Classic Poem

Lady M ERVYN has fainted on a couch , B LANCHE is bending over her

Enter L ORD Wold .

Wold . My wife! Ah me! What have they done to her, Blanche?
B LANCHE . We tried to escape, and get to you, my Lord;
In passing, Zebra smote her with a poniard,
Smeared by that leech.
Wold . ( looking out at the window ). Ho! guards, bring Philip hither,
The mediciner: from what Mountnorris told me,
He's in the Keep.
B LANCHE . She's in a swoon, my Lord,
But not yet dead.
Wold ( bending over her ). Image of innocence!

Enter Guards with P HILIP DE V ALMA .

Few words and no reproaches: Look, De Valma,
How fares it with this lady; can you tell us?
P HIL . She sleeps a deadly sleep: The wound is tainted.
Wold . That we know. Zebra dealt it. But the poison
Was got from you. Have you an antidote?
P HIL . Yes. Lord am I o'er all the powers I use.
That tragic sleep, swooning away to death,
I can unlock. But there's a mischief still:
The poison's in the blood, there it has worked,
But not long yet. Virtues have I to meet,
Check it, and drive it out, if they be backed
By hope and joy in the patient.
Wold . Hope and joy —
Good lack! But O let's try.
P HIL . No, Lord of Wold.
I'm a man that fears death. And, for that virgin,
I wish her nought but good; she liked my brother,
And mourned his fate. I'll die, however; yea,
And let her die, too, rather than make thee
Lord of the joy of wedded life and issue.
Here stand I on old wrongs.
Wold . What wrongs you mean,
I know not, and debate not. For some cause,
Far apart surely from your brother's love,
You seem to hate me. Be it so. Know, then,
I'm a doomed man: I die at noon. To Wold
You'll on with me, and help me by the way,
If I should faint, for I am hurt; you'll see me
Safe given over to my mother's hands
For execution, see me die, and then
Be free to go your way. Isn't that enough?
You're satisfied now? Undo me then this horror
Of venomous sleep.
P HIL . I'll do't with my whole heart!
I thought your doom reversed. But you must die!
Magnanimous though you be, I'll see you die!
And in your hour of death I'll tell your soul
Of Nemesis! But to my office here: —
Wake, holy virgin!
Wold . Hold!'twere merciful
To let her sleep 'till all is o'er with me.
My widowed wife! Yet to her faith I owe it
To have her with me here all cognisant of
My last extremity. Wake her.
P HIL . Maiden good!
Come out o' that numbing sleep. Thy innocence
Is handmaid to thy life here, and much helps
Nature's essential powers to thaw the spell,
And let thee forth. Lady, come forth.

Lady M ER . Where am I?
Wold . Fear not, I'm here.
Lady M ER . Lord of my life, is't you?
Wold . Rise up, and come to me.
Lady M ER . ( rising ). O I am saved!
But where's our enemy?
Wold . Be not thou afraid,
He'll never hurt thee more. To Mervyn now
I'll take thee home.
Lady M ER . Now then, the evil days
Are past, and we'll be glad!
P HIL . With sovran salves
Your wound must now be drest. My cordial virtues
Now must you also drink. I have them here.
This way: you'll rest here, till they make all ready
To take you hence.