Monologue

Sigismund Monologue from Life Is a Dream

From Life Is a Dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

male · philosophical · 1:50 min

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Once again, O Heaven! wouldst wish me Once again to dream of greatness Which may vanish in an instant? Once again to see the glories, That a royal throne encircle, Die in darkness and in gloom, Like a flame the winds extinguish? Once again by sad experience To be taught the dangerous limits Human power may overleap, At its birth and while it liveth? No, it must not, must not be:-- See me now one more submitted To my fate; and since I know Life is but a dream, a vision, Hence, ye phantoms, that assume To my darkened sense the figure And the voice of life -- although Neither voice nor form is in them. I no longer now desire A feigned majesty, a fictitious And fantastic pomp -- illusions Which the slightest breath that ripples The calm ether can destroy, Even as in the early spring-time, When the flowering almond tree Unadvisedly exhibits All its fleeting bloom of flowers, The first blast their freshness withers, And the ornament and grace Of its rosy locks disfigures. Now I know ye -- know ye all, And I know the same false glimmer Cheats the eyes of all who sleep. Me false shows no more bewilder; Disabused, I now know well Life is but a dream -- a vision.

About this piece

20s · despair · fate · identity · power · illusion

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