No More Learning

(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.

Count
Living examples offer greater powers;
A prince learns badly from bookish hours.
What after all do your great years portray
That's not matched by me in a single day?
If you were valiant once, so am I now,
My arm the kingdom's strong support, allow,
Granada and Aragon fear my sword;
My name's Castile's rampart, in a word:
Without me you'd soon bow to other laws,
And your kings be those from other shores.
Each day, each moment, to increase my glory,
Laurels heap on laurels, victory on victory:
The prince, at my side, might test his mettle
Protected by my arm, in every battle;
He would learn to conquer by watching me;
And matching his great character, swiftly
He would see. . .

Diegue
I know you truly serve your king.
I have seen you command: your soldiering:
While age sends ice coursing through my veins,
Your rare courage has secured our gains;
Well, to cut short superfluous discourse,
You are today what I was once, perforce.
Yet nonetheless you see, by this occurrence,
The king between us still detects some difference.

Count
All I merited, you have snatched away.

Diegue
He conquered who proved better on the day.

Count
He who might train the prince is worthiest.

Diegue
And yet to be denied seems scarcely best.

Count
You won it by intrigue, an old 'king's man'.