Racine: Phaedra

26o
CALDERON
Begone ! I know I must be near awake,
Knowing I dream ; or, if not at my voice.
Then vanish at the clapping of my hands.
Or take this foolish fellow for your sport:
Dressing me up in visionary glories,
Which the first air of waking consciousness
Scatters as fast as from the almander*
That, waking one fine morning in full flower,
One rougher insurrection of the breeze
Of all her sudden honor disadorns
To the last blossom, and she stands again
The winter-naked scare-crow that she was!
Captain.—I know not what to do, nor what to say.
With all this dreaming ; 1 begin to doubt
They have driv'n him mad indeed, and he and we
Are lost together.
A Soldier [to Captain].—Stay, stay; I remember
Hark in your ear a moment. [Whispers.
Captain.— So—so—so?—
Oh, now indeed I do not wonder, sir,
Your senses dazzle under practices
Which treason, shrinking from its own device,
Would now persuade you only was a dream
But waking was as absolute as this
You wake in now, as some who saw you then.
Prince as you were and are, can testify
Not only saw, but under false allegiance
Laid hands upon
First Soldier.— I, to my shame
Second Soldier.— And II
Captain.—Who, to wipe out that shame, have been the first
To stir and lead us—Hark [Shouts, trumpets.
A Soldier.— Our forces, sir.
Challenging King Basilio's, now in sight.
And bearing down upon us.
Captain.— Sir, you hear;
A Httle hesitation and delay,
And all is lost— your own right, and the lives
* Almander, or almandre, Chaucer's word for almond-tree, "Romaunt of the Rose,"
1363.