FRANCESCA DA RIMINI
 
 ELKOXORA DUvSE 
 
 AS FRANCESCA DA RIMINI
 
 FRANCESCA 
 DA RIMINI 
 
 By GABRIELE D' ANNUNZIO 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 ARTHUR SYMONS 
 
 NEIV YORK ■ FREDERICK A. 
 STOKES COMPANY • PUBLISHERS
 
 H 
 
 mor che al cor gentil ratto s'apprende 
 mor che a nullo amato amar perdona . 
 mor condusse noi ad una niorte. 
 
 Copyright, 1902, 
 By Frederick A. Stokes Company. 
 
 Francesca da Rimini ; Tragedia Gahriele D'j4nnun^io, 
 
 i Copyright, 1902, 
 
 By Fratelli Treves.
 
 
 4 
 
 Fd+t:'^ 
 
 n 
 
 '^ 
 
 
 TO THE DIVINE 
 ELEONORA DUSE 
 
 SJ-MIS
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 *' Francesca da Rimini " was acted for the first 
 time at Rome, by Eleouora Duse and her company, 
 on December 9, 1901. Has there, since " Her- 
 naui," been such a battle over a play in verse? 
 The performance lasted five hours, and many of 
 the speeches were inaudible oa account of the 
 noise in tlie theatre. Since then the play has been 
 freely cut, it has been acted with the greatest suc- 
 cess in the chief cities of Italy, and has raised 
 more discussion than any play in verse of this 
 century. The translation which follows has been 
 made from the unabridged text. 
 
 The play is written in blank verse, but blank 
 verse so varied as to he almost a kind of vprs lihre. 
 This form of blank verse is not new in Italian. It 
 is to be found in the pastoral tragedies of the 
 Renaissance, in Tasso's "Aminta," in Guarino's 
 " Pastor Fido." We need only open Leopardi to 
 see almost exactly the same structure of verse. 
 Take these lines of Leopardi (" Sopra un basso re- 
 lievo antico sepolcrale ") : 
 
 " Morte ti chiama ; al cominciar del giorno 
 1/ ultimo istantf. Al iiido onde ti parti 
 Non torncriii. Ij'asjHitto 
 !)(•' tiioi dole! iiarciiti 
 Lasci per senipre. 11 loco
 
 viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A cui mova, h sotterra: 
 
 Ivi fia d' ogui tempo il tuo soggiorno." 
 
 Now take these lines, chosen at random from 
 ■' Francesca" : 
 
 " Ma giammai 
 
 m'eran fiorite, come in questo maggio, 
 
 tante, tante ! Son cento, 
 
 son pill di ceuto. Guarda ! 
 
 S' io le tocco, m' abbruccio. 
 
 Le vergini di feant' Apollinari 
 
 non ai'dono cosi nel loro cielo 
 
 d'oro." 
 In English we shall find the most perfect exam- 
 ple of blank verse varied into half-lyi"ic measures 
 in some of the choruses and speeches of " Samson 
 Agouistes." 
 
 " But who is this? What thing of sea or land — 
 Female of sex it seems — 
 That so bedecked, ornate, and gay, 
 Comes tliis way sailing, 
 Like a stately ship 
 Of Tarsus, bound for the isles 
 Of Javan and Gadire, 
 With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, 
 Sails filled, and streamers waving, 
 Courted by all the winds that hold them play?" 
 
 Matthew Ai'nold, in " Empedocles on Etna," 
 " The Strayed Reveller," and some of his most 
 famous meditative pieces, has used the same 
 metre, carrying his experiment indeed further, 
 and playing with pauses in a more complicated 
 way, not always, to my ear, with entire success. 
 I am not sure that metre such as this can ever 
 really become an English metre: 
 
 " Thou guardest them, Apollo! 
 Over the grave of the slain Pytho,
 
 IX TB OB UCTION. ix 
 
 Though jf'unr:, intolerably severe! 
 
 Thou keepest aloof the profane, 
 
 But the solitude oppresses thy votary, 
 
 The jars of meu reach him not in thy valley, 
 
 But can life reach him? 
 
 Thou fencest him from the multitude: 
 
 Who will feuce him from himself? 
 
 Mr. Henley has made for himself a rough, service- 
 able metre in unrhymed verse, full of twitching 
 nerves and capable of hurrying or dragging. 
 
 " Space and dread and the dark — 
 Over a livid stretch of sky 
 Cloud-nionsturs crawling like a funeral train 
 Of huge primeval presences 
 Stooping beneatli the weight 
 Of some enormous, rudimentary grief ; 
 While in the haunting loneliness 
 The far sea waits and Avanders with a sound 
 As of the trailing skirts of Destiny 
 Passing unseen 
 To some immitigable end 
 With her gray henchman, Death." 
 
 Now the essential difference between the metre 
 of d'Annunzio and these other instances of a simi- 
 lar metre is that, with d'Annunzio, the metre is 
 purely a means to an end, a dramatic end. He 
 has aimed at giving variety and emphasis to blank 
 verse, so as to make the verse render the speaker's 
 mood with the greatest exactitude. Where, in 
 ordinary blank verse, a single line is broken up 
 into two or three small speeches, which have to bo 
 fitted into thoir five feet with an ingenuity which 
 on the stage at least, goes for nothing, he lets his 
 short linos stand more frankly by themselves 
 And lie moulds a long speech into greater flexi-
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 bility, letting the voice pause on a single short 
 line coming after longer lines, for emphasis, or 
 running a short, unaccentuated line rapidly into 
 the next, in a very effectual kind of enjambement. 
 Yet, with all its variety, this metre is not, as is so 
 much contemporary French vers libre, a vague, 
 unregulated metre, which may be read equally as 
 prose or as verse, and in which one has to search 
 for the beat while one is reading it. The beat is 
 always regular, clear, unmistakable. With the 
 exception of a few dactylic passages, of which the 
 most important occurs in the address to the fire, 
 it is strictly iambic, and it is made of the normal 
 verse of five feet, subdivided into verse of three 
 feet and two feet.* As far as I recollect, the 
 verse of four feet is never used, nor can I find a 
 verse of four feet in the blank verse of Leopardi, 
 though it is freely, and, I think, legitimately, used 
 by every English experimenter in this metre. 
 Italian verse, with its incessant elisions, its almost 
 invariable double endings, lends itself , better than 
 that of any other living language, to a metre 
 which, in d'Annunzio's hands, becomes so easy, 
 so much like prose, and yet so luxurious, so rich 
 in cadence. In the translation which follows, I 
 have of course rendered the double endings, for 
 the most part, by single endings, using double 
 endings at my discretion, as in ordinary English 
 
 * Sig. d'Annunzio writes to me: "I have added 
 to the verse of eleven and of seven syllables, the 
 verse of five, which is also iambic in structure. 
 Thus the metre is formed of the hendecasyllable 
 and of its two hemistichs (11-7-5.)."
 
 INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 blank verse. My version is literal, alike in words 
 and rhythm, but my lines do not in every case 
 correspond precisely with the lines of the original. 
 They are intended to reproduce every effect of the 
 original, as that can best be done in English verse, 
 written on the principle of d'Annunzio's Italian 
 verse. 
 
 In order to render the form of the original as 
 closely as possible, I have often used weak endings 
 which I should not have used had I been writing 
 verse of my own. Take, for instance, these lines, 
 which will be found on p. 25 of the Italian and also 
 of the English : 
 
 " Con qui parlavi ? Con le donne ? Come 
 sei venuto ? Rispondi mi ? Sei tu 
 di Messer Paolo Malatesta ? Su, 
 rispondi !" 
 
 In my elisions I have tried to follow the exam- 
 ple of the Italian as far as I could, without abso- 
 lutely violating the principles of English verse, 
 and, in short, I have done all I could to make a 
 faitliful copy, at the risk of leaving it " a mere 
 strict bald version of thing by thing," which, 
 Browning tells us in the preface to his translation 
 of the " Agamemnon," is after all, what the reader 
 of a translation should first of all look for and 
 expect to find. 
 
 The motto of " Francesca da Rimini '" might 
 well be the line of Dante: 
 
 " .Voi che tingcmmo il mondo di sanguigno," 
 and the play is more than a tragedy of two lovers, 
 it is a study of an age of blood, the thirteenth cen- 
 tury in Italy. In the real story, Paolo and Fran-
 
 xii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cesca were both married, she a mother and he a 
 father of children, and it was only after ten years 
 of marriage that Gianciotto surprised them to- 
 gether and stabbed them. 'Dante, in the fifth 
 canto of the " Inferno," leaves out all but the bare 
 facts of love and death. D'Annunzio refers once 
 or twice to the wife, Orabile, but not to the 
 children, nor does he leave any long interval 
 between the beginning and end of the passion. 
 But he gives us two people of flesh and blood, 
 luxurious, pondering people, who love beautiful 
 things, and dream over their memories; yet peo- 
 ple who have no characteristics that might not 
 have existed in an Italian man and woman of the 
 thirteenth century. Paolo is a perfect archer, we 
 see liim shoot an arrow from the battlements, 
 which, we are told later, has gone through the 
 throat of one who mocked his brother to his face; 
 we hear of his armour, his hor.se, as well as of his 
 skill in music and the gentler arts. Francesca is 
 full of tender feeling, and some of the most beau- 
 tiful lines in the play are the lines which she 
 speaks to her sister. But, as the man-at-arms on 
 the battlements says of her: 
 
 " Quell a 
 Non e gia donna di paura." 
 
 She questions him about the Greek fire which he is 
 stirring hi a cauldron, and lights one of the fiery 
 staves, indifferent to the danger, intent only on the 
 strange, new, perilous beauty. She is exalted by 
 the sight of the blood-red roses growing in the sar- 
 cophagus, and she cries to the roses. Violent deeds 
 go on around her wherever she is. In her father's
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xm 
 
 house brother fiojhts with brother, and it is her 
 brother's bleediug face which appears to het 
 through the barred window, witli ominous signifi- 
 cance, at the close of the first act, as she sees 
 Paolo for the first tirae, and offers him a rose. In 
 the house of her husband she sees fighting from 
 the walls, and her husband's brother, Malatestiuo, 
 is brought in wounded in the eye. There is a 
 prisoner wliose cries come up from the dungeons 
 underground, while Malatestino, who is after- 
 wards to betray her to her husband, persecutes her 
 with his love. She hates cruelty, but like one to 
 whom it is a daily, natural thing, always about 
 her path. 
 
 " To fight in battle is a lovely thing. 
 But secret slaying in the dark I hate," 
 
 she says to her husband, as she tells him of 
 his brother's thirst for blood. Towards her hus- 
 band her attitude is quite without modern sub- 
 tlety; he has won her unfairly, she is unconscious 
 of treachery towards him in loving another; 
 she has no scruples, only apprehensions of some 
 unlucky ending to love. And when that end- 
 ing comes, and the lover is caught in the trap- 
 door, as he is seeking to escape, and the husband 
 pulls him up by the hair, and kills them both, the 
 husband has no moralising to do; he bends his 
 crooked knee with a painful movement, picks up 
 his sword, and breaks it across the other knee 
 
 The action of the play moves slowly, but it 
 moves; beiiind all its lyrical outcries there is a 
 hard grip on the sheer facts of the age, the defi- 
 nite realities of the passion. D'Annunzio has
 
 XIV INTR OD ITCTION. 
 
 learnt something from Wagner, not perhaps the 
 best that Wagner had to teach, in his over-ampli- 
 fication of detail, his insistence on so many things 
 beside the essential things, his recapitulations, 
 into which he has brought almost the actual 
 Wagnerian "motives." When the moment is 
 reached which must, in a play on this subject, be 
 the great moment or the moment of failure, when 
 the dramatist seems to come into actual competi- 
 tion with Dante, d'Annunzio is admirably bi'ief, 
 significant, and straightforward. In the scene in 
 which " Galeotto fu il libro, e chi loscrisse," he 
 has made his lovers read out of the actual book 
 out of which Dante represents them as reading, 
 the old French romance of "Lancelot du Lac," 
 and the words which they repeat are the actual 
 words of the book, put literally into Italian. 
 
 It is not any part of my purpose to compare 
 " Francesca da Rimini " with Mr. Stephen Phillips' 
 "Paolo and Fi-ancesca," but, after translating this 
 scene, I had the curiosity to turn to the corre- 
 sponding scene in the English play. The diifer- 
 ence between them seemed to be the difference 
 between vital speech, coming straight out of 
 a situation, and poetising round a situation. In 
 d'Annunzio you feel the blind force and oncoming 
 of a living passion; and it is this energy which 
 speaks throughout the whole of a long and often 
 delaying play. Without energy, " la grace litte- 
 raire supreme," as Baudelaire has called it, beauty 
 is but a sleepy thing, decrepit or born tired. In 
 "Francesca da Rimini" beauty speaks with the 
 
 voice of life itself. 
 
 Arthur Syraons.
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONS
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONS. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Banning. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Samaritan A. 
 
 BlANCOFIOBE. 
 
 Alda. 
 Garsenda. 
 Altichiara. r 
 
 AnONELLA. ' 
 
 The Slave. J 
 
 Ser Toldo Berardengo. 
 
 ASPINKLLO ARSKNDI. 
 
 ViviANO De' Vivii. 
 Bertrando Luko. 
 An Archer. 
 
 Giovanni, " The Lame," 
 known a.s Gianciotto. 
 Paolo "The Beautiful." 
 Malatestino "The One-eyed." 
 
