PAOLO AND FRANCESCA
 
 This play was commissioned by Mr. George Alexander, 
 
 and accepted for production at the St. James's 
 
 Theatre ; meanwhile it is published by 
 
 his consent, and he retains the 
 
 entire acting rights
 
 PAOLO & FRANCESCA 
 
 A TRAGEDY IN FOUR ACTS 
 
 BY 
 
 STEPHEN PHILLIPS 
 
 Lasso I 
 
 Quanti dolci pensier, quanta disio 
 Menb costoro al dolor oso passo 
 
 DANTE 
 
 JOHN LANE 
 
 THE BODLEY HEAD 
 
 LONDON AND NEW YORK 
 
 1901
 
 Copyright, 1899, by 
 JOHN LANE 
 
 SEVENTH EDITION.
 
 TO 
 
 GEORGE ALEXANDER 
 
 THIS PLAY IS DEDICATED 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 2031366
 
 CHARACTERS 
 
 GIOVANNI MALATESTA 
 
 (" Lo SCANCIATO") 
 PAOLO (" IL BELLO") 
 
 VALENTINO . 
 
 CORRADO . 
 
 LUIGI .... 
 
 MARCO 
 
 PULCI .... 
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI 
 
 LUCREZIA DEGL' ONESTI 
 
 COSTANZA . 
 
 TESSA 
 
 NlTA .... 
 
 ANGELA . . 
 
 MlRRA . 
 
 Tyrant of Rimini 
 
 Brother to Giovanni, and 
 Captain of Mercenaries 
 in the service of Florence 
 
 V Officers of Paolo's Company 
 
 A Soldier 
 
 A Drug-seller 
 
 Bride of Giovanni, and Daugh- 
 ter of Guido da Polenta, 
 Tyrant of Ravenna 
 
 Cousin to Giovanni 
 
 Kinsivoman to Francesco. 
 
 Daughter to Pulci 
 
 Maid to Francesca 
 
 A Blind and 'Aged Servant of 
 the Malatesta 
 
 A Peasant Girl 
 
 Guests, Couriers, Soldiers, Customers of Pulci 
 
 Servants, <Srv.
 
 ACT I
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 SCENE. A gloomy Hall in the Malatesta Castle at 
 Rimini, hung with weapons and instruments 
 of the Chase ; GUESTS and CITIZENS assembled, 
 with SOLDIERS, HUNTSMEN and RETAINERS; 
 hounds held in leash. As the scene opens a 
 trumpet is blown outside. Enter GIOVANNI 
 hurriedly down a gallery to the Hall with 
 papers in his hands He pauses on the 
 steps. 
 
 Gio. Peace to this house of Rimini henceforth ! 
 Kinsmen, although the Ghibelline is fallen 
 And lies out on the plains of Trentola, 
 Still have we foes untrampled, wavering friends. 
 Therefore, on victory to set a seal,
 
 12 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 To-day I take to wife Ravenna's child, 
 
 Daughter of great Polenta, our ally ; 
 
 Between us an indissoluble bond. 
 
 Deep in affairs my brother I despatched, 
 
 My Paolo who is indeed myself 
 
 For scarcely have we breathed a separate 
 
 thought 
 To bring her on the road to Rimini. 
 
 [A noise of falling chains is heard. 
 I hear them at the gates ; the chains have fallen. 
 
 The doors at end of gallery are thrown open. Enter 
 out of sunlight PAOLO, leading FRANCESCA by 
 the hand, followed by LADIES and SQUIRES. 
 Flowers are thrown over them. FRANCESCA 
 bends low to GIOVANNI, who raises her up. 
 
 Rise up, Francesca, and unveil your face. 
 
 \He kisses her on the forehead. 
 Kinsmen, and you that follow with my bride, 
 You see me beat with many blows, death-pale
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 13 
 
 With gushing of much blood, and deaf with war 
 You see me, and I languish for a calm. 
 I ask no great thing of the skies ; I ask 
 Henceforth a quiet breathing, that this child, 
 Hither all dewy from her convent fetched, 
 Shall lead me gently down the slant of life. 
 Here then I sheathe my sword ; and fierce must be 
 That quarrel where again I use the steel. 
 
 \_A murmur of approbation. He turns 
 
 to FRANCESCA. 
 
 Tell me, Francesca ; can you be content 
 To live the quiet life which I propose? 
 Where, though you miss the violent joys of youth, 
 Yet will I cherish you more carefully 
 Than might a younger lover of your years. 
 
 FRANC. My lord, my father gave me to you : I 
 Am innocent as yet of this great life ; 
 My only care to attend the holy bell, 
 To sing and to embroider curiously : 
 And as through glass I view the windy world.
 
 14 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Sweet is the stillness you ensure to me 
 Whose days have been so still : and yet I fear 
 To be found wanting in so great a house : 
 I lack experience in such governing. 
 So if at any time I seem to "off end you, 
 Will you impute it to my youth ! But I 
 Shall never fail in duty willingly. 
 
 Gio. I like that coldness in you, my Francesca, 
 And to my cousin I will make you known. 
 Widowed and childless, she has ruled till now 
 This fort of soldiers, a rough hostelry, 
 Which henceforth is your home ; since I remember 
 She was my friend : has often cooled a rashness, 
 Which I inherit : lean at first on her. 
 
 Luc. Francesca, as your husband says, we two 
 Have long been friends ; but friendship faints in 
 
 love, 
 
 And since through inexperience you may err, 
 My place is near you ; to advise and guide 
 Suits with my years.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 15 
 
 COSTANZA. O Lord of Rimini ! 
 
 With sighs we leave her as we leave a child. 
 Be tender with her, even as God hath been ! 
 She hath but wondered up at the white clouds ; 
 Hath just spread out her hands to the warm 
 
 sun; 
 Hath heard but gentle words and cloister sounds. 
 
 [GIOVANNI bows to her. 
 Gio. Friends, you will go with us to church; 
 
 till then 
 Walk where you please yet one word more be 
 
 sure 
 
 That, though I sheathe the sword, I am not tamed. 
 What I have snared, in that I set my teeth 
 And lose with agony ; when hath the prey 
 Writhed from our mastiff- f angs ? 
 
 Luc. Giovanni, loose 
 
 Francesca's hands the tears are in her eyes. 
 
 Gio. Well, well, till church-time then. Paolo, 
 stay !
 
 16 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 [Exeunt LUCREZIA, GUESTS and RE- 
 TAINERS; NITA and attendant LADIES 
 remaining in the background. GIO- 
 VANNI, PAOLO, and FRANCESCA come 
 down. 
 
 These delegates from Pesaro, Francesca, 
 Expect my swift decision on the tax. 
 Then will you think me negligent or cold 
 If to my brother I confide you still, 
 A moment and no more? [Exit GIOVANNI. 
 
 FRANC. O, Paolo, 
 
 Who were they that have lived within these walls? 
 PAO. Why do you ask? 
 
 FRANC. It is not sign nor sound ; 
 
 Only it seemeth difficult to breathe, 
 It is as though I battled with this air. 
 PAO. You are not sad? 
 
 FRANC. What is it to be sad? 
 
 Nothing hath grieved me yet but ancient woes, 
 Sea-perils, or some long-ago farewell,
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 17 
 
 Or the last sunset cry of wounded kings. 
 I have wept but on the pages of a book, 
 And I have longed for sorrow of my own. 
 
 PAO. Come nothing nearer than such far-off 
 
 tears 
 
 Or peril from the pages of a book ; 
 And, therefore, sister, am I glad that you 
 Are wedded unto one so full of shelter. 
 Constant is he, and steel-true till the grave. 
 For me to-night I must be gone. 
 
 FRANC. To-night ! 
 
 Ah, Paolo, go not away so soon ! 
 You brought me hither leave me not at once, 
 Not now 
 
 PAO. Francesca ! 
 
 FRANC. I am still a child. 
 
 I feel that to my husband I could go 
 Kiss him good-night, or sing him to his sleep, 
 And there an end. 
 
 PAO. Sister, I would that I 
 
 2
 
 18 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 FRANC. Can we not play together a brief 
 
 while? 
 
 Stay, then, a little ! Soon I shall be used 
 To my grave place and duty but not yet. 
 Stay, then, a little ! 
 
 PAO. Here my brother comes. 
 
 Enter GIOVANNI. 
 
 Gio. Stand either side of me you whom I 
 
 love. 
 
 I'd have you two as dear now to each other 
 As both of you to me. We are, Francesca, 
 A something more than brothers fiercest friends ; 
 Concordia was our mother named, and ours 
 Is but one heart, one honour, and one death. 
 Any that came between us I would kill. 
 
 FRANC. Sir, I will love him : is he not my 
 brother? 
 
 [NiTA advances, -with attendant LADIES. 
 NITA. My lady, it draws late.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 19 
 
 Gio. Go with her, child. 
 
 [Exeunt FRANCESCA, NITA and LADIES. 
 
 Gio. \To PAOLO.] You have set a new seal on 
 
 an ancient love, 
 Bringing this bride. 
 
 PAO. And having brought her, here 
 
 My office ends. I'll say farewell to-night. 
 
 Gio. This very night ! 
 
 PAO. I'll go with you to church ; 
 
 But from the after-feast I ask excuse. 
 
 Gio. I do not understand. 
 
 PAO. Brother, believe 
 
 I do not hasten thus without deep cause. 
 
 Gio. Is there such haste indeed ? 
 
 PAO. Such haste indeed ! 
 
 Gio. [Taking his hand.] Come, Paolo, we two have 
 
 never held 
 
 A mystery between us tell me out ! 
 Harsh am I, but to you was ever gentle. 
 What is the special reason of your going ?
 
 20 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 PAO. The troop for Florence which I mustered 
 
 here 
 Should spur at daybreak. 
 
 Gio. There is no such haste. 
 
 What are you holding from me ? 
 
 PAO. Ah, enough ! 
 
 Gio. What sudden face hath made this hall so 
 
 dark? 
 
 Come, then, 'tis natural walk to and fro 
 And tell me ah ! some lady you beheld 
 There at Ravenna in Francesca's train ! 
 Was it not so ? 
 
 PAO. Urge me no more to words. 
 
 Gio. What woman draws you thus away from 
 
 me ? 
 PAO. No woman, brother, draws me from this 
 
 house. 
 
 Gio. You like not then my marriage ! but in- 
 deed, 
 No marriage can dissolve the bond between us.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 21 
 
 Here you are free as ever in the house 
 Once more, what is the reason of your going ? 
 
 PAO. Brother, 'tis nothing that hath chanced, but 
 
 rather 
 That which may chance if here I am detained. 
 
 Gio. Darker and yet more dark. Now speak it 
 out. 
 
 PAO. I cannot. 
 
 Gio. Paolo, this is an ill 
 
 Beginning of my marriage, and I loathe 
 That you should put me off. We three, I 
 
 thought 
 
 We three together tempt me not to rage ! 
 And as your elder I command your stay, 
 Your presence both at church and at the feast. 
 You would affront Francesca publicly ? 
 
 PAO. Giovanni, 'tis enough, I stay. Forgive me. 
 
 Gio. Brother, this is our first and last dispute. 
 Now leave me to these papers. [PAOLO is going."] 
 Paolo,
 
 22 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 You go with me heart-whole into this marriage ? 
 Give me your hand again ! 
 
 PAO. There is my hand. 
 
 [Exit PAOLO. GIOVANNI unfolds papers and 
 
 reads. 
 
 Gio. " In Pesaro sedition ! Andrea Sarti 
 Is urgent " 
 
 Enter LUCREZIA. She touches him on the arm. 
 
 Luc. Pardon me you sit alone. 
 
 While there is time, I have stolen in on you 
 To speak my dearest wishes for this marriage, 
 And in a manner, too, old friend, farewell. 
 
 Gio. Farewell ? 
 
 Luc. And in a manner 'tis farewell. 
 
 Gio. This marriage is political. 
 
 Luc. No more ? 
 
 Gio. And yet since I have seen Francesca, I 
 Have fallen into a trance. It seems, indeed, 
 That I am bringing into this dark air
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 23 
 
 A pureness that shall purge these ancient halls. 
 
 Luc. Watch, then, this pureness : fend it fear- 
 fully. 
 
 Gio. I took her dreaming from her convent 
 trees. 
 
 Luc. And for that reason tremble at her more ! 
 Old friend, remember that we two are passed 
 Into the grey of life : but O, beware 
 This child scarce yet awake upon the world ! 
 Dread her first ecstasy, if one should come 
 That should appear to her half-opened eyes 
 Wonderful as a prince from fairyland 
 Or venturing through forests toward her face 
 No do not stride about the room your limp 
 Is evident the more come, sit by me 
 As you were wont to sit. Youth goes toward 
 youth. 
 
