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diff --git a/old/dpdua10.txt b/old/dpdua10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..63cf312 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/dpdua10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5739 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Duchess of Padua, by Oscar Wilde +(#9 in our series by Oscar Wilde) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Duchess of Padua + +Author: Oscar Wilde + +Release Date: April, 1997 [EBook #875] +[This file was first posted on April 9, 1997] +[Most recently updated: September 25, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE DUCHESS OF PADUA *** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1916 Methuen and Co. edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +THE DUCHESS OF PADUA + + + + +THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY + + +Simone Gesso, Duke of Padua +Beatrice, his Wife +Andreas Pollajuolo, Cardinal of Padua +Maffio Petrucci, } +Jeppo Vitellozzo, } Gentlemen of the Duke's Household +Taddeo Bardi, } +Guido Ferranti, a Young Man +Ascanio Cristofano, his Friend +Count Moranzone, an Old Man +Bernardo Cavalcanti, Lord Justice of Padua +Hugo, the Headsman +Lucy, a Tire woman + +Servants, Citizens, Soldiers, Monks, Falconers with their hawks and +dogs, etc. + +Place: Padua +Time: The latter half of the Sixteenth Century +Style of Architecture: Italian, Gothic and Romanesque. + +THE SCENES OF THE PLAY + + +ACT I. The Market Place of Padua (25 minutes). +ACT II. Room in the Duke's Palace (36 minutes). +ACT III. Corridor in the Duke's Palace (29 minutes). +ACT IV. The Hall of Justice (31 minutes). +ACT V. The Dungeon (25 minutes). + + + +ACT I + + + +SCENE + +The Market Place of Padua at noon; in the background is the great +Cathedral of Padua; the architecture is Romanesque, and wrought in +black and white marbles; a flight of marble steps leads up to the +Cathedral door; at the foot of the steps are two large stone lions; +the houses on each aide of the stage have coloured awnings from +their windows, and are flanked by stone arcades; on the right of +the stage is the public fountain, with a triton in green bronze +blowing from a conch; around the fountain is a stone seat; the bell +of the Cathedral is ringing, and the citizens, men, women and +children, are passing into the Cathedral. + +[Enter GUIDO FERRANTI and ASCANIO CRISTOFANO.] + +ASCANIO + +Now by my life, Guido, I will go no farther; for if I walk another +step I will have no life left to swear by; this wild-goose errand +of yours! + +[Sits down on the step of the fountain.] + +GUIDO + +I think it must be here. [Goes up to passer-by and doffs his cap.] +Pray, sir, is this the market place, and that the church of Santa +Croce? [Citizen bows.] I thank you, sir. + +ASCANIO + +Well? + +GUIDO + +Ay! it is here. + +ASCANIO + +I would it were somewhere else, for I see no wine-shop. + +GUIDO + +[Taking a letter from his pocket and reading it.] 'The hour noon; +the city, Padua; the place, the market; and the day, Saint Philip's +Day.' + +ASCANIO + +And what of the man, how shall we know him? + +GUIDO + +[reading still] 'I will wear a violet cloak with a silver falcon +broidered on the shoulder.' A brave attire, Ascanio. + +ASCANIO + +I'd sooner have my leathern jerkin. And you think he will tell you +of your father? + +GUIDO + +Why, yes! It is a month ago now, you remember; I was in the +vineyard, just at the corner nearest the road, where the goats used +to get in, a man rode up and asked me was my name Guido, and gave +me this letter, signed 'Your Father's Friend,' bidding me be here +to-day if I would know the secret of my birth, and telling me how +to recognise the writer! I had always thought old Pedro was my +uncle, but he told me that he was not, but that I had been left a +child in his charge by some one he had never since seen. + +ASCANIO + +And you don't know who your father is? + +GUIDO + +No. + +ASCANIO + +No recollection of him even? + +GUIDO + +None, Ascanio, none. + +ASCANIO + +[laughing] Then he could never have boxed your ears so often as my +father did mine. + +GUIDO + +[smiling] I am sure you never deserved it. + +ASCANIO + +Never; and that made it worse. I hadn't the consciousness of guilt +to buoy me up. What hour did you say he fixed? + +GUIDO + +Noon. [Clock in the Cathedral strikes.] + +ASCANIO + +It is that now, and your man has not come. I don't believe in him, +Guido. I think it is some wench who has set her eye at you; and, +as I have followed you from Perugia to Padua, I swear you shall +follow me to the nearest tavern. [Rises.] By the great gods of +eating, Guido, I am as hungry as a widow is for a husband, as tired +as a young maid is of good advice, and as dry as a monk's sermon. +Come, Guido, you stand there looking at nothing, like the fool who +tried to look into his own mind; your man will not come. + +GUIDO + +Well, I suppose you are right. Ah! [Just as he is leaving the +stage with ASCANIO, enter LORD MORANZONE in a violet cloak, with a +silver falcon broidered on the shoulder; he passes across to the +Cathedral, and just as he is going in GUIDO runs up and touches +him.] + +MORANZONE + +Guido Ferranti, thou hast come in time. + +GUIDO + +What! Does my father live? + +MORANZONE + +Ay! lives in thee. +Thou art the same in mould and lineament, +Carriage and form, and outward semblances; +I trust thou art in noble mind the same. + +GUIDO + +Oh, tell me of my father; I have lived +But for this moment. + +MORANZONE + +We must be alone. + +GUIDO + +This is my dearest friend, who out of love +Has followed me to Padua; as two brothers, +There is no secret which we do not share. + +MORANZONE + +There is one secret which ye shall not share; +Bid him go hence. + +GUIDO + +[to ASCANIO] Come back within the hour. +He does not know that nothing in this world +Can dim the perfect mirror of our love. +Within the hour come. + +ASCANIO + +Speak not to him, +There is a dreadful terror in his look. + +GUIDO + +[laughing] +Nay, nay, I doubt not that he has come to tell +That I am some great Lord of Italy, +And we will have long days of joy together. +Within the hour, dear Ascanio. +[Exit ASCANIO.] +Now tell me of my father? +[Sits down on a stone seat.] +Stood he tall? +I warrant he looked tall upon his horse. +His hair was black? or perhaps a reddish gold, +Like a red fire of gold? Was his voice low? +The very bravest men have voices sometimes +Full of low music; or a clarion was it +That brake with terror all his enemies? +Did he ride singly? or with many squires +And valiant gentlemen to serve his state? +For oftentimes methinks I feel my veins +Beat with the blood of kings. Was he a king? + +MORANZONE + +Ay, of all men he was the kingliest. + +GUIDO + +[proudly] Then when you saw my noble father last +He was set high above the heads of men? + +MORANZONE + +Ay, he was high above the heads of men, +[Walks over to GUIDO and puts his hand upon his shoulder.] +On a red scaffold, with a butcher's block +Set for his neck. + +GUIDO + +[leaping up] +What dreadful man art thou, +That like a raven, or the midnight owl, +Com'st with this awful message from the grave? + +MORANZONE + +I am known here as the Count Moranzone, +Lord of a barren castle on a rock, +With a few acres of unkindly land +And six not thrifty servants. But I was one +Of Parma's noblest princes; more than that, +I was your father's friend. + +GUIDO + +[clasping his hand] Tell me of him. + +MORANZONE + +You are the son of that great Duke Lorenzo, +He was the Prince of Parma, and the Duke +Of all the fair domains of Lombardy +Down to the gates of Florence; nay, Florence even +Was wont to pay him tribute - + +GUIDO + +Come to his death. + +MORANZONE + +You will hear that soon enough. Being at war - +O noble lion of war, that would not suffer +Injustice done in Italy!--he led +The very flower of chivalry against +That foul adulterous Lord of Rimini, +Giovanni Malatesta--whom God curse! +And was by him in treacherous ambush taken, +And like a villain, or a low-born knave, +Was by him on the public scaffold murdered. + +GUIDO + +[clutching his dagger] Doth Malatesta live? + +MORANZONE + +No, he is dead. + +GUIDO + +Did you say dead? O too swift runner, Death, +Couldst thou not wait for me a little space, +And I had done thy bidding! + +MORANZONE + +[clutching his wrist] Thou canst do it! +The man who sold thy father is alive. + +GUIDO + +Sold! was my father sold? + +MORANZONE + +Ay! trafficked for, +Like a vile chattel, for a price betrayed, +Bartered and bargained for in privy market +By one whom he had held his perfect friend, +One he had trusted, one he had well loved, +One whom by ties of kindness he had bound - + +GUIDO + +And he lives +Who sold my father? + +MORANZONE + +I will bring you to him. + +GUIDO + +So, Judas, thou art living! well, I will make +This world thy field of blood, so buy it straight-way, +For thou must hang there. + +MORANZONE + +Judas said you, boy? +Yes, Judas in his treachery, but still +He was more wise than Judas was, and held +Those thirty silver pieces not enough. + +GUIDO + +What got he for my father's blood? + +MORANZONE + +What got he? +Why cities, fiefs, and principalities, +Vineyards, and lands. + +GUIDO + +Of which he shall but keep +Six feet of ground to rot in. Where is he, +This damned villain, this foul devil? where? +Show me the man, and come he cased in steel, +In complete panoply and pride of war, +Ay, guarded by a thousand men-at-arms, +Yet I shall reach him through their spears, and feel +The last black drop of blood from his black heart +Crawl down my blade. Show me the man, I say, +And I will kill him. + +MORANZONE + +[coldly] +Fool, what revenge is there? +Death is the common heritage of all, +And death comes best when it comes suddenly. +[Goes up close to GUIDO.] +Your father was betrayed, there is your cue; +For you shall sell the seller in his turn. +I will make you of his household, you shall sit +At the same board with him, eat of his bread - + +GUIDO + +O bitter bread! + +MORANZONE + +Thy palate is too nice, +Revenge will make it sweet. Thou shalt o' nights +Pledge him in wine, drink from his cup, and be +His intimate, so he will fawn on thee, +Love thee, and trust thee in all secret things. +If he bid thee be merry thou must laugh, +And if it be his humour to be sad +Thou shalt don sables. Then when the time is ripe - +[GUIDO clutches his sword.] +Nay, nay, I trust thee not; your hot young blood, +Undisciplined nature, and too violent rage +Will never tarry for this great revenge, +But wreck itself on passion. + +GUIDO + +Thou knowest me not. +Tell me the man, and I in everything +Will do thy bidding. + +MORANZONE + +Well, when the time is ripe, +The victim trusting and the occasion sure, +I will by sudden secret messenger +Send thee a sign. + +GUIDO + +How shall I kill him, tell me? + +MORANZONE + +That night thou shalt creep into his private chamber; +But if he sleep see that thou wake him first, +And hold thy hand upon his throat, ay! that way, +Then having told him of what blood thou art, +Sprung from what father, and for what revenge, +Bid him to pray for mercy; when he prays, +Bid him to set a price upon his life, +And when he strips himself of all his gold +Tell him thou needest not gold, and hast not mercy, +And do thy business straight away. Swear to me +Thou wilt not kill him till I bid thee do it, +Or else I go to mine own house, and leave +Thee ignorant, and thy father unavenged. + +GUIDO + +Now by my father's sword - + +MORANZONE + +The common hangman +Brake that in sunder in the public square. + +GUIDO + +Then by my father's grave - + +MORANZONE + +What grave? what grave? +Your noble father lieth in no grave, +I saw his dust strewn on the air, his ashes +Whirled through the windy streets like common straws +To plague a beggar's eyesight, and his head, +That gentle head, set on the prison spike, +For the vile rabble in their insolence +To shoot their tongues at. + +GUIDO + +Was it so indeed? +Then by my father's spotless memory, +And by the shameful manner of his death, +And by the base betrayal by his friend, +For these at least remain, by these I swear +I will not lay my hand upon his life +Until you bid me, then--God help his soul, +For he shall die as never dog died yet. +And now, the sign, what is it? + +MORANZONE + +This dagger, boy; +It was your father's. + +GUIDO + +Oh, let me look at it! +I do remember now my reputed uncle, +That good old husbandman I left at home, +Told me a cloak wrapped round me when a babe +Bare too such yellow leopards wrought in gold; +I like them best in steel, as they are here, +They suit my purpose better. Tell me, sir, +Have you no message from my father to me? + +MORANZONE + +Poor boy, you never saw that noble father, +For when by his false friend he had been sold, +Alone of all his gentlemen I escaped +To bear the news to Parma to the Duchess. + +GUIDO + +Speak to me of my mother. + +MORANZONE + +When thy mother +Heard my black news, she fell into a swoon, +And, being with untimely travail seized - +Bare thee into the world before thy time, +And then her soul went heavenward, to wait +Thy father, at the gates of Paradise. + +GUIDO + +A mother dead, a father sold and bartered! +I seem to stand on some beleaguered wall, +And messenger comes after messenger +With a new tale of terror; give me breath, +Mine ears are tired. + +MORANZONE + +When thy mother died, +Fearing our enemies, I gave it out +Thou wert dead also, and then privily +Conveyed thee to an ancient servitor, +Who by Perugia lived; the rest thou knowest. + +GUIDO + +Saw you my father afterwards? + +MORANZONE + +Ay! once; +In mean attire, like a vineyard dresser, +I stole to Rimini. + +GUIDO + +[taking his hand] +O generous heart! + +MORANZONE + +One can buy everything in Rimini, +And so I bought the gaolers! when your father +Heard that a man child had been born to him, +His noble face lit up beneath his helm +Like a great fire seen far out at sea, +And taking my two hands, he bade me, Guido, +To rear you worthy of him; so I have reared you +To revenge his death upon the friend who sold him. + +GUIDO + +Thou hast done well; I for my father thank thee. +And now his name? + +MORANZONE + +How you remind me of him, +You have each gesture that your father had. + +GUIDO + +The traitor's name? + +MORANZONE + +Thou wilt hear that anon; +The Duke and other nobles at the Court +Are coming hither. + +GUIDO + +What of that? his name? + +MORANZONE + +Do they not seem a valiant company +Of honourable, honest gentlemen? + +GUIDO + +His name, milord? + +[Enter the DUKE OF PADUA with COUNT BARDI, MAFFIO, PETRUCCI, and +other gentlemen of his Court.] + +MORANZONE + +[quickly] +The man to whom I kneel +Is he who sold your father! mark me well. + +GUIDO + +[clutches hit dagger] +The Duke! + +MORANZONE + +Leave off that fingering of thy knife. +Hast thou so soon forgotten? +[Kneels to the DUKE.] +My noble Lord. + +DUKE + +Welcome, Count Moranzone; 'tis some time +Since we have seen you here in Padua. +We hunted near your castle yesterday - +Call you it castle? that bleak house of yours +Wherein you sit a-mumbling o'er your beads, +Telling your vices like a good old man. +[Catches sight of GUIDO and starts back.] +Who is that? + +MORANZONE + +My sister's son, your Grace, +Who being now of age to carry arms, +Would for a season tarry at your Court + +DUKE + +[still looking at GUIDO] +What is his name? + +MORANZONE + +Guido Ferranti, sir. + +DUKE + +His city? + +MORANZONE + +He is Mantuan by birth. + +DUKE + +[advancing towards GUIDO] +You have the eyes of one I used to know, +But he died childless. Are you honest, boy? +Then be not spendthrift of your honesty, +But keep it to yourself; in Padua +Men think that honesty is ostentatious, so +It is not of the fashion. Look at these lords. + +COUNT BARDI + +[aside] +Here is some bitter arrow for us, sure. + +DUKE + +Why, every man among them has his price, +Although, to do them justice, some of them +Are quite expensive. + +COUNT BARDI + +[aside] +There it comes indeed. + +DUKE + +So be not honest; eccentricity +Is not a thing should ever be encouraged, +Although, in this dull stupid age of ours, +The most eccentric thing a man can do +Is to have brains, then the mob mocks at him; +And for the mob, despise it as I do, +I hold its bubble praise and windy favours +In such account, that popularity +Is the one insult I have never suffered. + +MAFFIO + +[aside] + +He has enough of hate, if he needs that. + +DUKE + +Have prudence; in your dealings with the world +Be not too hasty; act on the second thought, +First impulses are generally good. + +GUIDO + +[aside] +Surely a toad sits on his lips, and spills its venom there. + +DUKE + +See thou hast enemies, +Else will the world think very little of thee; +It is its test of power; yet see thou show'st +A smiling mask of friendship to all men, +Until thou hast them safely in thy grip, +Then thou canst crush them. + +GUIDO + +[aside] +O wise philosopher! +That for thyself dost dig so deep a grave. + +MORANZONE + +[to him] +Dost thou mark his words? + +GUIDO + +Oh, be thou sure I do. + +DUKE + +And be not over-scrupulous; clean hands +With nothing in them make a sorry show. +If you would have the lion's share of life +You must wear the fox's skin. Oh, it will fit you; +It is a coat which fitteth every man. + +GUIDO + +Your Grace, I shall remember. + +DUKE + +That is well, boy, well. +I would not have about me shallow fools, +Who with mean scruples weigh the gold of life, +And faltering, paltering, end by failure; failure, +The only crime which I have not committed: +I would have MEN about me. As for conscience, +Conscience is but the name which cowardice +Fleeing from battle scrawls upon its shield. +You understand me, boy? + +GUIDO + +I do, your Grace, +And will in all things carry out the creed +Which you have taught me. + +MAFFIO + +I never heard your Grace +So much in the vein for preaching; let the Cardinal +Look to his laurels, sir. + +DUKE + +The Cardinal! +Men follow my creed, and they gabble his. +I do not think much of the Cardinal; +Although he is a holy churchman, and +I quite admit his dulness. Well, sir, from now +We count you of our household +[He holds out his hand for GUIDO to kiss. GUIDO starts back in +horror, but at a gesture from COUNT MORANZONE, kneels and kisses +it.] +We will see +That you are furnished with such equipage +As doth befit your honour and our state. + +GUIDO + +I thank your Grace most heartily. + +DUKE + +Tell me again +What is your name? + +GUIDO + +Guido Ferranti, sir. + +DUKE + +And you are Mantuan? Look to your wives, my lords, +When such a gallant comes to Padua. +Thou dost well to laugh, Count Bardi; I have noted +How merry is that husband by whose hearth +Sits an uncomely wife. + +MAFFIO + +May it please your Grace, +The wives of Padua are above suspicion. + +DUKE + +What, are they so ill-favoured! Let us go, +This Cardinal detains our pious Duchess; +His sermon and his beard want cutting both: +Will you come with us, sir, and hear a text +From holy Jerome? + +MORANZONE + +[bowing] +My liege, there are some matters - + +DUKE + +[interrupting] +Thou need'st make no excuse for missing mass. +Come, gentlemen. +[Exit with his suite into Cathedral.] + +GUIDO + +[after a pause] +So the Duke sold my father; +I kissed his hand. + +MORANZONE + +Thou shalt do that many times. + +GUIDO + +Must it be so? + +MORANZONE + +Ay! thou hast sworn an oath. + +GUIDO + +That oath shall make me marble. + +MORANZONE + +Farewell, boy, +Thou wilt not see me till the time is ripe. + +GUIDO + +I pray thou comest quickly. + +MORANZONE + +I will come +When it is time; be ready. + +GUIDO + +Fear me not. + +MORANZONE + +Here is your friend; see that you banish him +Both from your heart and Padua. + +GUIDO + +From Padua, +Not from my heart. + +MORANZONE + +Nay, from thy heart as well, +I will not leave thee till I see thee do it. + +GUIDO + +Can I have no friend? + +MORANZONE + +Revenge shall be thy friend; +Thou need'st no other. + +GUIDO + +Well, then be it so. +[Enter ASCANIO CRISTOFANO.] + +ASCANIO + +Come, Guido, I have been beforehand with you in everything, for I +have drunk a flagon of wine, eaten a pasty, and kissed the maid who +served it. Why, you look as melancholy as a schoolboy who cannot +buy apples, or a politician who cannot sell his vote. What news, +Guido, what news? + +GUIDO + +Why, that we two must part, Ascanio. + +ASCANIO + +That would be news indeed, but it is not true. + +GUIDO + +Too true it is, you must get hence, Ascanio, +And never look upon my face again. + +ASCANIO + +No, no; indeed you do not know me, Guido; +'Tis true I am a common yeoman's son, +Nor versed in fashions of much courtesy; +But, if you are nobly born, cannot I be +Your serving man? I will tend you with more love +Than any hired servant. + +GUIDO + +[clasping his hand] +Ascanio! +[Sees MORANZONE looking at him and drops ASCANIO'S hand.] +It cannot be. + +ASCANIO + +What, is it so with you? +I thought the friendship of the antique world +Was not yet dead, but that the Roman type +Might even in this poor and common age +Find counterparts of love; then by this love +Which beats between us like a summer sea, +Whatever lot has fallen to your hand +May I not share it? + +GUIDO + +Share it? + +ASCANIO + +Ay! + +GUIDO + +No, no. + +ASCANIO + +Have you then come to some inheritance +Of lordly castle, or of stored-up gold? + +GUIDO + +[bitterly] +Ay! I have come to my inheritance. +O bloody legacy! and O murderous dole! +Which, like the thrifty miser, must I hoard, +And to my own self keep; and so, I pray you, +Let us part here. + +ASCANIO + +What, shall we never more +Sit hand in hand, as we were wont to sit, +Over some book of ancient chivalry +Stealing a truant holiday from school, +Follow the huntsmen through the autumn woods, +And watch the falcons burst their tasselled jesses, +When the hare breaks from covert. + +GUIDO + +Never more. + +ASCANIO + +Must I go hence without a word of love? + +GUIDO + +You must go hence, and may love go with you. + +ASCANIO + +You are unknightly, and ungenerous. + +GUIDO + +Unknightly and ungenerous if you will. +Why should we waste more words about the matter +Let us part now. + +ASCANIO + +Have you no message, Guido? + +GUIDO + +None; my whole past was but a schoolboy's dream; +To-day my life begins. Farewell. + +ASCANIO + +Farewell [exit slowly.] + +GUIDO + +Now are you satisfied? Have you not seen +My dearest friend, and my most loved companion, +Thrust from me like a common kitchen knave! +Oh, that I did it! Are you not satisfied? + +MORANZONE + +Ay! I am satisfied. Now I go hence, +Do not forget the sign, your father's dagger, +And do the business when I send it to you. + +GUIDO + +Be sure I shall. [Exit LORD MORANZONE.] + +GUIDO + +O thou eternal heaven! +If there is aught of nature in my soul, +Of gentle pity, or fond kindliness, +Wither it up, blast it, bring it to nothing, +Or if thou wilt not, then will I myself +Cut pity with a sharp knife from my heart +And strangle mercy in her sleep at night +Lest she speak to me. Vengeance there I have it. +Be thou my comrade and my bedfellow, +Sit by my side, ride to the chase with me, +When I am weary sing me pretty songs, +When I am light o' heart, make jest with me, +And when I dream, whisper into my ear +The dreadful secret of a father's murder - +Did I say murder? [Draws his dagger.] +Listen, thou terrible God! +Thou God that punishest all broken oaths, +And bid some angel write this oath in fire, +That from this hour, till my dear father's murder +In blood I have revenged, I do forswear +The noble ties of honourable friendship, +The noble joys of dear companionship, +Affection's bonds, and loyal gratitude, +Ay, more, from this same hour I do forswear +All love of women, and the barren thing +Which men call beauty - +[The organ peals in the Cathedral, and under a canopy of cloth of +silver tissue, borne by four pages in scarlet, the DUCHESS OF PADUA +comes down the steps; as she passes across their eyes meet for a +moment, and as she leaves the stage she looks back at GUIDO, and +the dagger falls from his hand.] +Oh! who is that? + +A CITIZEN + +The Duchess of Padua! + +END OF ACT I. + + + +ACT II + + + +SCENE + +A state room in the Ducal Palace, hung with tapestries representing +the Masque of Venus; a large door in the centre opens into a +corridor of red marble, through which one can see a view of Padua; +a large canopy is set (R.C.) with three thrones, one a little lower +than the others; the ceiling is made of long gilded beams; +furniture of the period, chairs covered with gilt leather, and +buffets set with gold and silver plate, and chests painted with +mythological scenes. A number of the courtiers is out on the +corridor looking from it down into the street below; from the +street comes the roar of a mob and cries of 'Death to the Duke': +after a little interval enter the Duke very calmly; he is leaning +on the arm of Guido Ferranti; with him enters also the Lord +Cardinal; the mob still shouting. + +DUKE + +No, my Lord Cardinal, I weary of her! +Why, she is worse than ugly, she is good. + +MAFFIO + +[excitedly] +Your Grace, there are two thousand people there +Who every moment grow more clamorous. + +DUKE + +Tut, man, they waste their strength upon their lungs! +People who shout so loud, my lords, do nothing; +The only men I fear are silent men. +[A yell from the people.] +You see, Lord Cardinal, how my people love me. +[Another yell.] Go, Petrucci, +And tell the captain of the guard below +To clear the square. Do you not hear me, sir? +Do what I bid you. + +[Exit PETRUCCI.] + +CARDINAL + +I beseech your Grace +To listen to their grievances. + +DUKE + +[sitting on his throne] +Ay! the peaches +Are not so big this year as they were last. +I crave your pardon, my lord Cardinal, +I thought you spake of peaches. +[A cheer from the people.] +What is that? + +GUIDO + +[rushes to the window] +The Duchess has gone forth into the square, +And stands between the people and the guard, +And will not let them shoot. + +DUKE + +The devil take her! + +GUIDO + +[still at the window] +And followed by a dozen of the citizens +Has come into the Palace. + +DUKE + +[starting up] +By Saint James, +Our Duchess waxes bold! + +BARDI + +Here comes the Duchess. + +DUKE + +Shut that door there; this morning air is cold. +[They close the door on the corridor.] +[Enter the Duchess followed by a crowd of meanly dressed Citizens.] + +DUCHESS + +[flinging herself upon her knees] +I do beseech your Grace to give us audience. + +DUKE + +What are these grievances? + +DUCHESS + +Alas, my Lord, +Such common things as neither you nor I, +Nor any of these noble gentlemen, +Have ever need at all to think about; +They say the bread, the very bread they eat, +Is made of sorry chaff. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Ay! so it is, +Nothing but chaff. + +DUKE + +And very good food too, +I give it to my horses. + +DUCHESS + +[restraining herself] +They say the water, +Set in the public cisterns for their use, +[Has, through the breaking of the aqueduct,] +To stagnant pools and muddy puddles turned. + +DUKE + +They should drink wine; water is quite unwholesome. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Alack, your Grace, the taxes which the customs +Take at the city gate are grown so high +We cannot buy wine. + +DUKE + +Then you should bless the taxes +Which make you temperate. + +DUCHESS + +Think, while we sit +In gorgeous pomp and state, gaunt poverty +Creeps through their sunless lanes, and with sharp knives +Cuts the warm throats of children stealthily +And no word said. + +THIRD CITIZEN + +Ay! marry, that is true, +My little son died yesternight from hunger; +He was but six years old; I am so poor, +I cannot bury him. + +DUKE + +If you are poor, +Are you not blessed in that? Why, poverty +Is one of the Christian virtues, +[Turns to the CARDINAL.] +Is it not? +I know, Lord Cardinal, you have great revenues, +Rich abbey-lands, and tithes, and large estates +For preaching voluntary poverty. + +DUCHESS + +Nay but, my lord the Duke, be generous; +While we sit here within a noble house +[With shaded porticoes against the sun, +And walls and roofs to keep the winter out], +There are many citizens of Padua +Who in vile tenements live so full of holes, +That the chill rain, the snow, and the rude blast, +Are tenants also with them; others sleep +Under the arches of the public bridges +All through the autumn nights, till the wet mist +Stiffens their limbs, and fevers come, and so - + +DUKE + +And so they go to Abraham's bosom, Madam. +They should thank me for sending them to Heaven, +If they are wretched here. +[To the CARDINAL.] +Is it not said +Somewhere in Holy Writ, that every man +Should be contented with that state of life +God calls him to? Why should I change their state, +Or meddle with an all-wise providence, +Which has apportioned that some men should starve, +And others surfeit? I did not make the world. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +He hath a hard heart. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Nay, be silent, neighbour; +I think the Cardinal will speak for us. + +CARDINAL + +True, it is Christian to bear misery, +Yet it is Christian also to be kind, +And there seem many evils in this town, +Which in your wisdom might your Grace reform. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +What is that word reform? What does it mean? + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Marry, it means leaving things as they are; I like it not. + +DUKE + +Reform Lord Cardinal, did YOU say reform? +There is a man in Germany called Luther, +Who would reform the Holy Catholic Church. +Have you not made him heretic, and uttered +Anathema, maranatha, against him? + +CARDINAL + +[rising from his seat] +He would have led the sheep out of the fold, +We do but ask of you to feed the sheep. + +DUKE + +When I have shorn their fleeces I may feed them. +As for these rebels - +[DUCHESS entreats him.] + +FIRST CITIZEN + +That is a kind word, +He means to give us something. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Is that so? + +DUKE + +These ragged knaves who come before us here, +With mouths chock-full of treason. + +THIRD CITIZEN + +Good my Lord, +Fill up our mouths with bread; we'll hold our tongues. + +DUKE + +Ye shall hold your tongues, whether you starve or not. +My lords, this age is so familiar grown, +That the low peasant hardly doffs his hat, +Unless you beat him; and the raw mechanic +Elbows the noble in the public streets. +[To the Citizens.] +Still as our gentle Duchess has so prayed us, +And to refuse so beautiful a beggar +Were to lack both courtesy and love, +Touching your grievances, I promise this - + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Marry, he will lighten the taxes! + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Or a dole of bread, think you, for each man? + +DUKE + +That, on next Sunday, the Lord Cardinal +Shall, after Holy Mass, preach you a sermon +Upon the Beauty of Obedience. +[Citizens murmur.] + +FIRST CITIZEN + +I' faith, that will not fill our stomachs! + +SECOND CITIZEN + +A sermon is but a sorry sauce, when +You have nothing to eat with it. + +DUCHESS + +Poor people, +You see I have no power with the Duke, +But if you go into the court without, +My almoner shall from my private purse, +Divide a hundred ducats 'mongst you all. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +God save the Duchess, say I. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +God save her. + +DUCHESS + +And every Monday morn shall bread be set +For those who lack it. +[Citizens applaud and go out.] + +FIRST CITIZEN + +[going out] +Why, God save the Duchess again! + +DUKE + +[calling him back] +Come hither, fellow! what is your name? + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Dominick, sir. + +DUKE + +A good name! Why were you called Dominick? + +FIRST CITIZEN + +[scratching his head] +Marry, because I was born on St. George's day. + +DUKE + +A good reason! here is a ducat for you! +Will you not cry for me God save the Duke? + +FIRST CITIZEN + +[feebly] +God save the Duke. + +DUKE + +Nay! louder, fellow, louder. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +[a little louder] +God save the Duke! + +DUKE + +More lustily, fellow, put more heart in it! +Here is another ducat for you. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +[enthusiastically] +God save the Duke! + +DUKE + +[mockingly] +Why, gentlemen, this simple fellow's love +Touches me much. [To the Citizen, harshly.] +Go! [Exit Citizen, bowing.] +This is the way, my lords, +You can buy popularity nowadays. +Oh, we are nothing if not democratic! +[To the DUCHESS.] +Well, Madam, +You spread rebellion 'midst our citizens. + +DUCHESS + +My Lord, the poor have rights you cannot touch, +The right to pity, and the right to mercy. + +DUKE + +So, so, you argue with me? This is she, +The gentle Duchess for whose hand I yielded +Three of the fairest towns in Italy, +Pisa, and Genoa, and Orvieto. + +DUCHESS + +Promised, my Lord, not yielded: in that matter +Brake you your word as ever. + +DUKE + +You wrong us, Madam, +There were state reasons. + +DUCHESS + +What state reasons are there +For breaking holy promises to a state? + +DUKE + +There are wild boars at Pisa in a forest +Close to the city: when I promised Pisa +Unto your noble and most trusting father, +I had forgotten there was hunting there. +At Genoa they say, +Indeed I doubt them not, that the red mullet +Runs larger in the harbour of that town +Than anywhere in Italy. +[Turning to one of the Court.] +You, my lord, +Whose gluttonous appetite is your only god, +Could satisfy our Duchess on that point. + +DUCHESS + +And Orvieto? + +DUKE + +[yawning] +I cannot now recall +Why I did not surrender Orvieto +According to the word of my contract. +Maybe it was because I did not choose. +[Goes over to the DUCHESS.] +Why look you, Madam, you are here alone; +'Tis many a dusty league to your grey France, +And even there your father barely keeps +A hundred ragged squires for his Court. +What hope have you, I say? Which of these lords +And noble gentlemen of Padua +Stands by your side. + +DUCHESS + +There is not one. + +[GUIDO starts, but restrains himself.] + +DUKE + +Nor shall be, +While I am Duke in Padua: listen, Madam, +Being mine own, you shall do as I will, +And if it be my will you keep the house, +Why then, this palace shall your prison be; +And if it be my will you walk abroad, +Why, you shall take the air from morn to night. + +DUCHESS + +Sir, by what right -? + +DUKE + +Madam, my second Duchess +Asked the same question once: her monument +Lies in the chapel of Bartholomew, +Wrought in red marble; very beautiful. +Guido, your arm. Come, gentlemen, let us go +And spur our falcons for the mid-day chase. +Bethink you, Madam, you are here alone. +[Exit the DUKE leaning on GUIDO, with his Court.] + +DUCHESS + +[looking after them] +The Duke said rightly that I was alone; +Deserted, and dishonoured, and defamed, +Stood ever woman so alone indeed? +Men when they woo us call us pretty children, +Tell us we have not wit to make our lives, +And so they mar them for us. Did I say woo? +We are their chattels, and their common slaves, +Less dear than the poor hound that licks their hand, +Less fondled than the hawk upon their wrist. +Woo, did I say? bought rather, sold and bartered, +Our very bodies being merchandise. +I know it is the general lot of women, +Each miserably mated to some man +Wrecks her own life upon his selfishness: +That it is general makes it not less bitter. +I think I never heard a woman laugh, +Laugh for pure merriment, except one woman, +That was at night time, in the public streets. +Poor soul, she walked with painted lips, and wore +The mask of pleasure: I would not laugh like her; +No, death were better. +[Enter GUIDO behind unobserved; the DUCHESS flings herself down +before a picture of the Madonna.] +O Mary mother, with your sweet pale face +Bending between the little angel heads +That hover round you, have you no help for me? +Mother of God, have you no help for me? + +GUIDO + +I can endure no longer. +This is my love, and I will speak to her. +Lady, am I a stranger to your prayers? + +DUCHESS + +[rising] +None but the wretched needs my prayers, my lord. + +GUIDO + +Then must I need them, lady. + +DUCHESS + +How is that? +Does not the Duke show thee sufficient honour? + +GUIDO + +Your Grace, I lack no favours from the Duke, +Whom my soul loathes as I loathe wickedness, +But come to proffer on my bended knees, +My loyal service to thee unto death. + +DUCHESS + +Alas! I am so fallen in estate +I can but give thee a poor meed of thanks. + +GUIDO + +[seizing her hand] +Hast thou no love to give me? +[The DUCHESS starts, and GUIDO falls at her feet.] +O dear saint, +If I have been too daring, pardon me! +Thy beauty sets my boyish blood aflame, +And, when my reverent lips touch thy white hand, +Each little nerve with such wild passion thrills +That there is nothing which I would not do +To gain thy love. [Leaps up.] +Bid me reach forth and pluck +Perilous honour from the lion's jaws, +And I will wrestle with the Nemean beast +On the bare desert! Fling to the cave of War +A gaud, a ribbon, a dead flower, something +That once has touched thee, and I'll bring it back +Though all the hosts of Christendom were there, +Inviolate again! ay, more than this, +Set me to scale the pallid white-faced cliffs +Of mighty England, and from that arrogant shield +Will I raze out the lilies of your France +Which England, that sea-lion of the sea, +Hath taken from her! +O dear Beatrice, +Drive me not from thy presence! without thee +The heavy minutes crawl with feet of lead, +But, while I look upon thy loveliness, +The hours fly like winged Mercuries +And leave existence golden. + +DUCHESS + +I did not think +I should be ever loved: do you indeed +Love me so much as now you say you do? + +GUIDO + +Ask of the sea-bird if it loves the sea, +Ask of the roses if they love the rain, +Ask of the little lark, that will not sing +Till day break, if it loves to see the day:- +And yet, these are but empty images, +Mere shadows of my love, which is a fire +So great that all the waters of the main +Can not avail to quench it. Will you not speak? + +DUCHESS + +I hardly know what I should say to you. + +GUIDO + +Will you not say you love me? + +DUCHESS + +Is that my lesson? +Must I say all at once? 