of Donna Anna. The reason for disguise is now at an end; Donna Maria declares her rank and parentage, and is at last happily married.

Recklessness of human life is characteristic of the Spanish stage; in this popular drama the unfortunate, hot-tempered suitor is murdered, not that his death may form the catastrophe of the piece, but incidentally that it may give his murderess an opportunity of obtaining the disguise on which the necessary dramatic situations depend. Donna Maria's crime provokes no moral reprobation, nor is it meant to do so; a lady so careful of the family honor is likely to make the best of wives, and her conduct is considered natural, if not praiseworthy.

SANCHO ORTIZ.

ACCORDING to Spanish notions loyalty to the king overrides all other obligations, natural or social. At the sovereign's command, the subject must renounce his nearest and dearest relations. In the “Estrella de Sevilla" Sancho Ortiz is thus called to provoke a quarrel with the brother of his betrothed and slay him.

I. The King and Sancho Ortiz.

Ortiz. I kiss thy feet.

King. Rise, Sancho! rise, and know
I wrong thee much to let thee stoop so low.

Ortiz. My liege, confounded with thy grace I stand;
Unskilled in speech, no words can I command
To tell the thanks I feel.

King. Why, what in me

To daunt thy noble spirit canst thou see?

Ortiz. Courage and majesty that strikes with awe;

My sovereign lord; the fountain of the law;
In fine, God's image, which I come to obey,
Never so honored as I feel to-day.

King. Much I applaud thy wisdom, much thy zeal;
And now, to try thy courage, will reveal

That which you covet so to learn, -the cause
That thus my soldier to the presence draws.
Much it imports the safety of my reign
A man should die, -in secret should be slain;
This must some friend perform; search Seville through,
None can I find to trust so fit as you.

Ortiz. Guilty he needs must be.
King. He is.

Ortiz. Then why,

My sovereign liege, in secret should he die?
If public law demands the culprit's head,

In public let the culprit's blood be shed.

Shall Justice's sword, which strikes in face of day,
Stoop to dark deeds, -a man in secret slay?

The world will think, who kills by means unknown
No guilt avenges, but implies his own.

If slight his fault, I dare for mercy pray.

King. Sancho, attend;--you came not here to-day
An advocate to plead a traitor's cause,

But to perform my will, to execute my laws,
To slay a man ;-and why the culprit bleed
Matters not thee, it is thy monarch's deed;
If base, thy monarch the dishonor bears.
But say, to draw against my life who dares,
Deserves he death?

Ortiz. Oh, yes! a thousand times.

King. Then strike without remorse: these are the

wretch's crimes.

Ortiz. So let him die; for sentence Ortiz pleads:

Were he my brother, by this arm he bleeds.

King. Give me thy hand.

Ortiz. With that my heart I pledge.

King. So, while he heeds not, shall thy rapier's edge Reach his proud heart.

Ortiz. My liege! my sovereign lord!
Sancho's my name, I wear a soldier's sword.
Would you with treacherous acts, and deeds of shame,
Taint such a calling, tarnish such a name?
Shall I,-shall I, to shrink from open strife,
Like some base coward, point the assassin's knife?
No,-face to face his foe must Ortiz meet,
Or in the crowded mart, or public street, -
Defy and combat him in open light.

Curse the mean wretch who slays, but does not fight!
Naught can excuse the vile assassin's blow;
Happy, compared with him, his murdered foe,--
With him who, living, lives but to proclaim,
To all he meets, his cowardice and shame.

King. E'en as thou wilt; but in this paper read,
Signed by the king, the warrant of the deed.

[Sancho reads the paper aloud, which promises the king's protection, if he is brought into any jeopardy in consequence of killing the person alluded to, and is signed, "Yo el Rey," I the king.]

King. Act as you may, my name shall set you free.
Ortiz. Does, then, my liege so meanly deem of me?
I know his power, which can the earth control, -
Know his unshaken faith, and steadfast soul.
Shall seals, shall parchments, then, to me afford
A surer warrant than my sovereign's word?
To guard my actions, as to guide my hand,

I ask no surety but my king's command.

Perish such deeds! [Tears the paper]-they serve but to

record

Some doubt, some question, of a monarch's word.
What need of bonds? By honor bound are we;
I to avenge thy wrongs, and thou to rescue me.
One price I ask, - the maid I name for bride.

King. Were she the richest and the best allied
In Spain, I grant her.