 Gio. What peril can be here? In Rimini? 
 
 Luc. I have but said and say, " Youth goes 
 toward youth,"
 
 24 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 And she shall never prize, as I do still, 
 Your savage courage and deliberate force, 
 Even your mounded back and sullen gait. 
 Gio. Lucrezia ! this is that old bitterness. 
 Luc. Bitterness am I bitter ? Strange, O 
 
 strange ! 
 How else ? My husband dead and childless 
 
 left, 
 My thwarted woman - thoughts have inward 
 
 turned, 
 
 And that vain milk like acid in me eats. 
 Have I not in my thought trained little feet 
 To venture, and taught little lips to move 
 Until they shaped the wonder of a word? 
 I am long practised. O those children, mine ! 
 Mine, doubly mine : and yet I cannot touch them, 
 I cannot see them, hear them Does great God 
 Expect I shall clasp air and kiss the wind 
 For ever? And the budding cometh on, 
 The burgeoning, the cruel flowering :
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 25 
 
 At night the quickening splash of rain, at dawn 
 
 That muffled call of babes how like to birds ; 
 
 And I amid these sights and sounds must 
 
 starve 
 
 I, with so much to give, perish of thrift ! 
 Omitted by His casual dew ! 
 
 Gio. Well, well, 
 
 You are spared much : children can wring the 
 
 heart. 
 Luc. Spared ! to be spared what I was born to 
 
 have ! 
 
 I am a woman, and this very flesh 
 Demands its natural pangs, its rightful throes, 
 And I implore with vehemence these pains. 
 I know that children wound us, and surprise 
 Even to utter death, till we at last 
 Turn from a face to flowers : but this my heart 
 Was ready for these pangs, and had foreseen. 
 O ! but I grudge the mother her last look 
 Upon the coffined form that pang is rich
 
 26 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Envy the shivering cry when gravel falls. 
 
 And all these maimed wants and thwarted 
 
 thoughts, 
 
 Eternal yearning, answered by the wind, 
 Have dried in me belief and love and fear. 
 I am become a danger and a menace, 
 A wandering fire, a disappointed force, 
 A peril do you hear, Giovanni? O ! 
 It is such souls as mine that go to swell 
 The childless cavern cry of the barren sea, 
 Or make that human ending to night-wind. 
 Why have I bared myself to you? I know not, 
 Unless, indeed, this marriage yes, this mar- 
 riage 
 
 Near now, is't not? So near made me cry out. 
 Ah ! she will bring a sound of pattering feet ! 
 But now this message and those papers. I 
 Must haste to see the banquet-table spread 
 Your bride is yet so young. [Exit LUCREZIA. 
 
 Gio. \Reads .] "Antonio
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 27 
 
 And Conti urge it is impolitic 
 
 To lay another load " Youth goes toward 
 
 youth ! 
 
 " On murmuring Pesaro " in Rimini ! 
 " Foresee revolt." Here in the house all's safe. 
 
 Enter SERVANT, leading in blind ANGELA. 
 
 SER. My Lord, blind Angela entreats that she 
 Once more may touch you ere you go to church. 
 
 Gio. Give me your hand, old nurse. 
 \He kneels.] Will you not bless me ? 
 You will not ? And your tears fall down on me ? 
 
 ANG. My son, for are you not my very son ? 
 I gave you milk : from me you sucked in life, 
 And still my breast is thrilling from your lips. 
 
 Gio. Well, well, then ! 
 
 ANG. So that now my very flesh 
 
 Must quail at the approach of woe to you. 
 
 Gio. The drops stand on your forehead ! What 
 is this ?
 
 28 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 ANG. I never trembled for you till this hour. 
 
 Gio. What is it that you fear ? 
 
 \_He kisses her hand. 
 
 ANG. Now your lips touch 
 
 And I begin to feel more surely, child. 
 Ah ! but a juice too pure hath now been poured 
 In a dark ancient wine : and the cup seethes. 
 
 Gio. Speak clearer to me. 
 
 ANG. Closer lay your head. 
 
 Ne'er in the battle have I feared for you. 
 What is the strange, soft thing which you have 
 
 brought 
 Into our life ? 
 
 Gio. Francesca, do you mean ? 
 
 Why do you clutch my arm ? What is't you see ? 
 
 ANG. A kind of twilight struggles through ray 
 
 dark. 
 Be near me ! Soon it seems that I shall know. 
 
 Gio. Upon what scene are those blind eyes so 
 fixed?
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 29 
 
 ANG. A place of leaves : and ah ! how still it is ! 
 She sits alone amid great roses. 
 
 Gio. She ? 
 
 ANG. Who is he that steals in upon your bride ? 
 
 Gio. Angela ! 
 
 ANG. And no sound in all the world ! 
 
 Gio. What doth he there ? 
 
 ANG. He reads out of a book. 
 
 There comes a murmuring as of far-off things. 
 Nearer he drew and kissed her on the lips. 
 
 Gio. His face, mother, his face ? 
 
 ANG. Tis dark again. 
 
 Gio. His face ? that I may know him when we 
 meet. 
 
 ANG. His face was dim : a twilight struggles 
 
 back. 
 
 I see two lying dead upon a bier 
 Slain suddenly, and in each other's arms. 
 
 Gio. Are they those two that in the roses kissed ? 
 
 ANG. Those two !
 
 30 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Gio. Then quickly tell me of him ! 
 
 ANG. Ah ! 
 
 Again 'tis dark. The twilight, as it seemed, 
 With difficulty came, and might not stay. 
 My son, art thou still here ? 
 
 Gio. Why do your lips 
 
 Move fast and yet no words find out their way ? 
 What are they vainly shaping ? 
 
 ANG. Who hath now 
 
 Ta'en hold on me ? 
 
 Gio. Speak, speak, then ! 
 
 ANG. He shall be 
 
 Not far to seek : yet perilous to find. 
 Unwillingly he comes a wooing : she 
 Unwillingly is wooed : yet shall they woo. 
 His kiss was on her lips ere she was born. 
 
 Gio. Who used thy mouth then, and so strangely 
 
 spoke ? 
 O, this is folly ! Yet it weighs me down 
 
 \Trumpets are heard.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 31 
 
 ANG. What is that sound? 
 Gio. My marriage trumpets ! 
 
 ANG. Here 
 
 Still let me sit, and hear the folk pass by. 
 
 Enter from one side KINSMEN and RETAINERS, 
 PAOLO at their head. GIOVANNI joins him, 
 putting his arm round his neck. 
 
 Gio. Paolo, shall we walk together still ? 
 
 \Exit marriage procession of KINSMEN, 
 &*c., led by GIOVANNI and PAOLO. 
 Meanwhile enter from the other side 
 FRANCESCA, LUCREZIA, and attend- 
 ant LADIES. FRANCESCA, in passing, 
 pauses and offers trinket to ANGELA, 
 who shudders, letting it fall. Exeunt 
 all but ANGELA, who remains staring 
 before her. 
 
 CURTAIN.
 
 ACT II
 
 SCENE. A Hall in the Palace. 
 A week elapses between Acts I. and II. 
 
 GIOVANNI seated with papers; PAOLO, in 
 armour, pacing up and down. 
 
 Gio. You chafe to go ? 
 
 PAO. I languish for the road, 
 
 The open road, and chime of mailed feet. 
 
 Gio. And still I marvel at such anxious haste. 
 
 PAO. My troop is mustered now : six miles from 
 
 hence 
 I take command for Florence. 
 
 Gio. Well, I'll urge 
 
 Your stay no more ; yet I suspect no less. 
 
 PAO. What ? 
 
 Gio. That no soldier-business lures you 
 
 hence.
 
 36 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 PAO. Brother, again ! 
 
 Gio. I'll laugh at you no more. 
 
 [He rises and speaks slowly. 
 I have a deeper cause to wish your stay 
 Than when I urged it last. 
 
 PAO. A deeper cause ? 
 
 Gio. I have been warned of peril to Francesca. 
 
 PAO. Peril! 
 
 Gio. Blind Angela in vision saw 
 
 One stealing in upon my wife to woo her. 
 Ah ! you, too, start ! I am not then the fool 
 I call myself to be so burdened down 
 You too it touches. 
 
 PAO. 'Twas a moment's fear. 
 
 Gio. [Taking his hand."] Such sympathy is ours, 
 
 so close are we, 
 That what I suffer you straightway must feel. 
 
 PAO. What manner, then, of man was he that 
 wooed ? 
 
 Gio. Ah, there ! his face was dim. O, Paolo !
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 37 
 
 If but a moment I could see it clear, 
 Look in his eyes as into yours, and know. 
 Well, this is folly ! can be reasoned off 
 And yet it troubles me. Now since I must 
 Surely be absent on affairs, I could 
 More easily Francesca leave behind 
 If you were by her side. 
 
 PAO. If I ? 
 
 Gio. And whom 
 
 Than my own brother could I better leave ? 
 
 PAO. Ah, brother, such a charge I cannot 
 
 well 
 
 Support. If this thing happened by some chance, 
 I in the house, you absent 'tis a duty 
 I would not willingly take up. 
 
 Gio. See how 
 
 You cool to me. 
 
 PAO. Set me to any service ; 
 
 Despatch me into peril ask my life. 
 I'll give away my being and breath for you.
 
 38 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Giovanni, you doubt not, you cannot doubt, 
 My love ? 
 
 Gio. I must not, else I should go mad, 
 So dear you are to me. 
 
 PAD. And he, this wooer, 
 
 If he should wrong Francesca any way 
 My dagger to his heart were swift as yours. 
 
 Gio. I know that well. 
 
 Enter FRANCESCA. 
 
 Francesca, whence come you ? 
 FRANC. From fostering garden flowers. 
 
 Gio. Paolo 
 
 Is set on going. I have urged, implored 
 He has no answer, only he will go. 
 
 Enter a SERVANT hurriedly. 
 
 SER. A courier, sir, spurred out of Pesaro ! 
 Gio. So I expected ! I will come to him. 
 
 [Exit GIOVANNI hurriedly and SERVANT.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 39 
 
 FRANC. \To PAOLO.] Will you not stay ? My hus- 
 band wishes it 
 
 My husband and your brother so he speaks 
 Twice with each word. 
 
 PAO. My brother and myself 
 
 Have spoken of this, and yet you see I go. 
 
 FRANC. If for his sake you will not stay, per- 
 haps 
 
 Even for mine you will a little linger. 
 All here are kind to me, all grave and kind, 
 But O, I have a fluttering up toward joy, 
 Lightness and laughter, and a need of singing. 
 You are more near my age you understand. 
 Where are you vulnerable, Paolo ? 
 You are so cased in steel is't here ? or here ? 
 Lay that sad armour by that steel cuirass. 
 See, then ! I will unloose it with my hands. 
 I cannot loose it there's some trick escapes me. 
 
 PAO. Francesca, think not I can lightly leave 
 you
 
 40 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 And go out from your face into the dark. 
 Ah ! can you think it is not sweet to breathe 
 That delicate air and flowery sigh of you, 
 The stealing May and mystery of your spirit ? 
 Am I not flesh and blood ? am I not young ? 
 Is it easy, then, for youth to run from youth ? 
 And yet from you I run. Or are we swift 
 To fly delight ? And yet from you I fly. 
 What shall I say ? 
 
 FRANC. Sweet are your words, but dark. 
 
 Is beauty to be dreaded, then, and shunned ? 
 
 PAO. How shall I tell you and sow in you 
 
 thoughts 
 Which are not there as yet ? 
 
 \JHe moves to go. 
 
 FRANC. And you will go ? 
 
 Will you not say farewell ? Will you not kiss 
 My hand at least ? Why do you tremble, then ? 
 Is even the touch of me so full of peril ? 
 
 PAO. O ! of immortal peril !
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 41 
 
 FRANC. But how strange ! 
 
 You dread this little hand ? O, wonderful ! 
 Your face is white, and yet you have killed men ! 
 
 PAO. Francesca ! 
 
 FRANC. Do you fear to look in my eyes, 
 
 You so ensteeled and clanging in your stride? 
 And you could crush my life out with your hand. 
 O, this new peril that I have about me ! 
 
 PAO. Child! 
 
 FRANC. And this woe that comes from me 
 
 to men ! 
 
 And I can stay your going, can I not ? 
 Look up ! and with a smile I'll bind you fast. 
 
 PAO. Sister, I suffer ! now at last farewell ! 
 
 Exit PAOLO, tearing himself away. 
 
 FRANC. \_Running to a mirrorJ] Where is the 
 
 glass ? O, face unknown and strange ! 
 Slight face, and yet the cause of woe to men ! 
 