 OoDo Dalle Caminate 
 FoscoLO D'Olnano. 
 Archers. 
 Men-at-Arms. 
 
 Son.s and Daughters of Guido 
 Minore da Polenta. 
 
 Francesca's Women. 
 
 Partisans of Guido. 
 
 Sons of Mala- 
 testa da Ver- 
 rucchio. 
 
 Partisans of Mala- 
 testa. 
 
 The Merchant. The Merchant's Boy. The Doc- 
 tor. The Jester. The Astrolofrer. The Musi- 
 cians. The Torchbearers. 
 
 Scene : At Ravenna, in the Iloune of the Polentani; 
 at Rimini, in the House of the Malatesti.
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI
 
 FKANCESCA DA KIMINI 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 Court in the House of the Polentani, adjacent to a 
 garden that shines brightly through a marble 
 screen, pierced in the form of a transept. A log- 
 gia runs round it above, leading on the right to 
 the women^s apartments, and in front, supported 
 on small pillars, affords a double view. On the 
 left is a flight of steps leading down to the thres- 
 hold of the enclosed garden. At the back is a 
 large door, and a low, barred window, through 
 which can be seen a range of arches surrounding 
 another larger court. Near the steps is a Byzan- I 
 tine sarcophagus, without a lid, filled xoith earth, I 
 like a flower pot, in which grows a crimson rose- 
 bush. 
 
 The Women are seen, leaning over the loggia, and 
 coming down the stairs, gazing curiously at the 
 Jester, who carries his viol hanging by his side, 
 and in his hand an old jerkin. 
 
 Alda. 
 Jester, hey, Jester !
 
 8 FRANCESCA DA RUflNL 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Adonella, Adonella, here is the Jester 
 In the court! O Biancofiore, 
 The Jester ! he has come ! 
 
 Adonella. 
 Are the gates open yet ? 
 
 Biancofiore. 
 Let's make the Jester sing. 
 
 Alda. 
 Hey, tell me, are you that Gianni . . . 
 
 Jester. 
 Sweet ladies . . . 
 
 Alda. 
 That Gianni who was coming from Bologna ? 
 Gian Figo ? 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Are you Gordello who is coming from Ferrara? 
 
 Jester. 
 Dear ladies ... 
 
 Adonella. r 
 What are you seeking there ? 
 
 The trail of the scent. 
 
 Biancofiore. 
 We brew in limbecs oils of lavendei'. 
 And oils of spikenard. 
 
 Jester. 
 I am no apothecary's pedlar, I. 
 
 Altichiara. '' 
 
 You shall have a bunch though, my good night- 
 ingale. 
 If you will sing.
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 9 
 
 Garsenba. 
 Look at him, how he droops ! 
 
 Jester. 
 Fair ladies, have you . . . 
 
 BlANCOFIOEE. 
 
 Yes, 
 Heaps upon heaps. 
 
 Adonella. 
 Bags full 
 And coffers full of it. Madonna Francesca 
 Can dip her beauty, if she has a mind to, 
 In oil of lavender. 
 
 Jester. 
 I thought rather to find the smell of blood 
 In the house of Guido. 
 
 Alda. 
 Blood of the Traversari : in the streets, 
 In the streets you will find it. 
 
 All. 
 Polenta! Polenta! Down with the Traversari ! 
 
 Jester. 
 Heigho! Catch who catch can, go free who 
 
 may ! 
 The sparrows are becoming sparrow-hawks. 
 
 [Shouts of laughter ring down the staircase, 6e- 
 tween the tvoi-horned head-dresses.] 
 
 All. 
 Grapple with the Ghibelline! 
 
 Jester. 
 Be quiet now, don't let the archer near you,
 
 10 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Or he will fetch me suddenly such a bolt 
 As will lay me out my length for all my life. 
 
 Alda. 
 You swear you are a Guelph? 
 
 Jester. 
 By San Mercuriale of Forli 
 (That sets the belfry crumbling on the pate 
 Of the Feltran people) I tell you I am Guelph, 
 As Guelph as Malatesta da Verrucchio. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Good then, you are safe; only be circumspect: 
 You have leave to smell. 
 
 Jester. 
 To smell? Aud not to eat? 
 I am a dog, then? 
 
 How many bitches are there in the place? 
 Let's see. 
 
 [He goes down on hands and feet like a dog, and 
 makes for the woinen.\ 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Ah nasty dog ! 
 
 Alda. 
 Filthy dog! 
 Altichiara. 
 
 Wicked dog I 
 Take that! 
 
 Jester. 
 Ahi, ahi, you have smashed ray viol, 
 You have broken my bow. 
 
 Adonella. 
 Take that!
 
 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 11 
 
 Garsenda. 
 And that! 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 And that! 
 Jester. 
 They are all in heat! 
 
 I would I knew which one of you the most! 
 [Theij all strike him on the back vrith their fists, 
 laughing. And as the Jester jumps about 
 amongst them like a dog, they begin to dance 
 round him, shaking out their perfumed skirts.^ 
 BiAjsrcorioRE. 
 Take hands, and dance a round! 
 
 Adonella. 
 Do you smell the spice, 
 Lavender and spikenard? 
 
 Altichiara. 
 I am flame and ice, 
 I am flame and ice! 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 Fresh in cool linen is sweet lavender! 
 
 Alda. 
 Come in, brigfht eyes, into my garden fair! 
 
 Altichiaka. 
 An odour comes, no garden can I find. 
 
 Adonella. 
 How comes this lovely odour on the wind? 
 
 All. 
 Smell! Smell! 
 
 Garsknda. 
 Sweet shift that long in lavender has lain;
 
 12 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Sweetheart, the time of May has come again. 
 
 All. 
 Smell! Smell! 
 
 Adonella. 
 I would I had my sweetheart near my side, 
 And nearer than my shift is near to me. 
 Dear love is dear to me ! 
 Dear love is dear to me! 
 
 All. 
 Smell! smell! smell! 
 
 Jester 
 [Standing up and trying to catch one of them]. 
 Catch who catch can ! 
 If I catch one of you. . . 
 
 [ With cries of laughter, they run up the stairs 
 then stand panting with merriment.} 
 
 Alda 
 [With a contemptuous gesture], 
 Tou are no sheep dog, you ! 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Tou are a pantry dog. 
 Poor Jester! have you not 
 More stomach now for food than bantering? 
 
 Jester 
 [Scratching his throat]. 
 May be I have. I dined some while ago. 
 Fine scents fill no lean paunches. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 
 Well then, well, 
 Go rather to the Archbishop Bonifazio, 
 He is the biggest glutton
 
 FRANCEtiCA DA RIMINI. 13 
 
 That eats in the world : the Genoese. This house 
 Is Guido da Polenta's. 
 
 Jester. 
 Yellow with flower of the black hellebore, 
 Because there is no juniper in the world, 
 May all be salt to me, 
 
 Ravenna women have it ... in the round, 
 Salt be to me ! 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Round-pated you yourself 1 
 You thought to get the better of us, eh? 
 We have got the better of you. 
 
 BlANCOFIOBE. 
 
 Sing, Jester! 
 
 Alda. 
 Dance, Jester I 
 
 Jester 
 
 [Picking up Ids rng]. 
 You have pulled me all to pieces. 
 Mischief o' me ! Have you, by chance, a little. . . 
 
 Garsenda. 
 A little bacon? 
 
 Jester. ' 
 
 Have you a little scarlet? 
 
 Adonella. 
 Are you for jesting with us? We are ready. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 But who are you? that Gianni. . . 
 
 Altichiara. 
 O, Biancofiore, look what clothes he has! 
 The doublet is at loggerheads with the hose.
 
 14 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 He is Giau Figo, who was coming from Bologna. 
 
 BlANCOFIOBE. 
 
 Come from Bologna without a bolognino. 
 
 Alda. 
 I am sure he is of the Lambertazza party. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 An evil race! 
 
 Alda. 
 He has been put to shame 
 By the Geremei. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 Have you iiot lost a princedom, noble sir? 
 
 Garsenda. 
 O, Adonella, look at him: he has fled 
 In nothing but his trousers. 
 
 Jester. 
 And you will have them off me. 
 
 Adonella. 
 "What a poor thing! Look at yourself in the 
 
 glass, 
 As crooked as a cross-bow on its stock. 
 
 Biancofiore. 
 Now you will sing the spoiling of Bologna, 
 And how King Enzo was made prisoner. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Have I not told you he is from Ferrara? 
 
 Jester 
 [Impatiently]. 
 I am from Ferrara and I am from Bologna.
 
 FEANCESCA DA BIMINI. 15 
 
 Gabsenda. 
 Was it then you 
 
 Who escorted from Bologna to Ferrara 
 Ghisolabella de' Caccianiraici 
 To the good Marchese Opizzo? 
 
 Jester. 
 Just so, just so, 'twas I, just as you say. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 It was you too who made 
 
 The match between the sister of the Marquess 
 And that old and rich judge, him of Gallura, 
 A shrivelled, wizened thing 
 That had the help of his big man-servant ? 
 
 Jester. 
 Just so, 'twas I, just as you say; and I had 
 In thanks for it. . . 
 
 Alda. 
 A bone? 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 Two chestnuts? 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 Three 
 Walnuts and a hazel-nut? 
 
 Altichiara. 
 A stump of pimpernel? 
 
 Garsenda. 
 
 A pair of snails 
 And an acorn? 
 
 Jester. 
 This mantle that you see, of Irish frieze? 
 No; or of purple Tyrian samite'.' no;
 
 16 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 But all of velvet ciimson-coloux-ed, lined 
 With skins of miniver. 
 
 Gabsenda. 
 
 Look, look, Altichiara, 
 The thing he is holding! 
 
 Altichiara. 
 
 A little threadbare cloak. 
 Gaksenda. 
 No, no, it is a Romagua jerkin. 
 
 Alda. 
 
 Then 
 You are Gordello, you are not Gian Figo. 
 
 Adonella. 
 But no, he is a Jew. 
 
 BlANCOFIOBE. 
 
 He is the huckster Lotto 
 Of Porto Sisi. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 Sells fripperies and songs. 
 Adonella. 
 What have you with you? Have you rags or 
 ballads? 
 
 Jester. 
 Fool that I am, I thought to find myself 
 In the palace of the nobles of Polenta, 
 And here I am in a chirping nest of swallows. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Comfort yourself, I ara satisfied by now 
 That I have taught you. Master Merrymaker, 
 Ravenna women are not easily beaten 
 At the game of banter.
 
 PRANCESCA DA ElMINL 17 
 
 Jesteb. 
 
 And of the pole, too. 
 Alda. 
 You chuckle over it? 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 Will you whet your whistle? 
 
 Biancofioke. 
 No, Alda: come now, make him sing to us. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Do you not see the sorry sort of viol 
 He trails here, Adonella? 
 It seems to me a sort of pumpkin cowled, 
 With its big belly and its monstrous neck. 
 The rose is meanly cut. 
 Here's a peg missing, here 
 The bass and tierce are gone. 
 Well, if he barks, his viol gapes in answer. 
 Go, scrawl arpeggios 
 Upon a rebeck, let the bow alone. 
 
 Biancofiore. 
 You let the joke alone, then, Mona Berta. 
 Let us see now if he knows how to sing. 
 Come on then, Jester, 
 And sing us, if you can, a pretty song. 
 Do you know any of that troubadour 
 Who calls himself the Notary of Lentino? 
 Madonna Francesca knows a lovely one 
 Beginning this way: "Very mightily 
 Love holds me captive." Do you know the 
 song? 
 
 Jestkr. 
 Yes, I will say it now. 
 If you have a little scarlet.
 
 18 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 But what is it you want then, with your scarlet? 
 
 Adonei.la. 
 We are waiting, we are waiting I 
 
 Jester. 
 I want you, if you will, 
 To put a patch for me 
 Upon this jerkin. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 What a mad idea, 
 To patch Roraagna woollen, and with scarlet! 
 
 Jester. 
 I pray you, if you have it, do for me 
 This service. There is one tear here, in front, 
 Another on the elbow; here it is. 
 Have you two scraps? 
 
 Altichiara. 
 I will put it right for you 
 If you will sing to us. 
 But I assure you, 'tis a novelty 
 To set the two together. 
 
 Jester. 
 T go about in search of novelties, 
 As novel as myself: 
 That's just the reason. 
 But not long since I found a novelty, 
 As I was on my way : 
 I met with one, 
 Not two miles on'o of here, 
 That had his head of iron, 
 
 His legs of wood, and talked with both his 
 shoulders.
 
 FRANCESCA DA BIMINI. 19 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 This is a novelty in very deed, 
 But tell us how. 
 
 Adoxella. 
 We are waiting! we are waiting! 
 
 Jester. 
 Listen, and I will tell you. I met with one 
 That wore an iron headjjiece on his head 
 And went to gather fir-cones in the wood 
 Here at Ravenna, and he went on crutches, 
 And when I asked him had he seen about 
 A little friend of mine, he shrugged his shoul- 
 ders. 
 Saying by this means 
 He had not seen him. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE 
 
 [contemptuously\. 
 But this is a true thing. 
 
 Jester. 
 
 Am I not novel, 
 That tell true things for fables? Catch who 
 
 catch can ! 
 So, you will do then what I asked of you? 
 And after you have done it, 
 You shall wait no great while before you learn, 
 The occasion offering, that Gian Figo. . . 
 
 Garsenda. 
 
 Ah! 
 You have let it out at last. 
 
 A I. J.. 
 
