JUSTINA

Saw you

A man go

forth from my apartment now?

I scarce contain myself!

'Tis impossible; the doors

Which led to this apartment were all locked.

I dare

LIVIA (aside)

say it was Moscon whom she saw, For he was locked up in my room.

LISANDER

It must

Have been some image of thy fantasy.
Such melancholy as thou feedest is
Skilful in forming such in the vain air
Out of the motes and atoms of the day.

LIVIA

My master's in the right.

JUSTINA

Oh, would it were

Delusion; but I fear some greater ill.
I feel as if out of my bleeding bosom
My heart was torn in fragments; ay,

Some mortal spell is wrought against my frame;
So potent was the charm that, had not God
Shielded my humble innocence from wrong,
I should have sought my sorrow and my shame
With willing steps. — Livia, quick, bring my cloak,
For I must seek refuge from these extremes
Even in the temple of the highest God
Where secretly the faithful worship.

LIVIA

JUSTINA (putting on her cloak)

Here.

I

In this, as in a shroud of snow, may
Quench the consuming fire in which I burn,

Wasting away!

When I once see them safe out of the house
I shall breathe freely.

JUSTINA

So do I confide

In thy just favor, Heaven!

LISANDER

Let us go.

179 Where, Rossetti || Which, Mrs. Shelley, 1824.

JUSTINA

Thine is the cause, great God! turn for my sake, And for thine own, mercifully to me!

STANZAS FROM CALDERON'S CISMA DE INGLATERRA

TRANSLATED BY MEDWIN AND CORRECTED BY SHELLEY

I

HAST thou not seen, officious with delight,
Move through the illumined air about the flower
The Bee, that fears to drink its purple light,
Lest danger lurk within that Rose's bower?
Hast thou not marked the moth's enamoured flight
About the Taper's flame at evening hour,
Till kindle in that monumental fire

His sunflower wings their own funereal pyre?

II

My heart, its wishes trembling to unfold,

Thus round the Rose and Taper hovering came, And Passion's slave, Distrust, in ashes cold, Smothered awhile, but could not quench the flame,

Till Love, that grows by disappointment bold,
And Opportunity, had conquered Shame,
And like the Bee and Moth, in act to close,
I burned my wings, and settled on the Rose.”

Stanzas from Calderon's Cisma De Inglaterra. Published by Medwin, Life of Shelley, 1847, with Shelley's corrections in italics.

SCENES FROM THE FAUST OF GOETHE

SCENE I. PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN.

The Lord and the Host of Heaven. Enter three Archangels.

RAPHAEL

THE sun makes music as of old
Amid the rival spheres of Heaven,
On its predestined circle rolled

With thunder speed: the Angels even
Draw strength from gazing on its glance,
Though none its meaning fathom may;
The world's unwithered countenance
Is bright as at creation's day.

GABRIEL

And swift and swift, with rapid lightness,
The adorned Earth spins silently,
Alternating Elysian brightness

With deep and dreadful night; the sea
Foams in broad billows from the deep
Up to the rocks, and rocks and ocean,
Onward, with spheres which never sleep,
Are hurried in eternal motion.

MICHAEL

And tempests in contention roar
From land to sea, from sea to land;
And, raging, weave a chain of power,
Which girds the earth, as with a band.

Scenes from the Faust of Goethe. Published, Scene II. in The Liberal, No. 1, 1822, and entire, by Mrs. Shelley, 1824.

A flashing desolation there

Flames before the thunder's way; But thy servants, Lord, revere

The gentle changes of thy day.

CHORUS OF THE THREE

The Angels draw strength from thy glance,
Though no one comprehend thee may;
Thy world's unwithered countenance
Is bright as on creation's day.

Enter MEPHISTOPHELES

MEPHISTOPHELES

As thou, O Lord, once more art kind enough
To interest thyself in our affairs,

And ask, "How goes it with you there below?"

And as indulgently at other times

Thou tookest not my visits in ill part,

Thou seest me here once more among thy household.

Though I should scandalize this company,
You will excuse me if I do not talk

1-28:

RAPHAEL

The sun sounds, according to ancient custom,
In the song of emulation of his brother-spheres.
And its fore-written circle

Fulfils with a step of thunder.

Its countenance gives the Angels strength

Though no one can fathom it.

The incredible high works

Are excellent as at the first day.

GABRIEL

And swift, and inconceivably swift

The adornment of earth winds itself round,

And exchanges Paradise-clearness

With deep dreadful night.