^ ^ ^J^^. ^ \r 1^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 11.25 ■^12,8 |25 mm jm £ U& 1 20 1.4 1.6 PhotDgraphic .Sciences Corporation // // ^ A k ^ € ^yii 4i r/. CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICIVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical MIcroreproductions / Instltut Canadian de microreproductlons historiques Technical and Bibliographic Notea/Notes *«chniques at bibliographiquaa The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. D D n D D D D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagte Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurte et/ou peiiicuiie I I Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque Coloured maps/ Cartes g^ographiques en couleur □ Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) r~n Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Relit avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La re liure serrde peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge intArieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajouties lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t6 fiimtes. Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppltmentaires: L'institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la mAthode normale de filmage sont indiqute ci-dessous. I I Coloured pages/ ,/ D Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Paries endommagtes Pages restored and/oi Pages restaurtes et/ou pellicul6es I — I Pages damaged/ r~~| Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages dtcoiortes, tachet6es ou piqutes The c to the Theii possil of thi filmin Origir begin the la sion, other first f sion, or illu I I Pages detached/ Pages d6tach6es Showthroughy Transparence Quality of prir Qualiti intgaie de I'impression Includes supplementary materit Com it' nd du materiel suppitmentaire Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible r~j Showthrough/ pn Quality of print varies/ I I Includes supplementary material/ I — I Only edition available/ Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 film6es A nouveau de fagon d obtenir la meilieure image possible. Theli shall ( TINUI whicli Maps, diffen entire begin( right i requir methc This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est filmA au taux de rMuction indiquA ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 2BX 30X ^ 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X plaira es details liques du int modifier ixigar una da ffilmaga sd/ Iqu^as taira I by errata mad to nant , una paiure, I fapon h 32X The copy filmed here haa been reproduced thanka to the generoaity of: Nationai Library of Canada The images appearing hare are the best quaiity possibie considering the condition and legibiiity of the original copy and in Icaeping with the filming contract specifications. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the bacic cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol ^^- (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol Y (meaning "END"), whichever applies. IMaps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: 1 2 3 L'exemplaira fllmi fut reprodu^t grAce A la g4n4rosit6 da: BibliothAqua nationala du Canada Las images suivantas ont AtA raproduites avac la plus grand soin, compta tenu de ia condition at de ia nattetA de l'exemplaira f ilm6, at en conformit6 avac las conditions du contrat de filmaga. Lea exemplairea originaux dont la couvarture en papier est ImprimAe sont fiimte en commen^ant par la premier plat at en terminant soit par la darnlAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par la second plat, aelon le cas. Tous las autras exempiaires originaux sont filmte en commenpant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration at en terminant par ia darnidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaltra sur la darniAre image de chaqua microfiche, seion le cas: le symbols »► signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Les cartas, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmAa A des taux de rAduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atra reproduit en un seul clichA, il est filmA A partir da I'angle aupAriaur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'imagas nAcessaira. Les diagrammas suivants illustrant la mAthoda. 1 2 3 4 5 6 r / • ■ « THE «■■■■■ , B B. COUNT FILIPPO; OR, THE UNEQUAL MARRIAGE. ^ Jrama, in |ifee ^t\k BY THE AUTHOR OF "SAUL." t ►♦-♦■-♦< fHontreal : B. DAWSON & SON, GREAT ST. JAMES STREET. JETotonto : R. & A. MILLER. YONGE STREET. I860. . /? " I Ai) \ Entered, according to the Act of the Provincial Parliament, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty, by B. Dawson & Son, in the Office of the Registrar of the Province of Canada. V 1 \, k INTRODUCTION. •)• r Next in enormity to a breach of the marriage relation, stands its mutual contraction by youth and years. To give a truthful, though fictitious, instance of the sad issue of such an ill-omened union as the latter, is the aim of this drama. h f ( II ii r PERSONS REPRESENTED, TnEMOniiA, Duke of Pereza; a very aged Sovereign. HvLAS, his youthful son, and only child. Count Filippo, an elderly Nobleman, and Chief Minister of State. SsRAPmo, friend of Count Filippo. GoNARDO, a Perezan gentleman whose estate joins that of Count Filippo; and who, during the play, is generally disguised as a gypsy. FiDKO, Secretary of the Duke. Gallantio, a disreputable Noble of Pereza. VBRTAiiDi, a Perezan Noble. Marco, PI3ANI0, Ddkb of Abno. VoLiNA, the youthful lady of Count Filippo. Paphiana, wife of Gonardo. A Ladt of the Court of Pereza. Lords, Senators, Courtiers, Officers, Servants, &o. ■J Gentlemen of Count Filippd's suite. •4^ 'i COUNT FILIPPO. Li ACT I. SCENE I. An Apartment in the Ducal Palace ofPereza. The Ddkb teated in an easy chair. Htlas standing near. * HTLAS. What needs this haste to marry me ? I cannot Love, more than hate, at pleasure. 'T were as cruel Toward Arno's ducal daughter as toward me, Thus, with stem Hymen's so potential chains, To bind her steadfast heart, to one whom you ' Full oft declare capricious as a vane. DUKE. Oh, speak not now of that. Thou wilt amend ; When wed, wilt lose thy wandering regard. Her eyes shall fix thine, as the cynosure Doth fix the steady steering mariner's. — But bid Gallantio now keep aloof: Though he hath stained thy youth, it is not meet He should bedaub and smear thy married life. Let him retire from court, or, even yet, He shall be punished. — Speak not for him, Hylas ; Do thou not intercede for that fallen peer, B I 10 COUNT FILIPPO. That Belial of Pereza, who no more Can from his fault's depths rise into our favor, Than, from his pit, can Lucifer to heaven. HYLAS. 'Tis Filippo incenses you against him, DUKE. No, from that quarter bloweth not the wind. Count Filippo's words have merely been the echo Of our own judgment's loud denouncing tongue. Why dost thou look askance on Filippo ? Hylas, he is indeed thy guardian angel. Loving thee more (and that in truth is much) Than he abhors the vile Gallantio. — Lo, here he comes. \Ente.r Filippo. Count, when do you depart To Arno, on our son's love-embassy ? FILIPPO. To morrow, if it so shall please your highness. DUKE. 'Tis well, 'tis well. — Pray bring your wife to court When you return. We see by far too little Of face as fair as is the front of heaven. FILIPPO. Thanks to your goodness. DUKE. We grow foolish, though. Desiring to cull flowers, when these eyes Must perish sooner than the painted petals. / Still let her come. How know we but ourselves May shuffle through a gentle measure with her, At Hylas' nuptials ; that these stiJBT limbs. Scorning this long-kept, stationary seat, As icicles touched by a suddeni^e^w. Drop from th' eaves and, afi dissolved, along 'A ..;-rV. COUNT FILIPPO. Jl 'Us. Dance, mingling with the glittering, rippling rillfl, May take a trice, afresh, the festal floor ? But we do doat, fond that we are, thus weak. Lend me your arms. r; r,,. .. i ,/; [Hylas and FiLiPPO assist the DuKE to rise Now lead me to my room : This chair less grateful is than my left couch. What am I but an old, exhausted man, t Nigh bedridden ? Our voice now only scares ' ' ' The doctor and the nurse ; though once, when heard Upon the doubtftil and contested field, While it established ours, made shake the foe. " • ' ^ ** But we are shorn down by these crescent moons. Life-reaping sickles ; we whom war hath spared, n . f (And spare us yet a little, Chronos' scythe !) , ,^.. , ,j ., Must soon by death, the tireless husbandman, Be cast as hay upon the stack of time ; , Garnered, must soon, a sear, surviving blade, ' , . ; , Lie in the wintry storehouse of the grave. . ^ . , . Lay us upon our couch again : so, so. Ah, is this tottering all that life hath lefb? Hylas, thou seest what thyself shalt be. , , : ..;.,,.' Still, let us see thee married ere we die, # ,: ,... ' And we leave life without complaint, regret. . .,.,. { . . . .)' Lead to our closet ; there we count our beads* ■>- v,/' This form full soon must wear the coffin's weeds. 'J: •»'ift*?t i I •,)' ^,-.^ [^Exeunt. -Kf SCENE II. ,j' Library of Count Filippo^s mansion, near Pereza. fiuvpo and Voluja. VOLINA. Call me capricious, fandful, whate'er You choose : it matters not. — What thou^ I have ' ''■' " *' Whims, are not wives allowed to h&ve them now ? • 'f ' ; '^ Nay, if you shake your head, I'll say 'tis naught •{ "^ •' When you do kiss and tell me that you love me. 19 COUNT PILIPPO. PILIPPO. -. But this is such a singular desire ; Stranger than strange hath hitherto oonoeived, Or traveller yet told. — Nay, sweet Volina, Ask me for something that may be obtained. VOLINA. Obtain me something that will never weary. I'm tired of that green parroquet's harsh cry ; That English lark's rich song now makes me drowsy. My lute oems cracked ; those songtt you brought me, stupid. Bring me a mocking-bird, or catch me th' Huma. ■<..,'.i^, .;- FILIPPO. •:■ ■ ■'■'- The Huma lights not, nor thy fancy long. Volina, what are parrots and caged larks ; What were a whole aviary of Humas, What lute, what songs ; what were the Halcyon, Though it were thine, did it divide thy breast With that young brooding vulture discontent ? '' "'^ •)i * \ VOLINA. Who would not brood ? You keep no company ; y I seldom see the world, the court now never. None do I see save you, nought do I hear Save mine o^n voice, with wind through sighing trees. The hum of flies, unmeaning notes of birds, And^he wild glee (I eavy) of my maids ; — And now more than a month you may be hence. PILIPPO. And will that longer seem to thee than me, Who fly into thine arms as dove to oote. Impatient for the eve as dove for dawn ? Peace, peace : frequent this library, where holds : ; The levee of the monarchs of our race. Unable to converse with me, come here . , .;, And speak with the great spirits of the past. . y ^^ COUNT PILIPPO. 13 'i YOLINA. Here do I often come when you are absent, But cannot aye be entertained with ghosts. I've read the poets through, and files of fiction ; And what to me are law, philosophy ? What all your dead historians' ink-brains ? I'm sick of sun and solitude and books, Sick of new robes, and dumb, though shining, jewels. — Take me with you to Arno. PILIPPO. . ' ' Dear, I cainot. '; ' VOLINA. Then leave me at the court with old Tremohla, Who still has sought of you my long-due visit. Which you have still with some excuse postponed. PILIPPO. Keep house, Volina, until I return ; ' When, if success attend upon this suit, Beauty, like jewels, will be in demand, To grace the gorgeous nuptials of the prince ; ' And thou, my jewel, that hath long been hid > Within this sober casket of my home. Brighter, because a stranger, forth shalt come. ' ' - Art thou content ? ' '*■ VOLINA. 'T would seem I must be so. It ; i J PILIPPO. Nay, all so sullen, girl ? Is this our parting ? VOLINA. Beturn you to the city ere you start Upon your amorous embassy to Arno ? PILIPPO. I do ; and now, without extravagance. Inform me, sweet, what thence to bring for thee. ". (-' 14 COUNT FILIPPO. VOUNA. Bring me four men to dig me a dry-well, From whence the stars may be observed by day : That were some change. I'll turn astronomer ; Measure Orion's belt, ogle Aroturus, r . vi;; m,. Play with the Pleiades, romp with the bear, , .. And wink again at every winking star. Heigho I would I were in the north star uow I (-.1 J 11 1 -i,<' .'/ "t 1. '..' '.i:.r .«' i FILIPPO. As Jason fetched the golden fleece from Colchis, So I would thee from that cold, silvery world. — I would thou went that I might fetch thee thence. i 1 .. : VOLINA. ,., I would that I were in the golden sun ! -f .a .!,:,-. FILIPPO. ■-' ^•■^' •':'' That doth remind me of a sun-like steed, The hue of gold, that lately I beheld. Whose cantering hoofs, as they did scour the roj^d, Shod as with silver, seemed four dancing st|p^,>-> A Pegasus indeed, except for wings ; And, as I gazed admiringly, methought That thou upon its back wouldst seem a muse. It shall be thine. Vol ; so that I, when thou Dismount'st therefrom into mine arms at eve. May deem thee fragrant from the hill of heaven. All fresh and dewy from the shining clouds. Kiss, and good morrow until evening shrouds. [Kisses her passionately and exit. VOLINA. • Would I too were a man like Filippo, To mount, and, lover-like, in boots and spurs, = <« an'^ irjijsv r Bush into the great city's open arms ! ' ! ' ; lusj; ii..'i i The country is a dull old-fashioned maid. Well enough, truly, for wild, wayward children, As is a spinster aunt to care for them, ;-«'t» - Mf«i{;t -.fi ,'■ COUNT FILIPPO. 15 I:! But when these children are grown men and women, They will be governed by the aunt no more, I'm weary of these grave, environing woods!, 'Midst which I dwell and watch the wandering clouds. Until I yearn to wander after them. Ah, me I what task shall I betake me to ? ' ' * ' I've no delight now in embroidery, . • ■ Nor music, save 'tis in the minor mode; ' • Nor books, my husband's panacea, save ' To scrawl upon their margins serious sonnets. I would I were a man Uke Filippo! r m , ^ ; , Heigho ! he'd take me to the court, he said, (And may it be early 1) when the prince is wed. SCENE m. lExit. Within the Ducal Palace at Pereza. Htlas and GalIiAstio. I ' HYLAS. Consent I will not, though to please the Duke ; To whom, besides a subject's, as my sire, I owe to yield a son's allegiance. :,mi- GALLANTIO, Indeed 'tb hard to wed you in such haste. HYLA8, I will not marry yet ; I'm absolute In this, as is my father in all else. I GALLANTIO. It is too early, and exceeding harsh So soon to clip your amour-bearing wings. HTLAS. Was not my sire himself a bachelor At sixty-five ? and I at twenty, lo I Am threatened with the noose ! ;>T 16 COUNT PILIPPO. QALLANTIO. To hang yourself therein were better deed. Take sick and die, — or say yon are impotent. HYLAS. The Duke doth deem this match will cage me up« Affection for this yet unseen princess, As the court tailor's shears shape cloth of gold, Cut my career to Hymen's current mode. GALLANTIO. A garment that himself abhorred to wear ! Your father set the fashion in Pereza, ''^'" Of a celibate life. More bachelors, *' ' ' - More merry dogs, have barked at Cerberus, Since the accession of Tremohla, than Of married have paid fee unto Saint Peter. But, as we said, the old Duke feels his end. And matrimony is a gulf that you Must leap into for his sake and Pereza's, Even as into dim and fabulous chasm Horatio Cocles leaped for good of Rome. ., .^ ! HYLAS. ' We will not leap as yet, for any's good ; Would disobey though thrice he were our sire. :.■ ]>:: OALLANTIO. I'd never call him sire again, but grandsire. To spend your life in his ? to seize upon Your years' reversion I Like the prodigal, He hath not stayed at home, see, in his own life, But gon6 into the far country of yours, And, with the tusk of foul concupiscence. Crunched up your pleasant acorns, leaving you. In being's trough, only some marriage husks. To be digested, as you'll find, with pain. "u- '■<» k It maddens me ! HYLAS. (^ k t I'l COUNT PILIPPO. OALLANTIO. Mad ? many, I should rave. ^" He made the heir after disinheriting him. ' Your father mortgaged you before your birth ; Pledged you unto his pleasures, long before He pledged his faith in wedlock to your mother ; You now are claimed as forfeit to be sold : — But Filippo doth hurry you to the mart. HYLAS. Count Filippo himself did shew no haste Fulfil the fruitful function, wedding late. GALLANTIO. And yet to little purpose; — for his lady, Is she not childless, bringing him no heir ? HTLA8. • ^ • I see it all, I see it in its source ! I My father like a catterpillar hath eaten, \In his decline, the green leaf of my days : I was defrauded ore my birth by his Dishonestly prolonged celibacy. GALLANTIO. Ten years he, brazen-helmeted, served Mars, >r 1 ; Then should have donned the donkey-cap of hymen, In lieu whereof he thirty summers served Venus, whose wars result in life, riot death. At length, much more from policy than choice. He volunteered to serve just one campaign, Under the god that floats the saffron flag ; When, even as an old recruiting sergeant Into some sleeping youth's palm slips the shilling. Enlists he you, while you (Heaven knows where) slept. HTLAS. Yet kinder parent never cherished child, — Indulgent even to excess indeed, Mindful to please me now, when most he's stern. 'Tis said this princess is a paragon. 17 18 COUKT PILIPPO. OALIiANTIO. So are all maidens until they are married. Think you the father will inform the suitor : j * f, His daughter is a dolt, a vixen ? no, no more j Than to the young aspirant to a saddle . .a :,-. Will the horsedealer say the mare is spavined;. But mark, in this I most blame Filippo. - HTLAS. '.''' ■ ■''"■ ", Between ourselves, I too. OALLANTIO. Oh, 'tjs most wrong ; Unwarrantable, calling for reproof, — Nay, indignation, — ^yes, and for revenge. . ■ ' ' ■ \ '*■, HTLA8. v':rc (i For it I bear him secretly great grudge. GALLANTIO. ' i • ■ i . Although your father anvil is and hammer, ' He is the fire at forging of these chains. .! ^ . i HYLAS. I know it. ' * , • GALLANTIO. He moves Tremohla to this marriage mischief. . ,{ -:^m HTLAS. ^ ' He doth : I have perceived it. ., . . i GALLANTIO. And to think, Moreo'er, that fortune should deal so perversely ; t To think a man of temper so austere, . , . ,, . Enjoys such superfluity of bliss. Have you not marked his lady ? 'tis a woman ». Meet for a Moorish monarch in his pride j In one fair alabaster honey-cup, Enough to sate a sultan's appetite. HTLAS. I once beheld her. rJ t ,\ -, t ■ .!/ - ■-•'(.J COUNT FILJPPO. 19 OALLANTIO. And not oovQted ? », Her face is as a list to tempt gay knights. HYLA8. That I then thought unhallowedly I own, Knowing, as we did, that she was Filippo's, And longed to vault into his rosy bed. OALLANTIO. , , , Love's rosy gauntlet lies upon her cheek, . , , ,, And were I Hylas I would take it up. What fear you Filippo's tilting ? 'Tis not strange That he so seldom brings her to the court. She cannot love him, more than day loves night : — She should' be woo'ed by night, for she by day Would be too dazzling ; and she pours her voice ' ■■' Charmed o'er the lips to the saluted ear, Soft as the brooklet's sounding 'neath the sedge. Or overflowing fountain heard by night. - . - ^ j. She sings divinely as the nightingale. Dances with grace beyond Terpsichore. To have seen her not, is not to have seen the sun ; To have missed her motion, to have missed the moon's Or mounting morning's going up the skies. She seems, beneath her cope of sable hair, ..-.;' . i Aurora underneath dark cope of clouds ; ; ■- . Appears to step as on the waving wind, . ' • On moving make a chariot of the air. ;,,.>.. HYLAS. '"' '■ '■ '' • This were to be perfection. •,:•;/)?•.',: =."* OALLANTIO. i'-r' - 'i'O-*'' Nothing lacks she " Of form, or feature, voice, to take the court. To the uttermost accomplished : yet at home All lonely she abides as nested thrush ; Save when she, mounted, wildly gallops fwrth, To take the air, or fling herself abroad. Skimming the lea as skims the lake the swallow. * r„ 'A- so COUNT PILIPPO. ill- hi n HTLAS. Poor lady I why is this? Can Filippo Enact the jailor on the innocent ? OALLANTIO. She is believed to be o'er amorous ; Myself have seen her underneath his nose, Shoot glances, to the hearts of gallants fatal As were Apollo's arrows to the Python ; 'Herself a gorgeous snake, a charming dragon, And, were I Hylas, I would act Saint George, lEncountering her, and, for the feat, hereafter 'Be canonized by Venus' loving church. HYLAS. • 'T were fraught with too much peril. , ,^ OALLANTIO. Peru? pish! Is that a word for sovereigns ? HYLAS. I believe her Pure as a perfect lily. OALLANTIO. r. , r Am I, then, A novice in my knowledge of the signs That prove a lover's loophole in a woman ? Believe these lips, — assuredly from hers Hopeless of favors, and that would not take One florin from hsr reputation's worth. But rather coin for her a mint of merit, — She is a landscape, wrapped indeed in snow, But, underneath, the heated, golden mine. HYLAS. '^ I'm half resolved. OALLANTIO. Resolve you all. HYLAS. And yet — ^;t^' . . - w .» 4>^ ? >»i,»''. t^a'' lA COUNT FILIPPO. OALLANTIO. Shake not your head. HYLA8. She may be wise as fair. OALLANTIO. [There's no abyss so wide as woman's folly ; . 'T would take this world in, then hold such another *- ,. HTLAS. But Filippo, my father's minister, — Consider him, his worth, his weight, his years. OALLANTIO. Doth he consider you ? doth he not seek To stem and turn your youth's full, forward flood, And burst its silvery bubbles of delight, By damming it in marriage' stagnant };uol ? Yea, in your very blossom to uproot you. And pitch you like a faggot to the fiends. HTLAS. -.._■'■;:.::/": Too true, too true. ^ OALLANTIO. He doth officiously to Arno wend, -^ ^rS; Striving, with hymeneal ivy dark. To bind and blight the stout oak of your life. HTLAS. .,,;.,, He doth, he doth. . OALLANTIO. Hie you where his own honeysuckle blooms. HTLAS. Methinks we will. ;; OALLANTIO. You shall be sweetbriar to her twining arms. HTLAS. Think'stso? jr - OALLANTIO. To hers he is but as the pricking thorn. .,;; n '^f{\-.ii\- \ I i' &I2 COUNT f ILIPP6. HTLA8. He doth prick me ; — scarce yet to life enlarged, Is seeking now, with most remorseless speed, To clap me into wedlock's narrow cell. Plunder the constable. OALLANTIO. ; HTLA8. He were well served. OALLANTIO. With counterfeit of wedlock's ivory key, Enter his house while he is gone abroad. Be you a stinging wasp within his hive, A fly within his larder. HTLAB. ■ ■ •• So I will. ' OALLANTIO. While he is fishing in the brook at Arno, Do you prepare and fill at home your net. HTLAS. ' Why not? others have had their fish cd,ught. . ;);| •!? OALLANTIO. '',>'• I •.lie! •«.