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ENRICO, in pursuit of Edgardo, is out for blood.
Not a jot, not an ounce of mercy!
On the couple shall fall my fury.
To forgive is not my fashion.
The fire of their guilty passion
With my own blood I'll put out.....
Despite surrounding menace, LUCIA is in her own world:
Rapt in a glow of ecstacy,
Borne on the wings of fire.....
LUCIA and EDGARDO must part:
On scented air a tender breeze
Will float my yearning and sorrow.
From distant shores my sad lament
Will echo across the water.
Remember then the vow we made
And pity my despair.
Gaze on this constant pledge of love
And shed a lonely tear.
Persuaded that Edgardo has turned unfaithful,
LUCIA'S disillusion is complete.
All hope has turned hollow.
My heart torn to pieces,
My dreams and devotion
In ruin now lie.
The death knell has sounded;
I seek but to die.
That heart so unfaithful I trusted and lost.
Her brother ENRICO combines sympathy with recrimination:
Sheer madness to follow a love so beneath you,
To fail your own blood for a lecher and scoundrel!
But praise be to heaven, you're spared the full cost;
That love so unfaithful consider well lost.
His plea turns to threat:
ENRICO
Should you fail me by refusing,
Sure destruction is bound to follow.
Worst of all, I die dishonored,
For the axe falls on my head.
In your dreams, pursued and haunted,
You will see my headless body,
And the axe. still warm and bloody,
Then will dangle above your bed.
EDGARDO returns to learn of Lucia's apparent betrayal:
Curse the moment, the hour ill-fated
That I became your trusting lover!
Race of vipers, abhorred and hated,
From your clutches would I had fled.
May you and yours forever suffer;
Cursed be the day you wed.
In the castle, RAIMONDO witnesses a ghastly scene:
RAIMONDO
From the chamber where Lucia
With her husband had retired,
Came an outcry, a groan of anguish,
Like a man in mortal struggle.
In alarm, I ran to discover
Such a sight to freeze the veins.
There Arturo, his body lifeless, cold and silent,
Lay drenched in blood.
And Lucia, with dripping hands,
Still held the knife of execution.
She stared at me....The eyes were vacant.
Then upon her clouded features
Broke a tiny distant smile.
"Where's my husband?" she said. "Edgardo?"
The stunned wedding guests respond with a shudder:
Oh, deed of darkness! Black night of terror!
Let shadow cover this scene of horror.
Night, draw a curtain, conceal the murder,
Hiding forever the spattered blood.
In madness and close to death, LUCIA discovers an other-worldly serenity.
Scatter my grave with roses;
Weep when I wake no longer.
But where the soul reposes,
There I shall wait, my love.
After our journey closes,
We shall find peace above.
Like Lucia before him, EDGARDO is crushed and disillusioned.
The black of earth will cover me,
A grave that none remember;
No tear shall fall in charity
Upon my lonely slumber.
Unvisited by friend or foe,
Here I shall ever lie.
And you, so false, will soon forget
The man that you deserted.....
And like Lucia, he also dies in serene anticipation of a joyful reunion.
Spread your wings, and like a swallow
Fly to God, beloved angel.
Turn to me a smile forgiving,
For I shall follow,
Now my worldly task is done.
Mortal hurt and human anger
We shall here endure no longer.
Torn apart while among the living,
There above, we shall dwell
Ever one.
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