Where place and face, and all, is strange to him,
With your known features and familiar garb
Shall then, as chorus to the scene, accost him,
And by such earnest of that old and too
Familiar world, assure him of the new.
Last in the strange procession, I myself
Will by one full and last development
Complete the plot for that catastrophe
That he must put to all; God grant it be
The crown of Poland on his brows!--Hark! hark!--
Was that his voice within!--Now louder--Oh,
Clotaldo, what! so soon begun to roar!--
Again! above the music--But betide
What may, until the moment, we must hide.

(Exeunt King and Clotaldo.)

SEGISMUND (within).
Forbear! I stifle with your perfume! Cease
Your crazy salutations! peace, I say
Begone, or let me go, ere I go mad
With all this babble, mummery, and glare,
For I am growing dangerous--Air! room! air!--
(He rushes in. Music ceases.)
Oh but to save the reeling brain from wreck
With its bewilder'd senses!
(He covers his eyes for a while.)
What! E'en now
That Babel left behind me, but my eyes
Pursued by the same glamour, that--unless