 Enter NITA. 
 Nita, did any pass you on t'le stair ?
 
 42 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 NITA. Lord Paolo came by me, all in steel. 
 
 FRANC. Nita, he trembled to look up at me ! 
 And when I nearer came all pale he grew. 
 And when I smiled he suffered, as it seemed ; 
 And then I smiled again : for it was strange. 
 Is't wicked such sweet cruelty to use ? 
 O ! and that bluer blue that greener green ! 
 
 NITA. My Lady, there's no help. And for my 
 
 sake 
 
 Tall men have fought and lost bright blood for me. 
 
 [She looks in the glass. 
 We cannot choose ; our faces madden men ! 
 
 FRANC. And yet, Nita, and yet can any tell 
 How sorrow first doth come ? Is there a step, 
 A light step, or a dreamy drip of oars ? 
 Is there a stirring of leaves, or ruffle of wings ? 
 For it seems to me that softly, without hand, 
 Surely she touches me. 
 
 NITA. O, such as you 
 
 Are from their birth uplifted above sorrow.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 43 
 
 FRANC. But am I ? am I ? Has he left the 
 
 house ? 
 
 How far, then, hath he gone by now how far ? 
 Surely 'tis natural to desire him back 
 Most natural is it not most natural ? Say ! 
 And yet my heart is wild 
 
 NITA. He is, my Lady, 
 
 Your husband's brother. 
 
 FRANC. O, 1 had not thought ! 
 
 I had not thought ! I have sinned, and I am 
 stained ! [She weeps. 
 
 NITA. Lady, you have done nothing. 
 
 Enter GIOVANNI, with ATTENDANTS; LUCREZIA, with 
 LADIES, to whom she gives directions apart. 
 GIOVANNI comes down to FRANCESCA. 
 
 Gio. Could you not 
 
 Prevail on him to stay? he will return. 
 How beautiful you seem, Francesca, now, 
 As though new- risen with the bloom of dreams !
 
 44 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 More difficult it grows to leave your side. 
 I, like a miser, run my fingers through 
 Your hair : yet tears are lately in your eyes ! 
 What little grief perplexes you, my child ? 
 
 FRANC. I cannot tell, but suffer me to seek 
 The Lady Mother of the convent. 
 
 Gio. Yet 
 
 You shall not stir alone. I have a fear. 
 
 \To ATTENDANTS. 
 Follow your mistress, and escort her back. 
 
 [Exit FRANCESCA, NITA and escort. Lu- 
 CREZIA dismisses LADIES and comes 
 down to GIOVANNI. 
 Gio. [Looking after FRANCESCA.] The peril, ah ! 
 
 the peril ! 
 
 Luc. What is this ? 
 
 Gio. Sit, then, and listen. You first sowed in 
 
 me 
 
 The apprehension of Francesca's youth. 
 Luc. O, I but said
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 45 
 
 Gio. Listen ! That very hour 
 
 Blind Angela, that held me at her breast. 
 Whose very flesh anticipates my fate, 
 I found all shivering like a creature dumb. 
 She clutched my arm, and then, as from the touch, 
 There came a kind of twilight in her dark, 
 And in that twilight with blind eyes she saw 
 One stealing in upon my wife to woo her. 
 
 Luc. Ah ! 
 
 Gio. In a place of leaves they sat and read. 
 
 Nearer he drew, and kissed her on the lips. 
 Again into her dark the twilight came, 
 And they two lay together on a bier, 
 Slain ere they knew, and in each other's arms. 
 These images have so enthralled my brain 
 I have lived since then in fever. 
 
 Luc. But this shadow 
 
 That wooed Francesca, and then died with her, 
 Was nothing more discerned? 
 
 Gio. The face was dim.
 
 46 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Luc. But could she give no hint of form or 
 
 voice ? 
 Gio. I cried " How shall I know him ? " 
 
 Then her lips, 
 
 After a frantic striving, shaped these words 
 " Unwillingly he comes a wooing ; she 
 Unwillingly is wooed : yet shall they woo." 
 
 Luc. Unwillingly ! This, as it seems, would 
 
 point 
 
 Gio. \_Starting to his feet.'] Ah ! does the scent 
 come to you ? Set me on ! 
 
 Luc. [Slowfy.~\ To one who had dear reason 
 
 not to woo 
 To one who owed you much some ancient 
 
 friend ! 
 
 Gio. Fainter again ! I know of no such man. 
 Hark back. 
 
 Luc. Said she no more, then ? 
 Gio. " He shall be 
 
 Not far to seek, yet perilous to find ! "
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 47 
 
 [LUCREZIA starts. 
 What, does the scent come stronger now ? You 
 
 start, 
 And your eyes glitter 
 
 Luc. \_Going slowly to him and laying her hand 
 
 on his shoulder.'] Let us hunt this trail ! 
 
 And yet you will mislike whither it leads. 
 
 Gio. Nothing can hold me now. 
 
 Luc. "Not far to seek" 
 
 Points back to Rimini, this little town, 
 To one, perhaps, mad for Francesca's face, 
 That lurks about us. 
 
 Gio. Wary now, yet swift ! 
 
 Luc. Here at our gates, or nearer still. 
 
 Gio. Say, say ! 
 
 Luc. Perhaps, perhaps, within this very house. 
 
 Gio. O barren restless woman, at what sight 
 Do you give cry at last ? 
 
 Luc. [Looking into his eyes^\ Are you still 
 eager ?
 
 48 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Gio. I shut my eyes and I run into it. 
 
 Luc. [Starting back.~\ That crouch as of a beast 
 
 about to spring ! 
 I dare not, will not, speak till you are calm. 
 
 Gio. I am calm [bending his sword across his 
 
 knee}. This steel is true that I can bend it 
 Into a hoop ! 
 
 Luc. O, then, if it should be 
 
 One that had risen, eaten and drunk with you, 
 Whose hand was daily in your own ! 
 
 Gio. Is it ? 
 
 Luc. Giovanni ! who shall set a shore to 
 
 love? 
 
 When hath it ever swerved from death, or when 
 Hath it not burned away all barriers, 
 Even dearest ties of mother and of son, 
 Even of brothers ? 
 
 Gio. [Seizing her arm.} Is it Paolo ? 
 
 Luc. You stop the blood in my arm; release 
 your hold.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 49 
 
 Gio. \_Slowly releasing her arm.~\ 
 
 Ah, gradual nature ! let this thought come 
 
 slow ! 
 
 Accustom me by merciful degrees 
 To this idea, which henceforth is my home : 
 I am strong yet cannot in one moment think it. 
 
 Luc. {Softly."] You speak as in a trance. 
 
 Gio. Bring me not back ! 
 
 Like one that walks in sleep, if suddenly 
 I wake, I die. [ With a cry.~\ Paolo ! Paolo ! 
 
 Luc. Giovanni ! 
 
 Gio. Paolo ! ah, no, not there ! 
 
 Not there, where only I was prone to love ! 
 Beautiful wast thou in 'the battle, boy ! 
 We came from the same womb, and we have 
 
 slept 
 
 Together in the moonbeams ! I have grown 
 So close to him, my very flesh doth tear ! 
 Why, why, Lucrezia, I have lifted him 
 Over rough places he was but a child,
 
 So PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 A child that put his hand in mine ! I reel 
 
 My little Paolo ! [He swoons off. 
 
 Luc. Help, help ! Ah, no ! 
 
 I must not call the foam is on his lips, 
 The veins outstand and yet I have a joy, 
 A bitter joy ! I'll lay his head down here. 
 
 [She raises his face, and looks into it. 
 Thou wast so rich now thou art poor as I ! 
 His eyes unclose ! Master thyself ! 
 
 GiO. \Slowly opening his eyes.~] At last ! 
 As to a soul new-come the murk of hell 
 Grows more accustomed, gradually light, 
 So I begin to see amid this gloom. 
 Let me explore the place and walk in it ! 
 
 [He rises slowly to his feet. 
 We must live on, Lucrezia we must still 
 Pace slowly on, and set our teeth until 
 Relief is sent. 
 
 Luc. Can you stand now, Giovanni ? 
 
 GIO. You are my friend, my solitary friend !
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 51 
 
 Luc. Am I not lone as you are, without ties ? 
 Childless and husbandless, yet bitter-true ! 
 
 Gio. Be with me still if Paolo it is ! 
 Henceforward let no woman bear two sons. 
 Yet, wherefore should he go ? 
 
 Luc. He feared, perhaps. 
 
 Gio. He too, then, feared and went. 
 
 Luc. Now he is gone, 
 
 There's breathing time at least. 
 
 Gio. * Can I not bind 
 
 Her beauty fast o'er which I 'gin to yearn ? 
 Are there not drugs to charm the hearts of 
 women ? 
 
 Luc. Put her to sleep, and so ensure her faith 
 Yet, then, she'll dream. 
 
 Gio. If Paolo it is ! 
 
 Luc. Lean upon me, Giovanni ; you are weak. 
 
 [Exeunt both, slowly.
 
 52 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 SCENE II. A Wayside Inn out of Rimini. 
 
 View of Rimini in distance, towers flushed with 
 sunset. 
 
 Enter MARCO and other SOLDIERS, MIRRA 
 and other GIRLS, a SERGEANT. 
 
 A SOLDIER. What ! Are we all to say good-bye 
 here, then? 
 
 A GIRL. We can come no further out of 
 Rimini. 
 
 ANOTHER SOLDIER. We must all have a kiss 
 before we go. 
 
 ANOTHER GIRL. Ah ! you are ready to kiss us, 
 and you are ready to go. 
 
 SOLDIER. That is the soldier's life. 
 
 GIRL. To love and go away? Yes, we know 
 you. 
 
 MAR. To love and go, and love again, to fight 
 and love again, and go a good life, too.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 53 
 
 A GIRL. Listen to him ! He tells us he will 
 love some one else. Well, we have all had a merry 
 time. 
 
 MAR. So we have ; but the world is large. Little 
 Mirra here is not the first or the last. 
 
 {They laugh. 
 
 A SOLDIER. One last cup of wine all round. 
 
 MAR. Come, Mirra, we'll drink together out of 
 this cup... Here's your health, sweetheart, and many 
 other lovers to you. 
 
 A GIRL. Ah ! he knows life is short. Isn't he a 
 pretty fellow ? 
 
 MAR. \Sings ^\ 
 
 O I love not, I, the long road and the march, 
 With the chink, chink, chinking, and the parch. 
 But I love the little town that springs in sight 
 At the falling of the day, with many a light. 
 It is sweet ! it is sweet 
 
 (Chorus) Ha, ha ! Ha, ha !
 
 54 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 To clatter down the pebbly street, 
 
 When the taverns all are humming, 
 
 And the lads in front are drumming, 
 
 And the windows fill with girls, 
 
 All laughing, and all shaking down their curls. 
 
 (Chorus) Ha, ha ! Ha, ha ! 
 
 Then your armour's all unlaced, 
 And your arm is round a waist : 
 And she seems so much afraid, 
 You could swear she was a maid 
 
 SERGEANT. [Interrupting^ Come, lads, give the 
 girls the slip : your duty ! We must start 
 again. 
 
 MIR. \_Clinging to MARCO.] You will come back 
 again, won't you, Marco ? 
 
 MAR. May and may not, Mirra. Who can tell ? 
 
 MIR. Because because 
 
 A GIRL. Look at her she's crying ! Why, he was 
 only playing with you.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 55 
 
 MIR. I know, I know. 
 
 A GIRL. And they say his pky has ended in some 
 earnest. 
 
 ANOTHER GIRL. Well, what then ? Fools must go 
 their own way. 
 
 MAR. Good-bye, girls : we have had a merry 
 time. 
 
 GIRLS. Good-bye, good-bye ! [All exeunt. 
 
 Enter CORRADO, VALENTINO, LUIGI and PAOLO. 
 
 COR. Here's an inn the first since Rimini. Bring 
 us some wine. 
 
 PAO. How straight the road is from here to Rimini ! 
 One can see the town at the end. 
 
 VAL. Yes, and your brother's castle. [Enter 
 LANDLORD with wine.'} Come, Lord Paolo, some 
 wine. Why so dull ? 
 
 PAO. It is that old wound pains me. 
 
 COR.' [Drinking.~\ Come, kd, out with it! Is it 
 a debt or a wench ? Let me talk with him. [Goes
 
 56 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 over to PAOLO.] I can advise you, Paolo. I have 
 loved more, owed more, drunk more, and lived more. 
 Confess to me ! 
 
 Lui. Who would not to so easy a priest ? 
 
 VAL. \To CORRADO.] Still staring down the 
 road. 
 
 COR. [ Whispering.'] I have it, then. 
 
