GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.

Vol. XXI. November, 1842 No. 5.

Contents

[Transcriber’s Notes] can be found at the end of this eBook.

GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.

Vol. XXI. PHILADELPHIA: NOVEMBER, 1842. No. 5.

THE SPANISH STUDENT.

———

BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.

———

What’s done we partly may compute,

But know not what’s resisted.

Burns.

(Concluded from page 180.)

ACT THE THIRD.

Scene I.—A cross-road through a woodland. In the back ground a distant village spire. Evening. Victorian as a traveling student; a guitar slung under his arm.

Vic. I will forget thee! All dear recollections

Pressed in my heart, like flowers within a book,

Shall be torn out and scattered to the winds!

I will forget thee! but perhaps hereafter,

When thou shalt learn how heartless is the world,

A voice within thee will repeat my name,

And thou wilt say, “He was indeed my friend!”

(Enter Hypolito, dressed like Victorian.)

Hyp. Still dreaming of the absent?

Vic. Aye, still dreaming.

Oh, would I were a soldier, not a scholar,

That the loud march, the deafening beat of drums,

The shattering blast of the brass-throated trumpet,

The din of arms, the onslaught and the storm,

And a swift death, might make me deaf forever

To the upbraidings of this foolish heart!

Hyp. Then let that foolish heart upbraid no more!

To conquer love, one need but will to conquer.

Thou art too young, too full of lusty health

To talk of dying.

Vic. Yet I fain would die!

To go through life, unloving and unloved;

To feel that thirst and hunger of the soul

We cannot still; that longing, that wild impulse,

And struggle after something we have not

And cannot have; the effort to be strong;

And, like the Spartan boy, to smile and smile

While secret wounds do bleed beneath our cloaks:

All this the dead feel not—the dead alone!

I envy them because they are at rest!

Would I were with them!

Hyp. Thou wilt be soon.

Vic. It cannot be too soon. My happiest day

Will be that of my death. O, I am weary

Of the bewildering masquerade of Life,

Where strangers walk as friends, and friends as strangers;

Where whispers overheard betray false hearts;

And through the mazes of the crowd we chase

Some form of loveliness, that smiles, and beckons,

And cheats us with fair words, only to leave us

A mockery and a jest; maddened—confused⁠—

Not knowing friend from foe.

Hyp. Why seek to know?

Enjoy the merry shrove-tide of thy youth!

Take each fair mask for what it gives itself!

Strive not to look beneath it.

Vic. O, too often,

Too often have I been deceived! The world

Has lost its bright illusions. One by one

The masks have gone; the lights burnt out; the music

Dropped into silence, and I stand alone

In the dark halls, and hear no sound of life

Save the monotonous beating of my heart!

Would that had ceased to beat!

Hyp. If thou couldst do it,

Wouldst thou lie down to sleep and wake no more?

Vic. Indeed would I: as quietly as a child:

As willingly as the tired artisan

Lays by his tools and stretches him to sleep.

Hyp. So would not I. Too many pleasant visions

Hover before me; phantoms of delight

Beckon me on, and wave their golden wings,

Making the Future radiant with their smiles.

Vic. Would it were so with me! For I behold

Nothing but shadows; and the Future stands

Before me like a wall of adamant

I cannot climb.

Hyp. And right above it gleams

A glorious star. Be patient—trust thy star.

(Sound of a village bell in the distance.)

Vic. Ave Maria! I hear the sacristan

Ringing the chimes from yonder village belfry!

A solemn sound that echoes far and wide

Over the red roofs of the cottages,

And bids the laboring hind a-field, the shepherd,

Guarding his flock, the lonely muleteer,

And all the crowd in village streets stand still,

And breathe a prayer unto the Blessed Virgin!

Hyp. Amen! amen! Not half a league from hence

The village lies.

Vic. This path will lead us to it,

Over the wheat fields, where the shadows sail

Across the running sea, now green, now blue,

And like an idle mariner on the main

Whistles the quail. Come, let us hasten on. [Exeunt.

Scene II.—The public square of El Pardillo. The Ave Maria still tolling. A crowd of villagers, with their hats in their hands, as if in prayer. In front a group of Gipsies. The bell rings a merrier peel. A Gipsy dance. Enter Pancho, followed by Pedro Crespo.

Pan. Make room, ye vagabonds and gipsy thieves!

Make room for the Alcalde of Pardillo!

P. Cres. Keep silence all! I have an edict here

From our most gracious lord, the King of Spain,

Which I shall publish in the market-place.

Open your ears and listen!

(Enter Padre Cura at the door of his cottage.)

Padre Cura,

Good day! and pray you hear this paper read.

P. Cura. Good day, and God be with you! What is this?

P. Crespo. An act of banishment against the gipsies!

(Agitation and murmurs in the crowd.)

Pancho. Silence!

P. Crespo. (reads.) “I hereby order and command,

That the Egyptian and Chaldean strangers,

Known by the name of gipsies, shall henceforth

Be banished from our realm, as vagabonds

And beggars; and if after seventy days

Any be found within our kingdom’s bounds,

They shall receive a hundred lashes each;

The second time, shall have their ears cut off;

The third, be slaves for life to him who takes them;

Or burnt as heretics. Signed, I the King.”

Vile miscreants and creatures unbaptized!

You hear the law! Obey and disappear!

Pancho. And if in seventy days you are not gone,

Dead or alive I make you all my slaves.

(The gipsies go out in confusion, showing signs of fear

and discontent. Pancho follows.)

P. Cura. A righteous law! A very righteous law!

Pray you sit down.

P. Crespo. I thank you heartily.

(They seat themselves on a bench at the Padre Cura’s door. Sound of guitars and voices heard at a distance, approaching during the dialogue which follows.)

A very righteous judgment, as you say.

Now tell me, Padre Cura—you know all things⁠—

How came these gipsies into Spain?

P. Cura. Why, look you,

They came with Hercules from Palestine,

And hence are thieves and vagrants, Sir Alcalde,

As the Simoniacs from Simon Magus.

And, look you, as Fray Jayme Bleda says,

There are a hundred marks to prove a Moor

Is not a Christian, so ’tis with the gipsies.

They never marry, never go to mass,

Never baptize their children, nor keep Lent,

Nor see the inside of a church—nor—nor⁠—

P. Crespo. Good reasons, good, substantial reasons all!

No matter for the other ninety-five.

They should be burnt, I see it plain enough,

They should be burnt.

(Enter Victorian and Hypolito playing.)

P. Cura. And pray, whom have we here?

P. Crespo. More vagrants! By Saint Lazarus, more vagrants!

Hyp. Good evening, gentlemen. Is this El Pardillo?

P. Cura. Yes, El Pardillo, and good evening to you.

Hyp. We seek the Padre Cura of the village;

And judging from your dress and reverend mien

You must be he.

P. Cura. I am. Pray what’s your pleasure?

Hyp. We are poor students, traveling in vacation.

You know this mark? (Touching the wooden spoon in his hat-band.)

P. Crespo. (aside.) Soup-eaters! by the mass!

The very worst of vagrants, worse than gipsies,

But there’s no law against them. Sir, your servant. [Exit.

P. Cura. (jovially.) Aye, know it, and have worn it.

Hyp. Padre Cura,

From the first moment I beheld your face,

I said within myself, This is the man!

There is a certain something in your looks,

A certain scholar-like and studious something⁠—

You understand—which cannot be mistaken;

Which marks you as a very learned man,

In fine, as one of us.

Vic. (aside.) What impudence!

Hyp. As we approached, I said to my companion,

That is the Padre Cura; mark my words!

Meaning your grace. The other man, said I,

Who sits so awkwardly upon the bench,

Must be the sacristan.

P. Cura. Ah! said you so?

Ha! ha! ’Twas Pedro Crespo, the alcalde!

Hyp. Indeed! why, you astonish me! His air

Was not so full of dignity and grace

As an alcalde’s should be.

P. Cura. That is true.

He’s out of humor with some vagrant gipsies,

That have their camp here in the neighborhood.

There’s nothing so undignified as anger.

Hyp. The Padre Cura will excuse our boldness,

If from his well-known hospitality

We crave a lodging for the night.

P. Cura. I pray you!

You do me honor! I am but too happy

To have such guests beneath my humble roof.

It is not often that I have occasion

To speak with scholars; and Emollit mores,

Nec sinit esse feros, Cicero says.

Hyp. ’Tis Ovid, is it not?

P. Cura. No, Cicero.

Hyp. Your grace is right. You are the better scholar.

Now what a dunce was I to say ’twas Ovid.

But hang me if it is not! (Aside.)

P. Cura. Pass this way.

He was a very great man, was Cicero!

Pray you, go in, go in! no ceremony. [Exeunt.

Scene III.—A room in the Padre Cura’s house. Enter the Padre and Hypolito.

P. Cura. So then, Señor, you come from Alcalá.

I’m glad to hear it. It was there I studied.

Hyp. And left behind an honored name, no doubt.

How may I call your grace?

P. Cura. Gerónimo

De Santillana; at your honor’s service.

Hyp. Descended from the Marquis Santillana?

From the distinguished poet?

P. Cura. From the marquis,

Not from the poet.

Hyp. Why, they were the same.

Let me embrace you! O some lucky star

Has brought me hither! Yet once more—once more.

(Embraces him violently.)

Your name is ever green in Alcalá,

And our professor, when we are unruly,

Will shake his hoary head, and say; Alas!

It was not so in Santillana’s time!

P. Cura. I did not think my name remember’d there.

Hyp. More than remember’d; it is idolized.

P. Cura. Of what professor speak you?

Hyp. Timoneda.

P. Cura. I don’t remember any Timoneda.

Hyp. A grave and sombre man, whose beetling brow

O’erhangs the rushing current of his speech

As rocks o’er rivers hang. Have you forgotten?

P. Cura. Indeed, I have. O those were pleasant days,

Those college days! I ne’er shall see the like!

I had not buried then so many hopes!

I had not buried then so many friends!

I’ve turn’d my back on what was then before me;

And the bright faces of my young companions

Are wrinkled like mine own, or are no more.

Do you remember Cueva?

Hyp. Cueva? Cueva?

P. Cura. Fool that I am! He was before your time.

You are mere boys, and I am an old man.

Hyp. I should not like to try my strength with you.

P. Cura. Well, well. But I forget; you must be hungry.

Martina! ho! Martina! ’Tis my niece;

A daughter of my sister. What! Martina!

(Enter Martina.)

Hyp. You may be proud of such a niece as that.

I wish I had a niece. Emollit mores! (Aside.)

He was a very great man, was Cicero!

Your servant, fair Martina.

Mar. Servant, sir.

P. Cura. This gentleman is hungry. See thou to it.

Let us have supper.

Mar. ’Twill be ready soon.

P. Cura. And bring a bottle of my Val-de-Peñas

Out of the cellar. Stay; I’ll go myself.

Pray you, Señor, excuse me. [Exit.

Hyp. (beckoning off.) Hist! Martina!

One word with you. Bless me! what handsome eyes!

To-day there have been gipsies in the village.

Is it not so?

Mar. There have been gipsies here.

Hyp. Yes, and they told your fortune.

Mar. (embarrassed.) Told my fortune?

Hyp. Yes, yes; I know they did. Give me your hand.

I’ll tell you what they said. They said—they said,

The shepherd boy that loved you was a clown,

And him you should not marry. Was it not?

Mar. (surprised.) How know you that?

Hyp. O I know more than that.

What a soft little hand! And then they said

A cavalier from court, handsome and tall,

And rich, should come one day to marry you.

And you should be a lady. Was it not?

Mar. (withdrawing her hand.) How know you that?

Hyp. O I know more than that.

He has arrived, the handsome cavalier. (Tries to kiss her.

She runs off.)

(Enter Victorian, with a letter.)

Vic. The muleteer has come.

Hyp. So soon?

Vic. I found him

Sitting at supper by the tavern door,

And from a pitcher, that he held aloft

His whole arm’s length, drinking the blood-red wine.

Hyp. What news from court?

Vic. He brought this letter only. (Reads.)

O cursed perfidy! Why did I let

That lying tongue deceive me! Preciosa,