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• The Works of Voltaire: the Dramatic Works of Voltaire Vol. Ix— Part I
• Alzire
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Orestes
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• SÉmiramis
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Catiline
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Pandora
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• The Dramatic Works of Voltaire Vol. Ix—part Ii
• The Scotch Woman
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• Nanine
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• The Prude
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.
• Act II.
• Act III.
• Act IV.
• Act V.
• The Tatler
• Dramatis PersonÆ.
• Act I.

ACT III.

SCENE I.

alzire.

• [Alone.
• Ye manes of my dear departed Zamor,
• Forgive me, O forgive the wife of Guzman!
• The holy altar hath received our vows,
• And they are sealed in heaven: pursue me not,
• Indignant shade! O if Alzire’s tears,
• Her bitter anguish, her remorse, the pangs
• Of her reluctant soul, can reach the dead,
• If in a happier world thou still retainest
• Thy generous noble spirit, thou wilt pardon
• My weakness; ’twas a father’s cruel will,
• A people’s happiness required it of me;
• Could I refuse the dreadful sacrifice?
• Thou art at peace, my Zamor, do not thus
• Distract my soul, but leave me to my fate;
• Alas! already it has cost me dear.

SCENE II.

alzire, emira.

alzire.

• And shall I not behold my countrymen,
• The loved companions of my infant years,
• Those wretched captives, may I not enjoy
• The mournful privilege to mix with theirs
• My friendly tears, and mourn their cruel fate?

emira.

• O madam, we have cause indeed to weep,
• To dread the wrath of Guzman, to lament
• And tremble for our country; for the hour
• Of slaughter and destruction is at hand:
• Again I saw the bloody flag displayed,
• The proud tribunal’s met, and Montezuma
• Is summoned to appear: all dreadful omens!
• What will become of us?

alzire.

• Unpitying heaven!
• I’ve been deceived, betrayed:—cruel O Guzman!
• Was it for this I gave him at the altar
• My long reluctant hand? that fatal bond
• I shall repent of to my latest hour:
• O under what malignant star, my father,
• Madest thou these cruel, these detested nuptials?

SCENE III.

alzire, emira, cephanes.

cephanes.

• One of those slaves, whom this propitious day
• Restored to freedom, begs admittance to you
• In secret.

alzire.

• Let him enter; ’twill rejoice
• My heart to see him; he and all his friends
• Are welcome to Alzire: but why comes he
• Alone?

cephanes.

• Some secret labors in his breast,
• Which you and only you, he says, must know.
• ’Twas he, it seems, whose heaven-directed arm
• Saved the good father of thy valiant lord,
• The noble Guzman.

emira.

• He has sought you long;
• But Montezuma’s private orders were,
• He should not see you: melancholy sits
• On his dark brow, as if he were intent
• On some great purpose.

cephanes.

• Grief and anguish seem
• To rack his soul: at mention of your name
• He sighed, and wept, as if yet ignorant
• Of your new honors and the rank you bear.

alzire.

• Unworthy rank, and honors I despise!
• Perhaps the hero knows my wretched race.
• And is no stranger to Alzire’s woes:
• Perhaps he knew my Zamor; who can tell
• But he might be a witness of his death,
• And comes to tell the melancholy tale?
• A dreadful duty! that would but renew
• A lover’s pangs, and double my distress;
• But let him come: I know not why my heart
• Should flutter thus; this hateful palace ever
• Hath been a scene of sad disquietude
• And trouble to me: bid him enter.

SCENE IV.

alzire, zamor, emira.

zamor.

• Yes;
• It is Alzire: is she then restored?

alzire.

• Such were his features, voice, and motion: heaven!
• It cannot be: O Zamor!—O support me.
• [She faints.

zamor.

• ’Tis he.

alzire.

• Ha! Zamor at Alzire’s feet?
• ’Tis all delusion.

zamor.

• No; I live for thee,
• And at thy feet reclaim thy plighted faith;
• O my Alzire, idol of my soul,
• Wilt thou not hear me? where are all thy vows,
• The sacred ties that bound us fast together?
• Thou hast not broke them?

alzire.

• Thou dear fatal object
• Of grief and joy, of rapture and despair,
• In what a dreadful moment hast thou chose
• To meet Alzire? every word thou utterest
• But plunges a new dagger in my heart.

zamor.

• Thou weepest, yet lookest on Zamor!

alzire.

• ’Tis too late:

zamor.