->■.• IV- * . ■^•r'. ■. I* .1- /\ ' ;i ■; .;• ■■ .Si ■', i, •{:-'■ "i .v-} '.. ■J.:r rl'^-J . -/ ..': Ay, W( .•■» .Vxfi.Iki^ And fried too ; therefore why should you forbear ? Plant yourself by his wife ; before her eyes Play the Adonis, play Sir Hyacinth; Display your person and accomplishments ; Throw all your jets into the sunny air, Till thirst itself be bred at sight of drink, As thirst is bred by drinking of the sea ; Admire her until she admire again. As sound makes echo, or as one struck string To other, ohordant, with low breath responds; Drink from her eyes till she with her regards Comes like a fawn to slake herself at yours. ''^'^» j>4 #fci;{ »t'f A» .f; . HYLA8. ' Teach me no longer, but inform me how I may obtain an introduction to her. OALLANTIO. ^ Methinks you know Seignior Gonardo's lady, HTLAS. You know her if report speaks truly. OALLANTIO. ' She hath the ear of Filippo's fair wife, And shall invite her to her house to night, Where you and I, as if by chance, will meet her. '• .i'.^' .. HTLAS. ' ■^' ^ •■<■ : '• ■ ' ■ ' Away: I grow impatient there to greet her. ■ <. OALLANTIO. ' ' '^ { ' ' Shall we together ? .- ' • ' i ' Uit' ' HTLAS. .•))>,;' No, I go before : — The prim old world doth watch us more and more. ^ [Exit. OALLANTIO. ,i , ' f, .; Now shall the he-^at black adultery. With the roused ram retaliation, twine •, . ,, , •) , , ,,, . Their horns in one, to butt at Filippo 1 I hate him for his frequent, stern rebukes, And counselling the Duke to banish me. Shall I not pierce him in the side, betray him With this young Judas of a prince's kiss ? Go on before, young Duke deot, and fear .^,^ abi l -uti ^,(< The prim old world: ha, ha, ha, did I hear? ., ^,,.^ ^^., ,j,^v END OF THE FIRST ACT. fi'j'i .' ti'JiV 24 COUNT FILIPPO. ACT II. SCENE I. An Apartment in Filippcft monn'on. Volika and Papbiama. PAPHIAKA. Shoot from thy sphere, my pale and fixM star, And come revolve within my heavens to night. VOLINA. Here are my heavens. Though dull, I have resolved, In my lord's absence, to «bide at home. PAPHIANA. Nay, speak not so: I shall take no denial. Fray visit me. A palace wore a prison. Did still its inmates keep within the walls. Dull is the owl, but you are even duller; — At least, she plies the downy wing at dusk. Your lord were glad: pray come this evening. Till he returns, make much with me your home. VOLINA. You are most kind, albeit now excuse me : Till he returns I play the coy recluse. PAPHIANA. ' • Are you, then, so in love with solitude? - You cloud up far too much your sunny face - In these umbrageous precincts, shining but ' . By night, and in the presence of your spouse, '' When you with watching pale are as the moon. And, from the situation of your chair, Do meet his drowsy gazes. Pardon me. You are too young, and, surely, far too fair, ^ ^''•^'' ;U'> -,v?1^ COUNT PILIPPO. To be alive (as I affirm you are) Within this mausoleum mansion buried. VOLINA. I jide abroad. ' PAPHIANA. And what is riding, pray, With but the shadow of a distant groom ? Love, like a shadow, vanishes at last For object ever absent. It is man, Not horse, you want, — a lover in a husband. Wherefore does yours not squire you through the Pleasure is doubled when the donor's pleased : But for a double pleasure where were th' world ? That is renewed in mutual delight. VOLINA. * Pie! madam; — see my new-bought palfrey. PAPHIANA. ^ • [having advanced towards, aud looking through^ the toindow. Ah, Pretty enough. I'm no equestrian : I'd rather roll in Phaeton's gilded car, Than track the sky upon Bellerophon. VOLINA. To-morrow it shall shew me all its paces:— ^- " ' * It is the very courser for a sylph. - ,. '. Its back appears a burnished bridge of gold. Hear how in pride of form and hue it treads Out merry music in the pebbled court. Methinks it moves with arched and swaying neck. As a gay gondola might tilting go Over the Adriatic in a breeze. Was it not kind of Filippo to buy it ? PAPHIANA. What could he less than buy you anything? He who, to please the old, eccentric Duke, '-V COUNT FILIPPO. ft Doth spead his presence, which is your estate, Perpetually with musty senators. And with whom else uncertain, leaving you Meanwhile to hold the empty purse of absence. VOLINA. Nay, nay, I find you too injurious. Not from his choice, but at Tremohla's wish, And for Pereza's weal, doth Filippo Stint me his company; while this long absence Comes not of search for his mere proper pleasure. But Hylas' weal, and Hylas' pleasure toe, Since great the fame of Amo's Ducal maid. PAPHIANA. Ah, you have struck upon the current theme! There's many a maiden in Pereza dying This ho\ir for Hylas, — widows too and wives. No wonder the wet nymphs caressed his namesake. If that were half so beautiful as this. VOLINA. Widows and wives are dying for him ? Oh f PAPHIANA. Are we immortal for that we are wed ? Doth marriage make us proof 'gainst Cupid's bolt ? : Can whiskers pall us for a downy cheek ? I hate old men, whose porcupinal beards Prick, grizzled, like that creature's speckled quills ; And would as leave take kisses from a hedgehog, Or seek for drink, when thirsty, from a well Guarded by thistles, as beseech such lips. VOLINA. .:,. ...«;,,.;i ;v; But to be married is to shut the door On such conceits, or to expel them from us. PAPHIANA. We married women should have given in charge The single men, since we the art of love COUNT FILIPPO. 27 Could teach them better than a hundred Ovids. As veterans are chosen to instruct ' The raw recruit in future use of arms, So sbould we each have given a youth in charge. I would teach Hylas free of cost. I would I were the mother of the cub, That I might hug him almost to the death! Think, weave one's fingers in his amber hair ; To kiss him even till he pouted, then To kiss him till he smiled, and then With kissing make him pout and smile again. VOLINA. Is he so wonderous beautiful ? PAPHIANA. The sweetest youth seen since Narcissus drowned him. He is that most equivocal, sweet thing. Nor youth nor man, but just the best of both. My lord grows old like yours doth, but young Hylas Just coming up time's hill 1 — Oh, to waylay him. As Venus did Adonis I VOLINA. Hear, Gonardo 1 PAPHIANA. He cannot : he is travelling for his health. . ^ VOLINA. Where? w- ^ PAPmANA. Nay I know not. Would he were In heaven quietly. All have their bitters ; — Yes, and some have theirs brewed and they not know it. You know the catch : %v *" r ? ,., ,. ,^, , . [Sings. ^ _^ !- ,. Marriage is a cup of gall, Brewed by crafty priest and sire,— Bitter, bitter, very bitter; Who in drinking does not tire ? m m COUNT FILIPFO. til c .'.->• fi-^-i' Girl, I believe my sponse is false to me, Since every man is a born libertine. VOLINA. No, for my husband to his vow is true. PAPHIANA. Where all are false, yours is as true as any. : Being true as wind within th? variables, He keeps at least his secret concubine. I VOLINA. Would you impugn my lord's fidelity ? PAPHIANA. Ah, now I see you're jealous : — but no matter ; Herein all husbands would deceive their wives. Doubtless yours loves you, yet imj^ine not i < ,. ; In Arno he not beeks, in love's alembic, :. v ■..,. . To turn to silver hours the iron night. ,.^ ;, Nay, wherefore look so strange ? ;■ • ; , , ,; VOLINA. " . ' , Your words are strange. PAPHLA.NA. But true. — Zounds ! it would make me vow, at night To imitate that meek, mock maid the moon, When circumstance comports with secrecy, And slumber with some fair Endymion. What are you looking at? . VOLINA. ; ' ,. My palfrey yonder. PAPHIANA. ■' ' See how it paws I / . i ■ VOLINA. . tfV,:*'-; • Have patience, my sweet steed. _: PAPHLA.NA. Even as yon groom restrains that pawing mare, So would our liege lords hold us hard in hand. — ■i'''}^ t -. Vrs: t . \ .'?t.t-f5 ■,"*^- 'J.}> COUNT PILIPPO. 29 t '%. M But will you come and visit me to night ? You shall find with me our most dainty prince. VOLINA. Ah, then the god you spoke of is your guest 1 Gomes he alone ? / PAPHIANA. No ; with a cavalier, The most accomplished in all Italy. VOLINA. Expect mc not. PAPHIANA. Indeed I shall. Fond woman, Do not perversely disappoint yourself. Pray be advised ; let me implore. Even entreat, your coming as a boon. VOLINA. Entreat me not. PAPHIANA. I shall take no denial. — . Nay, get you to a nunnery at once ; '^lot-^^y-^'^ A cloister were best place for mortifying, r For pinching pleasure out of the proud flesh. But why should pleasure either pine or pinch ? Why saints wear sackcloth and be solitary ? To-night come to my sanctuary, sister. And, casting off this sackcloth coyness, play > f Thy part now with my pair of merry monks. VOLINA. No further importune me. PAPHIANA. Be admired : Look into this dumb glass, that cannot flatter And see as you are seen by others' eyes. VOLINA. You cannot tempt me, so but lose your breath. <. \ I" -' f i, 30 It COUNT FILIPPO. PAPHIANA. You lose much, thus sequestered. Oh, had I >.' Those luciferian, archangelic eyes. Wore I such brilliants in my brow, such beacons Upon my headland, two such Hero love-lights. Hung out by nature for Leander's view. Tempters to light even such another two, — VOLINA, Fie I fie I this flattery fulsome is as foul. I pay no visits till the Count returns. . . I ■ ' ; . No? No. 3?APHIANA. , VOLINA. PAPHIANA. You hold to that bad mind ? VOLINA. I do. PAPHIANA. Why then farewell. But you may yet grow tired Of hiding here, unnoted, unadmired. VOLINA. Loose words imply loose thoughts. Woe to her spouse, Such conversation heralding such guests : The prince as wild as is a hare in March, The gayest of the gallants of the time. And who is this accomplished cavalier ? It cannot be Gallantio ; the same That leads, 'tis said, his highness into evil ; Discreditable amours, play immense ; So deep and frequent, Filippo declares, 'T would soon leave void Pereza's full exchequer. I fear Gonardo's sky looks scowlingly : Therein there seems no music of the spheres, But gathering thunder, rain of torrent tears. . ■ ' Veiled lightnings lurk on those lascivious lips. [Exit, COUNT FILIPPO. And zigzag will return one day to pierce her, Taming those eyes of hers, than lightnings fiercer. No, hetter here in dull and plaintive plight, Than gaily shining in her heavens to night. Si f I lExit. ' ? SCENE II. Within Gonardol's house. Enter Gallantio and Paphiana. GALLANTIO. . What, pouting, Paph ? come, purr a little, puss. Was the incomparable countess gracious? Will she consort with us? sweet sybil, say. . j - V PAPHIANA. Why have you sent me on a barren errand ? I go no more to see the faithful fool. Who would not listen to my invitation, But had resolved, till Filippo's return. To pay no visits, see no company. ■ ' * GALLANTIO. Despite of her resolve, she shall see Hylas. Beh'eve me, Paph, never astronomer Waited more eagerly for rising star, Than he this evening waits this paragon, Whom he believes is now beneath this roof. They must be face to face before the moon Doth rise to night and face the dusky earth. I pray thee aid me to thine uttermost , To intersect their orbits with each other. PAPHIANA. I see not how. To force a,n interview Might much offend her, and all foully mar •* ' What you would wish to see so fairly made. i 1 II 11 COUNT FILIPPO. SM QALLANTIO. ' •■ " i-i iL-f.- fii,;r*.i.; .-r<,A. The prince is confident ; expects much joy. ' ■ ; ' •' ' z^' * PAPHIANA. The prince had better not expect too much. OALLANTIO. He plays the burglar wheresoe'er he goes, Entering the heart at window of the eye, As sunbeams at a chink. He shall possess her. PAPHIANA. Shall I Oh, great assurance I she is not so callow As is your confident and downy Dukeling, Who must go round about if he'd approach her, And scare her not into a thicker brake. Is this his first bird-nesting ? — oh, I would She were an eagle to pick out his eyes I . , ^,. t OALLANTIO. , .1 How now? i ,j! • PAPHIANA. You men think every woman v A barn-door fowl, and every man a falcon. OALLANTIO. J Nay, be not angry, love, to night. Peace, peace : Passion doth make thee ugly. , PAPHIANA. * ■ • ' ' I am vexed ; — But listen, and applaud a happy thought. ' ' ' OALLANTIO. What is it, Paph ? PAPHIANA. I spy another spray. Whereon to-morrow she will proudly perch ; Whence, as the thoughtless songster, 'midst the leaves, Eddies into the armed, distended jaws I'! s-irr; • sjt ?/ I '-' ■ .V! 17. n:j. Y i>> i' . :'i V^;'' i. 7-^,'«,,. COUNT PILIPPO. 33 Of the coiled serpent gazing from the root, She may, into young Hylas' open arms, Swoon down from her allegiance to her lord. OALLANTIO. -,ii How? PAPHIANA. She is now possessed of a rare palfrey, On which to-morrow she will take the air, Let the prince then encounter her. Is 't well ? " GALLANTIO. Most excellent. Lend me a few more ducats. Hylas shall, mounted, meet her on the road. — Lend me two hundred ducats. -./i' ,1 •'? - r. r'l }. PAPHIANA. ^-/■''^XiM Tffti',117&-r,'i' Curb thine extravagance, Gallantio. i* - > ; v" • ' Say for what end thou ask'st again for ducats. OALLANTIO. Meddle not now with family aflFairs. Thou art my duck, and ducats are duck's children. When we are married, all our darling ducats Shall in one purse and pen cry " Quack, quack, quack Lend me two hundred ducats. May I die Myself, instead of sick Gonardo, now, '■ ■ ■• ' If I should play thee false with kiss or cash. 'T is for a wager with the prince, dear Paph. .; , . PAPHIANA. [^giving him a purse. This purse contains your sum. But ask no more ;— Indeed, this borrowing doth make me poor. GALLANTIO. !' Now to the prince. Adieu ! — "Why, how is this ' That thou3 o hold'st me anchored with thine eyes ?— Yet must I leave thee, must now cast thee off. .:/ '^^-m:iV^' PAPHIANA. -■ ''^' You will return. .'!'^ . .i> !" ' -jj M :: ,, .< i 34 COUNT PILIPPO. 1 : '! 1 OALLANTIO. Ay, that I will to-morrow. PAPHIANA. To-morrow ? if thou art not here before Old Time doth pass his foot o'er midnight's brow, Thy foot shall never pass my threshold more. To-morrow ? is to-morrow lover's time ? The lover's hour is the perpetual now. — But get thee gone. J. i ■ I love too much yon fascinating fool, Compound of fat and frolic. I must cool. Else he may lose some ardour. — 0, to-morrow I Ha, ha, ha, ha ! To-morrow shall Yolina, luck betiding. Encounter Hylas on the road srriding, [Exit Gallantio. .•f.;i )•■,''!. SOENE III. ■n ■ A Chamber in the Ducal Palace. The Dusi md S7b4B. HTLAS. Why is your highness still incensed against me ? .*.,.■.. DUKE. :■■,. ' /<" '■':' '' ! We still must chide, for that Gallantio Is a black blot and blur upon thy life. Purge thyself from him, pluck him off thee now, Else we will banish him while we do live : He who himself hath half of his estate Confiscated to gamesters, and the rest Squanders on bawds and bullies. — Heaven forgive I know not why I've let the foul frog float In the same waters with thy tadpole state. Command him thence ; let him no longer, Hvlas, Haunt the clear wave of thy connubial lays. ... »,jj , M ' v.. me. ,...,]. I tV'i •-: 1 COUNT FILIPPO. 35 no. But we perceive that thou dost not regard us : Thou art impatient to begone to him. Unduteous, go ; thou wilt not stay by me. Thou mayest remember this when I am gone. We have not many days to stay on earth. HYLAS. Your highness, in your ill-construing ire, Mistakes my purpose : I but wished to ride. DUKE. Then we are content. But ere thou goest, Come nearer us, and lift thy sullen brow, Or we shall say, what we almost believe, This Arno's daughter is too good for thee. Look on us, Hylas, whom we look upon Out of this body of bedarkened age. As might the old moon look upon the young, When, dwindled doubtful to obliterate shade, It vague sits gazing, with a lorn regard, Into the latter's shining circlet face. Thou dost succeed us in Pereza's throne, As in the sky the new moon doth the old. Govern here wisely ; nor by word, as deed, Within the pregnant confines of the state, That now of Amo is in labor's throes, Stint i^arriage of the dues of early days. Ah, therein I and Filippo have failed { - ' So wilt not thou, but wilt dry up one source Of dire domestic ill. Herein not fail; Nor fail, we charge thee by a father's love, Hylas, henceforth to cherish Filippo, Anc" from thy favor spurn Gallantio : — Thou wert seen with him even yesterday. * , H ' HTLAS. [aside. What prying ghost beheld us and informed ? [Htlas approaches. v/ 36 COUNT PILIPPO. J> DUKE. , 1 Deny it not : a bird sang such a tune. No more behold that peccant peer, we pray thee, If thou wouldst have thy father die in peace. We are but ill at ease : come, Filippo. — Hylas, our heart keeps life till his return, As lamp keeps light within a Boman tomb. When he returns methinks we shall expire. As with the opened tomb the lamp's lent fire. Now forth to ride. Ah me, so fails our force, When we next ride 't must be on death's pale horse. Let me lean on thee, boy. \naving risen and leaning on Hylas. Thus leaks out life, As spirit from an old and crazy cask ; But a mere flask-full now left in this head ; '\ .\u t' < v.. In trunk and limbs the old tree well nigh dead. [Exeunty the Duke leaning on the prince. SCENE IV. ...'.„;.,, ji Corridor in the Ducal Pakiee. Tiine, duik, = -^ GALLANTio. \Pa4nng to and fro. {The clock of the Palace Tower strikes.} Seven mortal hours ! — and yet it seems much more. . ; ,; Come, Hylas, come; waylayer of woman, scion .>, ^ ,; Of a libidinous stock. Oh, fair the stock j .,i , On which thou'dst graft I Forgive me, mother Venus, ^i For not attempting this exploit myself; .' ; ; .;■ i ,,.' ; But in thy service I have been so long ., , • . , ■. Such a marauder and bold buccaneer, r ^ iti That, saving Paph's one proud peninsula, - {], , . 'Gainst my descents the whole wide coast of woman ;, , >• ; ,j, Seems armed and fortified. [Enter Hylas at the end of the corridor. Now, merry Bacchus, here my sweet ghost comes I The rose of joy upon his cheek, and bright ,."■»•> COUNT fILIPPO. 37 His eye with risen star of satisflaction. — L u J--;, ,^,'^ How hath your highness sped ? ; ■■■ ".'* " i-yx* '..'[ "i . ■ HTLAS. h.:.,.^-'' Sped ? Gallantio, I almost fear v ' ■ ■ ('V :- -■■'- :■'.: ,''"> Fortune hath been too kind, and lures me on '. • ■"' ' ' ' ' .■ . To dash and to disgrace me I We have met. '-'■'-' ' : ■ 1 f ' ^ ■' j'-. OALLANTIO. r . - ■ .i^ .. And how hath she received you ? ■ ' ■ r ' ■ ' "" i . ^ ,8. ce. ro. yr. HTLAS With drooped Till, as a youthful bather, having dived, Shining emerges fairer from the wave, So showed her blushing cheeks and conscious eyes. 0, knew I not till then how fair was woman I And silently I worshipped her; and still ' Mute gazed upon her, knowing not I gazed; Holding her hand, to which mine seemed to grow. OALLANTIO. 'T was well : the touch is love's electric line. head: . f*.' / I love her I HYLAS. OALLANTIO. She shall you. — ^What next ensued? HTLAS. As trees from either mai^n of a stream, ^^ , ; All overhanging in a long embrace. Mingle their branches, so our fingers twined ; Till, ending that sweet impropriety, She did the soft entanglement undo : Then, having to my prayer to be her squire Vouchsafed a chaste consent, we rode away, Now chatting loud, now fallen to tones love-low ; 'J When suddenly, by fear or frolic seized, Her nag, a tawny palfrey, with her flew, With all the roses blowing from her cheeks. I!'' 4a; H COUNT fllilPPO. Soon like white daisied doTrns, or la if wrapped In envious winding-sheet, or death had come Urging behind, damp breathing on life's flame, She fading as a taper in the socket, And reeling on her seat ; whence now I snatched, And bore her safely to mine own stout steed j That careful through the winding leafy lane, As freighted argosy through narrow seas. Steered as it knew how precious was its burden ; Myself, dismounted, walking by her side. Rejoicing towards her home, whereat arrived. She bade me enter, — what could she do less ? Which I did do, — what could I wish for more ? ' . GALLANTIO. , You are the pet of every iwrurient god I Fortune hath been unMindfolded to-day, ^ And turned her wheel adroitly ; you shall ride Soon on its highest spoke. See her again To-morrow ; you are free now of her house ; This accident occasion being and screen. Behind which you may with her play the fool. See her again ; Count Filippo will thank you, » And from this hour among his dear friends rank you. Why are you silent? is it not even so? HYLA8. We fear, though stands ajar her honor's door, The winking mastiff virtue cowers behind it. '^ GALLANTIO. . , , - - Fear not; advance, albeit on cautious steps. .» ■ , - Although a robber, look the honest man. The time is brief, so make what haste you can. ; Now get to bed, and dream of this till day. i,^, ^^, Good night. I by the postern will away. [Exeunt teparatelt/. coxr^ Fitippo. 39 ely. SCENE V. j1 noble apartment in Filippo't mansion. Through the windows, the grounds showing thickly wooded. Time, the following day. Enter HTtAS and YoLiiTA. VOLINA. And have you come to see me ? 'tis too kind. I cannot thank your highness, cannot reach Up to your goodness' measure. What tall terms ' Could touch the top and pinnacle of your grace, ' Which, to my loyalty's great obligation, Has added that of saver of my life ? So let me leave the labor of such load Of thanks, high bearing to that eminence, To Filippo, when grateM he returns ; Till then, myself low lying at the base, Up looking in mere mute acknowledgment. HYLA8. 