 He is Gian Figo!
 
 so FBANCESCA DA RIMINI 
 
 Jester. 
 Before you learn Giaa Figo is as wise 
 As Dinadan the King of Orbeland's son, 
 Tliat found his wisdom by forgetting love . 
 
 Altichiara. 
 But now enough of this: time for a song! 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 " There comes a time to rise ..." 
 
 Do- you not know the song King Enzo made, 
 
 The King that lost his kingdom in a battle 
 
 Against Bologna, and was put in prison 
 
 In a big iron cage, and ended his life there. 
 
 Singing his sorrows? 
 
 Seven years ago in March: I can i-emember. 
 
 " There comes a time to rise, a time to fall, 
 
 A time for speaking and for keeping silence." 
 
 Adonella. 
 No, no, Gian Figo, 
 Tell us instead the song 
 Made by King John, John of Jerusalem, 
 " For the flower of all the lands." 
 
 Garsenda. 
 No, tell us that of good King Frederick, 
 " A song of pure delight." 
 
 (Madonna Francesca, the flower of all Ravenna 
 Knows it) made for the flower 
 Of Soria when the sire of Suabia 
 Loved a most worthy maiden 
 His wife had brought with her from over sea. 
 And brought to honour; and this wife of the 
 
 King 
 Of Suabia was no other than the daughter
 
 FRANCESCA DA BIMINl. 21 
 
 Of John, King of Jerusalem, and her name 
 Was Isabella, and she died, and then 
 Kincj Frederick took for his wife tlie sister 
 Of the simple Henry of Enj^land ; and he loved 
 
 her 
 Exceedingly, because, like our Madonna 
 Francesca, she was skilled 
 In music, and all ways of lovely speech ; 
 And this was the third wedding; and she, then, 
 That sang and played all day and all night long, 
 Had . . . 
 [BiAJjcoFiOKE covers her mouth loith her hand.] 
 
 Jester. 
 AVhat a bibble babble ! O poor King Enzo, 
 There never is a time here to be silent. 
 What's to be done with nil your merchandise, 
 (iian Figo, chitter, chatter, chattering. 
 Here are four voices, and more like a thousand ! 
 
 Altichiara. 
 Listen to me now. Jester. Let the King 
 Alone. He is d(>ad and buried. Say instead 
 " O mother mine, 
 (five me a husband." " Tell me why, my 
 
 child." 
 "That he may give me happy. . . " 
 Alda. 
 
 That is old; 
 Listen to me, Jester. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 
 Then, " Monua Lapa, 
 She spun and span. . ." 
 
 Alda. 
 
 No I
 
 22 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 
 Then: " O garden-close, 
 I enter and nobody knows." 
 
 Alda. 
 
 Hush! 
 
 Altichiaka. . 
 
 Then: "Let's all 
 Have seven lovers, 
 That's one for every day of the week." 
 
 Alda. 
 
 Hush! 
 
 Altichiaka. 
 
 Then: 
 " Monna Aldruda, don't be a pinide, a 
 Piece of good news. . ." 
 
 Alda. 
 
 O hush ! Biancofiore, 
 Do shut her mouth. Jester, listen to me : 
 These are old songs. . . 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 There's a new troubadour 
 Xnown at Bologna: surely you have heard him ? 
 He's the new fashion ; 
 
 They call him Messer Guido. . . Messer Guido 
 Di . . . di . . . 
 
 Jester. 
 Di Guinizello. 
 He was one that went out with the Lambertazzi, 
 Took refuge at Verona, and there died. 
 
 Alda. 
 Good, let him die: he's for the Emperor. 
 May he go now and make his rhymes in hell!
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 23 
 
 Listen to me, Jester; tell us a story 
 Of knights. 
 
 BlANCOFIOBE. 
 
 Yes, yes, the knights of the Round Table ! 
 Do you know their stories? 
 The love of Iseult of the golden hair? 
 
 Jestp:b. 
 I know the histories of all the knights 
 And all the knightly deeds of chivalry 
 Done in King Arthur's time, 
 And specially I know of Messer Tristan 
 And Messer Lancelot of the Lake, and Messer 
 Percival of the Grail, that took the blood 
 Of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of Galahad, 
 And of Gawain, and the rest. I know them all, 
 
 Alda. 
 Of Guenevere? 
 
 Adonella. 
 Good luck, Jester, good luck! 
 We will tell Madonna Francesca what you know, 
 Will we not, Alda? 
 She takes delight in them; 
 Jester, she will reward you bountifully. 
 
 Jestkk. 
 She will give me the remainder . . . 
 
 Adonei-i-a. 
 
 What remainder? 
 Jester. 
 Why, the two scraps of scarlet. 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 She will give you 
 Quite other \i,\li&, the bountifuUest gifts.
 
 24 FEANCESCA DA liUIUII. 
 
 Rejoice that she is marrying; 
 
 Messer Guido marries her to a Malatesta; 
 
 The wedding day is close at hand. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 Meanwhile 
 Tell us a story: we are all ears. " There is time 
 To listen," said the prisoner. 
 [They group themselves about the Jester, lean- 
 ing towards 1dm: he begins.] 
 
 Jester. 
 How the fay Morgana sent to Arthur's Court 
 The shield foretelling the great love to be 
 Between good Tristan and the flower-like Iseult; 
 And this shall be between the loveliest lady 
 And the most knightly knight in all the world. 
 And how Iseult and Tristan drank together 
 The draught of love that Iseult's mother, Lotta, 
 Had destined for her daughter aud King Mark. 
 And how the draught of love, being perfect, 
 
 brought 
 Both these two lovers to one single death. 
 
 [The women stand listening, the J esteb preludes on 
 the viol and sings.] 
 
 " Now, when the dawn of day ivas nigh at hand. 
 King Mark of Cornwall and good Tristan rose. . ." 
 
 The voice of Ostasio 
 
 [behind the scenes]. 
 Tell him, the Puglian thief. 
 Tell him, I say, that I will wash my hands 
 And feet in his heart's blood ! 
 
 Alda. 
 
 Messer Ostasio !
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 25 
 
 Garsenda. 
 
 Come away, come, come! 
 {They scatter, and rush up the stairs, with laugh- 
 ter and cries, and along the loyyia.] 
 
 Jester. 
 My jerkin, my good jerkin! 1 commend you, 
 My jerkin, and the scarlet! 
 
 Altichiara 
 [leaning over the loggia]. 
 
 Come back at noon : 
 It shall be ready. 
 
 OsTASio DA Polenta enters hy the great door at 
 the back, accompanied hy Ser Toldo Berajr- 
 
 DENGO. 
 
 OSTASIO 
 
 [seizing the terrified Jester). 
 What are you doing here, rascal? 
 Wiiom were you talking with, the women? How 
 Did you come here? Answer nie, I say. Arc 
 
 you 
 From Messer Paolo Malatesta? Now, 
 Answer! 
 
 Jkstku. 
 O sir, you arc holding me too hard. 
 Ahi! 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Did you come here with Messer Paolo? 
 
 jESTEIt. 
 
 No, sir.
 
 26 FEANCESCA BA BIMINI. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 You lie ! 
 
 Jester. 
 Yes, sir. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 You were talking with 
 The women; wliat did you say? something, no 
 
 doubt, 
 Concerning Messer Paolo. What was it? 
 
 Jester. 
 No, sir, no, sir, only of Messer Tristan. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Take care; you do not trifle with me twice, 
 
 Or you shall keep this tryst of yours with 
 
 Tristan 
 Longer than you intend, unseemly fool. 
 
 Jester. 
 Ahi, ahil what have I done to vex you, sir? 
 I was only singing something. 
 I was only singing a song of the Kound Table. 
 The ladies asked me for a history 
 Of knights. . . I am a Jester and I sing 
 From hunger, and my hunger 
 Hoped better things than beating in the house 
 Of the most noble Messer Guido. I, 
 That keep no hack, have footed 
 From the Castle of Calbeli 
 All the way here: I left 
 Messer Rinieri fortifying his keep 
 With some seven hundred strong 
 Of infantry.
 
 FBA2s^CESCA DA 2?/J/I^V7. 27 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 You come from Calbeli? 
 
 Jester. 
 Yes, sir. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Were you ever with the Malatesti 
 At Rimino? 
 
 Jester. 
 No, sir; never, sir. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Then 
 You do not know Messer Paolo, the Beautiful, 
 That dotes on jesters, and would have them sing 
 And play at all times in his company? 
 
 Jester. 
 
 Unluckily I do not know him, sir, 
 
 But I would ghidly know him. And if I find 
 
 him, 
 I pray to l)e found always at his side. 
 Lonpf life to Messer Paolo Malatesta! 
 
 [He iff about to retire hastily. Ostasio catches 
 hold of him arjain, and calln the Archer 
 who is on guard in the other Court.] 
 
 Ostasio. 
 Jacomello! 
 
 Jester. 
 What have I done, and why 
 Do you do me violence? 
 
 Ostasio. 
 
 Too much talk.
 
 28 FllANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Jestek. 
 
 I am mute. 
 It is hunger barking in me. Keep me prisoner 
 In the kitchen, and I will be as still as oil. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Will you be silent, rascal? Jacomello! 
 I give this prattle-seller to your charge, 
 See that you bit and bib him. 
 
 A spice cake, 
 Givo me a spice cake. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Give him a box ou the ears. 
 
 Jester 
 
 [As the Archer thrusts him out]. 
 When Madonna Francesca knows how you have 
 
 used me. . . . 
 I am to sing at her wedding. 
 Long life to Messer Paolo Malatesta! 
 
 [Eaginy, and full of suspicion, Ostasio dravis the 
 Notary totvards the sarcopharjus.] 
 
 Ostasio. 
 
 These jesters and the like men of the Court 
 
 Here in Romagna are a very plague, 
 
 Worse than the Emperor's rabble. They are 
 tongues 
 
 Of women; they know everything, say every- 
 thing; 
 
 They go about the world
 
 FRANCESCA DA BIMINI. 29 
 
 Spreading abroad their news and novelties; 
 
 Their ears are at the keyholes of us all. 
 
 Who wants to know how the good Papal Rector 
 
 Lay with the wife of Lizio da Valbona? 
 
 Who wants to know 
 
 How much Kinieri da Calbeli has taken 
 
 Out of the purses of the Geremei? 
 
 As for this rascal 
 
 That gossipped with the women of Francesca, 
 
 If he had been a jester 
 
 Of the Malatesti 
 
 By now the women had heard all the news 
 
 There is to tell of Paolo, 
 
 And all the cunning plan had been vain, 
 
 Ser Toldo, that you counselled 
 
 Out of your manifold wisdom. 
 
 Ser Toldo. 
 
 As for him, 
 He was so poor and threadbare, 
 How could I take him for a follower 
 Of such a lordly knight as Paolo, 
 He being so bountiful 
 With gentry such as these? 
 But you are well-advised in bitting him. 
 These creatures of the Court 
 May 1)e by way of being .soothsayers, 
 And often steal the trade 
 Of the astrologers. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 True. And this slave 
 Of Cyprus, that my sister loves so dearly, 
 I have my doubts of her; she too, I think, 
 Is something of a soothsayer; I know
 
 30 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 That she interprets dreams. The other day 
 I saw my sister full of heavy thoughts, 
 And almost sorrowful, 
 As if some evil dream had come to her; 
 And only yesterday 
 
 I heard her heave such a long, heavy sigh 
 As if she had a trouble in her heart, 
 And I heard Samaritana 
 
 Say to her: "What is it, sister? Why do you 
 weep?" 
 
 Ser Toldo. 
 Messer Ostasio, it is the month of May. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 In truth there is no peace for us until 
 This marriage is well over. And I fear, 
 Ser Toldo, lest some scandal come of it. 
 
 Ser Toldo. 
 Yet you know well, what sort 
 Of woman is your sister, and how high 
 Of heart and mind. If she see this Gianciotto, 
 So lamed and bent, and with those eyes of his. 
 As of an angry devil, 
 Before the marriage-contract 
 Be signed and sealed, why, neither will your 
 
 father 
 Nor you, nor any, of a certainty 
 Bring her to take 
 
 The man for husband, not although you set 
 Your dagger at her throat, or haled her through 
 Ravenna by the haii-. 
 
 Ostasio. 
 I know it well, Ser Toldo, for my father
 
 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 31 
 
 Gave her for foster-mother 
 A sword of his of a miraculous edge, 
 That he had tempered in Cesena blood 
 When he was Podesta. 
 
 Sek Toldo. 
 
 Well then, I say, 
 If this be so, and yon desire the match, 
 There is no other way to compass it. 
 And seeing that Paolo Malatesta comes 
 As procurator of Giauciotto here, 
 And with full powers 
 For the betrothal of Madonna Francesca, 
 I say you should proceed 
 Instantly to the marriage. 
 If you would sleep in peace, Messer Ostasio. 
 Paolo is a fair and pleasant youth, 
 And makes a brave decoy. 
 Undoubtedly; yet it is far too easy 
 To learn that he is married to Orabile. 
 And you, did you not beat this jester but 
 For fear of idle talk'^ 
 
 Ostasio. 
 
 Yes, you are right, 
 Ser Toldo; we must put an end to this. 
 My father is returning from Valdoppio 
 This very night; we will have all prepared 
 And ready for to-morrow. 
 
 Sek Toldo. 
 
 Very good, 
 Messer Ostasio. 
 
 Ostasio. 
 Yet . . . What will come of it ?
 