 VAL. Corrado says that when a man sits down out- 
 side an inn and refuses wine, and stares back along 
 the road he came, he is in love. 
 
 COR. Didn't you observe one of those girls as we 
 passed them, crying ? Shame, Paolo ! and in your 
 own town, too ! 
 
 Lui. He doesn't hear us. 
 
 COR. Well, here's a health to her, whoever she is ! 
 Now, Paolo, let me speak to you. I have myself so 
 often felt this give me a word. 
 
 VAL. Pang! 
 
 COR. Pang yes, pang I 
 
 Lui. So often ?
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 57 
 
 COR. More times than I can count. Why, man, I 
 have thriven on pangs. There was the landlord's 
 wife at Ancona ; there was the little black-eyed girl 
 out of Florence. To look at me, you would scarcely 
 suppose that I have left half the cities of Italy sighing 
 behind me. I have suffered, and I have inflicted. 
 There was 
 
 Lui. O, Corrado ! Not these old stories. 
 
 COR. Well, the fruit of all this ! You must know 
 that love is a thing physical. It can be sweated out 
 of a man by hard riding ; it evaporates from the body 
 like any humour. 
 
 VAL. Ha! ha! 
 
 COR. My advice is this fill up, drink, and 
 get to fighting quickly ; and if, after a bottle 
 or so, you have taken a girl on your knee in 
 the twilight Why Paolo ! consider you have left 
 behind you, perhaps, another soldier for your 
 brother's wars. You have done a brotherly act, 
 and
 
 58 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 PAO. [Rising."] Corrado, we have been fast com- 
 rades, and I think you know me ; but another word 
 of this and there will be an end of talk between us 
 you understand ? 
 
 COR. O ! ho ! 
 
 VAL. I tell you you see, it is one of those 
 serious matters, where the spirit is more con- 
 cerned than the flesh. Come, Paolo, let us have 
 it! 
 
 COR. Before he begins, I think it would be more 
 fitting if we uncovered our heads, for the recitation 
 is likely to be solemn. 
 
 Lui. Come, come, we must be going ! 
 
 COR. God send us another inn soon. 
 
 [Exeunt CORRADO and VALENTINO. 
 
 Lui. Give me your hand, Paolo you know me. 
 Tell me the trouble. 
 
 PAO. I cannot, Luigi. 
 
 Lui. Have you fallen out with your brother ? You 
 and he were such friends.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 59 
 
 PAO. No. 
 
 Lui. Is it the young wife that he has married, and 
 - now he seems more cold to you ? But this is natural 
 at first. How can I help you ? 
 
 PAO. No one can help me, Luigi. 
 
 Lui. Up, and lead us on, then ! 
 
 PAO. I will catch you in a moment. 
 
 Lui. I am very sorry, Paolo. [Exit LUIGI. 
 
 PAO. I have fled from her; have refused the 
 
 rose, 
 
 Although my brain was reeling at the scent. 
 I have come hither as through pains of death ; 
 I have died, and I am gazing back at life. 
 Yet now it were so easy to return, 
 And run down the white road to Pumini ! 
 And might I not return ? [He starts up and looks 
 at the towers, red with sunset.~] Those battle- 
 ments 
 
 Are burning ! they catch fire, those parapets ! 
 And through the blaze doth her white face look out
 
 60 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Like one forgot, yet possible to save. 
 Might I not then return? Ah, no ! no ! no ! 
 For I should tremble to be touched by her, 
 And dread the music of her mere good-night. 
 Howe'er I sentinelled my bosom, yet 
 That moment would arrive when instantly 
 Our souls would flash together in one flame, 
 And I should pour this torrent in her ear 
 And suddenly catch her to my heart. 
 
 \_A drum is heard. 
 
 A drum ! 
 
 O, there is still a world of men for a man ! 
 I'll lose her face in flashing brands, her voice 
 In charging cries : I'll rush into the war ! 
 
 [SOLDIERS pass across the stage. Seeing 
 PAOLO, they cheer and call him by 
 name then exeunt. He makes to 
 follow, then stops. 
 I cannot go ; thrilling from Rimini, 
 A tender voice makes all the trumpets mute.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 61 
 
 I cannot go from her : may not return. 
 
 O God ! what is Thy will upon me ? Ah ! 
 
 One path there is, a straight path to the dark. 
 
 There, in the ground, I can betray no more, 
 
 And there for ever am I pure and cold. 
 
 The means ! No dagger blow, nor violence shown 
 
 Upon my body to distress her eyes. 
 
 Under some potion gently will I die ; 
 
 And they that find me dead shall lay me down 
 
 Beautiful as a sleeper at her feet. 
 
 CURTAIN.
 
 ACT III
 
 SCENE I. The shop of PULCI, late evening. The 
 walls and ceiling are hung with skins, sharks' 
 teeth, crucibles, wax figures, crystals, charms, 
 <5rv. A counter, at which TESSA stands. As 
 the scene opens figures are seen leaving the 
 shop. Three PEASANT GIRLS and a LADY'S MAID 
 remain. 
 
 TESSA. I must ask you to choose quickly. It is past 
 the hour for closing the shop. 
 
 ist GIRL. And will this syrup keep Antonio faith- 
 ful ? 
 
 TESSA. Two drops of this in anything he drinks, 
 given every seven days, and he will have no eyes but 
 for you. 
 
 ist GIRL. But will it keep his thoughts true while I 
 am away ?
 
 66 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 TESSA. Wherever he may be his thoughts will be 
 for you. 
 
 ist GIRL. Ah, but you don't know Antonio. He is 
 so easily led off any face if it is fresh any fool 
 with bright eyes. 
 
 TESSA. These drops will keep even Antonio faith- 
 ful. 
 
 ist GIRL. I'll take it, then : it must be a wonderful 
 syrup. [Exit ist GIRL. 
 
 TESSA. \To MAID.] And you ? 
 
 MAID. I wondered how long I was to be made to 
 wait for these common chattering wenches. I want 
 another packet of that face-bloom for my mistress, 
 and a darker shade. The other makes her appear 
 hectic. 
 
 TESSA. This, then, has a darker tinge. 
 
 MAID. And you are to tell your father that the 
 dye he sent withers her hair. He must add more 
 oil. 
 
 TESSA. I will tell him. Good-night.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 67 
 
 MAID. Good-night to you. [Exit MATO. 
 
 2nd GIRL. [Holding out charm.~\ What is this 
 charm? 
 
 TESSA. It will ensure you against ague, fever, 
 or infection, and not only this, but against peril 
 of any kind. It is worn round the neck, and 
 at the approach of danger it will tremble and 
 give you a sign. 
 
 2nd GIRL. O, I must have that. Will this 
 money be enough to-day if I bring the rest next 
 week ? 
 
 TESSA. If the charm is not paid for soon it will 
 lose its power. Take it, and remember. 
 
 [Exit 2nd GIRL. 
 Now you quickly, please what do you want ? 
 
 3rd GIRL. I want a cure for love. Are they 
 very expensive ? 
 
 TESSA. We have some that will cure of love in 
 a few hours; but these will cost you a great 
 deal.
 
 68 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 3d GIRL. It is terrible not to be able to sleep 
 at nights. 
 
 TESSA. Here is one that will bring you back 
 sleep, and cure you entirely in a few weeks 
 one that you could afford. 
 
 3rd GIRL. I don't think I want to be cured 
 entirely and yet one never knows what one may 
 come to when it grows late and there is music and 
 dancing. It is hard to resist under the moon. 
 
 TESSA. Come, now will you take it ? 
 
 3rd GIRL. {Taking phial.'] I think I'll have it, 
 and take it very slowly. 
 
 TESSA. There, then ! 
 
 3rd GIRL. There's money saved for six weeks. Ah, 
 well! 
 
 [Exit 3rd GIRL. TESSA, after barring up 
 door, goes to glass. 
 
 TESSA. Now I can play for awhile. [She puts 
 some bloom on her face.~\ O, but this bloom is 
 beautiful ! And how it makes one's eyes
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 69 
 
 sparkle ! Now this red salve for the lips that 
 is just what I lacked. My lips are too pale but 
 now ! Where is that pencil ? Here. Shall I 
 lengthen my eyebrows, curving them so ? No : 
 I will only deepen them. There, then ! [She 
 walks up and down before a glass, then sits 
 dejectedly. ,] Yet what is the use of all this? I 
 am never seen, may not stir into the streets. 
 And I want to be seen, and hear music 
 and 
 
 PUL. [Entering down the stairs with a lighted 
 brazier.'] Tessa ! 
 
 TESSA. Yes, father. 
 
 PUL. Have I not forbidden you to touch 
 these powders? 
 
 TESSA. Ah, but look at me, father. Am I 
 always to stay shut up here, where no one 
 comes but maids of fine ladies and girls from 
 the shops ? 
 
 PUL. My child, we must be patient a little
 
 70 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 longer. Listen ! Soon we shall be rich, and 
 then we will fly Rimini, and far from here we 
 will have a palace \A knockJ] Tessa, go to your 
 room instantly. 
 
 TESSA. \_Lingering.~] May I not stay and see 
 who it is? 
 
 PUL. It is only some lady's-maid. 
 
 TESSA. No, father, I think it is a gentleman. 
 
 PUL. Quickly ! Quickly ! 
 
 \_Exit TESSA. PULCI puts out light and 
 lights a lamp; he slowly unbars the 
 door. Enter GIOVANNI, masked and 
 cloaked. PULCI closes door after 
 him. 
 
 PUL. Has no one seen you enter, sir ? 
 Gio. No one. 
 
 PUL. Softly ! What do you seek? 
 Gio. Some dreamy potion 
 
 That can enthral a woman's wandering heart 
 And all her thought subdue to me.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 71 
 
 PUL. {Producing phial."] This poured 
 
 In her night drink will woo her to your arms. 
 One amorous night at least it will procure. 
 
 Gio. One night ! what use of that ? Each day, 
 
 each night 
 Must she be mine. 
 
 PUL. But one more drug I have 
 
 [Searches for another phial. 
 
 Gio. \Aside ^ I must beguile, it seems, my wedded 
 
 wife, 
 And lure into my arms what is my own. 
 
 PUL. [Offering another phial.'] This, then, will 
 
 purchase some infatuate days. 
 Gio. Some days ! 
 
 PUL. No tincture longer holds the blood. 
 
 Gio. Here is a purse. [Throws purse of coins. 
 
 PUL. Ah ! get you quickly gone. 
 
 [As they approach the door a knock is 
 
 heard. 
 See ! I will slowly now unbar the door,
 
 72 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 And whoso enters past him slip away 
 Into the night. 
 
 Gio. [Stops PULCL] I must not meet a stranger. 
 
 \7akes off mask. 
 Hither ! look on my face. 
 
 PUL. \Falling on his kneesJ] Mercy, great Lord ! 
 Take not my life this commerce after hours 
 Is for my child. 
 
 Gio. Hide me, and instantly. 
 
 PUL. \Hiding him behind the arras."] Here, 
 then. [Another knock."] And, sir, secrets of 
 Rimini 
 
 And unsuspected movings of your subjects 
 You can o'erhear. I'll draw him on to speak 
 Only stir not. \_Unbars door; enter PAOLO.} 
 Warily, sir. 
 
 PAO. Old man 
 
 Gio, Paolo's voice ! 
 
 PAO. What is that sound? This business 
 
 Is for no other ear but yours.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 73 
 
 PUL. If any stirred 
 
 It was my child preparing her for bed. 
 
 PAO. If any hear me, it were ill for him ! 
 Old man, there is within this purse a calm 
 Decline for thee to death, and quiet hours. 
 Take it, and give me in exchange some drug 
 That can fetch down on us the eternal sleep, 
 Anticipating the slow mind of God. 
 
 PUL. Is this thing for thyself, or for another ? 
 
 PAO. 'Tis for myself ! 
 
 PUL. I will not sell to murder. 
 
 But unto any weary of their life 
 I sell a painless issue out of it. 
 Yet you are young ! 
 
 PAO. Think you the old would die ? 
 
 At any cost they would prolong the light. 
 'Tis we, in whose pure blood the fever takes, 
 Newly inoculate with violent life, 
 'Tis we who are so mad to die. 
 
 PUL. 'Tis true
 
 74 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 I would not lose a moment of the sun. 
 What hath so early ruined you ? 
 
 PAO. Old sir, 
 
 I am on my death-bed, and to you confess, 
 Love, where to love is extreme treachery 
 Love for another's wife. 
 
 PUL. Nothing so strange. 
 
 PAO. Yes, for she is my brother's wife my 
 sister. 
 
 Gio. [Aside."] Thou hast said it ! 
 
 PAO. O, I cannot near her bide 
 
 But infinite her lightest whisper grows. 
 There's peril in the rustling of her dress. 
 
