The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Illustrated Edition). Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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And yet another groan, which guided me

       Into a strange recess — and there was light,

       A hideous light! his torch lay on the ground;

       Its flame burnt dimly o’er a chasm’s brink:

       I spake; and whilst I spake, a feeble groan 75

       Came from that chasm! it was his last! his death-groan!

      Naomi. Comfort her, Alla!

      Alhadra. I stood in unimaginable trance

       And agony that cannot be remembered,

       Listening with horrid hope to hear a groan! 80

       But I had heard his last: my husband’s death-groan!

      Naomi. Haste! let us onward.

      Alhadra. I looked far down the pit —

       My sight was bounded by a jutting fragment:

       And it was stained with blood. Then first I shrieked,

       My eyeballs burnt, my brain grew hot as fire, 85

       And all the hanging drops of the wet roof

       Turned into blood — I saw them turn to blood!

       And I was leaping wildly down the chasm,

       When on the farther brink I saw his sword,

       And it said, Vengeance! — Curses on my tongue! 90

       The moon hath moved in Heaven, and I am here,

       And he hath not had vengeance! Isidore!

       Spirit of Isidore! thy murderer lives!

       Away! away!

      All. Away! away!

      [She rushes off, all following her.

      [Before 25]

      The mountains by moonlight. ALHADRA alone in a Moorish dress; her eye

       fixed on the earth. Then drop in one after another, from different parts

       of the stage, a considerable number of Morescoes, all in Moorish

       garments. They form a circle at a distance round ALHADRA.

      A Moresco, NAOMI, advances from out the circle.

      Naomi. Woman! may Alla, &c.

      Edition 1.

      Stage-direction after 24 [She fixes … and remain silent till the

       Second in Command, NAOMI, enters, distinguished by his dress and armour,

       and by the silent obeisance paid to him on his entrance by the other

       Moors. Editions 2, 3, 1829.

      [Before 28] Alhadra (lifting up eyes, and looking, &c.). Edition 1.

      ‘Twas dark and very silent. [Then wildly.

      Editions 1, 2, 3, 1829.

      [After 77] All. Haste, let us seek the murderer. Edition 1.

       Table of Contents

       Table of Contents

      A Dungeon.

      ALVAR (alone) rises slowly from a bed of reeds.

      Alvar. And this place my forefathers made for man!

       This is the process of our love and wisdom

       To each poor brother who offends against us —

       Most innocent, perhaps — and what if guilty?

       Is this the only cure? Merciful God! 5

       Each pore and natural outlet shrivelled up

       By ignorance and parching poverty,

       His energies roll back upon his heart,

       And stagnate and corrupt, till, chang’d to poison,

       They break out on him, like a loathsome plague-spot! 10

       Then we call in our pampered mountebanks:

       And this is their best cure! uncomforted

       And friendless solitude, groaning and tears,

       And savage faces, at the clanking hour,

       Seen through the steam and vapours of his dungeon 15

       By the lamp’s dismal twilight! So he lies

       Circled with evil, till his very soul

       Unmoulds its essence, hopelessly deformed

       By sights of evermore deformity!

       With other ministrations thou, O Nature! 20

       Healest thy wandering and distempered child:

       Thou pourest on him thy soft influences,

       Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets;

       Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters!

       Till he relent, and can no more endure 25

       To be a jarring and a dissonant thing

       Amid this general dance and minstrelsy;

       But, bursting into tears, wins back his way,

       His angry spirit healed and harmonized

       By the benignant touch of love and beauty. 30

      I am chill and weary! Yon rude bench of stone,

       In that dark angle, the sole resting-place!

       But the self-approving mind is its own light

       And life’s best warmth still radiates from the heart

       Where love sits brooding, and an honest purpose. 35

      [Retires out of sight.

      Enter TERESA with a taper.

      Teresa. It has chilled my very life —— my own voice scares me;

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