Act 3 — SCENE II.
Reading edition
A chamber, with a large mirror.
Enter Black Queen’s Pawn and White Queen’s Pawn.
B. Q. Pawn. This is the room he did appear to me in;
And, look you, this the magical glass that shew’d him.
W. Q. Pawn. I find no motion yet: what should I think on’t?
A sudden fear invades me, a faint trembling,
Under this omen,
As is oft felt the panting of a turtle
Under a stroking hand.
B. Q. Pawn. That bodes good luck still,
Sign you shall change state speedily; for that trembling
371Is always the first symptom of a bride.
For any vainer fears that may accompany
His apparition, by my truth to friendship,
I quit you of the least; never was object
More gracefully presented; the very air
Conspires to do him honour, and creates
Sweet vocal sounds, as if a bridegroom enter’d;
Which argues the blest harmony of your[715] loves.
W. Q. Pawn. And will the using of my name produce him?
B. Q. Pawn. Nay, of yours only, else the wonder halted:
To clear you of that doubt, I'll put the difference
In practice, the first thing I do, and make
His invocation in the name of others.
W. Q. Pawn. ’Twill satisfy me much that.
B. Q. Pawn. It shall be done.—
Thou, whose gentle form and face
Fill’d lately this Egyptic glass,
By th' imperious powerful name
And the universal fame
Of the mighty Black-House Queen,
I conjure thee to be seen!—
What, see you nothing yet?
W. Q. Pawn. Not any part:
Pray, try another.
B. Q. Pawn. You shall have your will.—
I double my command and power,
And at the instant of this hour
Invoke thee in the White Queen’s name,
With stay[716] for time, and shape the same.—
What see you yet?
W. Q. Pawn. There’s nothing shews at all.
372B. Q. Pawn. My truth reflects the clearer then: now fix
And bless your fair eye with your own for ever.
Thou well-compos’d, by Fate’s hand drawn
To enjoy the White Queen’s Pawn,
Of whom thou shalt by virtue met
Many graceful issues get;
By the beauty of her fame,
By the whiteness of her name,
By her fair and fruitful love,
By her truth that mates the dove,
By the meekness of her mind,
By the softness of her kind,[717]
By the lustre of her grace,—
By all these thou art summon’d to this place!—
Hark, how the air, enchanted with your praises
And his approach, those words to sweet notes raises!
Music: enter Black Bishop’s Pawn, richly attired, like an apparition, and stands before the glass; then exit.
W. Q. Pawn. O, let him stay a while! a little longer!
B. Q. Pawn. That’s a good hearing.
W. Q. Pawn. If he be mine, why should he part so soon?
B. Q. Pawn. Why, this is but the shadow of yours. How do you?
W. Q. Pawn. O, I did ill to give consent to see it!
What certainty is in our blood or state?
What we still write is blotted out by fate;
Our wills are[718] like a cause that is law-tost,
What one court orders, is by another crost.
373B. Q. Pawn. I find no fit place for this passion[719] here,
’Tis merely[720] an intruder. He’s a gentleman
Most wishfully compos’d; honour grows on him,
And wealth pil’d up for him; has youth enough too,
And yet in the sobriety of his countenance
Grave as a tetrarch, which is gracious
I' th' eye of modest pleasure. Where’s the emptiness?
What can you more request?
W. Q. Pawn. I do not know
What answer yet to make; it doth require
A meeting ’twixt my fear and my desire.
B. Q. Pawn. She’s caught, and, which is strange, by her most wronger. [Aside.
[Exeunt.