The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 4, August, 1864, page 30 by Various Authors
<< Return to Title Details & Download31
me--my eyes will open with a flash of flame--and I will see the universe!
GODFATHER. He talks exactly as his mother did; he does not know what he is saying, I think his condition very critical.
PHYSICIAN. He is in great danger.
NURSE. Holy Mother of God! take my eyes, and give them to the poor boy!
GEORGE. My mother, I entreat thee! O mother, send me thoughts and images, that I may create within myself a world like the one I have lost forever!
FIRST RELATION. Do you think, brother, it will be necessary to call a family consultation?
SECOND RELATION. Be silent!
GEORGE. Thou answerest me not, my mother!
O mother, do not desert me!
PHYSICIAN (to the Man). It is my duty to tell you the truth.
GODFATHER. Yes, to tell the truth is the duty and virtue of a physician!
PHYSICIAN. Your son is suffering from incipient insanity, connected with an extraordinary excitability of the nervous system, which sometimes occasions, if I may so express myself, the strange phenomenon of sleeping and waking at the same time, as in the case now before us.
THE MAN (aside). He reads to me thy sentence, O my God!
PHYSICIAN. Give me pen, ink, and paper.
He writes a prescription.
THE MAN. I think it best you should all now retire; George needs rest.
SEVERAL VOICES. Good night! good night! good night!
GEORGE (waking suddenly). Are they wishing me good night, father?
They should rather speak of a long, unbroken, eternal night, but of no good one, of no happy dawn for me....
THE MAN. Lean on me, George. Let me support you to the bed.
GEORGE. What does all this mean, father?
THE MAN. Cover yourself up, and go quietly to sleep. The doctor says you will regain your sight.
GEORGE. I feel so very unwell, father; strange voices roused me from my sleep, and I saw mamma standing in a field of lilies....
He falls asleep.
THE MAN. Bless thee