[After 3] stage-direction om. Remorse.
[Between 3 and 4]
Ordonio. Believe you then no preternatural influence?
{ Believe you not that spirits throng around us?
{ I thought you held that spirits throng’d around us?
Corr. in MS. III.
Ter. Say rather that I have imagined it
A possible thing; and it has sooth’d my soul
As other fancies have; but ne’er seduced me
To traffic with the black and frenzied hope,
That the dead hear the voice of witch or wizard.
Remorse.
[After 10] [Here, &c… . scene Remorse.
[After 23] [Music Remorse.
sweet Spirit.’ Remorse.
[After 43] SONG. — Behind the scenes, &c. Remorse.
A silver toy his grandam had late given him,
Methinks I see him now as he then look’d —
Even so! — He had outgrown his infant dress,
Remorse, Act III, ll. 13-15.
But what if he had a brother,
Who had lived even so
Remorse.
Valdez. Idly prating man!
Thou hast guess’d ill: Don Alvar’s only brother
Stands here before thee — a father’s blessing on him!
He is most virtuous.
Remorse.
[Between 104 and 105]
[Music again.
Teresa. ‘Tis strange, I tremble at my own conjectures!
But whatso’er it mean, I dare no longer
Be present at these lawless mysteries,
This dark provoking of the hidden Powers!
Already I affront — if not high Heaven —
Yet Alvar’s memory! — Hark! I make appeal
Against the unholy rite, and hasten hence
To bend before a lawful shrine, and seek
That voice which whispers, when the still heart listens,
Comfort and faithful hope! Let us retire.
Alv. (to TERESA).
O full of faith and guileless love, thy spirit
Still prompts thee wisely. Let the pangs of guilt
Surprise the guilty: thou art innocent!
[Exeunt TERESA and Attendant. Music as before.
Remorse.
[After 110] The whole music clashes into a Chorus Remorse.
post pp. 851-8. According to the Editor of Osorio as first published
in 1873, ‘The rest of this Act is entirely different in the published
Remorse.’ This statement needs qualification. The remainder of Act III
of Osorio was rewritten, much was omitted, much added, and the ‘dramatic
ordonnance’ of this part of the play was remodelled on a different plan,
but the following lines 174-82, 195-202, 210-31 and 246-7 were included,
with certain alterations, in Remorse. See Remorse, Act III, Scene II,
ll. 64-71, 79-87, 94-114 and 185-6.
[After 146]
Doth swim with love and pity — Well Ordonio
O my foreboding Spirit, he suborn’d thee,
And thou didst spare his life
Corr. in MS. III.
ACT THE FOURTH
SCENE THE FIRST. — A cavern, dark except where a gleam of moonlight is
seen on one side of the further end of it, supposed to be cast on it
from a cranny [crevice Remorse] in a part of the cavern out of
sight.
[FERDINAND alone, an extinguished torch in his hand.
Ferdinand. Drip! drip! drip! drip! — in such a place as this
It has nothing else to do but drip! drip! drip!
I wish it had not dripp’d upon my torch.
Faith ‘twas a moving letter — very moving!
His life in danger — no place safe but this. 5
‘Twas his turn now to talk of gratitude!
And yet — but no! there can’t be such a villain.
It cannot be!
Thanks to that little cranny
Which lets the moonlight in! I’ll go and sit by it.
To peep at a tree, or see a he-goat’s beard, 10
Or hear a cow or two breathe loud in their sleep,
‘Twere better than this dreary noise of water-drops!
[He goes out of sight, opposite to the patch of
moonlight, [and returns. Remorse]
returns after a minute’s elapse in an
ecstasy of fear.
A hellish pit! O God—’tis like my night-mair!
I was just in! — and those damn’d fingers of ice
Which clutch’d my hair up! Ha! what’s that? it moved! 15
[FERDINAND stands [motionless MS. III erased]
staring at another recess in the cavern. In
the mean time OSORIO enters with a torch and
hollas to him [halloes to ISIDORE Remorse].
Ferdinand. I swear, I saw a something moving there!
The moonshine came and went, like a flash of lightning.
I swear, I saw it move!
[OSORIO goes into the recess, then returns, and with
great scorn.
Osorio. A jutting clay-stone
Drips on the long lank weed that grows beneath;
And the weed nods and drips.
Ferdinand (forcing a faint laugh). A joke to laugh at! 20
It was not that which frighten’d me, my lord!
Osorio. What frighten’d you?
Ferdinand. You see that little cranny?
But first permit me,
[Lights his torch at OSORIO’S, and while lighting it.
(A lighted torch in the hand
Is no unpleasant object here — one’s breath
Floats round the flame, and makes as many colours 25
As the thin clouds that travel near the moon.)
You see that cranny there?
Osorio. Well, what of that?