0, mind not that : — its mention yields us pain, Whereof too much you yesterday endured ; And which, alas I has been the heavy price. Paid by yourself, to purchase us the pleasure Of your acquaintanceship in this retreat, Sacred to you and mystic meditation. How quiet is the quaint surrounding scene. That seems a fair but slightly-frowning mistress Tempting us from temptation of the town I Such bowers might tempt a sybarite to come And play therein the solemn anchorite. I would I were a monk, to tread these shades. Wherein you h: K^ar and half-play the nun. VOLINA. Oh, fie I a monk, and you about to marry ? ' HYLAS. ■■ ■" *'-'^ '' ' ' ■ ' " ' *'' I will not marry any ere I love. We are indiflferent toward this maid of Arno ; . > 40 COUNT FILIPPO. :X: Whose father's dukedom were a doubtful dower, Should love not give true value to the treasure ; Without it, to my cold and vacant heart, His child arriving as with empty hand. VOLINA. But she will bring love with her in her eyes. As erst did men upspring of barren stones Deucalion and Pyrhha cast behind them. So, from the jetting of her glancing eyes. Shall spring a score of sly, tormenting Cupids, To plunge into your breast their tiny darts. Whose points, alighting on your flinty heart. Shall strike thence sparks to kindle the cold match That will illume the lambent torch of Hymen. ,: HTLAS. Teach me to woo her : I'll not have her else. VOLINA. She will compel you to prefer your suit ; Baptize you with love's fire, until you feel The Pentecost of passion. Tongues shall sit Upon you, till spontaneous eloquence. Subdued, even by its own melodious voice, (As the poor fabled snake self-stung to death,) Swoons into sweeter silence. _> • HTLAS. • Be you not silent, 'tis so sweet to hear you. VOLINA. I've done. HTLAS. Alas I too soon. Will Arno charm > Me thus ? Come, teach me how to woo uqt. VOLINA. Nay, You are no novice, or are much belied. M,. rv/ ^ COUNT FILIPPO. 41 i-Ljf; HYLAS. Yet we will fancy that our tongues are bells, And you, of right, shall lead the merry peal, Putting the all-unpractised chimes in tune, That owe to be so blatant at my wedding. Come, even Folly's voice is sometimes sweet. And hoarse Despair doth oft make mellow music. What, are your lips locked up ? — then I begin. Mark, I now think you Arno, while you think Me whomsoe'er you will : remember that. First one salute, assuming your lips hers. VOLINA {rising). Oh, false assumption I You must now begone : I fear you are growing foolish, or else wicked. Your highness must prune down audacity. Or come no more to see me when alone. Methinks that I had better banish you. Should you return, your manners must be trimmed Smooth as the shaven lawn or bordering box, Or the clipped holly-edge of burnished green. Nay, I am growing angry ; you must go. Nor come again till comes back Filippo. HYTAS. AlasI VOLINA. Begone, begone. HYLAS. [^Salutes her. Ah! VOLINA. To keep the marriage feast, should hallow you, By keeping fast from ladies' lips ; at least Should commerce hold with none except your love's. Eschewing, as in Lent, forbidden flesh ; Or merely begging others, as kind saints, Add to your prayers for her their jaoulate "Amen." You, about 42 COUNT FILIPPO. HYLAS. Would you walk veiled, or let those lids Conceal your eyes, like nuns in marble cells, Hither would I retire, perform my dues. As ghostly father penance sets and shrives Meek nuns, through Lent and austere Passion-week, That they may keep unblameably glad Easter, So, till my wedding-tide, would I come here. That you might still confess and grave advise me. VOLINA. Yes, you would sin, that I might set you penance. Still unperformed, in your afresh offending. Yet for this first offence I must absolve you. But no more say you know not how to woo : — Forsooth, full fast you were just now a-learning I You must begone ; this lesson is o'er long. HYLAS. And when return ? VOLINA. You shall be timed by me In all your future visits to this house j As is the tide by the grave lady moon, In its recurring progress to the shore. HYLAS. Then twicp a day may I come hither, since So often the indulgent moon allows The tide come kissing up the wet-lipped sands. VOLINA. You turn my law to license. Fare you well. HYLAS. Farewell I — if must that word be said so soon. Dare I ? [making as though to re-salute heri^ Farewell. VOLINA. Here am I, sun and moon, And stars to steer by ; still abide at home. And must receive the prince, should he return. [Exit. iit. COUNT FILIPPO. 43 I am the moon, 'twould seem, to rulo his tides. Then flow, tides, toward the moon, and bathe this shore , Yet flow not here too oft, lest some should say, The moon is mad, or tide has lost its way. [^ voice heard singing without. Who is lord of lordly fate, — Lady of her lot's estate ? He who rules himself is he, She who tempts not fate is she. Who in peril stands of pain ? Who is sure to suffer stain ? He who climbs a thorny tree. Gathers juicy berries she. [ji Page enters and delivers a letter, VOLINA. Who sings without ? PAGE. A gypsy, that of late To fill his own, comes read your servants' palms. He haunts Gonardo's grounds e'en more than these. VOLINA. He sings not ill. — Behold the rooks come home ; And the low sun lies down amidst the trees. Methinks 'twill rain, for rising is the breeze. [Exit Page. A letter from my lord. His love not lags Although himself grows old. Would he were young As Hylas I — Well, 'tis destiny, both whom And when we wed. Young men are indiscreet : , Old ones are wiser, though not quite so sweet ; . While sweet is not, as mellow, such high praise, And mellowness comes but from length of days. _ ; The days are growing long, we growing tired. The breeze still rises : be the casement closed. — [dosing the casement. Ah, while I dwell here cogitating, see, Yonder Lord Hylas gazing on me free. [Exit. END OF THE SECOND ACT. li'lj 44 COUNT FILIPPO. ACT III. SCENE I. A Hall of State in Amo. Dukb of Arno, surrounded by its nobility. Before them, Filippo, Sbbaphio, Pisanio, Marco, with the rest of FiLippo'a suite. DUKE OP ABNO. Peers of Pereza, excellent estates, Sage seigniors, knights, courtly cavaliers, Our gay-eyed guests, most gallant gentlemen, — "With all who here upon Pereza's part, Compose and swell this welcome embassy, That over our frontiers hath silken come Waving its wooing way the wand of peace, Your wont late in the light of glittering mail, Dark-browed, to approach our scowling capital, And in the hollow of this hall fling down The gauntlet of defiance and of war ; Forgiving our unwillingest delay. Now bear our answer homeward to your liege. Our ancient and indomitable cousin, Too long familiar to us but in feud. To whom, and to his sole and loving son. Along with you and our consenting court, Thus 'tis our sovereign pleasure to reply : So grave a butt and bound unto this arrow, So marked and serious a proposition. An issue so momentous as the wedding, • i " Not merely of two lovers, but two Dukedoms, Caused our consideration and deep pause ; But which, being ended, we in brief declare: Ta'en by report, that did foreran this suit, i i COUNT FILIPPO. 46 With pro£fered picture of Pereza's son, We do consent that here Lord Hylas come To woo our daughter, who thereto agrees ; Ourselves concurring to bereave these arms. So much do we admire the limned charms. FILIPPO. Thanks to your gracious highness for these words, And double thanks unto your fair, frank daughter. This to my sovereign and his suitor son, I will, with happiest diligence, make known ; So, to that end, now, by your grace, take leave. DUKE OP ARNO. Now, fare you well, train of Perezan knights. Commend us to the worthiest of your state. Farewell, dear Count. Pray you, from us, present This diamond to your lady, — token, tell her, Of our esteem for you. Again farewell. My lords of Arno, greet our parting friends. Good seems begun ; may it better ere it ends. [ The DuKB, having advanced and taken leave of Filippo, retires, gradually followed by the nobility of Arno, FILIPPO (aside). How will Volina joy when she beholds This costly jewel, hearing me recite The gracious words of flattery at its giving 1 Now homeward to her, like a sunbeam quick. Love grows in absence, as some plants in shade : Fasting doth make it thrive. I will surprise her By my despatch, outrunning expectation. Grant my sick secretary mend, else love Still fares upon thin thought. PISANIO. Your excellency. We prophesy, and dare now wager, that • The prince will plead his suit successfully. 4$ COUNT FILIPPO. Why not? I FILIPPO. SERAFHIO. He is averse to marriage, even As too long was his father. FILIPPO. Let him hither, And he must change his temper. This princess, With golden glances and of mien divine, This Ducal maid of Arno, might inspire An emperor to the wooing of her charms. SERAPHIO. He is inspired by base Gallantio ; So moved by him, however we may strive To bound and pale him in his proper park. Will scarce refrain from shooting others' deer. •' MARCO. ' • . Why is that man not banished ? Count, 'tis ill To let him be at large. — ^ . FILIPPO. The prince do+h stand Between us, that I cannot strike him down. Yet will I do it, though not till be seen . Advantage; for, indeed, the wily villain, Human in shape, in humour is a cross 'Twixt fox and wolf, — so subtle, bold, and savage. SERAPHIO. ' • Too many a noble maid, and noble mother. Bemoan his hungry and lascivious tooth. MARCO. He works his wickedness with secret charms. FILIPPO. Wherein they lie doth most astonish me, f : Or whether of the person nr the mind. . ; COUNT FILIPPO. 47 Coarse in his wit, mere carrion in form, Wrecked in estate, forlorn in character ; A cheat, a bully ; liar, lewd, profane ; Rank in his life, and putrid in his soul ; A ruffian that must ere now have rotted. Were he not tinctured with the salt of courage. PISANIO. A monster formed, 'twould seem, to be abhorred. MARCO. A wretch that should be outlawed ; an assassin, Casting his darts from out a hidden quiver. SERAPHIO. He is an Arab, wandering and wild. That in Pereza, dreaded as disliked. Lives like a roaming satyr, or abroad Stalks o'er the dukedom, as of yore on earth, Deserting Ida's and Olympus' crowns. Wandered disguised, debauching Jupiter. MARCO. He, brazen, goes about equipped with bolts, Watchful for woman's wounding. PISANIO. And, alas ! . Teaching to wield such, and still arming, Hylas, Who boasts, himself, an armament of charms j Covered and compassed with them, even as The porcupine with fabled missile quills. riLiPPO. He shall come hither and display his archery. — Enough of this : — My lords, now let us go. A word with you, my good Seraphio. [^Exeunt, FiLiPPO conversing with Seraphio. m 48 COUNT FILIPPO. SCENE II. 'i. Jl Cabinet in the Ducal Palace at Pereza. Dueb and Fidbo. DUKE (with opened letters in his hand). Fideo, mine eyes, too weak, refuse to read These papers. As an overburdened mule Lies down i'the road, do they begin to swim ; So, as its master e'en takes off the load, Do thou, I pray thee, take and read these letters. FIDEO (having received the letters). Two come from our love-embassy, DUKE. How long Is it since it departed ? — yesterday ? No, no ; not all so recently. No, no. It was not yesterday, but this day se'nnight. Yet would it seem a year ; still we could fancy 'Twere but an hour agone. Dear Fideo, Inform us when our embassy left here : Is it an hour, a week, or month, or year ? FIDEO. Your highness dozes much, so loses reckoning Of time's still adding figures, ever piling up The columned moments ; even as poor Crusoe Lost the account on his notched calendar. When, in the chase hurled o'er the precipice. He, stunned, lay sleeping, nor e'er knew how long. It is a fortnight now ; but as a dream Of minute's length will sometimes seem a year, So doth this fortnight to your mind appear. DUKE. Ay, still the moments fall while we do sleep, ^ Piling our lives up, as in night heaps snow. They might have been returned ere now. — Read, read. COUNT FILIPPO. PIDEO. This from Count Filippo speaks of delay To his return, frou sickness in his train ; Likewise informs you of his full success, — The prince invited to approach and woo. DUKE. Too good an issue for our sulking varlet ! Good Filippo, noble ambassador ! — Call Hylas hither. Worthiest Filippo 1 Fideo, how fares his lady ? Fair is she, As he is noble. You have not forgot How lovely, leaning on the grave count's arm, She came, his bride, to our astonished court. Dimming the lustre of its fair, fixed stars. But she comes here no more, and all is night. — Call Hylas hither. FIDEO. He is gone abroad. DUKE. With that pernicious one, Gallantio. FIDEO. . Nay : he doth promenade alone of late. DUKE. 'Tis good he shuns that minister of hell, That ruiner of man's and woman's worth. Deflowerer of all virtue, youths' path's pest. His rank's reproach, a pander not a peer ; Who hath ab-eady, sore we grieve to say. Made our son's youth, alas, familiar, With creatures like himself, debauched and vile. 'Tis well, 'tis well : he shall to Arno straightway .- Excellent Filippo I successful count I Would he were here this instant. Fideo, Your arm. Now are we grown a-weary sitting : 49 m 50 JOUNT FILIPPO. I Bead ua the other missives in our room. Allow us lean upon thee, Fideo : A dying man requires a living staff. Now let us travel. — What a little world Is mine I the precincts of this palace : it Not half explored ; wings, corridors, stairs, aisles, Vaults, garrets, oflSces, surrounding courts, To me becoming as unknown, wild lands. Lead me along ; I totter toward the fall. Now bear my body, presently my pall. [^Exeunt, the Duke leaning on FiDEO. SCENE III. An apartment in Faippo's mansion. Hylas and Volina. VOLINA. Nay, you are wittier, methinks, than wise. [Enter a Page wha presents a letter to Volina. — Exit Page, and Volina opens the letter."] Excuse me if I read : 'tis from my lord. [^Reads. HTLAS (aside). Oh, that she were my lady ! might those eyes So brood and hover o'er a scrawl of mine ! She smiles, and, oh, it is as if the abyss Had kindled, from the falling soft ajar 0' the coral gates of heaven ; her lips heaven's gated. Her teeth a little troop of ivory cherubs. Again she smiles, again revealing them, Whiter than Venus' yoke of drawing doves. Oh, to be air to be indrawn between them, — To be her breath to float into that heaven I To be expelled indeed, but, with rich change^ I COUNT FILIPPO. 51 . To come forth incense. Oh, to be a lamp, £o burn along with those bright eyes, for life, On Hymen's altar I Oh, hard fate I hard fate I Dark life that now must lie for ever waste, Uncultivated, save by passion's plough ! Dash me to death. Fate, that has dashed fair life, No more to be upbuilt on this rent base ; But all its polished stones, at one discharge. Scattered, as from the top of Etna, o'er life's lea ; My cooled and quarried hopes around me lain, Turned into pumice, lime-like rottenness. Oh, Hylas, Hylas, what hast thou not missed, In missing this fair creature I — Hist, she speaks. VOLINA (re-folding the letter). Your highness, even as I thought t'would prove. In person must at Arno urge your suit. We have no suit at Arno. HYLAS. ¥ - VOLINA. You are grieved. I pray your highness not to look so dull. I've seen a miser who had just been robbed^ A lover lately jilted by his mistress. But never have I seen one look so sad, Who was so soon to be a buxom bridegroom. HYLAS. 'Tis that which makes me sad. Is it not wrong to marry me so young ? VOLINA. You urge me on to a dilemma's horns, — You place me as between the fire and flood. Should I say, yes, t'were to blame Filippo, Condemn, and haply irritate, th& Duke j i 5S COUNT FILIPPO. Should I say, no, 'twould seem it would grieve you. The case is delicate. HTLAS. Then let the delicate adjudge it : you I constitute a court of high appeal ; Nor, till your verdict, will resign your hand. VOLINA. , Oh, this is jest. HYLA8. Do I appear in jest ? VOLINA. We'll think upon it. Pray release my hand. Be I your court, we sit again to morrow, When you may find your case in chancery. HYLAS. Lfet it remain there, so that I may come Before you, pleading still my suit in person. VOLINA. But then might Filippo and the sovereign Duke Gome and dissolve the court, as all illegal. Moreover, it were wrong to have a judge Whom we have bribed. You bribed me recently. More deeply than a mine of gold could do. You know I owe you more than mere good-will. HYLAS (aside). Oh, that she owed me love ! \aloud'] What do you owe me ? VOLINA. Oh, gratitude. HYLAS. And gratitude, methinks, . Brings with him, as accompanying sister, love ; Even as the true and vivid rainbow brings ) • - Its sister-like reflection to the skies. - ti /<. * COUNT FILIPPO. VOLINA. You saved my life : what more could brother do ? HYLAS. Then you do love me even as a brother. I love you too. VOLINA. As you do love (and should love) £ach of your father's, and your future, subjects. HYLAS. So much that I could wish you were my princess. VOLINA. Fie ( Filippo hath found for you a princess. Hath he not gone from here, as from the desert Went Hebrew spies, and found you a rich land, That doth await your going to possess it ? He hath discovered you a golden fleece. Expecting you its Jason. Oh, dismiss That smile so bitter from your countenance, Thai dims as Sol's when darkening in eclipse. Why do you gaze so earnestly on mine, As 'twere a sky and you astronomer ? What see you on my face that so you con it, As an astrologer his lying book ? You can no more divine my thoughts, than I Can yours. HYLAS. Let us exchange our thoughts, as merchants Exchange their wares, and so thereby grow rich ? Ideas are as idle merchandise. Of little value until trafficked with ; And oft from dullest words, when bandied, spring Most bright conceits, as out of base things start. From their collision, sparks of rosy fire : So tell me what you think. i i ' 63 > 'A ) i u COUNT FILIPPO. I llrl i' VOLINA. I were no woman i Did I. Your father never yet demanded His subjects' thoughts ; though arbitrary, yet Content with meaner, but more solid, tribute. I will not, though your highness call me rebel. Resign this hand. HYLAS. What ransom for the prisoner ? VOLINA. It was not made a captive in fair war. Be generous as the youthful Scipio When he released the young Iberian maid. HYLAS. She was less fair than you, or he'd not done so. [^Kisses her hand passionately. VOLINA. Oh, you are fonder than we took you for ! HYLAS. Oh, you are fairer than we yet have found I VOLINA. Begone 'tis evening. HYLAS. I knew it not ; So well the starlight of your eyes can feign, The lustre of yon low, retiring sun. It is not dusk where you are, — ever noon ; Your beauty dazzling more than doth yon sun ; Blinding me, that unseen is Arno's daughter, And would be though she now before me stood, With eyes self-lighting her so vaunted charms. . .r:'K>;.. VOLINA. .-1 .^^fj .' You are the owl where you should be the eagle ; That is not blinded by the noontide sun, ....^.■ ely. COUNT PiLtPPO. No more than should be your young sovereign eye By beauty, that should light you toward her sphere, In willing thraldom of magnetic beams. • '^ HYLAS. We are enthralled by yours. VOLINA. Begone, begone. HYLAS. When you have broke my chains. VOLINA. ' You are not bound. Not you. — Oh, shame on this i To Arno fly. HYLAS. . It is not spring-time there, or else we might ; Playing, though pity, the untimeous swallow. VOLINA. Youth is the time to marry. .-; HYLAS. True, for hdies. VOLINA. For gentlemen, knights, nobles, princes, all. HYLAS. My father married late, your lord at leisure. We will not marry any ere we choose. VOLINA. Begone now, and think better of it : go. HYLAS. ,; Recall that peevish mandate : 'tis too soon. It is too harsh, to urge us from you thus. * ■ * Lo, where the sun yet peeps athwart the trees. t * 6t 56 COUNT PILIPPO. 1^ VOLINA. It hath gone down, as you are charged to go. Why would you linger ? you have lingered long. HYLAS. Who would not linger in a lady's eye ? Who would not tarry on a lady's tongue ? A little longer, longer would we linger, — Yea, if we might, by the eternal gods. Till night and weariness had sealed your lips ; When we would stay_ for you forbade it not. VOLINA. You are forbidden thus to raphsodize !— Begged to avoid this strangely-eharming ground. I now half wish that he had ne'er it found. Truly, myself am growing melancholy. What ail I with these faint conceits of folly ? lExit Hylas. [Exit. SCENE IV. TTie Junction of Gonardo's and Filippo's grounds. Time, immediately after that of the last scene. Enter Gonabdo, clothed in gypsy attirCf with hit face and hands stained. OONARDO. My lady deems I travel for my health. So let her deem : I have not travelled far. I have indeed of late been ill of doubt, But shall not visit Hades ere my time, Either for jaundice or for jealousy ; Nor will continue to abide in Egypt, Any longer have a skeleton at my feast. Until I loathe the very dish I dip in. - . [Loolcing toward FiLlPPo's mansion, Alas 1 the prince hath found an entrance there. Each day beholds him thither, as each day / ;, Gallantio hovering here. To play the spy ' : * Upon my neighb, r scarcely suits my vein ; : But better hinder than wipe off a stain. [Exit. COUNT FILIPPO. SCENE V. 57 Within QoKABDo's house. Pafhiana and Qallantio. GALLANTIO. Gonardo verging on his agony, Tremohla trembling o'er the brink o'the grave, Whereinto every day's mere passing gust Threatens to blow him, I shall soon, 'twould seem, Be not alone thy true, acknowledged spouse. But, at the Duke's death, Hylas' minister ; When all the large exchequer of the state Shall be an ocean wherein I may dip For U3 my thirsty hand. Meantime, again, Dear Paphiana, I beseech thee lend me A hundred ducats. . PAPHIANA. Give, not lend. No, no, I lend no more, thou most exorbitant man ; Nor would although thou wert a friar begging For purposes of charity and pain. As you still seek these largess but for pleasure. Fond man, thou hast miscounted on me somewhat : I have some yearning toward my husband now, Who not alone of portion of his wealth, But of his days by thee will have been robbed. For shame, for shame, for shame, Gallantio 1 Am I an oyster merely for your eating ? I see you simply use me for your purpose, — Caress my hand that it may yield you gold. You do not, nor did ever, mean to wed me. Lend you another hundred ducats ? shame 1 I will not lend thee more. Thou shalt repay What I have lent, or, by Gonardo's ghost,— Yes, by his ghost, for by this time he's dead, — E 58 COUNT FIUP^O* I will betake me crying to the Duke, Yea, write myself unto Count Filippo, Touching the prince's and thine own vile scheme Against his honor. I will publish thee, Will paint thee over with mine own red wrongs, That thou shalt seem more hcU-hued than thou didst : I will, as I myself am injured by thee, And thou hast done thine utmost 'gainst Yolina. You be the prince's minister ? Oh, folly. That I should e'er have listened to such words I ' ' Mark, I will write to Filippo at Arno, — Bare your foul, mangled, cripple of a plot. ' ' '* GALLANTIO. Thou art the very keystone of its arch. PAPHIANA. ^ . Oh, thou arch-villain ! — I your keystone ? Then your whole devilry must fall to pieces : I have withdrawn therefrom. Nefarious man, What I have done, was it not at thy bidding ? GALLANTIO. What matters it who bade ? will that excuse thee ? Canst thou at judgment cast thy sins on Satan, And, lightened of them, saintrlike, soar to heaven ? No, thou art hung with us in the abyss, O'er which we safely fly, unless, amidst, Thou shear our wings in thy Parcaen mood. Lend me a hundred ducats, — nay, no more. Peace, peace, dove, wrath sets wrinkles in that front. That varies as the hues of dying dolphin, ^ . , , , [,-^, When it is lain upon the fatal deck. '* ' : ! , Fie ! fatal flashes twinkle in thine eyes, Thy bosom heaves now worse than rolling deck. ,< Oh, Paph, be soothed, forbid this hurricane ; f , Come, let me coo away these dropping clouds, ] f That were not meant to variegate that brow, .