Friedrich Schiller - Don Carlos (Act 2 Scene 9) lyrics

The PRINCESS alone. She seems overcome with surprise, and is confounded. After CARLOS' departure she hastens to call him back. PRINCESS. Prince, but one word! Prince, hear me. He is gone. And this, too, I am doomed to bear—his scorn! And I am left in lonely wretchedness, Rejected and despised!   [Sinks down upon a chair. After a pause And yet not so; I'm but displaced—supplanted by some wanton. He loves! of that no longer doubt is left; He has himself confessed it—but my rival— Who can she be? Happy, thrice happy one! This much stands clear: he loves where he should not. He dreads discovery, and from the king He hides his guilty pa**ion! Why from him Who would so gladly hail it? Or, is it not The father that he dreads so in the parent? When the king's wanton purpose was disclosed, His features glowed with triumph, boundless joy Flashed in his eyes, his rigid virtue fled; Why was it mute in such a cause as this? Why should he triumph? What hath he to gain If Philip to his queen——   [She stops suddenly, as if struck by a thought, then drawing hastily from her bosom the ribbon which she had taken from CARLOS, she seems to recognize it. Fool that I am! At length 'tis plain. Where have my senses been? My eyes are opened now. They loved each other Long before Philip wooed her, and the prince Ne'er saw me but with her! She, she alone Was in his thoughts when I believed myself The object of his true and boundless love. O matchless error! and have I betrayed My weakness to her?   [Pauses. Should his love prove hopeless? Who can believe it? Would a hopeless love Persist in such a struggle? Called to revel In joys for which a monarch sighs in vain! A hopeless love makes no such sacrifice. What fire was in his kiss! How tenderly He pressed my bosom to his beating heart! Well nigh the trial had proved dangerous To his romantic, unrequited pa**ion! With joy he seized the key he fondly thought The queen had sent:—in this gigantic stride Of love he puts full credence—and he comes— In very truth comes here—and so imputes To Philip's wife a deed so madly rash. And would he so, had love not made him bold? 'Tis clear as day—his suit is heard—she loves! By heaven, this saintly creature burns with pa**ion; How subtle, too, she is! With fear I trembled Before this lofty paragon of virtue! She towered beside me, an exalted being, And in her beams I felt myself eclipsed; I envied her the lovely, cloudless calm, That kept her soul from earthly tumults free. And was this soft serenity but show? Would she at both feasts revel, holding up Her virtue's godlike splendor to our gaze, And riot in the secret joys of vice? And shall the false dissembler cozen thus, And win a safe immunity from this That no avenger comes? By heavens she shall not! I once adored her,—that demands revenge:— The king shall know her treachery—the king!   [After a pause. 'Tis the sure way to win the monarch's ear!   [Exit.