'Twere a good lesson +If I did love you, sir; but, if I do not, +What shall I say then? + +GUIDO + +If you do not love me, +Say, none the less, you do, for on your tongue +Falsehood for very shame would turn to truth. + +DUCHESS + +What if I do not speak at all? They say +Lovers are happiest when they are in doubt + +GUIDO + +Nay, doubt would kill me, and if I must die, +Why, let me die for joy and not for doubt. +Oh, tell me may I stay, or must I go? + +DUCHESS + +I would not have you either stay or go; +For if you stay you steal my love from me, +And if you go you take my love away. +Guido, though all the morning stars could sing +They could not tell the measure of my love. +I love you, Guido. + +GUIDO + +[stretching out his hands] +Oh, do not cease at all; +I thought the nightingale sang but at night; +Or if thou needst must cease, then let my lips +Touch the sweet lips that can such music make. + +DUCHESS + +To touch my lips is not to touch my heart. + +GUIDO + +Do you close that against me? + +DUCHESS + +Alas! my lord, +I have it not: the first day that I saw you +I let you take my heart away from me; +Unwilling thief, that without meaning it +Did break into my fenced treasury +And filch my jewel from it! O strange theft, +Which made you richer though you knew it not, +And left me poorer, and yet glad of it! + +GUIDO + +[clasping her in his arms] +O love, love, love! Nay, sweet, lift up your head, +Let me unlock those little scarlet doors +That shut in music, let me dive for coral +In your red lips, and I'll bear back a prize +Richer than all the gold the Gryphon guards +In rude Armenia. + +DUCHESS + +You are my lord, +And what I have is yours, and what I have not +Your fancy lends me, like a prodigal +Spending its wealth on what is nothing worth. +[Kisses him.] + +GUIDO + +Methinks I am bold to look upon you thus: +The gentle violet hides beneath its leaf +And is afraid to look at the great sun +For fear of too much splendour, but my eyes, +O daring eyes! are grown so venturous +That like fixed stars they stand, gazing at you, +And surfeit sense with beauty. + +DUCHESS + +Dear love, I would +You could look upon me ever, for your eyes +Are polished mirrors, and when I peer +Into those mirrors I can see myself, +And so I know my image lives in you. + +GUIDO + +[taking her in his arms] +Stand still, thou hurrying orb in the high heavens, +And make this hour immortal! [A pause.] + +DUCHESS + +Sit down here, +A little lower than me: yes, just so, sweet, +That I may run my fingers through your hair, +And see your face turn upwards like a flower +To meet my kiss. +Have you not sometimes noted, +When we unlock some long-disused room +With heavy dust and soiling mildew filled, +Where never foot of man has come for years, +And from the windows take the rusty bar, +And fling the broken shutters to the air, +And let the bright sun in, how the good sun +Turns every grimy particle of dust +Into a little thing of dancing gold? +Guido, my heart is that long-empty room, +But you have let love in, and with its gold +Gilded all life. Do you not think that love +Fills up the sum of life? + +GUIDO + +Ay! without love +Life is no better than the unhewn stone +Which in the quarry lies, before the sculptor +Has set the God within it. Without love +Life is as silent as the common reeds +That through the marshes or by rivers grow, +And have no music in them. + +DUCHESS + +Yet out of these +The singer, who is Love, will make a pipe +And from them he draws music; so I think +Love will bring music out of any life. +Is that not true? + +GUIDO + +Sweet, women make it true. +There are men who paint pictures, and carve statues, +Paul of Verona and the dyer's son, +Or their great rival, who, by the sea at Venice, +Has set God's little maid upon the stair, +White as her own white lily, and as tall, +Or Raphael, whose Madonnas are divine +Because they are mothers merely; yet I think +Women are the best artists of the world, +For they can take the common lives of men +Soiled with the money-getting of our age, +And with love make them beautiful. + +DUCHESS + +Ah, dear, +I wish that you and I were very poor; +The poor, who love each other, are so rich. + +GUIDO + +Tell me again you love me, Beatrice. + +DUCHESS + +[fingering his collar] +How well this collar lies about your throat. +[LORD MORANZONE looks through the door from the corridor outside.] + +GUIDO + +Nay, tell me that you love me. + +DUCHESS + +I remember, +That when I was a child in my dear France, +Being at Court at Fontainebleau, the King +Wore such a collar. + +GUIDO + +Will you not say you love me? + +DUCHESS + +[smiling] +He was a very royal man, King Francis, +Yet he was not royal as you are. +Why need I tell you, Guido, that I love you? +[Takes his head in her hands and turns his face up to her.] +Do you not know that I am yours for ever, +Body and soul? +[Kisses him, and then suddenly catches sight of MORANZONE and leaps +up.] +Oh, what is that? [MORANZONE disappears.] + +GUIDO + +What, love? + +DUCHESS + +Methought I saw a face with eyes of flame +Look at us through the doorway. + +GUIDO + +Nay, 'twas nothing: +The passing shadow of the man on guard. +[The DUCHESS still stands looking at the window.] +'Twas nothing, sweet. + +DUCHESS + +Ay! what can harm us now, +Who are in Love's hand? I do not think I'd care +Though the vile world should with its lackey Slander +Trample and tread upon my life; why should I? +They say the common field-flowers of the field +Have sweeter scent when they are trodden on +Than when they bloom alone, and that some herbs +Which have no perfume, on being bruised die +With all Arabia round them; so it is +With the young lives this dull world seeks to crush, +It does but bring the sweetness out of them, +And makes them lovelier often. And besides, +While we have love we have the best of life: +Is it not so? + +GUIDO + +Dear, shall we play or sing? +I think that I could sing now. + +DUCHESS + +Do not speak, +For there are times when all existences +Seem narrowed to one single ecstasy, +And Passion sets a seal upon the lips. + +GUIDO + +Oh, with mine own lips let me break that seal! +You love me, Beatrice? + +DUCHESS + +Ay! is it not strange +I should so love mine enemy? + +GUIDO + +Who is he? + +DUCHESS + +Why, you: that with your shaft did pierce my heart! +Poor heart, that lived its little lonely life +Until it met your arrow. + +GUIDO + +Ah, dear love, +I am so wounded by that bolt myself +That with untended wounds I lie a-dying, +Unless you cure me, dear Physician. + +DUCHESS + +I would not have you cured; for I am sick +With the same malady. + +GUIDO + +Oh, how I love you! +See, I must steal the cuckoo's voice, and tell +The one tale over. + +DUCHESS + +Tell no other tale! +For, if that is the little cuckoo's song, +The nightingale is hoarse, and the loud lark +Has lost its music. + +GUIDO + +Kiss me, Beatrice! +[She takes his face in her hands and bends down and kisses him; a +loud knocking then comes at the door, and GUIDO leaps up; enter a +Servant.] + +SERVANT + +A package for you, sir. + +GUIDO + +[carelessly] Ah! give it to me. [Servant hands package wrapped in +vermilion silk, and exit; as GUIDO is about to open it the DUCHESS +comes up behind, and in sport takes it from him.] + +DUCHESS + +[laughing] +Now I will wager it is from some girl +Who would have you wear her favour; I am so jealous +I will not give up the least part in you, +But like a miser keep you to myself, +And spoil you perhaps in keeping. + +GUIDO + +It is nothing. + +DUCHESS + +Nay, it is from some girl. + +GUIDO + +You know 'tis not. + +DUCHESS + +[turns her back and opens it] +Now, traitor, tell me what does this sign mean, +A dagger with two leopards wrought in steel? + +GUIDO + +[taking it from her] O God! + +DUCHESS + +I'll from the window look, and try +If I can't see the porter's livery +Who left it at the gate! I will not rest +Till I have learned your secret. +[Runs laughing into the corridor.] + +GUIDO + +Oh, horrible! +Had I so soon forgot my father's death, +Did I so soon let love into my heart, +And must I banish love, and let in murder +That beats and clamours at the outer gate? +Ay, that I must! Have I not sworn an oath? +Yet not to-night; nay, it must be to-night. +Farewell then all the joy and light of life, +All dear recorded memories, farewell, +Farewell all love! Could I with bloody hands +Fondle and paddle with her innocent hands? +Could I with lips fresh from this butchery +Play with her lips? Could I with murderous eyes +Look in those violet eyes, whose purity +Would strike men blind, and make each eyeball reel +In night perpetual? No, murder has set +A barrier between us far too high +For us to kiss across it. + +DUCHESS + +Guido! + +GUIDO + +Beatrice, +You must forget that name, and banish me +Out of your life for ever. + +DUCHESS + +[going towards him] +O dear love! + +GUIDO + +[stepping back] +There lies a barrier between us two +We dare not pass. + +DUCHESS + +I dare do anything +So that you are beside me. + +GUIDO + +Ah! There it is, +I cannot be beside you, cannot breathe +The air you breathe; I cannot any more +Stand face to face with beauty, which unnerves +My shaking heart, and makes my desperate hand +Fail of its purpose. Let me go hence, I pray; +Forget you ever looked upon me. + +DUCHESS + +What! +With your hot kisses fresh upon my lips +Forget the vows of love you made to me? + +GUIDO + +I take them back. + +DUCHESS + +Alas, you cannot, Guido, +For they are part of nature now; the air +Is tremulous with their music, and outside +The little birds sing sweeter for those vows. + +GUIDO + +There lies a barrier between us now, +Which then I knew not, or I had forgot. + +DUCHESS + +There is no barrier, Guido; why, I will go +In poor attire, and will follow you +Over the world. + +GUIDO + +[wildly] +The world's not wide enough +To hold us two! Farewell, farewell for ever. + +DUCHESS + +[calm, and controlling her passion] +Why did you come into my life at all, then, +Or in the desolate garden of my heart +Sow that white flower of love -? + +GUIDO + +O Beatrice! + +DUCHESS + +Which now you would dig up, uproot, tear out, +Though each small fibre doth so hold my heart +That if you break one, my heart breaks with it? +Why did you come into my life? Why open +The secret wells of love I had sealed up? +Why did you open them -? + +GUIDO + +O God! + +DUCHESS + +[clenching her hand] +And let +The floodgates of my passion swell and burst +Till, like the wave when rivers overflow +That sweeps the forest and the farm away, +Love in the splendid avalanche of its might +Swept my life with it? Must I drop by drop +Gather these waters back and seal them up? +Alas! Each drop will be a tear, and so +Will with its saltness make life very bitter. + +GUIDO + +I pray you speak no more, for I must go +Forth from your life and love, and make a way +On which you cannot follow. + +DUCHESS + +I have heard +That sailors dying of thirst upon a raft, +Poor castaways upon a lonely sea, +Dream of green fields and pleasant water-courses, +And then wake up with red thirst in their throats, +And die more miserably because sleep +Has cheated them: so they die cursing sleep +For having sent them dreams: I will not curse you +Though I am cast away upon the sea +Which men call Desolation. + +GUIDO + +O God, God! + +DUCHESS + +But you will stay: listen, I love you, Guido. +[She waits a little.] +Is echo dead, that when I say I love you +There is no answer? + +GUIDO + +Everything is dead, +Save one thing only, which shall die to-night! + +DUCHESS + +If you are going, touch me not, but go. +[Exit GUIDO.] +Barrier! Barrier! +Why did he say there was a barrier? +There is no barrier between us two. +He lied to me, and shall I for that reason +Loathe what I love, and what I worshipped, hate? +I think we women do not love like that. +For if I cut his image from my heart, +My heart would, like a bleeding pilgrim, follow +That image through the world, and call it back +With little cries of love. +[Enter DUKE equipped for the chase, with falconers and hounds.] + +DUKE + +Madam, you keep us waiting; +You keep my dogs waiting. + +DUCHESS + +I will not ride to-day. + +DUKE + +How now, what's this? + +DUCHESS + +My Lord, I cannot go. + +DUKE + +What, pale face, do you dare to stand against me? +Why, I could set you on a sorry jade +And lead you through the town, till the low rabble +You feed toss up their hats and mock at you. + +DUCHESS + +Have you no word of kindness ever for me? + +DUKE + +I hold you in the hollow of my hand +And have no need on you to waste kind words. + +DUCHESS + +Well, I will go. + +DUKE + +[slapping his boot with his whip] +No, I have changed my mind, +You will stay here, and like a faithful wife +Watch from the window for our coming back. +Were it not dreadful if some accident +By chance should happen to your loving Lord? +Come, gentlemen, my hounds begin to chafe, +And I chafe too, having a patient wife. +Where is young Guido? + +MAFFIO + +My liege, I have not seen him +For a full hour past. + +DUKE + +It matters not, +I dare say I shall see him soon enough. +Well, Madam, you will sit at home and spin. +I do protest, sirs, the domestic virtues +Are often very beautiful in others. + +[Exit DUKE with his Court.] + +DUCHESS + +The stars have fought against me, that is all, +And thus to-night when my Lord lieth asleep, +Will I fall upon my dagger, and so cease. +My heart is such a stone nothing can reach it +Except the dagger's edge: let it go there, +To find what name it carries: ay! to-night +Death will divorce the Duke; and yet to-night +He may die also, he is very old. +Why should he not die? Yesterday his hand +Shook with a palsy: men have died from palsy, +And why not he? Are there not fevers also, +Agues and chills, and other maladies +Most incident to old age? +No, no, he will not die, he is too sinful; +Honest men die before their proper time. +Good men will die: men by whose side the Duke +In all the sick pollution of his life +Seems like a leper: women and children die, +But the Duke will not die, he is too sinful. +Oh, can it be +There is some immortality in sin, +Which virtue has not? And does the wicked man +Draw life from what to other men were death, +Like poisonous plants that on corruption live? +No, no, I think God would not suffer that: +Yet the Duke will not die: he is too sinful. +But I will die alone, and on this night +Grim Death shall be my bridegroom, and the tomb +My secret house of pleasure: well, what of that? +The world's a graveyard, and we each, like coffins, +Within us bear a skeleton. +[Enter LORD MORANZONE all in black; he passes across the back of +the stage looking anxiously about.] + +MORANZONE + +Where is Guido? +I cannot find him anywhere. + +DUCHESS + +[catches sight of him] O God! +'Twas thou who took my love away from me. + +MORANZONE + +[with a look of joy] +What, has he left you? + +DUCHESS + +Nay, you know he has. +Oh, give him back to me, give him back, I say, +Or I will tear your body limb from limb, +And to the common gibbet nail your head +Until the carrion crows have stripped it bare. +Better you had crossed a hungry lioness +Before you came between me and my love. +[With more pathos.] +Nay, give him back, you know not how I love him. +Here by this chair he knelt a half hour since; +'Twas there he stood, and there he looked at me; +This is the hand he kissed, and these the ears +Into whose open portals he did pour +A tale of love so musical that all +The birds stopped singing! Oh, give him back to me. + +MORANZONE + +He does not love you, Madam. + +DUCHESS + +May the plague +Wither the tongue that says so! Give him back. + +MORANZONE + +Madam, I tell you you will never see him, +Neither to-night, nor any other night. + +DUCHESS + +What is your name? + +MORANZONE + +My name? Revenge! +[Exit.] + +DUCHESS + +Revenge! +I think I never harmed a little child. +What should Revenge do coming to my door? +It matters not, for Death is there already, +Waiting with his dim torch to light my way. +'Tis true men hate thee, Death, and yet I think +Thou wilt be kinder to me than my lover, +And so dispatch the messengers at once, +Harry the lazy steeds of lingering day, +And let the night, thy sister, come instead, +And drape the world in mourning; let the owl, +Who is thy minister, scream from his tower +And wake the toad with hooting, and the bat, +That is the slave of dim Persephone, +Wheel through the sombre air on wandering wing! +Tear up the shrieking mandrakes from the earth +And bid them make us music, and tell the mole +To dig deep down thy cold and narrow bed, +For I shall lie within thine arms to-night. + +END OF ACT II. + + + +ACT III + + + +SCENE + +A large corridor in the Ducal Palace: a window (L.C.) looks out on +a view of Padua by moonlight: a staircase (R.C.) leads up to a +door with a portiere of crimson velvet, with the Duke's arms +embroidered in gold on it: on the lowest step of the staircase a +figure draped in black is sitting: the hall is lit by an iron +cresset filled with burning tow: thunder and lightning outside: +the time is night. + +[Enter GUIDO through the window.] + +GUIDO + +The wind is rising: how my ladder shook! +I thought that every gust would break the cords! +[Looks out at the city.] +Christ! What a night: +Great thunder in the heavens, and wild lightnings +Striking from pinnacle to pinnacle +Across the city, till the dim houses seem +To shudder and to shake as each new glare +Dashes adown the street. +[Passes across the stage to foot of staircase.] +Ah! who art thou +That sittest on the stair, like unto Death +Waiting a guilty soul? [A pause.] +Canst thou not speak? +Or has this storm laid palsy on thy tongue, +And chilled thy utterance? +[The figure rises and takes off his mask.] + +MORANZONE + +Guido Ferranti, +Thy murdered father laughs for joy to-night. + +GUIDO + +[confusedly] +What, art thou here? + +MORANZONE + +Ay, waiting for your coming. + +GUIDO + +[looking away from him] +I did not think to see you, but am glad, +That you may know the thing I mean to do. + +MORANZONE + +First, I would have you know my well-laid plans; +Listen: I have set horses at the gate +Which leads to Parma: when you have done your business +We will ride hence, and by to-morrow night - + +GUIDO + +It cannot be. + +MORANZONE + +Nay, but it shall. + +GUIDO + +Listen, Lord Moranzone, +I am resolved not to kill this man. + +MORANZONE + +Surely my ears are traitors, speak again: +It cannot be but age has dulled my powers, +I am an old man now: what did you say? +You said that with that dagger in your belt +You would avenge your father's bloody murder; +Did you not say that? + +GUIDO + +No, my lord, I said +I was resolved not to kill the Duke. + +MORANZONE + +You said not that; it is my senses mock me; +Or else this midnight air o'ercharged with storm +Alters your message in the giving it. + +GUIDO + +Nay, you heard rightly; I'll not kill this man. + +MORANZONE + +What of thine oath, thou traitor, what of thine oath? + +GUIDO + +I am resolved not to keep that oath. + +MORANZONE + +What of thy murdered father? + +GUIDO + +Dost thou think +My father would be glad to see me coming, +This old man's blood still hot upon mine hands? + +MORANZONE + +Ay! he would laugh for joy. + +GUIDO + +I do not think so, +There is better knowledge in the other world; +Vengeance is God's, let God himself revenge. + +MORANZONE + +Thou art God's minister of vengeance. + +GUIDO + +No! +God hath no minister but his own hand. +I will not kill this man. + +MORANZONE + +Why are you here, +If not to kill him, then? + +GUIDO + +Lord Moranzone, +I purpose to ascend to the Duke's chamber, +And as he lies asleep lay on his breast +The dagger and this writing; when he awakes +Then he will know who held him in his power +And slew him not: this is the noblest vengeance +Which I can take. + +MORANZONE + +You will not slay him? + +GUIDO + +No. + +MORANZONE + +Ignoble son of a noble father, +Who sufferest this man who sold that father +To live an hour. + +GUIDO + +'Twas thou that hindered me; +I would have killed him in the open square, +The day I saw him first. + +MORANZONE + +It was not yet time; +Now it is time, and, like some green-faced girl, +Thou pratest of forgiveness. + +GUIDO + +No! revenge: +The right revenge my father's son should take. + +MORANZONE + +You are a coward, +Take out the knife, get to the Duke's chamber, +And bring me back his heart upon the blade. +When he is dead, then you can talk to me +Of noble vengeances. + +GUIDO + +Upon thine honour, +And by the love thou bearest my father's name, +Dost thou think my father, that great gentleman, +That generous soldier, that most chivalrous lord, +Would have crept at night-time, like a common thief, +And stabbed an old man sleeping in his bed, +However he had wronged him: tell me that. + +MORANZONE + +[after some hesitation] +You have sworn an oath, see that you keep that oath. +Boy, do you think I do not know your secret, +Your traffic with the Duchess? + +GUIDO + +Silence, liar! +The very moon in heaven is not more chaste. +Nor the white stars so pure. + +MORANZONE + +And yet, you love her; +Weak fool, to let love in upon your life, +Save as a plaything. + +GUIDO + +You do well to talk: +Within your veins, old man, the pulse of youth +Throbs with no ardour. Your eyes full of rheum +Have against Beauty closed their filmy doors, +And your clogged ears, losing their natural sense, +Have shut you from the music of the world. +You talk of love! You know not what it is. + +MORANZONE + +Oh, in my time, boy, have I walked i' the moon, +Swore I would live on kisses and on blisses, +Swore I would die for love, and did not die, +Wrote love bad verses; ay, and sung them badly, +Like all true lovers: Oh, I have done the tricks! +I know the partings and the chamberings; +We are all animals at best, and love +Is merely passion with a holy name. + +GUIDO + +Now then I know you have not loved at all. +Love is the sacrament of life; it sets +Virtue where virtue was not; cleanses men +Of all the vile pollutions of this world; +It is the fire which purges gold from dross, +It is the fan which winnows wheat from chaff, +It is the spring which in some wintry soil +Makes innocence to blossom like a rose. +The days are over when God walked with men, +But Love, which is his image, holds his place. +When a man loves a woman, then he knows +God's secret, and the secret of the world. +There is no house so lowly or so mean, +Which, if their hearts be pure who live in it, +Love will not enter; but if bloody murder +Knock at the Palace gate and is let in, +Love like a wounded thing creeps out and dies. +This is the punishment God sets on sin. +The wicked cannot love. +[A groan comes from the DUKE's chamber.] +Ah! What is that? +Do you not hear? 'Twas nothing. +So I think +That it is woman's mission by their love +To save the souls of men: and loving her, +My Lady, my white Beatrice, I begin +To see a nobler and a holier vengeance +In letting this man live, than doth reside +In bloody deeds o' night, stabs in the dark, +And young hands clutching at a palsied throat. +It was, I think, for love's sake that Lord Christ, +Who was indeed himself incarnate Love, +Bade every man forgive his enemy. + +MORANZONE + +[sneeringly] +That was in Palestine, not Padua; +And said for saints: I have to do with men. + +GUIDO + +It was for all time said. + +MORANZONE + +And your white Duchess, +What will she do to thank you? + +GUIDO + +Alas, I will not see her face again. +'Tis but twelve hours since I parted from her, +So suddenly, and with such violent passion, +That she has shut her heart against me now: +No, I will never see her. + +MORANZONE + +What will you do? + +GUIDO + +After that I have laid the dagger there, +Get hence to-night from Padua. + +MORANZONE + +And then? + +GUIDO + +I will take service with the Doge at Venice, +And bid him pack me straightway to the wars, +And there I will, being now sick of life, +Throw that poor life against some desperate spear. +[A groan from the DUKE'S chamber again.] +Did you not hear a voice? + +MORANZONE + +I always hear, +From the dim confines of some sepulchre, +A voice that cries for vengeance. We waste time, +It will be morning soon; are you resolved +You will not kill the Duke? + +GUIDO + +I am resolved. + +MORANZONE + +O wretched father, lying unavenged. + +GUIDO + +More wretched, were thy son a murderer. + +MORANZONE + +Why, what is life? + +GUIDO + +I do not know, my lord, +I did not give it, and I dare not take it. + +MORANZONE + +I do not thank God often; but I think +I thank him now that I have got no son! +And you, what bastard blood flows in your veins +That when you have your enemy in your grasp +You let him go! I would that I had left you +With the dull hinds that reared you. + +GUIDO + +Better perhaps +That you had done so! May be better still +I'd not been born to this distressful world. + +MORANZONE + +Farewell! + +GUIDO + +Farewell! Some day, Lord Moranzone, +You will understand my vengeance. + +MORANZONE + +Never, boy. +[Gets out of window and exit by rope ladder.] + +GUIDO + +Father, I think thou knowest my resolve, +And with this nobler vengeance art content. +Father, I think in letting this man live +That I am doing what thou wouldst have done. +Father, I know not if a human voice +Can pierce the iron gateway of the dead, +Or if the dead are set in ignorance +Of what we do, or do not, for their sakes. +And yet I feel a presence in the air, +There is a shadow standing at my side, +And ghostly kisses seem to touch my lips, +And leave them holier. [Kneels down.] +O father, if 'tis thou, +Canst thou not burst through the decrees of death, +And if corporeal semblance show thyself, +That I may touch thy hand! +No, there is nothing. [Rises.] +'Tis the night that cheats us with its phantoms, +And, like a puppet-master, makes us think +That things are real which are not. It grows late. +Now must I to my business. +[Pulls out a letter from his doublet and reads it.] +When he wakes, +And sees this letter, and the dagger with it, +Will he not have some loathing for his life, +Repent, perchance, and lead a better life, +Or will he mock because a young man spared +His natural enemy? I do not care. +Father, it is thy bidding that I do, +Thy bidding, and the bidding of my love +Which teaches me to know thee as thou art. +[Ascends staircase stealthily, and just as he reaches out his hand +to draw back the curtain the Duchess appears all in white. GUIDO +starts back.] + +DUCHESS + +Guido! what do you here so late? + +GUIDO + +O white and spotless angel of my life, +Sure thou hast come from Heaven with a message +That mercy is more noble than revenge? + +DUCHESS + +There is no barrier between us now. + +GUIDO + +None, love, nor shall be. + +DUCHESS + +I have seen to that. + +GUIDO + +Tarry here for me. + +DUCHESS + +No, you are not going? +You will not leave me as you did before? + +GUIDO + +I will return within a moment's space, +But first I must repair to the Duke's chamber, +And leave this letter and this dagger there, +That when he wakes - + +DUCHESS + +When who wakes? + +GUIDO + +Why, the Duke. + +DUCHESS + +He will not wake again. + +GUIDO + +What, is he dead? + +DUCHESS + +Ay! he is dead. + +GUIDO + +O God! how wonderful +Are all thy secret ways! Who would have said +That on this very night, when I had yielded +Into thy hands the vengeance that is thine, +Thou with thy finger wouldst have touched the man, +And bade him come before thy judgment seat. + +DUCHESS + +I have just killed him. + +GUIDO + +[in horror] Oh! + +DUCHESS + +He was asleep; +Come closer, love, and I will tell you all. +I had resolved to kill myself to-night. +About an hour ago I waked from sleep, +And took my dagger from beneath my pillow, +Where I had hidden it to serve my need, +And drew it from the sheath, and felt the edge, +And thought of you, and how I loved you, Guido, +And turned to fall upon it, when I marked +The old man sleeping, full of years and sin; +There lay he muttering curses in his sleep, +And as I looked upon his evil face +Suddenly like a flame there flashed across me, +There is the barrier which Guido spoke of: +You said there lay a barrier between us, +What barrier but he? - +I hardly know +What happened, but a steaming mist of blood +Rose up between us two. + +GUIDO + +Oh, horrible! + +DUCHESS + +And then he groaned, +And then he groaned no more! I only heard +The dripping of the blood upon the floor. + +GUIDO + +Enough, enough. + +DUCHESS + +Will you not kiss me now? +Do you remember saying that women's love +Turns men to angels? well, the love of man +Turns women into martyrs; for its sake +We do or suffer anything. + +GUIDO + +O God! + +DUCHESS + +Will you not speak? + +GUIDO + +I cannot speak at all. + +DUCHESS + +Let as not talk of this! Let us go hence: +Is not the barrier broken down between us? +What would you more? Come, it is almost morning. +[Puts her hand on GUIDO'S.] + +GUIDO + +[breaking from her] +O damned saint! O angel fresh from Hell! +What bloody devil tempted thee to this! +That thou hast killed thy husband, that is nothing - +Hell was already gaping for his soul - +But thou hast murdered Love, and in its place +Hast set a horrible and bloodstained thing, +Whose very breath breeds pestilence and plague, +And strangles Love. + +DUCHESS + +[in amazed wonder] +I did it all for you. +I would not have you do it, had you willed it, +For I would keep you without blot or stain, +A thing unblemished, unassailed, untarnished. +Men do not know what women do for love. +Have I not wrecked my soul for your dear sake, +Here and hereafter? + +GUIDO + +No, do not touch me, +Between us lies a thin red stream of blood; +I dare not look across it: when you stabbed him +You stabbed Love with a sharp knife to the heart. +We cannot meet again. + +DUCHESS + +[wringing her hands] +For you! For you! +I did it all for you: have you forgotten? +You said there was a barrier between us; +That barrier lies now i' the upper chamber +Upset, overthrown, beaten, and battered down, +And will not part us ever. + +GUIDO + +No, you mistook: +Sin was the barrier, you have raised it up; +Crime was the barrier, you have set it there. +The barrier was murder, and your hand +Has builded it so high it shuts out heaven, +It shuts out God. + +DUCHESS + +I did it all for you; +You dare not leave me now: nay, Guido, listen. +Get horses ready, we will fly to-night. +The past is a bad dream, we will forget it: +Before us lies the future: shall we not have +Sweet days of love beneath our vines and laugh? - +No, no, we will not laugh, but, when we weep, +Well, we will weep together; I will serve you; +I will be very meek and very gentle: +You do not know me. + +GUIDO + +Nay, I know you now; +Get hence, I say, out of my sight. + +DUCHESS + +[pacing up and down] +O God, +How I have loved this man! + +GUIDO + +You never loved me. +Had it been so, Love would have stayed your hand. +How could we sit together at Love's table? +You have poured poison in the sacred wine, +And Murder dips his fingers in the sop. + +DUCHESS + +[throws herself on her knees] +Then slay me now! I have spilt blood to-night, +You shall spill more, so we go hand in hand +To heaven or to hell. Draw your sword, Guido. +Quick, let your soul go chambering in my heart, +It will but find its master's image there. +Nay, if you will not slay me with your sword, +Bid me to fall upon this reeking knife, +And I will do it. + +GUIDO + +[wresting knife from her] +Give it to me, I say. +O God, your very hands are wet with blood! +This place is Hell, I cannot tarry here. +I pray you let me see your face no more. + +DUCHESS + +Better for me I had not seen your face. +[GUIDO recoils: she seizes his hands as she kneels.] +Nay, Guido, listen for a while: +Until you came to Padua I lived +Wretched indeed, but with no murderous thought, +Very submissive to a cruel Lord, +Very obedient to unjust commands, + +As pure I think as any gentle girl +Who now would turn in horror from my hands - +[Stands up.] +You came: ah! Guido, the first kindly words +I ever heard since I had come from France +Were from your lips: well, well, that is no matter. +You came, and in the passion of your eyes +I read love's meaning; everything you said +Touched my dumb soul to music, so I loved you. +And yet I did not tell you of my love. +'Twas you who sought me out, knelt at my feet +As I kneel now at yours, and with sweet vows, +[Kneels.] +Whose music seems to linger in my ears, +Swore that you loved me, and I trusted you. +I think there are many women in the world +Who would have tempted you to kill the man. +I did not. +Yet I know that had I done so, +I had not been thus humbled in the dust, +[Stands up.] +But you had loved me very faithfully. +[After a pause approaches him timidly.] +I do not think you understand me, Guido: +It was for your sake that I wrought this deed +Whose horror now chills my young blood to ice, +For your sake only. [Stretching out her arm.] +Will you not speak to me? +Love me a little: in my girlish life +I have been starved for love, and kindliness +Has passed me by. + +GUIDO + +I dare not look at you: +You come to me with too pronounced a favour; +Get to your tirewomen. + +DUCHESS + +Ay, there it is! +There speaks the man! yet had you come to me +With any heavy sin upon your soul, +Some murder done for hire, not for love, +Why, I had sat and watched at your bedside +All through the night-time, lest Remorse might come +And pour his poisons in your ear, and so +Keep you from sleeping! Sure it is the guilty, +Who, being very wretched, need love most. + +GUIDO + +There is no love where there is any guilt. + +DUCHESS + +No love where there is any guilt! O God, +How differently do we love from men! +There is many a woman here in Padua, +Some workman's wife, or ruder artisan's, +Whose husband spends the wages of the week +In a coarse revel, or a tavern brawl, +And reeling home late on the Saturday night, +Finds his wife sitting by a fireless hearth, +Trying to hush the child who cries for hunger, +And then sets to and beats his wife because +The child is hungry, and the fire black. +Yet the wife loves him! and will rise next day +With some red bruise across a careworn face, +And sweep the house, and do the common service, +And try and smile, and only be too glad +If he does not beat her a second time +Before her child!