 S2 FRANCESCA ba biminl 
 
 Ser Toldo. 
 If you do all, as all this should be done, 
 With secrecy and prudence. Madonna Fraucesca 
 Will find out nothing till at Rimino, 
 She wakes, the morning after 
 Her wedding day, and sees 
 Beside her . . . 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Ah, it is like some vile revenge 1 
 
 See Toldo. 
 And sees beside her rise 
 Gianciotto. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 O, she is so beautiful ! 
 And we avenge ourselves upon her beauty. 
 Almost as if she wronged our house and us 
 In coming to be born 
 
 Here like a flower in the midst of so much iron. 
 We are giving her to the lame Malatesta 
 For the sake of that poor hundred infantry ! 
 But is she not herself 
 
 Worth more than all the lordship of Romagna ? 
 False notary, how did you poison first 
 My father's mind ? All this 
 Is your base bargaining. I will not have it. 
 Do you understand ? 
 
 Sek Toldo. 
 
 Why, what tarantula bites you, 
 Messer Ostasio ? 
 Surely you will not find 
 A better match to make in all Romagna ?
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 33 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 The Malatesti ? Who then after all 
 
 Are these Verrucchio folk ? By this alliance 
 
 Shall we have crot Ceseiia, 
 
 Cervia, Faeuza, Forli, Civitella, 
 
 Half of Roraagna? 
 
 A hundred uifantry ! 
 
 To hunt the Traversara region, O 
 
 The mighty succour ! 
 
 And Dovadella, and Zello, and Montaguto 
 
 Already in our pt)wer perhaps. Giauciotto ! 
 
 But who is he, Giauciotto ? When I think 
 
 How that Traversarian widow. 
 
 That ancient scabhy bitch, has mated with 
 
 (After the nephew of the Pope) the son 
 
 Of Andrea, the King of Hungary. . . . 
 
 Ser Toldo. 
 What is the King of Hungary to you ? 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 But here are we, witli this 
 
 Puglian clodhopper. 
 
 This (iuglielmetto that now vaunts himself 
 
 As tlie legitimate lieir 
 
 Of I'aolo Travcrsari, 
 
 And harries us; and we shall never break him 
 
 With this mere hundred infantry, and he 
 
 Will surely conu^ again with help from Foglia. 
 
 What shall we hope for then 
 
 From Malatesta ? 
 
 Ser Toi.do. 
 Malatesta is the chief of all the Guelphs 
 Now in Pi(jniagna, and tlic chief defender
 
 34 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Of the Church, and he has the favoui* of the 
 
 Pope, 
 And he was made the governor of Florence 
 Under King Charles, and whosoever seeks 
 A captain. . . . 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Notary. 
 Guido di Montefeltro shattered him, 
 Once, at the bridge of San Px'ocolo. Notary, 
 Guglielmino de' Pazzi drove him back 
 At Reversano, and has made him since 
 Give up the fortress of Cesena. 
 
 Ser Toldo. 
 
 Ay, 
 But the victory at Colle di Valdelsa 
 Against the Sienese, 
 
 The time he slaughtered Provenzan Salvani? 
 But when he made Count Guido prisoner 
 On the borders of Ancona, and brought him 
 
 back, 
 Him and his men, to Rimino? But when 
 He intercepted 
 The famous secret letters 
 From the Emperor Baldwin to King Manfred? 
 
 Come, 
 In truth it seems to me, 
 Messer Ostasio, 
 Your memory is then no longer Guelph. 
 
 Ostasio. 
 If the Devil comes to me and lends me a hand 
 That I may root and ruin the evil race 
 Of the slave Pasquetta and the Puglian hag, 
 I am for the Devil, notary.
 
 FRANCESCA DA HI MINI. 35 
 
 Ser Toldo. 
 All, ah! I guessed the trutli: 
 It is the tarantula of Puglia bites you. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 The Emperor Frederick (God, for this thing 
 
 Grant him a cup of water down in hell ! ) 
 
 Had utterly destroyed the seed of them, 
 
 When he hurled Aica Traversari headlong 
 
 Into the fiery furnace. 
 
 And lo, one day there comes into Ravenna 
 
 A certain slave, Pasquetta, with her sweetheart, 
 
 And tells you: " I am Aica," 
 
 And comes on one Filippo, an Archbishop, 
 
 And he affirms her the legitimate heir, 
 
 And with the taking over of the Dukedom 
 
 Makes her the lady mistress I And from that 
 
 The filthy vagabond of a husband holds 
 
 The headship of the very Ghibelline party 
 
 Against the house of Polenta I O Ser Toldo, 
 
 Now we are doing deeds of chivalry 
 
 Against Guglielmo Francisio, bastard 
 
 Of shepherd-folk. Do you understand? 
 
 Ser Toldo. 
 
 But you, 
 Have you not driven him out of Ravenna? 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 With the infantry of Gianciotto Malatesta? 
 
 Ser Toi.do. 
 You arc ungrateful, Mesf-er Ostasio. 
 Gianciotto Malatesta in two days 
 Broke ;ill the bars and gratings in the streets; 
 Between Sant' Agata and Porta San Mamante,
 
 M PeANCESCA da BIMINl. 
 
 He massacred the gang 
 
 Of the Anastagi; 
 
 Between San Simoue and Porta San Vittore 
 
 His heavy cross-bolts cleared 
 
 The whole pack in a breath. 
 
 Nor is he ever one to spare himself, 
 
 But proved his courage, 
 
 There, with a buckler braced about his arm, 
 
 A rapier in his hand ; 
 
 And always in the crush 
 
 Set on his priceless horse, 
 
 A raging beast that gave his enemies 
 
 What travail more he could, so that he had 
 
 Always some dozen more or less of men 
 
 Under his horse's hoof; and Stefano 
 
 Sibaldo, that stood by, 
 
 Swears, when the Lamester does 
 
 A feat of arms, it is beautiful to see him; 
 
 He is a master in the art of war ! 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Ser Toldo, you had certainly your share 
 
 Of the booty I You will take away their skill 
 From those who sang the song of the twelve 
 
 barons 
 Of Charlemagne, 
 
 Lord of the flowing beard. How much, I pray. 
 Came to your share? 
 
 Ser Toldo. 
 
 The tarantula of Puglia 
 Is a certain sort of spider, 
 That brings all kinds of luck to those he bites. 
 
 1 am not now, alas, 
 
 All that I have been once !
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 37 
 
 But the Malatesti always liave been ill 
 Bearers of shame, and now Gianciotto knows 
 The way by which one gets inside the walls 
 Here at Ravenna. . . . But you might give your 
 
 sister, 
 No doubt, to the Prince Royal of Salerno, 
 Or to the Doge of Venice. 
 
 OSTASIO 
 
 [absorbed]. 
 
 Ah ! is she 
 Not worth a kingdom? How beautiful she is 1 
 There never was a sword that went so straight 
 As her eyes go, if they but look at you. 
 Yesterday she was saying: " Who is it 
 You give me to?" When she walks, and her 
 
 hair 
 Falls all about her to her waist, and down 
 To her strong knees (she is strong, though very 
 
 pale) 
 And her head sways a little, she gives forth joy 
 Like flags that wave in the wind 
 When one sets forth against a mighty city 
 In polished armour. Then 
 Slie seems as if she held 
 The eagle of Polenta 
 
 Fast in her fist, like a trained hawk, to fling him 
 Forth to tlie prey. Yesterday she was saying: 
 *' Who is it you give me to? " 
 Why should I see her die? 
 
 Sku Toi-do. 
 Now you might give your sister 
 To the King of Hungary 
 Or better, to the Paleologue. 

 
 38 FBANCESCA BA RIMINI. 
 
 OSTASIA. 
 
 Be silent, 
 Ser Toldo, for to-day 
 I am not patient. 
 
 The Voice of Banning. 
 Ostasio! Ostasiol 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 By God! here is Bannino, here is the bastard 
 That pants and lolls his tongue. 
 I knew it. 
 
 Banning appears at the door at the back of the 
 stage, jjanting and dishevelled, like a fugitive, 
 with AspiNELLo, Aksendi, Viviano de' 
 Vivii, and Bektkando Luko, loho are bleeding 
 and covered lolth dust. 
 
 Banning. 
 Ostasio ! 
 The men of Forli have attacked the waggons 
 Of salt, by Cervia; 
 
 They have put to flight the convoy and over- 
 turned 
 The waggons. 
 
 Ostasio 
 
 [Shouting]. 
 Ah, I knew it! 
 But they have not cut your throat? 
 
 ASPINELLG. 
 
 The Ghibellines that were exiled from Bologna. 
 With those too of Faeuza and Forli
 
 FEANCESCA DA RnilNI. 39 
 
 Gather iu companies over all the laud 
 And are laying all things waste with fire and 
 sword. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Jesu our Lord, good tidings for your Vicar! 
 
 ViVIANO. 
 
 And they have burned Monte Vecchio, Valcapra, 
 Piauetto. They have laid waste Strabatanza 
 
 and Biserno 
 For Lizio da Valbona, 
 They have laid waste, for the Count 
 Ugo da Cerfugnano, 
 The country of Rontana and of Quarmento. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 God of mercy, still good tidings, 
 
 Good tidings to thy servants, and good tidings! 
 
 Bertrando. 
 Guide di Montcfcltro 
 Takes horse to Calbeli 
 With engines, and balistas; 
 And he will have the castle. 
 
 OsTASIO. 
 
 More? more! 
 
 Christ Jesus, to thy praise always I 
 
 ViVIANO. 
 
 Tliere was Scarpetta 
 
 Of the OrdelafTi witli the Forli folk. 
 
 BANNIAfO. 
 
 They have put to fliglit the convoy and over- 
 turned 
 The waggons and taken cattle
 
 40 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 And horses, and have killed 
 
 Malvicino da Lozza 
 
 And many soldiers, and made prisoner 
 
 Paji^ano Coffa; and the others in disorder 
 
 Have fled iu search of safety towards the sea. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 And yon, you towards the laud, 
 
 As fast as horse could carry you. I knew it 
 
 I knew it well. 
 
 Where did you leave your sword? 
 
 And you have thrown away your helmet too. 
 
 Save himself he who can! That is your cry. 
 
 Banning. 
 My sword? I broke my sword 
 In the very rage of striking blows with it. 
 There were three hundred, maybe four, against 
 
 us. 
 Aspinello, Bertrando, 
 Say, both of you, and you 
 Viviano, say if I did well or no. 
 I had against me more than twenty men 
 That would have taken me; and I carved my 
 
 life 
 With my own hand out of their flesh and bone. 
 Say, all of you ! 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 You see 
 They cannot answer for yon; they are tasked 
 To stanch the flowing of their blood, and wipe 
 The dust away that clings about their faces. 
 But you are clean, you; cuirass, sleeves, all 
 clean,
 
 FBANCESCA DA EIMINI. 41 
 
 Spotless. Your euemies 
 
 Had got no veins then in their bodies? You 
 
 Have not a scratch upon your whited face, 
 
 mighty man of valour in your words! 
 
 [The Three Soldiers, taking their harness 
 off their backs, and wiping it, move away.] 
 
 Banning 
 Ostasio! Ostasiol Enough! 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 1 knew it well, 
 
 I had but laughter when 
 
 My fatlier picked you out 
 
 To lead the waggon safely in. I said: 
 
 " May the good Bishop of Cervia 
 
 Preserve him with his crozier! In Ravenna 
 
 'Tis very certain we shall have no salt." 
 
 Did I say wrong? Go, go, Bannino, go 
 
 And mince the lungs of hares into a dish 
 
 For sparrow-hawks. 
 
 Banning. 
 You should be silent, you, 
 While I was in the fray. 
 Stayed safe at home, plotting with notaries. 
 
 Ostasio. 
 O lord and leader of harlots, you shall know 
 That if the men of Forli did not catch you, 
 Because you were too nimble, 
 'Tis I will catch you. 
 
 Banning. 
 What? with treachery, 
 After your fashion?
 
 42 FBANCESCA DA EIMINI. 
 
 OstaSio. 
 
 I will do it so that you, 
 This time at least, do not go whimpering home 
 To tell my father. 
 
 Seb Toldo. 
 Peace! peace! 
 
 Banning. 
 
 I will tell him 
 Something I know, this time. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 What do you know? 
 
 Banning. 
 You know the thing I mean. 
 
 Ser Tgldo. 
 Peace, peace, O peace! 
 Be brothers! 
 
 OSTASIG. 
 
 He is from another nest. 
 
 Ser Toldo. 
 Messer Ostasio, he is but a boy. 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Sijeak then, if you know how to wound a man 
 At any rate with your tongue. 
 
 Banning. 
 You know the thing 
 I mean. I keep my counsel, 
 
 Ostasio. 
 
 Ng, pour out 
 Your gall, that is now painted in your face, 
 Or I will wring you up as if I wrung 
 A wet rag out.
 
 FRANCESCA DA EUUNI. 43 
 
 Banning. 
 
 Ostasio, 
 I am not so skilled in pouring out my gall 
 As you your wine 
 With an unshaken hand. 
 
 Ostasio. 
 What wine? 
 
 Banning, 
 Your wine, pure wine, jjure wine, I mean. 
 
 OSTASIG. 
 
 Listen to me, bastard ! 
 
 Banning. 
 Our good old father 
 Fell sick one day. With what a tenderness 
 You watched about him, O you best of sons! 
 Do you know now? do you know? I know a 
 
 thing 
 That you too know. 
 God dry your right band up! 
 
 Ostasio. 
 Ah, what a woman's lie is that! O bastard, 
 Your day has come at last; 
 No use in flying from the enemy! 
 
