"Tempt the lake's dark wave"

"Tempt the lake's dark wave"

Theatre--Seventeenth Century--Pedro Calderón de la Barca--Saint Patrick's Purgatory

Luis approaches Purgatory and meets Polonia

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, 1600-1681

Barca, Pedro Calderón de la, The Purgatory of St. Patrick, trans. by Denis Florence MacCarthy, Act III, Scene VII

Henry S. King & Co., London

1873

Digitised for Project Gutenberg

Public domain

Collected Plays

Spanish (English trans.)

Play

Text

DD_0061

54.6153, -7.8864

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6371

"SCENE VII. LUIS. — POLONIA. LUIS [aside]. True to my purpose on I go, With footsteps firm and bosom brave, Seeking for that mysterious cave Wherein the pitying heavens will show How I salvation there may gain, By bearing in this life the Purgatorial pain. [To POLONIA.] Tell me, O holy woman! thou Who in these wilds a home hast found, A dweller in this mountain ground Obedient to some sacred vow, Which is the road to Patrick's cave, Where penitential man his soul in life may save? POLONIA. O, happy traveller! who here Hast come so far in storm and shine, Within this treasury divine To feel and find salvation near, Well can I guide thee on thy way, Since 'tis for this alone amid these wilds I stray. Seest thou this mountain? LUIS. Ah! I see My death in it. POLONIA [aside]. My heart grows cold. Ah! who is this that I behold? LUIS [aside]. I cannot think it. Is it she? POLONIA [aside]. 'Tis Luis, now I know. LUIS [aside]. Perhaps illusion it may be To baffle my intent, and lead My erring feet astray. — [to POLONIA}. Proceed. POLONIA [aside]. Say, can it be to conquer me The common enemy doth send This spectre here? LUIS. You do not speak. POLONIA. Attend. This mighty mountain, rock bestrown, Full well the dreaded secret knows; But no one to its centre goes By any path o'er land alone: He who would see this wondrous cave Must in a bark put forth and tempt the lake's dark wave. [Aside.] I struggle with a wish to wreak Revenge, which pity doth subdue. LUIS [aside]. It doth my happiness renew Once more to see and hear her speak. POLONIA [aside]. Within me opposite thoughts contend. LUIS [aside]. Ah, me! I die. — You do not speak. POLONIA. Attend. This darksome lake doth all surround The lofty mountain's rugged base, And so to reach the awful place An easy passage may be found: A sacred convent in the island stands, Midway between the mountain and the sands. Some pious priests inhabit there, And for this task alone they live, With loving zeal to freely give The helping hand, the strengthening prayer — Confession, and the Holy Mass, And every needful help to all who thither pass. Telling them what they first must do, Before they dare presume to go, Alive, within the realm of woe.— [Aside.] Let not this enemy subdue My soul, O Lord!" (Act III, Scene VII)

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