--that is how women love. +[A pause: GUIDO says nothing.] +I think you will not drive me from your side. +Where have I got to go if you reject me? - +You for whose sake this hand has murdered life, +You for whose sake my soul has wrecked itself +Beyond all hope of pardon. + +GUIDO + +Get thee gone: +The dead man is a ghost, and our love too, +Flits like a ghost about its desolate tomb, +And wanders through this charnel house, and weeps +That when you slew your lord you slew it also. +Do you not see? + +DUCHESS + +I see when men love women +They give them but a little of their lives, +But women when they love give everything; +I see that, Guido, now. + +GUIDO + +Away, away, +And come not back till you have waked your dead. + +DUCHESS + +I would to God that I could wake the dead, +Put vision in the glazed eves, and give +The tongue its natural utterance, and bid +The heart to beat again: that cannot be: +For what is done, is done: and what is dead +Is dead for ever: the fire cannot warm him: +The winter cannot hurt him with its snows; +Something has gone from him; if you call him now, +He will not answer; if you mock him now, +He will not laugh; and if you stab him now +He will not bleed. +I would that I could wake him! +O God, put back the sun a little space, +And from the roll of time blot out to-night, +And bid it not have been! Put back the sun, +And make me what I was an hour ago! +No, no, time will not stop for anything, +Nor the sun stay its courses, though Repentance +Calling it back grow hoarse; but you, my love, +Have you no word of pity even for me? +O Guido, Guido, will you not kiss me once? +Drive me not to some desperate resolve: +Women grow mad when they are treated thus: +Will you not kiss me once? + +GUIDO + +[holding up knife] +I will not kiss you +Until the blood grows dry upon this knife, +[Wildly] Back to your dead! + +DUCHESS + +[going up the stairs] +Why, then I will be gone! and may you find +More mercy than you showed to me to-night! + +GUIDO + +Let me find mercy when I go at night +And do foul murder. + +DUCHESS + +[coming down a few steps.] +Murder did you say? +Murder is hungry, and still cries for more, +And Death, his brother, is not satisfied, +But walks the house, and will not go away, +Unless he has a comrade! Tarry, Death, +For I will give thee a most faithful lackey +To travel with thee! Murder, call no more, +For thou shalt eat thy fill. +There is a storm +Will break upon this house before the morning, +So horrible, that the white moon already +Turns grey and sick with terror, the low wind +Goes moaning round the house, and the high stars +Run madly through the vaulted firmament, +As though the night wept tears of liquid fire +For what the day shall look upon. Oh, weep, +Thou lamentable heaven! Weep thy fill! +Though sorrow like a cataract drench the fields, +And make the earth one bitter lake of tears, +It would not be enough. [A peal of thunder.] +Do you not hear, +There is artillery in the Heaven to-night. +Vengeance is wakened up, and has unloosed +His dogs upon the world, and in this matter +Which lies between us two, let him who draws +The thunder on his head beware the ruin +Which the forked flame brings after. +[A flash of lightning followed by a peal of thunder.] + +GUIDO + +Away! away! +[Exit the DUCHESS, who as she lifts the crimson curtain looks back +for a moment at GUIDO, but he makes no sign. More thunder.] +Now is life fallen in ashes at my feet +And noble love self-slain; and in its place +Crept murder with its silent bloody feet. +And she who wrought it--Oh! and yet she loved me, +And for my sake did do this dreadful thing. +I have been cruel to her: Beatrice! +Beatrice, I say, come back. +[Begins to ascend staircase, when the noise of Soldiers is heard.] +Ah! what is that? +Torches ablaze, and noise of hurrying feet. +Pray God they have not seized her. +[Noise grows louder.] +Beatrice! +There is yet time to escape. Come down, come out! +[The voice of the DUCHESS outside.] +This way went he, the man who slew my lord. +[Down the staircase comes hurrying a confused body of Soldiers; +GUIDO is not seen at first, till the DUCHESS surrounded by Servants +carrying torches appears at the top of the staircase, and points to +GUIDO, who is seized at once, one of the Soldiers dragging the +knife from his hand and showing it to the Captain of the Guard in +sight of the audience. Tableau.] + +END OF ACT III. + + + +ACT IV + + + +SCENE + +The Court of Justice: the walls are hung with stamped grey velvet: +above the hangings the wall is red, and gilt symbolical figures +bear up the roof, which is made of red beams with grey soffits and +moulding: a canopy of white satin flowered with gold is set for +the Duchess: below it a long bench with red cloth for the Judges: +below that a table for the clerks of the court. Two soldiers stand +on each side of the canopy, and two soldiers guard the door; the +citizens have some of them collected in the Court; others are +coming in greeting one another; two tipstaffs in violet keep order +with long white wands. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Good morrow, neighbour Anthony. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Good morrow, neighbour Dominick. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +This is a strange day for Padua, is it not?--the Duke being dead. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +I tell you, neighbour Dominick, I have not known such a day since +the last Duke died. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +They will try him first, and sentence him afterwards, will they +not, neighbour Anthony? + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Nay, for he might 'scape his punishment then; but they will condemn +him first so that he gets his deserts, and give him trial +afterwards so that no injustice is done. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Well, well, it will go hard with him I doubt not. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Surely it is a grievous thing to shed a Duke's blood. + +THIRD CITIZEN + +They say a Duke has blue blood. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +I think our Duke's blood was black like his soul. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Have a watch, neighbour Anthony, the officer is looking at thee. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +I care not if he does but look at me; he cannot whip me with the +lashes of his eye. + +THIRD CITIZEN + +What think you of this young man who stuck the knife into the Duke? + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Why, that he is a well-behaved, and a well-meaning, and a well- +favoured lad, and yet wicked in that he killed the Duke. + +THIRD CITIZEN + +'Twas the first time he did it: may be the law will not be hard on +him, as he did not do it before. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +True. + +TIPSTAFF + +Silence, knave. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Am I thy looking-glass, Master Tipstaff, that thou callest me +knave? + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Here be one of the household coming. Well, Dame Lucy, thou art of +the Court, how does thy poor mistress the Duchess, with her sweet +face? + +MISTRESS LUCY + +O well-a-day! O miserable day! O day! O misery! Why it is just +nineteen years last June, at Michaelmas, since I was married to my +husband, and it is August now, and here is the Duke murdered; there +is a coincidence for you! + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Why, if it is a coincidence, they may not kill the young man: +there is no law against coincidences. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +But how does the Duchess? + +MISTRESS LUCY + +Well well, I knew some harm would happen to the house: six weeks +ago the cakes were all burned on one side, and last Saint Martin +even as ever was, there flew into the candle a big moth that had +wings, and a'most scared me. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +But come to the Duchess, good gossip: what of her? + +MISTRESS LUCY + +Marry, it is time you should ask after her, poor lady; she is +distraught almost. Why, she has not slept, but paced the chamber +all night long. I prayed her to have a posset, or some aqua-vitae, +and to get to bed and sleep a little for her health's sake, but she +answered me she was afraid she might dream. That was a strange +answer, was it not? + +SECOND CITIZEN + +These great folk have not much sense, so Providence makes it up to +them in fine clothes. + +MISTRESS LUCY + +Well, well, God keep murder from us, I say, as long as we are +alive. + +[Enter LORD MORANZONE hurriedly.] + +MORANZONE + +Is the Duke dead? + +SECOND CITIZEN + +He has a knife in his heart, which they say is not healthy for any +man. + +MORANZONE + +Who is accused of having killed him? + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Why, the prisoner, sir. + +MORANZONE + +But who is the prisoner? + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Why, he that is accused of the Duke's murder. + +MORANZONE + +I mean, what is his name? + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Faith, the same which his godfathers gave him: what else should it +be? + +TIPSTAFF + +Guido Ferranti is his name, my lord. + +MORANZONE + +I almost knew thine answer ere you gave it. +[Aside.] +Yet it is strange he should have killed the Duke, +Seeing he left me in such different mood. +It is most likely when he saw the man, +This devil who had sold his father's life, +That passion from their seat within his heart +Thrust all his boyish theories of love, +And in their place set vengeance; yet I marvel +That he escaped not. +[Turning again to the crowd.] +How was he taken? Tell me. + +THIRD CITIZEN + +Marry, sir, he was taken by the heels. + +MORANZONE + +But who seized him? + +THIRD CITIZEN + +Why, those that did lay hold of him. + +MORANZONE + +How was the alarm given? + +THIRD CITIZEN + +That I cannot tell you, sir. + +MISTRESS LUCY + +It was the Duchess herself who pointed him out. + +MORANZONE + +[aside] +The Duchess! There is something strange in this. + +MISTRESS LUCY + +Ay! And the dagger was in his hand--the Duchess's own dagger. + +MORANZONE + +What did you say? + +MISTRESS LUCY + +Why, marry, that it was with the Duchess's dagger that the Duke was +killed. + +MORANZONE + +[aside] +There is some mystery about this: I cannot understand it. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +They be very long a-coming, + +FIRST CITIZEN + +I warrant they will come soon enough for the prisoner. + +TIPSTAFF + +Silence in the Court! + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Thou dost break silence in bidding us keep it, Master Tipstaff. +[Enter the LORD JUSTICE and the other Judges.] + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Who is he in scarlet? Is he the headsman? + +THIRD CITIZEN + +Nay, he is the Lord Justice. +[Enter GUIDO guarded.] + +SECOND CITIZEN + +There be the prisoner surely. + +THIRD CITIZEN + +He looks honest. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +That be his villany: knaves nowadays do look so honest that honest +folk are forced to look like knaves so as to be different. +[Enter the Headman, who takes his stand behind GUIDO.] + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Yon be the headsman then! O Lord! Is the axe sharp, think you? + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Ay! sharper than thy wits are; but the edge is not towards him, +mark you. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +[scratching his neck] +I' faith, I like it not so near. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Tut, thou need'st not be afraid; they never cut the heads of common +folk: they do but hang us. +[Trumpets outside.] + +THIRD CITIZEN + +What are the trumpets for? Is the trial over? + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Nay, 'tis for the Duchess. +[Enter the DUCHESS in black velvet; her train of flowered black +velvet is carried by two pages in violet; with her is the CARDINAL +in scarlet, and the gentlemen of the Court in black; she takes her +seat on the throne above the Judges, who rise and take their caps +off as she enters; the CARDINAL sits next to her a little lower; +the Courtiers group themselves about the throne.] + +SECOND CITIZEN + +O poor lady, how pale she is! Will she sit there? + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Ay! she is in the Duke's place now. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +That is a good thing for Padua; the Duchess is a very kind and +merciful Duchess; why, she cured my child of the ague once. + +THIRD CITIZEN + +Ay, and has given us bread: do not forget the bread. + +A SOLDIER + +Stand back, good people. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +If we be good, why should we stand back? + +TIPSTAFF + +Silence in the Court! + +LORD JUSTICE + +May it please your Grace, +Is it your pleasure we proceed to trial +Of the Duke's murder? [DUCHESS bows.] +Set the prisoner forth. +What is thy name? + +GUIDO + +It matters not, my lord. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Guido Ferranti is thy name in Padua. + +GUIDO + +A man may die as well under that name as any other. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Thou art not ignorant +What dreadful charge men lay against thee here, +Namely, the treacherous murder of thy Lord, +Simone Gesso, Duke of Padua; +What dost thou say in answer? + +GUIDO + +I say nothing. + +LORD JUSTICE + +[rising] +Guido Ferranti - + +MORANZONE + +[stepping from the crowd] +Tarry, my Lord Justice. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Who art thou that bid'st justice tarry, sir? + +MORANZONE + +So be it justice it can go its way; +But if it be not justice - + +LORD JUSTICE + +Who is this? + +COUNT BARDI + +A very noble gentleman, and well known +To the late Duke. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Sir, thou art come in time +To see the murder of the Duke avenged. +There stands the man who did this heinous thing. + +MORANZONE + +My lord, +I ask again what proof have ye? + +LORD JUSTICE + +[holding up the dagger] +This dagger, +Which from his blood-stained hands, itself all blood, +Last night the soldiers seized: what further proof +Need we indeed? + +MORANZONE + +[takes the danger and approaches the DUCHESS] +Saw I not such a dagger +Hang from your Grace's girdle yesterday? +[The DUCHESS shudders and makes no answer.] +Ah! my Lord Justice, may I speak a moment +With this young man, who in such peril stands? + +LORD JUSTICE + +Ay, willingly, my lord, and may you turn him +To make a full avowal of his guilt. +[LORD MORANZONE goes over to GUIDO, who stands R. and clutches him +by the hand.] + +MORANZONE + +[in a low voice] +She did it! Nay, I saw it in her eyes. +Boy, dost thou think I'll let thy father's son +Be by this woman butchered to his death? +Her husband sold your father, and the wife +Would sell the son in turn. + +GUIDO + +Lord Moranzone, +I alone did this thing: be satisfied, +My father is avenged. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Doth he confess? + +GUIDO + +My lord, I do confess +That foul unnatural murder has been done. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +Why, look at that: he has a pitiful heart, and does not like +murder; they will let him go for that. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Say you no more? + +GUIDO + +My lord, I say this also, +That to spill human blood is deadly sin. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +Marry, he should tell that to the headsman: 'tis a good sentiment. + +GUIDO + +Lastly, my lord, I do entreat the Court +To give me leave to utter openly +The dreadful secret of this mystery, +And to point out the very guilty one +Who with this dagger last night slew the Duke. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Thou hast leave to speak. + +DUCHESS + +[rising] +I say he shall not speak: +What need have we of further evidence? +Was he not taken in the house at night +In Guilt's own bloody livery? + +LORD JUSTICE + +[showing her the statute] +Your Grace +Can read the law. + +DUCHESS + +[waiving book aside] +Bethink you, my Lord Justice, +Is it not very like that such a one +May, in the presence of the people here, +Utter some slanderous word against my Lord, +Against the city, or the city's honour, +Perchance against myself. + +LORD JUSTICE + +My liege, the law. + +DUCHESS + +He shall not speak, but, with gags in his mouth, +Shall climb the ladder to the bloody block. + +LORD JUSTICE + +The law, my liege. + +DUCHESS + +We are not bound by law, +But with it we bind others. + +MORANZONE + +My Lord Justice, +Thou wilt not suffer this injustice here. + +LORD JUSTICE + +The Court needs not thy voice, Lord Moranzone. +Madam, it were a precedent most evil +To wrest the law from its appointed course, +For, though the cause be just, yet anarchy +Might on this licence touch these golden scales +And unjust causes unjust victories gain. + +COUNT BARDI + +I do not think your Grace can stay the law. + +DUCHESS + +Ay, it is well to preach and prate of law: +Methinks, my haughty lords of Padua, +If ye are hurt in pocket or estate, +So much as makes your monstrous revenues +Less by the value of one ferry toll, +Ye do not wait the tedious law's delay +With such sweet patience as ye counsel me. + +COUNT BARDI + +Madam, I think you wrong our nobles here. + +DUCHESS + +I think I wrong them not. Which of you all +Finding a thief within his house at night, +With some poor chattel thrust into his rags, +Will stop and parley with him? do ye not +Give him unto the officer and his hook +To be dragged gaolwards straightway? +And so now, +Had ye been men, finding this fellow here, +With my Lord's life still hot upon his hands, +Ye would have haled him out into the court, +And struck his head off with an axe. + +GUIDO + +O God! + +DUCHESS + +Speak, my Lord Justice. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Your Grace, it cannot be: +The laws of Padua are most certain here: +And by those laws the common murderer even +May with his own lips plead, and make defence. + +DUCHESS + +This is no common murderer, Lord Justice, +But a great outlaw, and a most vile traitor, +Taken in open arms against the state. +For he who slays the man who rules a state +Slays the state also, widows every wife, +And makes each child an orphan, and no less +Is to be held a public enemy, +Than if he came with mighty ordonnance, +And all the spears of Venice at his back, +To beat and batter at our city gates - +Nay, is more dangerous to our commonwealth, +For walls and gates, bastions and forts, and things +Whose common elements are wood and stone +May be raised up, but who can raise again +The ruined body of my murdered lord, +And bid it live and laugh? + +MAFFIO + +Now by Saint Paul +I do not think that they will let him speak. + +JEPPO VITELLOZZO + +There is much in this, listen. + +DUCHESS + +Wherefore now, +Throw ashes on the head of Padua, +With sable banners hang each silent street, +Let every man be clad in solemn black; +But ere we turn to these sad rites of mourning +Let us bethink us of the desperate hand +Which wrought and brought this ruin on our state, +And straightway pack him to that narrow house, +Where no voice is, but with a little dust +Death fills right up the lying mouths of men. + +GUIDO + +Unhand me, knaves! I tell thee, my Lord Justice, +Thou mightst as well bid the untrammelled ocean, +The winter whirlwind, or the Alpine storm, +Not roar their will, as bid me hold my peace! +Ay! though ye put your knives into my throat, +Each grim and gaping wound shall find a tongue, +And cry against you. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Sir, this violence +Avails you nothing; for save the tribunal +Give thee a lawful right to open speech, +Naught that thou sayest can be credited. +[The DUCHESS smiles and GUIDO falls back with a gesture of +despair.] +Madam, myself, and these wise Justices, +Will with your Grace's sanction now retire +Into another chamber, to decide +Upon this difficult matter of the law, +And search the statutes and the precedents. + +DUCHESS + +Go, my Lord Justice, search the statutes well, +Nor let this brawling traitor have his way. + +MORANZONE + +Go, my Lord Justice, search thy conscience well, +Nor let a man be sent to death unheard. +[Exit the LORD JUSTICE and the Judges.] + +DUCHESS + +Silence, thou evil genius of my life! +Thou com'st between us two a second time; +This time, my lord, I think the turn is mine. + +GUIDO + +I shall not die till I have uttered voice. + +DUCHESS + +Thou shalt die silent, and thy secret with thee. + +GUIDO + +Art thou that Beatrice, Duchess of Padua? + +DUCHESS + +I am what thou hast made me; look at me well, +I am thy handiwork. + +MAFFIO + +See, is she not +Like that white tigress which we saw at Venice, +Sent by some Indian soldan to the Doge? + +JEPPO + +Hush! she may hear thy chatter. + +HEADSMAN + +My young fellow, +I do not know why thou shouldst care to speak, +Seeing my axe is close upon thy neck, +And words of thine will never blunt its edge. +But if thou art so bent upon it, why +Thou mightest plead unto the Churchman yonder: +The common people call him kindly here, +Indeed I know he has a kindly soul. + +GUIDO + +This man, whose trade is death, hath courtesies +More than the others. + +HEADSMAN + +Why, God love you, sir, +I'll do you your last service on this earth. + +GUIDO + +My good Lord Cardinal, in a Christian land, +With Lord Christ's face of mercy looking down +From the high seat of Judgment, shall a man +Die unabsolved, unshrived? And if not so, +May I not tell this dreadful tale of sin, +If any sin there be upon my soul? + +DUCHESS + +Thou dost but waste thy time. + +CARDINAL + +Alack, my son, +I have no power with the secular arm. +My task begins when justice has been done, +To urge the wavering sinner to repent +And to confess to Holy Church's ear +The dreadful secrets of a sinful mind. + +DUCHESS + +Thou mayest speak to the confessional +Until thy lips grow weary of their tale, +But here thou shalt not speak. + +GUIDO + +My reverend father, +You bring me but cold comfort. + +CARDINAL + +Nay, my son, +For the great power of our mother Church, +Ends not with this poor bubble of a world, +Of which we are but dust, as Jerome saith, +For if the sinner doth repentant die, +Our prayers and holy masses much avail +To bring the guilty soul from purgatory. + +DUCHESS + +And when in purgatory thou seest my Lord +With that red star of blood upon his heart, +Tell him I sent thee hither. + +GUIDO + +O dear God! + +MORANZONE + +This is the woman, is it, whom you loved? + +CARDINAL + +Your Grace is very cruel to this man. + +DUCHESS + +No more than he was cruel to her Grace. + +CARDINAL + +Yet mercy is the sovereign right of princes. + +DUCHESS + +I got no mercy, and I give it not. +He hath changed my heart into a heart of stone, +He hath sown rank nettles in a goodly field, +He hath poisoned the wells of pity in my breast, +He hath withered up all kindness at the root; +My life is as some famine murdered land, +Whence all good things have perished utterly: +I am what he hath made me. +[The DUCHESS weeps.] + +JEPPO + +Is it not strange +That she should so have loved the wicked Duke? + +MAFFIO + +It is most strange when women love their lords, +And when they love them not it is most strange. + +JEPPO + +What a philosopher thou art, Petrucci! + +MAFFIO + +Ay! I can bear the ills of other men, +Which is philosophy. + +DUCHESS + +They tarry long, +These greybeards and their council; bid them come; +Bid them come quickly, else I think my heart +Will beat itself to bursting: not indeed, +That I here care to live; God knows my life +Is not so full of joy, yet, for all that, +I would not die companionless, or go +Lonely to Hell. +Look, my Lord Cardinal, +Canst thou not see across my forehead here, +In scarlet letters writ, the word Revenge? +Fetch me some water, I will wash it off: +'Twas branded there last night, but in the day-time +I need not wear it, need I, my Lord Cardinal? +Oh, how it sears and burns into my brain: +Give me a knife; not that one, but another, +And I will cut it out. + +CARDINAL + +It is most natural +To be incensed against the murderous hand +That treacherously stabbed your sleeping lord. + +DUCHESS + +I would, old Cardinal, I could burn that hand; +But it will burn hereafter. + +CARDINAL + +Nay, the Church +Ordains us to forgive our enemies. + +DUCHESS + +Forgiveness? what is that? I never got it. +They come at last: well, my Lord Justice, well. +[Enter the LORD JUSTICE.] + +LORD JUSTICE + +Most gracious Lady, and our sovereign Liege, +We have long pondered on the point at issue, +And much considered of your Grace's wisdom, +And never wisdom spake from fairer lips - + +DUCHESS + +Proceed, sir, without compliment. + +LORD JUSTICE + +We find, +As your own Grace did rightly signify, +That any citizen, who by force or craft +Conspires against the person of the Liege, +Is ipso facto outlaw, void of rights +Such as pertain to other citizens, +Is traitor, and a public enemy, +Who may by any casual sword be slain +Without the slayer's danger; nay, if brought +Into the presence of the tribunal, +Must with dumb lips and silence reverent +Listen unto his well-deserved doom, +Nor has the privilege of open speech. + +DUCHESS + +I thank thee, my Lord Justice, heartily; +I like your law: and now I pray dispatch +This public outlaw to his righteous doom; +What is there more? + +LORD JUSTICE + +Ay, there is more, your Grace. +This man being alien born, not Paduan, +Nor by allegiance bound unto the Duke, +Save such as common nature doth lay down, +Hath, though accused of treasons manifold, +Whose slightest penalty is certain death, +Yet still the right of public utterance +Before the people and the open court; +Nay, shall be much entreated by the Court, +To make some formal pleading for his life, +Lest his own city, righteously incensed, +Should with an unjust trial tax our state, +And wars spring up against the commonwealth: +So merciful are the laws of Padua +Unto the stranger living in her gates. + +DUCHESS + +Being of my Lord's household, is he stranger here? + +LORD JUSTICE + +Ay, until seven years of service spent +He cannot be a Paduan citizen. + +GUIDO + +I thank thee, my Lord Justice, heartily; +I like your law. + +SECOND CITIZEN + +I like no law at all: +Were there no law there'd be no law-breakers, +So all men would be virtuous. + +FIRST CITIZEN + +So they would; +'Tis a wise saying that, and brings you far. + +TIPSTAFF + +Ay! to the gallows, knave. + +DUCHESS + +Is this the law? + +LORD JUSTICE + +It is the law most certainly, my liege. + +DUCHESS + +Show me the book: 'tis written in blood-red. + +JEPPO + +Look at the Duchess. + +DUCHESS + +Thou accursed law, +I would that I could tear thee from the state +As easy as I tear thee from this book. +[Tears out the page.] +Come here, Count Bardi: are you honourable? +Get a horse ready for me at my house, +For I must ride to Venice instantly. + +BARDI + +To Venice, Madam? + +DUCHESS + +Not a word of this, +Go, go at once. [Exit COUNT BARDI.] +A moment, my Lord Justice. +If, as thou sayest it, this is the law - +Nay, nay, I doubt not that thou sayest right, +Though right be wrong in such a case as this - +May I not by the virtue of mine office +Adjourn this court until another day? + +LORD JUSTICE + +Madam, you cannot stay a trial for blood. + +DUCHESS + +I will not tarry then to hear this man +Rail with rude tongue against our sacred person. +Come, gentlemen. + +LORD JUSTICE + +My liege, +You cannot leave this court until the prisoner +Be purged or guilty of this dread offence. + +DUCHESS + +Cannot, Lord Justice? By what right do you +Set barriers in my path where I should go? +Am I not Duchess here in Padua, +And the state's regent? + +LORD JUSTICE + +For that reason, Madam, +Being the fountain-head of life and death +Whence, like a mighty river, justice flows, +Without thy presence justice is dried up +And fails of purpose: thou must tarry here. + +DUCHESS + +What, wilt thou keep me here against my will? + +LORD JUSTICE + +We pray thy will be not against the law. + +DUCHESS + +What if I force my way out of the court? + +LORD JUSTICE + +Thou canst not force the Court to give thee way. + +DUCHESS + +I will not tarry. [Rises from her seat.] + +LORD JUSTICE + +Is the usher here? +Let him stand forth. [Usher comes forward.] +Thou knowest thy business, sir. +[The Usher closes the doors of the court, which are L., and when +the DUCHESS and her retinue approach, kneels down.] + +USHER + +In all humility I beseech your Grace +Turn not my duty to discourtesy, +Nor make my unwelcome office an offence. + +DUCHESS + +Is there no gentleman amongst you all +To prick this prating fellow from our way? + +MAFFIO + +[drawing his sword] +Ay! that will I. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Count Maffio, have a care, +And you, sir. [To JEPPO.] +The first man who draws his sword +Upon the meanest officer of this Court, +Dies before nightfall. + +DUCHESS + +Sirs, put up your swords: +It is most meet that I should hear this man. +[Goes back to throne.] + +MORANZONE + +Now hast thou got thy enemy in thy hand. + +LORD JUSTICE + +[taking the time-glass up] +Guido Ferranti, while the crumbling sand +Falls through this time-glass, thou hast leave to speak. +This and no more. + +GUIDO + +It is enough, my lord. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Thou standest on the extreme verge of death; +See that thou speakest nothing but the truth, +Naught else will serve thee. + +GUIDO + +If I speak it not, +Then give my body to the headsman there. + +LORD JUSTICE + +[turns the time-glass] +Let there be silence while the prisoner speaks. + +TIPSTAFF + +Silence in the Court there. + +GUIDO + +My Lords Justices, +And reverent judges of this worthy court, +I hardly know where to begin my tale, +So strangely dreadful is this history. +First, let me tell you of what birth I am. +I am the son of that good Duke Lorenzo +Who was with damned treachery done to death +By a most wicked villain, lately Duke +Of this good town of Padua. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Have a care, +It will avail thee nought to mock this prince +Who now lies in his coffin. + +MAFFIO + +By Saint James, +This is the Duke of Parma's rightful heir. + +JEPPO + +I always thought him noble. + +GUIDO + +I confess +That with the purport of a just revenge, +A most just vengeance on a man of blood, +I entered the Duke's household, served his will, +Sat at his board, drank of his wine, and was +His intimate: so much I will confess, +And this too, that I waited till he grew +To give the fondest secrets of his life +Into my keeping, till he fawned on me, +And trusted me in every private matter +Even as my noble father trusted him; +That for this thing I waited. +[To the Headsman.] Thou man of blood! +Turn not thine axe on me before the time: +Who knows if it be time for me to die? +Is there no other neck in court but mine? + +LORD JUSTICE + +The sand within the time-glass flows apace. +Come quickly to the murder of the Duke. + +GUIDO + +I will be brief: Last night at twelve o' the clock, +By a strong rope I scaled the palace wall, +With purport to revenge my father's murder - +Ay! with that purport I confess, my lord. +This much I will acknowledge, and this also, +That as with stealthy feet I climbed the stair +Which led unto the chamber of the Duke, +And reached my hand out for the scarlet cloth +Which shook and shivered in the gusty door, +Lo! the white moon that sailed in the great heaven +Flooded with silver light the darkened room, +Night lit her candles for me, and I saw +The man I hated, cursing in his sleep; +And thinking of a most dear father murdered, +Sold to the scaffold, bartered to the block, +I smote the treacherous villain to the heart +With this same dagger, which by chance I found +Within the chamber. + +DUCHESS + +[rising from her seat] +Oh! + +GUIDO + +[hurriedly] +I killed the Duke. +Now, my Lord Justice, if I may crave a boon, +Suffer me not to see another sun +Light up the misery of this loathsome world. + +LORD JUSTICE + +Thy boon is granted, thou shalt die to-night. +Lead him away. Come, Madam +[GUIDO is led off; as he goes the DUCHESS stretches out her arms +and rushes down the stage.] + +DUCHESS + +Guido! Guido! +[Faints.] + +Tableau + +END OF ACT IV. + + + +ACT V + + + +SCENE + +A dungeon in the public prison of Padua; Guido lies asleep on a +pallet (L.C.); a table with a goblet on it is set (L.C.); five +soldiers are drinking and playing dice in the corner on a stone +table; one of them has a lantern hung to his halbert; a torch is +set in the wall over Guido's head. Two grated windows behind, one +on each side of the door which is (C.), look out into the passage; +the stage is rather dark. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +[throws dice] +Sixes again! good Pietro. + +SECOND SOLDIER + +I' faith, lieutenant, I will play with thee no more. I will lose +everything. + +THIRD SOLDIER + +Except thy wits; thou art safe there! + +SECOND SOLDIER + +Ay, ay, he cannot take them from me. + +THIRD SOLDIER + +No; for thou hast no wits to give him. + +THE SOLDIERS + +[loudly] +Ha! ha! ha! + +FIRST SOLDIER + +Silence! You will wake the prisoner; he is asleep. + +SECOND SOLDIER + +What matter? He will get sleep enough when he is buried. I +warrant he'd be glad if we could wake him when he's in the grave. + +THIRD SOLDIER + +Nay! for when he wakes there it will be judgment day. + +SECOND SOLDIER + +Ay, and he has done a grievous thing; for, look you, to murder one +of us who are but flesh and blood is a sin, and to kill a Duke goes +being near against the law. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +Well, well, he was a wicked Duke. + +SECOND SOLDIER + +And so he should not have touched him; if one meddles with wicked +people, one is like to be tainted with their wickedness. + +THIRD SOLDIER + +Ay, that is true. How old is the prisoner? + +SECOND SOLDIER + +Old enough to do wrong, and not old enough to be wise. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +Why, then, he might be any age. + +SECOND SOLDIER + +They say the Duchess wanted to pardon him. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +Is that so? + +SECOND SOLDIER + +Ay, and did much entreat the Lord Justice, but he would not. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +I had thought, Pietro, that the Duchess was omnipotent. + +SECOND SOLDIER + +True, she is well-favoured; I know none so comely. + +THE SOLDIERS + +Ha! ha! ha! + +FIRST SOLDIER + +I meant I had thought our Duchess could do anything. + +SECOND SOLDIER + +Nay, for he is now given over to the Justices, and they will see +that justice be done; they and stout Hugh the headsman; but when +his head is off, why then the Duchess can pardon him if she likes; +there is no law against that. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +I do not think that stout Hugh, as you call him, will do the +business for him after all. This Guido is of gentle birth, and so +by the law can drink poison first, if it so be his pleasure. + +THIRD SOLDIER + +And if he does not drink it? + +FIRST SOLDIER + +Why, then, they will kill him. +[Knocking comes at the door.] + +FIRST SOLDIER + +See who that is. +[Third Soldier goes over and looks through the wicket.] + +THIRD SOLDIER + +It is a woman, sir. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +Is she pretty? + +THIRD SOLDIER + +I can't tell. She is masked, lieutenant. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +It is only very ugly or very beautiful women who ever hide their +faces. Let her in. +[Soldier opens the door, and the DUCHESS masked and cloaked +enters.] + +DUCHESS + +[to Third Soldier] +Are you the officer on guard? + +FIRST SOLDIER + +[coming forward] +I am, madam. + +DUCHESS + +I must see the prisoner alone. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +I am afraid that is impossible. [The DUCHESS hands him a ring, he +looks at and returns it to her with a bow and makes a sign to the +Soldiers.] Stand without there. [Exeunt the Soldiers.] + +DUCHESS + +Officer, your men are somewhat rough. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +They mean no harm. + +DUCHESS + +I shall be going back in a few minutes. As I pass through the +corridor do not let them try and lift my mask. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +You need not be afraid, madam. + +DUCHESS + +I have a particular reason for wishing my face not to be seen. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +Madam, with this ring you can go in and out as you please; it is +the Duchess's own ring. + +DUCHESS + +Leave us. [The Soldier turns to go out.] A moment, sir. For what +hour is . . . + +FIRST SOLDIER + +At twelve o'clock, madam, we have orders to lead him out; but I +dare say he won't wait for us; he's more like to take a drink out +of that poison yonder. Men are afraid of the headsman. + +DUCHESS + +Is that poison? + +FIRST SOLDIER + +Ay, madam, and very sure poison too. + +DUCHESS + +You may go, sir. + +FIRST SOLDIER + +By Saint James, a pretty hand! I wonder who she is. Some woman +who loved him, perhaps. [Exit.] + +DUCHESS + +[taking her mark off] At last! +He can escape now in this cloak and vizard, +We are of a height almost: they will not know him; +As for myself what matter? +So that he does not curse me as he goes, +I care but little: I wonder will he curse me. +He has the right. It is eleven now; +They will not come till twelve. +[Goes over to the table.] +So this is poison. +Is it not strange that in this liquor here +There lies the key to all philosophies? +[Takes the cup up.] +It smells of poppies. I remember well +That, when I was a child in Sicily, +I took the scarlet poppies from the corn, +And made a little wreath, and my grave uncle, +Don John of Naples, laughed: I did not know +That they had power to stay the springs of life, +To make the pulse cease beating, and to chill +The blood in its own vessels, till men come +And with a hook hale the poor body out, +And throw it in a ditch: the body, ay, - +What of the soul? that goes to heaven or hell. +Where will mine go? +[Takes the torch from the wall, and goes over to the bed.] +How peacefully here he sleeps, +Like a young schoolboy tired out with play: +I would that I could sleep so peacefully, +But I have dreams. [Bending over him.] +Poor boy: what if I kissed him? +No, no, my lips would burn him like a fire. +He has had enough of Love. Still that white neck +Will 'scape the headsman: I have seen to that: +He will get hence from Padua to-night, +And that is well. You are very wise, Lord Justices, +And yet you are not half so wise as I am, +And that is well. +O God! how I have loved you, +And what a bloody flower did Love bear! +[Comes back to the table.] +What if I drank these juices, and so ceased? +Were it not better than to wait till Death +Come to my bed with all his serving men, +Remorse, disease, old age, and misery? +I wonder does one suffer much: I think +That I am very young to die like this, +But so it must be. Why, why should I die? +He will escape to-night, and so his blood +Will not be on my head. No, I must die; +I have been guilty, therefore I must die; +He loves me not, and therefore I must die: +I would die happier if he would kiss me, +But he will not do that. I did not know him. +I thought he meant to sell me to the Judge; +That is not strange; we women never know +Our lovers till they leave us. +[Bell begins to toll] +Thou vile bell, +That like a bloodhound from thy brazen throat +Call'st for this man's life, cease! thou shalt not get it. +He stirs--I must be quick: [Takes up cup.] +O Love, Love, Love, +I did not think that I would pledge thee thus! +[Drinks poison, and sets the cup down on the table behind her: the +noise wakens GUIDO, who starts up, and does not see what she has +done. There is silence for a minute, each looking at the other.] +I do not come to ask your pardon now, +Seeing I know I stand beyond all pardon; +Enough of that: I have already, sir, +Confessed my sin to the Lords Justices; +They would not listen to me: and some said +I did invent a tale to save your life; +You have trafficked with me; others said +That women played with pity as with men; +Others that grief for my slain Lord and husband +Had robbed me of my wits: they would not hear me, +And, when I sware it on the holy book, +They bade the doctor cure me. They are ten, +Ten against one, and they possess your life. +They call me Duchess here in Padua. +I do not know, sir; if I be the Duchess, +I wrote your pardon, and they would not take it; +They call it treason, say I taught them that; +Maybe I did. Within an hour, Guido, +They will be here, and drag you from the cell, +And bind your hands behind your back, and bid you +Kneel at the block: I am before them there; +Here is the signet ring of Padua, +'Twill bring you safely through the men on guard; +There is my cloak and vizard; they have orders +Not to be curious: when you pass the gate +Turn to the left, and at the second bridge +You will find horses waiting: by to-morrow +You will be at Venice, safe. [A pause.] +Do you not speak? +Will you not even curse me ere you go? - +You have the right. [A pause.] +You do not understand +There lies between you and the headsman's axe +Hardly so much sand in the hour-glass +As a child's palm could carry: here is the ring: +I have washed my hand: there is no blood upon it: +You need not fear. Will you not take the ring? + +GUIDO + +[takes ring and kisses it] +Ay! gladly, Madam. + +DUCHESS + +And leave Padua. + +GUIDO + +Leave Padua. + +DUCHESS + +But it must be to-night. + +GUIDO + +To-night it shall be. + +DUCHESS + +Oh, thank God for that! + +GUIDO + +So I can live; life never seemed so sweet +As at this moment. + +DUCHESS + +Do not tarry, Guido, +There is my cloak: the horse is at the bridge, +The second bridge below the ferry house: +Why do you tarry? Can your ears not hear +This dreadful bell, whose every ringing stroke +Robs one brief minute from your boyish life. +Go quickly. + +GUIDO + +Ay! he will come soon enough. + +DUCHESS + +Who? + +GUIDO + +[calmly] +Why, the headsman. + +DUCHESS + +No, no. + +GUIDO + +Only he +Can bring me out of Padua. + +DUCHESS + +You dare not! +You dare not burden my o'erburdened soul +With two dead men! I think one is enough. +For when I stand before God, face to face, +I would not have you, with a scarlet thread +Around your white throat, coming up behind +To say I did it. + +GUIDO + +Madam, I wait. + +DUCHESS + +No, no, you cannot: you do not understand, +I have less power in Padua to-night +Than any common woman; they will kill you. +I saw the scaffold as I crossed the square, +Already the low rabble throng about it +With fearful jests, and horrid merriment, +As though it were a morris-dancer's platform, +And not Death's sable throne. O Guido, Guido, +You must escape! + +GUIDO + +Madam, I tarry here. + +DUCHESS + +Guido, you shall not: it would be a thing +So terrible that the amazed stars +Would fall from heaven, and the palsied moon +Be in her sphere eclipsed, and the great sun +Refuse to shine upon the unjust earth +Which saw thee die. + +GUIDO + +Be sure I shall not stir. + +DUCHESS + +[wringing her hands] +Is one sin not enough, but must it breed +A second sin more horrible again +Than was the one that bare it? O God, God, +Seal up sin's teeming womb, and make it barren, +I will not have more blood upon my hand +Than I have now. + +GUIDO + +[seizing her hand] +What! am I fallen so low +That I may not have leave to die for you? + +DUCHESS + +[tearing her hand away] +Die for me?--no, my life is a vile thing, +Thrown to the miry highways of this world; +You shall not die for me, you shall not, Guido; +I am a guilty woman. + +GUIDO + +Guilty?--let those +Who know what a thing temptation is, +Let those who have not walked as we have done, +In the red fire of passion, those whose lives +Are dull and colourless, in a word let those, +If any such there be, who have not loved, +Cast stones against you. As for me - + +DUCHESS + +Alas! + +GUIDO + +[falling at her feet] +You are my lady, and you are my love! +O hair of gold, O crimson lips, O face +Made for the luring and the love of man! +Incarnate image of pure loveliness! +Worshipping thee I do forget the past, +Worshipping thee my soul comes close to thine, +Worshipping thee I seem to be a god, +And though they give my body to the block, +Yet is my love eternal! +[DUCHESS puts her hands over her face: GUIDO draws them down.] +Sweet, lift up +The trailing curtains that overhang your eyes +That I may look into those eyes, and tell you +I love you, never more than now when Death +Thrusts his cold lips between us: Beatrice, +I love you: have you no word left to say? +Oh, I can bear the executioner, +But not this silence: will you not say you love me? +Speak but that word and Death shall lose his sting, +But speak it not, and fifty thousand deaths +Are, in comparison, mercy. Oh, you are cruel, +And do not love me. + +DUCHESS + +Alas! I have no right +For I have stained the innocent hands of love +With spilt-out blood: there is blood on the ground; +I set it there. + +GUIDO + +Sweet, it was not yourself, +It was some devil tempted you. + +DUCHESS + +[rising suddenly] +No, no, +We are each our own devil, and we make +This world our hell. + +GUIDO + +Then let high Paradise +Fall into Tartarus! for I shall make +This world my heaven for a little space. +The sin was mine, if any sin there was. +'Twas I who nurtured murder in my heart, +Sweetened my meats, seasoned my wine with it, +And in my fancy slew the accursed Duke +A hundred times a day. Why, had this man +Died half so often as I wished him to, +Death had been stalking ever through the house, +And murder had not slept. +But you, fond heart, +Whose little eyes grew tender over a whipt hound, +You whom the little children laughed to see +Because you brought the sunlight where you passed, +You the white angel of God's purity, +This which men call your sin, what was it? + +DUCHESS + +Ay! +What was it? There are times it seems a dream, +An evil dream sent by an evil god, +And then I see the dead face in the coffin +And know it is no dream, but that my hand +Is red with blood, and that my desperate soul +Striving to find some haven for its love +From the wild tempest of this raging world, +Has wrecked its bark upon the rocks of sin. +What was it, said you?--murder merely? Nothing +But murder, horrible murder. + +GUIDO + +Nay, nay, nay, +'Twas but the passion-flower of your love +That in one moment leapt to terrible life, +And in one moment bare this gory fruit, +Which I had plucked in thought a thousand times. +My soul was murderous, but my hand refused; +Your hand wrought murder, but your soul was pure. +And so I love you, Beatrice, and let him +Who has no mercy for your stricken head, +Lack mercy up in heaven! Kiss me, sweet. +[Tries to kiss her.] + +DUCHESS + +No, no, your lips are pure, and mine are soiled, +For Guilt has been my paramour, and Sin +Lain in my bed: O Guido, if you love me +Get hence, for every moment is a worm +Which gnaws your life away: nay, sweet, get hence, +And if in after time you think of me, +Think of me as of one who loved you more +Than anything on earth; think of me, Guido, +As of a woman merely, one who tried +To make her life a sacrifice to love, +And slew love in the trial: Oh, what is that? +The bell has stopped from ringing, and I hear +The feet of armed men upon the stair. + +GUIDO + +[aside] +That is the signal for the guard to come. + +DUCHESS + +Why has the bell stopped ringing? + +GUIDO + +If you must know, +That stops my life on this side of the grave, +But on the other we shall meet again. + +DUCHESS + +No, no, 'tis not too late: you must get hence; +The horse is by the bridge, there is still time. +Away, away, you must not tarry here! +[Noise of Soldiers in the passage.] + +A VOICE OUTSIDE + +Room for the Lord Justice of Padua! +[The LORD JUSTICE is seen through the grated window passing down +the corridor preceded by men bearing torches.] + +DUCHESS + +It is too late. + +A VOICE OUTSIDE + +Room for the headsman. + +DUCHESS + +[sinks down] +Oh! +[The Headsman with his axe on his shoulder is seen passing the +corridor, followed by Monks bearing candles.] + +GUIDO + +Farewell, dear love, for I must drink this poison. +I do not fear the headsman, but I would die +Not on the lonely scaffold. +But here, +Here in thine arms, kissing thy mouth: farewell! +[Goes to the table and takes the goblet up.] What, art thou empty? +[Throws it to the ground.] +O thou churlish gaoler, +Even of poisons niggard! + +DUCHESS + +[faintly] +Blame him not. + +GUIDO + +O God! you have not drunk it, Beatrice? +Tell me you have not? + +DUCHESS + +Were I to deny it, +There is a fire eating at my heart +Which would find utterance. + +GUIDO + +O treacherous love, +Why have you not left a drop for me? + +DUCHESS + +No, no, it held but death enough for one. + +GUIDO + +Is there no poison still upon your lips, +That I may draw it from them? + +DUCHESS + +Why should you die? +You have not spilt blood, and so need not die: +I have spilt blood, and therefore I must die. +Was it not said blood should be spilt for blood? +Who said that? I forget. + +GUIDO + +Tarry for me, +Our souls will go together. + +DUCHESS + +Nay, you must live. +There are many other women in the world +Who will love you, and not murder for your sake. + +GUIDO + +I love you only. + +DUCHESS + +You need not die for that. + +GUIDO + +Ah, if we die together, love, why then +Can we not lie together in one grave? + +DUCHESS + +A grave is but a narrow wedding-bed. + +GUIDO + +It is enough for us + +DUCHESS + +And they will strew it +With a stark winding-sheet, and bitter herbs: +I think there are no roses in the grave, +Or if there are, they all are withered now +Since my Lord went there. + +GUIDO + +Ah! dear Beatrice, +Your lips are roses that death cannot wither. + +DUCHESS + +Nay, if we lie together, will not my lips +Fall into dust, and your enamoured eyes +Shrivel to sightless sockets, and the worms, +Which are our groomsmen, eat away your heart? + +GUIDO + +I do not care: Death has no power on love. +And so by Love's immortal sovereignty +I will die with you. + +DUCHESS + +But the grave is black, +And the pit black, so I must go before +To light the candles for your coming hither. +No, no, I will not die, I will not die. +Love, you are strong, and young, and very brave; +Stand between me and the angel of death, +And wrestle with him for me. +[Thrusts GUIDO in front of her with his back to the audience.] +I will kiss you, +When you have thrown him. Oh, have you no cordial, +To stay the workings of this poison in me? +Are there no rivers left in Italy +That you will not fetch me one cup of water +To quench this fire? + +GUIDO + +O God! + +DUCHESS + +You did not tell me +There was a drought in Italy, and no water: +Nothing but fire. + +GUIDO + +O Love! + +DUCHESS + +Send for a leech, +Not him who stanched my husband, but another +We have no time: send for a leech, I say: +There is an antidote against each poison, +And he will sell it if we give him money. +Tell him that I will give him Padua, +For one short hour of life: I will not die. +Oh, I am sick to death; no, do not touch me, +This poison gnaws my heart: I did not know +It was such pain to die: I thought that life +Had taken all the agonies to itself; +It seems it is not so. + +GUIDO + +O damned stars +Quench your vile cresset-lights in tears, and bid +The moon, your mistress, shine no more to-night. + +DUCHESS + +Guido, why are we here? I think this room +Is poorly furnished for a marriage chamber. +Let us get hence at once. Where are the horses? +We should be on our way to Venice now. +How cold the night is! We must ride faster. +[The Monks begin to chant outside.] +Music! It should be merrier; but grief +Is of the fashion now--I know not why. +You must not weep: do we not love each other? - +That is enough. Death, what do you here? +You were not bidden to this table, sir; +Away, we have no need of you: I tell you +It was in wine I pledged you, not in poison. +They lied who told you that I drank your poison. +It was spilt upon the ground, like my Lord's blood; +You came too late. + +GUIDO + +Sweet, there is nothing there: +These things are only unreal shadows. + +DUCHESS + +Death, +Why do you tarry, get to the upper chamber; +The cold meats of my husband's funeral feast +Are set for you; this is a wedding feast. +You are out of place, sir; and, besides, 'tis summer. +We do not need these heavy fires now, +You scorch us. +Oh, I am burned up, +Can you do nothing? Water, give me water, +Or else more poison. No: I feel no pain - +Is it not curious I should feel no pain? - +And Death has gone away, I am glad of that. +I thought he meant to part us. Tell me, Guido, +Are you not sorry that you ever saw me? + +GUIDO + +I swear I would not have lived otherwise. +Why, in this dull and common world of ours +Men have died looking for such moments as this +And have not found them. + +DUCHESS + +Then you are not sorry? +How strange that seems. + +GUIDO + +What, Beatrice, have I not +Stood face to face with beauty? That is enough +For one man's life. Why, love, I could be merry; +I have been often sadder at a feast, +But who were sad at such a feast as this +When Love and Death are both our cup-bearers? +We love and die together. + +DUCHESS + +Oh, I have been +Guilty beyond all women, and indeed +Beyond all women punished. Do you think - +No, that could not be--Oh, do you think that love +Can wipe the bloody stain from off my hands, +Pour balm into my wounds, heal up my hurts, +And wash my scarlet sins as white as snow? - +For I have sinned. + +GUIDO + +They do not sin at all +Who sin for love. + +DUCHESS + +No, I have sinned, and yet +Perchance my sin will be forgiven me. +I have loved much + +[They kiss each other now for the first time in this Act, when +suddenly the DUCHESS leaps up in the dreadful spasm of death, tears +in agony at her dress, and finally, with face twisted and distorted +with pain, falls back dead in a chair. GUIDO seizing her dagger +from her belt, kills himself; and, as he falls across her knees, +clutches at the cloak which is on the back of the chair, and throws +it entirely over her. There is a little pause. Then down the +passage comes the tramp of Soldiers; the door is opened, and the +LORD JUSTICE, the Headsman, and the Guard enter and see this figure +shrouded in black, and GUIDO lying dead across her. The LORD +JUSTICE rushes forward and drags the cloak off the DUCHESS, whose +face is now the marble image of peace, the sign of God's +forgiveness.] + +Tableau + +CURTAIN + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE DUCHESS OF PADUA *** + +This file should be named dpdua10.txt or dpdua10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, dpdua11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, dpdua10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/dpdua10.zip b/old/dpdua10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a1f1103 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/dpdua10.zip diff --git a/old/dpdua10h.htm b/old/dpdua10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..550f170 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/dpdua10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3326 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>New File</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +body {margin:10%; text-align:justify} +blockquote {font-size:14pt} +P {font-size:14pt} +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + + +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">The Duchess of Padua, by Oscar Wilde</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Duchess of Padua, by Oscar Wilde +(#9 in our series by Oscar Wilde) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Duchess of Padua + +Author: Oscar Wilde + +Release Date: April, 1997 [EBook #875] +[This file was first posted on April 9, 1997] +[Most recently updated: September 25, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1916 Methuen and Co. edition by David Price, +email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<h1>THE DUCHESS OF PADUA</h1> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<p>THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<pre> +Simone Gesso, Duke of Padua +Beatrice, his Wife +Andreas Pollajuolo, Cardinal of Padua +Maffio Petrucci, } +Jeppo Vitellozzo, } +Gentlemen of the Duke’s Household +Taddeo Bardi, } +Guido Ferranti, a Young Man +Ascanio Cristofano, his Friend +Count Moranzone, an Old Man +Bernardo Cavalcanti, Lord Justice of Padua +Hugo, the Headsman +Lucy, a Tire woman +</pre> + +<p>Servants, Citizens, Soldiers, Monks, Falconers with their hawks and +dogs, etc. +<p>Place: Padua<br />Time: The latter half of the Sixteenth Century<br />Style +of Architecture: Italian, Gothic and Romanesque.</p> +<p>THE SCENES OF THE PLAY</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>ACT I. The Market Place of Padua (25 minutes).<br />ACT II. +Room in the Duke’s Palace (36 minutes).<br />ACT III. Corridor +in the Duke’s Palace (29 minutes).<br />ACT IV. The Hall +of Justice (31 minutes).<br />ACT V. The Dungeon (25 minutes).</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>ACT I</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>SCENE</p> +<p>The Market Place of Padua at noon; in the background is the great +Cathedral of Padua; the architecture is Romanesque, and wrought in black +and white marbles; a flight of marble steps leads up to the Cathedral +door; at the foot of the steps are two large stone lions; the houses +on each aide of the stage have coloured awnings from their windows, +and are flanked by stone arcades; on the right of the stage is the public +fountain, with a triton in green bronze blowing from a conch; around +the fountain is a stone seat; the bell of the Cathedral is ringing, +and the citizens, men, women and children, are passing into the Cathedral.</p> +<p>[Enter GUIDO FERRANTI and ASCANIO CRISTOFANO.]</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>Now by my life, Guido, I will go no farther; for if I walk another +step I will have no life left to swear by; this wild-goose errand of +yours!</p> +<p>[Sits down on the step of the fountain.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I think it must be here. [Goes up to passer-by and doffs his +cap.] Pray, sir, is this the market place, and that the church +of Santa Croce? [Citizen bows.] I thank you, sir.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>Well?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Ay! it is here.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>I would it were somewhere else, for I see no wine-shop.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[Taking a letter from his pocket and reading it.] ‘The +hour noon; the city, Padua; the place, the market; and the day, Saint +Philip’s Day.’</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>And what of the man, how shall we know him?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[reading still] ‘I will wear a violet cloak with a silver +falcon broidered on the shoulder.’ A brave attire, Ascanio.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>I’d sooner have my leathern jerkin. And you think he +will tell you of your father?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Why, yes! It is a month ago now, you remember; I was in the +vineyard, just at the corner nearest the road, where the goats used +to get in, a man rode up and asked me was my name Guido, and gave me +this letter, signed ‘Your Father’s Friend,’ bidding +me be here to-day if I would know the secret of my birth, and telling +me how to recognise the writer! I had always thought old Pedro +was my uncle, but he told me that he was not, but that I had been left +a child in his charge by some one he had never since seen.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>And you don’t know who your father is?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>No.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>No recollection of him even?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>None, Ascanio, none.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>[laughing] Then he could never have boxed your ears so often +as my father did mine.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[smiling] I am sure you never deserved it.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>Never; and that made it worse. I hadn’t the consciousness +of guilt to buoy me up. What hour did you say he fixed?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Noon. [Clock in the Cathedral strikes.]</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>It is that now, and your man has not come. I don’t believe +in him, Guido. I think it is some wench who has set her eye at +you; and, as I have followed you from Perugia to Padua, I swear you +shall follow me to the nearest tavern. [Rises.] By the great +gods of eating, Guido, I am as hungry as a widow is for a husband, as +tired as a young maid is of good advice, and as dry as a monk’s +sermon. Come, Guido, you stand there looking at nothing, like +the fool who tried to look into his own mind; your man will not come.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Well, I suppose you are right. Ah! [Just as he is leaving +the stage with ASCANIO, enter LORD MORANZONE in a violet cloak, with +a silver falcon broidered on the shoulder; he passes across to the Cathedral, +and just as he is going in GUIDO runs up and touches him.]</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Guido Ferranti, thou hast come in time.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>What! Does my father live?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Ay! lives in thee.<br />Thou art the same in mould and lineament,<br />Carriage +and form, and outward semblances;<br />I trust thou art in noble mind +the same.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Oh, tell me of my father; I have lived<br />But for this moment.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>We must be alone.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>This is my dearest friend, who out of love<br />Has followed me to +Padua; as two brothers,<br />There is no secret which we do not share.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>There is one secret which ye shall not share;<br />Bid him go hence.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[to ASCANIO] Come back within the hour.<br />He does not know +that nothing in this world<br />Can dim the perfect mirror of our love.<br />Within +the hour come.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>Speak not to him,<br />There is a dreadful terror in his look.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[laughing]<br />Nay, nay, I doubt not that he has come to tell<br />That +I am some great Lord of Italy,<br />And we will have long days of joy +together.<br />Within the hour, dear Ascanio.<br />[Exit ASCANIO.]<br />Now +tell me of my father?<br />[Sits down on a stone seat.]<br />Stood he +tall?<br />I warrant he looked tall upon his horse.<br />His hair was +black? or perhaps a reddish gold,<br />Like a red fire of gold? +Was his voice low?<br />The very bravest men have voices sometimes<br />Full +of low music; or a clarion was it<br />That brake with terror all his +enemies?<br />Did he ride singly? or with many squires<br />And valiant +gentlemen to serve his state?<br />For oftentimes methinks I feel my +veins<br />Beat with the blood of kings. Was he a king?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Ay, of all men he was the kingliest.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[proudly] Then when you saw my noble father last<br />He was +set high above the heads of men?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Ay, he was high above the heads of men,<br />[Walks over to GUIDO +and puts his hand upon his shoulder.]<br />On a red scaffold, with a +butcher’s block<br />Set for his neck.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[leaping up]<br />What dreadful man art thou,<br />That like a raven, +or the midnight owl,<br />Com’st with this awful message from +the grave?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>I am known here as the Count Moranzone,<br />Lord of a barren castle +on a rock,<br />With a few acres of unkindly land<br />And six not thrifty +servants. But I was one<br />Of Parma’s noblest princes; +more than that,<br />I was your father’s friend.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[clasping his hand] Tell me of him.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>You are the son of that great Duke Lorenzo,<br />He was the Prince +of Parma, and the Duke<br />Of all the fair domains of Lombardy<br />Down +to the gates of Florence; nay, Florence even<br />Was wont to pay him +tribute -</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Come to his death.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>You will hear that soon enough. Being at war -<br />O noble +lion of war, that would not suffer<br />Injustice done in Italy! - he +led<br />The very flower of chivalry against<br />That foul adulterous +Lord of Rimini,<br />Giovanni Malatesta - whom God curse!<br />And was +by him in treacherous ambush taken,<br />And like a villain, or a low-born +knave,<br />Was by him on the public scaffold murdered.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[clutching his dagger] Doth Malatesta live?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>No, he is dead.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Did you say dead? O too swift runner, Death,<br />Couldst thou +not wait for me a little space,<br />And I had done thy bidding!</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[clutching his wrist] Thou canst do it!<br />The man who sold +thy father is alive.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Sold! was my father sold?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Ay! trafficked for,<br />Like a vile chattel, for a price betrayed,<br />Bartered +and bargained for in privy market<br />By one whom he had held his perfect +friend,<br />One he had trusted, one he had well loved,<br />One whom +by ties of kindness he had bound -</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>And he lives<br />Who sold my father?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>I will bring you to him.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>So, Judas, thou art living! well, I will make<br />This world thy +field of blood, so buy it straight-way,<br />For thou must hang there.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Judas said you, boy?<br />Yes, Judas in his treachery, but still<br />He +was more wise than Judas was, and held<br />Those thirty silver pieces +not enough.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>What got he for my father’s blood?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>What got he?<br />Why cities, fiefs, and principalities,<br />Vineyards, +and lands.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Of which he shall but keep<br />Six feet of ground to rot in. +Where is he,<br />This damned villain, this foul devil? where?<br />Show +me the man, and come he cased in steel,<br />In complete panoply and +pride of war,<br />Ay, guarded by a thousand men-at-arms,<br />Yet I +shall reach him through their spears, and feel<br />The last black drop +of blood from his black heart<br />Crawl down my blade. Show me +the man, I say,<br />And I will kill him.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[coldly]<br />Fool, what revenge is there?<br />Death is the common +heritage of all,<br />And death comes best when it comes suddenly.<br />[Goes +up close to GUIDO.]<br />Your father was betrayed, there is your cue;<br />For +you shall sell the seller in his turn.<br />I will make you of his household, +you shall sit<br />At the same board with him, eat of his bread -</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O bitter bread!</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Thy palate is too nice,<br />Revenge will make it sweet. Thou +shalt o’ nights<br />Pledge him in wine, drink from his cup, and +be<br />His intimate, so he will fawn on thee,<br />Love thee, and trust +thee in all secret things.<br />If he bid thee be merry thou must laugh,<br />And +if it be his humour to be sad<br />Thou shalt don sables. Then +when the time is ripe -<br />[GUIDO clutches his sword.]<br />Nay, nay, +I trust thee not; your hot young blood,<br />Undisciplined nature, and +too violent rage<br />Will never tarry for this great revenge,<br />But +wreck itself on passion.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Thou knowest me not.<br />Tell me the man, and I in everything<br />Will +do thy bidding.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Well, when the time is ripe,<br />The victim trusting and the occasion +sure,<br />I will by sudden secret messenger<br />Send thee a sign.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>How shall I kill him, tell me?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>That night thou shalt creep into his private chamber;<br />But if +he sleep see that thou wake him first,<br />And hold thy hand upon his +throat, ay! that way,<br />Then having told him of what blood thou art,<br />Sprung +from what father, and for what revenge,<br />Bid him to pray for mercy; +when he prays,<br />Bid him to set a price upon his life,<br />And when +he strips himself of all his gold<br />Tell him thou needest not gold, +and hast not mercy,<br />And do thy business straight away. Swear +to me<br />Thou wilt not kill him till I bid thee do it,<br />Or else +I go to mine own house, and leave<br />Thee ignorant, and thy father +unavenged.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Now by my father’s sword -</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>The common hangman<br />Brake that in sunder in the public square.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Then by my father’s grave -</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>What grave? what grave?<br />Your noble father lieth in no grave,<br />I +saw his dust strewn on the air, his ashes<br />Whirled through the windy +streets like common straws<br />To plague a beggar’s eyesight, +and his head,<br />That gentle head, set on the prison spike,<br />For +the vile rabble in their insolence<br />To shoot their tongues at.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Was it so indeed?<br />Then by my father’s spotless memory,<br />And +by the shameful manner of his death,<br />And by the base betrayal by +his friend,<br />For these at least remain, by these I swear<br />I +will not lay my hand upon his life<br />Until you bid me, then - God +help his soul,<br />For he shall die as never dog died yet.<br />And +now, the sign, what is it?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>This dagger, boy;<br />It was your father’s.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Oh, let me look at it!<br />I do remember now my reputed uncle,<br />That +good old husbandman I left at home,<br />Told me a cloak wrapped round +me when a babe<br />Bare too such yellow leopards wrought in gold;<br />I +like them best in steel, as they are here,<br />They suit my purpose +better. Tell me, sir,<br />Have you no message from my father +to me?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Poor boy, you never saw that noble father,<br />For when by his false +friend he had been sold,<br />Alone of all his gentlemen I escaped<br />To +bear the news to Parma to the Duchess.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Speak to me of my mother.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>When thy mother<br />Heard my black news, she fell into a swoon,<br />And, +being with untimely travail seized -<br />Bare thee into the world before +thy time,<br />And then her soul went heavenward, to wait<br />Thy father, +at the gates of Paradise.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>A mother dead, a father sold and bartered!