^^n ' .! I ■. COUIIT FILIPPO. 59 v/ As mingling colors pie the pigeon's neck. Why shouldst thou paint that front ? being PapMana, Why seekst thou to outpicture Iris ? Sweet, Lend me the hundred ducats. — Dost thou keep A clerk's account of all that thou dost lend me, "" ' Since I will not repay thee else ? A hundred ; A hundred ducats for thy dear Gallantio. -: j^n 7 ■ ■^ PAPHIANA. ^ '-'" ■''''' ■'''" ;' Where are the riches I've already lent you ? * ■1 " " :''' Gone. GALLANTIO. PAPHIANA. :i >■ • i •ii:-\ i'- hm ) k:-';. ?/ .ii-'ij';' f( GALLANTIO. Pshaw I mind it not, nor ponder on thy spousiB : Nor grieve that I so soon must fly away ; For I must leave thee for the fledgling Hylas, Who now expects me, and of late hath lived On expectation, growing pale upon it, t i / ... . , As one who sickens into a decline. . , > b PAPHIANA. What favor finds he with the fair Volina ? GALLANTIO. Volina, wanton, holds him off and on ; Playing, with the light gusts of her vagrant breath, Around his purpose, filling not its sails ; While he, afraid to* row into her haven, i ■' : ; (Or heaven rather,) out in the rough offing, * AVTiere swells and flows his longing's vex^d tides, '>/},. '-.. > .. But such a full prostration of his strength, 'T would seem one might presume to count his hours. FILIPPO. 'Tis a sharp fit ; but youth's the champion Fights best with death, or were we more alarmed. The worst, we trust, will be some days' delay. We prize him, and, our errand being sped, Desire forthwith to swiftly journey home. [Enter a Page, who gives Filippo a letter. — Exit Page. Aside\ It is not from Volina. It is strange. Most strange, she writes not. Haply she forbears, Expecting my return still day by day. [Reading the letter. When the sun's on the cask, the wine turneth sour ; While the rain stays in heaven, on earth fades the flower ; While the man is at market, the maiden will cheat him ; Bipe peaches, exposed, prompt sparrows to eat 'em ; The red, blooming cherry, o'erweathered, is found To blacken and wither, and fall to the ground ; i COUNT FIUPPO. i The brightest of swords in the dew will corrode ; Beneath the rich strawberry crouches the toad ; When pears are in season, of medlars beware : Beturn, Filippo, and look after your mare. What means this strange epistle ? Be I right, Its purport seems all hinting at some hazard Frowning on me or mine. What hazard ? Surely All's well at home j but much my heart misgives me. ^Having re-read the letter. A sting is in its tail ! a scorpion's too. — Who sends this barbM shaft ? it saith not who. SERAFHIO. I fear your letter doth contain ill news. I hope ^.he Duke bears up ; no wilder Hylas. FILIPPO. I hope so too ; but on that score naught saith it. SERAPHIO. I trust no private cause for your annoyance. — Forgive me asking you. FILIPPO {aside). I'll burn it I— No: Seraphio is shrewd ; he shall peruse it. Ahud^ 'Tis somewhat private, but, Seraphio, You are my friend, have known me from my youth, Danced at my wedding, and (what God's denied) Would have become the sponsor to my child. Had Heaven sent me one. — Read this, then say, If a truth-teller thou believ'st hath sent it. SERAPHIO {after having read the letter). 'Tis all truth in the letter; yet may be. In spirit, merely a malicious lie. FILIPPO. Expose your thoughts, give fear unfeigned expression ; For that you fear, I gather from your caution : There must be mire, when people pick their way. • . II' 66 ^OUNT PILIPPO. SERAPHIO. ' Trouble not yourself concerning this strange letter, That shews not full and finishing hand of truth, But only stump of fearful-fingered fraud ; As if the hand had once been in a trap, From which, as rats will gnaw off their own limbs, It had escaped but by self-amputation. It lacketh signature, nor doth it bear One well-out feature of fiiced circumstance ; But merely daubs in some proverbial truths. Meaning that you shall fancy and compose them Into a countenance of false conclusions. Do you so think ? PILIPPO. SERAPHIO. I do. Let me advise • . You to contemn, as I, the rhymed enigma. I see you are troubled still. riLiPPO. ; . Yes, somewhat, somewhat. SERAPHIO. Be pacified, my lord. - PILIPPO. "V^t'' Seraphio, Two nights agone, I had an evil dream. \ , Methought I saw Volina sore beset ; And when I did approach to rescue her. She, weeping, turned away, and, at my feet. Sunk into darkness. iBlSRAPHIO. . 'Twas an ugly dream. PILIPPO. 'T seems uglier now. SERAPHIO. But as for dreams. What are they ? — and, indeed, what are they not ? COUNT FILIPPO. 67 .'f They arc fantastic vapors of the brai. , Wreathing round sluiubor's pillow,— shapes of thought, Appearing on the half extinguished soul, As forms of creatures on expiring embers. * , * FILIPPO. - J ' • The dream and lette ; countenance each other. 1;,": ' , : ■ SERAPHIO. Somewhat they do. , . . , FILIPPO. • ' ' ■ I know not what to think. BERAPHIO. Neither do I. ' FILIPPO. : w ; Can it be possible That, in the envisioned hour, our guardian angel May sometimes to the soul's unmoving eyes, Hold, as it were, a clear Pygmalion mirror, : Wherein she sees the then enacting deed ? This written disc lacks not its pointing gnomon ; Though all's so si-adowy that I cannot tell , ," The hour, for want of sun upon the dial. Like me, you stand perplexed, t,,. .: . ' ; J , xi SERAPHIC. I could myself, Now count this dark and inky sketch as having. Or having not, verisimilitude. — 'Tis as the soapy bubbles children blow. That, floating in the light, take various hues. ' But think no more on't. - ' . FILIPPO. i ' ^ - -^ 'Twill not be so served. This letter does not lie, however falsely It may interpret darkly-seeming shows. SERAPHIO. Then, for your satisfaction, by your leaVfe, T for Pereza will forthwith take horse ; ;':^^n-*: -■(. - ' .( 68 COUNT FILIPPO. And there, — ^while it believes me still in Arno, — Disguised, discern if aught can be amiss. FILIPPO. Go, good Seraphio ; invisibly As 'twere : but let no rustling of thy vestments Alarm my lady. Do not play the wasp, But act the harmless, though industrious, bee;— Yet even he must all suppress his hum. Away, dear friend. SERAPHIO. I will at once depart. [IJxit. PILIPPO. Is there some mystic and invisible bond That ever links us unto those we love ? Or doth love's strong and melting power transfuse Two souls until they do compose but one ? I fear not for Volina: wherefore should I ? Did never doubt her, — never had occasion ; While a discreeter agent none could use Than is Seraphio. • Should evil now be meant me, Seraphio will learn it. He shall go, — Though nothing he'll discover, save his friend Too fond ! What impious Perezan Titan Would pile his passage to my lonely star ; Or, having dared approach her glorious sphere, Is not already by her frown thenco hurled, As Satan from the living light of heaven ? Heaven's living light shall gild this world no more. When she doth cease to love me as she swore. [^Exit. SCENE II. ^ Corridor in the Ducal Palace at Pereza. Moonlight, OALLANTIO (^folding a letter). So, from these tidings, all at Arno's well, Seeing the secretary lies so ill. COUNT FILIPPO. 69 xtt. ut. The master yet must sicken, — ^not of poison, But of despair, the devil's malady. His potion shall be Hylas, Tirhom we see Yonder, here coming to bemoan himself, Looking disconsolate as that fallen angel : So put a mask of melancholy on^ That we, too, seeming of the serious sort. May be admitted to his sorrow's rites. [QalIiAntio paces to and fro toith a gloomy air : at length Htlab, having perceived, approaches him, HYLAS. Wherefore do you appear so dull to-night ? GALLANTIO. Is it your highness ? Pray forgive me, but Gonardo sickens faster than I wish him. Letters, as thick as snow-flakes from the north, Come from Turin declaring him near death. Doth that chagrin you ? HTLAS. GALLANTIO. And enough. The fool I Who, spurred by jealousy, fast towards his end, Gallops, bestridden by the rider, sickness ; That soon will force him, with the whip of pain. Across death's dark and dismal ditch, to leap Or to the pit of hell or field of heaven. — Heaven take Gonardo's widow 1 Should he die, I will not wed her, though each day I swear it. HTLAS. Would Filippo were sick 1 then he might die And leave hb wife a widow. GALLANTIO. Life is swift And swifter the brief spring-tide of the blood. Would you, awaiting Filippo's demise, 70 COUNT FILIPPO. ? Stand as the Roman rustic on the bank, • >. • • , .- - - • , . '• Waiting the total rushing by of Rhone? • , 'j „•.. • \ . , ,r. As rapid rivers wear away their banks, • • - ', ; , ; , i So moving moments steal the bloom from woman. — Embark while plays the wind upon your sails. , . • ^ \-, HYLAS. J - ^r This were too foul a play on Filippo. ' GALLANTIO. • _ , ,v . Let him not see it, 'tis nor foul nor fair. To him that sleepeth, what imports the weather ? The absent are unconscious as the dead. ' ; ,r, HYLAS. Gallantio, we cannot harm his lady, — '. '/ : '. ■" 1 Will not so wrong her, and, with her, her lord. ' ' .^ ."• GALLANTIO. Had I your place, your person, and your parts, I'd right myself, yet do no wrong to either. HYLAS. Nay, if we thought we could so please our sense. Could hug such bliss transcendent to our soul, And Filippo no wiser be nor wretched, — ; • '. GALLANTIO. Who sees nought, hears nought, feels nought, grows not wiser ; No wiser growing, grows not wretched. Listen : When she doth serve a beggar at her gate. What poorer is her husband ? and if she • ' Should give ''ou crumbs of kisses day by day, What meaner were the master's evening feast ? Though she should cram the wallet of your wish, It would not lessen Filippo's rich store. HYLAS. But, oh 1 how poor would it not leave herself, .,,r . . . , , / * Who, with those crumbs, must give me all her honor ; ; r . y ./ ■ f • COUNT FILIPPO. II 5.4, ^■' .. '^*. ^■ It Yea, all in want and utter nakedness, Henceforward stand before my prurient gaze. QALLANTIO. Fig-leaves will cover all 'twixt her and you ; While secresy's impenetrable robe Conceals her from her husband and the world. HYLAS. When Eve had tasted of the tree of knowledge, The flaming cherubs drove her to the world ; — And she is innocent as ere was Eve. OALLANTIO. Your innocence !- but a doll for maids. Her airs are merel "eints to eager you ; Her dalliance, a spur to make you speed. ■ HYLAS. In vain you meet me with these apt replies : I shall not see again the fair enchantress. GALLANTIO. See her this very night. Delay makes sick :— Lo ! the lean wolf of unfulfilled desire Lairs on your hollowing cheek. Be resolute. HYLAS. What matters resolution ? in her presence The angel love pleads down the devil lust. Each day beholds me conquered, who went forth Meaning that day to conquer ; sees me hence Departing hot as fire-filled chafing-dish, Keturning chill as it when void of coals ; Views an Iconoclast that, at the shrine. Still bows to image he 's approached to break. Urge us no more to evil : we'll not hear on't ; For we should fear our soul were banned from heaven Did we accomplish now your full desire, , . Good night to you : — too long we stay, we fear, . To interrupt your meditations here. \^Exit.. 78 COUNT FILIPPO. OALLANTIO. His thick desire hath cleared itself to love ; And love is ever a contrary ass, That goading only brings unto a stand. What new expedient ? — Love, come ; lust, go : With either I will yet wound Filippo. SCENE III. lExit, l\ if Ji Library within the Ducal Palace at Arno. FILIPPO (sitting with books be/ore him). Quiet thee, heart : it is too soon, too soon To dream of swift Seraphio's return. [Enter Sebaphio in a riding-habit all soiled. Seraphio 1 Oh, friend, your name this instant left my lips, Thence flying forth into the ocean air. Through which you've cut your passage as the dove That beareth perfumed missives 'ncath its wings. How is my lady ? say, how fares my wife ? sebaphio. Well ; therefore you may set your mind at ease. FILIPPO. 'Tis easier : yet in these volumes no Still nook of dun abstraction have I found, Though sedulously sought ; but, in the stead Thereof, a throng of sore presentiments, Since you departed, at the thought of her. Have thick beset me ; as do flies beset Him who doth take i'the sun his noon-day meal. But are you sure no trouble threats Volina ? Hath nothing menaced, nothing trivial Annoyed her ? not a gust, a shower, a breath? COUNT PILIPPO. 7$ SERAPHIC. Nought have I found, though I have sought as olosoly As my unwarranted hand, (being, as you know, And even at your own injunction too,) Gloved in a secret quest and stiflF disguise, Could, without brushing off the dewy quiet. That still hath lain upon your scented flower. Had I done more ere dawn of your return, Her petals might have opened in suspicion At the unwonted touch, to close no more ; Or, should they have re-slept upon tlieir stalk, Had dreams, to her as painful as to you The dream you sent me from you to resolve. FILIPPO. 'Twas prudent ; you have acted warily. As I expected : — ^but, Seraphio, None e'er had riches and not feared the thief. SERAPHIO. Your lady is her own best key and coffer. FILIPPO. Nay, who shall doubt it ? so is each true wife. I shame to think on 't, — but that dream, that letter : — Not that I did mistrust Volina ; pshaw ! Mistrusts the earth the sun on cloudy days ? Becomes she jealous of the moon and stars When fogs conceal them from her in November ? But thus I thought : now in my absence' night. Amidst the room and quiet of my home. Her beauty, shining as a full-orbed lamp. Attracts the moth. Thus much I feared ; no more. Dost think we'd play the elderly-wed fool. Doubting his wife because she is his younger ? The younger toward the elder still inclines. As youthful flowers toward the antique sun ; While maids despise, or shyly turn away, With angry blushes, their regards from youths, P I I 74 COUNT PILIPPO. Or drop their veiling lids, aa eve's flowers fold And plait their petals o'er their heads, to shun : The cold and saucy gazes of the stars. SERAPHIO. For that your warrant were your lady's love, And plighted, true affection. PILIPPO. Even 80. Oh, wretchedest of wretches is the man, Caught in the whirlpool, jealousy ! not fly, Caught in the horders of the spider's weh, Faster entangled ; spider not so cruel, Returning still to sting the fettered fly, As the recurring thought of wife untrue. SERAPHIO. Your dream and letter wore two gusts to puff you Against the meshes wherein sits the monster, Out of whose snares whoso escapes alive Goes ever after sickly and unsound, Prone to relapse at each suspicious cloud. And cold east wind of sudden nipping douht ; Even as one whose youth some fearful fit Of trembling ague shook and undermined. Pray, mind your health henceforth. — How's Plumio's ? PILIPPO. Worse. I cannot, will not, leave him till he dies, Or it be seen he shall not die, but live. SERAPHIO. Poor youth ! so faithful he has been to you. PILIPPO. I never found him in a wilful fault. Visit him when you may have rested you, And see how likely looks he for the tomb. SERAPHIO. ^ We'll with you there to rest us in his room. t t . thi ■!}-.-! -tr^ 'i :i' '[Exeunt. COUNT PILIPPO. 76 SCENE IV. ,u .•! "V eunt. A Room in Filippo's Mansion. VOLINA (entering). How dim the house appears ! how woe-begone ! How evening-like at noon, in May, November ; Day's flambeau dwindled into taper twilight, The light gone out that recently illumed I How every blind seems closed for death and dole I A hazy curtain seems to cover all, A foggy film t' afflict these wandering eyes, That rove as over vaguest images ; As invalid's upon the couch by night, Darkling, descry imaginary forms ; Or his, that, being dazzled by the sun, Distinguish nothing but false, floating hues. Oh, Hylas, thou hast dazzled these weak eyes, That they see nothing, or see only thee ! PAGE. [Enter a Page. My lady, please you, the Lord Hylas comes. [Enter Htlas and exit Page. VOLINA. I must be stern; indeed, must now be angry. Your highness was requested to refrain, Yea, charged that until Filippo's return You would not pay me any further visits. HTLAS. Charge me to chain myself unto a rook, < Or lock myself in a dark vaulted cell, And, through the grating, throw away the key Into the neighbouring, unrestoring tide ; For that were easier than to restrain . < ; ^ , ; Myself from your dear presence while I'm free. 76 COUNT FILIPPO. M VOLINA. Alas, alas ! oh, straight yonr highness hence : Oh, pardon me confirming still my hest t You must no longer come to see me thus. HYLA8. Take me into your service in disguise. I'll be your page, your footman, what you choose, So I be near to look upon and love you. VOLINA. Away ; and cease such unbecoming words. Why hath your highness put me to this test ? You rave : — oh, do not gaze so on my face ; These charms of mine will fade, and, even though They had obtained a life-long lease of bloom. Must be my husband's till they find the tomb. HYLAS. No I for a while, I swear, they shall be mine : Too much for one proprietor those charms. Shall one man's eye attempt to assume the sun, Leaving the world in gloom ? VOLINA. Oh, veil your eyes, That glare a hideous comment on your words ; Turn, turn away your gaze. HYLAS. Why were you mude so fair ? VOLINA. Ask Heaven, if you do think me so. HYLAS. For the same reason that the rose is fair. — Oh, you are far too fair to bloom in shade, Too fair to be forsaken 1 VOLINA. • Oh, your highness, hence. ' Cause not my cheek consume itself with shame. Theie is grave guilt in longer hearing you. COUNT FILIPPO. 77 HTLAS. Is it a crime to love you ? ■ ^ ■ VOLINA. Yes, high treason ; (And who should hate that c rime so much as you ?) Treason against my husband. HTLAS. When returns he ? VOLINA. I know not : why ? HYLAS. That I may know the days I have to live ; For Filippo's return is my last hour. VOLINA. You will not kill yourself? HTLAS. No : like a sprite, Whose body lies unburied, unembalmed, Henceforward only wander in the world, Till death (should we unhappily survive you) Inform us that we may at last take rest, Going with you into Elysium. VOLINA. Ah, would that we had never met on earth I Hylas, away ; oh, hence ! HTLAS. Farewell, fareweU. Earth from this hour to Hylas is but hell. [^Rushes out. VOLINA. ^ Now, you conjugal Powers that hover here, Ye jealous wardens of our constancy, That reaches to the thought, assist me ! now. Out of my bosom, thou mock chastity. Or make me virtuous all. Oh, God! oh, Christ! ■ 78 COUNT PILIPPO. Thou that in pity look'd'st on Magdalen, Nor didst rebuke her when she washed thy feet, Bebuke not me, but tell me, — gracious tell me. Is pity shewn to Hylas criminal ? Do not the guiltless angels love each other ? Oh, Hylas, Hylas, hadst thou been my brother. We might have loved each other without blame. But now the thought on't crimsons me with shame. [Exit. liii SCENE V. Within Me Palace at Jmo, Two Coubtirbb. Ji sound of distant mutic. Time, evening. FIRST COURTIER. Hylas is absent from the revelry. SECOND COURTIER. My lord, my lord, the prince is changed of late ; To every eye appears to waste and pine : 'Tis said from sheer vexation at this marriage. FIRST COURTIER. i Assuredly he grieves and chafes at something ; Walks sadly to and fro ; oft, with a frown, Hies forth, as if on desperate purpose bent ; And, strange and ominous, pays daily visits To Filippo's fair lady, — as some say. To b^ her intercession with her lord. To save him now from wedlock. SECOND COURTIER. ;. Dangerous suit I Have you not heard th' injurious report ? FIRST COURTIER. I have, dear sir ; but careful how you speak. Lend not a feather of your breath to help COUNT FILIPPO. 79 tit. nc. To plume the flying scandal ; since report, Even when good, is often merely — what ? Zephyrus playing on Eolian harp ; While here its whisper, sinistrous as its mien, More dismal than the thaw-wind comes, — yea, hoarser Than we have yet heard slander's blackest wings. 