Ortiz. So throughout the world,
May oceans view thy conquering flag unfurled !
King. Nor shall thy actions pass without a meed.
This note informs thee, Ortiz, who must bleed.
But, reading, be not startled at a name;
Great is his prowess; Seville speaks his fame.

Ortiz. I'll put that prowess to the proof ere long.
King. None know but I that you avenge my wrong;
So force must guide your arm, but prudence check your

tongue.

[Exit.

II. Bustos Tabera and Sancho Ortiz.
Tabera. In meeting thus, my fortune do I greet.
Ortiz (aside). Alas! I curse the chance that makes us
meet.

You come to make a friend, a brother, blest,

And I, to plunge a dagger in thy breast.

Tabera. Brother, the hour of long-sought bliss is come.

Ortiz (aside). My hour of grief, of all my woes the doom!

O God! did man e'er bear such weight of ill?
Him whom I love next heaven my sword must kill;
And with the very blow that stabs my friend,
My love is lost, and all my visions end.

Tabera. The deeds are drawn; to tell the news I came; They only wait for Sancho Ortiz' name.

Ortiz (aloud). Once, it is true, by fickle fancy led,

Tabera's sister Ortiz fain would wed;

But now, though drawn the strict agreements stand,
I scorn the offer, and reject her hand.

Tabera. Know'st thou to whom, or what thou speak'st?
Ortiz. I know

To whom I speak, and therefore speak I so.

Tabera. How, knowing me, can words of insult dwell On Ortiz' tongue?

Ortiz. Because he knows thee well.

Tabera. And knows he aught but generous pride of blood,

And honor such as prompts the brave and good?
Virtue and genuine honor are the same:
Pride, uninspired by her, usurps the name.
But yet, though slow of anger to a friend,
Thy words my virtue as my pride offend.
Ortiz. Not more offended can thy virtue be,

Than I so long to talk with one like thee.

Tabera. Is 't come to this? and dost thou brand my fame With aught that bears not honor's sacred name? Prove, then, this sword, which dares thy rage defy, My foe a villain, and his charge a lie. [They draw and fight.

Ortiz. What can the swords of traitorous villains prove?

Pardon me, sacred friendship! pardon, love!
My king impels; I madden as I fight,

And frenzy lends my arm resistless might.

Tabera. Enough, nor further press thy blow, -I bleed,

My hour is come!

Ortiz. Then am I mad, indeed!

[Tabera falls.

Yes, when I struck thy death, my sense was gone;
Restored, I from thy arm implore my own.
Sheathe in this breast, -for pity, sheathe thy sword,
And to my troubled soul an instant flight afford.
Tabera. My motives Fate denies the time to tell ;-

Wed thou my sister, Ortiz, and farewell!

[Dies. Ortiz. Come, then, destructive, unrelenting blade, Despatch the life thy work has wretched made! Come, while Tabera's gore is reeking yet,

With a fresh wound to close the bloody debt!

[Enter Farfan and Pedro, Alcaldes mayores. Pedro. Wretch! stay that weapon, raised thyself to kill ! Ortiz. 'Twas raised against a life yet dearer still.

Arias. What's this disorder?

Ortiz. The disorder 's plain :

[Enter Arias.

I've killed a brother, like another Cain, —
Ruthless and fierce, a guiltless Abel slain.
Here, here he lies, -survey each mangled limb;
And as he died for me, so let me die for him.

Arias. Why, what is this?

Ortiz. What is it, do you ask?
'Tis a kept promise, an accomplished task;
'Tis honor in a fiery trial proved,
Honor, that slew the man he dearly loved.
Yes, tell the king, that, for our plighted words,
We sons of Seville bear them on our swords;
Tell him for them we do our stars defy;

For them our laws expire, our brothers die.
Pedro. He's killed Tabera.

Arias. Rash, flagitious deed!

Ortiz. Then seize me,-bind me,-let his murderer bleed!

Where are we? Do not law and reason say,

Ruffians shall die, and blood shall blood repay?
But marked you how the mighty crime was done?
No hate was here; 'twas love, and love alone;

And love, that did the crime, shall for the crime atone.
Bustos I slew: I now for Bustos plead,

And beg of justice-that his murderer bleed.
Thy friend that tribute to thy memory pays!

Arias. The man is mad, and knows not what he says.
Pedro. Then to Triana's tower the culprit lead, -

Lest, at the noise of such a lawless deed,

Seville should rise, and some new tumult breed.

Ortiz. Yet I would raise my brother from the ground, Clasp his cold limbs, and kiss the sacred wound,

And wash the noble blood that streams his corpse around.