Racine: Phaedra

246
CALDERON
Unto yourself alone, who shall at once
Approve yourself to be your father's judge,
And sovereign of Poland in his stead,
By justice, mercy, self-sobriety,
And all the reasonable attributes
Without which, impotent to rule himself.
Others one cannot, and one must not rule
But which if you but show the blossom of—
All that is past we shall but look upon
As the first out-fling of a generous nature
Rioting in first liberty ; and if
This blossom do but promise such a flower
As promises in turn its kindly fruit
Forthwith upon your brows the royal crown,
That now weighs heavy on my aged brows,
I will devolve ; and while I pass away
Into some cloister, with my Maker there
To make my peace in penitence and prayer.
Happily settle the disorder'd realm
That now cries loudly for a lineal heir.
Segismund.—And so
When the crown falters on your shaking head.
And slips the sceptre from your palsied hand,
And Poland for her rightful heir cries out
When not only your stol'n monopoly
Fails you of earthly power, but 'cross the grave
The judgment-trumpet of another world
Calls you to count for your abuse of this
Then, oh then, terrified by the double danger.
You drag me from my den
Boast not of giving up at last the power
You can no longer hold, and never rightly
Held, but in fee for him you robb'd it from
And be assured your Savage, once let loose,
Will not be caged again so quickly ; not
By threat or adulation to be tamed.
Till he have had his quarrel out with those
Who made him what he is.
King.— Beware ! Beware
Subdue the kindled Tiger in your eye.