• I know you thought me dead: e’er since that hour
• Of terror, when those European tyrants
• Deprived me of my gods, my throne and thee,
• I’ve been a poor unhappy wanderer.
• Knowest thou, my love, that savage murderer, Guzman,
• With ignominious stripes, and cruel torture,
• Insulted me? the husband of thy choice,
• Thy once loved happy Zamor, fell a prey
• To ruffians:—how it wounds thy tender heart!
• Thou burnest with fierce resentment of my wrongs,
• And thou wilt join with Zamor to avenge them:
• Some guardian god, propitious to our loves,
• Saved me from death, that we might meet again
• In happiness: I hope Alzire’s true:
• Thou hast not left thy gods, betrayed thy country,
• Thou art not grown a false perfidious Spaniard?
• They tell me I shall meet with Guzman here,
• I come to free thee from that proud barbarian:
• Thou lovest me, my Alzire, and wilt give
• The victim to my wrath.

alzire.

• Thou hast been wronged;
• Revenge thyself and see thy victim—here.

zamor.

• What sayest thou?—ha! thy faith, thy vows—

alzire.

• No more,
• But strike—I merit not life or thee.

zamor.

• O cruel Montezuma! what thou toldest me
• Was but too true.

alzire.

• And could he tell thee all;
• Named he the wretch for whom I quitted Zamor?

zamor.

• He did not, durst not name him; that remains
• For thee: O speak it: I shall be surprised
• At nothing.

alzire.

• Hear then all my guilt.

zamor.

• Alzire!

alzire.

• That Guzman—

zamor.

• Gracious heaven!

alzire.

• Thy murderer,
• Within this hour received my guilty hand;
• He is—my husband.

zamor.

• Guzman!

alzire.

• Montezuma,
• Alvarez—they betrayed my easy youth,
• And urged me to the deed: the lost Alzire
• Did at the Christian altar give up all
• That she held dear on earth, her gods, her country,
• Her—Zamor: O by those dear injured names
• I beg thee, take this hated life.

zamor.

• Alzire,
• Can it be true? is Guzman then thy husband?

alzire.

• To plead a father’s undisputed right,
• To say how long I struggled with my duty,
• To number o’er the fruitless tears I shed
• For three long years lamenting Zamor’s death,
• That still I loved thee, that I left in wrath
• Those powerless gods that had deserted thee.
• And from despair alone became a Christian,
• Perhaps might mitigate Alzire’s crime;
• But I disdain it, I acknowledge all,
• Confess my guilt, and sue for punishment.
• Who shall absolve the wretch whom love condemns?
• Take then a life that is not worth my care
• Without thee; dost thou not abhor me, Zamor?

zamor.

• No: if thou lovest me still, thou are not guilty:
• May I yet hope that Zamor has a place
• In his Alzire’s heart?

alzire.

• When old Alvarez
• And Montezuma led me to the altar
• I thought on Zamor, thought him then no more,
• But reverenced, but adored his memory:
• Our tyrants, our usurpers know I loved thee;
• I told them all, told heaven and earth, nay told
• My husband—and O take this last farewell,
• I love thee still.

zamor.

• Is this then our last hour
• Of happiness, and must we part so soon,
• So lately met? O if the voice of love—

alzire.

• ’Tis Guzman and his father.

SCENE V.

alvarez, guzman, zamor, alzire,Attendants.

alvarez.

• [To Guzman.
• Son, behold
• With thy Alzire stands my great preserver,
• My benefactor, my deliverer.
• [To Zamor.
• O noble youth, to thee I owe my life,
• Let me embrace thee, be my second son,
• And share the pleasures of this happy day
• With Guzman and Alvarez.

zamor.

• He thy son;
• Guzman then thy son, that proud barbarian?

alzire.

• Avert the terrors of this dreadful moment,
• Indulgent heaven!

alvarez.

• In what astonishment—

zamor.

• How could a father, brave and good, like thee
• Be cursed with such a son?

guzman.

• Insulting slave,
• Who gave thee license thus to spurn thy master?
• Thou knowest not who I am.

zamor.

• I know thee well;
• And thou among the wretches thou hast made
• Perhaps mayest one day meet the injured Zamor.

guzman.

• And art thou he?

alvarez.

• Ha! Zamor!

zamor.