<br />I seem to stand on +some beleaguered wall,<br />And messenger comes after messenger<br />With +a new tale of terror; give me breath,<br />Mine ears are tired.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>When thy mother died,<br />Fearing our enemies, I gave it out<br />Thou +wert dead also, and then privily<br />Conveyed thee to an ancient servitor,<br />Who +by Perugia lived; the rest thou knowest.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Saw you my father afterwards?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Ay! once;<br />In mean attire, like a vineyard dresser,<br />I stole +to Rimini.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[taking his hand]<br />O generous heart!</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>One can buy everything in Rimini,<br />And so I bought the gaolers! +when your father<br />Heard that a man child had been born to him,<br />His +noble face lit up beneath his helm<br />Like a great fire seen far out +at sea,<br />And taking my two hands, he bade me, Guido,<br />To rear +you worthy of him; so I have reared you<br />To revenge his death upon +the friend who sold him.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Thou hast done well; I for my father thank thee.<br />And now his +name?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>How you remind me of him,<br />You have each gesture that your father +had.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>The traitor’s name?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Thou wilt hear that anon;<br />The Duke and other nobles at the Court<br />Are +coming hither.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>What of that? his name?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Do they not seem a valiant company<br />Of honourable, honest gentlemen?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>His name, milord?</p> +<p>[Enter the DUKE OF PADUA with COUNT BARDI, MAFFIO, PETRUCCI, and +other gentlemen of his Court.]</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[quickly]<br />The man to whom I kneel<br />Is he who sold your father! +mark me well.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[clutches hit dagger]<br />The Duke!</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Leave off that fingering of thy knife.<br />Hast thou so soon forgotten?<br />[Kneels +to the DUKE.]<br />My noble Lord.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Welcome, Count Moranzone; ’tis some time<br />Since we have +seen you here in Padua.<br />We hunted near your castle yesterday -<br />Call +you it castle? that bleak house of yours<br />Wherein you sit a-mumbling +o’er your beads,<br />Telling your vices like a good old man.<br />[Catches +sight of GUIDO and starts back.]<br />Who is that?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>My sister’s son, your Grace,<br />Who being now of age to carry +arms,<br />Would for a season tarry at your Court</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>[still looking at GUIDO]<br />What is his name?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Guido Ferranti, sir.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>His city?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>He is Mantuan by birth.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>[advancing towards GUIDO]<br />You have the eyes of one I used to +know,<br />But he died childless. Are you honest, boy?<br />Then +be not spendthrift of your honesty,<br />But keep it to yourself; in +Padua<br />Men think that honesty is ostentatious, so<br />It is not +of the fashion. Look at these lords.</p> +<p>COUNT BARDI</p> +<p>[aside]<br />Here is some bitter arrow for us, sure.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Why, every man among them has his price,<br />Although, to do them +justice, some of them<br />Are quite expensive.</p> +<p>COUNT BARDI</p> +<p>[aside]<br />There it comes indeed.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>So be not honest; eccentricity<br />Is not a thing should ever be +encouraged,<br />Although, in this dull stupid age of ours,<br />The +most eccentric thing a man can do<br />Is to have brains, then the mob +mocks at him;<br />And for the mob, despise it as I do,<br />I hold +its bubble praise and windy favours<br />In such account, that popularity<br />Is +the one insult I have never suffered.</p> +<p>MAFFIO</p> +<p>[aside]</p> +<p>He has enough of hate, if he needs that.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Have prudence; in your dealings with the world<br />Be not too hasty; +act on the second thought,<br />First impulses are generally good.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[aside]<br />Surely a toad sits on his lips, and spills its venom +there.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>See thou hast enemies,<br />Else will the world think very little +of thee;<br />It is its test of power; yet see thou show’st<br />A +smiling mask of friendship to all men,<br />Until thou hast them safely +in thy grip,<br />Then thou canst crush them.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[aside]<br />O wise philosopher!<br />That for thyself dost dig so +deep a grave.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[to him]<br />Dost thou mark his words?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Oh, be thou sure I do.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>And be not over-scrupulous; clean hands<br />With nothing in them +make a sorry show.<br />If you would have the lion’s share of +life<br />You must wear the fox’s skin. Oh, it will fit +you;<br />It is a coat which fitteth every man.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Your Grace, I shall remember.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>That is well, boy, well.<br />I would not have about me shallow fools,<br />Who +with mean scruples weigh the gold of life,<br />And faltering, paltering, +end by failure; failure,<br />The only crime which I have not committed:<br />I +would have <i>men</i> about me. As for conscience,<br />Conscience +is but the name which cowardice<br />Fleeing from battle scrawls upon +its shield.<br />You understand me, boy?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I do, your Grace,<br />And will in all things carry out the creed<br />Which +you have taught me.</p> +<p>MAFFIO</p> +<p>I never heard your Grace<br />So much in the vein for preaching; +let the Cardinal<br />Look to his laurels, sir.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>The Cardinal!<br />Men follow my creed, and they gabble his.<br />I +do not think much of the Cardinal;<br />Although he is a holy churchman, +and<br />I quite admit his dulness. Well, sir, from now<br />We +count you of our household<br />[He holds out his hand for GUIDO to +kiss. GUIDO starts back in horror, but at a gesture from COUNT +MORANZONE, kneels and kisses it.]<br />We will see<br />That you are +furnished with such equipage<br />As doth befit your honour and our +state.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I thank your Grace most heartily.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Tell me again<br />What is your name?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Guido Ferranti, sir.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>And you are Mantuan? Look to your wives, my lords,<br />When +such a gallant comes to Padua.<br />Thou dost well to laugh, Count Bardi; +I have noted<br />How merry is that husband by whose hearth<br />Sits +an uncomely wife.</p> +<p>MAFFIO</p> +<p>May it please your Grace,<br />The wives of Padua are above suspicion.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>What, are they so ill-favoured! Let us go,<br />This Cardinal +detains our pious Duchess;<br />His sermon and his beard want cutting +both:<br />Will you come with us, sir, and hear a text<br />From holy +Jerome?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[bowing]<br />My liege, there are some matters -</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>[interrupting]<br />Thou need’st make no excuse for missing +mass.<br />Come, gentlemen.<br />[Exit with his suite into Cathedral.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[after a pause]<br />So the Duke sold my father;<br />I kissed his +hand.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Thou shalt do that many times.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Must it be so?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Ay! thou hast sworn an oath.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>That oath shall make me marble.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Farewell, boy,<br />Thou wilt not see me till the time is ripe.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I pray thou comest quickly.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>I will come<br />When it is time; be ready.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Fear me not.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Here is your friend; see that you banish him<br />Both from your +heart and Padua.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>From Padua,<br />Not from my heart.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Nay, from thy heart as well,<br />I will not leave thee till I see +thee do it.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Can I have no friend?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Revenge shall be thy friend;<br />Thou need’st no other.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Well, then be it so.<br />[Enter ASCANIO CRISTOFANO.]</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>Come, Guido, I have been beforehand with you in everything, for I +have drunk a flagon of wine, eaten a pasty, and kissed the maid who +served it. Why, you look as melancholy as a schoolboy who cannot +buy apples, or a politician who cannot sell his vote. What news, +Guido, what news?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Why, that we two must part, Ascanio.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>That would be news indeed, but it is not true.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Too true it is, you must get hence, Ascanio,<br />And never look +upon my face again.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>No, no; indeed you do not know me, Guido;<br />’Tis true I +am a common yeoman’s son,<br />Nor versed in fashions of much +courtesy;<br />But, if you are nobly born, cannot I be<br />Your serving +man? I will tend you with more love<br />Than any hired servant.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[clasping his hand]<br />Ascanio!<br />[Sees MORANZONE looking at +him and drops ASCANIO’S hand.]<br />It cannot be.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>What, is it so with you?<br />I thought the friendship of the antique +world<br />Was not yet dead, but that the Roman type<br />Might even +in this poor and common age<br />Find counterparts of love; then by +this love<br />Which beats between us like a summer sea,<br />Whatever +lot has fallen to your hand<br />May I not share it?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Share it?</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>Ay!</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>No, no.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>Have you then come to some inheritance<br />Of lordly castle, or +of stored-up gold?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[bitterly]<br />Ay! I have come to my inheritance.<br />O bloody +legacy! and O murderous dole!<br />Which, like the thrifty miser, must +I hoard,<br />And to my own self keep; and so, I pray you,<br />Let +us part here.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>What, shall we never more<br />Sit hand in hand, as we were wont +to sit,<br />Over some book of ancient chivalry<br />Stealing a truant +holiday from school,<br />Follow the huntsmen through the autumn woods,<br />And +watch the falcons burst their tasselled jesses,<br />When the hare breaks +from covert.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Never more.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>Must I go hence without a word of love?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>You must go hence, and may love go with you.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>You are unknightly, and ungenerous.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Unknightly and ungenerous if you will.<br />Why should we waste more +words about the matter<br />Let us part now.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>Have you no message, Guido?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>None; my whole past was but a schoolboy’s dream;<br />To-day +my life begins. Farewell.</p> +<p>ASCANIO</p> +<p>Farewell [exit slowly.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Now are you satisfied? Have you not seen<br />My dearest friend, +and my most loved companion,<br />Thrust from me like a common kitchen +knave!<br />Oh, that I did it! Are you not satisfied?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Ay! I am satisfied. Now I go hence,<br />Do not forget the +sign, your father’s dagger,<br />And do the business when I send +it to you.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Be sure I shall. [Exit LORD MORANZONE.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O thou eternal heaven!<br />If there is aught of nature in my soul,<br />Of +gentle pity, or fond kindliness,<br />Wither it up, blast it, bring +it to nothing,<br />Or if thou wilt not, then will I myself<br />Cut +pity with a sharp knife from my heart<br />And strangle mercy in her +sleep at night<br />Lest she speak to me. Vengeance there I have +it.<br />Be thou my comrade and my bedfellow,<br />Sit by my side, ride +to the chase with me,<br />When I am weary sing me pretty songs,<br />When +I am light o’ heart, make jest with me,<br />And when I dream, +whisper into my ear<br />The dreadful secret of a father’s murder +-<br />Did I say murder? [Draws his dagger.]<br />Listen, thou +terrible God!<br />Thou God that punishest all broken oaths,<br />And +bid some angel write this oath in fire,<br />That from this hour, till +my dear father’s murder<br />In blood I have revenged, I do forswear<br />The +noble ties of honourable friendship,<br />The noble joys of dear companionship,<br />Affection’s +bonds, and loyal gratitude,<br />Ay, more, from this same hour I do +forswear<br />All love of women, and the barren thing<br />Which men +call beauty -<br />[The organ peals in the Cathedral, and under a canopy +of cloth of silver tissue, borne by four pages in scarlet, the DUCHESS +OF PADUA comes down the steps; as she passes across their eyes meet +for a moment, and as she leaves the stage she looks back at GUIDO, and +the dagger falls from his hand.]<br />Oh! who is that?</p> +<p>A CITIZEN</p> +<p>The Duchess of Padua!</p> +<p>END OF ACT I.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>ACT II</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>SCENE</p> +<p>A state room in the Ducal Palace, hung with tapestries representing +the Masque of Venus; a large door in the centre opens into a corridor +of red marble, through which one can see a view of Padua; a large canopy +is set (R.C.) with three thrones, one a little lower than the others; +the ceiling is made of long gilded beams; furniture of the period, chairs +covered with gilt leather, and buffets set with gold and silver plate, +and chests painted with mythological scenes. A number of the courtiers +is out on the corridor looking from it down into the street below; from +the street comes the roar of a mob and cries of ‘Death to the +Duke’: after a little interval enter the Duke very calmly; he +is leaning on the arm of Guido Ferranti; with him enters also the Lord +Cardinal; the mob still shouting.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>No, my Lord Cardinal, I weary of her!<br />Why, she is worse than +ugly, she is good.</p> +<p>MAFFIO</p> +<p>[excitedly]<br />Your Grace, there are two thousand people there<br />Who +every moment grow more clamorous.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Tut, man, they waste their strength upon their lungs!<br />People +who shout so loud, my lords, do nothing;<br />The only men I fear are +silent men.<br />[A yell from the people.]<br />You see, Lord Cardinal, +how my people love me.<br />[Another yell.] Go, Petrucci,<br />And +tell the captain of the guard below<br />To clear the square. +Do you not hear me, sir?<br />Do what I bid you.</p> +<p>[Exit PETRUCCI.]</p> +<p>CARDINAL</p> +<p>I beseech your Grace<br />To listen to their grievances.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>[sitting on his throne]<br />Ay! the peaches<br />Are not so big +this year as they were last.<br />I crave your pardon, my lord Cardinal,<br />I +thought you spake of peaches.<br />[A cheer from the people.]<br />What +is that?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[rushes to the window]<br />The Duchess has gone forth into the square,<br />And +stands between the people and the guard,<br />And will not let them +shoot.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>The devil take her!</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[still at the window]<br />And followed by a dozen of the citizens<br />Has +come into the Palace.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>[starting up]<br />By Saint James,<br />Our Duchess waxes bold!</p> +<p>BARDI</p> +<p>Here comes the Duchess.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Shut that door there; this morning air is cold.<br />[They close +the door on the corridor.]<br />[Enter the Duchess followed by a crowd +of meanly dressed Citizens.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[flinging herself upon her knees]<br />I do beseech your Grace to +give us audience.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>What are these grievances?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Alas, my Lord,<br />Such common things as neither you nor I,<br />Nor +any of these noble gentlemen,<br />Have ever need at all to think about;<br />They +say the bread, the very bread they eat,<br />Is made of sorry chaff.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Ay! so it is,<br />Nothing but chaff.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>And very good food too,<br />I give it to my horses.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[restraining herself]<br />They say the water,<br />Set in the public +cisterns for their use,<br />[Has, through the breaking of the aqueduct,]<br />To +stagnant pools and muddy puddles turned.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>They should drink wine; water is quite unwholesome.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Alack, your Grace, the taxes which the customs<br />Take at the city +gate are grown so high<br />We cannot buy wine.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Then you should bless the taxes<br />Which make you temperate.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Think, while we sit<br />In gorgeous pomp and state, gaunt poverty<br />Creeps +through their sunless lanes, and with sharp knives<br />Cuts the warm +throats of children stealthily<br />And no word said.</p> +<p>THIRD CITIZEN</p> +<p>Ay! marry, that is true,<br />My little son died yesternight from +hunger;<br />He was but six years old; I am so poor,<br />I cannot bury +him.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>If you are poor,<br />Are you not blessed in that? Why, poverty<br />Is +one of the Christian virtues,<br />[Turns to the CARDINAL.]<br />Is +it not?<br />I know, Lord Cardinal, you have great revenues,<br />Rich +abbey-lands, and tithes, and large estates<br />For preaching voluntary +poverty.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Nay but, my lord the Duke, be generous;<br />While we sit here within +a noble house<br />[With shaded porticoes against the sun,<br />And +walls and roofs to keep the winter out],<br />There are many citizens +of Padua<br />Who in vile tenements live so full of holes,<br />That +the chill rain, the snow, and the rude blast,<br />Are tenants also +with them; others sleep<br />Under the arches of the public bridges<br />All +through the autumn nights, till the wet mist<br />Stiffens their limbs, +and fevers come, and so -</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>And so they go to Abraham’s bosom, Madam.<br />They should +thank me for sending them to Heaven,<br />If they are wretched here.<br />[To +the CARDINAL.]<br />Is it not said<br />Somewhere in Holy Writ, that +every man<br />Should be contented with that state of life<br />God +calls him to? Why should I change their state,<br />Or meddle +with an all-wise providence,<br />Which has apportioned that some men +should starve,<br />And others surfeit? I did not make the world.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>He hath a hard heart.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Nay, be silent, neighbour;<br />I think the Cardinal will speak for +us.</p> +<p>CARDINAL</p> +<p>True, it is Christian to bear misery,<br />Yet it is Christian also +to be kind,<br />And there seem many evils in this town,<br />Which +in your wisdom might your Grace reform.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>What is that word reform? What does it mean?</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Marry, it means leaving things as they are; I like it not.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Reform Lord Cardinal, did <i>you</i> say reform?<br />There is a +man in Germany called Luther,<br />Who would reform the Holy Catholic +Church.<br />Have you not made him heretic, and uttered<br />Anathema, +maranatha, against him?</p> +<p>CARDINAL</p> +<p>[rising from his seat]<br />He would have led the sheep out of the +fold,<br />We do but ask of you to feed the sheep.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>When I have shorn their fleeces I may feed them.<br />As for these +rebels -<br />[DUCHESS entreats him.]</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>That is a kind word,<br />He means to give us something.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Is that so?</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>These ragged knaves who come before us here,<br />With mouths chock-full +of treason.</p> +<p>THIRD CITIZEN</p> +<p>Good my Lord,<br />Fill up our mouths with bread; we’ll hold +our tongues.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Ye shall hold your tongues, whether you starve or not.<br />My lords, +this age is so familiar grown,<br />That the low peasant hardly doffs +his hat,<br />Unless you beat him; and the raw mechanic<br />Elbows +the noble in the public streets.<br />[To the Citizens.]<br />Still +as our gentle Duchess has so prayed us,<br />And to refuse so beautiful +a beggar<br />Were to lack both courtesy and love,<br />Touching your +grievances, I promise this -</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Marry, he will lighten the taxes!</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Or a dole of bread, think you, for each man?</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>That, on next Sunday, the Lord Cardinal<br />Shall, after Holy Mass, +preach you a sermon<br />Upon the Beauty of Obedience.<br />[Citizens +murmur.]</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>I’ faith, that will not fill our stomachs!</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>A sermon is but a sorry sauce, when<br />You have nothing to eat +with it.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Poor people,<br />You see I have no power with the Duke,<br />But +if you go into the court without,<br />My almoner shall from my private +purse,<br />Divide a hundred ducats ’mongst you all.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>God save the Duchess, say I.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>God save her.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>And every Monday morn shall bread be set<br />For those who lack +it.<br />[Citizens applaud and go out.]</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>[going out]<br />Why, God save the Duchess again!</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>[calling him back]<br />Come hither, fellow! what is your name?</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Dominick, sir.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>A good name! Why were you called Dominick?</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>[scratching his head]<br />Marry, because I was born on St. George’s +day.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>A good reason! here is a ducat for you!<br />Will you not cry for +me God save the Duke?</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>[feebly]<br />God save the Duke.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Nay! louder, fellow, louder.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>[a little louder]<br />God save the Duke!</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>More lustily, fellow, put more heart in it!<br />Here is another +ducat for you.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>[enthusiastically]<br />God save the Duke!</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>[mockingly]<br />Why, gentlemen, this simple fellow’s love<br />Touches +me much. [To the Citizen, harshly.]<br />Go! [Exit Citizen, +bowing.]<br />This is the way, my lords,<br />You can buy popularity +nowadays.<br />Oh, we are nothing if not democratic!<br />[To the DUCHESS.]<br />Well, +Madam,<br />You spread rebellion ’midst our citizens.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>My Lord, the poor have rights you cannot touch,<br />The right to +pity, and the right to mercy.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>So, so, you argue with me? This is she,<br />The gentle Duchess +for whose hand I yielded<br />Three of the fairest towns in Italy,<br />Pisa, +and Genoa, and Orvieto.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Promised, my Lord, not yielded: in that matter<br />Brake you your +word as ever.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>You wrong us, Madam,<br />There were state reasons.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>What state reasons are there<br />For breaking holy promises to a +state?</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>There are wild boars at Pisa in a forest<br />Close to the city: +when I promised Pisa<br />Unto your noble and most trusting father,<br />I +had forgotten there was hunting there.<br />At Genoa they say,<br />Indeed +I doubt them not, that the red mullet<br />Runs larger in the harbour +of that town<br />Than anywhere in Italy.<br />[Turning to one of the +Court.]<br />You, my lord,<br />Whose gluttonous appetite is your only +god,<br />Could satisfy our Duchess on that point.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>And Orvieto?</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>[yawning]<br />I cannot now recall<br />Why I did not surrender Orvieto<br />According +to the word of my contract.<br />Maybe it was because I did not choose.<br />[Goes +over to the DUCHESS.]<br />Why look you, Madam, you are here alone;<br />’Tis +many a dusty league to your grey France,<br />And even there your father +barely keeps<br />A hundred ragged squires for his Court.<br />What +hope have you, I say? Which of these lords<br />And noble gentlemen +of Padua<br />Stands by your side.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>There is not one.</p> +<p>[GUIDO starts, but restrains himself.]</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Nor shall be,<br />While I am Duke in Padua: listen, Madam,<br />Being +mine own, you shall do as I will,<br />And if it be my will you keep +the house,<br />Why then, this palace shall your prison be;<br />And +if it be my will you walk abroad,<br />Why, you shall take the air from +morn to night.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Sir, by what right -?</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Madam, my second Duchess<br />Asked the same question once: her monument<br />Lies +in the chapel of Bartholomew,<br />Wrought in red marble; very beautiful.<br />Guido, +your arm. Come, gentlemen, let us go<br />And spur our falcons +for the mid-day chase.<br />Bethink you, Madam, you are here alone.<br />[Exit +the DUKE leaning on GUIDO, with his Court.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[looking after them]<br />The Duke said rightly that I was alone;<br />Deserted, +and dishonoured, and defamed,<br />Stood ever woman so alone indeed?<br />Men +when they woo us call us pretty children,<br />Tell us we have not wit +to make our lives,<br />And so they mar them for us. Did I say +woo?<br />We are their chattels, and their common slaves,<br />Less +dear than the poor hound that licks their hand,<br />Less fondled than +the hawk upon their wrist.<br />Woo, did I say? bought rather, sold +and bartered,<br />Our very bodies being merchandise.<br />I know it +is the general lot of women,<br />Each miserably mated to some man<br />Wrecks +her own life upon his selfishness:<br />That it is general makes it +not less bitter.<br />I think I never heard a woman laugh,<br />Laugh +for pure merriment, except one woman,<br />That was at night time, in +the public streets.<br />Poor soul, she walked with painted lips, and +wore<br />The mask of pleasure: I would not laugh like her;<br />No, +death were better.<br />[Enter GUIDO behind unobserved; the DUCHESS +flings herself down before a picture of the Madonna.]<br />O Mary mother, +with your sweet pale face<br />Bending between the little angel heads<br />That +hover round you, have you no help for me?<br />Mother of God, have you +no help for me?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I can endure no longer.<br />This is my love, and I will speak to +her.<br />Lady, am I a stranger to your prayers?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[rising]<br />None but the wretched needs my prayers, my lord.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Then must I need them, lady.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>How is that?<br />Does not the Duke show thee sufficient honour?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Your Grace, I lack no favours from the Duke,<br />Whom my soul loathes +as I loathe wickedness,<br />But come to proffer on my bended knees,<br />My +loyal service to thee unto death.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Alas! I am so fallen in estate<br />I can but give thee a poor +meed of thanks.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[seizing her hand]<br />Hast thou no love to give me?<br />[The DUCHESS +starts, and GUIDO falls at her feet.]<br />O dear saint,<br />If I have +been too daring, pardon me!<br />Thy beauty sets my boyish blood aflame,<br />And, +when my reverent lips touch thy white hand,<br />Each little nerve with +such wild passion thrills<br />That there is nothing which I would not +do<br />To gain thy love. [Leaps up.]<br />Bid me reach forth +and pluck<br />Perilous honour from the lion’s jaws,<br />And +I will wrestle with the Nemean beast<br />On the bare desert! +Fling to the cave of War<br />A gaud, a ribbon, a dead flower, something<br />That +once has touched thee, and I’ll bring it back<br />Though all +the hosts of Christendom were there,<br />Inviolate again! ay, more +than this,<br />Set me to scale the pallid white-faced cliffs<br />Of +mighty England, and from that arrogant shield<br />Will I raze out the +lilies of your France<br />Which England, that sea-lion of the sea,<br />Hath +taken from her!<br />O dear Beatrice,<br />Drive me not from thy presence! +without thee<br />The heavy minutes crawl with feet of lead,<br />But, +while I look upon thy loveliness,<br />The hours fly like winged Mercuries<br />And +leave existence golden.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I did not think<br />I should be ever loved: do you indeed<br />Love +me so much as now you say you do?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Ask of the sea-bird if it loves the sea,<br />Ask of the roses if +they love the rain,<br />Ask of the little lark, that will not sing<br />Till +day break, if it loves to see the day:-<br />And yet, these are but +empty images,<br />Mere shadows of my love, which is a fire<br />So +great that all the waters of the main<br />Can not avail to quench it. +Will you not speak?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I hardly know what I should say to you.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Will you not say you love me?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Is that my lesson?<br />Must I say all at once? ’Twere +a good lesson<br />If I did love you, sir; but, if I do not,<br />What +shall I say then?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>If you do not love me,<br />Say, none the less, you do, for on your +tongue<br />Falsehood for very shame would turn to truth.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>What if I do not speak at all? They say<br />Lovers are happiest +when they are in doubt</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Nay, doubt would kill me, and if I must die,<br />Why, let me die +for joy and not for doubt.<br />Oh, tell me may I stay, or must I go?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I would not have you either stay or go;<br />For if you stay you +steal my love from me,<br />And if you go you take my love away.<br />Guido, +though all the morning stars could sing<br />They could not tell the +measure of my love.<br />I love you, Guido.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[stretching out his hands]<br />Oh, do not cease at all;<br />I thought +the nightingale sang but at night;<br />Or if thou needst must cease, +then let my lips<br />Touch the sweet lips that can such music make.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>To touch my lips is not to touch my heart.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Do you close that against me?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Alas! my lord,<br />I have it not: the first day that I saw you<br />I +let you take my heart away from me;<br />Unwilling thief, that without +meaning it<br />Did break into my fenced treasury<br />And filch my +jewel from it! O strange theft,<br />Which made you richer though +you knew it not,<br />And left me poorer, and yet glad of it!</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[clasping her in his arms]<br />O love, love, love! Nay, sweet, +lift up your head,<br />Let me unlock those little scarlet doors<br />That +shut in music, let me dive for coral<br />In your red lips, and I’ll +bear back a prize<br />Richer than all the gold the Gryphon guards<br />In +rude Armenia.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>You are my lord,<br />And what I have is yours, and what I have not<br />Your +fancy lends me, like a prodigal<br />Spending its wealth on what is +nothing worth.<br />[Kisses him.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Methinks I am bold to look upon you thus:<br />The gentle violet +hides beneath its leaf<br />And is afraid to look at the great sun<br />For +fear of too much splendour, but my eyes,<br />O daring eyes! are grown +so venturous<br />That like fixed stars they stand, gazing at you,<br />And +surfeit sense with beauty.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Dear love, I would<br />You could look upon me ever, for your eyes<br />Are +polished mirrors, and when I peer<br />Into those mirrors I can see +myself,<br />And so I know my image lives in you.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[taking her in his arms]<br />Stand still, thou hurrying orb in the +high heavens,<br />And make this hour immortal! [A pause.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Sit down here,<br />A little lower than me: yes, just so, sweet,<br />That +I may run my fingers through your hair,<br />And see your face turn +upwards like a flower<br />To meet my kiss.