 PUL. And are you, too, beloved ? 
 
 PAO. She hath said no word, 
 
 But should I stay, she would catch fire from me. 
 
 PUL. Why all's before you yet you yield up 
 breath. 
 
 PAO. I cannot go from her ; I must not stay. 
 To die is left !
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 75 
 
 PUL. For such a drug the price 
 
 PAO. Usher me to oblivion ! 
 
 [Shows purse with gold. 
 PUL. [Reaching down phial.~] This drunk off 
 Within an hour will terminate thy woe. 
 
 PAO. [Taking phial which PULCI hands himJ\ 
 Unbar the door ! How the night rushes in ! 
 
 [Exit PAOLO. 
 PUL. [To GIOVANNI.] I'll follow him. If suddenly 
 
 he drink 
 He must not fall and lie too near my door. 
 
 [Exit PULCI. 
 Gio. [Coming from behind arras."] All doubt at 
 
 last is o'er ! He hath said it out ! 
 Almost I had my dagger in his heart ! 
 Yet sooner than betray, he is gone to death. 
 [ Wildly. ~] I cannot have thee die, my Paolo ! 
 Perhaps even now he drinks : even now the 
 
 phial 
 Touches his lips ah. brother, dash it down !
 
 76 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 How much, then, hast thou drunk? Not yet 
 
 enough 
 Not yet enough I know for death ? Which 
 
 way 
 Went he I'll follow him. [Rushes to door, then 
 
 pauses.'] Yet, O my God ! 
 It must be so ! How else ? He is so bound 
 To her, he cannot fly ! he must not stay ! 
 He has gone out upon the only road. 
 And this is my relief ! O dread relief ! 
 Thus only am I pure of brother's blood ! 
 I must be still while he goes out to die ! 
 And yet be still while he who is most dear 
 Drinks poison yet I must be very still ! 
 
 Re-enter PULCI. 
 
 PUL. I watched till he was mingled with the 
 
 night. 
 Gio. Tell me ! Is he that's gone so sure to 
 
 die?
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 77 
 
 PUL. Within an hour, so potent is the drag ! 
 [Fawning on Gio.] You on more pleasant business 
 
 came to me. 
 
 We who are older at such madness laugh. 
 Gio. I stifle here ! 
 
 PUL. Tyrant of Rimini ! 
 
 You will not kill me ? 
 
 Gio. Till to-morrow night 
 
 I stay my hand. Which way went he that 
 
 fool? 
 
 PUL. Straight on; he never turned until I lost 
 him. [Exit GIOVANNI. 
 
 Tessa! 
 
 TESSA. [Running in."\ Yes, father. 
 PUL. Now you have your wish ; 
 
 To-morrow must we ran from Rimini. 
 
 TESSA. To-morrow night the world then 
 the bright world ! 
 
 [PULCI pours the gold out on the counter.
 
 78 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 SCENE II. A lane outside the wall of the castle 
 garden, postern door in the wall. 
 
 Enter PAOLO. 
 
 PAO. There is no other means : but ah, the 
 
 pain ! 
 
 Here is the garden where her lattice shines. 
 Perchance she looks toward me now, and makes 
 A music upon midnight with my name. 
 Perchance she leans into the air and sighs. 
 O ! now is she attired in purest white, 
 Hanging above our heads 'twixt earth and heaven ! 
 Life, life ! I cannot leave thee, for she lives. 
 At least I must behold her before death ; 
 And go straight from her face into the grave 
 Straight from her touch at least into the ground. 
 Much is permitted to a man condemned. 
 I'll see her, hear her, touch her ere I die. 
 
 \Exit PAOLO through postern door into {he 
 gardens.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 79 
 
 Enter two COURIERS hastily with torches. 
 
 ist COUR. Which way now ? 
 
 2nd COUR. Stay, I am out of breath. 
 
 ist COUR. At such a moment, that Lord Malatesta 
 cannot be found ! 
 
 2nd COUR. I must get my breath against this door. 
 Have you the papers ? 
 
 ist COUR. Here. Lately married, yet out of his 
 bed at this hour ! 
 
 2nd COUR. Ah, I wish I were back with 
 
 ist COUR. Hush ! here is Carlo. 
 
 Enter CARLO. 
 
 Well, no sign of him ? 
 
 CAR. None. 
 And I am aguish, and these night dews ! 
 
 ist COUR. Stay ! 
 
 CAR. What ? 
 
 ist COUR. Listen ! I tell you.
 
 8o PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 2nd COUR. A step ! 
 
 CAR. It is he, Lord Malatesta. 
 
 Enter GIOVANNI slowly. 
 
 CAR. Great lord, we have pursued you up and 
 down. Here's news that will not stay. 
 
 [Gives hint letter. 
 
 Gio. Hold the torch nearer. [Reads."] "Tyrant 
 of Rimini ! All Pesaro is risen against the tax 
 laid on them. Our men are beaten behind the 
 city walls the city itself declares for Cosimo. We 
 wait but for you; a noise of your coming a sight 
 of you and the city will fall to us again. Linger 
 not a moment. ANDREA." Carlo, muster every 
 man within call. Then to the palace saddle my 
 horse. Summon all in the house to follow you : 
 rouse them from their beds ; they must ride with me 
 instantly. 
 
 \_Exeunt CARLO and COURIERS. Enter run- 
 ning two MESSENGERS from other side.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 81 
 
 A MESSENGER. Lord and tyrant of Rimini ! We 
 are come on you none too soon we are ridden from 
 the camp our horses stand there was no moment 
 to write, but this by word of mouth : " Your gar- 
 rison makes terms with the enemy : many are 
 already gone over, and we fear for San Arcangelo 
 and the whole province." 
 
 Gio. Get a cup of wine, both of you, and be pre- 
 pared to ride with me within the half-hour. I'll fall 
 like thunder on Pesaro, and catch San Arcangelo 
 with the wind of it. \Exit one MESSENGER. GIO- 
 VANNI to the other.~\ Stay you, sir ! and tell me 
 more exactly as we hurry on. Where is Andrea now, 
 then ? There is a vantage-ground just out of Pesaro, 
 
 and there 
 
 [Exeunt GIOVANNI and MESSENGER.
 
 82 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 SCENE III. An Arbour in the Castle Gardens. 
 Dawn beginning to break. 
 
 Enter FRANCESCA with a book, NITA following 
 with lamp. 
 
 FRANC. I cannot sleep, Nita ; I will read here. 
 Is it dawn yet ? [NITA sets lamp down. 
 
 NITA. No, lady : yet I see 
 
 A flushing in the East. 
 
 FRANC. How still it is ! 
 
 NITA. This is the stillest time of night or day. 
 
 FRANC. Know you why, Nita ? 
 
 NITA. No, my lady. 
 
 FRANC. Now 
 
 Day in a breathless passion kisses night, 
 And neither speaks. 
 
 NITA. Shall I stay here ? 
 
 FRANC. Ah, no ! 
 
 Perhaps in the dawn silence I shall drowse. 
 If not, I'll read this legend to myself.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 83 
 
 NITA. Is it a pretty tale ? 
 
 FRANC. Pretty, ah no ! 
 
 Nita ; but beautiful and passing sad. 
 
 NITA. I love sad tales : though I am gay, I love 
 Sometimes to weep. But is it of our time ? 
 
 FRANC. It is an ancient tale of two long dead. 
 
 NITA. O, 'tis a tale of love ! 
 
 FRANC. Of love, indeed. 
 
 But, Nita, leave me to myself : I think 
 I would have no one stirring near me now. 
 
 \Exit NITA. 
 The light begins, but he is far away. 
 
 [She walks to and fro. 
 Better than tossing in that vacant room 
 Is this cool air and fragrance ere the dawn. 
 Where is the page which I had reached? Ah, 
 
 here ! 
 Now let me melt into an ancient woe. 
 
 [Begins to read. Enter PAOLO, softly. 
 
 PAO. Francesca !
 
 84 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 FRANC. Paolo ! I thought you now 
 
 Gone into battle dim, far, far away. 
 
 PAO. And seems it strange that I should come, 
 then? 
 
 FRANC. No, 
 It seems that it could not be otherwise. 
 
 PAO. I went indeed; but some few miles from 
 
 hence 
 
 Turned, and could go no further. All this night 
 About the garden have I roamed and burned. 
 And now, at last, sleepless and without rest, 
 I steal to you. 
 
 FRANC. Sleepless and without rest ! 
 
 PAO. It seemed that I must see your face again, 
 Then nevermore ; that I must hear your voice, 
 And then no more; that I must touch your 
 
 hand, 
 
 Once. No one stirs within the house ; no one 
 In all this world but you and I, Francesca. 
 We two have to each other moved all night.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 85 
 
 FRANC. I moved not to you, Paolo. 
 
 PAO. But night 
 
 Guided you on, and onward beckoned me. 
 What is that book you read ? Now fades the 
 
 last 
 
 Star to the East : a mystic breathing comes : 
 And all the leaves once quivered, and were 
 still. 
 
 FRANC. It is the first, the faint stir of the dawn. 
 
 PAO. So still it is that we might almost hear 
 The sigh of all the sleepers in the world. 
 
 FRANC. And all the rivers running to the sea. 
 
 PAO. What is't you read ? 
 
 FRANC. It is an ancient tale. 
 
 PAO. Show it to me. Is it some drowsy page 
 That reading low I might persuade your eyes 
 At last to sleep ? 
 
 FRANC. It is the history 
 
 Of two who fell in love long years ago ; 
 And wrongly fell.
 
 86 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 PAO. How wrongly ? 
 
 FRANC. Because she 
 
 Already was a wife, and he who loved 
 Was her own husband's dear familiar friend. 
 PAO. Was it so long ago ? 
 FRANC. So long ago. 
 
 PAO. What were their famous and unlucky 
 
 names ? 
 FRANC. Men called him Launcelot, her Guene- 
 
 vere. 
 
 Here is the page where I had ceased to read. 
 PAO. [Taking 6ook.~\ Their history is blotted 
 
 with new tears. 
 FRANC. The tears are mine : I know not why I 
 
 wept. 
 But these two were so glad in their wrong 
 
 love: 
 
 It was their joy ; it was their helpless joy. 
 PAO. Shall I read on to you where you have 
 paused ?
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA fy 
 
 FRANC. Here is the place: but read it k>w and 
 
 sweet. 
 Put out the lamp ! [PAOLO puts out the lamp. 
 
 PAO. The glimmering page is clear. 
 
 [Reading.] " Now on that day it chanced that 
 
 Launcelot, 
 
 Thinking to find the King, found Guenevere 
 Alone ; and when he saw her whom he loved, 
 Whom he had met too late, yet loved the more ; 
 Such was the tumult at his heart that he 
 Could speak not, for her husband was his friend, 
 His dear familiar friend : and they two held 
 No secret from each other until now ; 
 But were like brothers born" my voice breaks 
 
 off. 
 Read you a little on. 
 
 FRANC. [Reading."] " And Guenevere, 
 Turning, beheld him suddenly whom she 
 Loved in her thought, and even from that hour 
 When first she saw him ; for by day, by night,
 
 88 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Though lying by her husband's side, did she 
 Weary for Launcelot, and knew full well 
 How ill that love, and yet that love how deep ! " 
 I cannot see the page is dim : read you. 
 
 PAO. [Reading.'] " Now they two were alone, yet 
 
 could not speak ; 
 
 But heard the beating of each other's hearts. 
 He knew himself a traitor but to stay, 
 Yet could not stir : she pale and yet more pale 
 Grew till she could no more, but smiled on him. 
 Then when he saw that wished smile, he came 
 Near to her and still near, and trembled ; then 
 Her lips all trembling kissed." 
 
 FRANC. \Drooping towards him.'] Ah, Launce- 
 lot ! \He kisses her on the lips. 
 
 CURTAIN.
 
 ACT IV
 
 A Chamber in the Palace late evening of the second 
 day after GIOVANNI'S departure. 
 
 GIOVANNI discovered, stained as from hard riding. 
 CARLO and RETAINERS attending him. Wine on 
 table. 
 
 Gio. The Lady Lucrezia is she in the 
 house ? 
 
 CAR. She is, sir. 
 
 Gio. Tell her that I am returned, 
 
 And ask some words with her. Well why, do 
 
 you 
 
 Stand bursting with some news that you must 
 
 ten? 
 
 What sudden thing has happened ? 
 
 CAR. Nothing, sir.
 
 92 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Gio. Nothing ? You then that huddle all to- 
 gether, 
 
 Like cattle against thunder what hath chanced ? 
 AN ATTENDANT. I know of nothing, sir. 
 2nd ATTEN. Nor I. 
 
 3rd ATTEN. Nor I. 
 
 Gio. Leave me and take my message ! 
 
 [Exeunt CARLO and ATTENDANTS. 
 
 Lies he so 
 
 Quiet that none hath found him ? They are 
 
 driven 
 
 Out from the city and are fugitives. 
 Ne'er did I strike and hew as yesterday, 
 And that armed ghost of Paolo by me rode. 
 
 [He pours out wine and drinks. 
 
 Enter LUCREZIA. 
 
 Luc. So soon returned, Giovanni ? 
 Gio. A few hours' 
 
 Fast fighting ended it, Lucrezia.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 93 
 
 What news at home ? 
 
 Luc. O, Paolo is returned ! 
 
 Gio. Paolo returned ! What, from the grave ? 
 
 Luc. The grave ? 
 
 Gio. I left him dead, or going to his death. 
 
 Luc. What do you mean ? 
 
 Gio. I heard from his own mouth 
 
 That he and she did for each other burn. 
 
 Luc. He told you ? 
 
 Gio. No, not me : but yet I heard. 
 
 Luc. And you on the instant killed him ? 
 
 Gio. No, he stole 
 
 Away to die : I thought him dead : 'twere better. 
 Now like a thief he creeps back to the house ! 
 To her for whom I had begun to long 
 So late in life that now I may not cease 
 From longing ! 
 
 Luc. Her that you must drug to kiss ! 
 
 Will you not smell the potion in her sigh ? 
 A few more drops, then what a mad caress !
 
 94 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Gio. He hath crept back like a thief into the 
 
 house 
 
 A thief a liar he feigned the will to die. 
 Lucrezia, when old Angela foretold, 
 I feared not him : when he was pointed at, 
 I doubted still : even after his own words, 
 Then, then had I forgiven him, for he 
 Went out as to a grave. But now I am changed 
 I will be wary of this creeping thing. 
 O, I have no emotion now, no blood. 
 No longer I postpone or fight this doom : 
 I see that it must be, and I am grown 
 The accomplice and the instrument of Fate, 
 A blade ! a knife ! no more. 
 
 Luc. He has been here 
 
 Since yestermorn. 
 
 Gio. Yet I'll be no assassin, 
 
 Or rashly kill : I have not seen them kiss. 
 I'll wait to find them in each other's arms, 
 And stab them there enfolded and entwined,
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 95 
 
 And so to all men justify my deed. 
 
 Yet how to find them where to kill is just ? 
 
 Luc. Give out that this is no return, but 
 
 merely 
 
 An intermission of the war : that you 
 Must ride back to the camp within the hour, 
 And for some days be absent : he and she 
 Will seize upon the dark and lucky hour 
 To be together : watch you round the house, 
 And suddenly take them in each other's arms. 
 
 Gio. This plan commends itself to my cold 
 
 heart. 
 Luc. Here comes Francesca. Shall I stay, 
 
 then? 
 Gio. Stay ! 
 
 Enter FRANCESCA. 
 
 FRANC. Sir, you have asked for me. I did not 
 
 know 
 You were so soon returned. 
 
 Gio. Soldiers' returns
 
 96 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Are sudden and oft unexpected. 
 
 FRANC. Sir, 
 
 How pale you are ! You are not wounded ? 
 
 Gio. No ! 
 
 A scratch perhaps. Give me some wine, Fran- 
 
 cesca, 
 For suddenly I must be gone again. 
 
 FRANC. I thought this broil was ended ? 
 
 Gio. No ! not yet 
 
 Some days I may be absent, and can go 
 More lightly since I leave you not alone. 
 To Paolo I commend you, to my brother. 
 Loyal he is to me, loyal and true. 
 He has also a gaiety of mind 
 Which I have ever lacked : he is beside 
 More suited to your years, can sing and play, 
 And has the art long hours to entertain. 
 To him I leave you, and must go forthwith. 
 
 [He makes to go, then turns. 
 Come here, Francesca, kiss me yet not so,
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 97 
 
 You put your lips up to me like a child. 
 FRANC. 'Tis not so long ago I was a child. 
 
 \_Seizing his arm. 
 
 sir, is it wise, is it well to go away ? 
 Gio. What do you mean ? 
 
 FRANC. I have a terror here. 
 
 Gio. Can you not bear to part with me some 
 
 hours ? 
 
 FRANC. I dread to be alone : I fear the night 
 And yon great chamber, the resort of spirits. 
 
 1 see men hunted on the air by hounds : 
 Thin faces of your house, with weary smiles. 
 The dead who frown I fear not : but I fear 
 The dead who smile ! The very palace rocks, 
 Remembering at midnight, and I see 
 Women within these walls immured alive 
 Come starving to my bed and ask for food. 
 
 Gio. Take some one then to sleep with you- 
 Luc rezia, 
 Or little Nita else : lie not alone.
 
 98 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 FRANC. [Still detaining him.'] Yet go not, sir. 
 Gio. What is it that you fear ? 
 
 FRANC. Sir, go not, go not ! 
 Gio. Child, I cannot stay 
 
 For fancies, and at once I'll say farewell 
 To both of you. I hear my courser fret. 
 
 [Exit GIOVANNI. 
 
 FRANC. [Looking after him, and turning slowly.'] 
 Lucrezia, will you lie with me to-night ? 
 Luc. I will, Francesca, if you'll have it so. 
 FRANC. O, some one I can touch in the thick 
 
 night ! 
 What sound is that ? 
 
 Luc. [Going to window.'] Your husband gal- 
 loping 
 Away into the dark [She looks from the window, 
 
 then turns'] : now he is gone. 
 I left young Paolo pacing up and down ; 
 
 [Looking steadfastly at her. 
 He seemed as faint for company as you.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 99 
 
 Say, shall I call him in as I go out ? 
 He will help waste the tardy time. 
 
 FRANC. [ Quickly :] No, no ! 
 
 Luc. Is there some little feud 'twixt you and 
 
 him ? 
 
 For when you meet words slowly come to you 
 You scarce look in each other's eyes. 
 
 FRANC. No feud. 
 
 Luc. Remember, when Giovanni married you 
 These two were to each other all in all ; 
 And so excuse some natural jealousy 
 Of you from him. 
 
 FRANC. I think he means me well. 
 
 Luc. Then shall I call him in ? 
 
 FRANC. O, why so eager ? 
 
 Where would all those about me drive me ? First 
 My husband earnestly to Paolo 
 Commends me ; and now you must call him in. 
 [ Wildly\ Where can I look for pity ? Lucrezia, 
 You have no children ?
 
 ioo PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Luc. None. 
 
 FRANC. Nor ever had ? 
 
 Luc. Nor ever had. 
 
 FRANC. But yet you are a woman. 
 
 I have no mother : let me be your child 
 To-night : I am so utterly alone ! 
 Be gentle with me ; or it not, at least 
 Let me go home ; this world is difficult. 
 O, think of me as of a little child 
 That looks into your face, and asks your hand. 
 
 [LUCREZIA softly touches FRANCESCA'S 
 
 hair.~\ 
 
 Why do you touch my head ? Why do you weep ? 
 I would not pain you. 
 
 Luc. Ah, Francesca ! You 
 
 Have touched me where my life is quivering most. 
 I have no child : and yet if I had borne one 
 I could have wished her hair had been this colour. 
 
 FRANC. I am too suddenly cast in this whirl ! 
 Too suddenly ! I had but convent thoughts.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 101 
 
 woman, woman, take me to you and hold me ! 
 
 [She throws herself into LUCREZIA'S arms. 
 Luc. \_Clasping FRANCESCA to her^\ At last the 
 
 long ice melts, and O relief 
 Of rain that rushes from me ! Child, my child ! 
 
 1 clasp you close, close do you fear me still ? 
 Have you not heard love is more fierce than hate ? 
 Roughly I grasp what I have hunted long. 
 
 You cannot know how should you ? that you 
 
 are 
 
 More, so much more, to me than just a child. 
 FRANC. I seem to understand a little. 
 Luc. Close, 
 
 I hold you close : it was not all in vain, 
 The holy babble and pillow kissed all o'er ! 
 O my embodied dream with eyes and hair ! 
 Visible aspiration with soft hands ; 
 Tangible vision ! O, art thou alive, 
 Francesca, dost thou move and breathe ? Speak, 
 
 speak !
 
 102 
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Say human words out, lest thou vanish quite ! 
 
 Your very flesh is of my sighs composed, 
 
 Your blood is crimson with my passioning ! 
 
 And now I have conceived and have brought 
 
 forth; 
 
 And I exult in front of the great sun : 
 And I laugh out with riches in my lap ! 
 And you will deem me mad ! but do not, Sweet : 
 I am not mad, only I am most happy. 
 I'll dry my tears but O, if thou should'st die ? 
 [Aside.~] And ah my God ! 
 
 FRANC. Why did you start ? 
 
 Luc. \_AsideJ] To stay him ! 
 
 [70 FRANCESCA, taking her hands. ~\ But I should 
 
 be the shadow of a mother 
 If here I ceased. Francesca, I well know 
 That 'twixt bright Paolo and dark' Giovanni 
 You stand you hinted at some peril there. 
 I ask to know no more : but take these words 
 Be not in company with Paolo
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 103 
 
 To-night. [Aside."] Giovanni must be found. My 
 
 child, 
 
 I have some business on the moment, but 
 Within the hour I will return [Aside.] How 
 
 find him ? 
 And sleep with you [Aside."] I'll search 
 
 all secret places. 
 Kiss me. Remember, then ! [Aside. ~\ 'Tis not 
 
 too late ! 
 What meshes have I woven for what I love ? 
 
 \Exit LUCREZIA. 
 
 Enter NITA on the other side, with a lamp. 
 
 NITA. Lady, shall I come in ? 
 
 FRANC. Set the lamp here, 
 
 Nita, and take some sewing : I am alone 
 To-night, and you shall sit with me until 
 Lucrezia is returned. What lamp is that ? 
 
 NITA. It is the same I set you in the arbour 
 That night you could not sleep.
 
 104 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 FRANC. Yes, I remember. 
 
 NITA. Are you unhappy, mistress ? 
 
 FRANC. I am lonely, 
 
 Nita, most lonely. 
 
 NITA. That were easily 
 
 Pardon the saying, mistress remedied. 
 
 FRANC. And how ? 
 
 NITA. If I myself were married young, 
 
 Perhaps without my leave to some old man, 
 And found a younger gallant in the house, 
 I think I would not shun him. 
 
 FRANC. Well, say on. 
 
 NITA. No ! And I think I would maintain some 
 
 show 
 
 Of love to my grey husband : it is easy 
 To keep in humour an old man a kiss 
 A little look, a word will satisfy, 
 And I would have my pleasure. 
 
 FRANC. I have listened 
 
 So far to you : you do not understand.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 105 
 
 O Nita, when we women sin, 'tis not 
 By art ; it is not easy, it is not light ; 
 It is an agony shot through with bliss : 
 We sway and rock and suffer ere we fall. 
 
 [She walks up and down. 
 
 NITA. I scarcely understand, my lady. I 
 Am ever gay, and this is a gay world ; 
 And if we girls are prudent but a little, 
 Tis easy to enjoy. [A knock. 
 
 FRANC. Who knocked, then ? See ! 
 
 NITA [Going to door and returning^ It is Lord 
 Paolo who asks for you. 
 
 FRANC. Tell him I cannot see him. Is he 
 gone ? 
 
 NITA. Yes, and so sad ! He sighed so {sighs'}, 
 
 and he went. 
 Shall I now call him back ? 
 
 FRANC. No, no ! Sit down. 
 
 {Speaking quickly '.] Tell me some story, Nita. 
 
 NITA. Alas ! I cannot :
 
 106 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Only the village talk I can repeat, 
 And how 
 
 FRANC. [Starting."] Listen ! What step is that 
 
 without ? 
 
 A sad step, and it goeth to and fro. 
 Look out ! 
 
 NITA. It is Lord Paolo, my lady. 
 
 FRANC. \_Quickly .] Come from the window ! 
 
 \_Aside.~] O where tarries she, 
 This new-found mother ? Tell me then this tale ! 
 
 NITA. Lucia, my sister, has a lover whom 
 She thought so true : but he the other night 
 
 FRANC. Listen again ! 
 
 PAO. [ Without^ Francesca ! 
 
 NITA. Tis his voice ! 
 
 My lady, you are trembling ! 
 
 FRANC. \_AsideJ] Why did he 
 
 Speak ? The sweet sound has floated to my 
 brain. 
 
 PAO. Francesca !
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 107 
 
 FRANC. [Aside.'} Soft it comes out of the night. 
 Go to the window, Nita. What says he ? 
 
