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Witch, Warlock, and Magician. W. H. Davenport AdamsЧитать онлайн книгу.

Witch, Warlock, and Magician - W. H. Davenport Adams


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href="#ulink_f81dee32-9ffc-517f-b8c3-4e53437ac86e">9 night. Now, Miles, in thee rests Friar Bacon’s weal: The honour and renown of all his life Hangs in the watching of this Brazen Head; Therefore I charge thee by the immortal God That holds the souls of men within his fist, This night thou watch; for ere the morning star Sends out his glorious glister on the north The Head will speak. Then, Miles, upon thy life Wake me; for then by magic art I’ll work To end my seven years’ task with excellence. If that a wink but shut thy watchful eye, Then farewell Bacon’s glory and his fame! Draw close the curtains, Miles: now, for thy life, Be watchful, and ... (Falls asleep.)

      The Brazen Head (speaks). Time is.

      The Brazen Head (loquitur). Time was.

      Bacon. Miles, I come. (Rises and comes forward.) O, passing warily watched! Bacon will make thee next himself in love. When spake the Head?

      Miles. When spake the Head? Did you not say that he should tell strange principles of philosophy? Why, sir, it speaks but two words at a time.

      Bacon. Why, villain, hath it spoken oft?

      Miles. Oft! ay, marry hath it, thrice; but in all those three times it hath uttered but seven words.

      Bacon. As how?

      Bacon. ’Tis past, indeed. Ah, villain! Time is past;

       My life, my fame, my glory, are all past.

       Bacon,

       The turrets of thy hope are ruined down,

       Thy seven years’ study lieth in the dust:

       Thy Brazen Head lies broken through a slave

       That watched, and would not when the Head did will.

       What said the Head first?

      Miles. Even, sir, ‘Time is.’

      Bacon. Villain, if thou hadst called to Bacon then,

       If thou hadst watched, and waked the sleepy friar,

       The Brazen Head had uttered aphorisms,

       And England had been circled round with brass:

      Miles. Why, then, sir, you forbid me your service?

      Bacon. My service, villain, with a fatal curse,

       That direful plagues and mischief fall on thee.

      Bacon. Some fiend or ghost haunt on thy weary steps,

       Until they do transport thee quick to Hell!

       For Bacon shall have never any day,

       To lose the fame and honour of his Head.

      (Exeunt.

      Scene XII. passes in King Henry’s Court, and the royal consent is given to Earl Lacy’s marriage with the Fair Maid, which is fixed to take place on the same day as Prince Edward’s marriage to the Princess Elinor. In Scene XIII. we again go back to Bacon’s cell. The friar is bewailing the destruction of his Brazen Head to Friar Bungay, when two young gentlemen, named Lambert and Sealsby, enter, in order to look into the ‘glass prospective,’ and see how their fathers are faring. Unhappily, at this very moment, the elder Lambert and Sealsby, having quarrelled, are engaged ‘in combat hard by Fressingfield,’ and stab each other to the death, whereupon their sons immediately come to blows, with a like fatal result. Bacon, deeply affected, breaks the magic crystal which has been the unwitting cause of so sad a catastrophe, expresses his regret that he ever dabbled in the unholy science, and announces his resolve to spend the remainder of his life ‘in pure devotion.’

      At Fressingfield, in Scene XIV., the opportune arrival of Lacy and his friends prevents Margaret from carrying out her intention of retiring to the nunnery at Framlingham, and with obliging readiness she consents to marry the Earl. Scene XV. shifts to Bacon’s cell, where a devil complains that the friar hath raised him from the darkest deep to search about the world for Miles, his man, and torment him in punishment for his neglect of orders.

      Miles makes his appearance, and after some comic dialogue, intended to tickle the ears of the groundlings, mounts astride the demon’s back, and goes off to ——! In Scene XVI., and last, we return to the Court, where royalty makes a splendid show, and the two brides—the Princess Elinor and the Countess Margaret—display their rival charms. Of course the redoubtable friar


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