I would not sleep! I love to be They pass and vanish quite away! Each circumstance of time and place, Rest! rest! O, give me rest and peace! A weight I am too weak to bear! A flash of lightning, out of which LUCIFER appears in the garb of a travelling Physician. Lucifer. All hail, Prince Henry! Prince Henry (starting). Who is it speaks? Lucifer. One who seeks A moment's audience with the Prince. Prince Henry. When came you in? Lucifer. A moment since. I found your study door unlocked, Lucifer. You heard the thunder; It was loud enough to waken the dead. You should not hear my feeble tread. Prince Henry. What may your wish or purpose be? Lucifer. Nothing or everything, as it pleases Your Highness. You behold in me Only a travelling Physician; One of the few who have a mission To cure incurable diseases, Or those that are called so. Prince Henry. The dead to life? Lucifer. Can you bring Yes; very nearly. And, what is a wiser, and better thing, The storm, that against your casement drives, Of your maladies physical and mental, And I hastened hither, though late in the night, Prince Henry (ironically). For this you came ! This honour from one so erudite ? Lucifer. The honour is mine, or will be when I have cured your disease. Prince Henry. But not till then. Lucifer. What is your illness? Prince Henry. It has no name. A smouldering, dull, perpetual flame, As in a kiln, burns in my veins, Lucifer. The dead are dead, And their oracles dumb, when questioned Of the new diseases that human life Prince Henry. Ay, whole schools Of doctors, with their learned rules; But the case is quite beyond their science. Even the doctors of Salern Send me back word they can discern No cure for a malady like this, Save one which in its nature is Lucifer. That sounds oracular! Lucifer. What is their remedy? Unendurable! Prince Henry. You shall see Writ in this scroll is the mystery. Lucifer (reading). "Not to be cured, yet not incurable! The only remedy that remains Is the blood that flows from a maiden's veins, Who of her own free will shall die, And give her life as the price of yours!" That is the strangest of all cures, And one, I think, you will never try; Of very subtile and magical powers! Prince Henry. Purge with your nostrums and drugs infernal The spouts and gargoyles of these towers, In every power but the Power Supernal ! |