<br />Have you not sometimes +noted,<br />When we unlock some long-disuséd room<br />With heavy +dust and soiling mildew filled,<br />Where never foot of man has come +for years,<br />And from the windows take the rusty bar,<br />And fling +the broken shutters to the air,<br />And let the bright sun in, how +the good sun<br />Turns every grimy particle of dust<br />Into a little +thing of dancing gold?<br />Guido, my heart is that long-empty room,<br />But +you have let love in, and with its gold<br />Gilded all life. +Do you not think that love<br />Fills up the sum of life?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Ay! without love<br />Life is no better than the unhewn stone<br />Which +in the quarry lies, before the sculptor<br />Has set the God within +it. Without love<br />Life is as silent as the common reeds<br />That +through the marshes or by rivers grow,<br />And have no music in them.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Yet out of these<br />The singer, who is Love, will make a pipe<br />And +from them he draws music; so I think<br />Love will bring music out +of any life.<br />Is that not true?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Sweet, women make it true.<br />There are men who paint pictures, +and carve statues,<br />Paul of Verona and the dyer’s son,<br />Or +their great rival, who, by the sea at Venice,<br />Has set God’s +little maid upon the stair,<br />White as her own white lily, and as +tall,<br />Or Raphael, whose Madonnas are divine<br />Because they are +mothers merely; yet I think<br />Women are the best artists of the world,<br />For +they can take the common lives of men<br />Soiled with the money-getting +of our age,<br />And with love make them beautiful.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Ah, dear,<br />I wish that you and I were very poor;<br />The poor, +who love each other, are so rich.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Tell me again you love me, Beatrice.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[fingering his collar]<br />How well this collar lies about your +throat.<br />[LORD MORANZONE looks through the door from the corridor +outside.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Nay, tell me that you love me.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I remember,<br />That when I was a child in my dear France,<br />Being +at Court at Fontainebleau, the King<br />Wore such a collar.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Will you not say you love me?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[smiling]<br />He was a very royal man, King Francis,<br />Yet he +was not royal as you are.<br />Why need I tell you, Guido, that I love +you?<br />[Takes his head in her hands and turns his face up to her.]<br />Do +you not know that I am yours for ever,<br />Body and soul?<br />[Kisses +him, and then suddenly catches sight of MORANZONE and leaps up.]<br />Oh, +what is that? [MORANZONE disappears.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>What, love?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Methought I saw a face with eyes of flame<br />Look at us through +the doorway.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Nay, ’twas nothing:<br />The passing shadow of the man on guard.<br />[The +DUCHESS still stands looking at the window.]<br />’Twas nothing, +sweet.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Ay! what can harm us now,<br />Who are in Love’s hand? +I do not think I’d care<br />Though the vile world should with +its lackey Slander<br />Trample and tread upon my life; why should I?<br />They +say the common field-flowers of the field<br />Have sweeter scent when +they are trodden on<br />Than when they bloom alone, and that some herbs<br />Which +have no perfume, on being bruiséd die<br />With all Arabia round +them; so it is<br />With the young lives this dull world seeks to crush,<br />It +does but bring the sweetness out of them,<br />And makes them lovelier +often. And besides,<br />While we have love we have the best of +life:<br />Is it not so?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Dear, shall we play or sing?<br />I think that I could sing now.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Do not speak,<br />For there are times when all existences<br />Seem +narrowed to one single ecstasy,<br />And Passion sets a seal upon the +lips.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Oh, with mine own lips let me break that seal!<br />You love me, +Beatrice?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Ay! is it not strange<br />I should so love mine enemy?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Who is he?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Why, you: that with your shaft did pierce my heart!<br />Poor heart, +that lived its little lonely life<br />Until it met your arrow.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Ah, dear love,<br />I am so wounded by that bolt myself<br />That +with untended wounds I lie a-dying,<br />Unless you cure me, dear Physician.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I would not have you cured; for I am sick<br />With the same malady.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Oh, how I love you!<br />See, I must steal the cuckoo’s voice, +and tell<br />The one tale over.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Tell no other tale!<br />For, if that is the little cuckoo’s +song,<br />The nightingale is hoarse, and the loud lark<br />Has lost +its music.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Kiss me, Beatrice!<br />[She takes his face in her hands and bends +down and kisses him; a loud knocking then comes at the door, and GUIDO +leaps up; enter a Servant.]</p> +<p>SERVANT</p> +<p>A package for you, sir.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[carelessly] Ah! give it to me. [Servant hands package +wrapped in vermilion silk, and exit; as GUIDO is about to open it the +DUCHESS comes up behind, and in sport takes it from him.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[laughing]<br />Now I will wager it is from some girl<br />Who would +have you wear her favour; I am so jealous<br />I will not give up the +least part in you,<br />But like a miser keep you to myself,<br />And +spoil you perhaps in keeping.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>It is nothing.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Nay, it is from some girl.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>You know ’tis not.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[turns her back and opens it]<br />Now, traitor, tell me what does +this sign mean,<br />A dagger with two leopards wrought in steel?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[taking it from her] O God!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I’ll from the window look, and try<br />If I can’t see +the porter’s livery<br />Who left it at the gate! I will +not rest<br />Till I have learned your secret.<br />[Runs laughing into +the corridor.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Oh, horrible!<br />Had I so soon forgot my father’s death,<br />Did +I so soon let love into my heart,<br />And must I banish love, and let +in murder<br />That beats and clamours at the outer gate?<br />Ay, that +I must! Have I not sworn an oath?<br />Yet not to-night; nay, +it must be to-night.<br />Farewell then all the joy and light of life,<br />All +dear recorded memories, farewell,<br />Farewell all love! Could +I with bloody hands<br />Fondle and paddle with her innocent hands?<br />Could +I with lips fresh from this butchery<br />Play with her lips? +Could I with murderous eyes<br />Look in those violet eyes, whose purity<br />Would +strike men blind, and make each eyeball reel<br />In night perpetual? +No, murder has set<br />A barrier between us far too high<br />For us +to kiss across it.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Guido!</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Beatrice,<br />You must forget that name, and banish me<br />Out +of your life for ever.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[going towards him]<br />O dear love!</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[stepping back]<br />There lies a barrier between us two<br />We +dare not pass.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I dare do anything<br />So that you are beside me.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Ah! There it is,<br />I cannot be beside you, cannot breathe<br />The +air you breathe; I cannot any more<br />Stand face to face with beauty, +which unnerves<br />My shaking heart, and makes my desperate hand<br />Fail +of its purpose. Let me go hence, I pray;<br />Forget you ever +looked upon me.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>What!<br />With your hot kisses fresh upon my lips<br />Forget the +vows of love you made to me?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I take them back.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Alas, you cannot, Guido,<br />For they are part of nature now; the +air<br />Is tremulous with their music, and outside<br />The little +birds sing sweeter for those vows.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>There lies a barrier between us now,<br />Which then I knew not, +or I had forgot.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>There is no barrier, Guido; why, I will go<br />In poor attire, and +will follow you<br />Over the world.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[wildly]<br />The world’s not wide enough<br />To hold us two! +Farewell, farewell for ever.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[calm, and controlling her passion]<br />Why did you come into my +life at all, then,<br />Or in the desolate garden of my heart<br />Sow +that white flower of love -?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O Beatrice!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Which now you would dig up, uproot, tear out,<br />Though each small +fibre doth so hold my heart<br />That if you break one, my heart breaks +with it?<br />Why did you come into my life? Why open<br />The +secret wells of love I had sealed up?<br />Why did you open them -?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O God!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[clenching her hand]<br />And let<br />The floodgates of my passion +swell and burst<br />Till, like the wave when rivers overflow<br />That +sweeps the forest and the farm away,<br />Love in the splendid avalanche +of its might<br />Swept my life with it? Must I drop by drop<br />Gather +these waters back and seal them up?<br />Alas! Each drop will +be a tear, and so<br />Will with its saltness make life very bitter.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I pray you speak no more, for I must go<br />Forth from your life +and love, and make a way<br />On which you cannot follow.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I have heard<br />That sailors dying of thirst upon a raft,<br />Poor +castaways upon a lonely sea,<br />Dream of green fields and pleasant +water-courses,<br />And then wake up with red thirst in their throats,<br />And +die more miserably because sleep<br />Has cheated them: so they die +cursing sleep<br />For having sent them dreams: I will not curse you<br />Though +I am cast away upon the sea<br />Which men call Desolation.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O God, God!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>But you will stay: listen, I love you, Guido.<br />[She waits a little.]<br />Is +echo dead, that when I say I love you<br />There is no answer?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Everything is dead,<br />Save one thing only, which shall die to-night!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>If you are going, touch me not, but go.<br />[Exit GUIDO.]<br />Barrier! +Barrier!<br />Why did he say there was a barrier?<br />There is no barrier +between us two.<br />He lied to me, and shall I for that reason<br />Loathe +what I love, and what I worshipped, hate?<br />I think we women do not +love like that.<br />For if I cut his image from my heart,<br />My heart +would, like a bleeding pilgrim, follow<br />That image through the world, +and call it back<br />With little cries of love.<br />[Enter DUKE equipped +for the chase, with falconers and hounds.]</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>Madam, you keep us waiting;<br />You keep my dogs waiting.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I will not ride to-day.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>How now, what’s this?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>My Lord, I cannot go.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>What, pale face, do you dare to stand against me?<br />Why, I could +set you on a sorry jade<br />And lead you through the town, till the +low rabble<br />You feed toss up their hats and mock at you.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Have you no word of kindness ever for me?</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>I hold you in the hollow of my hand<br />And have no need on you +to waste kind words.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Well, I will go.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>[slapping his boot with his whip]<br />No, I have changed my mind,<br />You +will stay here, and like a faithful wife<br />Watch from the window +for our coming back.<br />Were it not dreadful if some accident<br />By +chance should happen to your loving Lord?<br />Come, gentlemen, my hounds +begin to chafe,<br />And I chafe too, having a patient wife.<br />Where +is young Guido?</p> +<p>MAFFIO</p> +<p>My liege, I have not seen him<br />For a full hour past.</p> +<p>DUKE</p> +<p>It matters not,<br />I dare say I shall see him soon enough.<br />Well, +Madam, you will sit at home and spin.<br />I do protest, sirs, the domestic +virtues<br />Are often very beautiful in others.</p> +<p>[Exit DUKE with his Court.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>The stars have fought against me, that is all,<br />And thus to-night +when my Lord lieth asleep,<br />Will I fall upon my dagger, and so cease.<br />My +heart is such a stone nothing can reach it<br />Except the dagger’s +edge: let it go there,<br />To find what name it carries: ay! to-night<br />Death +will divorce the Duke; and yet to-night<br />He may die also, he is +very old.<br />Why should he not die? Yesterday his hand<br />Shook +with a palsy: men have died from palsy,<br />And why not he? Are +there not fevers also,<br />Agues and chills, and other maladies<br />Most +incident to old age?<br />No, no, he will not die, he is too sinful;<br />Honest +men die before their proper time.<br />Good men will die: men by whose +side the Duke<br />In all the sick pollution of his life<br />Seems +like a leper: women and children die,<br />But the Duke will not die, +he is too sinful.<br />Oh, can it be<br />There is some immortality +in sin,<br />Which virtue has not? And does the wicked man<br />Draw +life from what to other men were death,<br />Like poisonous plants that +on corruption live?<br />No, no, I think God would not suffer that:<br />Yet +the Duke will not die: he is too sinful.<br />But I will die alone, +and on this night<br />Grim Death shall be my bridegroom, and the tomb<br />My +secret house of pleasure: well, what of that?<br />The world’s +a graveyard, and we each, like coffins,<br />Within us bear a skeleton.<br />[Enter +LORD MORANZONE all in black; he passes across the back of the stage +looking anxiously about.]</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Where is Guido?<br />I cannot find him anywhere.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[catches sight of him] O God!<br />’Twas thou who took +my love away from me.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[with a look of joy]<br />What, has he left you?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Nay, you know he has.<br />Oh, give him back to me, give him back, +I say,<br />Or I will tear your body limb from limb,<br />And to the +common gibbet nail your head<br />Until the carrion crows have stripped +it bare.<br />Better you had crossed a hungry lioness<br />Before you +came between me and my love.<br />[With more pathos.]<br />Nay, give +him back, you know not how I love him.<br />Here by this chair he knelt +a half hour since;<br />’Twas there he stood, and there he looked +at me;<br />This is the hand he kissed, and these the ears<br />Into +whose open portals he did pour<br />A tale of love so musical that all<br />The +birds stopped singing! Oh, give him back to me.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>He does not love you, Madam.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>May the plague<br />Wither the tongue that says so! Give him +back.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Madam, I tell you you will never see him,<br />Neither to-night, +nor any other night.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>What is your name?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>My name? Revenge!<br />[Exit.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Revenge!<br />I think I never harmed a little child.<br />What should +Revenge do coming to my door?<br />It matters not, for Death is there +already,<br />Waiting with his dim torch to light my way.<br />’Tis +true men hate thee, Death, and yet I think<br />Thou wilt be kinder +to me than my lover,<br />And so dispatch the messengers at once,<br />Harry +the lazy steeds of lingering day,<br />And let the night, thy sister, +come instead,<br />And drape the world in mourning; let the owl,<br />Who +is thy minister, scream from his tower<br />And wake the toad with hooting, +and the bat,<br />That is the slave of dim Persephone,<br />Wheel through +the sombre air on wandering wing!<br />Tear up the shrieking mandrakes +from the earth<br />And bid them make us music, and tell the mole<br />To +dig deep down thy cold and narrow bed,<br />For I shall lie within thine +arms to-night.</p> +<p>END OF ACT II.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>ACT III</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>SCENE</p> +<p>A large corridor in the Ducal Palace: a window (L.C.) looks out on +a view of Padua by moonlight: a staircase (R.C.) leads up to a door +with a portière of crimson velvet, with the Duke’s arms +embroidered in gold on it: on the lowest step of the staircase a figure +draped in black is sitting: the hall is lit by an iron cresset filled +with burning tow: thunder and lightning outside: the time is night.</p> +<p>[Enter GUIDO through the window.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>The wind is rising: how my ladder shook!<br />I thought that every +gust would break the cords!<br />[Looks out at the city.]<br />Christ! +What a night:<br />Great thunder in the heavens, and wild lightnings<br />Striking +from pinnacle to pinnacle<br />Across the city, till the dim houses +seem<br />To shudder and to shake as each new glare<br />Dashes adown +the street.<br />[Passes across the stage to foot of staircase.]<br />Ah! +who art thou<br />That sittest on the stair, like unto Death<br />Waiting +a guilty soul? [A pause.]<br />Canst thou not speak?<br />Or has +this storm laid palsy on thy tongue,<br />And chilled thy utterance?<br />[The +figure rises and takes off his mask.]</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Guido Ferranti,<br />Thy murdered father laughs for joy to-night.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[confusedly]<br />What, art thou here?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Ay, waiting for your coming.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[looking away from him]<br />I did not think to see you, but am glad,<br />That +you may know the thing I mean to do.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>First, I would have you know my well-laid plans;<br />Listen: I have +set horses at the gate<br />Which leads to Parma: when you have done +your business<br />We will ride hence, and by to-morrow night -</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>It cannot be.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Nay, but it shall.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Listen, Lord Moranzone,<br />I am resolved not to kill this man.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Surely my ears are traitors, speak again:<br />It cannot be but age +has dulled my powers,<br />I am an old man now: what did you say?<br />You +said that with that dagger in your belt<br />You would avenge your father’s +bloody murder;<br />Did you not say that?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>No, my lord, I said<br />I was resolved not to kill the Duke.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>You said not that; it is my senses mock me;<br />Or else this midnight +air o’ercharged with storm<br />Alters your message in the giving +it.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Nay, you heard rightly; I’ll not kill this man.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>What of thine oath, thou traitor, what of thine oath?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I am resolved not to keep that oath.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>What of thy murdered father?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Dost thou think<br />My father would be glad to see me coming,<br />This +old man’s blood still hot upon mine hands?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Ay! he would laugh for joy.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I do not think so,<br />There is better knowledge in the other world;<br />Vengeance +is God’s, let God himself revenge.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Thou art God’s minister of vengeance.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>No!<br />God hath no minister but his own hand.<br />I will not kill +this man.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Why are you here,<br />If not to kill him, then?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Lord Moranzone,<br />I purpose to ascend to the Duke’s chamber,<br />And +as he lies asleep lay on his breast<br />The dagger and this writing; +when he awakes<br />Then he will know who held him in his power<br />And +slew him not: this is the noblest vengeance<br />Which I can take.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>You will not slay him?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>No.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Ignoble son of a noble father,<br />Who sufferest this man who sold +that father<br />To live an hour.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>’Twas thou that hindered me;<br />I would have killed him in +the open square,<br />The day I saw him first.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>It was not yet time;<br />Now it is time, and, like some green-faced +girl,<br />Thou pratest of forgiveness.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>No! revenge:<br />The right revenge my father’s son should +take.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>You are a coward,<br />Take out the knife, get to the Duke’s +chamber,<br />And bring me back his heart upon the blade.<br />When +he is dead, then you can talk to me<br />Of noble vengeances.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Upon thine honour,<br />And by the love thou bearest my father’s +name,<br />Dost thou think my father, that great gentleman,<br />That +generous soldier, that most chivalrous lord,<br />Would have crept at +night-time, like a common thief,<br />And stabbed an old man sleeping +in his bed,<br />However he had wronged him: tell me that.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[after some hesitation]<br />You have sworn an oath, see that you +keep that oath.<br />Boy, do you think I do not know your secret,<br />Your +traffic with the Duchess?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Silence, liar!<br />The very moon in heaven is not more chaste.<br />Nor +the white stars so pure.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>And yet, you love her;<br />Weak fool, to let love in upon your life,<br />Save +as a plaything.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>You do well to talk:<br />Within your veins, old man, the pulse of +youth<br />Throbs with no ardour. Your eyes full of rheum<br />Have +against Beauty closed their filmy doors,<br />And your clogged ears, +losing their natural sense,<br />Have shut you from the music of the +world.<br />You talk of love! You know not what it is.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Oh, in my time, boy, have I walked i’ the moon,<br />Swore +I would live on kisses and on blisses,<br />Swore I would die for love, +and did not die,<br />Wrote love bad verses; ay, and sung them badly,<br />Like +all true lovers: Oh, I have done the tricks!<br />I know the partings +and the chamberings;<br />We are all animals at best, and love<br />Is +merely passion with a holy name.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Now then I know you have not loved at all.<br />Love is the sacrament +of life; it sets<br />Virtue where virtue was not; cleanses men<br />Of +all the vile pollutions of this world;<br />It is the fire which purges +gold from dross,<br />It is the fan which winnows wheat from chaff,<br />It +is the spring which in some wintry soil<br />Makes innocence to blossom +like a rose.<br />The days are over when God walked with men,<br />But +Love, which is his image, holds his place.<br />When a man loves a woman, +then he knows<br />God’s secret, and the secret of the world.<br />There +is no house so lowly or so mean,<br />Which, if their hearts be pure +who live in it,<br />Love will not enter; but if bloody murder<br />Knock +at the Palace gate and is let in,<br />Love like a wounded thing creeps +out and dies.<br />This is the punishment God sets on sin.<br />The +wicked cannot love.<br />[A groan comes from the DUKE’s chamber.]<br />Ah! +What is that?<br />Do you not hear? ’Twas nothing.<br />So +I think<br />That it is woman’s mission by their love<br />To +save the souls of men: and loving her,<br />My Lady, my white Beatrice, +I begin<br />To see a nobler and a holier vengeance<br />In letting +this man live, than doth reside<br />In bloody deeds o’ night, +stabs in the dark,<br />And young hands clutching at a palsied throat.<br />It +was, I think, for love’s sake that Lord Christ,<br />Who was indeed +himself incarnate Love,<br />Bade every man forgive his enemy.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[sneeringly]<br />That was in Palestine, not Padua;<br />And said +for saints: I have to do with men.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>It was for all time said.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>And your white Duchess,<br />What will she do to thank you?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Alas, I will not see her face again.<br />’Tis but twelve hours +since I parted from her,<br />So suddenly, and with such violent passion,<br />That +she has shut her heart against me now:<br />No, I will never see her.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>What will you do?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>After that I have laid the dagger there,<br />Get hence to-night +from Padua.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>And then?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I will take service with the Doge at Venice,<br />And bid him pack +me straightway to the wars,<br />And there I will, being now sick of +life,<br />Throw that poor life against some desperate spear.<br />[A +groan from the DUKE’S chamber again.]<br />Did you not hear a +voice?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>I always hear,<br />From the dim confines of some sepulchre,<br />A +voice that cries for vengeance. We waste time,<br />It will be +morning soon; are you resolved<br />You will not kill the Duke?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I am resolved.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>O wretched father, lying unavenged.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>More wretched, were thy son a murderer.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Why, what is life?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I do not know, my lord,<br />I did not give it, and I dare not take +it.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>I do not thank God often; but I think<br />I thank him now that I +have got no son!<br />And you, what bastard blood flows in your veins<br />That +when you have your enemy in your grasp<br />You let him go! I +would that I had left you<br />With the dull hinds that reared you.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Better perhaps<br />That you had done so! May be better still<br />I’d +not been born to this distressful world.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Farewell!</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Farewell! Some day, Lord Moranzone,<br />You will understand +my vengeance.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Never, boy.<br />[Gets out of window and exit by rope ladder.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Father, I think thou knowest my resolve,<br />And with this nobler +vengeance art content.<br />Father, I think in letting this man live<br />That +I am doing what thou wouldst have done.<br />Father, I know not if a +human voice<br />Can pierce the iron gateway of the dead,<br />Or if +the dead are set in ignorance<br />Of what we do, or do not, for their +sakes.<br />And yet I feel a presence in the air,<br />There is a shadow +standing at my side,<br />And ghostly kisses seem to touch my lips,<br />And +leave them holier. [Kneels down.]<br />O father, if ’tis +thou,<br />Canst thou not burst through the decrees of death,<br />And +if corporeal semblance show thyself,<br />That I may touch thy hand!<br />No, +there is nothing. [Rises.]<br />’Tis the night that cheats +us with its phantoms,<br />And, like a puppet-master, makes us think<br />That +things are real which are not. It grows late.<br />Now must I +to my business.<br />[Pulls out a letter from his doublet and reads +it.]<br />When he wakes,<br />And sees this letter, and the dagger with +it,<br />Will he not have some loathing for his life,<br />Repent, perchance, +and lead a better life,<br />Or will he mock because a young man spared<br />His +natural enemy? I do not care.<br />Father, it is thy bidding that +I do,<br />Thy bidding, and the bidding of my love<br />Which teaches +me to know thee as thou art.<br />[Ascends staircase stealthily, and +just as he reaches out his hand to draw back the curtain the Duchess +appears all in white. GUIDO starts back.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Guido! what do you here so late?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O white and spotless angel of my life,<br />Sure thou hast come from +Heaven with a message<br />That mercy is more noble than revenge?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>There is no barrier between us now.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>None, love, nor shall be.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I have seen to that.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Tarry here for me.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>No, you are not going?<br />You will not leave me as you did before?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I will return within a moment’s space,<br />But first I must +repair to the Duke’s chamber,<br />And leave this letter and this +dagger there,<br />That when he wakes -</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>When who wakes?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Why, the Duke.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>He will not wake again.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>What, is he dead?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Ay! he is dead.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O God! how wonderful<br />Are all thy secret ways! Who would +have said<br />That on this very night, when I had yielded<br />Into +thy hands the vengeance that is thine,<br />Thou with thy finger wouldst +have touched the man,<br />And bade him come before thy judgment seat.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I have just killed him.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[in horror] Oh!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>He was asleep;<br />Come closer, love, and I will tell you all.<br />I +had resolved to kill myself to-night.<br />About an hour ago I waked +from sleep,<br />And took my dagger from beneath my pillow,<br />Where +I had hidden it to serve my need,<br />And drew it from the sheath, +and felt the edge,<br />And thought of you, and how I loved you, Guido,<br />And +turned to fall upon it, when I marked<br />The old man sleeping, full +of years and sin;<br />There lay he muttering curses in his sleep,<br />And +as I looked upon his evil face<br />Suddenly like a flame there flashed +across me,<br />There is the barrier which Guido spoke of:<br />You +said there lay a barrier between us,<br />What barrier but he? -<br />I +hardly know<br />What happened, but a steaming mist of blood<br />Rose +up between us two.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Oh, horrible!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>And then he groaned,<br />And then he groaned no more! I only +heard<br />The dripping of the blood upon the floor.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Enough, enough.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Will you not kiss me now?<br />Do you remember saying that women’s +love<br />Turns men to angels? well, the love of man<br />Turns women +into martyrs; for its sake<br />We do or suffer anything.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O God!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Will you not speak?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I cannot speak at all.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Let as not talk of this! Let us go hence:<br />Is not the barrier +broken down between us?<br />What would you more? Come, it is +almost morning.<br />[Puts her hand on GUIDO’S.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[breaking from her]<br />O damned saint! O angel fresh from +Hell!<br />What bloody devil tempted thee to this!<br />That thou hast +killed thy husband, that is nothing -<br />Hell was already gaping for +his soul -<br />But thou hast murdered Love, and in its place<br />Hast +set a horrible and bloodstained thing,<br />Whose very breath breeds +pestilence and plague,<br />And strangles Love.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[in amazed wonder]<br />I did it all for you.<br />I would not have +you do it, had you willed it,<br />For I would keep you without blot +or stain,<br />A thing unblemished, unassailed, untarnished.<br />Men +do not know what women do for love.<br />Have I not wrecked my soul +for your dear sake,<br />Here and hereafter?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>No, do not touch me,<br />Between us lies a thin red stream of blood;<br />I +dare not look across it: when you stabbed him<br />You stabbed Love +with a sharp knife to the heart.<br />We cannot meet again.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[wringing her hands]<br />For you! For you!<br />I did it all +for you: have you forgotten?<br />You said there was a barrier between +us;<br />That barrier lies now i’ the upper chamber<br />Upset, +overthrown, beaten, and battered down,<br />And will not part us ever.