Scene XX
Cathedral
Service, Organ and Anthem.
Margaret among much people: the Evil Spirit behind Margaret.
Evil Spirit
How otherwise was it, Margaret,When thou, still innocent,Here to the altar cam’st,And from the worn and fingered bookThy prayers didst prattle,Half sport of childhood,Half God within thee!Margaret!Where tends thy thought?Within thy bosomWhat hidden crime?Pray’st thou for mercy on thy mother’s soul,That fell asleep to long, long torment, and through thee?Upon thy threshold whose the blood?And stirreth not and quickensSomething beneath thy heart,Thy life disquietingWith most foreboding presence?
Margaret
Woe! woe!Would I were free from the thoughtsThat cross me, drawing hither and thitherDespite me!
Chorus
Diesira, dies illa,Solvet soeclum in favilla!(Sound of the organ.)
Evil Spirit
Wrath takes thee!The trumpet peals!The graves tremble!And thy heartFrom ashy restTo fiery tormentsNow again requickened,Throbs to life!
Margaret
Would I were forth!I feel as if the organ hereMy breath takes from me,My very heartDissolved by the anthem!
Chorus
Judex ergo cum sedebit,Quidquid latet, ad parebit,Nil inultum remanebit.
Margaret
I cannot breathe!The massy pillarsImprison me!The vaulted archesCrush me!—Air!
Evil Spirit
Hide thyself! Sin and shameStay never hidden.Air? Light?Woe to thee!
Chorus
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus,Quem patronem rogaturus,Cum vix Justus sit securus?
Evil Spirit
They turn their faces,The glorified, from thee:The pure, their hands to offer,Shuddering, refuse thee!Woe!
Chorus
Quid sum miser tune dicturus?
Margaret
Neighbor! your cordial!
She falls in a swoon.