(Voices within.Within there! room for the Princess Estrella!)(Enter Estrella with Ladies.)
ESTRELLA.
Welcome, my Lord, right welcome to the throne That much too long has waited for your coming:
And, in the general voice of Poland, hear A kinswoman and cousin's no less sincere.
SEG.
Ay, this is welcome-worth indeed, And cousin cousin-worth! Oh, I have thus Over the threshold of the mountain seen, Leading a bevy of fair stars, the moon Enter the court of heaven--My kinswoman!
My cousin! But my subject?--
EST.
If you please To count your cousin for your subject, sir, You shall not find her a disloyal.
SEG.
Oh, But there are twin stars in that heavenly face, That now I know for having over-ruled Those evil ones that darken'd all my past And brought me forth from that captivity To be the slave of her who set me free.
EST.
Indeed, my Lord, these eyes have no such power Over the past or present: but perhaps They brighten at your welcome to supply The little that a lady's speech commends;And in the hope that, let whichever be The other's subject, we may both be friends.
SEG.
Your hand to that--But why does this warm hand Shoot a cold shudder through me?
EST.
In revenge For likening me to that cold moon, perhaps.
SEG.
Oh, but the lip whose music tells me so Breathes of a warmer planet, and that lip Shall remedy the treason of the hand!
(He catches to embrace her.)
EST.
Release me, sir!
CHAMB.
And pardon me, my Lord.
This lady is a Princess absolute, As Prince he is who just saluted you, And claims her by affiance.
SEG.
Hence, old fool, For ever thrusting that white stick of yours Between me and my pleasure!
AST.
This cause is mine.
Forbear, sir--
SEG.
What, sir mouth-piece, you again?
AST.
My Lord, I waive your insult to myself In recognition of the dignity You yet are new to, and that greater still You look in time to wear.But for this lady--Whom, if my cousin now, I hope to claim Henceforth by yet a nearer, dearer name--SEG.
And what care I? She is my cousin too:
And if you be a Prince--well, 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 subjects--traitors 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 loved--the first and only face--till 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 is--perhaps in brutes That live by kindlier instincts--but 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 me--unless, 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 him--chain'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:
