Collected Works (Vol. I)

THE MOTHER’S TRAGEDY.* 1899. SCENE.—The room is furnished with comfort’ as well as luxury. A crucifix is in the window to the East, and the room is flooded wrth a ray of sunlight. CORA VAVASOUR (late of the Halls). ULRIC, cllegitimate son of CORA, ignorant of his parentage. MADELINE, girl in love with ULRIC. THE SPIRIT OF TRAGEDY, as Chorus, sits in the back, crouched, brooding over the scene. It ts veiled and throned. SPIRIT OF TRAGEDY. HERE, in the home of a friend, Here, in the mist of a lie, The pageant moves on to the desolate end Under a sultry sky. Noon is upon us, and Night, Spreading her wings unto flight, Visits the lands that lie far in the West, Where the bright East is at peace on her breast : Opposite quarters unite. Soon is the nightfall of Destiny here ; Nature’s must pass as her hour is gone by. Only another than she is too near, Gloom in the sky. One who can never pass over shall sever Links that were forged of Love’s hand ; Love that was strong die away as a song, Melt as a cable of sand. But I am watching, with unwearied eye, The wayfare of the tragedy. I see the brightness of the home ; I see The grisly phantom of despair to be. I see the miserable past redeemed, , (Intolerable as its purpose seemed,) Redeemed by love: I see the jealous days Pass into sunshine, and youth-beaming rays Quicken the soul’s elixir. Let me show Tow these air-castles tumble into woe. [Aazses sceptre as tf to start action of play. Cora. Why did your eyelids quiver as I spoke? A smile, a tear? that trembling, in their deep Violet passion, of the beautiful Eyes that they half discover? me. I have long thought a secret was your spouse, Shared your deep fancies and your lightest word, Partook your maiden bed, and gave you dreams Somewhat too troublous to be virginal. Speak to MADELINE. My dear kind Cora, do they lie to you, These fancies of my idle hours? Lelieve, I seem to tremble at my inward thought ; My heart is full of wonder. When I go Nightward beneath the moon, and take my thoughts Past her pale beauty through some glowing skies * The justification of this play, both in subject and construction, is to be found in the Introduction to the ‘‘Ilon” of Euripides. [Verrall, Camb. Univ. Press, 1890.] The chief of its many morals is that sin must reap its harvest in spite of repentance, prayer, and the other dodges by which men seek to elude Fate. 154