 NITA. He does entreat he may come in to you 
 
 A moment. Shall I answer ? 
 
 FRANC. [ Walking to and fro and putting her hand 
 to her heart^\ Let him come. 
 
 NITA. I will go tell him. [Aside.'} They'll not 
 
 want me : I 
 Can meet Bernardo now. \Exit NITA. 
 
 FRANC. O voice too sweet ! 
 
 And like the soul of midnight sending words ! 
 Now all the world is at her failing hour, 
 And at her faintest : now the pulse is low ! 
 Now the tide turns, and now the soul goes home ! 
 And I to Paolo am fainting back ! 
 A moment but a moment then no more ! 
 
 Enter PAOLO. 
 
 PAO. I am by music led into this room, 
 And beckoned sweetly : all the breezes die
 
 io8 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Round me, and in immortal ecstasy 
 
 Toward thee I move : now am I free and gay 
 
 Light as a dancer when the strings begin. 
 
 FRANC. What glow is on thy face, what sudden 
 light ? 
 
 PAO. It seems that I am proof against all perils. 
 
 FRANC. And yet I fear to see thy air so glad. 
 
 PAO. To-night all points of swords to me are 
 dull. 
 
 FRANC. And still I dread the bravery of your 
 
 words. 
 Kiss me, and leave me, Paolo, to-night. 
 
 PAO. What do you fear ? 
 
 FRANC. One watches quietly. 
 
 PAO. Who ? 
 
 FRANC. 1 know not : perhaps the quiet face 
 
 Of God : the eternal Listener is near. 
 
 PAO. I'll struggle now no more. Have I not 
 
 fought 
 Against thee as a foe most terrible ?
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 109 
 
 Parried the nimble thrust and thought of thee, 
 And from thy mortal sweetness fled away, 
 Yet evermore returned ? Now all the bonds 
 Which held me I cast off honour, esteem, 
 All ties, all friendships, peace, and life itself. 
 You only in this universe I want. 
 
 FRANC. You fill me with a glorious rashness. 
 
 What! 
 
 Shall we two, then, take up our fate and smile ? 
 PAO. Remember how when first we met we 
 
 stood 
 
 Stung with immortal recollections. 
 O face immured beside a fairy sea, 
 That leaned down at dead midnight to be kissed ! 
 O beauty folded up in forests old ! 
 Thou wast the lovely quest of Arthur's 
 
 knights 
 
 FRANC. Thy armour glimmered in a gloom of 
 
 green. 
 PAO. Did I not sing to thee in Babylon ?
 
 no PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 FRANC. Or did we set a sail in Carthage Bay ? 
 
 PAO. Were thine eyes strange ? 
 
 FRANC. Did I not know thy voice ? 
 
 All ghostly grew the sun, unreal the air 
 Then when we kissed. 
 
 PAO. And in that kiss our souls 
 
 Together flashed, and now they are one flame, 
 Which nothing can put out, nothing divide. 
 
 FRANC. Kiss me again ! I smile at what may 
 chance. 
 
 PAO. Again, and yet again ! and here and here. 
 Let me with kisses burn this body away, 
 That our two souls may dart together free. 
 I fret at intervention of the flesh, 
 And I would clasp you you that but inhabit 
 This lovely house. 
 
 FRANC. Break open then the door, 
 
 And let my spirit out. Paolo, kill me ! 
 Then kill thyself : to vengeance leave these weeds, 
 And let our souls together soar away.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA in 
 
 PAO. \_Recoiling.~] You are too beautiful for human 
 blow. [FRANCESCA s tarts. 
 
 Why did you shiver and turn sudden cold ? 
 
 FRANC. \_Slowly.~] I felt a wind pass over me. 
 
 PAO. I too : 
 
 Colder than any summer night could give. 
 
 FRANC. A solitary wind : and it hath passed. 
 
 PAO. [Embracing her.~\ Do you still fear ? 
 
 FRANC. Ah, Paolo ! if we 
 
 Should die to-night, then whither would our souls 
 Repair ? There is a region which priests tell of 
 Where such as we are punished without end. 
 
 PAO. Were we together, what can punish us ? 
 
 FRANC. Nothing ! Ah, think not I can love you 
 
 less 
 Only I fear. 
 
 PAO. What can we fear, we two ? 
 
 O God, Thou seest us Thy creatures bound 
 Together by that law which holds the stars 
 In palpitating cosmic passion bright ;
 
 112 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 By which the very sun enthrals the earth, 
 
 And all the waves of the world faint to the moon. 
 
 Even by such attraction we two rush 
 
 Together through the everlasting years. 
 
 Us, then, whose only pain can be to part, 
 
 How wilt Thou punish ? For what ecstasy 
 
 Together to be blown about the globe ! 
 
 What rapture in perpetual fire to burn 
 
 Together ! where we are is endless fire. 
 
 There centuries shall in a moment pass, 
 
 And all the cycles in one hour elapse ! 
 
 Still, still together, even when faints Thy sun, 
 
 And past our souls Thy stars like ashes fall, 
 
 How wilt Thou punish us who cannot part ? 
 
 FRANC. I lie out on your arm and say your 
 
 name 
 " Paolo ! " " Paolo ! " 
 
 PAO. " Francesca ! " 
 
 \_They slowly pass through the curtains. 
 A pause.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 113 
 
 Enter NITA. 
 
 NITA. Ah ! 
 
 Where are my lady and Lord Paolo ? 
 Gone out into the moonlight ! It is well 
 For her to meet her lover when she choose : 
 And I must run in from Bernardo's arms. 
 'Tis very late ! I'll sit and end this sewing 
 I cannot work. \_Walks up and down^ Where 
 can my mistress be ? 
 
 [NiTA touches abstractedly the strings of a 
 mandolin. 
 
 LUCREZIA enters hurriedly. 
 
 Luc. \_Aside .] O ! he is subtly hidden and where ? 
 
 and where ? 
 
 I have set that on which now I cannot stay. 
 Nita, you are alone ! Where is your mistress ? 
 
 NITA. I cannot tell, my lady. 
 
 Luc. Look in my eyes ! 
 
 You left her ? 
 V 8
 
 114 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 NITA. But a moment. 
 
 Luc. And alone ? 
 
 NITA. Lord Paolo 
 
 Luc. \_Seizing her arm.~] Ah ! 
 
 NJTA. My lady, hurt me not. 
 
 Luc. Stammer the truth out ! 
 
 NITA. He came to the door 
 
 Luc. No further ? 
 
 NITA. And she sighed out, " Let him come." 
 
 Luc. And you left them together ? 
 
 NITA. I went out 
 
 Luc. Together then ! Now, now ! Quick, dry 
 
 those tears 
 For we must use our wit. 
 
 NITA. And you, too, tremble ! 
 
 Luc. And he Lord Malatesta ? 
 
 NITA. Know you not 
 
 He hath ridden off to the camp ? 
 
 Luc. But might return ! 
 
 NITA. [Trembling.] O ! but he must not !
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 115 
 
 Luc. Yet some accident- 
 
 NITA. There would be noise and stir at his 
 
 return. 
 Luc. You have heard no sound ? Remember 
 
 fiercely ! Nothing ? 
 
 I do not mean of hooves, nor armour chink 
 You have heard not even a step? 
 
 NITA. [Trembling."] What mean you ? No. 
 Luc. Not even a soft step ? 
 
 NITA. I am faint with fear. 
 
 \_She staggers. 
 Luc. \_Seizing her hand.~\ Which way went 
 
 they, these two ? 
 NITA. I cannot tell. 
 
 Luc. This door is fast ! then through the 
 
 curtains ? 
 NITA. Yes. 
 
 Luc. They seem to tremble still ! Come with 
 
 me, quick ! 
 NITA. I am faint.
 
 Il6 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Luc. Come with me. 
 
 [She drags her to the curtain, 
 
 Ah ! whose hand is that ? 
 
 [GIOVANNI, parting the curtains from the 
 
 other side, comes slowly through. 
 NITA. O, sir ! we had not thought you back so 
 
 soon. 
 
 Gio. Where is your mistress ? 
 NITA. Sir, I cannot tell. 
 
 Gio. Is it not time you dressed her all in white, 
 And combed out her long hair as for a sleep ? 
 NITA. Tis past the hour. 
 
 Gio. You have a curl awry, 
 
 And falling o'er your eyebrow bind it up. 
 NITA. I cannot, sir. 
 
 Gio. Well, leave us : when your mistress 
 
 Is ready, I will call for you. 
 
 \Exit NITA. There is a pause, in which 
 GIOVANNI and LUCREZIA gaze at each 
 other.
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 117 
 
 Luc. [Going slowly up to him.~] O, sir ! 
 I would beseech of you [She starts."] ah ! 
 
 Giovanni, 
 You have hurt your hand : there's blood upon it 
 
 here. \_Takes his hand and looks at it. 
 
 Gio. 'Tis not my blood ! 
 
 Luc. O, then 
 
 Gio. " O, then ! " is all. 
 
 \_As in a frenzy '.] And now their love that was so 
 
 secret close 
 
 Shall be proclaimed. Tullio, Carlo, Biagi ! 
 They shall be married before all men. Nita ! 
 Rouse up the house and bring in lights, lights, 
 
 lights ! 
 
 There shall be music, feasting and dancing. 
 Wine shall be ( drunk. Candles, I say ! More 
 
 lights ! 
 More marriage lights ! Where tarry they the 
 
 while, 
 The nuptial tapers ? Rouse up all the house !
 
 Ii8 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 \_All this -while SERVANTS and others, half 
 
 dressed, are continually rushing in 
 
 with lights and torches. They stand 
 
 whispering. 
 
 Gio. \_Slowly.~\ Carlo, go through the curtains, and 
 
 pass in 
 
 To the great sleeping-chamber : you shall find 
 Two there together lying : place them, then, 
 Upon some litter and have them hither brought 
 With ceremony. 
 
 [Exeunt CARLO and Four SERVANTS. 
 GIOVANNI paces to and fro. 
 
 The curse, the curse of Cain ! 
 A restlessness has come into my blood, 
 And I begin to wander from this hour 
 Alone for evermore. 
 
 Luc. [Rushing to him.'] Giovanni, say 
 Quickly some light thing, lest we both go mad ! 
 
 Gio. Be still ! A second wedding here begins, 
 And I would have all reverent and seemly :
 
 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 119 
 
 For they were nobly born, and deep in love. 
 
 Enter blind ANGELA, slowly. 
 
 ANG. Will no one take my hand ? Two lately 
 
 dead 
 Rushed past me in the air. O ! Are there 
 
 not 
 
 Many, within this room all standing still ? 
 What are they all expecting ? 
 
 Gio. Lead her aside : 
 
 v 
 
 I hear the slow pace of advancing feet. 
 
 Enter SERVANTS bearing in PAOLO and FRANCESCA dead 
 
 upon a litter. 
 Luc. Ah ! ah ! ah ! 
 
 Gio. Break not out in lamentation ! 
 
 \_A pause . . . The SERVANTS set down the 
 
 litter. 
 
 Luc. [Going to litter. ,] I have borne one child, and 
 she has died in youth !
 
 120 PAOLO AND FRANCESCA 
 
 Gio. [Going to litter .] Not easily have we three 
 
 come to this 
 
 We three who now are dead. Unwillingly 
 They loved, unwillingly I slew them. Now 
 I kiss them on the forehead quietly. 
 
 \He bends over the bodies and kisses 
 them on the forehead. He is shaken. ~\ 
 Luc. What ails you now ? 
 
 Gio. She takes away my strength. 
 
 I did not know the dead could have such hair. 
 Hide them. They look like children fast asleep ! 
 
 [ The bodies are reverently covered over^\ 
 
 CURTAIN.
 
 HEROD 
 
 A TRAGEDY IN THREE ACTS 
 By STEPHEN PHILLIPS 
 
 JUST ISSUED PRICE, $1.50 
 
 "Herod" was produced at Her Majesty's Theatre, 
 London, Oct. 31, by Mr. Beerbohm Tree. Following 
 are some comments by the London press: 
 
 THE TIMES 
 
 " That Mr. Phillips has the poet's imagination all who have read 
 ' Paolo and Francesca ' must be well aware. Has he the imagination 
 of the dramatist ? That was the first question raised by his ' Herod,' 
 and the performance of this tragedy last night leaves no doubt about 
 the answer. Mr. Phillips has not only the technic, the ' fingering,' 
 but also the bold, visualizing imagination of the dramatist. 
 
 " Here, then, is a noble work of dramatic imagination, dealing greatly 
 with great passion ; multicolored and exquisitely musical. Though it 
 is ' literature ' throughout, it is never the literature of the closet, but 
 always the literature of the theatre, with the rapid action, the marked 
 contrasts, the fierce beating passion, the broad effects proper to the 
 theatre. In other words, Mr. Stephen Phillips is not only a poet, and 
 a rare poet, but that still rarer thing, a dramatic poet." 
 
 THE MORNING LEADER 
 
 "Splendidly opulent in conception; perfect in construction ; far 
 beyond all contemporary English effort in the aptitude of its verse to 
 the subject and to the stage." 
 
 THE DAILY NEWS 
 
 " The drama possesses the sovereign quality of movement, and it 
 is even prodigal m the matter of dramatic situations. To this we have 
 to add that its dialogue speaks the language of passion, and is rarely 
 encumbered by mere descriptive or reflective passages." 
 
 THE OUTLOOK 
 
 " Mr. Phillips has done a blank-verse play which is not only poetry 
 of the purest water, but dramatic poetry. In ' Herod ' he has given 
 us a poem of rare beauty and distinction, rich in music and color, and 
 in striking thought and image. If he should never write another line, 
 his ' Herod ' will remain a pillar of dramatic imagination on which its 
 author and the manager who produced it, and the public who applauded 
 it, may each and all look back with pride." 
 
 THE SPECTATOR 
 
 " The purely dramatic quality of the play is surprisingly high. 
 There remains the literary quality of the verse, and here, too, we can 
 speak with few reservations. Mr. Phillips' blank verse is flexible, 
 melodious, and majestic."
 
 SOME PRESS NOTICES OF 
 POEMS BY STEPHEN PHILLIPS 
 
 Sixth Edition, Uniform with " Paolo and Francesca." 
 Price, $1.50. 
 
 To Mr. STEPHEN PHILLIPS was awarded, by 
 the Proprietors of "The Academy,"" a premium of 
 One Hundred Guineas, in accordance with, their 
 previously proclaimed intention of making that gift 
 to the writer of the most important contribution to the 
 literature of 1897. 
 
 " In ' Marpessa ' he has demonstrated what I should hardly 
 have thought demonstrable that another poem can be finer 
 than ' Christ in Hades.' I had long believed, and my belief 
 was shared by not a few, that the poetic possibilities of classic 
 myth were exhausted, yet the youngest of our poets takes 
 this ancient story and makes it newly beautiful, kindles it 
 into tremulous life, clothes it with the mystery of interwoven 
 delight and pain, and in the best sense keeps it classic all the 
 while." WILLIAM WATSON in the Fortnightly. 
 
 " The accent here is unmistakable, it is the accent of a 
 new and true poet. Nature and passion pretend to be 
 speaking, and nature and passion really speak. A poet of 
 whom this may be said with truth has passed the line which 
 divides talent from genius, the true singer from the accom- 
 plished artist or imitator. He has taken his place among 
 authentic poets. To that high honour the present volume 
 undoubtedly entitles Mr. Phillips. We may predict with 
 confidence that he has a great future before him. It may be 
 safely said that no poe,t has made his dtbut with a volume 
 which is at once of extraordinary merit and so rich in promise.
 
 The awful story narrated in ' The Wife ' is conceived and 
 embodied with really Dantesque intensity and vividness ; it 
 has the master's suggestive reservation, smiting phrase, and 
 clairvoyant picture-wording. The idea in the lines, ' To 
 Milton, Blind,' is worthy of Milton's own sublime conceit 
 that the darkness which had fallen on his eyes was but the 
 shadow of God's protecting wings." 
 
 Mr. J. CHURTON COLLINS in the Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 "This volume has made more noise than any similar 
 publication since Alexander Smith shot his rocket skyward. 
 But in this case the genius is no illusion. There are passages 
 here which move with the footfall of the immortals, stately 
 lines with all the music and the meaning of the highest 
 poetry." THE ONLOOKER, in Blackwood' 1 s Magazine. 
 
 " The man who, with a few graphic touches, can call up for 
 us images like these, in such decisive and masterly fashion, is 
 not one to be rated with the common herd, but rather as a 
 man from whom we have the right to expect hereafter some 
 of the great things which will endure." 
 
 Mr. W. L. COURTNEY in Daily Telegraph. 
 
 " He sees clearly, feels intensely, and writes beautifully ; in 
 a word he is a true poet." WILLIAM ARCHER in the Outlook. 
 
 " Till ' The Woman with the Dead Soul ' and ' The Wife ' 
 there was only one London poem, Rossetti's 'Jenny'; now 
 there are three. ' Marpessa ' contains one of the loveliest 
 and most impassioned love-speeches in English poetry. Mr. 
 Phillips is a poet already of noble performance and exciting 
 promise. Poetry so full of the beauty of reality, so unweak- 
 ened by rhetoric, the song of a real nightingale in love with a 
 real rose, poetry so distinguished by the impassioned accuracy 
 of high imagination, I know not where else to find among the 
 poets of Mr. Phillips' generation." 
 
 Mr. RICHARD LE GALLIENNE in The Sketch.
 
 " Mr. Phillips is a poet, one of the half-dozen men of the 
 younger generation, whose writings contain the indefinable 
 quality which makes for permanence." Times. 
 
 "We may pay Mr. Phillips the distinguished compliment 
 of saying that his blank verse is finer than his work in 
 rhyme. . . . Almost the whole of this book is concerned with 
 life and death, largely and liberally contemplated ; it is 
 precisely that kind of contemplation which our recent poetry 
 lacks. ' Poetry,' says Coleridge once more, ' is the blossom 
 and the fragrancy of all human knowledge, human thoughts, 
 human passions, emotion, knowledge.' It should not be 
 didactic, it cannot help being moral : it must not be instruc- 
 tive, but it must needs be educative. It is, as it were, the 
 mind of man ' in excelsis,' caught into a world of light. We 
 praise Mr. Phillips for many excellences, but chiefly for the 
 great air and ardour of his poetry, its persistent loftiness." 
 
 Daily Chronicle. 
 
 " In his new volume Mr. Stephen Phillips more than fulfils 
 the promise made by his 'Christ in Hades': here is real' 
 poetic achievement the veritable gold of song." Spectator. 
 
 " How should language, without the slightest strain, 
 express more ? It has an almost physical effect upon the 
 Dreader, in the opening of the eyes, and the dilation of the 
 heart." Academy. 
 
 " But the success of the year is the volume of poems by 
 Mr. Stephen Phillips, which has been received with a chorus 
 of applause which recall the early triumphs of Swinburne and 
 Tennyson." Westminster Gazette.
 
 Paolo and Francesca. 
 
 A TRAGEDY IN FOUR ACTS. 
 
 BY STEPHEN PHILLIPS. 
 
 Crown vo, gilt top, $1.25. 
 
 " Nothing finer has come to us from an English pen in the 
 way of a poetic and literary play than this since the appearance 
 of Taylor's ' Philip Van Artevelde.'" New York Times. 
 
 " A beautiful piece of literature, disclosing the finest imagi- 
 nation, the most delicate instinct, and the most sincere art. It 
 is too early to say that it is great, but it is not too soon to 
 affirm that nothing so promising has come from the hand of an 
 English or American poet of late years." Outlook. 
 
 " The play is a powerful one, and Mr. Phillips maintains in 
 it his wonderful pitch of style, which was so striking in his 
 earlier poems. " Independent. 
 
 " It is not too much to say that ' Paolo and Francesca ' is 
 the most important example of English dramatic poetry that 
 has appeared since Browning died. ... In Stephen 
 Phillips we have a man who will prove that the finest achieve- 
 ments of English poetry are a continuing possession, and not 
 solely a noble inheritance." Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 
 
 "' Paolo and Francesca ' has beauty, passion, and power. 
 The poem deserves a wide reading on account of its 
 intrinsic merit and interest." Philadelphia Press. 
 
 " The reader may turn to ' Paolo and Francesca' with the 
 assurance of passing an hour of the highest possible pleasure. 
 . . . One of the most exalted histories of human pas- 
 sion and human frailty has received a fitting frame of verse. 
 It is certain that his first act only would suffice in 
 his facility of language, vigor of thought, intensity of emotion 
 conception of dramatic possibilities, and all that goes to make 
 the drama great, to give the author a settled place among the 
 best of the younger men." Chicago Evening Post.
 
 " Simple, direct, concerned with the elemental human pas- 
 sions, and presenting its story in the persons of three strongly- 
 defined characters of the first rank, it should appeal to the 
 dramatic sense as well as to the sense of poetic beauty. A very 
 beautiful and original rendering of one of the most touching 
 stories in the world." Times. 
 
 " A thing of exquisite poetic form, yet tingling from first to 
 last with intense dramatic life. Mr. Phillips has achieved the 
 impossible. Sardou could not have ordered the action more 
 skillfully, Tennyson could not have clothed the passion in 
 words of purer loveliness." 
 
 Mr. WILLIAM ARCHER in Daily Chronicle. 
 
 "We possess in Mr. Stephen Phillips one who redeems our 
 age from its comparative barrenness in the higher realms of 
 poetry." Mr. W. L. COURTNEY, in Daily Telegraph. 
 
 " This play is a remarkable achievement, both as a whole 
 and in its parts. It abounds in beautiful passages and beauti- 
 ful phrases. A man who can write like this is clearly a force 
 to be reckoned with." The Westminster Gazette. 
 
 " A drama which is full of golden lines. A powerful but 
 chastened imagination ; a striking command of the resources 
 of the language, and an admirable lucidity alike of thought 
 and expression are combined to produce a play which will give 
 pleasure of a lofty kind to multitudes of readers." Standard. 
 
 " The high note of chivalry and sentiment, the simple dig- 
 nity and genuine pathos which distinguish this meritorious 
 performance." Daily News. 
 
 " Poetry like this has not been written in England for many 
 a long day, and it is Mr. Phillips' double success that it is 
 essentially and through .and through dramatic poetry; for, 
 while ' Paolo and Francesca ' is a noble poem, it is so, largely, 
 for the reason that it is noble drama as well. It would be im- 
 possible to exaggerate one's gratitude to Mr. Phillips for this 
 priceless gift of new beauty." 
 
 Mr. RICHARD LE GALLIENNE in The Star.
 
 " Mr. Phillips has written a great dramatic poem which 
 happens also to be a great poetic drama. We are justified in 
 speaking of Mr. Phillips' achievement as something without 
 parallel in our age." Mr. OWEN SEAMAN in Morning Post. 
 
 " That Mr. Phillips will go on to give us plays that are both 
 plays and poems, and so to enrich what is, after all, the most 
 glorious dramatic literature in the world wider and deeper 
 than that of the Greeks, and nobler than that of France 
 we do not doubt. His play shows that he has in him the 
 capacity which was once ' so ancient and so eminent ' among 
 us." The Spectator. 
 
 " All that Mr. Phillips has written possesses a wonderful 
 tenderness, a grace, a limpidity that is most rare : sometimes 
 he finds poignant epithets and images that stab the memory 
 with inarticulate regrets. " The Speaker. 
 
 ' ' He has attempted the bravest and most difficult vehicle in 
 literary art, the supreme accomplishment for poets at any 
 time, and he has succeeded." The Outlook. 
 
 "It fulfils, as no great poem of our day has yet fulfilled, 
 the primary demands of a stage play. I know no work of 
 modern times, no actors' drama of any age, that better com- 
 bines the passion and glamor of romance with the restraint of 
 classic traditions." Punch. 
 
 "Much might confidently have been expected from the 
 author of ' The Wife,' and of ' Marpessa,' but I must frankly 
 own that, magnificent as was the promise of these poems, I 
 was not prepared for such an achievement as the present work. 
 . . . It unquestionably places Mr. Phillips in the first 
 rank of modern dramatists and of modern poetry. It does 
 more, it claims his kinship with the aristocrats of his art: with 
 Sophocles and with Dante." 
 
 Mr. CHURTON COLLINS in The Saturday Review.
 
 MARPESSA 
 
 By 
 STEPHEN PHILLIPS 
 
 "With Seven Illustrations 
 By PHILIP CONNARD 
 
 Square z6mo (5^ X4>) Art Green Cloth, 50 cents net 
 Green Leather, 75 cents net 
 
 Mr. WILLIAM WATSON in Fortnightly 
 Review 
 
 " In ' Marpessa ' he has demonstrated what I should 
 hardly have thought demonstrable that another poem 
 can be finer than ' Christ in Hades.' I had long be- 
 lieved, and my belief was shared by not a few that the 
 poetic possibilities of classic myth were exhausted ; yet 
 the youngest of our poets takes this ancient story and 
 makes it newly beautiful, kindles it into tremulous life, 
 clothes it with the mystery of interwoven delight and 
 pain, and in the best sense keeps it classic all the 
 while." 
 
 JOHN LANE, London & New York
 
 A 000 047 591 3