"Tempt the lake's dark wave"

Dublin Core

Title

"Tempt the lake's dark wave"

Subject

Theatre--Seventeenth Century--Pedro Calderón de la Barca--Saint Patrick's Purgatory

Description

Luis approaches Purgatory and meets Polonia

Creator

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, 1600-1681

Source

Barca, Pedro Calderón de la, The Purgatory of St. Patrick, trans. by Denis Florence MacCarthy, Act III, Scene VII

Publisher

Henry S. King & Co., London

Date

1873

Contributor

Digitised for Project Gutenberg

Rights

Public domain

Format

Collected Plays

Language

Spanish (English trans.)

Type

Play
Text

Identifier

DD_0061

Coverage

54.6153, -7.8864

References

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6371

Text Item Type Metadata

Text

"SCENE VII.
LUIS. — POLONIA.

LUIS [aside]. True to my purpose on I go,
With footsteps firm and bosom brave,
Seeking for that mysterious cave
Wherein the pitying heavens will show
How I salvation there may gain,
By bearing in this life the Purgatorial pain.
[To POLONIA.]
Tell me, O holy woman! thou
Who in these wilds a home hast found,
A dweller in this mountain ground
Obedient to some sacred vow,
Which is the road to Patrick's cave,
Where penitential man his soul in life may save?

POLONIA. O, happy traveller! who here
Hast come so far in storm and shine,
Within this treasury divine
To feel and find salvation near,
Well can I guide thee on thy way,
Since 'tis for this alone amid these wilds I stray.

Seest thou this mountain?

LUIS. Ah! I see
My death in it.

POLONIA [aside]. My heart grows cold.
Ah! who is this that I behold?

LUIS [aside]. I cannot think it. Is it she?

POLONIA [aside]. 'Tis Luis, now I know.

LUIS [aside]. Perhaps illusion it may be
To baffle my intent, and lead
My erring feet astray. — [to POLONIA}. Proceed.

POLONIA [aside]. Say, can it be to conquer me
The common enemy doth send
This spectre here?

LUIS. You do not speak.

POLONIA. Attend.
This mighty mountain, rock bestrown,
Full well the dreaded secret knows;
But no one to its centre goes
By any path o'er land alone:
He who would see this wondrous cave
Must in a bark put forth and tempt the lake's dark wave.

[Aside.] I struggle with a wish to wreak
Revenge, which pity doth subdue.

LUIS [aside]. It doth my happiness renew
Once more to see and hear her speak.

POLONIA [aside]. Within me opposite thoughts contend.

LUIS [aside]. Ah, me! I die. — You do not speak.

POLONIA. Attend.
This darksome lake doth all surround
The lofty mountain's rugged base,
And so to reach the awful place
An easy passage may be found:
A sacred convent in the island stands,
Midway between the mountain and the sands.

Some pious priests inhabit there,
And for this task alone they live,
With loving zeal to freely give
The helping hand, the strengthening prayer —
Confession, and the Holy Mass,
And every needful help to all who thither pass.

Telling them what they first must do,
Before they dare presume to go,
Alive, within the realm of woe.—
[Aside.] Let not this enemy subdue
My soul, O Lord!" (Act III, Scene VII)

Original Format

Monograph

Collection

Citation

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, 1600-1681, “"Tempt the lake's dark wave",” Digital Derg: A Deep Map, accessed March 28, 2024, https://digitalderg.eu/items/show/61.

Geolocation