THE FIGURE. Not know thyself?
This is thy most faithful portrait;
I, alas! am Luis Enius.
[Disappears.*
[footnote] *The interview between Luis Enius and the Skeleton, says a recent writer, "is a scene truly Calderonic — the hour, the place, the intended assassin, and the sudden reflection of himself, with his guilty conscience impersonate before him; it reminds us of that wild fable of Jeremy Taylor or Fuller, about the bird with a human face, that feeds on human flesh until it chances to see its reflection in a stream, and then it pines away for grief that it has killed its fellow." — WESTMINSTER REVIEW, vol. liv. p. 306.
LUIS. Save me, heaven! what words of horror!
Save me, heaven! what sight of woe!
Prey of shadows and misfortunes.
Ah, I die.
[He falls on the ground.
* * * * *
SCENE V.
PAUL. — LUIS.
PAUL. It is the voice
Of my master. Succour cometh
Opportunely now in me.
Sir!
LUIS. Ah! why return, dread monster?
I am overwhelmed, I faint here
At your voice.
PAUL [aside]. God help his noddle!
He's gone mad! — Dread monster? No,
[Aloud.
I am Juan Paul, that donkey
Who, not knowing why or wherefore,
Is your servant.
LUIS. Ah! good, honest
Paul, I knew you not, so frightened
Am I. But at that why wonder,
If myself I do not know?
Did you see a fearful corse here,
A dead body with a soul,
An apparent man supported
By his skeleton alone,
Bones from which the flesh had rotted,
Fingers rigid, gaunt, and cold,
Naked trunk, uncouth, abhorrent,
Vacant spaces whence the eyes,
Having fallen, left bare the sockets?—
Whither has he gone?