8E00ND COURTIER. I shall herein keep silence, my good lord. — But see where Hylas and Galkntio come. They seem to be at odds, too long too even. Let us retire : the prince appears displeased. Chiding, methinks, yonder opprobrious peer. [^Exeunt, and enter Htlas and Gallantio. GALLANTIO. Ay, ay, abandon her,— confess you foiled. What matters it to me that you be foiled ? Threaten ; make now of me your rude fist's foil. Thrust, thrust : I shall not parry. Slay me now. Vent your vexation : I will not reply. Shed showers of epithets upon these shoulders, That late have worn the world's san-benito That yours might yet "je flaunted ivory bare. Keep bared your ton;^ le ; abuse me : you are licensed. Vomit your vengeance on this offered head. Spit spitefully in this face ; spit at my breast Ungrateful venom till it reach my heart. Banish me, if you choose : I am your slave, Your scapegoat. Drive me to the wilderness. Curse me ; empty your anger's magaaine. Pour on, bombard. HYLAS. Imprecate not too much. Or we may grant thy prayers. Why hast thou urged. Wherefore inspired, us to attempt and seize The fairest citadel in Italy ? GALLANTIO. Again take your artillery to the breach. COUNT FIUPPO. I HTLAS. Take thy now odious counsel down to hell, Whereto thy courses load thee. Traitor, hence ! ', (I' itir GALLANTIO. I am no traitor towards your highness : no, But ever loyal, diligent, and true ; Disinterested, and most so in this. HTLAS. Revenge, revenge, revenge on Filippo ! Base peer, what oarcst thou for my delight ? Thou hatest Filippo, I know thou dost. And wouldst herein have made of me thy tool ; But hast most falsely reckoned on our temper. By heaven, sirrah ! say, shall we become A mere cat's-paw, so you can snatch, unharmed, Your nuts from hot retaliation's fire ? Or do you deem us even so besotted, We cannot tell your black, intruded palm. From ministering angel's white and gentle hand ? GALLANTIO. Your highness cannot tell a friend from foe , Now, being drunken with love's heady wine ; But as a toper homeward bound i'the dark, Having missed his door, stumbles bewildered on. And, wildly groping, clutches every latch. So now your highness wildly clutches me ; And as that silly toper, having forced. At last, his way into another's house. And therein finding lonely, watching woman, For his own wife mistaken, falls to scold her. Because the cottage wears an altered face, Even so do you, in your mistaking mood, Unreasonably call me to account, Because your amour is not prosperous. COUNT FILIPPO. IITLAS. Ah, how thou wouldst persuade mo thou art white, Although I see thee of the negro dip 1 Why is thy skin so fair ? Buy thee a vat, And dye, or damn thee, black as Lucifer. Do we not know thou hatest Filippo ? OALLANTIO. Do we not know you love his lady ? Go Once more to visit her, and with you take This purse, and of its solid parts compose A pick-lock to Volina's bolted charms. One told me, but to-day, the road is dropped With gold, that leads unto my lady's shrine. Frown not, I tell you what myself was told. — There's meaning in Danao's shower of gold. HYLA8. Now know we not or to abhor or love thee ! By heaven, were we sure thou coin'st a lie, Thou with those coins shouldst have dashed out thy brains. Afford us proof, (for all depends on this,) That we may settle whether to pursue This roe, thou swearest is already struck, Or turn upon our track and strike down thee. Bring the impugner of her honor hither. GALLANTIO. Honor in man is sacred as in woman ; Nor should the reputation of the latter, With proud hoof, be allowed to override The former's humbler steed, veracity. I am not bound in honor to divulge. But to retain, what was in honor told. HYLAS. This shall be seen to : bring him. OALLANTIO. It would seem You would not see it though I brought the sun, 61 1 i .;;i COUNT PILIPPO. 4' And held it as a candle in my hand, Whereby to con this scrawl on scandal's page. HYLA8. "We'll know the truth of what thou hast averred. OALLANTIO. Travel by the same gilded chariot As others have done and you shall. HTLAS. Oh, thou that deem'st the world a sordid show I Oh, gilded falsehood ! basest lie of brass ! Thou brazen brow, thou cruel, cool defamer. Doth not thy heart grow molten with remorse, And coin itself away in yellow drops, To compensate this lady for aught lost By forgery from thy malicious brain ? But know, thou utterer of slander's coin, (Thyself so base grown, that thy sterling peers Esteem thee counterfeit,) that thou art now Nailed to the counter ; likewise be assured, It were thy last, as well as greatest, crime. To circulate this fiction past belief. GALLANTIO. Believe it, or believe it not, no matter : Style mo, or not, arch-heretic, because I do not count your saint immaculate ; To prei\ch which doctrine doth appear a crime ; — Farewell, I lose my temper and my time. [^Exit, IIYLAS. Too gross an actor he upon life's stage, Rehearse aright a speech of truo-love passion. He deems all men are false, all women lewd. Audacious liar, mort mistaken villain I [^Exit, and enter a Lady of the Court. LADY. What noise was that, as if of quarrelling ? It seemed Lord Ilylas' voice, erratic rising From ground of grief to cloud of indignation. COUNT FILIPPO. 88 JiriV. , urt. Forlornest bird I once caught so easily, Now hopping from me still from twig to twig, Its backward eyes informed with angry care ; — Grown all unsocial, ungregarious ; Shy as the wagtail, solemn as the owl. Who, ere this threatened wedding's wintry flaw, Was lively as the linnet in the spring. 'Twould take a bevy now of lady-birds To catch my lately lightsome caroller. Where doth the ostrich hide its head ? How shall I Besprinkle salt on the spry sparrow's tail ? I have seen boys place grain beneath a riddle. To which they had attached a cord, that, pulled, Down tumbles riddle, underneath quakes bird. I would I had him underneath my riddle I Big though he be, and churlish grown as Orson, He must be soon within my custody ; Accompany me, who am appointed marshal To apprehend and bring him to the Duke. [^Exit, and presently re-enter Hylas. HTLAS. No rest, no rest for my afflicted foot. Thrust (not by my Noaohic sire, but rudely) Out of the ark by yon accursed Ham. Whence came that wealth ? 'tis said he ever hangs. Not only on the gibbet o'the world's scorn, But o'er the gulf of yawning destitution. He wins at play, with his intrigues repairs The rope that still suspends him over Hinnom. Let him therewith buy masses for his soul. Be it not (as much we fear) past praying for. We will consort with one so vile no longer ; Strong once our liking, now our loathing stronger. Ah me I [ The caioing of a rook heard without. It is the black, belated rook's harsh cry. Hie thee, bird, howeward to thy dusky holt. For there Volina is. Thou knowest not grief, Though crabbed thy voice, nor omen bring'st of ill I 84 COUNT PILIPPO. Like that which now we bear. Our note is changed, Not thine : that aa to-day will sound to-morrow. None but man sings to satisiy his sorrow. I'll try to overtake thee with my words, And drown the sound of yonder growing mirth. iSings. Croaking raven, sailing by, Bird that homeward sullen swings, Waft mo sullen through the sky, Sullen thoughts of sable dye, Sable as thy buUen wings. II. Truant from Volina's woods, Words for fair Volina dear, Sweep the intervening roods, Tell Volina Hylas broods Sorrowful and sighing here. III. Tell her, though the amorous fair, Partnered, make new day of night. Though their lute-lips fill the air With music, Hylas, in despair, Seems in but a haunted night. IV. Tell Volina, vagrant bird, Hylu.s in his hollow room, Uroodiug, utters not a word : Durab and doleful broods unheard. Like sad spirit in a tomb. ^Re-enter the Lady of the Court, LADY. Still on the melancholy minor ? Oh, The Duke your father loved a merrier key When he was your years : — ^ho enquiroH for you. Cease moping here, and come along with me : Your highness needs a keeper. — Will you come ? . jrSSXKSS^B!Mfi. COUNT FILIPPO. HTLAS. All, madam, is it you ? LADY. You know me not ? HTLAS. In truth I did not, you have grown so fair. — Is it with rolling in the dew ? LADY. Oh, shame I HTLAS. Forgive us : we have grown barbarian. — But you have ceased to paint. LADY. How know you that ? HYLAS. I can approve it by those tints being fast. Lately we cease salute the ladies, but — [^Salutes her. Your cheek wears nature's colors. LADY. Yes, and you. With mordant of your lips, would bite them in. Fie I you have grown no better than you were. HTLAS. I love to see you wrath ; for then your eyes Fling fire like two divine incendiaries. Lend mo your hands, those ministers of mischief. Ah \_8ighing'], once, my lady, when we took them thus, These fingers were ten waxen torches, kindling Love's bonfire. LADY. Oh, such sighs as these Would puff out Cupid's. HYLAS. You are Iris ; your Bedizzened hands shew like dove's changeful necks. Methinks that these are jewels : — are you wed ? 86 COUNT PILIPPO. ii LADY. Have you forgotten ? HYLAS. Nigh forgot myself ! And yet you are the same you ever were : — But little charm you now. Go, get you gone. LADY. Will you go with me ? HYLAS. No, I wiU not.— Still You go not, madam ; — stay, then, and observe.—. But mark with modest eyes my naked grief. Oh, how you eye me, madam Momus ; — ^yet I love your eyes, for them you cannot paint ; No more than Titian could have stained the sky. All over else you are deceivers ; there You are yourselves. LADY. Oh, libellous lips ! now mine Shall not retain that false salute from yours. HYLAS. Return it, meek one. LADY. It is worthless now ; So even let it hang upon my lips, As we in hall see paper roses hang, At Christmas on the gathered evergreen. Who smells at those ? You yet have many left For whom you choose. Red roses grow again On the same bush whence roses have been culled. Some ladies' lips more honey yield more gathered, As ruddy kine more milk more they be drained. HYLAS. Whose lips taught you such lore ? Read you by touch. As do the blind ? Ourselves have well-nigh ceased Poring o'er ladies* vermeil-vellum cheeks. Believe us, — but we know you now will laugh, — Ourselves are but a poor spoiled paragraph. COUNT FILIPPO. LADY. 'Twere hard to laugh at a confronting truth. HTLAS. The world's a book, and men and women pages. LADY. Oh, you are hypochondriacal, full Of gloomy gall. HYLAS. We have been taking bitters. LADY. Your highness grows too tart. HYLA8. Forgive our frailty : We have of late lacked sugar in our dish, — Have had sour falsehoods served to us for sweetmeats ; So our sharp tongue grows as a ready spoon, To serve to 'em others. LADY. Will you go with me To mirth's refection ? HYLAS. We want appetite For dished-up festals. When we grow 1 ungered, We will come forth and lick the emptied salvers. We are the dog, who were so late the darling. LADY. The lapdog, then. You shall lie in my lap, If you will follow yonder. HYLAS. No, Delilah; Not thus into the hands of the Philistines. — Naj , grow not wroth, though I have grown profane ; Let me propitiate your dryad lips, — Approach those dread divinities, your eyes, That roll their pomp, enshrined on living thrones COUNT FILIPPO. t ' Of casing alabaster. 'Tis your eyes That have matured your lips, even as Apollo's Mature the summer fruitage, and the glances Of the sheet-lightning the autumnal corn. Your eyes are fountains of empyreal fire, Whereat we stand, and, warming us, admire. LADY. Your highness still admires your own eyes most. HYLAS. Never so much as in the glass of yours. LADY. Fie ! if your highness will accompany me. As stars admire themselves in hundred waves, You shall admire your eyes in hundred ladies'. Let us descend unto the terrace, where The Duke is seated ; he enquires for you. See how the waving limes are beckoning ; The poplar too, the churchman's favorite tree ; And the half-everlasting cedars, grave Do nod obeisance at your coming forth. HYLAS. The Duke, who sent you, surely knew your worth. Tell him we've taken horse. [^Ezit abruptly. LADY. Did ever celt So break away while he was being curried ? Is this our late gallant and courteous prince ? What hath that vain and cunning countess done ! He is bewitched : not Acteon so started When on himself Diana set his hounds. He started from me as he'd heard the hounds, With " hark-away," as sudden as a crack, To leap the countess, proud Volina's, pale. Oh, wicked greediness of that wed woman t Not satisfied to rule the minister, COUNT FILIPPO. 89 She must attract, with eye malign, from court, The prince, to dark and secret chamberings. Out on the wallowing, wanton sorceress I Out on such change of nature in Lord Hylas ! The warm west wind that breathed so kindly on us, Changed to the chapping north, or gloomy east. Oh, slander, vilest slander ! 'tis not we, But men, that are inconstant. He who late Was an acknowledged, though delightful, pest. With toy and pastime, to most buxom ladies, Indififerent before me now can stand, Lolling like to a languid invalid. And roiling lazy eyes with strange no-meaning ; Telling me, even to my very nose. That I had ceased to charm him. — Lack-a-day I What to the Duke his father shall I say ? lExit. SCENE VI. A room in Filippo's mantion. Time, following that of the last tcetie. VOLINA. Oh, wretched to be thus compelled to look Into the darkness that contains the ghost I These straying thoughts will not be kept at home ; But, as flies, though beaten thence, resort Where c. .eful housewife storeth up her sweets, Forbidden, they do still revert to Hylas. Oh, Hylas, Hylas, wherefore have I known thee ? Out of my thoughts ; begone, or, with thine image. So fill me that there be no room for conscience ! l^Enter a Page. PAGE. My lady, the Lord Hylas seeks admittance. VOLINA (aside). We will feign sickness, or will be abroad : — And yet not that. — [J.?omc?.] Go bid him hither, boy. [Exit Page. 't-l :^} 90 COUNT FILIPPO. ii 'II' Hither he comes ; and, oh, how wild, how wan t How hath the love-god bled him with his arrows t Freeze, thawing heart ; grow sudden dry, moist eye. lEnter Htlas. Unwelcome ! [aaiofe] yet as welcome as the dew. Aloud."] Your highness, wherefore will you test me thus ? Why force me still to use unkindest terms ? HTLAS. And wherefore should you use them ? Albeit chide me, I will not answer ; hate me, if you will, And I your hatred will requite with love. VOLINA. Do I, then, look as though I hated you ? Still, if you love me, as you say you do. Even for that love's sake tarnish not my fame By these forbidden but repeated visits. [YoLiNA going, the FRiNCB/a/Z« on his knees to stay her, HYLAS. Love you, Volina ? Oh, how much, how madly, Let the swollen mountain of my grief, und these Swift, tear-worn gullies in my cheeks, declare. Forbid me not to plead : beholding, hear me ; Hear me, Volina ; hear and pity me. See me before you, wan for lack of sleep ; Wasted and lean for lack of appetite ; Despising recreation, scorning dress ; Hating the light, — all hating save yourself; And more than all^ VOLINA. Begone, or else let me go I HYLAS. Thou beautiful Volina, peerless woman, As honor is an attribute of man, — VOLINA. Oh, thou dishonorable piece of beauty ! — Naj, now I hate, far more than fear, you. Honor ? f! COUNT FILIPPO. Honor is none where honor is unwelcome ; A guest that never stays to be dismissed,— Departing ere the lips may mould the breath That gives him his congd. HYLAS. 'Twere but a brief, but momentary lapse. VOLINA. 'Twere to be damned for ever. Must I frown ? Oh, could I frown thee from me ! BTLAS. 'Tis in vain : You shine the more, the more you call on clouds, That will not come ; but in their stead appear Sheet-lightnings that envelop you, until You shew more glorious than a crowned queen. Ah, would you were my queen, my duchess, wife I— Oh, be my mistress !— Wherefore do you start ? You shall not live and die in durance, then Be cast out for the worm to banquet on ; But be as one from false imprisonment plucked To liberty and life, for you are dead And buried in a union lacking love. You do not love your husband, — nay, you do not; Hence the sweet deed you do with him so saintly, What is it more than bitterness and sin ? — Nay, if you weep, you conquer me again, Breaking my hard heart with those hailstone tears, VOLINA. Will you not leave me ? HYLAS. Not while you are thus.— Why should you fear the snake that you have charmed ? Forgive me my most deep and dire offence. VOLINA. I have offended too ; — ^but go for ever. •t '] >■ !l •» I ^1 » i ■ i^ -I* COUNT FILIPPO. HTLAS. Say you not hate me ; bo your last look kind. Volina, lovely, muoh-insulted woman, Shake mo not off. Believe, the ivy in Not chaster when it clings unto the wall ; Nor the fair-fingered honeysuckle, when She pinneth her festoons upon the oak ; The south wind pla^ ing round virgin violets Guiltier than now my fancy for your form. Will you begone ? VOLINA. HTLAS. For aye ? VOLINA. For aye. HYLAS. 'Tis done. The storm is passed, or lulled : yet, ere we say Adieu, together, to compose ourselves, Let us abroad to walk where yonder boughs Twine melancholy dim ; or let us sit Where, deep in yonder vista, the brown eld, Tranquility, outspreads her mossy seat. There let us sit and sigh, or ere we sever ; There let us sigh, for we must sigh for ever. [^Exeunt. SCENE VII. J room in Gonabdo's house. Time, following that of the last scene, Gallantio and Paphiana. GALLANTIO. ' Now let the drums roll muffled ; let the bells' Shrill tongues toll mournfully for Hylas slain. But though all nature should put mourning on, Though drums be garnished with funereal crape, COUNT FILIPPO. My brows shall wear no less their native rose ; Though rusty drops should from the bells descend, Dappling the upturned throats of thirsty ringers, Adown mine own no less red wine shall flow. We'll pledge the genius of ill luck, — why not ? And draw bright laughter out of dull defeat. PAPHIANA. Thou hast a nobler spirit than the prince. — But is it true he plays the moribond ? OALLANTIO. Dead, dead ! shot, shot to death, Paph, shot Yes, fairly shot, all foully shot, hath been This representative of thirty dukes ; Each a contemner both of dart and gun. Dead, dead is Hylas ; shot, young Hylas, shot ; Banished into the air, Paph ; blown point-blank Into the world-wide welkin, shattered, shivered. All shattered, shivered, shot ; oh, shooting shame I Shot with the bombshell of Volina's eyelid. PAPHIANA. See here the power of woman when she wills. OALLANTIO. True, you are powerful, and can sting like nettles, When you are plucked by over-fearful fingers. Volina hath her would-be stinger stung ; Teased him, as a tormenting wasp or bee Might, in the' flowery meadow, tease the steer; Bled him to death, as butcher might a calf, — Full many a calf hath less deserved the butcher, Full many a butcher better quitted Cupid ; Who's shot my blue-eyed booby out of ambush ; Couching, like painted Indian 'midst the reeds, In covert of Volina's dark eyelashes. Now let him puff with pride of sovereign blood. Oh, sovereign blood ! oh, blood of thirty sovereigns ! 9S ^, .^^v^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V- A >^' % 1.0 I.I I 1^ i^ 12.2 Sf |i£ 12.0 L25 i 1.4 mi ik 6" Hiotographic Sdences Corporalion •SJ v iV <> ' *L -,,« GALLANTIO. ■ My carrion dudgeon must I now devour. OONARDO. Worse than the thorniest thistles will it be. May 't stick amidst thy throat, thou boa-constrictor ! May'st choke thee with the dudgeon's poking horns I GALLANTIO. 'Twill disagree with me, — 'twill gripe, 'twill gripe. GONARDO. May 't poison thee ! — rat, may it rid us of thee I GALLANTIO. Why, let it gripe, so he be wrung with colic. He shall be caught with stitches in the side ; ' The old fool shall be cramped and doubled up, 'Till he shall gasp for breath, and gnash his teeth Sheer through his lips in deep, dumb agony. We'll write until the saint's old sinews crack, — We'll write to him to put him on the rack. GONARDO. Not so we part : 'tis my divining hour ; I'll run my brigantine across his forefoot, Though loathing commerce with the red-eyed wretch. That wends through night as Phlegethon flows through hell, His blood impregnate with lascivious fire. Nature hath labelled him a lecher, and Debauchery foul blurred his person o'er, Wiping at last her pen upon his face. j ,> Faugh ! can a woman love such unclean beast ? Darkness, dispose thy mask on both our charms. We'll softly sing him to these syren arms. iTrolls. Heigh, for the hall of the greenwood, And the wind-wagged faggot fire ; And the piping pot, with the game we have got From the covers of the squire. The piping pot, with the game we have got, What more can man require ? •' „ - [Goin^' COUNT FILIPPO. m 11. Sweet rove the moonlit greenwood, Sweet dance about the tent ; Sweet lie beneath, with wife, on heathy And pay nor rack nor rent. To lie beneath, with wife, on heath, Who would not be content? GALLANTIO. y^ Ko, nightingale t GONARDO. What would your honor with me ? GALLANTIO. Is this green copse your cage ? Come, troll again. -i^ '' GONARDO. -v'^----:;-:--', - [Song. The gallant to the gypsy said, Tell me my fortune, pray : y I wish to slumber in the bed Of a certain lady gay. II. The lady seems not hard to win, Nor hard to win am I ; Then tell me if I ever in The lady's bed shall lie. ' ,* GALLANTIO. Good ! Thou shouldst read my hand, were't not now night. GONARDO. The face, sir, is a worthier instrument ; ' \ The notary. Nature, having quaint engrossed ' " Thereon each mortal's legacy of life. GALLANTIO. 'Tis night, 'tis night, — a night as dark as death. GONARDO. Say not 'tis night, your unknown worthiness ; 'Tis day where shines your countenance, that, like , ' /W^ 100 COUNT FILIPPO. 1 ■!;\ I 11 i ►(111 The sun's, is legible by its own beams. Your face is luminous as passionful, Signal as if it had been chalked with phosphor. QALLANTIO. Thou knowest me. OONARDO. Who cannot tell a gentleman by night,— The glowing, gallant blood athwart the dark ? Your nobler crafts that navigate the land, Still carry evening lights upon your bows ; Upon your fronts you cavaliers bear beams , . That cannot be extinguished by the gloom. OALLANTIO. What of our face ? — no further fooling with us. OONARDO. It is a link-boy to your lordship, — ^lighting, Sometimes, your way into a lady's bower. GALLANTIO. How knowest thou we are noble ? ^^.*r'-'-^ ;>* OONABDO. By your voice. OALLANTIO. We are not noble, but most reverend. OONARDO. Then pity you have taken orders ; for Your reverence loves the ladies. To the fair, You had been Gog and Magog with that face : All over it old Capricorn crops out. OALLANTIO. We are nor Gog nor Magog, but the devil. Darest read i'the dark the face of Lucifer ? OONARDO. Be not offended if I read as written. Here great conoupisoence, there little love : h^v '0 ■ Hi t COUNT FllilPPOf 101 The latter disappearing very goon Beneath the former ; as a dead, white babe, Whose restless, drunken nurse has overlaid it, GALLANTIO. 