The Purgatory of St. PatrickCalderón de la Barca, Pedro
Religion
The Purgatory of St. Patrick
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro
Patrick, Saint, 373?-463? -- Drama
PAUL. Then to witness two embraces
Does not look at all suspicious?--
Was it malice, then, in me,
Not plain seeing?
LUCY. Malice merely:
For a husband, how so nearly
He may pry, should never see
More than half his wife doth do.
PAUL. Well, with that I'm quite content,
To that condition I assent,
And since twice embraced by you
Has that rascal soldier been,
Whom the sea spewed out in spite,
I will juggle with my sight,
And pretend but once to have seen;
And as I for two embraces
Meant to give a hundred blows,
I but fifty now propose
For one half of my disgraces.
I have totted up the score;
You yourself the sentence gave;
Yes, by God I swear, you'll have
Fifty strokes and not one more.
LUCY. I've admitted far too much.
For a husband it would be
Quite preposterous; he should see
But the quarter.
PAUL. Even as such
I acknowledge the appeal.
Patience, and your back prepare,
For the now admitted share,
Five-and-twenty blows you'll feel.
LUCY. No, not so; you're still astray.
PAUL. Then say what?
LUCY. Between us two,
You're to trust not what you view,
But what I am pleased to say.
PAUL. Better far, I think, 'twould be,
Daughter of the devil, that you
Held the stick and used it too,
With it well belabouring me;
Is't agreed what I propose?
Yes; then let us both change places.
Give to him the two embraces,
And to me the hundred blows.
[PHILIP returns.
PHILIP [aside]. Has the peasant gone, I wonder?
PAUL. At the nick of time you're here,
So, Sir Soldier, lend an ear.
Obligation I am under
For the favours you have meant
To bestow so liberally
On my cot, my wife, and me;
And although I'm well content
With you, yet as you're progressing
Day by day and getting stronger,
It is best you stay no longer.
Take the road, then, with God's blessing,
Leave my house, for it would be
Sad in it to raise my hand,
Leaving you dead flesh on land
Who wert living fish at sea.
PHILIP. The suspicion that you show
Is quite groundless, do not doubt it.
PAUL. Zounds! with reason or without it,
Am I married, sir, or no?
* * * * *
SCENE VII.
LEOGAIRE, an Old Peasant, and PATRICK.
LEOGAIRE. So 'tis ordered, and that he
Serving here from day to day,
In the open field should stay.
OLD MAN. Yes; I say it so shall be.
LEOGAIRE. But who's this? O happiness!
Since 'tis Philip's form I greet.
Mighty lord, I kiss thy feet.
PAUL. Mighty lord does he call him?
LUCY. Yes.
Now lay on the blows you owe.
Now, friend Paul, the moment charms.
PHILIP. Give me, good Leogaire, your arms.
LEOGAIRE. Honour in them you bestow.
Is it possible, once more
That alive I see thee?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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