BEWARE OF SMOOTH WATER
A monologue from the
play by Pedro
Calderón de la Barca
|
NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from Eight Dramas of Calderon. Trans. Edward Fitzgerald.
London: Macmillan & Co., 1906. |
|
|
- DON JUAN: You know, as I was saying, what a debt
- Germany has owed us since our fair Maria
- Her title of the Royal Child of Spain
- Set in the crown of Hungary--a debt
- They only could repay us as they do,
- Returning us one of the self-same stock,
- So like herself in beauty and desert,
- We seem but taking what we gave away.
- If into Austria's royal hand we gave
- Our royal rose, she now returns us one
- Sprung of the self-same stem, as fair, as sweet
- In maiden graces; and if double-dyed
- In the imperial purple, yet so fresh,
- She scarce has drunk the dawns of fourteen Aprils.
- The marriage contract signed, the marriage self
- Delayed, too long for loyal Spain's desire,
- That like the bridegroom for her coming burned,
- (But happiness were hardly happiness
- Limped it not late,) till her defective years
- Reached their due blossom--Ah, happy defect,
- That every unconditioned hour amends!
- At last arose the day--the day of days--
- When from her royal eyrie in the North
- The imperial eaglet flew. Young Ferdinand,
- King of Bohemia and Hungary
- Elect, who not in vain Rome's holy hand
- Awaits to bind the laurel round his brow,
- As proxy for our king espoused her first,
- And then, all lover-like, as far as Trent
- Escorted her, with such an equipage
- As when the lords and princes of three realms
- Out-do each other in magnificence
- Of gold and jewel, ransacked from the depths
- Of earth and sea, to glitter in the eye
- Of Him who sees and lights up all from heaven.
- So, like a splendid star that trails her light
- Far after her, she crossed fair Italy,
- When Doria, Genoa's great Admiral,
- Always so well-affected to our crown,
- Took charge of her sea-conduct; which awhile,
- Till winds and seas were fair, she waited for
- In Milan, till, resolved on embarkation,
- The sea, that could not daunt her with his rage,
- Soon as her foot was on his yellow shore,
- Call'd up his Tritons and his Nereids
- Who love and make calm, to smooth his face
- And still his heaving breast; on whose blue flood
- The golden galley in defiance burn'd,
- Her crew in wedding pearl and silver dressed;
- Her silken sail and cordage, fluttering
- With myriad flags and streamers of all dye,
- Sway's like a hanging garden over-head,
- Amid whose blossoms stood the royal bride,
- A fairer Venus than did ever float
- Over the seas to her dominions
- Arm'd with the arrows of diviner love.
- Then to the sound of trump and clarion
- The royal galley, and with her forty more
- That follow'd in her wake as on their queen,
- Weigh'd, shook out sail, and dipp'd all oars at once,
- Making the flood clap hands in acclamation;
- And so with all their streamers, as 'twere spring
- Floating away to other hemispheres,
- Put out to sea; and touching not the isles
- That gem the midway deep--not from distrust
- Of friendly France in whose crown they are set,
- And who (as mighty states contend their peace
- With courtesies as with hard blows in war)
- Swell'd the triumphal tide with pageantries
- I may not stop to tell--but borne upon,
- And (as I think) bearing, fair wind and wave,
- The moving city on its moving base
- With sail and oar enter'd the Spanish Main,
- Which, flashing emerald and diamond,
- Leap'd round the golden prow that clove between,
- And kiss'd the happy shore that first declined
- To meet its mistress. Happy Denia,
- That in her golden sand holds pearly-like
- The first impression of that royal foot!
- I will not tell--let Felix, who was here,
- And has new breath--how, landed happily,
- Our loyal Spain--yea, with what double welcome--
- Received the niece and consort of our king,
- Whom, one and both, and both in one, may Heaven
- Bless with fair issue, and all happiness,
- For years and years to come!
MORE MONOLOGUES BY CALDERÓN |
|
|
