No More Learning

I see, with pain, that love will now constrain
Me to sigh for that which I must disdain;
I feel my very soul is split in two.
Though my strength is great, my love is too.
This fatal marriage I both wish and fear:
I dare expect only imperfection here.
My honour and my love so fuel this plot,
I perish whether it takes place or not.

Leonor
Madame, there is nothing I can say,
Except that I'll sigh with you, if I may.
I have just blamed you, now I pity you.
Yet since this bittersweet ill your virtue
Combats, as it does its charm and power,
Repulsing the assault, rejecting the allure,
It will bring peace to your troubled mind.
Place your trust in it, and the aid of time,
Above all in Heaven, that will not see
Virtue endure for long such adversity.

Infanta
My sweetest hope's to lose all hope, I fear.

(Page enters)

Page
Madame, at your command, Chimene is here.

Infanta (to Leonor)
Go now, and greet her in the gallery.

Leonor
You wish to remain here in reverie?

Infanta
No, I merely wish, plagued by suffering,
To retrieve my calm, in meditating.
I will follow.

(Leonor and Page leave)

Just Heaven, whose help I need,
Put an end to the evil that possesses me,
Protect my tranquillity and my honour.
My good I seek in the good of another,
This marriage means so much to all three;
Make my soul strong, or complete it swiftly.
To join these lovers in its sacrament,
Is to break my chains and end my torment.
But I delay too long, let me seek Chimene,
And in welcoming her relieve my pain.


Act I Scene III (The Count, Don Diegue)

Count
So you carry the day, and the King's favour
Raises you to a rank that was due my honour:
You are tutor now to the Prince of Castile.

Diegue
The mark of honour he grants me must reveal
To all that he is just, and make known to all
That our past service escapes not his recall.

Count
Whatever power kings have, they are but human,
They can err as readily as other men.
His choice will prove to courtiers as in this
That there's but scant reward for present service.

Diegue
His choice disturbs you: speak not of it;
Favour may be its cause as well as merit,
We should respect a power so absolute,
By questioning nothing that a King may do.
To the honour he shows me, add another,
Let's join our houses, one to the other:
You have one daughter, I a single son;
Their marriage will make us more than one.
Grant us this grace, make him your son-in-law.

Count
Your brave boy aims higher than before;
And the new brilliance of your nobility
Must swell his heart with greater vanity.
Go on, Monsieur, and educate the prince;
Show him how best to govern a province,
Make the people tremble before the law
Fill the good with love, the bad with awe;
Join to these virtues that of a great captain:
Show him how to inure himself to pain,
In the labour of Mars to meet no equal,
Pass whole days and nights in the saddle,
Sleep while armed, or storm a citadel,
And through himself alone win the battle.
Instruct him by example, make him perfect,
Teaching through your own deeds, in effect.

Diegue
To instruct by example, courting envy,
Would simply be to read my history.
There, in a long series of fine actions,
He would see how men conquer nations,
Takes a position, organise an army.
And build their fame on each victory.