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>No, you mistook:<br />Sin was the barrier, you have raised it up;<br />Crime +was the barrier, you have set it there.<br />The barrier was murder, +and your hand<br />Has builded it so high it shuts out heaven,<br />It +shuts out God.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I did it all for you;<br />You dare not leave me now: nay, Guido, +listen.<br />Get horses ready, we will fly to-night.<br />The past is +a bad dream, we will forget it:<br />Before us lies the future: shall +we not have<br />Sweet days of love beneath our vines and laugh? -<br />No, +no, we will not laugh, but, when we weep,<br />Well, we will weep together; +I will serve you;<br />I will be very meek and very gentle:<br />You +do not know me.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Nay, I know you now;<br />Get hence, I say, out of my sight.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[pacing up and down]<br />O God,<br />How I have loved this man!</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>You never loved me.<br />Had it been so, Love would have stayed your +hand.<br />How could we sit together at Love’s table?<br />You +have poured poison in the sacred wine,<br />And Murder dips his fingers +in the sop.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[throws herself on her knees]<br />Then slay me now! I have +spilt blood to-night,<br />You shall spill more, so we go hand in hand<br />To +heaven or to hell. Draw your sword, Guido.<br />Quick, let your +soul go chambering in my heart,<br />It will but find its master’s +image there.<br />Nay, if you will not slay me with your sword,<br />Bid +me to fall upon this reeking knife,<br />And I will do it.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[wresting knife from her]<br />Give it to me, I say.<br />O God, +your very hands are wet with blood!<br />This place is Hell, I cannot +tarry here.<br />I pray you let me see your face no more.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Better for me I had not seen your face.<br />[GUIDO recoils: she +seizes his hands as she kneels.]<br />Nay, Guido, listen for a while:<br />Until +you came to Padua I lived<br />Wretched indeed, but with no murderous +thought,<br />Very submissive to a cruel Lord,<br />Very obedient to +unjust commands,</p> +<p>As pure I think as any gentle girl<br />Who now would turn in horror +from my hands -<br />[Stands up.]<br />You came: ah! Guido, the +first kindly words<br />I ever heard since I had come from France<br />Were +from your lips: well, well, that is no matter.<br />You came, and in +the passion of your eyes<br />I read love’s meaning; everything +you said<br />Touched my dumb soul to music, so I loved you.<br />And +yet I did not tell you of my love.<br />’Twas you who sought me +out, knelt at my feet<br />As I kneel now at yours, and with sweet vows,<br />[Kneels.]<br />Whose +music seems to linger in my ears,<br />Swore that you loved me, and +I trusted you.<br />I think there are many women in the world<br />Who +would have tempted you to kill the man.<br />I did not.<br />Yet I know +that had I done so,<br />I had not been thus humbled in the dust,<br />[Stands +up.]<br />But you had loved me very faithfully.<br />[After a pause +approaches him timidly.]<br />I do not think you understand me, Guido:<br />It +was for your sake that I wrought this deed<br />Whose horror now chills +my young blood to ice,<br />For your sake only. [Stretching out +her arm.]<br />Will you not speak to me?<br />Love me a little: in my +girlish life<br />I have been starved for love, and kindliness<br />Has +passed me by.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I dare not look at you:<br />You come to me with too pronounced a +favour;<br />Get to your tirewomen.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Ay, there it is!<br />There speaks the man! yet had you come to me<br />With +any heavy sin upon your soul,<br />Some murder done for hire, not for +love,<br />Why, I had sat and watched at your bedside<br />All through +the night-time, lest Remorse might come<br />And pour his poisons in +your ear, and so<br />Keep you from sleeping! Sure it is the guilty,<br />Who, +being very wretched, need love most.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>There is no love where there is any guilt.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>No love where there is any guilt! O God,<br />How differently +do we love from men!<br />There is many a woman here in Padua,<br />Some +workman’s wife, or ruder artisan’s,<br />Whose husband spends +the wages of the week<br />In a coarse revel, or a tavern brawl,<br />And +reeling home late on the Saturday night,<br />Finds his wife sitting +by a fireless hearth,<br />Trying to hush the child who cries for hunger,<br />And +then sets to and beats his wife because<br />The child is hungry, and +the fire black.<br />Yet the wife loves him! and will rise next day<br />With +some red bruise across a careworn face,<br />And sweep the house, and +do the common service,<br />And try and smile, and only be too glad<br />If +he does not beat her a second time<br />Before her child! - that is +how women love.<br />[A pause: GUIDO says nothing.]<br />I think you +will not drive me from your side.<br />Where have I got to go if you +reject me? -<br />You for whose sake this hand has murdered life,<br />You +for whose sake my soul has wrecked itself<br />Beyond all hope of pardon.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Get thee gone:<br />The dead man is a ghost, and our love too,<br />Flits +like a ghost about its desolate tomb,<br />And wanders through this +charnel house, and weeps<br />That when you slew your lord you slew +it also.<br />Do you not see?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I see when men love women<br />They give them but a little of their +lives,<br />But women when they love give everything;<br />I see that, +Guido, now.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Away, away,<br />And come not back till you have waked your dead.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I would to God that I could wake the dead,<br />Put vision in the +glazéd eves, and give<br />The tongue its natural utterance, +and bid<br />The heart to beat again: that cannot be:<br />For what +is done, is done: and what is dead<br />Is dead for ever: the fire cannot +warm him:<br />The winter cannot hurt him with its snows;<br />Something +has gone from him; if you call him now,<br />He will not answer; if +you mock him now,<br />He will not laugh; and if you stab him now<br />He +will not bleed.<br />I would that I could wake him!<br />O God, put +back the sun a little space,<br />And from the roll of time blot out +to-night,<br />And bid it not have been! Put back the sun,<br />And +make me what I was an hour ago!<br />No, no, time will not stop for +anything,<br />Nor the sun stay its courses, though Repentance<br />Calling +it back grow hoarse; but you, my love,<br />Have you no word of pity +even for me?<br />O Guido, Guido, will you not kiss me once?<br />Drive +me not to some desperate resolve:<br />Women grow mad when they are +treated thus:<br />Will you not kiss me once?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[holding up knife]<br />I will not kiss you<br />Until the blood +grows dry upon this knife,<br />[Wildly] Back to your dead!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[going up the stairs]<br />Why, then I will be gone! and may you +find<br />More mercy than you showed to me to-night!</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Let me find mercy when I go at night<br />And do foul murder.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[coming down a few steps.]<br />Murder did you say?<br />Murder is +hungry, and still cries for more,<br />And Death, his brother, is not +satisfied,<br />But walks the house, and will not go away,<br />Unless +he has a comrade! Tarry, Death,<br />For I will give thee a most +faithful lackey<br />To travel with thee! Murder, call no more,<br />For +thou shalt eat thy fill.<br />There is a storm<br />Will break upon +this house before the morning,<br />So horrible, that the white moon +already<br />Turns grey and sick with terror, the low wind<br />Goes +moaning round the house, and the high stars<br />Run madly through the +vaulted firmament,<br />As though the night wept tears of liquid fire<br />For +what the day shall look upon. Oh, weep,<br />Thou lamentable heaven! +Weep thy fill!<br />Though sorrow like a cataract drench the fields,<br />And +make the earth one bitter lake of tears,<br />It would not be enough. +[A peal of thunder.]<br />Do you not hear,<br />There is artillery in +the Heaven to-night.<br />Vengeance is wakened up, and has unloosed<br />His +dogs upon the world, and in this matter<br />Which lies between us two, +let him who draws<br />The thunder on his head beware the ruin<br />Which +the forked flame brings after.<br />[A flash of lightning followed by +a peal of thunder.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Away! away!<br />[Exit the DUCHESS, who as she lifts the crimson +curtain looks back for a moment at GUIDO, but he makes no sign. +More thunder.]<br />Now is life fallen in ashes at my feet<br />And +noble love self-slain; and in its place<br />Crept murder with its silent +bloody feet.<br />And she who wrought it - Oh! and yet she loved me,<br />And +for my sake did do this dreadful thing.<br />I have been cruel to her: +Beatrice!<br />Beatrice, I say, come back.<br />[Begins to ascend staircase, +when the noise of Soldiers is heard.]<br />Ah! what is that?<br />Torches +ablaze, and noise of hurrying feet.<br />Pray God they have not seized +her.<br />[Noise grows louder.]<br />Beatrice!<br />There is yet time +to escape. Come down, come out!<br />[The voice of the DUCHESS +outside.]<br />This way went he, the man who slew my lord.<br />[Down +the staircase comes hurrying a confused body of Soldiers; GUIDO is not +seen at first, till the DUCHESS surrounded by Servants carrying torches +appears at the top of the staircase, and points to GUIDO, who is seized +at once, one of the Soldiers dragging the knife from his hand and showing +it to the Captain of the Guard in sight of the audience. Tableau.]</p> +<p>END OF ACT III.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>ACT IV</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>SCENE</p> +<p>The Court of Justice: the walls are hung with stamped grey velvet: +above the hangings the wall is red, and gilt symbolical figures bear +up the roof, which is made of red beams with grey soffits and moulding: +a canopy of white satin flowered with gold is set for the Duchess: below +it a long bench with red cloth for the Judges: below that a table for +the clerks of the court. Two soldiers stand on each side of the +canopy, and two soldiers guard the door; the citizens have some of them +collected in the Court; others are coming in greeting one another; two +tipstaffs in violet keep order with long white wands.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Good morrow, neighbour Anthony.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Good morrow, neighbour Dominick.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>This is a strange day for Padua, is it not? - the Duke being dead.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>I tell you, neighbour Dominick, I have not known such a day since +the last Duke died.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>They will try him first, and sentence him afterwards, will they not, +neighbour Anthony?</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Nay, for he might ’scape his punishment then; but they will +condemn him first so that he gets his deserts, and give him trial afterwards +so that no injustice is done.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Well, well, it will go hard with him I doubt not.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Surely it is a grievous thing to shed a Duke’s blood.</p> +<p>THIRD CITIZEN</p> +<p>They say a Duke has blue blood.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>I think our Duke’s blood was black like his soul.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Have a watch, neighbour Anthony, the officer is looking at thee.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>I care not if he does but look at me; he cannot whip me with the +lashes of his eye.</p> +<p>THIRD CITIZEN</p> +<p>What think you of this young man who stuck the knife into the Duke?</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Why, that he is a well-behaved, and a well-meaning, and a well-favoured +lad, and yet wicked in that he killed the Duke.</p> +<p>THIRD CITIZEN</p> +<p>’Twas the first time he did it: may be the law will not be +hard on him, as he did not do it before.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>True.</p> +<p>TIPSTAFF</p> +<p>Silence, knave.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Am I thy looking-glass, Master Tipstaff, that thou callest me knave?</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Here be one of the household coming. Well, Dame Lucy, thou +art of the Court, how does thy poor mistress the Duchess, with her sweet +face?</p> +<p>MISTRESS LUCY</p> +<p>O well-a-day! O miserable day! O day! O misery! +Why it is just nineteen years last June, at Michaelmas, since I was +married to my husband, and it is August now, and here is the Duke murdered; +there is a coincidence for you!</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Why, if it is a coincidence, they may not kill the young man: there +is no law against coincidences.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>But how does the Duchess?</p> +<p>MISTRESS LUCY</p> +<p>Well well, I knew some harm would happen to the house: six weeks +ago the cakes were all burned on one side, and last Saint Martin even +as ever was, there flew into the candle a big moth that had wings, and +a’most scared me.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>But come to the Duchess, good gossip: what of her?</p> +<p>MISTRESS LUCY</p> +<p>Marry, it is time you should ask after her, poor lady; she is distraught +almost. Why, she has not slept, but paced the chamber all night +long. I prayed her to have a posset, or some aqua-vitae, and to +get to bed and sleep a little for her health’s sake, but she answered +me she was afraid she might dream. That was a strange answer, +was it not?</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>These great folk have not much sense, so Providence makes it up to +them in fine clothes.</p> +<p>MISTRESS LUCY</p> +<p>Well, well, God keep murder from us, I say, as long as we are alive.</p> +<p>[Enter LORD MORANZONE hurriedly.]</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Is the Duke dead?</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>He has a knife in his heart, which they say is not healthy for any +man.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Who is accused of having killed him?</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Why, the prisoner, sir.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>But who is the prisoner?</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Why, he that is accused of the Duke’s murder.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>I mean, what is his name?</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Faith, the same which his godfathers gave him: what else should it +be?</p> +<p>TIPSTAFF</p> +<p>Guido Ferranti is his name, my lord.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>I almost knew thine answer ere you gave it.<br />[Aside.]<br />Yet +it is strange he should have killed the Duke,<br />Seeing he left me +in such different mood.<br />It is most likely when he saw the man,<br />This +devil who had sold his father’s life,<br />That passion from their +seat within his heart<br />Thrust all his boyish theories of love,<br />And +in their place set vengeance; yet I marvel<br />That he escaped not.<br />[Turning +again to the crowd.]<br />How was he taken? Tell me.</p> +<p>THIRD CITIZEN</p> +<p>Marry, sir, he was taken by the heels.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>But who seized him?</p> +<p>THIRD CITIZEN</p> +<p>Why, those that did lay hold of him.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>How was the alarm given?</p> +<p>THIRD CITIZEN</p> +<p>That I cannot tell you, sir.</p> +<p>MISTRESS LUCY</p> +<p>It was the Duchess herself who pointed him out.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[aside]<br />The Duchess! There is something strange in this.</p> +<p>MISTRESS LUCY</p> +<p>Ay! And the dagger was in his hand - the Duchess’s own dagger.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>What did you say?</p> +<p>MISTRESS LUCY</p> +<p>Why, marry, that it was with the Duchess’s dagger that the +Duke was killed.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[aside]<br />There is some mystery about this: I cannot understand +it.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>They be very long a-coming,</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>I warrant they will come soon enough for the prisoner.</p> +<p>TIPSTAFF</p> +<p>Silence in the Court!</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Thou dost break silence in bidding us keep it, Master Tipstaff.<br />[Enter +the LORD JUSTICE and the other Judges.]</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Who is he in scarlet? Is he the headsman?</p> +<p>THIRD CITIZEN</p> +<p>Nay, he is the Lord Justice.<br />[Enter GUIDO guarded.]</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>There be the prisoner surely.</p> +<p>THIRD CITIZEN</p> +<p>He looks honest.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>That be his villany: knaves nowadays do look so honest that honest +folk are forced to look like knaves so as to be different.<br />[Enter +the Headman, who takes his stand behind GUIDO.]</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Yon be the headsman then! O Lord! Is the axe sharp, think +you?</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Ay! sharper than thy wits are; but the edge is not towards him, mark +you.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>[scratching his neck]<br />I’ faith, I like it not so near.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Tut, thou need’st not be afraid; they never cut the heads of +common folk: they do but hang us.<br />[Trumpets outside.]</p> +<p>THIRD CITIZEN</p> +<p>What are the trumpets for? Is the trial over?</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Nay, ’tis for the Duchess.<br />[Enter the DUCHESS in black +velvet; her train of flowered black velvet is carried by two pages in +violet; with her is the CARDINAL in scarlet, and the gentlemen of the +Court in black; she takes her seat on the throne above the Judges, who +rise and take their caps off as she enters; the CARDINAL sits next to +her a little lower; the Courtiers group themselves about the throne.]</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>O poor lady, how pale she is! Will she sit there?</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Ay! she is in the Duke’s place now.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>That is a good thing for Padua; the Duchess is a very kind and merciful +Duchess; why, she cured my child of the ague once.</p> +<p>THIRD CITIZEN</p> +<p>Ay, and has given us bread: do not forget the bread.</p> +<p>A SOLDIER</p> +<p>Stand back, good people.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>If we be good, why should we stand back?</p> +<p>TIPSTAFF</p> +<p>Silence in the Court!</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>May it please your Grace,<br />Is it your pleasure we proceed to +trial<br />Of the Duke’s murder? [DUCHESS bows.]<br />Set +the prisoner forth.<br />What is thy name?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>It matters not, my lord.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Guido Ferranti is thy name in Padua.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>A man may die as well under that name as any other.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Thou art not ignorant<br />What dreadful charge men lay against thee +here,<br />Namely, the treacherous murder of thy Lord,<br />Simone Gesso, +Duke of Padua;<br />What dost thou say in answer?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I say nothing.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>[rising]<br />Guido Ferranti -</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[stepping from the crowd]<br />Tarry, my Lord Justice.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Who art thou that bid’st justice tarry, sir?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>So be it justice it can go its way;<br />But if it be not justice +-</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Who is this?</p> +<p>COUNT BARDI</p> +<p>A very noble gentleman, and well known<br />To the late Duke.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Sir, thou art come in time<br />To see the murder of the Duke avenged.<br />There +stands the man who did this heinous thing.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>My lord,<br />I ask again what proof have ye?</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>[holding up the dagger]<br />This dagger,<br />Which from his blood-stained +hands, itself all blood,<br />Last night the soldiers seized: what further +proof<br />Need we indeed?</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[takes the danger and approaches the DUCHESS]<br />Saw I not such +a dagger<br />Hang from your Grace’s girdle yesterday?<br />[The +DUCHESS shudders and makes no answer.]<br />Ah! my Lord Justice, may +I speak a moment<br />With this young man, who in such peril stands?</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Ay, willingly, my lord, and may you turn him<br />To make a full +avowal of his guilt.<br />[LORD MORANZONE goes over to GUIDO, who stands +R. and clutches him by the hand.]</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>[in a low voice]<br />She did it! Nay, I saw it in her eyes.<br />Boy, +dost thou think I’ll let thy father’s son<br />Be by this +woman butchered to his death?<br />Her husband sold your father, and +the wife<br />Would sell the son in turn.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Lord Moranzone,<br />I alone did this thing: be satisfied,<br />My +father is avenged.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Doth he confess?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>My lord, I do confess<br />That foul unnatural murder has been done.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>Why, look at that: he has a pitiful heart, and does not like murder; +they will let him go for that.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Say you no more?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>My lord, I say this also,<br />That to spill human blood is deadly +sin.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>Marry, he should tell that to the headsman: ’tis a good sentiment.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Lastly, my lord, I do entreat the Court<br />To give me leave to +utter openly<br />The dreadful secret of this mystery,<br />And to point +out the very guilty one<br />Who with this dagger last night slew the +Duke.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Thou hast leave to speak.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[rising]<br />I say he shall not speak:<br />What need have we of +further evidence?<br />Was he not taken in the house at night<br />In +Guilt’s own bloody livery?</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>[showing her the statute]<br />Your Grace<br />Can read the law.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[waiving book aside]<br />Bethink you, my Lord Justice,<br />Is it +not very like that such a one<br />May, in the presence of the people +here,<br />Utter some slanderous word against my Lord,<br />Against +the city, or the city’s honour,<br />Perchance against myself.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>My liege, the law.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>He shall not speak, but, with gags in his mouth,<br />Shall climb +the ladder to the bloody block.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>The law, my liege.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>We are not bound by law,<br />But with it we bind others.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>My Lord Justice,<br />Thou wilt not suffer this injustice here.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>The Court needs not thy voice, Lord Moranzone.<br />Madam, it were +a precedent most evil<br />To wrest the law from its appointed course,<br />For, +though the cause be just, yet anarchy<br />Might on this licence touch +these golden scales<br />And unjust causes unjust victories gain.</p> +<p>COUNT BARDI</p> +<p>I do not think your Grace can stay the law.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Ay, it is well to preach and prate of law:<br />Methinks, my haughty +lords of Padua,<br />If ye are hurt in pocket or estate,<br />So much +as makes your monstrous revenues<br />Less by the value of one ferry +toll,<br />Ye do not wait the tedious law’s delay<br />With such +sweet patience as ye counsel me.</p> +<p>COUNT BARDI</p> +<p>Madam, I think you wrong our nobles here.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I think I wrong them not. Which of you all<br />Finding a thief +within his house at night,<br />With some poor chattel thrust into his +rags,<br />Will stop and parley with him? do ye not<br />Give him unto +the officer and his hook<br />To be dragged gaolwards straightway?<br />And +so now,<br />Had ye been men, finding this fellow here,<br />With my +Lord’s life still hot upon his hands,<br />Ye would have haled +him out into the court,<br />And struck his head off with an axe.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O God!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Speak, my Lord Justice.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Your Grace, it cannot be:<br />The laws of Padua are most certain +here:<br />And by those laws the common murderer even<br />May with +his own lips plead, and make defence.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>This is no common murderer, Lord Justice,<br />But a great outlaw, +and a most vile traitor,<br />Taken in open arms against the state.<br />For +he who slays the man who rules a state<br />Slays the state also, widows +every wife,<br />And makes each child an orphan, and no less<br />Is +to be held a public enemy,<br />Than if he came with mighty ordonnance,<br />And +all the spears of Venice at his back,<br />To beat and batter at our +city gates -<br />Nay, is more dangerous to our commonwealth,<br />For +walls and gates, bastions and forts, and things<br />Whose common elements +are wood and stone<br />May be raised up, but who can raise again<br />The +ruined body of my murdered lord,<br />And bid it live and laugh?</p> +<p>MAFFIO</p> +<p>Now by Saint Paul<br />I do not think that they will let him speak.</p> +<p>JEPPO VITELLOZZO</p> +<p>There is much in this, listen.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Wherefore now,<br />Throw ashes on the head of Padua,<br />With sable +banners hang each silent street,<br />Let every man be clad in solemn +black;<br />But ere we turn to these sad rites of mourning<br />Let +us bethink us of the desperate hand<br />Which wrought and brought this +ruin on our state,<br />And straightway pack him to that narrow house,<br />Where +no voice is, but with a little dust<br />Death fills right up the lying +mouths of men.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Unhand me, knaves! I tell thee, my Lord Justice,<br />Thou +mightst as well bid the untrammelled ocean,<br />The winter whirlwind, +or the Alpine storm,<br />Not roar their will, as bid me hold my peace!<br />Ay! +though ye put your knives into my throat,<br />Each grim and gaping +wound shall find a tongue,<br />And cry against you.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Sir, this violence<br />Avails you nothing; for save the tribunal<br />Give +thee a lawful right to open speech,<br />Naught that thou sayest can +be credited.<br />[The DUCHESS smiles and GUIDO falls back with a gesture +of despair.]<br />Madam, myself, and these wise Justices,<br />Will +with your Grace’s sanction now retire<br />Into another chamber, +to decide<br />Upon this difficult matter of the law,<br />And search +the statutes and the precedents.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Go, my Lord Justice, search the statutes well,<br />Nor let this +brawling traitor have his way.</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Go, my Lord Justice, search thy conscience well,<br />Nor let a man +be sent to death unheard.<br />[Exit the LORD JUSTICE and the Judges.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Silence, thou evil genius of my life!<br />Thou com’st between +us two a second time;<br />This time, my lord, I think the turn is mine.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I shall not die till I have uttered voice.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Thou shalt die silent, and thy secret with thee.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Art thou that Beatrice, Duchess of Padua?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I am what thou hast made me; look at me well,<br />I am thy handiwork.</p> +<p>MAFFIO</p> +<p>See, is she not<br />Like that white tigress which we saw at Venice,<br />Sent +by some Indian soldan to the Doge?</p> +<p>JEPPO</p> +<p>Hush! she may hear thy chatter.</p> +<p>HEADSMAN</p> +<p>My young fellow,<br />I do not know why thou shouldst care to speak,<br />Seeing +my axe is close upon thy neck,<br />And words of thine will never blunt +its edge.<br />But if thou art so bent upon it, why<br />Thou mightest +plead unto the Churchman yonder:<br />The common people call him kindly +here,<br />Indeed I know he has a kindly soul.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>This man, whose trade is death, hath courtesies<br />More than the +others.</p> +<p>HEADSMAN</p> +<p>Why, God love you, sir,<br />I’ll do you your last service +on this earth.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>My good Lord Cardinal, in a Christian land,<br />With Lord Christ’s +face of mercy looking down<br />From the high seat of Judgment, shall +a man<br />Die unabsolved, unshrived? And if not so,<br />May +I not tell this dreadful tale of sin,<br />If any sin there be upon +my soul?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Thou dost but waste thy time.</p> +<p>CARDINAL</p> +<p>Alack, my son,<br />I have no power with the secular arm.<br />My +task begins when justice has been done,<br />To urge the wavering sinner +to repent<br />And to confess to Holy Church’s ear<br />The dreadful +secrets of a sinful mind.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Thou mayest speak to the confessional<br />Until thy lips grow weary +of their tale,<br />But here thou shalt not speak.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>My reverend father,<br />You bring me but cold comfort.</p> +<p>CARDINAL</p> +<p>Nay, my son,<br />For the great power of our mother Church,<br />Ends +not with this poor bubble of a world,<br />Of which we are but dust, +as Jerome saith,<br />For if the sinner doth repentant die,<br />Our +prayers and holy masses much avail<br />To bring the guilty soul from +purgatory.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>And when in purgatory thou seest my Lord<br />With that red star +of blood upon his heart,<br />Tell him I sent thee hither.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O dear God!</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>This is the woman, is it, whom you loved?</p> +<p>CARDINAL</p> +<p>Your Grace is very cruel to this man.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>No more than he was cruel to her Grace.</p> +<p>CARDINAL</p> +<p>Yet mercy is the sovereign right of princes.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I got no mercy, and I give it not.<br />He hath changed my heart +into a heart of stone,<br />He hath sown rank nettles in a goodly field,<br />He +hath poisoned the wells of pity in my breast,<br />He hath withered +up all kindness at the root;<br />My life is as some famine murdered +land,<br />Whence all good things have perished utterly:<br />I am what +he hath made me.<br />[The DUCHESS weeps.]</p> +<p>JEPPO</p> +<p>Is it not strange<br />That she should so have loved the wicked Duke?</p> +<p>MAFFIO</p> +<p>It is most strange when women love their lords,<br />And when they +love them not it is most strange.</p> +<p>JEPPO</p> +<p>What a philosopher thou art, Petrucci!</p> +<p>MAFFIO</p> +<p>Ay! I can bear the ills of other men,<br />Which is philosophy.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>They tarry long,<br />These greybeards and their council; bid them +come;<br />Bid them come quickly, else I think my heart<br />Will beat +itself to bursting: not indeed,<br />That I here care to live; God knows +my life<br />Is not so full of joy, yet, for all that,<br />I would +not die companionless, or go<br />Lonely to Hell.<br />Look, my Lord +Cardinal,<br />Canst thou not see across my forehead here,<br />In scarlet +letters writ, the word Revenge?<br />Fetch me some water, I will wash +it off:<br />’Twas branded there last night, but in the day-time<br />I +need not wear it, need I, my Lord Cardinal?<br />Oh, how it sears and +burns into my brain:<br />Give me a knife; not that one, but another,<br />And +I will cut it out.</p> +<p>CARDINAL</p> +<p>It is most natural<br />To be incensed against the murderous hand<br />That +treacherously stabbed your sleeping lord.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I would, old Cardinal, I could burn that hand;<br />But it will burn +hereafter.</p> +<p>CARDINAL</p> +<p>Nay, the Church<br />Ordains us to forgive our enemies.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Forgiveness? what is that? I never got it.<br />They come at +last: well, my Lord Justice, well.<br />[Enter the LORD JUSTICE.]</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Most gracious Lady, and our sovereign Liege,<br />We have long pondered +on the point at issue,<br />And much considered of your Grace’s +wisdom,<br />And never wisdom spake from fairer lips -</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Proceed, sir, without compliment.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>We find,<br />As your own Grace did rightly signify,<br />That any +citizen, who by force or craft<br />Conspires against the person of +the Liege,<br />Is <i>ipso facto</i> outlaw, void of rights<br />Such +as pertain to other citizens,<br />Is traitor, and a public enemy,<br />Who +may by any casual sword be slain<br />Without the slayer’s danger; +nay, if brought<br />Into the presence of the tribunal,<br />Must with +dumb lips and silence reverent<br />Listen unto his well-deserved doom,<br />Nor +has the privilege of open speech.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I thank thee, my Lord Justice, heartily;<br />I like your law: and +now I pray dispatch<br />This public outlaw to his righteous doom;<br />What +is there more?</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Ay, there is more, your Grace.<br />This man being alien born, not +Paduan,<br />Nor by allegiance bound unto the Duke,<br />Save such as +common nature doth lay down,<br />Hath, though accused of treasons manifold,<br />Whose +slightest penalty is certain death,<br />Yet still the right of public +utterance<br />Before the people and the open court;<br />Nay, shall +be much entreated by the Court,<br />To make some formal pleading for +his life,<br />Lest his own city, righteously incensed,<br />Should +with an unjust trial tax our state,<br />And wars spring up against +the commonwealth:<br />So merciful are the laws of Padua<br />Unto the +stranger living in her gates.