_
DONA SOL (_to her guardian_): Why do you desire
To kill my husband?
DONA SOL (_to her guardian_): Why do you desire
To kill my husband?
World's Greatest Books - Volume 17 - Poetry and Drama
[_The horn sounds again. _
HERNANI: He wants my blood! I cannot!
[DON RUY GOMEZ _enters, playing on the horn like a madman. _
DON RUY GOMEZ: So you have not kept your word.
"My life belongs to you. At any time
You wish to take it, sound upon this horn
And I will kill myself. " You are forsworn!
HERNANI: I have no weapon on me.
DON RUY GOMEZ (_offering a dagger and a phial_):
Which of these
Do you prefer?
HERNANI: The poison.
DONA SOL: Are you mad?
HERNANI: He saved my life at Aragon. I gave
My word of honour I would kill myself
When he desired.
[_He raises the phial to his lips, but his wife wrests it
from him.
_
DONA SOL (_to her guardian_): Why do you desire
To kill my husband?
DON RUY GOMEZ: I have sworn no man
Shall marry you but me. I keep my oath!
[_With a wild gesture_ DONA SOL _drinks half of the
poison, and hands_ HERNANI _the rest. _
DONA SOL: You are two cruel men. Drink, Hernani,
And let us go to sleep!
HERNANI (_emptying the phial_): Kiss me, my sweet.
It is our bridal night.
DONA SOL (_falling beside him on the ground_): Fold me, my love,
Close in your arms. [_They die. _
DON RUY GOMEZ: Oh, I am a lost soul!
[_He kills himself. _
FOOTNOTES:
[I] Victor Hugo (see Vol. V, p. 122) occupies an anomalous
position among the great dramatists of the world. He is really a poet
with a splendid lyrical inspiration; but he combines this in his plays
with an acquired but effective talent for stage-craft.
