style="font-size:15px;"> Why should I hate thee? this same world of ours,‘Tis but a pool amid a storm of rain,
And we the air-bladders that course up and down,
And joust and tilt in merry tournament;
And when one bubble runs foul of another, 115
The weaker needs must break.
Alvar. I see thy heart!
There is a frightful glitter in thine eye
Which doth betray thee. Inly-tortured man,
This is the revelry of a drunken anguish,
Which fain would scoff away the pang of guilt, 120
And quell each human feeling.
Ordonio. Feeling! feeling!
The death of a man — the breaking of a bubble —
‘Tis true I cannot sob for such misfortunes;
But faintness, cold and hunger — curses on me
If willingly I e’er inflicted them! 125
Come, take the beverage; this chill place demands it.
[ORDONIO proffers the goblet.
Alvar. Yon insect on the wall,
Which moves this way and that its hundred limbs,
Were it a toy of mere mechanic craft,
It were an infinitely curious thing! 130
But it has life, Ordonio! life, enjoyment!
And by the power of its miraculous will
Wields all the complex movements of its frame
Unerringly to pleasurable ends!
Saw I that insect on this goblet’s brim 135
I would remove it with an anxious pity!
Ordonio. What meanest thou?
Alvar. There’s poison in the wine.
Ordonio. Thou hast guessed right; there’s poison in the wine.
There’s poison in’t — which of us two shall drink it?
For one of us must die!
Alvar. Whom dost thou think me? 140
Ordonio. The accomplice and sworn friend of Isidore.
Alvar. I know him not.
And yet methinks, I have heard the name but lately.
Means he the husband of the Moorish woman?
Isidore? Isidore? 145
Ordonio. Good! good! that lie! by heaven it has restored me.
Now I am thy master! — Villain! thou shalt drink it,
Or die a bitterer death.
Alvar. What strange solution
Hast thou found out to satisfy thy fears,
And drug them to unnatural sleep?
[ALVAR takes the goblet, and throws it to the ground.
My master! 150
Ordonio. Thou mountebank!
Alvar. Mountebank and villain!
What then art thou? For shame, put up thy sword!
What boots a weapon in a withered arm?
I fix mine eye upon thee, and thou tremblest!
I speak, and fear and wonder crush thy rage, 155
And turn it to a motionless distraction!
Thou blind self-worshipper! thy pride, thy cunning,
Thy faith in universal villainy,
Thy shallow sophisms, thy pretended scorn
For all thy human brethren — out upon them! 160
What have they done for thee? have they given thee peace?
Cured thee of starting in thy sleep? or made
The darkness pleasant when thou wak’st at midnight?
Art happy when alone? Can’st walk by thyself
With even step and quiet cheerfulness? 165
Yet, yet thou may’st be saved ——
Ordonio. Saved? saved?
Alvar. One pang!
Could I call up one pang of true remorse!
Ordonio. He told me of the babes that prattled to him.
His fatherless little ones! remorse! remorse!
Where got’st thou that fool’s word? Curse on remorse! 170
Can it give up the dead, or recompact
A mangled body? mangled — dashed to atoms!
Not all the blessings of a host of angels
Can blow away a desolate widow’s curse!
And though thou spill thy heart’s blood for atonement, 175
It will not weigh against an orphan’s tear!
Alvar. But Alvar ——
Ordonio. Ha! it chokes thee in the throat,
Even thee; and yet I pray thee speak it out.
Still Alvar! — Alvar! — howl it in mine ear!
Heap it like coals of fire upon my heart, 180
And shoot it hissing through my brain!
Alvar. Alas!
That day when thou didst leap from off the rock
Into the waves, and grasped thy sinking brother,
And bore him to the strand; then, son of Valdez,
How sweet and musical the name of Alvar! 185
Then, then, Ordonio, he was dear to thee,
And thou wert dear to him: heaven only knows