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Being of my Lord’s household, is he stranger here?</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Ay, until seven years of service spent<br />He cannot be a Paduan +citizen.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I thank thee, my Lord Justice, heartily;<br />I like your law.</p> +<p>SECOND CITIZEN</p> +<p>I like no law at all:<br />Were there no law there’d be no +law-breakers,<br />So all men would be virtuous.</p> +<p>FIRST CITIZEN</p> +<p>So they would;<br />’Tis a wise saying that, and brings you +far.</p> +<p>TIPSTAFF</p> +<p>Ay! to the gallows, knave.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Is this the law?</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>It is the law most certainly, my liege.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Show me the book: ’tis written in blood-red.</p> +<p>JEPPO</p> +<p>Look at the Duchess.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Thou accursed law,<br />I would that I could tear thee from the state<br />As +easy as I tear thee from this book.<br />[Tears out the page.]<br />Come +here, Count Bardi: are you honourable?<br />Get a horse ready for me +at my house,<br />For I must ride to Venice instantly.</p> +<p>BARDI</p> +<p>To Venice, Madam?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Not a word of this,<br />Go, go at once. [Exit COUNT BARDI.]<br />A +moment, my Lord Justice.<br />If, as thou sayest it, this is the law +-<br />Nay, nay, I doubt not that thou sayest right,<br />Though right +be wrong in such a case as this -<br />May I not by the virtue of mine +office<br />Adjourn this court until another day?</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Madam, you cannot stay a trial for blood.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I will not tarry then to hear this man<br />Rail with rude tongue +against our sacred person.<br />Come, gentlemen.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>My liege,<br />You cannot leave this court until the prisoner<br />Be +purged or guilty of this dread offence.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Cannot, Lord Justice? By what right do you<br />Set barriers +in my path where I should go?<br />Am I not Duchess here in Padua,<br />And +the state’s regent?</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>For that reason, Madam,<br />Being the fountain-head of life and +death<br />Whence, like a mighty river, justice flows,<br />Without +thy presence justice is dried up<br />And fails of purpose: thou must +tarry here.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>What, wilt thou keep me here against my will?</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>We pray thy will be not against the law.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>What if I force my way out of the court?</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Thou canst not force the Court to give thee way.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I will not tarry. [Rises from her seat.]</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Is the usher here?<br />Let him stand forth. [Usher comes forward.]<br />Thou +knowest thy business, sir.<br />[The Usher closes the doors of the court, +which are L., and when the DUCHESS and her retinue approach, kneels +down.]</p> +<p>USHER</p> +<p>In all humility I beseech your Grace<br />Turn not my duty to discourtesy,<br />Nor +make my unwelcome office an offence.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Is there no gentleman amongst you all<br />To prick this prating +fellow from our way?</p> +<p>MAFFIO</p> +<p>[drawing his sword]<br />Ay! that will I.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Count Maffio, have a care,<br />And you, sir. [To JEPPO.]<br />The +first man who draws his sword<br />Upon the meanest officer of this +Court,<br />Dies before nightfall.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Sirs, put up your swords:<br />It is most meet that I should hear +this man.<br />[Goes back to throne.]</p> +<p>MORANZONE</p> +<p>Now hast thou got thy enemy in thy hand.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>[taking the time-glass up]<br />Guido Ferranti, while the crumbling +sand<br />Falls through this time-glass, thou hast leave to speak.<br />This +and no more.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>It is enough, my lord.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Thou standest on the extreme verge of death;<br />See that thou speakest +nothing but the truth,<br />Naught else will serve thee.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>If I speak it not,<br />Then give my body to the headsman there.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>[turns the time-glass]<br />Let there be silence while the prisoner +speaks.</p> +<p>TIPSTAFF</p> +<p>Silence in the Court there.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>My Lords Justices,<br />And reverent judges of this worthy court,<br />I +hardly know where to begin my tale,<br />So strangely dreadful is this +history.<br />First, let me tell you of what birth I am.<br />I am the +son of that good Duke Lorenzo<br />Who was with damned treachery done +to death<br />By a most wicked villain, lately Duke<br />Of this good +town of Padua.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Have a care,<br />It will avail thee nought to mock this prince<br />Who +now lies in his coffin.</p> +<p>MAFFIO</p> +<p>By Saint James,<br />This is the Duke of Parma’s rightful heir.</p> +<p>JEPPO</p> +<p>I always thought him noble.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I confess<br />That with the purport of a just revenge,<br />A most +just vengeance on a man of blood,<br />I entered the Duke’s household, +served his will,<br />Sat at his board, drank of his wine, and was<br />His +intimate: so much I will confess,<br />And this too, that I waited till +he grew<br />To give the fondest secrets of his life<br />Into my keeping, +till he fawned on me,<br />And trusted me in every private matter<br />Even +as my noble father trusted him;<br />That for this thing I waited.<br />[To +the Headsman.] Thou man of blood!<br />Turn not thine axe on me +before the time:<br />Who knows if it be time for me to die?<br />Is +there no other neck in court but mine?</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>The sand within the time-glass flows apace.<br />Come quickly to +the murder of the Duke.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I will be brief: Last night at twelve o’ the clock,<br />By +a strong rope I scaled the palace wall,<br />With purport to revenge +my father’s murder -<br />Ay! with that purport I confess, my +lord.<br />This much I will acknowledge, and this also,<br />That as +with stealthy feet I climbed the stair<br />Which led unto the chamber +of the Duke,<br />And reached my hand out for the scarlet cloth<br />Which +shook and shivered in the gusty door,<br />Lo! the white moon that sailed +in the great heaven<br />Flooded with silver light the darkened room,<br />Night +lit her candles for me, and I saw<br />The man I hated, cursing in his +sleep;<br />And thinking of a most dear father murdered,<br />Sold to +the scaffold, bartered to the block,<br />I smote the treacherous villain +to the heart<br />With this same dagger, which by chance I found<br />Within +the chamber.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[rising from her seat]<br />Oh!</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[hurriedly]<br />I killed the Duke.<br />Now, my Lord Justice, if +I may crave a boon,<br />Suffer me not to see another sun<br />Light +up the misery of this loathsome world.</p> +<p>LORD JUSTICE</p> +<p>Thy boon is granted, thou shalt die to-night.<br />Lead him away. +Come, Madam<br />[GUIDO is led off; as he goes the DUCHESS stretches +out her arms and rushes down the stage.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Guido! Guido!<br />[Faints.]</p> +<p>Tableau</p> +<p>END OF ACT IV.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>ACT V</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>SCENE</p> +<p>A dungeon in the public prison of Padua; Guido lies asleep on a pallet +(L.C.); a table with a goblet on it is set (L.C.); five soldiers are +drinking and playing dice in the corner on a stone table; one of them +has a lantern hung to his halbert; a torch is set in the wall over Guido’s +head. Two grated windows behind, one on each side of the door +which is (C.), look out into the passage; the stage is rather dark.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>[throws dice]<br />Sixes again! good Pietro.</p> +<p>SECOND SOLDIER</p> +<p>I’ faith, lieutenant, I will play with thee no more. +I will lose everything.</p> +<p>THIRD SOLDIER</p> +<p>Except thy wits; thou art safe there!</p> +<p>SECOND SOLDIER</p> +<p>Ay, ay, he cannot take them from me.</p> +<p>THIRD SOLDIER</p> +<p>No; for thou hast no wits to give him.</p> +<p>THE SOLDIERS</p> +<p>[loudly]<br />Ha! ha! ha!</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>Silence! You will wake the prisoner; he is asleep.</p> +<p>SECOND SOLDIER</p> +<p>What matter? He will get sleep enough when he is buried. +I warrant he’d be glad if we could wake him when he’s in +the grave.</p> +<p>THIRD SOLDIER</p> +<p>Nay! for when he wakes there it will be judgment day.</p> +<p>SECOND SOLDIER</p> +<p>Ay, and he has done a grievous thing; for, look you, to murder one +of us who are but flesh and blood is a sin, and to kill a Duke goes +being near against the law.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>Well, well, he was a wicked Duke.</p> +<p>SECOND SOLDIER</p> +<p>And so he should not have touched him; if one meddles with wicked +people, one is like to be tainted with their wickedness.</p> +<p>THIRD SOLDIER</p> +<p>Ay, that is true. How old is the prisoner?</p> +<p>SECOND SOLDIER</p> +<p>Old enough to do wrong, and not old enough to be wise.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>Why, then, he might be any age.</p> +<p>SECOND SOLDIER</p> +<p>They say the Duchess wanted to pardon him.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>Is that so?</p> +<p>SECOND SOLDIER</p> +<p>Ay, and did much entreat the Lord Justice, but he would not.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>I had thought, Pietro, that the Duchess was omnipotent.</p> +<p>SECOND SOLDIER</p> +<p>True, she is well-favoured; I know none so comely.</p> +<p>THE SOLDIERS</p> +<p>Ha! ha! ha!</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>I meant I had thought our Duchess could do anything.</p> +<p>SECOND SOLDIER</p> +<p>Nay, for he is now given over to the Justices, and they will see +that justice be done; they and stout Hugh the headsman; but when his +head is off, why then the Duchess can pardon him if she likes; there +is no law against that.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>I do not think that stout Hugh, as you call him, will do the business +for him after all. This Guido is of gentle birth, and so by the +law can drink poison first, if it so be his pleasure.</p> +<p>THIRD SOLDIER</p> +<p>And if he does not drink it?</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>Why, then, they will kill him.<br />[Knocking comes at the door.]</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>See who that is.<br />[Third Soldier goes over and looks through +the wicket.]</p> +<p>THIRD SOLDIER</p> +<p>It is a woman, sir.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>Is she pretty?</p> +<p>THIRD SOLDIER</p> +<p>I can’t tell. She is masked, lieutenant.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>It is only very ugly or very beautiful women who ever hide their +faces. Let her in.<br />[Soldier opens the door, and the DUCHESS +masked and cloaked enters.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[to Third Soldier]<br />Are you the officer on guard?</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>[coming forward]<br />I am, madam.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I must see the prisoner alone.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>I am afraid that is impossible. [The DUCHESS hands him a ring, +he looks at and returns it to her with a bow and makes a sign to the +Soldiers.] Stand without there. [Exeunt the Soldiers.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Officer, your men are somewhat rough.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>They mean no harm.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I shall be going back in a few minutes. As I pass through the +corridor do not let them try and lift my mask.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>You need not be afraid, madam.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>I have a particular reason for wishing my face not to be seen.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>Madam, with this ring you can go in and out as you please; it is +the Duchess’s own ring.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Leave us. [The Soldier turns to go out.] A moment, sir. +For what hour is . . .</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>At twelve o’clock, madam, we have orders to lead him out; but +I dare say he won’t wait for us; he’s more like to take +a drink out of that poison yonder. Men are afraid of the headsman.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Is that poison?</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>Ay, madam, and very sure poison too.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>You may go, sir.</p> +<p>FIRST SOLDIER</p> +<p>By Saint James, a pretty hand! I wonder who she is. Some +woman who loved him, perhaps. [Exit.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[taking her mark off] At last!<br />He can escape now in this +cloak and vizard,<br />We are of a height almost: they will not know +him;<br />As for myself what matter?<br />So that he does not curse +me as he goes,<br />I care but little: I wonder will he curse me.<br />He +has the right. It is eleven now;<br />They will not come till +twelve.<br />[Goes over to the table.]<br />So this is poison.<br />Is +it not strange that in this liquor here<br />There lies the key to all +philosophies?<br />[Takes the cup up.]<br />It smells of poppies. +I remember well<br />That, when I was a child in Sicily,<br />I took +the scarlet poppies from the corn,<br />And made a little wreath, and +my grave uncle,<br />Don John of Naples, laughed: I did not know<br />That +they had power to stay the springs of life,<br />To make the pulse cease +beating, and to chill<br />The blood in its own vessels, till men come<br />And +with a hook hale the poor body out,<br />And throw it in a ditch: the +body, ay, -<br />What of the soul? that goes to heaven or hell.<br />Where +will mine go?<br />[Takes the torch from the wall, and goes over to +the bed.]<br />How peacefully here he sleeps,<br />Like a young schoolboy +tired out with play:<br />I would that I could sleep so peacefully,<br />But +I have dreams. [Bending over him.]<br />Poor boy: what if I kissed +him?<br />No, no, my lips would burn him like a fire.<br />He has had +enough of Love. Still that white neck<br />Will ’scape the +headsman: I have seen to that:<br />He will get hence from Padua to-night,<br />And +that is well. You are very wise, Lord Justices,<br />And yet you +are not half so wise as I am,<br />And that is well.<br />O God! how +I have loved you,<br />And what a bloody flower did Love bear!<br />[Comes +back to the table.]<br />What if I drank these juices, and so ceased?<br />Were +it not better than to wait till Death<br />Come to my bed with all his +serving men,<br />Remorse, disease, old age, and misery?<br />I wonder +does one suffer much: I think<br />That I am very young to die like +this,<br />But so it must be. Why, why should I die?<br />He will +escape to-night, and so his blood<br />Will not be on my head. +No, I must die;<br />I have been guilty, therefore I must die;<br />He +loves me not, and therefore I must die:<br />I would die happier if +he would kiss me,<br />But he will not do that. I did not know +him.<br />I thought he meant to sell me to the Judge;<br />That is not +strange; we women never know<br />Our lovers till they leave us.<br />[Bell +begins to toll]<br />Thou vile bell,<br />That like a bloodhound from +thy brazen throat<br />Call’st for this man’s life, cease! +thou shalt not get it.<br />He stirs - I must be quick: [Takes +up cup.]<br />O Love, Love, Love,<br />I did not think that I would +pledge thee thus!<br />[Drinks poison, and sets the cup down on the +table behind her: the noise wakens GUIDO, who starts up, and does not +see what she has done. There is silence for a minute, each looking +at the other.]<br />I do not come to ask your pardon now,<br />Seeing +I know I stand beyond all pardon;<br />Enough of that: I have already, +sir,<br />Confessed my sin to the Lords Justices;<br />They would not +listen to me: and some said<br />I did invent a tale to save your life;<br />You +have trafficked with me; others said<br />That women played with pity +as with men;<br />Others that grief for my slain Lord and husband<br />Had +robbed me of my wits: they would not hear me,<br />And, when I sware +it on the holy book,<br />They bade the doctor cure me. They are +ten,<br />Ten against one, and they possess your life.<br />They call +me Duchess here in Padua.<br />I do not know, sir; if I be the Duchess,<br />I +wrote your pardon, and they would not take it;<br />They call it treason, +say I taught them that;<br />Maybe I did. Within an hour, Guido,<br />They +will be here, and drag you from the cell,<br />And bind your hands behind +your back, and bid you<br />Kneel at the block: I am before them there;<br />Here +is the signet ring of Padua,<br />’Twill bring you safely through +the men on guard;<br />There is my cloak and vizard; they have orders<br />Not +to be curious: when you pass the gate<br />Turn to the left, and at +the second bridge<br />You will find horses waiting: by to-morrow<br />You +will be at Venice, safe. [A pause.]<br />Do you not speak?<br />Will +you not even curse me ere you go? -<br />You have the right. [A +pause.]<br />You do not understand<br />There lies between you and the +headsman’s axe<br />Hardly so much sand in the hour-glass<br />As +a child’s palm could carry: here is the ring:<br />I have washed +my hand: there is no blood upon it:<br />You need not fear. Will +you not take the ring?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[takes ring and kisses it]<br />Ay! gladly, Madam.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>And leave Padua.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Leave Padua.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>But it must be to-night.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>To-night it shall be.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Oh, thank God for that!</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>So I can live; life never seemed so sweet<br />As at this moment.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Do not tarry, Guido,<br />There is my cloak: the horse is at the +bridge,<br />The second bridge below the ferry house:<br />Why do you +tarry? Can your ears not hear<br />This dreadful bell, whose every +ringing stroke<br />Robs one brief minute from your boyish life.<br />Go +quickly.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Ay! he will come soon enough.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Who?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[calmly]<br />Why, the headsman.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>No, no.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Only he<br />Can bring me out of Padua.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>You dare not!<br />You dare not burden my o’erburdened soul<br />With +two dead men! I think one is enough.<br />For when I stand before +God, face to face,<br />I would not have you, with a scarlet thread<br />Around +your white throat, coming up behind<br />To say I did it.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Madam, I wait.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>No, no, you cannot: you do not understand,<br />I have less power +in Padua to-night<br />Than any common woman; they will kill you.<br />I +saw the scaffold as I crossed the square,<br />Already the low rabble +throng about it<br />With fearful jests, and horrid merriment,<br />As +though it were a morris-dancer’s platform,<br />And not Death’s +sable throne. O Guido, Guido,<br />You must escape!</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Madam, I tarry here.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Guido, you shall not: it would be a thing<br />So terrible that the +amazed stars<br />Would fall from heaven, and the palsied moon<br />Be +in her sphere eclipsed, and the great sun<br />Refuse to shine upon +the unjust earth<br />Which saw thee die.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Be sure I shall not stir.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[wringing her hands]<br />Is one sin not enough, but must it breed<br />A +second sin more horrible again<br />Than was the one that bare it? +O God, God,<br />Seal up sin’s teeming womb, and make it barren,<br />I +will not have more blood upon my hand<br />Than I have now.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[seizing her hand]<br />What! am I fallen so low<br />That I may +not have leave to die for you?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[tearing her hand away]<br />Die for me? - no, my life is a vile +thing,<br />Thrown to the miry highways of this world;<br />You shall +not die for me, you shall not, Guido;<br />I am a guilty woman.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Guilty? - let those<br />Who know what a thing temptation is,<br />Let +those who have not walked as we have done,<br />In the red fire of passion, +those whose lives<br />Are dull and colourless, in a word let those,<br />If +any such there be, who have not loved,<br />Cast stones against you. +As for me -</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Alas!</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[falling at her feet]<br />You are my lady, and you are my love!<br />O +hair of gold, O crimson lips, O face<br />Made for the luring and the +love of man!<br />Incarnate image of pure loveliness!<br />Worshipping +thee I do forget the past,<br />Worshipping thee my soul comes close +to thine,<br />Worshipping thee I seem to be a god,<br />And though +they give my body to the block,<br />Yet is my love eternal!<br />[DUCHESS +puts her hands over her face: GUIDO draws them down.]<br />Sweet, lift +up<br />The trailing curtains that overhang your eyes<br />That I may +look into those eyes, and tell you<br />I love you, never more than +now when Death<br />Thrusts his cold lips between us: Beatrice,<br />I +love you: have you no word left to say?<br />Oh, I can bear the executioner,<br />But +not this silence: will you not say you love me?<br />Speak but that +word and Death shall lose his sting,<br />But speak it not, and fifty +thousand deaths<br />Are, in comparison, mercy. Oh, you are cruel,<br />And +do not love me.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Alas! I have no right<br />For I have stained the innocent +hands of love<br />With spilt-out blood: there is blood on the ground;<br />I +set it there.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Sweet, it was not yourself,<br />It was some devil tempted you.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[rising suddenly]<br />No, no,<br />We are each our own devil, and +we make<br />This world our hell.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Then let high Paradise<br />Fall into Tartarus! for I shall make<br />This +world my heaven for a little space.<br />The sin was mine, if any sin +there was.<br />’Twas I who nurtured murder in my heart,<br />Sweetened +my meats, seasoned my wine with it,<br />And in my fancy slew the accursed +Duke<br />A hundred times a day. Why, had this man<br />Died half +so often as I wished him to,<br />Death had been stalking ever through +the house,<br />And murder had not slept.<br />But you, fond heart,<br />Whose +little eyes grew tender over a whipt hound,<br />You whom the little +children laughed to see<br />Because you brought the sunlight where +you passed,<br />You the white angel of God’s purity,<br />This +which men call your sin, what was it?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Ay!<br />What was it? There are times it seems a dream,<br />An +evil dream sent by an evil god,<br />And then I see the dead face in +the coffin<br />And know it is no dream, but that my hand<br />Is red +with blood, and that my desperate soul<br />Striving to find some haven +for its love<br />From the wild tempest of this raging world,<br />Has +wrecked its bark upon the rocks of sin.<br />What was it, said you? +- murder merely? Nothing<br />But murder, horrible murder.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Nay, nay, nay,<br />’Twas but the passion-flower of your love<br />That +in one moment leapt to terrible life,<br />And in one moment bare this +gory fruit,<br />Which I had plucked in thought a thousand times.<br />My +soul was murderous, but my hand refused;<br />Your hand wrought murder, +but your soul was pure.<br />And so I love you, Beatrice, and let him<br />Who +has no mercy for your stricken head,<br />Lack mercy up in heaven! +Kiss me, sweet.<br />[Tries to kiss her.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>No, no, your lips are pure, and mine are soiled,<br />For Guilt has +been my paramour, and Sin<br />Lain in my bed: O Guido, if you love +me<br />Get hence, for every moment is a worm<br />Which gnaws your +life away: nay, sweet, get hence,<br />And if in after time you think +of me,<br />Think of me as of one who loved you more<br />Than anything +on earth; think of me, Guido,<br />As of a woman merely, one who tried<br />To +make her life a sacrifice to love,<br />And slew love in the trial: +Oh, what is that?<br />The bell has stopped from ringing, and I hear<br />The +feet of armed men upon the stair.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>[aside]<br />That is the signal for the guard to come.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Why has the bell stopped ringing?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>If you must know,<br />That stops my life on this side of the grave,<br />But +on the other we shall meet again.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>No, no, ’tis not too late: you must get hence;<br />The horse +is by the bridge, there is still time.<br />Away, away, you must not +tarry here!<br />[Noise of Soldiers in the passage.]</p> +<p>A VOICE OUTSIDE</p> +<p>Room for the Lord Justice of Padua!<br />[The LORD JUSTICE is seen +through the grated window passing down the corridor preceded by men +bearing torches.]</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>It is too late.</p> +<p>A VOICE OUTSIDE</p> +<p>Room for the headsman.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[sinks down]<br />Oh!<br />[The Headsman with his axe on his shoulder +is seen passing the corridor, followed by Monks bearing candles.]</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Farewell, dear love, for I must drink this poison.<br />I do not +fear the headsman, but I would die<br />Not on the lonely scaffold.<br />But +here,<br />Here in thine arms, kissing thy mouth: farewell!<br />[Goes +to the table and takes the goblet up.] What, art thou empty?<br />[Throws +it to the ground.]<br />O thou churlish gaoler,<br />Even of poisons +niggard!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>[faintly]<br />Blame him not.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O God! you have not drunk it, Beatrice?<br />Tell me you have not?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Were I to deny it,<br />There is a fire eating at my heart<br />Which +would find utterance.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O treacherous love,<br />Why have you not left a drop for me?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>No, no, it held but death enough for one.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Is there no poison still upon your lips,<br />That I may draw it +from them?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Why should you die?<br />You have not spilt blood, and so need not +die:<br />I have spilt blood, and therefore I must die.<br />Was it +not said blood should be spilt for blood?<br />Who said that? +I forget.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Tarry for me,<br />Our souls will go together.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Nay, you must live.<br />There are many other women in the world<br />Who +will love you, and not murder for your sake.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I love you only.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>You need not die for that.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Ah, if we die together, love, why then<br />Can we not lie together +in one grave?</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>A grave is but a narrow wedding-bed.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>It is enough for us</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>And they will strew it<br />With a stark winding-sheet, and bitter +herbs:<br />I think there are no roses in the grave,<br />Or if there +are, they all are withered now<br />Since my Lord went there.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Ah! dear Beatrice,<br />Your lips are roses that death cannot wither.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Nay, if we lie together, will not my lips<br />Fall into dust, and +your enamoured eyes<br />Shrivel to sightless sockets, and the worms,<br />Which +are our groomsmen, eat away your heart?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I do not care: Death has no power on love.<br />And so by Love’s +immortal sovereignty<br />I will die with you.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>But the grave is black,<br />And the pit black, so I must go before<br />To +light the candles for your coming hither.<br />No, no, I will not die, +I will not die.<br />Love, you are strong, and young, and very brave;<br />Stand +between me and the angel of death,<br />And wrestle with him for me.<br />[Thrusts +GUIDO in front of her with his back to the audience.]<br />I will kiss +you,<br />When you have thrown him. Oh, have you no cordial,<br />To +stay the workings of this poison in me?<br />Are there no rivers left +in Italy<br />That you will not fetch me one cup of water<br />To quench +this fire?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O God!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>You did not tell me<br />There was a drought in Italy, and no water:<br />Nothing +but fire.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O Love!</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Send for a leech,<br />Not him who stanched my husband, but another<br />We +have no time: send for a leech, I say:<br />There is an antidote against +each poison,<br />And he will sell it if we give him money.<br />Tell +him that I will give him Padua,<br />For one short hour of life: I will +not die.<br />Oh, I am sick to death; no, do not touch me,<br />This +poison gnaws my heart: I did not know<br />It was such pain to die: +I thought that life<br />Had taken all the agonies to itself;<br />It +seems it is not so.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>O damnéd stars<br />Quench your vile cresset-lights in tears, +and bid<br />The moon, your mistress, shine no more to-night.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Guido, why are we here? I think this room<br />Is poorly furnished +for a marriage chamber.<br />Let us get hence at once. Where are +the horses?<br />We should be on our way to Venice now.<br />How cold +the night is! We must ride faster.<br />[The Monks begin to chant +outside.]<br />Music! It should be merrier; but grief<br />Is +of the fashion now - I know not why.<br />You must not weep: do we not +love each other? -<br />That is enough. Death, what do you here?<br />You +were not bidden to this table, sir;<br />Away, we have no need of you: +I tell you<br />It was in wine I pledged you, not in poison.<br />They +lied who told you that I drank your poison.<br />It was spilt upon the +ground, like my Lord’s blood;<br />You came too late.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>Sweet, there is nothing there:<br />These things are only unreal +shadows.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Death,<br />Why do you tarry, get to the upper chamber;<br />The +cold meats of my husband’s funeral feast<br />Are set for you; +this is a wedding feast.<br />You are out of place, sir; and, besides, +’tis summer.<br />We do not need these heavy fires now,<br />You +scorch us.<br />Oh, I am burned up,<br />Can you do nothing? Water, +give me water,<br />Or else more poison. No: I feel no pain -<br />Is +it not curious I should feel no pain? -<br />And Death has gone away, +I am glad of that.<br />I thought he meant to part us. Tell me, +Guido,<br />Are you not sorry that you ever saw me?</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>I swear I would not have lived otherwise.<br />Why, in this dull +and common world of ours<br />Men have died looking for such moments +as this<br />And have not found them.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Then you are not sorry?<br />How strange that seems.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>What, Beatrice, have I not<br />Stood face to face with beauty? +That is enough<br />For one man’s life. Why, love, I could +be merry;<br />I have been often sadder at a feast,<br />But who were +sad at such a feast as this<br />When Love and Death are both our cup-bearers?<br />We +love and die together.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>Oh, I have been<br />Guilty beyond all women, and indeed<br />Beyond +all women punished. Do you think -<br />No, that could not be +- Oh, do you think that love<br />Can wipe the bloody stain from off +my hands,<br />Pour balm into my wounds, heal up my hurts,<br />And +wash my scarlet sins as white as snow? -<br />For I have sinned.</p> +<p>GUIDO</p> +<p>They do not sin at all<br />Who sin for love.</p> +<p>DUCHESS</p> +<p>No, I have sinned, and yet<br />Perchance my sin will be forgiven +me.<br />I have loved much</p> +<p>[They kiss each other now for the first time in this Act, when suddenly +the DUCHESS leaps up in the dreadful spasm of death, tears in agony +at her dress, and finally, with face twisted and distorted with pain, +falls back dead in a chair. GUIDO seizing her dagger from her +belt, kills himself; and, as he falls across her knees, clutches at +the cloak which is on the back of the chair, and throws it entirely +over her. There is a little pause. Then down the passage +comes the tramp of Soldiers; the door is opened, and the LORD JUSTICE, +the Headsman, and the Guard enter and see this figure shrouded in black, +and GUIDO lying dead across her. The LORD JUSTICE rushes forward +and drags the cloak off the DUCHESS, whose face is now the marble image +of peace, the sign of God’s forgiveness.]</p> +<p>Tableau</p> +<p>CURTAIN</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<p>End of the Project Gutenberg eText The Duchess of Padua</p> +<p>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE DUCHESS OF PADUA ***</p> +<pre> + +******This file should be named dpdua10h.htm or dpdua10h.zip****** +Corrected EDITIONS of our EBooks get a new NUMBER, dpdua11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, dpdua10ah.htm + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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