With Carolostadius) —and returning sought I remember. Here's a case, now, Will teach you why I answer not, but burn The books you mention. Pray, does Luther dream His arguments convince by their own force The crowds that own his doctrine? His plain denial of established points Ages had sanctified and men supposed No, indeed! Could never be oppugned while earth was under 969 And heaven above them — points which chance or time Affected not I did more than the array - Of argument which followed. Boldly deny! There is much breath-stopping, hair-stiffening Festus. 980 'Tis a wondrous soul! Paracelsus. True: the so-heavy chain which galled mankind Is shattered, and the noblest of us all Must bow to the deliverer - nay, the worker Of our own project we who long before Had burst our trammels, but forgot the crowd, We should have taught, still groaned beneath their load: This he has done and nobly. Speed that may ! Whatever be my chance or my mischance, 990 And men seem made, though not as I believed, Paracelsus. Within the trees; the embers too are gray : Morn must be near. Festus. 'Tis the melancholy wind astir Best ope the casement: see, The night, late strewn with clouds and flying stars, Is blank and motionless: how peaceful sleep The tree-tops altogether! Like an asp, 1001 The wind slips whispering from bough to bough. Paracelsus. Ay; you would gaze on a wind. shaken tree By the hour, nor count time lost. Festus. Those happy times will come again. Paracelsus. So you shall gaze: Gone, gone, Those pleasant times! Does not the moaning wind Seem to bewail that we have gained such gains And bartered sleep for them? Festus. It is our trust 1010 That there is yet another world to mend Paracelsus. Another world! And why this world, this common world, to be Through his corporeal baseness, warrant him In a supreme contempt of all provision Love, hope, fear, faith these make humanity; 1020 1029 And these I have lost! gone, shut from me forever, See, morn at length. The heavy darkness seems The shrubs bestir and rouse themselves as if But clouded, wintry, desolate and cold. Yet see how that broad prickly star-shaped plant, 1039 And we have spent all night in talk like this! One favor, Festus. 1050 To hope and trust again, and strive again, SCENE. IV. - PARACELSUS ASPIRES. Colmar in Alsatia: an Inn. 1528. Paracelsus [to JOHANNES OPORINUS, his Secretary] Is scandalized, and poor Torinus paralyzed, I' the shut heart of a bud. Pledge me, good John "Basil; a hot plague ravage it, and Pütter 10 Oppose the plague !' Even so? Do you too share Their panic, the reptiles? Ha, ha; faint through these, Desist for these! They manage matters so To bring the stoutest braggart of the tribe Once more to crouch in silence A stupid wonder in each fool again, means to breed 20 Now big with admiration at the skill Which stript a vain pretender of his plumes: And, that done, means to brand each slavish brow So deeply, surely, ineffaceably, That henceforth flattery shall not pucker it Out of the furrow; there that stamp shall stay To show the next they fawn on, what they are, 30 This night; we'll weather the storm at least: to morrow For Nuremberg! Now leave us ; this grave clerk Has divers weighty matters for my ear: 40 [OPORINUS goes out. And spare my lungs. At last, my gallant Festus, I am rid of this arch-knave that dogs my heels As a gaunt crow a gasping sheep; at last May give a loose to my delight. How kind, How very kind, my first best only friend! Why, this looks like fidelity. Embrace me! Not a hair silvered yet? Right! you shall live Till I am worth your love; you shall be proud, And I but let time show! Did you not wonder? I sent to you because our compact weighed Upon my conscience (you recall the night. At Basil, which the gods confound !) because Once more I aspire. I call you to my side: Festus. So strange |