Moon of the Summer night! My Lady sleeps! Wind of the summer night! Where yonder woodbine creeps, Fold, fold thy pinions light! She sleeps! My Lady sleeps! Sleeps! Dreams of the summer night! Tell her, her lover keeps Watch! while in slumbers light She sleeps! My Lady sleeps! Sleeps! Enter VICTORIAN by the balcony. VICTORIAN. Poor little dove! thou tremblest like a leaf! PRECIOSA. I am so frightened! 'Tis for thee I tremble! VICTORIAN. None, my love, but thou. PRECIOSA. "Tis very dangerous; and when thou art gone I chide myself for letting thee come here VICTORIAN. Since yesterday I've been in Alcalá. Ere long the time will come, sweet Preciosa, PRECIOSA. An honest thief, to steal but what thou givest. VICTORIAN. And we shall sit together unmolested, And words of true love pass from tongue to tongue, As singing birds from one bough to another. PRECIOSA. That were a life indeed to make Time envious! I knew that thou wouldst visit me to-night. I saw thee at the play. VICTORIAN. Sweet child of air! Never did I behold thee so attired And garmented in beauty as to-night! What hast thou done to make thee look so fair! PRECIOSA. Am I not always fair? VICTORIAN. Ay, and so fair That I am jealous of all eyes that see thee, PRECIOSA. I heed them not; When thou art present I see none but thee! VICTORIAN. There's nothing fair nor beautiful but takes PRECIOSA. And yet thou leavest me for those dusty books. VICTORIAN. Thou comest between me and those books too often! I see thy face in every thing I see! The paintings in the chapel wear thy looks, The canticles are changed to serabands, And with the learned doctors of the schools PRECIOSA. In good sooth, I dance with learned doctors of the schools To-morrow morning. VICTORIAN. And with whom, I pray? PRECIOSA. A grave and reverend Cardinal, and his Grace Thou knowest the Pope has sent here into Spain VICTORIAN. I have heard it whispered. PRECIOSA. Now the Cardinal, Who for this purpose comes, would fain behold VICTORIAN. That thou may'st dance before them! Now viva la cachucha! It will breathe The fire of youth into these gray old men! "Twill be thy proudest conquest! PRECIOSA. Saving one. And yet I fear these dances will be stopped, VICTORIAN. The sweetest beggar that e'er asked for alms; With such beseeching eyes, that when I saw thee I gave my heart away! PRECIOSA. Dost thou remember When first we met? VICTORIAN. It was at Córdova, In the cathedral garden. Thou wast sitting PRECIOSA. "Twas Easter-Sunday. The full-blossomed trees Filled all the air with fragrance and with joy. The priests were singing, and the organ sounded, And then anon the great cathedral bell. It was the elevation of the Host. We both of us fell down upon our knees Under the orange-boughs, and prayed together. I never had been happy till that moment. Thou blessed angel! VICTORIAN. PRECIOSA. And when thou wast gone, I felt an aching here. I did not speak To any one that day. But from that day VICTORIAN. Remember him no more. Let not his shadow Come between thee and me. Sweet Preciosa! I loved thee even then, though I was silent! PRECIOSA. I thought I ne'er should see thy face again. VICTORIAN. That was the first sound in the song of love! And play the prelude of our fate. We hear PRECIOSA. That my faith. Dost thou believe these warnings? VICTORIAN. So far as this. Our feelings and our thoughts As drops of rain fall into some dark well, PRECIOSA. I have felt it so, but found no words to say it! I cannot reason; I can only feel! But thou hast language for all thoughts and feelings. Thou art a scholar; and sometimes I think We cannot walk together in this world; The distance that divides us is too great! Henceforth thy pathway lies among the stars; VICTORIAN. Thou little sceptic! Dost thou still doubt? What I most prize in woman Is her affections, not her intellect ! The intellect is finite; but the affections Are infinite, and cannot be exhausted. Compare me with the great men of the earth; Is pure. It cannot change nor hide its nature, PRECIOSA. Yes, that I love thee, as the good love heaven. |