LINENOTES:
Before [1]
A wild and mountainous Country. Ordonio and Isidore are discovered, supposed at a little distance from Isidore's house.
Ord. Here we may stop: your house distinct in view,
Yet we secured from listeners.
Isid. Now indeed
My house! and it looks cheerful as the clusters
Basking in sunshine on yon vine-clad rock
That overbrows it! Patron! Friend! Preserver!
Thrice have you sav'd my life.
Remorse.
[[6]]
Had been my bed and pillow Remorse.
[[12]]
And how, my Lord, I pray you to name Remorse.
[[14]]
Stage-direction om. Remorse.
[[17]]
this world] mankind Remorse.
[[19]]
Stage-direction om. Remorse.
Between [24] and 26
Why you can utter with a solemn gesture
Oracular sentences of deep no-meaning
Remorse.
[[27-8]]
The words in square brackets are interpolated in MS. I. They are in their place, as here, in MSS. II, III, and in Remorse.
[[31]]
on] upon Remorse.
[[34-5]]
And such do love the marvellous too well
Not to believe it. We will wind up her fancy
Remorse.
Between [40] and 41
Isid. Will that be a sure sign?
Ord. Beyond suspicion.
Fondly caressing him, her favour'd lover,
(By some base spell he had bewitched her senses.)
She whisper'd such dark fears of me forsooth,
As made this heart pour gall into my veins,
And as she coyly bound it round his neck,
She made him promise silence; and now holds
The secret of the existence of this portrait
Known only to her lover and herself.
But I had traced her, stolen unnotic'd on them,
And unsuspected saw and heard the whole.
Remorse.
[[41]]
Isid. But now, &c. Remorse.
[[44-7]]
om. Remorse.
[[47]]
Isidore. Why—why, my lord! Remorse.
Between [50] and 53
Return'd, yourself, and she, and the honour of both
Must perish. Now though with no tenderer scruples
Than those which being native to the heart,
Than those, my lord, which merely being a man—
Remorse.
Stage-direction before [53] om. Remorse.
[[55-6]]
These doubts, these fears, thy whine, thy stammering—
Pish, fool! thou blund'rest through the book of guilt
Remorse.
After [63] Ord. Virtue—Remorse.
[[64]]
Isid. Tries to o'erreach me, &c. Remorse.
[[66]]
Stage-direction om. Remorse.
[[68]]
And those, the two Morescoes who were with you? Remorse.
[[75]]
Am not I a man? Remorse.
[[81]]
Stage-direction om. Remorse.
[[84]]
which] that Remorse.
[[93]]
his] its Remorse.
[[94]]
That woman is dishonoured Remorse.
[[98]]
him] his Remorse.
[[100]]
last] length Remorse.
[[103]]
Stage-direction om. Remorse.
[[104]]
He was his Maker's image undefac'd Remorse.
[[106]]
Stage-direction om. Remorse.
[[111]]
Stage-direction om. Remorse.
[[113]]
Stage-direction om. Remorse.
[[117]]
Isidore. You are disturb'd, my lord Remorse.
After [117] Ord. (starts). A gust, &c. Remorse.
[[121-3]]
Shame . . . dog om. Remorse.
Between [125] and 140.
Isidore. They'll know my gait: but stay! last night I watched
A stranger near the ruin in the wood,
Who as it seemed was gathering herbs and wild flowers.
I had followed him at distance, seen him scale
Its western wall, and by an easier entrance
Stole after him unnoticed. There I marked,
That mid the chequer work of light and shade,
With curious choice he plucked no other flowers,
But those on which the moonlight fell: and once
I heard him muttering o'er the plant. A wizard—
Some gaunt slave prowling here for dark employment.
Ordonio. Doubtless you question'd him?
Isidore. 'Twas my intention,
Having first traced him homeward to his haunt.
But lo! the stern Dominican, whose spies
Lurk everywhere, already (as it seemed)
Had given commission to his apt familiar
To seek and sound the Moor; who now returning,
Was by this trusty agent stopped midway.
I, dreading fresh suspicion if found near him
In that lone place, again concealed myself;
Yet within hearing. So the Moor was question'd,
And in your name, as lord of this domain,
Proudly he answered, 'Say to the Lord Ordonio,
Remorse.
[[143]]
robe] robes Remorse.
[[144]]
Stage-direction, a] the Remorse.
[[147]]
You cannot err. It is a small green dell Remorse.
Between [158] and 205:
Ordonio (in retiring stops suddenly at the edge of the scene, and then turning round to Isidore). Ha! Who lurks there! Have we been overheard?
There where the smooth high wall of slate-rock glitters——
Isidore. 'Neath those tall stones, which propping each the other,
Form a mock portal with their pointed arch?
Pardon my smiles! 'Tis a poor idiot boy,
Who sits in the sun, and twirls a bough about,
His weak eyes seeth'd in most unmeaning tears.
And so he sits, swaying his cone-like head,
And, staring at his bough from morn to sun-set,
See-saws his voice in inarticulate noises.
Ordonio. 'Tis well! and now for this same wizard's lair.
Isidore. Some three strides up the hill, a mountain ash
Stretches its lower boughs and scarlet clusters
O'er the old thatch.
Ordonio. I shall not fail to find it. [Exeunt Ordonio and Isidore.