• ’Tis the same,
• ’Tis Zamor, whom thy cruel hand oppressed
• With ignominious tortures, he whose eye
• Thou darest not meet; thou tyrant ravisher,
• Comest thou at last to rob me of my best
• And dearest treasure? with thy ruthless sword
• Make sure thy vengeance, and prevent the fate
• Which thou deservest, ere Zamor, who preserved
• The father, shall chastise the guilty son.

alvarez.

• [To Guzman.
• What sayest thou, Guzman, canst thou answer this?

guzman.

• It were beneath me; punishment alone
• Should answer insolence, and, but for thee,
• Ere this he should have met with it.
• [Turning to Alzire.
• You, madam,
• For your own honor might have more regard,
• If not for mine, than thus to parley with
• A traitor: come, no more of this, Alzire,
• Thy tears offend me: husbands may be jealous;
• Remember that and tremble.

alzire.

• [To Guzman.
• Cruel Guzman!
• My kind protector,
• [Turning to Alvarez.
• Good Alvarez, hear me:
• And thou,
• [To Zamor.
• In better days my dearest hope,
• O look with pity on the lost Alzire!
• [Pointing to Zamor.
• Behold the husband whom my father chose;
• Long ere this hapless country bowed the neck
• To European tyrants, Zamor fell,
• So fame reported, and with him Peru,
• Then first subdued: my wretched father, old
• And full of sorrows, to the Christian’s God,
• Forsaken by his own, indignant fled;
• The Christian altar saw Alzire’s hand
• Given to her lover’s murderer: thy new faith,
• Which yet I know not, may condemn Alzire,
• But virtue will forgive me when I add,
• That still I love thee, Zamor; but my oath,
• My marriage vow, rash fatal marriage! says
• I never must be thine—nor can I now
• Be Guzman’s—false to both, ye both have cause
• To hate me: which of you will kindly end
• My wretched being? Guzman’s hand, already
• Stained with the blood of my unhappy race,
• Were fittest to revenge the injured rights
• Of honor and of love; be just for once,
• And strike the guilty.

guzman.

• Darest thou thus abuse
• The goodness thou deservest not? but remember
• ’Twas thy request; thy punishment is ready:
• My rival dies;—away with him.

alvarez.

• Inhuman!
• O stop, my son, consider what is due
• To him who saved thy father—ye are both
• My children—let that tender name inspire
• Your breasts with pity for an aged father:
• At least—

SCENE VI.

alvarez, guzman, alzire, zamor.

don alonzo,a Spanish officer.

alonzo.

• My lord, the foe is at our gates;
• On every side their brazen bucklers ring
• With barbarous dissonance: aloud they cry,
• Revenge, and Zamor, whilst with measured steps,
• Solemn and slow, the close-wedged phalanx moves,
• As if these savages had learned from us
• The arts by which we conquered them.

guzman.

• Away:
• Let us be gone; my presence soon shall teach
• These slaves their duty—heroes of Castile,
• Ye sons of victory, this new world was made
• To wear your chains, to fear, and to obey you.

zamor.

• To fear and to obey? ’tis false, proud Guzman;
• Ye are but mortals like ourselves, no more.

guzman.

• Guards, drag him hence.

zamor.

• [To the Spaniards surrounding him.
• Ye dare not: are ye gods,
• And must we worship deities thus bathed
• In our own blood?

guzman.

• Obey me, slaves.

alzire.

• My lord!

alvarez.

• Remember, son, that Zamor saved thy father.

guzman.

• My lord, I shall remember your instructions,
• You taught me how to conquer, and I fly
• Once more to victory: farewell!

SCENE VII.

alvarez, alzire.

alzire.

• [Kneeling.
• My lord,
• Behold me at your feet, accept the homage
• Due to thy virtues! Guzman’s injured honor
• Calls for revenge, Alzire was to blame;
• But I was bound to Zamor by the ties
• Of sacred love, long ere I knew thy son;
• We cannot give our hearts a second time:
• Zamor had mine, and ever must preserve it:
• O he is good and virtuous, for he saved
• Thy life, Alvarez—O forgive me!

alvarez.

• Rise
• Alzire, I forgive and pity thee;
• Feel as a father and a friend thy sorrows,
• Lament thy Zamor’s fate, and will protect him:
• But let the solemn vow thou madest to Guzman
• Be graved within thy heart; thou are no longer
• The mistress of thyself: remember well
• Thou art my daughter—Guzman was most cruel,
• I know he was, but still he is—thy husband:
• Perhaps he may relent; heaven grant he may!

alzire.

• Alas! why art not thou my Zamor’s father?

End of the Third Act.