'Twould seem too dark to read this scroll of flesh. GONARDO, It is a fine illnminated missal, And many a maiden must have said her prayers , Therefrom when you were younger j many a wife Repeat now thence love's Latin litany. It were as good as to have built a chureh, To have fashioned such a visage. Blessed sire. Thrice-blessed mother, to have built such church ; Oh, strangest church, whwein, like ugly demons, i^; : i ?| Husbands may sourly sit, and gainst their wives Dole the dark collect of hard commination I — But what perceive we on it ? You love a lady Whose husband lieth at the door of death. OALLANTIO. Is that written on our face ? We must begone ; Here's for thy songs, old mole, [Gives Gonabdo money, 'Twere labor cast away to part so soon. {Eixit Gallasiio, and QoTHARDO throws the money from him. Thus may thy soul be cast away at judgment ( Old mole ? I yet will be his mole, his mauler } Even yet will prove a mole amidst his meadow } Will secret work ; will undermine his path, 'Till, as the mole's, my track shall only show Where lies the upthrown havoc. lEnter Htlab arid Volibta. Gleams of ghosts I HTLA8. . ^ A little farther, yet a little farther. , ,j- 'Tis sweet to wander thus, not caring whither. F H >>m' ^1 ';; lOS COUNT FILIPPO. So TfTc keep company. This hour was made ' ' '■ , For us, as we were surely for each other. \^Exeunt, having crossed the stage. OONARDO. ' Oh, grief on grief 1 oh, pair of faithless wives I Now surely Paphiana must be gnawed, When this transcendent robe betrays the moth. Alas ! alas I Ah, twice alas 'tis now; Twice being bound bear witness 'gainst my neighbour,— "* Not falsely, nor in malice, Heaven knows, But seeking evidence in mine own cause ; '* " As he who, searching criminal archives, Stumbles on proof of unsuspected crime. >- ' Oh, hapless I, to stumble on such crime ! Oh, hapless men, G^nardo, Filippo I Oh, wicked, wayward, hapless, wanton women ; Sad pair of perpetrators in one guilt ; Foul breakers both of blest connubial oaths. v .ir But what are oaths to bind the lawless blood ? Who now shall eulogize the twofold cord ? All marriage-cords are spun of rotten hemp, — ' ' ^ - Ne'er Hymen's chains were forged without a flaw ! ' Talk of connubial love, domestic treasures ; — ■ " - Love's treasures in one bottom may be lost, Sunk on the shallows of shame's shoreless sea, Leaving but one poor floating plank of hate. Oh, love, thou symbol of the various world, ' "' As it hath black banditti and corsairs, Thou hast thy libertines, adulterers. Ah, me t ah, me ! now heavier seems my lot, Seeing such burden binding for another. Now never more may we believe in woman 1 Who would have deemed Volina, angel fair, Gould have been coupled in the same foul leash With my corrupt, offending, spotted hound ? Oh, universal spot I oh, stain, hath struck, " ■"'"^ '"''' » V. COUNT PILIPPO. 103 Uage. As a strong blemish through a volume's leaves, From Eve through all her daughters until now I Now let be blessed held celibacy ; The marriage state be held a state at war. As merchant fleets do need an armed convoy, The married man should be a man-at-arms. Licentious man, — weak woman, fair while firm,— • Alas, beyond the art of words to paint Thy threefold gorgon foulness in thy fall t We'll write to Filippo more plainly now ; We must his honorable bosom trouble : Refraining, were her crime, his woe, to double. Let me begone, sick with this saddening sight. Gome, horror's foot, and bear us through the night. [Exit. SCENE IX. Tkt Lucal Palace at Arno. Fuippo reading a Utter, PILIPPO. : V K ; ^ " I write to you now in no enigma : the matter is too plain. I speak of what I saw. When the sun retires behind the cloud, what eye shall follow, what fingers undraw his burning curtain ? "Yours, ." A second dart from an invisible hand 1 , - < . r Who sends to me these terrible despatches, That make a stop-watch of my beating heart, , ,. With visionary-fingered, sad impression. That here at Arno's goal my race is run ? Down, black presentiments ; -I \ Hence, miserable, monster-mouthed conjectures I , t ,. v , I will not listen, will not cherish doubt. Since doubting of my wife were to condemn her, . ; i. ' As willing, if not fallen, to ofiend. • - , - . ,; Yet wives have sometimes so offended ; — true ; \ ^:^ :'.- ~, ■> .: If 104 COUNT FILIPPO. '■ .-...t And youth is prone to trespass against age, Breaking the reins of reverence. No ; my wife, As fillies sometimes run off with the halter, May have been guilty of some indiscretion Of youthful spirits' prompting ; — nothing more : Yet here see " clouds " and " burning curtains." Ah, This light, though dim, is yet too dazzling. Hath Seraphio been remiss ? or hath he touched (As might a bounding vaulter's toe the stage) Pereza's point too briefly, in his zeal To bring relief to my disquietude ? I am perplexed, bent, paralyzed by doubt ; Slain, with no sign of wound upon my form, By the mere wind of paper cannon-ball. • Oh, now Vesuvius rests upon a worm I > Now doubt disables me, up-piles my load. Yet cuts the sinews of the back that bears it. What must be done ? up by my sense'one rose Springs the sharp thorn. — IMl pluck thee up soon, thorn. Home, home to my true wife I she must be true ; Must not be basely thus suspected. Yet— > Yet if, indeed, she hath let loose the tempest ' ; . ^ ' That may unroof and lay me in dishonor, — i ■ . Hath set me in the zodiac of the age, ' 'i . A lofty butt for laughter to the young. Unto the eld a sighing. — ^But we rave ; These lines were penned by some malicious hand. - Set, sun, at once, that sheds such long, grim shadows ! lA Paqk enters with another letter ; and, having delivered it to Filippo, retiree. [Breaking the seal. Why do I tremble, as though this contained A creature that might spring upon and sting me ? [^Reads. "You are dbhonored: your wife, whom you believed to be invincibly virtuous, yields herself up in assignations. A youth (most beautiful — some say it is an angel in disguise — would that ilPPO, it. io be routh that COUNT FILIPPO. 105 they played none but celestial pranks I) visits her, boasting to my secret ear their deeds. * " Your most unwilling informant, ." Crack on crack ! let all ^;hy flames loose, sky ; Burn until bloodshot grows the blue-eyed welkin. Now is it wrong to stay for Plumio's death, When, be these doubled admonitions true, Is worse than death, — ay, or damnation too. SERAPHio (entering). Plumio is dead 1 PILIPPO. ■ Is he released at last ? Convey his corse back with you to Pereza. I thither start forthwith : ask me not why. ' SERAPHIO. In coming hither from poor Plumio's room, I met a seignior, instant from Pereza, Who says your lady from her frighted steed Was lately rescued by a cavalier, ,4: Else were she dashed to pieces. PILIPPO (aside). Dash away, I've got amongst the breakers. ' SERAPHIO. ■ So, 'twould seem. Your dream, so ominous, had root in nature. FILIPPO (aside). Grant not such deep root as henceforth to fill With weed of woe my life's henceforward field I - Aloud.'] There is much more in dreams than yet is dreamed of. What further did he tell you of my wife ? ' i> v Pray you reserve not from me aught of evil. * : s ; • SERAPHIO. You have not lost, then, your presentiment. I I! It 9 ft;-! n. ill B. f.|! 5 ■ )■ i iWm^l m 106 COUNT FILIPPO. (■''■< ,," ' "a FILIPPO. Not quite, not quite. Who was this rescuer? ^ ' ' u .' . . SERAPHIO. I know not ; but your lady will inform you, Doubtless, with grateful joy. FILIPPO. • > - '•' Even so. Aside."] All cannot feign, — three witnesses, — for I Will not accept mere dream as evidence ; — Yet may these three be one ; perchance some villain ,' ■,.'... Attempting, both with mouth and pen, to abuse me. SERAPHIO. I leave you to prepare. . i vs ;; : ? <--■ • FILIPPO. ; •, '- > We thank you. But Who told you of Volina's late escape ? SERAPHIO. ■ - M His name I know not. He was passing through, And now is far beyond this. FILIPPO. >:■. ^,;;. .--jr-^-j'- 'Tis no matter. [^Exit SERAPHIO. She loves me, — I am certain that she loves me ! ,. . , ^, True, she indeed will sometimes chafe, secluded, — Will sue to me for gayer company ; True, she is sometimes cold, and even sullen, — .,„ , . , Oft stints me at the table of her body. Whereat, so fair, an angel might exceed. , Still, what of that ? I am not young as she, — ? Yet from the first she knew it. True indeed, ^ Heaven hath denied us children ; but instead -^ Hath given us grace to patiently endure To lack love's crown and blessing. SERAPHIO (re-entering'). J Pardoiime; For your content I have enquired the name ' ^ -"" COUNT FILIPPO. lOV ■'.»i/ PHIG. ■jm:\: , Of my informant : one Pallazzo 't is. His servant journeyed with him, and told ii.ine Gonardo's lady visits at your house ; So that your wife hath n6t lacked company. '* FILIPPO (aside). This salve 's a biting blister. [Aloud.'] Aught beside? ■ SERAPHIO. 'Twas rumoured in Pereza, when he left it, ,;;-, Gornardo had expired, I think in Rome ; Poor man ! you know that he was jealous ; still, . ^ So far as I believe, he had no cause, Sa;ve that his wife was buxom, and the bloated > ^ ■: ,x V Gallantio (and who that's fair and woman « > Doth he not gaze on ?) oft would gaze upon her. ; FILIPPO. r , Insatiate wretch ! — Go on ; what further news ? SERAPHIO. . ' ^.h u ri !. ■f.fw-i \ M ; None further; — e'en the veriest trifles these. Scarcely worth while their bringing. FILIPPO. ' - ^ ' Thanks for them J And greater thanks for the most kind intent, t That gives a cultivation and a fragrance, ' * Beyond their native comeliness and worth, i^; >v '^ To these stray wild-flowers you have gathered for me. lExit Seraphio. They smell not sweet though : here Gonardo dead His wife (or rather widow now) become f ^:Hf Familiar with Volina. Never loved ' We that same woman. To my soul, 111 omens, perching, come upon her name, ' ' ' And cry and clamour till my heart's red hall Quakes to its fixed foundation. Says the saw " Birds of a feather ' ' — ^what 's the saw to me ? Lock me, ye eyelids, up these visual balls j ' m 108 COUNT FILIPPO. ' i / ( ■ Nor further read the proverb, trite as true. — "What is to me the adage, or to her ? Volina is unsullied as the swan , / That plumes its white breast in the limpid flood, Or cygnet without speck; chaste is she as The lonely phoenix that engenders not. Renewed from forth its own unsexual fires ; ;■ / * ■.■. Splendid as gorgeous bird of paradise, Yet true as homeliest songster to its mate. She shall not be suspected, beautifiil ; >• We will not, as we purposed, straight to horse, '< ■'■' ' But stay to slowly follow Plumio's corse. *= ' ' [Enter Vertaldi, a just-arrived Perezan Ah, my dear/ Lord, what news now from Pereza ? We are upon the eve of our return ; — Not as we came, with empty car, wherein ^ To bear the uncertain answer to our suit. But with that vacant car now overfilled. Even with the added freightage of the dead : My secretary hath this hour expired. fj-«ii> .Hi tt^> .•« • -r-.r. f)T VERTALDI. Alas ! you loved him, — but who loved him not ? FILIPPO. I did, all did ; perhaps too much, too much, — Almost as much as we should love our wives. I would I were at home : all now seems flat ; * ' My heart is chilly, and the hearth's bright warmth Were its best comfort. — Ah, my lord, no spot Like one's own house. — ^Why are you dumb ? >■ > • • '' > Love you not home ? VERTALDI. I Report saith yours is haunted. „ ..,:.i FILIPPO. Then so but lately, if you mean by more, Or worse, than the good angels, who I hope, Do now, and will continually, guard IL. noble. COUNT FILIPPO. 109 ohle. '^r 1 ' > , VEBTALDI. Amen. FILIPPO. You say " amen " aa though there were much need on't. What means your most mysterious emphasis ? VERTALDI. Nay, nothing : — all of us do need protection ; And if my lips had proflfered now your prayer, I should not mind how deep were your amen. , , ' FILIPPO (aside). More is there here than lies upon the lips ; Something doth lurk at hottom of his eyes. I'll dive for it, though bringing 't up should drown me. Aloud.^ What haunts my mansion say they ? flesh and blood ? VERTALDI. Ay, truly, nothing worse. FILIPPO. I . ., ;, • ^ . Yet bad enough. My lord, it might be; for within the range * / '"'< And fixed frontiers of our humanity, "^ ' 1*^ As on a scale, are found all grades between ' ' "' • '-*» -t" God, open-eyed, and the sly, winking fiend.— '• •■ . • : * But tell me truly, is there aught amiss ? What meant you when you said my house was haunted ? VERTALDI. Merely that you should know of such report. How much it means I know not, nor what value The bill my tongue hath drawn upon your credit. So goes report. FILIPPO. Keport is but a dolt, That takes for oracle the whispering wind, Believes the blast to be the din of demons. Describe to me this sprite ; although it shew Fouler than nightmare, or the Norway hag. i-t. t', ' i' . f" ».U'^^' I,, a 110 COUNT nLIPPO. VERTALDI. Its quality seems mystic. Touching it, There goes a running rumour in Pereza, On hearing which they hush and look alarmed ; As when at nightfall's dumb and dusky hour, Lone seated in some antiquated room, Rise noises, coming from one knows not where j Or, after some enquiring colloquy, Stand serious gazing in each other's face. Wherein they seem afraid to put their meaning. These elements configure as you choose, Or give them even no consideration ; But I have faster posted hither, bearing This bag of breath, perhaps to you important,-— Or, yet as likely, all of import empty. We now must take our leave : farewell. ( • , r. ■> i . *v'' ••••■ f ,, : ), ., ., '^r ii. y^V •i.'vM K PILIPPO. -xA'y-\t}'^ ;i, p» ir A '■;■'•* f' Farewell, farewell ; so, seignior, farewell. [Exit Vertaldi, Come, fear, I will not drive thee from me now ; Strong-armed suspicion, come, and by the hair Suspend me over the abyss of hell ! — But are there no more messengers a-coming ? Beat on, blow, wind from wilderness ; blow, blow.— Yet, Job, I cannot acquiesce as thou, — Cannot think my love, my life, is ta'en away. Yet must I bear this, must perforce endure. These letters' faces now are wiped of much Discredit by this napkin of report. Oh, God! oh, Christ I oh, all-dispensing Heaven, ' ' ' • * Why hast thou sent me this sharp portion down ? Where are ye, affidavits? [Taking out the letters. " A beauteous youth " ! — Out eyes, or read no more 1 " Some say it is an angel in disguise." " Yields herself up in assignations " ; — it is false I She would not yield her to Apollo's arms, Though she might well attract him from the skies. ^ ,._,.,.,, u COUNT FILIPPO. Ill •r.'ii ■r.U^ J>I. Ah, would we were at home 1 doubt, like the lever, More powerful grows the farther from its fulcrum. And somewhat do I doubt my love, even yet. Their times so with these tidings coincide, They form a riddle that must be resolved : — Even now the Sphinx devours me. Doubt it not, Something hath loudly fallen in Pereza When the reverberations reach to here. As many streams, converging, form but one, ^, That falls into some boundless, foreign gul^ Here lies a web of circumstance, whereof Chance cannot be the weaver ; yet that I Must aid to unravel, though dark Atropus Therein should cut me with her shifting shears. Mistrust is ill enough 'twixt man and man ; But, 'tween the woman of our heart and us. Lost confidence is even loss of alL All may be lost : dream unto dream, and fact To fancy corresponding, bar me rest. I can no longer here abide in doubt, No longer can I linger from my love. Love cries " away !" crime creeps not toward its deeds ; Back to Pereza on relays of steeds. END OP THE FOURTH ACT. irs. 'fl 112 COUNT FIUPPO. 11 'Vi' ACT V. ■:/ I SCENE I. .•■■■,•'• dS room in Filippo's mansion. Yolina sits weeping, toith her face hiddtn in her hands. Htlas stands near, regarding her.. HTLAS. •• * ^.-■- '•' .-'^' ''- ■ - , . ■ i. '■ . 1'*' Enough of tears, enough of tears, Volina. Bid cease these showers, whose gushes hinder speech. Cease, cease these sobs, that, ceasing not, will end us With double dissolution ; since with thee I die, I live. Fear not, my life, my love^ My joy, my jewel : Hylas will protect thee. Calm thee, my dearest ; look upon me j speak. Speak, speak, Volina ; speak to thine adorer. Oh, seal those penitential fountains up: *Tis sin to oversorrow even for sin. Let there at length be drought. Let me now wipe The ooze from round those sorrow-stricken eyes ; Dry with my breath, as with warm wind of June, The cold, drenched pavement of those marble cheeks. YOLINA. Oh, come not near me, Hylas : I am foul I I cannot look upon thee for sheer shame ^ I would not speak but that thou dost compel me. I cannot look the daylight in the faee ; How shall I meet my husband's angry eyes ? Snatch me from Filippo or ere he come ; Hide me where night perpetually reigns. Death, death, come thou and overshadow me ; Sail o'er this desert heart, thou vulture, death. And pick this erring beauty to the bones. ;i-i COUNT FILIPPO. tts ddm ;:\ HTLAS. Oh, horrible expressions I VOLINA. What are the words that can express me fully ? What language, all voluminous and large, Gould hold my bulk of guilt and misery ? * Let, let me rave, — or, rather, e'en be dumb, For perfect silence doth express me best. '--i:o' -■--' ' HTLAS. Then must I sit down by you, as Job's friends Did sit by him until he oped his mouth. Be it seven days, or be it seven years, Or let it stretch out to eternity, I will not leave yqa. maddening. , VOLINA. Must I speak ? HYLAS. Say what you wish me do : — and, though it were Impossible ; make null old Nature's law ; Revoke, or change, or turn aside our own, — Which I may do for your sake when I'm duke, — All, all, save to renounce you, is performed. VOLINA. Then shield me from my husband ; pity me, Whom thou hast ruined, help whom thou hast hurt. Let me not sue in vain ; a little while Assist me. See me changed ; humble, indeed ; Abject thou seest me, I so lately proud ; Fallen, low fallen, I so lately high ; Poor, I so lately rich in admiration : Then do not thou desert me, wrecked by thee ; Oh, stay by me and save me, once deemed costly ; Now, if thou scorn me, valueless indeed I HTLAS. We both are stranded, — both upon cold beach Awhile must stand, like shivering castaways ; u 114 COUNT PILIPPO. P 'I But, with the broad bmI of Pereaa's power, I soon shall shelter thine exposed head. •'- > il And, oh, my treasure, over whom I joy, As one who with his life hath saved his fortune Out of the jaws o'the wave, to this fond heart, Howe'er the world esteem thee, thou art dear As Indies are to Spain ; to these fond eyes. Though in thine own defiled, appearest still pure. Be comfort^ed, we both have much offended, Both been much tempted, which may be as breeze ^ To blow away some grossness from our guilt, And, cutting, bring the tears into the eyes Of a censorious world. VOLINA. Fond casuist, Will the world judge as thou dost ? will it weigh The fors and the againsts in nicest scale, — The soul's resistance 'gainst temptation's force ? And yet, perchance, some will ; but the mad main, Including the full jury of my sex. Condemning me, — ^for thou shalt much escape, — Will execrate. One also will be less Their pity than their jest, my husband : — oh, There is the thorn that runs into my heart 1 HYLAS. There lies the rack whereon myself am stretched. — But let us steer from this afflictive shoal Or ere we are aground on grief again. How shall I serve you ? VOLINA. Bear me swiftly hence; — But, oh, whereunto ? whither ? My stern sire Would shut the door against his erring child, — He who himself provoked that child to err, By bargained nuptials with Filippo ; While mother, sister, brother, have I none ; And, had I, they — oh, they, too, would disown me. Lost ! lost ! Alas, where shall I shelter find 1 iim&Mi.UL. COUNT FILIPPO. iia ^r^- HTLAS. To-night you leave this place, and in the palace, In secresy, which there is well obtained, Immediately abide. f_ , VOLINA. The palace ? no, Not to the palace, not unto the palace, — And yet how oft have I not pined to go there ! — Not to the palace, Hylas ; no, not thither. The palace ? no, no ; find me a lone cot. Concealed by woods and girt by deep morass, Where, undiscovered, I may live forgot. — No, not unto the palace ! HYLAS. 'Twere most secret ; For who would think of searching for you there ? VOLINA, Take me not thither. HYLAS. 'y ■ '' ' u . . .- ■'■■ ^ Fear no busy pryer, — No marshal sent in quest to find you out. There, privately, and in all honor, dwelling, -. . What time the present moments ripple by, - j We will with the invention of true hearts, Dig some deep channel for our future years, r , VOLINA. Dig me some deep, damp cell. — The palace ! oh, Is that your sole asylum ? Does this dukedom Contain no nook, no hole, no cave, no den ? Is there no refuge in all Italy ? 4i_„„ , Is there no covert in this big, vast world ? HYLAS. None like the one we proffer. VOLINA. Take me thither, — Bear me where'er you will, since I must fly. • i. :^A\ ^ 5 i-\ \" •J- ? >1 ii '}! ,%4»^5 h I -*■ -.1- 116 COUNT FILIPPO. Lead me where'er you choose ; I follow, so You lead me to some place of fair repute. Oh, to have this to bear I But more must yet be borne ere all be done. ' ' HYLAS. Yolina, through this day so bear yourself, . As though you were yourself of yesterday, Till I to night returned convey you hence. Farewell, — the saddest note in all love's gamut. One relic kiss to charm this sorcerer sadness. Nay, do not shrink from me ; as might the tree, If it had feeling, from the pruner's knife. VOLINA. Hylas, thou pluck'st from these lorn lips no more. The stricken tree itself must quickly fall. So fast at root 'tis rotting. Rain nor sun May e'er restore it, that again it bear Fruitage of pleasure ; but instead, its boughs Black laden bending with harsh crabs of pain. HYLAS. r 'Twas wrong : caresses now are out of season. — . ., . Still, fan away these croaking, raven thoughts, . , > ^^ .1/ Darker than night, or sable monkish guise . , / In which to-night we may salute your eyes. ,,.[< , ■-, , ; ; 'Till night adieu. VOLINA. 