the kindled Tiger in your eye;

Nor dream that it was sheer necessity

Made me thus far relax the bond of fate;

And; with far more of terror than of hope

Threaten myself; my people; and the State。

Know that; if old; I yet have vigour left

To wield the sword as well as wear the crown;

And if my more immediate issue fail;

Not wanting scions of collateral blood;

Whose wholesome growth shall more than compensate

For all the loss of a distorted stem。



SEG。

That will I straightway bring to trialOh;

After a revelation such as this;

The Last Day shall have little left to show

Of righted wrong and villainy requited!

Nay; Judgment now beginning upon earth;

Myself; methinks; in sight of all my wrongs;

Appointed heaven's avenging minister;

Accuser; judge; and executioner

Sword in hand; cite the guiltyFirst; as worst;

The usurper of his son's inheritance;

Him and his old accomplice; time and crime

Inveterate; and unable to repay

The golden years of life they stole away。

What; does he yet maintain his state; and keep

The throne he should be judged from? Down with him;

That I may trample on the false white head

So long has worn my crown! Where are my soldiers?

Of all my subjects and my vassals here

Not one to do my bidding? Hark! A trumpet!

The trumpet



(He pauses as the trumpet sounds as in Act I。; and masked Soldiers

gradually fill in behind the Throne。)



KING (rising before his throne)。

Ay; indeed; the trumpet blows

A memor
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