'Till night adieu. ' [ExUEylab. lRi8ing,'\ Till, till night ? There is no till where it is ever now ; Now, now is night in this bedarkened soul. i- ' <- = -• > '• ■ Come, Nature's night, less dark than is my soul ; • ' ' ■ - ' ' v Eldest of things arrive and bear me hence, Self-stricken from the morning welkin, down To thine eternal arms ! Ah, ine I so young, So early to be quenched ; so to have been Upon the Orient, 'midst Aurorean light, Caught by the Dis of Darkness ! Darkness, come, » -riS* tj-J> STLAS. COUNT FILIPPO. 117 Or ere comes Filippo ; dread Filippo As Darkness, dread as Dis; himself a DIs When ho to our domestic Enna came, And gathered mo its sole and young-eyed flower. Ah, luckless bloom, unfortunatest flower ! Ah, dark the day I charmed his soul with form, — When mere complexion turned the wise to folly I What art thou, beauty, wonder-worker, what ? ' A fatal feof, a showy snare, at best, — A morning sunbeam, in whose yellow breath Creatures come bask and pipe, but, being gone, Arcadia changes to a desert heath ; Light let into a room, whereon the flies Enter and make their gratulative hum, But, being withdrawn, as quickly they desert. So when disease draws beauty's curtains down, Slow-pacing years life's evening shutters close, Sworn lovers and admirers due withdraw. Going when goes that which they loved, admired. Not such could Filippo have proved ; — but why, Ah, why hath Filippo admired and loved me ? Ah, wherefore have I married Filippo ? My father bade me, and my mother, she Who should have sheltered, — shame, vile shame !— even she Basely beseeched me ; while, unto myself, (Nor was my girlish hope therein deceived,) Filippo seemed so generous a fowler, ' ' ' That I, like bird that feels it must be caught, Cowered 'neath my suitor's lowered, approaching hand. This was your doing, most mistaken parents I — This thine achievement, most ambitious sire ! But learn, too late, that though my marriage bond . , By thee was signed in church, it still remains / /' Unsanctioned by my sacred Sire in heaven ; Hence hath it failed to hold these instincts, stronger Than violent vows. But I grow violent ; Peace, peace, unfilial tongue ; — yet why cry " peace," Where peace can never come ? cry " war," cry " war," } M V^ ■ i I I ifi 1' I 1 i!^ 118 COUNT FILIPPO. Yes wag tongue like a red-hot aspen leaf, Against my sire, who once did tie thee up, As one should wickedly tie up the tongue Of the alarm-hell when the town's on fire ; Cry 'gainst a father that did quell my voice When piteously it pleaded ; did deny me A maiden's native negative, and thrust Me into Moloch's cage, wherein I shriek. Now let me shriek, now lot me howl o'er Hinnom, 'Till Calvery herself resounds with woe. Oh, woe too great for woman I woe is me, Bemoaning an inexpiable crime 1 ; ■ Whither shall I wander, wandering, bewail ^ This lapse ? — oh, how escape worse plight than was Eneas' midst the burning wreck of Troy ? Where ? how ? Where'er I go is wrath, is I, — This bursting breast as hollow Etna's side. Beneath which rumbling fire and howling winds Shake his brown, adamantine ribs, that hold Chaos in chains, since mightier marriage chains Have held not me 1 Snap, chains, since I have snapped Marriage's holy chain. Burst, burning links of life ; Nature, dissolve, as hath dissolved my vow ,„ , - , As wax at fire of Hylas' youthful eye. Ah, in that thought of youth what magic lies 1 Had Filippo been young, or I, too, old ; Had both been young, or even both been old. Had I but known the bliss of wooing, — that Elysium I have missed, not lost ; had I Tasted of the sharp wine of winning eyes, Eaten of the sweetness of the honeymoon, Methinks I had been faithful : but instead, Commanded, yea, expected to receive A lord, (a lord how loving I) how could they Expect a long allegiance ? Thirty years. Unnatural diflFerence in wedded pair ! — But man forgets his youth escapes with years, As vapour from the pool 'neath summer suns. ■.7 ^i -t ■ 1 ■ ^ i n . y.i- Hi; ' ft COUNT PILIPPO. Man thai desires us for the sportive bed Young, like the lamb provided for his board, Forgets to marry while himself is young. The male beast pairs in youth. The male bird, too, Is not a day the senior of his mate ; Man of life's sweetest season cheating his. But all life's season now is o'er to me, 'Neath foot of trespass withered ; all the field Disdains me with its emerald eyes ; the world's Bright torch is out; around me all lies dark, One only gleam plays feebly on heaven's verge, — The hope of pardon. Pardon will I seek ; Oh, heart, or ere 'tis granted do not break. ' '> ■ 119 # _ '" " ■•--■ [Exit. SCENE 11. The Principal Street of Pereza. A Cathedral in the foreground, it$ bell tolling. Enter Filippo in disguise, along with a citizen. CITIZEN. You are a straoger in Pereza, then ? FILIPPO. Look I not like one ? — 'Tis a noble street ; And handsome men and lovely women pace it. CITIZEN. Nor street nor pacers have elsewhere their equal. Sec Jhere the lady of Count Filippo, Pcreza's sun, the star of Italy. .> PILIPPO {aside). It is, it is my own mistrusted wife 1 CITIZEN. Not often she appears in public. Never Before have I beheld her thus afoot. When she doth ride, her chariot seems a throne ; Nor hath the Duke two diamonds in his crown ; . t .*. i ill 120 COUNT PILIPPO. To match her eyes, a fortune to her lord, In contrast his rich fortune seeming poor. ■ - You mark her closely : never saw you such. PILIPPO {aside). ' Suspicion, lull thee like a babe in arms. CITIZEN. As gilded mirror seems to don new pride Before it passing some distinguished form, So with her presence grows the street divine. PILIPPO {aside). She is not guilty ; no, she is not foul 1 " , CITIZEN. She seems a-weary, sad : perchance she pines For her now absent lord. FILIPPO {aside). Within a month, ' Gould such a spirit turn to mire and clay ? ' CITIZEN. I leave you, sir : you are pre-occupied. " v ^^ • — -^ PILIPPO. We ill requite your courtesy ; farewell. ^Exit Citizen. All yet seems ominous ; dread, drear, and dark. — . Lose not your hold, ye eyes. Whence comes this change ? Lo, heavily she treads, her settled gaze Upon the ground, nor once upturned toward heaven. Those limbs, so sprightly when I left them, now Move slow as if bestruck with sudden age. Is it sore sickness that hath sapped their strength ? ' Doth dull disease lie heavy on yon limbs. Or do they bear the burden of a soul Weighted with guilt too great to be forgiven ? Oh, for one word with her I — I will. — But what. What questions would become this strange disguise ? % -- - •. My face would blab me too : — how hers is changed t — COUNT FILIPPO. 121 ZEN. In one mere moon changed even as the moon. Another such sad change, 'twere death-like. — Oh, My wife is sick, and I, I cruel here Do stand and play the spy ! [VoLiNA appears, and enters the cathedral. She goes to shrift. — Now omnipresent, yet forbearing. Heaven, Forgive me if I do an impious act ; But from her own, unconscious lips we now Resolve us of her innocence or guilt. What joy to listen to her silver tongue, , Outchiming nothing of illicit love I I'll shrive her ; 'twere a sin to be forgiven. Now follow straight, and be the ear of Heaven. [FiLippo enters the cathedral, and Htlas and Gallantio appear walking together : the cathedral bell still tolling.'] GALLANTIO. Your highness, shall your voyaging to and frp But come to this, to beat the shallow shore. And wreck your resolution 'gainst her charms ? Would you, even yet, your wishos consummate, You must bestir and strike, as strikes that bell, > Or Filippo's return will be your knell. HTLAS. What now the Countess Filippo to thee ; Or unto me, in motion of dishonor ? Begone 1 Henceforwards we disown thee. If Thou should'st obtrude thyself on us again In street or palace, or i'the least defame > v ' . The lady of the absent Filippo, Thou shalt have loosed on thee the muzzled law, , , And long-pent thunder of our angry sire, — . / »^ Yea, go down foundering 'fore the wondering world. [Enter Paphiana. PAPHIANA. Oood morrow, prince and peer. — What, do you quarrel ? i f 122 COUNT FILIPPO. :4.v. 'I GALLANTIO. ; v : > Not we indeed : tlie prince hath pricked his finger. lExit Htlas. PAFHIANA. What have you done, to anger thus the prince ? GALLANTIO. Chidden the sinner for his wicked courses. — Come, let us enter where the saints resort. [GALLANTIO and Paphiana enter the cathedral, and the scene changes to its interior. Yolina kneeling in silence before the confessional, Gallamtio and Paphiaiia at some distance.} FILIPPO (within the con/essionaT). •. ^ ■ Daughter, time presses, for the holy term .-;: Draws near, when, with our common Christendom, Pereza seeks to cleanse her from her sin. What have you to divulge ? what mortal stain Contracted, that the precious blood of Christ May wash not from your soul ? What graces seek you. That intercession of the Vu^in Mother, With prayers of saints auxiliar to your own, May not obtain for you abundantly ? Speak, daughter : God is love ; none need despair. — You keep the primal virtue, chastity? VOLINA. I ought ; but, oh, who do that wMch they ought ? FILIPPO. Few ; yet remember, if you have offended. There was forgiveness even for Magdalen. VOLINA. May Heaven forgive me, too, for I do need it : More heinous sin than Magdalen's is mine ; Adultery, worse than a virgin's lapse, — Adultery, for that I need forgiveness. i K .5. ''-^?: ■• ^ ' vrth. COTJNT FrLIPPO. * PILIPPO. She never loved me : — ^now I understand Her careless coldness, — ^yet, she could be hot, ' Even with me. — Out, fabled chastity. Thou woman's boast ; out, live with wauling cats, Monkeys, and goats. — Let me not yet go mad. 4 r PAPHIANA. See how he rolls his eyes ;— he lawghs. ' FILIPPO. Ha, ha. Now over her soared conscience t have hung The very axe and bolt of sharp damnation. She would not name her paramour ; but let her Get shrift for money from s(«ne sharky priest. I'll learn my wronger's name ; I'll force her yet To write it for me with her rank, right hand. 125 It is some lunatic. QALLANTIO. - , ^.., ,^.- ..-. ,.--^,, ... . PAPHIANA. Poor creature, yes. FILIPPO. Faugh ! fauivh ! the air yet stinks with her ; faugh ! faugh ! To have it, from the very culprit's lips, Spc wned in my ear. — Pab ! bring me holy water, To wash out on't that word, adultery. Oh, patience 1 could I listen while she owned That she herself, the palace of my jwide. Was entered, sacked. — Oh, damn her, damn her. Mark him. Let us accost him. PAPHIANA. GALLANTIO. He's weejHng now. PAPHIANA. What is his grief ? I I in * 1 126 COUNT FILIPPO. OALLANTIO. No, he has observed us : See how he hies away. \_Exit Filippo. PAPHIANA. ' ■ Poor fool, poor fool. OALLANTIO. ' . Come, bird. [^Aside.'] Good for mine eyes this ! Now I know Yon seeming stranger was Count Filippo. ,, . {^Exeunt. . y. SCENE III. ^ ....>...^^;-^r mi'' 1 Within the Ducal Palace at Pereza. Dusk, Fidbo, Gonabdo Inot now in gyp*y fft^^^li GouBTiBRS, and Offiobbs. DUKE. • Nay, 'tis a tale too wild to be believed, As wild as is the weather, — Filippo Returned from Arno, and in madman's mien I Yet well he may, if what you say be true ; Which Heaven grant be not so, for the sake, Not only of himself, but his sweet lady. Oh, no, it cannot be she is corrupt 1 So fresh, so taintless, the proud blue-fly roaming Pereza's shambles still avoids her home. As still the moth avoids the chest of cedar. She is full safe, that most seraphic lady. — True, angels fell without temptation, yet She sits above the reach of its sharp dart. What fly would fly so high as fly at her ; Who, as the lone and utmost flower on cliff, That towers past flight of the thigh-laden bee, Saves all its honey for the solar lips, Now hoards herself for her returning lord ? Sirrah, if this be false you answer for it ;— Still, if you find Count Filippo, arrest him, As well for safety, as that we may do . I* ..Vs. ■■K; ;; f ; ■ •''■■■ ?* f-. 1 -f/ «f ■ J^r »P0. unt. to tn COUNT FILIPPO. 127 Our faithful minister justice, if he need it. With him attach whoe'er you will, yourself Warned 'gainst false seizures : — act you on these terms ? GONARDO. Most willingly, your highness. DUKE (to a courtier). Then, my lord. Be at the bidding of this gentleman, With such a force as he may choose, to-night. — This passes our believing. — Hie away. We wait on your returning as we may. [^Exeunt Gonardo and courtier. B^ard not all the story of this man. Whose words haye spotted this immaculate lady, Even as God hath spotted the bright sun : But count her stainless as the evening star ; As far from folly as from fire is frost, Or faintest bite of frost upon the sun. She doth outvie the vain-eyed sun in beauty ; , ^ So sweet a lady lives not in our realm. • ^ . ; Mind you not when she to our levee came, , ;,• ' ^ The bride of Filippo ? Have you forgot. How planet-struck gazed the gallants o'the court ; How, wondering, its constellations waned ? , Why stand you all thus silent? PIDEO. Your highness, in conjecture. We are lost. DUKE. Dare you doubt her ? Where are your knightly souls ? Oh, out ! — and yet, Alas, our own thoughts fill with gathering gloom ; This heart sinks heavy. — Lead me to my room ; There will we wait in prayer the dim event, Eclipsing hope to pale presentiment. I') 128 COUNT FILIPPO. Assist me now. — I quail with awe, not fright, « As something fatal would oeour to night. — Bear gently in your hands the living light : u^, i.{ vl Nigh ninety years 't has burned, and now we doubt, Lest at some door the gust should puff us out. [Exeunt, leading the Dure. SCENE IV. m i r' i: The grounds of Filippo's mamion. Time, night. A violent storm of rain, thunder, and lightning. Enter Filippo. « '.: r>- li FILIPPO. Though she be penitent and Heaven forgive her, I cannot. Out of my breast, relentings, out; The heavens relent not, but pour bitterly. Pour on, ye pitiless heavens, ^ou scowling sky ; ' ' * Blow, bitter wind, less bitter than my grief; Tear thy throat, tempest ; thunder, peal And terrify the welkin ; lightnings, strike, ■ ^'' '' With your bright momentary blaze, sky's anvil. Putting to blinder darkness time between. Oh, heavy time, oh, darkened soul, oh, spirit. Tossed wildly as yon woods. Groan for me, woods, Roar like the cataract, bow your proud heads. As I am bowed ; earth, rock till all grow dizzy. — It is too foul, oh, 'tis too foul for pardon ! l^Exit, and enter servants confusedly, FIRST 8EEVANT. Come on, come on, boys ; straggle altogether. Each drabbled dog his tail between his legs. Hasten ; don't run about to every bush. Here's wet enough, methinks, without your waters. SECOND SERVANT. Let the blind haste, and tumble in the ditch : I'm blinded by this lightning. COUNT riLIPPO. 129 !CE. of \A peal of thunder. .f-^^H FIBST BERVAKT. Follow it, And thou'lt grow nimbler. THIRD SERVANT. Let him follow his nose, That sallied 'fore us as a flaming rocket ; But now, rain-quenohed, his best fun were to find it. Sir, seek your nose. FIRST SERVANT. v Come on, come on, ones Christy. SECOND SERVANT. Now were it good as ducats to be deaf. I always had too sharp an ear for thunder. Say, what is all this shooting up above ? THIRD SERVANT. They're building in the sky, so shooting th' stones. SECOND SERVANT. Ha, ha, you stoney-head, you should be pelted < * * With your own jokeSi FOURTH SERVANT. Still fiercer flashes ! These * Blue beams appear the opening eyes of hell. Stay : here's some shelter. [They all gather under a projecting ledge of rock. This storm abates not ; — aid, as I do live, Antonio told me that this afternoon He, in the environs, observed our master, All in the torrent from the sheeted skies, Wild, wet, and wan, upmuffled in a cloak, Wanderin"' about, like to a ghost forlorn. FIRST SERVANT. '' ' Andrea, likewise, even now told me He saw one like him in the neighbourhood. Who cast from time to time upon our house .. p^ 11' 130 COUNT PILIPPO Glances as terrible as were the lightnings ; ' Whose flashes did illuminate his face, But which he neither seemed to fear nor shun. SECOND SERVANT. A lie, a lie, like that they told of me, When they declared that they had caught me kissing The blind old broom-woman 'neath my gabardine ; And heard the creature coaxing me to marry her, Vowing to keep me like a gentleman While she had breath or there were sale for bropms. Truly but brooms were scarce, or I'd have swept Their throats for 't. — You may laugh, but do you think I dare prevaricate in this windy weather ? I fear God, too, as much as any man. Who would offend Him in a tempest's teeth ? — All lies, all lies they've told you. FIFTH SERVANT. ^'' ' ' But for these Same goblin stories, there are other vouchers : Some of Gonardo's say that they beheld him, — ,. ,- Ay, and Gx)nardo also not far off, But in uncouth apparel, and as tanned As he had been a voyage to the Indies. ''4,j 'Vi ^Enter Gonardo. THIRD SERVANT. Deuce knoweth where Gonardo is ; but surely , „ Both his lone lady and our own, methinks. Do lack alike their husbands. — I surmise The Prince affects our mistress. SECOND SERVANT. Who shall say '"■♦• That she stands unaffected ? FIRST SERVANT. Blush you not To whisper such a scandal, e'en by night ? YoQ know not yet your mistress : check your tongues. ^(A.- A , ;,, ^^> ■ COUNT FILIPPO. 131 1.;. i ■•w r^ 1 She holds the prince himself in awe, — could make Him tremble at the shaking of her finger ; But for Gonardo's dame, and that vile rake, Gallantio, if I surmise aright, Each to the other holds the devil's candle. aONARDO. Lucifer light you, gentles I THIRD SERVANT. Saint Mark, bless us I FIRST SERVANT. Why art thou out this weather, lord of hen-roosts ? GONARDO. Because I can't get in. Where hangs the gate ? SECOND SERVANT. Where thou wouldst now be hanging, master Crow, Had every man his meed. Whose coop hast robbed to-night ? THIRD SERVANT. Yes, sirrah, whose ? Hold up the lightning's lantern to your face, And look in ours and swear you're honest man. GONARDO. r. , Where hangs the gate, I "pray you ? , THIRD SERVANT. Call you that praying, every word an oath ? GONARDO. I do beseech you tell me. " ' THIRD SERVANT. ^ Imprecate not. GONARDO. Kind gentlemen, — THIRD SERVANT. Abuse us not; for we ' ^ Are all cats' sons, so see thee best i'the dark. We have sharp claws, too : — sirrah, put your back down. — It is not raining : 'tis you spitting at us. \ 132 cotmr FiLippo. OONARDO. ■ • "■*' ' Assist me hence. I do implore yon, tell mo ' 1 Where stands the gate. SECOND SERVANT. «• Against its post. GONARDO. Where that ? BEOONO SERVANT. I'the earth. ' *•; - .,':,t OONARDO. Aside."] Plagues pester them 1 [^Aloud."] Good gentlemen, I stan4 Craving for gate or post : pray you be moved. THIRD SERVANT. Stand there, most excellent post, and be reproved. SECOND SERVANT. Yes, be improved. OONARDO. I grow much better, sirs. . THIRD SERVANT. V -^i Take root, take root, toe deep into the ground j This rain will make thee mount amasingly. * GONARDO. You are too hard. FOURTH SERVANT. No swearing, such a night : It were a very fatal night to swear in. _: GONARDO. How your tongues wag to-night 1 It might be raining Wine, not cold water. THIRD SERVANT. - Lie not : it is warm ; Aired, sir. This torrent falls like warmed ripe ale ; Gomes creamed by whipping winds, and through it roaring The red-hot plunging pokers of the lightnings. Thou hast not drunk our healtiis. COUKT FILIPPO* 133 Ad rv^ OONARDO (aside) . DiHoases take them t Aloud.'] Heaven bless you all, my masters I — Onoe again, Where hangs the gate. SXOOND SERVANT. Just where it did this morning. GONARDO. Pray you, no longer mock me : which way thither ? THIRD SERVANT. Down by the river, up by the rill, Close by the currant-bush, round by the mill ; Next through the holme, sir, and over the stile, Past the old haunted house, eighth of a mile ; Then look round about you, and straight you shall sec Whate'er you may want, sir, — if there it shall be. A dish of due directions ; plums, sir, chew them. {^Exeunt Servants, laughing. OONARDO. Even by their fruits, men still we know them. How luckless, lost in this entangling labyrinth ! It was the Prince went by : I know his foot. Along ; though dark the night, and these wet walks, Intricate as are the winding ways of woman. — One comes this way. [Exit, and enter the Prince, disguised as a Monk. HYLAS. Hist, hist, Volina, is it thou ? — hist, hist. [Exit, and enter FiLivpo. FILIPPO. What need of whisp -^ng have the innocent? 'Tis she and her prim paramour. What matters Rain ? — lust is like the old Greek fire that burned ' . .■ • In water best. They are not seething, but .... „ Red-hot, in this deep drench. — I see them there. [Exit, and re-enter presently at another place, with dravm sword. >l-i 134 COUNT PILIPPO. PILIPPO. Still will I follow ! — ^though she be to me Dead, yet the man who killed her with his kindness, Must, for the debt incurred in her dishonor. Even at the bank and counter of the^e grounds Pay down his life. Down faster, skyey flood. And wash this hand from foul seducer's blood. [Exit, and enter Volina from the opposite direction VOLINA. Why do I start at any sound to-night. When nature seems one vast, loud-raving ghost; Or, seized with throes of mortal agony, Flash lightnings in her dying eyes, while thunder Draws the death-rattle in the welkin's throat? Again that sound ! Oh, should it be my lord I It must, it must : methinks I hear his voice , Chiding. A clash of swords, — oh, shielding heavens ! Should Hylas fall a victim to his vengeance ; Or should himself, i'the darkness, fatal fall By Hylas' ignorant hand 1 — Oh, no, no, no : It was the tempest's tongue, not Filippo's ; That sound was but the battle of the boughs. And now 't has ceased. — Ah, well, 't has ceased, for yet My heart not ceases tremble, nor my limbs; Nor sudden dew to ooze upon my brow, Drawn from my marrow to the clammy verge, — And now returning cold and creeping back. As back the skulking blood creeps from my heart. Oh, coward, coward, coward am I now ! How am I changed since only yesternight ; How am I altered, once so careless, bold ; How have I eaten of the fatal tree < . ' - Of knowledge I Nature, too, appears t • , ? To have partaken with me : 'tis all eyes, ■ ^ "» • . :j > All ears ; all watching, all accusing me ; ' ' ' All waiting to bear witness to my husband. • > > e\ *;«, Ji=!-i».iV.jl COUNT FILIPPO. 136 ton Yet all without 's but shade of what 's within : These sounds are nothing but my guilty self, That finds unfriendly life in every leaf. Still, opportune as terrible this tempest. Tempest, grow louder, riot in the air ; Darken and deepen, so that I may glide (As into chaos hell-escaping ghost) Unheard, unseen, with all my guilt upon me. From here with Hylas to I know not where. Come, Hylas, fetch me from yon forfeit roof, Back, wandering wife, back, wasting, weary woman ; Thence go where'er thy miner may set thee. Poor painted target for the shot of time. [ Going, when occurs a more terrible flash of lightning and peal of thunder. Oh, Heaven, aim not at me all thy volleys I Shoot not thy forky tongue so near me, lightning ; Bully me not, big thunder ; nor, sharp wind, So cruel scourge me : I have not wronged ye, — Nor thee, hurled hail, stone-casting Pharisee. [^Exit, and re-etiter Filippo, sheathing his sword. FILIPPO. A glimpse o'the moon were well. Sword, get to bed ; Thoud'st nearly done mad murder in the dark. How like the prince's the fence o'the flying fool ! — Lo, yonder stalks another ! Follow : — no, It is my purblind fancy, that mistakes Trees for men walking. Horror walks the night, So dark, so dismal, and so weirdly wild, With such a bellowing broil of elements, Within the dormitory of the sky. That not a star dares peep from out its lids, '^ As little ones whose parents fiercely quarrel. Hast thou a quarrel, night, with nature ? then i Straight cast her out, as I shall my false wife. r i If day have wronged thee, overthrow her lamp, — Scatter her embers o'er the shameful hearth, — ..' Be the sole tenant of this world-house dark. — hi 136 COUNT FILIPPO. Oh, how this phrase might well befit myself ! It is my sole house now, this wide, dark world. Yonder is not my house, fast darkening now : I was cast out when they cast out mine honor. I must approach it when all lights are out ; Mine eyes will glare enough. Volina, girl, We would not strike thee blind with o'ermuch light ; Not, blasting, blind thee with our gloomy glance :^- Oh, no. let love turn half its fire askance. lExit. SCENE V. The hall of Filippo's mansion. Htlas, disguised as a monk ; Volina. leaning on his arm, and weeping bitterly. Time, midnight. VOLINA, My heart will break, even yet ; my heart will break I Would that it might ; would, would I now might die I — But guilt is hardier than innocence : The wicked live to bear long years of woe. HTLAS. Your servants will return, and we are lost. This is not well, this is not well, Volina. Your household, or abed or sent abroad, .. Deliver you into the hands o'the time, That cries with opportunity, " begone !" Succumb not in the crisis. But one step, And you have crossed the ridge ; to walk, concealed, Adown the other side. Take your farewell ; But, while you mourn that thus you leave these halls, Mourn more for that you ever entered them. . , VOLINA. Farewell, my home ; farewell, farewell, my lord ; 4 Farewell now, my domestics, that at morn May seek but shall not find me. With soared eyes, Soon must they meet their master, and to stone Turn him with Gorgon news. [Enter Filippo. >/, V' COUNT PIUPPO. 137 Ixit, LIMA. \1 ' VK'if PPO. "What man art thou ? FILIPPO. A stranger, who, in homeless misery, Seeks shelter from the chaos of this night. HYLAS. Thou canst not harbour here. riLiPPo. •'- Why not ^— I will. HYLAS. . t ' . . Beggar, begone ; hie hence unto the town. Here's money for thy lodging and thy cheer. FILIPPO. ^...gvi Withdraw that hand, or I may bite it off; So hungry am I, famished, foolish, fierce. HYLAS. Thou hast more fire than famine in thine eye.— Madman, avaunt I FILIPPO. Who told you I was mad ? lAttemptinff to seize Hyhs. Thou stony bosom, off with that monk's hood : ' ' Thou art not of the charitable tribe. Doff me that gown, that doth conceal the devil And shew thee hideous, damned, undominoed. What is there sacred in a stolen stole ? HYLAS. Approach me not, but to our monastery. 'Ti? the Blackfriars ; there thou mayst be lodged. The way is short, B^ne ; thou canst not miss it : Nor I be stayed, who to a soul have come ■ ■' .: ■■< That needs especial unction. FILIPPO. Liar I Fiend, May thine own sulphur choke thee 1— Quick, or ere K 138 COUNT FILIPPO. I strangle thee ; as Hercules the snakes That stole into his cradle, as thou'st stolen Into mine honor. — Quick ; or this nerved arm, As powerful now as that of Hercules, ; When, with his hands, he tore the Nemean lion, May yet tear thee. Off with that cowl and rohe ; Unfrock thee, lest my sword should strike thee, fatal As Perseus' when he smote the salt-sea monster That came devour Andromeda o'er the wave. Ah, we would kill thee now, but, thee destroyed, There were no fiend to terrify the bad. '( li •?• HYLAS. r What would'st thou, man ? Wild maniac, what mean'st thou ? Profanest wretch, avaunt ! nor still defraud The dying of his craved viaticum ; Lest, in thine agony, lliyself should'st lack. Impostor, hence. FILIPPO. We're no impostor. HYLAS. Hence ! Shall death bear off a spirit nnannealed, Poised on the whitening shore of pallid lips ; ;' Whence it can only whisper wafts of faith , '. Into mine open ear, while thou dost blow Out the long gale of thine importunate breath ? PILIPPO. I cannot slay thee, — though it were no murder. — But, storm, hast, listening, held so long thy pea ■■'■'■'f-J Jri.'- iii^ >-i •:. ' ^ii :-i> ' 'i i. If ''I Away I — no more of this. HTLAS. VOLINA. Away, good m&n. COUNT FILIPPO. 139 \'.' ■.., A riLIPPO. j: ^,, •, , Away, adultress, if thou would'st not yet See killed this unknown villain. Cling not to him ; Or, in my fury, I may kill e'en thee. VOLINA. 'TisFilippof PILIPPO. ' Ay, Pilippo, dost know me ? — Tremble, thou guilty ; strive to hide thyself, — Yea, strive to hide thy head, as doth the ostrich ' " When it is chased by the Arabian. Girl, fly while vengeance on this villain stays me. 2b Htlas.] Wilt not disclose thee ? Thus, then,— iDraws his sword; and, at the same moment, enter a Cooetier, with Officers of Justice. , ^ A J .X ,« -^^^ who ye, And what your errand ? COUETJER. Servants of the Duke, Upon whose warrant you are each arrested ; Thou, stranger, being suspected as a spy, These two because it is Tremohla's will. And instant all must with me to the palace. PILIPPO. Then am I cheated for awhile : — no matter. I willingly accept your custody, Since, with me, likewise, you convey these two. Who shall be charged with gravest misdemeanour. [Hylas whispers to the Courtier Strip that vile minister of hell, not heaven ; ' Uncloak him for me. — Oh, religion, what - , r » ^ A cloak hast thou not oft been made for sin ; . . ., ; u4 That hath encased himself in thine attire, , , , And stalked with ostentation through the world, > Receiving bow and homage, till thyself Hast been regarded with suspicious eyes! Off with his borrowed badges, tear them from him : 140 COXJNT PILIPPO. He is no monk, not he ; but he is what I will not style him till before the Dake. ' ■ •-* i '. r . /^ Respect you not his cowl, (all of the monk He hath,) for all beneath is villainy. j; HYLAS. ■ " ■■•' '■■■'^^ Heed him not, pray you, since it is a madman, That even now hath entered as you see him ; And said such wild things, with such wild demeanour, As stamp him what I say he is, — mad, mad. COURTIEE. You all must straight appear before the Duke. — HYLAB. '.{. Then, lady, come, since it e'en must be so. t w s ii>t vriiir I will not leave you, be I monk or no. [^Exeunt omnes. SCENE VI. 1! ^ Room of State in the Palace. The Duke, enthroned on a dais, surrounded by Lords, Sbnators, Courtiers, and others. Before him Filippo, Atlas, VoLiNA, a7u2 GoNARDO. Time now past midnight. \;i '■'•.■: DUKE. It is our worthy servant, Filippo ! No trait of travel, no disguise, no grief, Can make us strange unto those lineaments. 2 Be of good cheer, dear Filippo : ' /l We will avenge thee on whoe'er it may, ; Advancing justice to the very verge O'the balance, till it overweigh thy black ■ - ' ^ And heavy wrong. We have arrested thee ;;"*«! c ■■ ; 'Midst thy soul's riot, as the parent plucks Out of the mob-filled street his darling child, ... Ketaining it in doors ; but more to prove i Ourselves thy quick avenger. Woe to him i. That hath abused thine absence I woe to him : «. That hath (as the Saul-bidden witch of Endor i COUNT PILIPPO. 141 MJ' X Si'' ■t\f, mes. mded IPPO, : '" f I. <<•< Once brought old Samuel up from Hades) brought me Trembling to sit on this midnight tribunal I Whoso hath injured thee, one step from here Shall bring within his pale of punishment. Swift, we await to hear from thine own tongue What brings thee back in this sore plight from Amo. PILIPPO. That I am wronged, and in what tender part, Your highness knows, else why am I thus here ? Then all I ask you is to unmask my wronger, (Who, I believe, now stands beneath that cowl,); And yield him to my punitory sword. i But for the other who hath wronged me most, Mine own right hand, all: that therein I seek Is the poor liberty to cut it ofFk i- . ;- " DUES. Uncloak thyself, monk, if thou beest such ; And, for the lady, let her still be covered,— We would not wantonly up-conjure blushes, For which, we hope, there is no guilty cause. [Hylas casts off Ms monk's disguise. ■■ •- DUKE. !',.;.;'■■ -■■ ... Hylas ? oh, heavens ! Hylas ? oh, God ! PILIPPO. Now dost thou press too heavily upon ° ' r > - ,^ Me, fate! Hylas, and is it thou ? Oh, oh. Him for whose weal I laboured to this last. — Let me begone, for I am helpless here : How can I strike my prince ? — Oh, my dear master. How can I strike your false, deceitful son ? DUKE. My son ? no son of mine ; a bastard surely : — tn'T And, yet, how much of me his form conttuns * > This deed bears witness. Now requital comes; ' ' Inexorable is the hand of Heaven : — But 't should have stricken wider, not so near. '- Speak, thou delinquent; speak, oh, speak thy shame. j 142 COCNT PILIPPO. f HYLA8. What shall be rendered, what shall be adduced, To this dread accusation, save that all Was love ? I saw his lady, and, if I adored her, It was no more than he himself had done. — And I was young, — and is not she young too ? Oh, think upon our youth and great temptation ! Yet one there is, that damned Gallantio, The great, original tempter to this sin. Who, if no place in hell be hot enough (And I aver there is not) for his crimes. Let him be given me this hour to torture. But for this angel who with me hath slidden, — Not fallen, for she clings still to the sky, — .< So far she from the Tophet of pollution, As to raise me into the Empyrean, Behold no power on earth (and Heaven will drop A tear to wash out what towards it is wrong) Shall cause me to resign her or cease cherish. DUKE. Thou art mine own again, thou art mine own I PILIPPO. My wrath grows sick ; revenge within me dies. HlTLAS. What yet thou harbourest direct on me : — Yet spare me for the sake of her thou sparest, And who hath not been more by me beset. Than all beleaguered by unnatural custom, Which basely bargains where it ought to woo, And drives the lamb home that it ought to lead. Oh, much her fault hath to extenuate it. Didst not thou bargain for her, Filippo, As might'st thou bargain for a beauteous mare, Or treat for statue to adorn thy hall ? Herein her destiny scarce better than ,., f ,..•!■ I ;ii 1 ■- > •k; -t umst3: COUNT FILIPPO. 143 . That of the purchased, poor Circassian, By parents sold to arms of amorous Turk. True, thou so generous appearedst to her. She went with thee, thine unresisting slave ; But with her person thou boughtest not her heart. Unpurchaseable, as thou shouldst have known, Ungiveable, else had she given it thee. FILIPPO. I give her back, all that remains to me Of her, whom I had thought to love for life ; ' Yea, whom I love, and must love till I die. - - If I did purchase her, I, unredeemed, Relinquish; if I did entice, restore. I see mine error, also feel my fine, — * ' • . Loss of myself along with loss of her. Had I recalled our age's disparity, — Bemembered that, while she was at the foot, I trod the landing of ascending years, — This had not been: but now too late I learn That nature doth, in time as well as kind, Abhor the hybrid, still doth cast it off ; That youth must youth attract, as drop does drop ; That souls commune not for that forms are wed, No more than oil and water mix, up-pent. Life's various stages, toward each other, are As foreign, though as fellow, travellers, — Strangers on road and at sojourning inn, — Unlike of thought, of unfamiliar tongue. — Stern lesson this to learn ; hard, hard to bear This burning balsam to my wound's wide fissure. Yet were the da^er which destroys less cruel, Not wielded by a prince whom I have loved. And in this latest instance thought to serve, Perhaps mistakenly. — I say no more. Ungrateful prince, thou friend-forgetting Hylas, But thou mayst give to me that cloak and cowl, For to the Blackfriars now in sooth I wend ; It 144 COUNT PILIPPO. f til ('\ A 3^1 J M-i?> ■■.iii\ n; , . COUNT PILIPPO. 145 ,f-V, . r». Would, at his sight, be prompted to destroy him, — Have turned his fingers into lion's claws. OONARDO. I've ta'en account of him : he has been seised, And with him greater felon. A SENATOR. Here he comes; — And with him one uncalled for, even your wife. [iJnfcr Gallantio ant? Paphiana t» cM«' ..). : <'. M>.l ■\'l ■ 't ■v\<> .'• I <:• x ;iri i\ COUNT PILIPPO. FILIPPO. Nay, let him live, Gonardo : equal parts j^ Own we in yon foul forfeit. Let him live, And to the galleys go. ; HYLAS. We that forbid : He shall behold the light of day no more. Let him all night lie in a heated vault ; That he may think, ere death, he is in hell. His conscience shall be to him the grim devil. OALLANTIO. No easier doom I'd wish : — you cannot scare Me. As the salamander, cast in fire, Exudes preserving mucus, so my mind, Cased in thick satisfaction of success, Shall be uninjured ; and my well-worn body, So fed, so full, so surfeited, with pleasure. It cannot murmur should it end in pain. I am asbestus to your furnace rage : You cannot melt, though you may burn or break me. Give me my portion. — Lo, the Duke is dead. He was a man, were he alive and young. Would not have pierced his ponder, — was a lion Whose paws had stroked his jackal, lieu of strangled. HYLAS. Away with him : he doth too long insult us. — Oh, now, my father, you have passed away ; Nor stayed to sorrow o'er this tragedy. Whereof the argument, I fear, is thine ; — Thou, who didst seek to wed me in hot haste, To compensate for thine own tardy marriage. Which thou, by amours cooled, too long delayed. . i Volina, look upon those lineaments. None loved you more than he, departed now; ,, . None more desired to see you at this court. Whereof, had you not been our minister's wife, You should have been the Duchess. — Sir, forgive me : I had forgot your presence. 147 '^ -IV *•■' 1^ COtTNT FllilPPO. '.^'^ ||j„l|. •ir' (i^i tf r 4/. PILIPPO. * Mind not that ; Bemember me not now : I would forget ' ' ' ' All, if I could ; I would forget that I, In marrying her, have wronged her even as much As she hath me. Within a monastery I'll pray, if Heaven assist this broken heart,, For you and her ; say masses for the spirit Of the dead Duke, and strive forgive all souls That ever injured me, — even thee, Gallantio. HYLAS. ,... Is he not yet withdrawn ? PILIPPOi - ' Pray, let him live. GALLANTIO. Take me away ! — ^he will not curse me. — Curse, Fool, curse me. [Gallantio is led out. A LORD. He is vulnerable, though He thought himself in stronger panoply > Than armadillo's mail. A, COURTIER. This feathery shaft,. „:jrm^vi .,.<:xW Forgiveness, falling lighter than the snow-flake. Hath pierced the hedgehog; when the javelin^ , ■; .; , r ? ' Of threats had failed. s •? v ; GONARDO. , Forgiveness' point is sharp ; - 'T has found and entered him between the joints.. i Filippo, you on earth have found him hell,, For coals of fire now ffame upon his head. FILIPPO. / '^T May they but purge him, or refine what's left ' ■" Within his breast of manhood ; for his time Is short for meeting his eternal doom. — And now let me depart. Hereafter, ftiendff, When you shall tell the tale of Filippa, . A\ . I COUNT PILIPPO. 149 ft U-: •1. ut. ''fi I ■' r Say sadden ended with dire accident, Even in the midst o'the pageant, his career ; Say that he sinned, — say, too, how he was punished. Going']. I lea\e my good and evil with you. Now Seek Filippo no more : he grants no favors, No private audience, — no more holds levee, No more frequents the court ; but humbly goes Prepare him for the court o'the King of kings. No child I have, no heir ; mine ancient title (Which is a bauble I ne'er played with much) Goes to a scion of another name. With the hereditary, rich estates. Thus, lightened much, I go to the Blackfriars, There to devise a moiety of what rests Unto the Church ; bequeathing the remainder (After some trifling legacies and gifts) To the three sisters of my secretary. To VoLiNA.] Your marriage portion you shall have returned ; With aught you may request of me besides. As being yours by right of others' g' ft. Or of your cunning fingers' workmanship. <■ ; , . .* All I request is your own miniature. That you did give me on our wedding-day. HYLAS. It shall be yours. PILIPPO. Asks she not aught from me ? HYLA8. Vex her not now with questions, Filippo : Her heart is all too full of working grief. Lo, as a full-charged flask, for want of air Doth stubbornly refuse to void its contents, So do her lips refuse to yield her thoughts. FILIPPO {going). Then let us part in silence. VOLINA. Oh, no, no : — One thing I ask, one only thing,-— forgiveness. ;-* »♦! [Hi 150 COUNT PILIPPO. PILIPPO. That I have granted you already, ere You asked it. Grant the same to me. HYLAS. She hath.- Gonardo, you have mine for the spy's part That you have played herein. — ^What say you now To your awaiting and unfaithful wife ? QONARDO. Nothing, — ^but that the harvest in. Iier womb Knows not my husbandry. PAPHIANA. Can you affirm it ? OONARDO. Most truly, madam ; and such evidence Hath been adduced, this night, of your deep guilt, As shall obtain for me swift separation. PAPHIANA. Take it. You will return my dower, as he Hath hers returned to his frail partner. A SENATOR. No word for thine associate in dishonor, — Poor, sunken wretch, that hath gone down for ever ? PAPHIANA. Let him disgorge the ducats from me drained : — But they would be my lord's, there. QONARDO. Paphiana, ,; Thine hate and scorn, like two king's^vidence, Treacherously drag thy guilt before the court. 'Tis well thou art so guilty none may doubt it, — Well, thine eflFrontery doth magnify, As with a microscope, thy fall ; else I Might have been counted a mere jealous fool. PAPHIANA. Oh, you were sick, sir, Wv . 3 you ? — dying, dead ? You patrolled past my threshold ; stood near, keeping ■-,T" .' f;j ■1..J' . COUNT FILIPPO. 151 Guard like a grenadier ia the street, While we were making merry in the parlour. Oh, oh. HTLAS. No more of this : bear to a couch that corse. And let it lie in state. — Oh, now the state Falls upon too weak shoulders. Father, this last blow, Striking thee down, hath struck the scaffolding Away from me, before I am well built ; — Hath stricken you away. Count Filippo, Ingratitude towards whom in this last act. As thing corrupt dropped into a deep fount. Hath poisoned all my stream of future years. Forgive me ere you go, if I dare ask you ; Let me not be beyond your mercy's pale. FILIPPO. I that have all forgiven, shall I not Forgive, then, thee ? — ^yea, for his sake who lies, After the storm and winter of his days. There like a snow-drifl spread across the throne. Scroll and compendium of mortality. Hylas, believe resentment may not rest : ^-^... With whomsoever seeketh to be saved : .,..,, , , . Malice for demons and the souls o'the lost. We thee forgive, as we would be forgiven. HYLAS. Oh, make me not to lose now self-possession ! — Enough, enough. — What now remains, save each To take his sober way, and meditate On this sad scene ! Judge me not harshly, lords, Nor cover aught in mine offence deformed : But, oh, let this catastrophe appal ; Let manhood waste no more its lusty days, In vain, voluptuous celibacy ; Nor let those dream whose life's hot summer 's past Without a wedded partner, to renew Their vernal season in their issue's spring.—* '1-1 ■«^H--" Ill 162 COUNT PllilPPO. And now convey that corse from here. On sorrow's foot. — ^Volina, let us go. Move dow VOLINA. We go, hut di£ferent ways, toward different ends : You to a throne in a luxurious court, I to a cell amongst severest nuns ; Wherein, if penitence can pierce the skies, The dew of pardon on me may descend, E'en for the sake of that heaven-opening hlood Was shed on Calvary for such as I ; Whose portion else had heen the fallen's pit. — May you escape it likewise. HYLAS. We are contrite I — Though, late and little, our contrition shows As tardy trickling from a summer rill. Our eyes are dry as brooks in dusty summer. ' Perplexed at heart, upon our lips the words ' ' Lie bound, as running rills by winter's frost; — But do not thou flow hence. Stay : we may still Make some rude restitution, — ^yet retain Thee in the bound and prospect of our view. But, oh, to see thee from our sight recede Into the deep, dim vista of the veil, ' ' Not called thereto by nature 1 Here abide ; — Or, if thou must retire to votive shades, Here found an order of pale penitents, , < Whose sisters shall be queens and noble dames,-!— Fair frail ones whom the foul fiend once beset, , But who may bloom as angels yet on high. — But thou dost mock us with that glimmering :0mile> Too saintly sad thy look. Thy solemn eyes Droop dolefully as two mistnsetting stars ; From thine, shed darkness o'er om sinking soul* Thy soul is set ; we see it in thine eye : Then what remains but here to abdicate,-*- Descend, indeed, before we have ansen, — ■'in f ■.: •>.;t.5Uf-V -.;t COUNT FILIPPO. . 163 • With crucifix go pace the cloistered aisle, Instead of sitting, sceptred, on a throne ? We will hetake us to the sackcloth, too. Who should have donned the purple, — shave the crown, Now covered with these Absalom-like locks, That should be covered with Pereza's crown. Tremohla sought fair Arno's crown for me ; On Arno's head Pereza's crown now be. [^Curtain falh. TH£ END.