 [lie drawn kin sword and rushes upou BANNING, 
 who leaps aside and avoids the blow. lie is 
 about tofoUov) him, lohen Seb Toldo tries 
 to drav) him back. | 
 
 Sek Toldo. 
 Messer Ostasio, what is it you would do? 
 Let him alone! Let him alone! He is 
 Your brother. Wbat wouM you do to him? 
 I'l'he .Si.AVK comes out on the loyjia and watchis.]
 
 44 FRANCESGA DA BIMINL 
 
 Banning 
 
 [terrified]. 
 O father, 
 
 father, help ! Francesca, O sister, help ! 
 
 No! you will kill me. Wretch! Wretch! No, 
 
 no, pardon, 
 Ostasio! No, I will not tell . . . 
 [Seeing the point at his throat, he kneels down.] 
 
 The poison 
 Was not yours. 
 [The Three Soldiers, unarmed, have come hack.] 
 No, I will not tell! O pardon! 
 [Ostasio wounds him in the cheek. He swoons.] 
 
 Ostasio. 
 Nothing, nothing, it is nothing, 
 
 [He leans over and looks at him.] 
 It is nothing; 
 He has fainted; I have only pricked the skin; 
 Not in a bad place, no; and not in anger. 
 
 1 pricked him just a little 
 
 That he might learn not to fear naked steel. 
 That he might bear him better in the fray 
 And not lose sword and helmet 
 When he turns tail next on the Ghibelline. 
 
 [The Three Soldiers lift Banning.] 
 Take him away to Maestro Gabbadeo, 
 And let his wounds be staunched 
 With salt out of the Cervia salt-mines. 
 
 [He watches the wounded man as he is borne 
 away, then closes the great door with a clang. 
 The Slave silently retires from the loggia.] 
 Come, 
 Ser Toldo, let us go.
 
 FRANCESCA DA UIMINI. 45 
 
 Seu Toldo. 
 
 AVhat will your father 
 Say when he comes? 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 My father 
 Is much too kind to this young bastardling. 
 
 [He looks gloomily on the ground.] 
 He is from another nest, and he was hatched 
 Not by the eagle, no, but by a jay. 
 Did you not hear what he was stuttering? 
 About a wine, a wine . . . [lie pauses grimly. \ 
 It was a stock 
 
 Suborned by some one of the Anastagi. 
 Christ guard my father and my house from 
 traitors ! 
 
 Seb Toldo. 
 And Madonna Francesca then? 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 Yes, we will give her 
 To the Malatesta. 
 
 Ser Toldo. 
 May God prosper itl 
 
 OSTASIO. 
 
 The vengeances that wait for us are great 
 And many, and some tears shall flow in the 
 
 world, 
 Please God, more bitter than the salt in all 
 The salt-mines of this Cervia. Come with me, 
 Ser Toldo, Paolo Malatesta waits. 
 
 [T/uy go out.\
 
 46 FBANCESCA DA EIMINL 
 
 The Slave reappears, carrying a bucket and a 
 sponge. She comes down tlie stairs in silence, 
 barefooted. She looks at the bloodstains on the 
 pavement and goes dowyi on her knees to wash 
 them up. From the rooms above is heard the 
 song of the Women. 
 
 Chokus of Women. 
 
 All me, the sorrow of heart 
 
 In the heart that loves too well. Ah me! 
 
 Ah me, if the heart could tell 
 
 How love in the heart is aflame. Ah me! 
 
 [Francesca and Samakitana are seen coming 
 out on the loggia side by side, with their arms 
 about each other. The chorus of Women 
 follows t/iem,, carrying distaffs of different 
 colours; but pauses on the lighted loggia, 
 standing as in a singing gallery, ichile the 
 two sisters go down the stairs to the level of 
 the garden. The slave, having washed out 
 the stains, hurriedly pours the bloodstained 
 water in her bucket into the sarcophagus 
 among the flowers.] 
 
 Fbancesca 
 
 \pausing on the stairs]. 
 It is love makes them sing! 
 
 [She throws hack Iter head a little, as if abandon- 
 ing herself to the breath of the melody, light 
 and palpitating.] 
 
 Women. 
 Ah me, the sorrow and shame, 
 In the sad heart on the morrow Ah me!
 
 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 47 
 
 Francesca. 
 They are intoxicated with these odours. 
 Do you not hear them? With a sighing fall 
 Sadly they sing 
 The things of perfect joy. 
 
 [She loithilrmvs her arm from her niHter^a tvaist, 
 and moves a little away, paualng while the 
 other takes another step downward.] 
 
 Women. 
 Ah me, the hitter sorrow. 
 All life long. Ah me ! 
 
 Francesca. 
 Like running water 
 
 That goes and goes, and the eye sees it not, 
 So is my soul. 
 
 Samaritana 
 With a sudden alarm, cUnylng closer to her sister]. 
 
 Francesca, 
 Where are you going, who is taking you? 
 
 FllANCESCA. 
 Ah, you awaken me. 
 
 [The Sony pauses. The Women turn their backs, 
 looking down into the other court. They 
 seem to be on the loatch. The twi-horned 
 headdresses and the lull distaffs shine in the 
 sun, and now and then there is a whisperimj 
 and rustlinf/ of lips and garments in the clear 
 sunlight.] 
 
 Samakitana. 
 
 O, sister, sister, 
 Tiisten to me: stay with me still I O stay 
 With nio! wf; wore born hen;, 
 D(j n<jt forsak(! nic, do not go away,
 
 48 FEANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Let me still keep my bed 
 
 Beside your bed, and let me still at night 
 
 Feel yon beside me, 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 He has come. 
 
 Samaritana. 
 Who? Who has come 
 To take you from me? 
 
 Frastcesca. 
 
 Sister, he has come. 
 
 Samakitana. 
 He has no name, he has no countenance, 
 And we have never seen him. 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 
 It may be 
 That I have seen him. 
 
 Samaritana. 
 I have never been apart 
 From you, and from your breath; 
 My life has never seen hut with your eyes; 
 O, where can you have seen him, and not I 
 Seen him as well? 
 
 Francesca. 
 Where you 
 Can never come, sweetheart, in a far place 
 And in a lonely place 
 Where a great flame of fire 
 Burns, and none feed that flame. 
 
 Samaritana. 
 You speak to me in riddles, 
 And there is like a veil over your face. 
 Ah, and it seems as if you had gone away,
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 49 
 
 And from fai- off 
 
 Turned and looked back; and your voice sounds 
 
 to me 
 As out of a great wind. 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 Peace, peace, dear soul, 
 My little dove. Why are you troubled? Peace; 
 You also, and ere long, 
 Shall see your day of days, 
 And leave our nest as I have left it; then 
 Your little bed shall stand 
 Empty beside my bed; and I no more 
 Shall hear through dreams at dawn 
 Your little naked feet run to the window. 
 And no more see you, white and barefooted, 
 Run to the window, O my little dove. 
 And no more hear you say to me: " Francesca, 
 Francesca, now the morning-star is born, 
 And it has chased away the Pleiades." 
 
 Samaritan A. 
 So we will live, ah me. 
 So we will live forever; 
 And time shall flee away, 
 Flee away always! 
 
 Francesca. 
 And you will no more say to me at morn: 
 "What was it in your bed that made it creak 
 Like reeds in the wind?" Nor shall I answer 
 
 you : 
 " I turned about to sleep. 
 To sleep anrl dream, and saw, 
 As I was sleeping, in the dream I dreamed. . ."
 
 50 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 All, I sliall no more tell yoii what is seen 
 lu dreams. And we will die. 
 So we will die forever; 
 And time shall flee away, 
 Flee away always ! 
 
 Samaritan A. 
 O Francesca, O Francesca, you hurt my heart, 
 And see, Francesca, 
 You make me tremble all over. 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 Little one, peace, 
 Peace, be at rest. 
 
 Samaritan a. 
 You told me of the dream 
 You dreamed last night, and while 
 You sijoke I seemed to hear 
 A sound of voices calling out in anger, 
 And then a cry, and then 
 
 The sound of a door shutting; and then silence. 
 You did not finish telling me your dream, 
 For then 
 
 The women began singing, and you stopped ; 
 And you have left my heart in pain for you. 
 Whom is it that our father gives you to? 
 
 Francesca. 
 Sister, do you remember how one day 
 In August we were on the tower together? 
 We saw great clouds rise up out of the sea. 
 Great clouds heavy with storm. 
 And there was a hot wind that gave one thirst; 
 And all the weight of the great heavy sky 
 Weighed over on our heads; and we saw all
 
 FItANCt:SCA DA RIMINI. 51 
 
 The forest round about, down to the sliore 
 
 Of Chiassi, turn to blackness, like the sea; 
 
 And we saw birds flying in companies 
 
 Before the murmurs growing on the wind. 
 
 Do you remember? We were on the tower; 
 
 And then, all of a sudden, there was dead 
 
 Silence. The wind was silent, and I heard 
 
 Only the beating of your little heart; 
 
 And then a hammer beat, 
 
 As by the roadside some flushed plunderer, 
 
 Hot for more plunder, bent 
 
 Shoeing his horse in haste. 
 
 The forest was as silent as the shadow 
 
 Over the tombs ; 
 
 Ravenna, dusk and hollow as a city 
 
 Sacked by the enemy, at nightfall. We, 
 
 We two, under that cloud 
 
 (Do you remember?) felt as if death came 
 
 Nearer, yet moved no eyelid, but stood there, 
 
 Waiting the thunder. 
 
 {She turns to the Slave, ivho stands motionless 
 beside the sarcophagus. \ 
 
 O Smax-agdi, who. 
 Who was it, in the song among your people, 
 That stood, shoeing his horse under the moon, 
 And when his mother spoke to him, and said: 
 '* My son, I pray you take not in your course 
 The sister when you take the brother, nor 
 Lovers that love each other with true love," 
 Answered her sourly back: 
 " If three I find, tliree I take; if I find 
 Two, I take one; and if 1 find but one, 
 I take the one 1 find" ? 
 What was the name they gave him in your land?
 
 52 FRANC ESC A DA ItUIINI. 
 
 Slave. 
 An evil name 
 It is not good for any man to name. 
 
 Fraxcesca. 
 Tell rae, what will you do without me here, 
 Smaragdi? What is there that I can leave you 
 When I go hence? 
 
 Slave. 
 
 Three cups of bitterness 
 Leave me: 
 
 The first that I may drink at early morning; 
 The second, on the stroke 
 Of mid-day; and the third, 
 Soon after vespers. 
 
 Fraxcesca. 
 
 No, I will not leave 
 Three cups of bitterness, but you shall come 
 With me, Smaragdi, to the city of Rimino, 
 And you shall be with me, and we will have 
 A window opening upon the sea, 
 And I will tell you over all my dreams, 
 Because you see unveiled 
 The face of sorrow and the face of joy; 
 And I will speak to you of that most sweet 
 Sister, my little dove; 
 Aud you will stand, and, looking through the 
 
 window, 
 See all the skiffs and galleys on the sea. 
 And you will sing: " My galley of Barbary, 
 What is the port you make for, and the shore 
 Where you would anchor? Cyprus I would 
 
 make for. 
 And at Limisso anchor,
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 53 
 
 And land my sailors for a kiss, my captain, 
 For love!" Come now, must I not take you 
 
 with me 
 To Rimino, Smaragdi? 
 
 Slave. 
 
 To go with you 
 It were a happiness to tread on thorns, 
 And to pass through the flames 
 To be with you. 
 You are the heaven with stars, 
 The sea with waves. 
 
 Francesca.. 
 The sea with waves! 
 
 But tell me, what are you doing with the bucket, 
 Smaragdi? 
 
 Slave. 
 
 I have watered 
 The roses. 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 Why then have you watered them 
 Out of their season? Why? Samaritana 
 Will be angry with you. She 
 Gives water to the roses 
 
 As soon as the bell sounds for vespers. Come, 
 What do you say, Samaritana? 
 
 Samakitana. 
 
 I 
 Would let them die, because, 
 Francesca, you are going away from us. 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 O beautiful, and perchance 
 A holy thing, being born in this most ancient
 
 54 FBANCESCA DA UlMINt. 
 
 Sarcophagus that was the sepulchre 
 Perchauce of some great martyr or of some 
 Glorious virgin ! 
 [She walks round the sarcophagus, touching with 
 her fingers the carvings on the four sides.] 
 The Kedeemer treads 
 Under his feet the lion and the snake; 
 Mary saluted by Elizabeth; 
 Our Lady, and the angel bids " All hail!" 
 The stags are drinking at the running brook. 
 yShe stretches out her arms towards the rose-tree.] 
 And now the blood of martyrdom refiowers 
 In purple and in lire. Behold, behold, 
 Sister, the ardent flame. 
 Behold the roses that are full of fire! 
 Here did our own hands plant them, on a day, 
 It was October, on a day of battle 
 That crimsoned the red eagle of Polenta. 
 Do you remember? How the trumpets sounded 
 From Porta Gaza to the Torre Zancana, 
 As the new flag unfurled. 
 The flag our father 
 
 Had bid us make for him with forty yards 
 Of crimson cloth : it was a mighty flag-pole. 
 Do you remember? 
 
 And we had broidered round about the hem 
 A border fringe of gold. 
 It conquered! And from then 
 We held these roses 
 
 To be a blessed thing, we held them spotless 
 And undefiled as a white virginal robe; 
 And there was never plucked 
 One of these roses, and three springtides through
 
 FRANCESCA DA EIMINL 55 
 
 They blossomed into flower and fell to dust 
 
 In the sarcophaj^us. 
 
 But never have they flowered until this May, 
 
 Such floods, such floods of them. 
 
 There are a hundred. Look! 
 
 They burn me if I touch them. 
 
 The virgins vowed to Saint Apollinaris 
 
 Burn not with such an ardour in their heaven 
 
 Of gold. Saniaritana, 
 
 Samaritana, which of them say you 
 
 Found here a sepulchre 
 
 After her glorious martyrdom? O, which 
 
 Of these was sepulchred 
 
 Here, tell me, here, after her martyrdom? 
 
 Look, look: it is the miracle of the blood! 
 
 Samakitana 
 {Frightened, drawiwj her towards herself]. 
 Sister, wliat is it, sister? 
 You speak as if you raved. 
 What is it? Speak! 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 {From the loggia.] Madonna Francesca! 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 Madonna 
 Francesca ! 
 
 Francesca, 
 Who calls for mo? 
 
 AOONKM.A. 
 
 Come up here! O come f|nick! 
 
 Am)A. 
 ITere, here, Madonna Francesca, come up hero 
 And see !
 
 56 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Adonella. 
 Come quickly. It is your betrothed 
 Who is passing. 
 
 BlANCOFIOEE. 
 
 He is passing through the court, 
 He is with your brother, Messer Ostasio; 
 And here too is Ser Toldo Berardengo, 
 The notary, he is with them. 
 
 Alda. 
 Here, here! Madonna Francesca, come up 
 
 quickly. 
 He is there, he is there! 
 [Fbancesca goes hastily up the stairs. SamA- 
 RiTANA is about to follow her, but stops, 
 overcome.] 
 
 Adonflla. 
 [Pointing him out to Francesca who leans over 
 to look.] 
 See, there is he who comes 
 To be your husband. 
 
 Garsenda, 
 
 O most happy lady, 
 Most happy lady. 
 
 He is the fairest knight in all the world, 
 In very truth. See now 
 
 How his hair falls, and waves about his shoulders 
 In the new way, the Angevin way! 
 
 Alda. 
 
 And how 
 Well made he is, a proper man, well girded 
 About the surcoat with the hanging sleeves 
 That almost touch the ground.
 
 FBANCESCA DA lilMINI. 57 
 
 Alda. 
 And what a splendid clasp and what an aglet! 
 
 BlAXCOFIORK. 
 
 And tall! And slender! And a royal carriage! 
 
 Adonella. 
 And how his teeth are white ! 
 He smiled a little, and I saw them glitter. 
 Did you not see, did you 
 Not see? 
 
 Gabsenda. 
 O, happy, happy shall shfl be 
 That kisses him on the mouth! 
 
 Francesca. 
 Be silent. 
 
 Alda. 
 He has gone. He is passing now 
 Under the portico. 
 
 [The Slave oi>ens the rjrating, closes it furtively 
 behind her, and dlsajjpears into the garden.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Be silent, ba silent! 
 
 [She turns, covering her fare with both her hands; 
 when she withdraws thetn, her face appears 
 transfigured. She goes down the first stairs 
 slowly, then icith U sudden rapiaiUj throws 
 lierself into the arms of her sister, lohu awvM^ 
 her at the foot of the staircase.] 
 
 Altichiara. 
 Messer Ostasio is coming back alone.
 
 58 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 BlANCOFIOKE. 
 
 The slave, where is she goiug ? She is running 
 Down through the garden. 
 
 Gaksexda. 
 
 Smaragdi runs and runs 
 Like a hound unleashed. Where is she going? 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 Sing 
 Together, sing the song of the fair Isotta: 
 "6 date, O :eafy date! ..." 
 [The women form into a circle on the loggia.] 
 Chorus of Women. 
 
 O date, O leafy date, 
 O love, O lovely love. 
 What loilt thou do to me? 
 [Francesca, held close in her sisler^s arms, sud- 
 denly begins to weep. The chorus breaks off. 
 The Women s})eak together in low voices.] 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 Madonna weeps. 
 
 ADONEr,LA. 
 
 She weeps ! 
 
 Alda. 
 
 Why does she weep? 
 
 AlTICHIAPvA. 
 
 She weeps because her heart is sick with joy. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 
 Straight to the heart 
 
 He wounded her. If she is beautiful, 
 
 He is beautiful, the Malatesta!
 
 FRANCESCA DA EIMINI. 59 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 Born 
 One for the other 
 Under one star. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 O happy he and she ! 
 
 Alda. 
 Long may he live who crowns 
 Their heads with garlands! 
 
 BlANCOFIOBE. 
 
 First rain of the season 
 To the corn brings increase! 
 And the first tears of love 
 To the lover bring peace. 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 She smiles, she smiles 
 Now. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 And her tears 
 Laugh like the hoar-frost. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Go, warm the bath, 
 Get the combs ready. 
 
 ]The WoMKJi scatter over the loggia, with their 
 garments fluttering, nimble as birds on the 
 bough, vjhile the tall staves of their distaffs 
 pass and repass, shaken like torches against 
 the blue strip of the sky. Nome go into the 
 rooms and come out again. Olhers stand 
 as if watching. And they talk in subdued
 
 60 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 voices and they move without sound of foot- 
 steps. ] 
 
 BlANCOFIOKE. 
 
 These smelling-bottles 
 
 Of bright new silver 
 
 We have to fill 
 
 With water of orange flower and water of roses. 
 
 Alda. 
 We have to fill 
 Four mighty coffers 
 With sheets of linen fringed with silken lace. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 And stores of pillows 
 We have wrought for a marvel. 
 We have wrought so many 
 That never in dreams the people of Rimino 
 Have seen such store ! 
 
 Adonella. 
 Ah, we have much to be doing 1 
 
 Garsenda. 
 And we must fold the quilts 
 Of cloth of linen 
 And all the embroidered coverlets of gold. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 And count the nets and ribbons for the hair 
 And all the girdles and the belts of gold. 
 
 Adonella. 
 We have much to be doing! 
 
 Gaesenda. 
 I take my oath 
 A better dowry brings to Malatesta
 
 FRA^'C'ESCA DA lilMINL 61 
 
 The dausliter of Messer Guido than the daughter 
 Of Boemoudo, King of Servia, 
 To the Doge of Venice. 
 
 Adonella. 
 And if she go by sea we have store enough 
 Of oil and lavender 
 To perfume all the sea. 
 
 Alda. 
 And we will teach the women. 
 Of Kimino, that are a little raw, 
 The art of odours. 
 
 BlAXCOFIORE 
 
 And the art of playing. 
 And of singing and of d^^ncing. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 
 O, I forgot 
 That I have yet to put a patch of scarlet 
 On the jerkin of Giau Figo. 
 He comes again at noonday. 
 
 BlANCOFIOKK. 
 
 He will do well to finish 
 
 The story of Morgana and the shield, 
 
 And of the magic potion. 
 
 Alda. 
 Hey, hey, the wedding in May! 
 Tlie table must 1)0 i:iid for thirty dishes 
 And for a hundred trenchers. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 We must ]>ring word 
 To Mazarollo 
 To have the music ready.
 
 62 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Adonella. 
 Ah, we have much to be doing! 
 
 Gaesenda. 
 Hey, hey, to work, to work ! 
 
 Adonella. 
 Come, lay our distaffs down 
 And take our garlands up. 
 
 [They go into the room xvith a murmur, like a 
 swarm of bees into the hive. Fbancesc A has 
 raised her head, and her tears are suddenly 
 lit up by a smile. While the Women on the 
 loggia loere chattering in a low voice among 
 themselves, she 7viped the tears from her face 
 and the face of her sister with her fingers. 
 Now she speaks, and her first ivords are 
 heard through the last words of the Women.) 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 sister, sister. 
 
 Weep no more. Now I weep no more. See 
 
 DOW, 
 
 1 am smiling. Tears and smiles 
 Are not enough now. Close 
 
 And narrow is the heart to hold this power, 
 
 And weeping is a virtue all outspent, 
 
 And laughter is a lirtle idle play; 
 
 And all my life seems now, 
 
 With all the veins of it, 
 
 And all the days of it, 
 
 And all old things in it, far away things. 
 
 From long ago in the old time, the blind 
 
 And silent time, when I 
 
 Was but an infant on my mother's breast,
 
 FRANCi:SCA DA lilMINL &i 
 
 And you were not, 
 
 Seems all to tremble 
 
 In one lonj^ shuddering 
 
 Over the earth ; 
 
 And now tlirou<;h all the streams 
 
 That laugh and weep in the places 
 
 That I have never known, 
 
 The forces of my being are cast abroad; 
 
 And I hear the air cry with a terrible cry. 
 
 And I hear the light 
 
 Sound like a trurapet-peal, 
 
 And the shouting that I hear 
 
 And the tumult cry out louder than the sound 
 
 In days of vengeance, sister, when the blood 
 
 Colours the portals of our father's house. 
 
 Samakitaxa. 
 O Francesca, my Francesca, O dear soul. 
 What have you seen? What is it you have seen? 
 
 FlJANCESCA. 
 
 No, do not be afraid ! 
 
 AVhat is it your eyes speak? 
 
 What sickness am I stricken with, and what, 
 
 What have I seen? 
 
 It is life runs away, 
 
 Kuns away like a river, 
 
 Kavening, and yet cannot find its sea; 
 
 And the roar is in my ears. 
 
 Hut you, but you, 
 
 Take me, dear sister, take me with you now, 
 
 And let mo be with you! 
 
 Carry me to my room, 
 
 And shut the shutters fast. 
 
 And give me a little shade,
 
 64 FRANCESCA DA BIMIMI. 
 
 And give me a di'aught of water, 
 
 And lay me down upon your little bed, 
 
 And with a covering cover me and make 
 
 A silence of the shouting, make a silence 
 
 Of the shouting and the tumult 
 
 I hear within my soul! 
 
 Bring stillness back to me, 
 
 That I may hear again 
 
 The bees of May 
 
 Beat on the window, and the cry of the swallows, 
 
 And some of your soft words. 
 
 Your words of yesterday, 
 
 Your words of long ago 
 
 And long ago, 
 
 Out of an hour that comes to me again 
 
 Like an enchantment. 
 
 And hold me close, dear sister. 
 
 And hold me close to you ! 
 
 And we will wait for night 
 
 Night with its prayer and sleep. 
 
 Sister; and for the morning we will wait 
 
 That brings that morning-star. 
 
 Garsenda 
 \ri(shinrj in upon the loggia]. 
 He is coming, he is coming! O Madonna 
 Francesca! see, he is coming by the way 
 Of the garden. I have seen him from the room 
 Of the coffers, I have seen him 
 Under the cypi'esses. Smaragdi shows him 
 The way. 
 
 [The other WoMENjom her, curious and mirth- 
 ful; and they have garlands on their heads for 
 joy: and they have xmth them three Girls,
 
 FBANCESCA DA BIMINL 65 
 
 lute-players and viol-players and flute- 
 players.] 
 
 Francesca 
 [lohite with fear, and beside herself]. 
 
 No, no, uo! Run, 
 Run, women, run ! 
 Let him not come! Run, run! 
 Women, go out to meet liim, 
 Let him not come! Shut to 
 The gates, and bar tlie way, and say to him 
 Merely that I sahite him ! and you, you, 
 Samaritana, help me. 
 Because I cannot fly; but my knees fail 
 And my sight fails me. 
 But you, my women, run, 
 Run now, and meet him. 
 
 And bid him turn again! Go out to meet him. 
 And say that I salute him ! 
 
 The Women. 
 
 He is here ! 
 He is here, he is here at hand ! 
 
 [Aided by her sister, Francesca is about to go 
 up the stairs; but suddenly she sees Paolo 
 Malatesta, close to her, on the other side of 
 the marble screen. She stands motionless, 
 and he slops, in the midst of the arbutiises; 
 and they stand facing one another, separated 
 by the railing, looking at one another, without 
 word or monernent. The Slave is hidden 
 behind the leaves. The Women on the loggia 
 form in a circle, and the Players sound 
 their instruments.]
 
 66 FRANC ESC A DA RIMINI. 
 
 Chorus of Women. 
 
 Over the land of May 
 
 The archer with his band 
 
 Goes out to seek his prey. 
 
 At a feast of fears, 
 
 In a far-off land, 
 
 A heart slglis with tears. 
 
 [Francesca leaves her sister and goes slowly 
 towards the sarcophagus. She picks a large 
 redrose, and offers it to Paolo Malatesta 
 across the ba)'S. Samaritana loith boioed 
 head goes up the stairs weeping. The women 
 take up the song. At the barred window, at 
 the back, Banning appears, with his face 
 bandaged; then draioing back, he beats at 
 the door closed by Ostasio. Francesco 
 trembles.'] 
 
 The voice of Banning. 
 Fraucesca, open, Francesca!
 
 ACT II. 
 
 A cross-shaped room, in the house of the Malatesti, 
 with projecting side beams and strong pillars, 
 two of which, at the back, support an arch which 
 leads through a narrow closed entrance between 
 two walls pierced by loopholes, to the platform 
 of around tower. Two side staircases of twelve 
 steps run from the entrance to the leads of the 
 tower; a third staircase, between the two, runs 
 from the leads to the floor underneath, passing 
 through a trap-door. Through the archway are 
 seen the square battlements of the Guelfs, provided 
 with blockhouses and openings for pouring down 
 molten lead. A huge catapult lifts its head out 
 of its supports and stretches out its framework of 
 twisted ropes. Heavy crossbows, with large- 
 headed, short, and square bolts, balistas, arco- 
 balistas, and other rope-artillery, are placed 
 around, loith their cranks, pullies, wheels, wires, 
 and levers. The summit of the tower, crotoned 
 with engines and arms that stand out in the 
 murky air, overlooks the city of liimino, where 
 can be dimly seen the wing-shaped battlements 
 of the highcM Ghibclline lower. On the right of 
 the room is a door; on the left, a narrow fortiflcd 
 window looking out on the Adriatic.
 
 68 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 In the closed entrance is seen a Man-At-AKiMS stir- 
 ring the fire under a smoking cauldron. He has 
 piled against the wall the tubes, syphons and 
 poles of the fiery staves and darts, and heaped 
 about them all sorts of prepared fires. On the 
 tower, beside the catapult, a young Archer 
 stands on guard. 
 
 Man-At-Akms. 
 The meadow of the Commune is still empty? 
 
 Archer. 
 As clean and polished as my buckler. 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 
 Still 
 Not a soul stirring! 
 
 Archer. 
 Not the shadow even 
 Of a Gambancerro or of an Omodeo. 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 They seem then to be dead already, those 
 That have to die. 
 
 Archer. 
 
 Quite otherwise than dead! 
 If all we did not buckle breastplates well, 
 And if the gates were not cross-bolted fast, 
 You would soon hear a hammering of hearts 
 In the regions about Rimino. . . . Ah, there goes 
 A donkey. 
 
 Man- At- A RMS. 
 It is Messer Montagna, eh? 
 Of the Parcitadi, or Messer Ugolino 
 Cignatta. 
 
 Archer. 
 Both of them, my Berlingerio,
 
 FHANCESCA DA IIIMINI. 69 
 
 Stand with the right foot ready 
 
 lu the stiiiup of the crossbow, for the sign 
 
 To come out aud to face the bolts and bars. 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 What sign? The Parcitade 
 Lacks his astrologer. He waits and hopes 
 For succour from Urbino. 
 But long before Count Guido comes to us, 
 By the body of San Giulian the martyr, 
 We shall have burnt the city to the ground. 
 We have enough to do with burning down 
 Half of Komagna. 'Tis warm work this time, 
 I warrant you! The Lamester 
 Wanted to singe his horse's mane with one 
 Of these fire-bearers: 
 Sure sign we are in salamander weather. 
 
 Akchkk. 
 He loves the stench of singeing, it would seem, 
 More than the civet of his wedded wife, 
 That woman of Ravenna! another thing 
 Than firebrands or this sulphur and bitumen! 
 A smile of hers would set the city alight 
 And all the country and the territory. 
 
 Man- At- A RMS. 
 She smiles but little. She is always overcast 
 With thinking, and svith anger. She is restless. 
 I see her almost every day come up 
 Upon this tower. She scarcely speaks. She 
 
 watches 
 The sea, and if she sees 
 Some galley or some frigate on the sea, 
 She fdllows it witli her eyes 
 (Blacker than pitch, her eyes !)
 
 TO FRANCESCA LA RIMINI. 
 
 Until it fades away, 
 
 As if she waited for a message or 
 
 Longed to set sail. She goes 
 
 From tower to tower, 
 
 From the Mastra to the Kubbia, 
 
 And from the Gemmana to the Tanaglia, 
 
 Like a lost swallow. And sometimes I fear. 
 
 When slie is on the platform, 
 
 That she will take a flying leap and fall. 
 
 Misericordia! 
 
 Archer. 
 The Lamester is well made 
 To ride astride upon the Omodeo, 
 To batter strongholds, and to ford the streams, 
 And to force palisades, 
 To plunder and to pillage all the earth. 
 But not to labour in the lovely vineyard 
 That God has given him. 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 
 Hush! You must not speak 
 So loud; we should not hear him if he came. 
 He goes about more softly than a panther. 
 You cannot hear him when he comes. He makes 
 A goodly pair with Messer Malatestino, 
 That comes upon you always suddenly 
 Without your knowing how or whence he camo, 
 And gives you the same start, 
 Always, as if you had come upon a ghost. 
 
 A rcher. 
 This is the day we are to lay about us. 
 The women will be all shut up. 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 
 This one
 
 fbajs-cesca da EIMINI. 71 
 
 Is not a lady to be frightened. Look, 
 See what is stirring. 
 
 Archer 
 [returning to his j^ost]. 
 I see the friars, 
 
 The hermits of Sant' Agostino, pass 
 To the exorcising. I can smell the stench 
 Of singeing in the cool air. 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 
 And the gate 
 Of the Gattalo is closed still? 
 
 Archer. 
 
 Ay, closed still. 
 Our men, that had to come Verrucchio way, 
 Will be by now with trumpets and flags flying 
 At the bridge of the Maone. Messer Paolo 
 Came with the infantry by the postern gate 
 Of the sea. 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 The mixture now 
 Is ready brewed. Since midday I have stirred 
 The ladle, mixed and moulded it together. 
 We are to sling barrels and casks of it 
 Upon tlie excommunicated houses. 
 But what is it we wait for? The conjunction 
 Of Mars witli Venus? This astrologer. 
 Come from IJaldach, does not quite seem to me 
 A modern Balaam. God be on our side! 
 Look if you see him now 
 Upon the belfry of Santa Colomba. 
 He is to ring the l)oll tineo times, to say 
 The fates are in our favour.
 
 72 FllAyCESCA DA BUIINI. 
 
 Aechek. 
 
 I can see 
 
 A great long beard. 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 
 May he be tarred all over with his tow, 
 
 And brayed into a mortar! I suspect him. 
 
 He was with Ezeliuo at Padua, 
 
 And other of hell's own Ghibellines. I know not 
 
 Why Messer Malatesta 
 
 Keeps in his company. 
 
 Archer. 
 Guido Bonatto, of Forli, I know 
 To be a true astrologer of battles. 
 I saw him on the great day of Valbona, 
 And his prognostic never faulted. 
 Man-At-Abms. 
 
 Now 
 The cursed Feltran has him. Thunder strike 
 His eyesight and his astrolabe! 
 
 [Fbancesca enters by the door on the right, and 
 advances as far as the pillar that supports 
 the arch. She wears about her face a dark 
 band that passes under her chin and joins 
 a kind of skull-cap that covers her hair, leav- 
 ing visible the tresses knotted on her neck.] 
 Archer. 
 
 The dust 
 Begins to rise over toward Aguzano. 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 
 Are they Count Guide's horsemen 
 That ought to come from Petramala?
 
 But who, 
 
 FEANCESCA BA BIKINI. 73 
 
 Akchek. 
 
 No. 
 
 May God cast down their eyes 
 Out of their visors into the dust! 
 Majj-At-Abms. 
 
 Who are they? 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Berliugerio ! 
 
 Man-at-Arms 
 
 [starting]. 
 O, Madonna Francesca! 
 
 [The Aechek remains silent and stares at her 
 blankly, leaning on the catapult.] 
 Francesca. 
 Messer Giovanni 
 Is at the Mastra yet? 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 Not yet, Madonna. We expect him now, 
 Fha>xesca. 
 
 And no one else? 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 
 Yes, Messer Malatesta, 
 The old man. He himself it was wlio made 
 The mixing in tJie cauldron; and I am here 
 Since midday with this ladle, stirring it. 
 Francesca 
 
 [going nearer]. 
 And uo one else? 
 
 Man- At- A RMS. 
 
 And no one else, Madonna.
 
 •74 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Francesca. 
 What are you doing here? 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 
 Making Greek fire, 
 Distaffs and staves and spouts and lines and pots 
 And fiery darts, and much 
 Other caresses for the Parcitadi, 
 Because we trust to come to blows to-day 
 And give them from this quarter what shall prove 
 A good part-payment of their coming hell. 
 
 Francesca. 
 {Looking vwnderingly at the boiling mass in the 
 
 cauldron) 
 Greek fire! Who can escape it? I have never 
 Seen it before. Tell me, is it not true 
 That there is nothing known so terrible 
 In battles for a torture? 
 
 Man-At-Arms 
 
 This is indeed most terrible; 'tis a secret 
 
 That Messer Malatesta 
 
 Had from an aged man of Pisa, who 
 
 Was with the Christians at the famous taking 
 
 Of Damiata. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Tell me, is it true 
 That it flames in the sea, 
 Flames in the stream, 
 Burns up the ships. 
 Burns down the towers, 
 Stifles and sickens, 
 Drains a man's blood in his veins, 
 iitraightway, and makes
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 75 
 
 Of his flesh and his hones 
 
 A little black ashes, 
 
 Draws from the anguish 
 
 Of man the wild cry of the beast, 
 
 That it maddens the horse, 
 
 Turns the valiant to stone? 
 
 Is it true that it shatters 
 
 The rock, and consumes 
 
 Iron, and bites 
 
 Hard to the heart 
 
 Of a breastplate of diamond? 
 
 Man-At-Akms. 
 It bites and eats 
 
 All kinds of things that are, living and dead; 
 Sand only chokes it out, 
 But also vinegar 
 Slacks it. 
 
 Francesca. 
 But how do you 
 Dare, then, to handle it? 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 
 We have the license 
 Of Beezlebub, that is the prince of devils, 
 And comes to take the part 
 Of the Malatesti. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 How do you scatter it? 
 
 Man-at-Arms. 
 With tubes and syphons 
 Of a long range; or at the point of pikes 
 With distaffs full of flax 
 We shoot it by the help of our balistas.
 
 78 FRANC ESC A DA RIMINI. 
 
 See here, Madonna, these are very good 
 
 Distaffs; they are 
 
 The distaffs of the Guelfs 
 
 That without spindle weave the death of men. 
 
 [He takes up a staff prepared for the fire and 
 shows it to FitANCESCA, toho takes it by the 
 handle and shakes it vehemently.] 
 Francesca. 
 Light one for me. 
 
 Man-at-Arms. 
 
 The signal is not yet 
 Given. 
 
 Francesca. 
 I would have you light this one for me. 
 
 Man-at-Arms. 
 Who is to put it out? 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 O, I must see 
 The fiame that I have never seen as yet. 
 Light it! Is it not true that when you light it 
 It darts marvellous colours, like no other 
 Creature of flight. 
 
 Colours of such a mingling that the eye 
 Cannot endure them, 
 Of an unspeakable 
 Variety, innumerable 
 In fervour and in splendour, that alone 
 Live in the wandering planets and within 
 The vials of alchemists; 
 And in volcanoes full of many metals, 
 And in the dreams of blind men? Is it true?
 
 FRANCESCA DA BIMINI. 77 
 
 Man-at-Akms, 
 In very deed, Madonna, 
 It is a beautiful and pleasant thing 
 To see at night these lighted distaffs fly 
 And light upon a camp 
 Of the imperial ragamuffianry; 
 And that knows well Messer Giovanni, your 
 Good husband, who takes pleasure to behold it. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Light it, then, man-at-arms! for I must see it. 
 
 Man-at-Arms. 
 'Tis not yet night, nor is the signal given. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Light it! I bid you. 
 And I will hide my.self here in the dark 
 To see it, by the stairway leading down, 
 Where it is darker. 
 
 MAN-AT-AKAfS. 
 
 Do you want to burn 
 The tower with all the archers, 
 And please the Parcitade folk? 
 
 [Francesca (lipn the fiery staff into the caul- 
 dron, then rapidly liyhts it loith a fire- 
 brand.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 And I 
 Light it! 
 
 [The violent and many-coloured flame crackles 
 nt the point of the pike that she holds in her 
 hand like a t or <)i, fearlessly]. 
 O, fair flame, conqueror of day! 
 All, how it lives, how it lives vibrating,
 
 •78 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 The whole staff vibrates with it, and my hand 
 And my arm vibrate with it, and my heart. 
 I feel it nearer me 
 
 Than if I held it in my palm. Wouldst thou 
 Devour me, fair flame, wouldst thou make me 
 
 thine? 
 I feel that I am maddening for thee. 
 
 (Her voice rises like a song. The Man-at- 
 Abms and the Archek gaze in astonish- 
 ment at the flame and the woman, as at some 
 work of sorcery]. 
 
 And how it roars! 
 
 It i-oars to seek its prey. 
 
 It roars and longs for flight; 
 
 And I would fling it up into the clouds. 
 
 Come, charge the arbalest. 
 
 The sun is dead, and this, 
 
 This is the daughter that he had of death. 
 
 O I would fling it up into the clouds. 
 
 Why do you linger? No, I am not mad, 
 
 No, no, poor man-at-arms, who look at me 
 
 In wonderment. 
 
 [She laughs.] 
 No, but this flame is so 
 Beautiful, I am drunk with it. I feel 
 As I were in the flame and it in me. 
 You, you, do you not see how beautiful. 
 How beautiful it is? The bitter smoke 
 Has spoilt your eyes for seeing. If it shines 
 So gloriously by day, how will it shine 
 By night? 
 [She approaches the trap-door through which the 
 stairs go down into the toioer, and lowers
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. Id 
 
 the burning staff into the darkness.] 
 A miracle ! A miracle ! 
 
 Man-at-Arms, 
 
 Madonna, God preserve us, you will burn 
 The whole tower dowu. 
 Madonna, I pray you! 
 
 [He hastily draws back out of the way of spai'ks 
 
 the staves prepared for fire which are lying 
 
 about]. 
 
 Fbancksca 
 [Intent on the light]. 
 
 It is a iniracle! 
 It is the joy of the eyes, and the desire 
 Of splendour and destruction. In the heart 
 Of silence of this high and lonely mount 
 Shall I spread forth these gems of frozen fire, 
 That all the terror of the flame unloose 
 And bring to birth new ardours in the soul? 
 Tremendous life of swiftness, mortal beauty! 
 Swift through the night, swift through the 
 
 starless night, 
 Fall in the camp, and seize the arniJ^d man, 
 Enswathe his sounding armour, glide between 
 Strong scale and scale, hunt dowu 
 The life of veins, and break 
 The bones asunder, suck the marrow out. 
 Stifle him, rend him, blind him, but before 
 The final darkness falls upon his eyes, 
 Let all the soul within him without hope 
 Shriek in the splendour that is slaying him, 
 
 [She listens in the direction of the trap-door.] 
 Some one is coming up the stairs here. Who 
 Is coming?
 
 80 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Man-at-Akms 
 On each floor 
 We have a hundred men, 
 Archers and those that work the manganels, 
 Hidden, and bidden not to move or breathe, 
 Crammed in together like a sheaf of arrows 
 Inside a quiver. Perhaps 
 They saw the flame. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 It is one man alone. 
 His armour clanks upon him. 
 Who is it coming? 
 
 Man-At-Akms. 
 Lift up the staff, turn it away. Madonna 
 Francesca, it is surely not an enemy. 
 Or you are like to burn him in the face. 
 Perhaps it is Messer Giovanni. 
 
 Fkancesca 
 [bending over the opening]. 
 
 Who are you? 
 Who are you? 
 
 The Voice Of Paolo. 
 Paolo! 
 
 [Francesca is silent; she draws back the fiery 
 staff, and the flame, heighteyied by the sud- 
 den movement, lights up the helmet and gor- 
 gerin of Paolo Malatesta. 
 
 Paolo appears, up to the waist, in the opening 
 of the stairs, and turns to Francesca rvho 
 has moved back against the wall, still hold- 
 ing in her hand the iron handle of the staff, 
 which she has lowered to the ground, so that
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 81 
 
 the fire hums perilously near her feet. The 
 Archer Acts returned to hispost.\ 
 
 Man-At-Arms. 
 
 You have come just iu time, Messer Paolo, just 
 
 In time, for all we here 
 
 Were like to have been roasted living, we 
 
 And all the towers along with us. You see: 
 
 Madonna plays 
 
 With the Greek fire 
 
 As if she held 
 
 A lap-dog in a leash. 
 
 [Francesca, pale and leaning against the loall, 
 laughs icith a trouhled laugh, letting the 
 staff all from her hand.] 
 
 It is a miracle 
 
 That we are not all here iu open hell. 
 
 You see ! 
 
 [He pours sand on f he flame in order to extin- 
 guish it. Paolo runs up the remaining 
 steps; as he sets foot on the platform of the 
 tower, the Arciieb points towards the city, 
 to show where the battle is beginning. \ 
 
 Archer. 
 
 There is tumult in the San Cataldo quarter. 
 
 It is breaking out at the Mombruto bridge 
 
 Over the Patara trench. 
 
 And they are lighting at the fullers' mill 
 
 Under the gun tower, there, by the Masdogna. 
 [Francesca. moves away, stepping uncertainly 
 among the u/rrows and engines heaped 
 around, and goes towards the door by which 
 she had come; she pauses by the pillar that 
 hides her from the eyes o/Paolo|.
 
 82 FRANCESCA DA RIMim. 
 
 Man-At-Akms. 
 We are still waiting 
 For the signal, Messer Paolo. 
 It is almost vespers. What are we to do ? 
 [Paolo does not seem to hear, possessed by a 
 single thought, a single anguish. Seeing 
 Francesca has gone, he leaves the toiver, 
 and goes down one of the little side staircases 
 to rejoin her.] 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 Francesca I 
 
 Francesca, 
 Give the signal. Paolo, give 
 The signal ! Do not fear 
 For me, Paolo. Let me stay here and hear 
 The twanging of the bows. 
 I cannot breathe 
 
 When I am shut into my room, among 
 My trembling women, and I know there is fight 
 
 ing 
 Out in the city. I would have you give me, 
 My lord and kinsman, a fair helmet. 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 I 
 
 Will give you one. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Have you come from Cesena? 
 
 Paolo. 
 I came to-day. 
 
 Francesca. 
 You stayed 
 A long while thei-e.
 
 FBANCESCA DA EIMINL 83 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 It took us forty days 
 With Guido di Monforte in the field 
 To take Cesena and the castle. 
 
 Francesca, 
 
 Ah I 
 Tou have toiled, I think, too much. 
 You are a little thinner and a little 
 Paler, it seems to me. 
 
 Paolo. 
 There is an Autumn fever 
 Among the thickets on the Savio. 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 No, 
 But you are sick? You tremble. And Orabile, 
 Has she no medicine for you? 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 This fever 
 Feeds on itself; I ask no medicine, 
 I seek no herb to heal my sickness, sister. 
 
 Francesca. 
 I had a healin<5 herb 
 
 When I was in my father's house, tlie house 
 Of my good father, God protect him, God 
 Protect him ! I had a herb, a healing herb, 
 Tliere in the garden where you came one day 
 Clothed in a. garment that is called, I think. 
 Fraud, in the gentle world; 
 B>it you set foot on it, and saw it not, 
 And it has never come up any more. 
 However light your foot may be, my lord 
 And kinsman. It was dead.
 
 S4 FRANCESCA DA EIMlNt. 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 I saw it not, 
 I knew not where T was, 
 Nor who had led my feet into that way, 
 I did not speak, I did not hear a word, 
 I had no bounds to cross. 
 No barriers to break down, 
 I only saw a rose 
 
 That offered itself up to me more living 
 Than the lips of a fresh wound, and a young 
 
 song 
 I heard in the air, and I heard angry blows 
 Beaten upon a loud and terrible door. 
 And I heard an angry voice that cried your name 
 In anger. Only that, nothing but that. 
 Nor from that way did I come back by will 
 Of coming back ; 
 Because the ways of death 
 Are not so secret as that other way, 
 O sister, if God wills. 
 
 Feancesca. 
 
 I also saw 
 With my own eyes the dawn, 
 The dawn that brings with it the morning star, 
 TJie nurse of the young heavens, 
 That had but newly waked to give its milk 
 When the last dream of sleep 
 Came to my pillow ; and I also saw, 
 With my own eyes I saw. 
 With horror and with shame, 
 About me as it were an impure stream 
 Of water flung suddenly outraging 
 A palpitating face
 
 FRANCE6CA DA RIMINt. So 
 
 Lifted to drink the light. 
 
 This did I see with my owu eyes; aud this 
 
 I sliall see always till the night has fallen, 
 
 The night that has no dawn, 
 
 Brother. 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 The shame and horror be on me ! 
 The light that came again 
 Found me awake. 
 Peace had foruvci- fled 
 Out of the soul of Paolo Malatesta; 
 It has not come again, it will not come 
 Ever again ; 
 
 Peace and the soul of Paolo Malatesta 
 Are enemies from now in life or death. 
 And all things were as enemies to me 
 From the hour that you srt foot 
 Upon the threshold, and without escape, 
 And I turned back and followed with the guide. 
 Violent deeds 
 
 Were the one mfdicino for my disease, 
 That niglit: violent deeds. 
 And then I killed Timlaro Omodei 
 And burned his roofs about him. 
 I gave to the harsh guide another prey. 
 
 Francesca. 
 God shall forgive you this, 
 God shall Un-'X''\'^ y<^n rill the Mood yon shed, 
 And all the rest, 
 
 But not the tears I did not weep, but not 
 The eyes tliat were still dry win n the (lawn came. 
 I cannot weep now, brother! Another draught 
 You gave me at the ford
 
 86 F11Aj\CESCA da RIMINI. 
 
 Of the beautiful river, do you remember it? 
 
 With your false lieart, 
 
 Filled full with madness and with treachery, 
 
 That was the last, that was the last that quenched 
 
 My thirst; and now no water 
 
 Can quench my thirst, not any more, my lord. 
 
 And then we saw the walls of Eimino, 
 
 And then we saw the Galeana gate, 
 
 And the sun was going down upon the hills, 
 
 And all the horses neighed against the walls, 
 
 And then I saw your face, 
 
 Silent, between the spears 
 
 Of the horsemen. And a wicked thing it was 
 
 That you did not let me drift upon the stream, 
 
 That would have taken me and laid me down 
 
 Softly upon the seashore of Ravenna, 
 
 And some one would have found me, and brought 
 
 me back 
 To my good father, to my most kind father 
 That without thought of wrong had given me 
 To whom he would, yes, without thought of 
 
 wrong; 
 God have him in his keeping, give him always 
 More and more lordship ! 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 Your rebuke, Francesca, 
 Is cruel over-much, sweet over-much. 
 And my heart melts within me, and my sad soul 
 Is shed before the strangeness of your voice. 
 My soul is shed before you, 
 All that is in me have I cast away. 
 And I will no more stoop to pick it up. 
 How would you have me die?
 
 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 87 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 Like to the galley-slave 
 
 Rowing in the galley that is called Despair, 
 So would I have you die ; and there and then 
 The memory of that draught 
 You gave me at the ford 
 Of the beautiful river, 
 
 Before we had come to the water of treachery 
 And to the walls of fraud, should buru in you 
 And should consume you. My brother iu God, 
 In the Most High God, 
 And in Saint John, better it were for you 
 That you should lose your life than stain your 
 
 soul. 
 
 [The bells of Santa Colomba are heard. Both 
 shiver as if retnrnuvj to consciousness.] 
 Ah! where are we? Wiio is it calling us? 
 Paolo, what hour is that? 
 What are you doing? 
 
 [The Man-at-Ak.ms and the Akcher, busy 
 loading the bulistas and cocking the Jiery 
 staves, start at the sound.] 
 
 Man-at-Arms. 
 
 The signal ! It is the signal ! 
 It is the bells of Santa Colomba 1 
 
 Arcueb. 
 
 Fire! 
 Fire! Long live Malatesta! 
 
 [A. Troop ov Archkrs hurry shouting up 
 tln-ouijh the trnp-door, and through the 
 jilatform of the tower, and seize weapons 
 and engines.]
 
 88 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Archers. 
 Long live Messer Malatesta and the Guelfs! 
 Down with Messer Parcitade and the Ghibel- 
 lines! 
 [On the battlements is a great sheaf of fiery 
 staves,whichglows in the dusky air. Paolo 
 Malatesta takes his helmet from his head 
 and gives it to Francesca.] 
 
 Paolo. 
 Here is the helmet that I have to give you. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Paolo ! 
 
 [Paolo rushes upon the tower. His bare head 
 overtops the Men-at-Arms as they work. 
 Francesca, throwing down the helmet, 
 follows, calling to him through the noise 
 and clamour.] 
 
 Paolo. 
 Give me a crossbow ! 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Paolo! Paolo! 
 Paolo. 
 A bow ! A crossbow ! 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Paolo! Paolo! 
 [An Archer is knocked over by a bolt which 
 takes him in the throat.] 
 
 Man-at-Arms. 
 
 Madonna, get you gone, for God's sake; now 
 They are beginning here to bite the leads.
 
 FRAXCESCA BA lilMINI. 89 
 
 \Some Archers raise their large painted shields 
 in the way of FiJANCESCA as she tries to 
 follow Paolo. ] 
 
 Archers. 
 The Galeana Tower is answering! 
 C'ignatta's men are coming 
 By tlae Masdogna! 
 
 Long live Messer Malatesta and the Guelfs! 
 Verrucchio! Verrucchio! 
 
 [Fraxcesca tries to get past the Archers, 
 who stop her way.] 
 
 Man-at-Arms. 
 
 Madonna, 
 By any God you worship! Messer Paolo, 
 Pay a little heed here! Here is Madonna Fran- 
 ce sea 
 Out in the open. It is death here. 
 
 I Paolo, snatching a crossbov:, stands on the 
 rampart, tiring furiously, in full view of 
 the enemy, like a inadman.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Paolo I 
 [Paolo turns at the cry, and sees the woman in 
 the glare of the fires. He snatches a shield 
 from one of the Archers and coveis her.] 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 Ah, Francesca, go, go! What is this madness? 
 [lie pushes her towanl shelter, holding the 
 shield over her; she gazes at his angry and 
 beautiful face from under the shield.] 
 
 Franckrca, 
 
 You 
 
 Are the madman ! You are the madman !
 
 90 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Paolo. 
 And was 1 not to die? 
 
 {He leads her back to shelter and throios doion 
 the shield, still holding the crossbow. ] 
 
 FkancescA. 
 
 Not now, not now, 
 It is not yet the hour. 
 
 Archers. 
 
 — Malatesta! Malatesta! 
 — Cignatta's men are there, under the Rubbia! 
 — This side, this side! 
 
 [They come down by the stairs on the left and 
 set the crossbows to the arrow-slits in the 
 walls. The bells ring in all directions. A 
 distant sound of trumpets is heard.] 
 
 Verruchio ! Down with the Parcitade ! Death 
 
 To the Ghibelline! 
 
 — Long live Messer Malatesta! 
 Long live the Guelf s ! 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 This is the hour, if you will see me die, 
 If you will lift my head out of the dust 
 With your two hands. What other could I have? 
 I will not die the death of the galley-slave. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Paolo, steel your heart against your fate, 
 Be silent as that day 
 Under the heavy guidance, as that day 
 Among tlie spears of the spearmen. And let 
 
 me not 
 Stain my own soul for your sake !
 
 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 91 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 Ay, to play 
 With fate is what I will, 
 Is what my false heart wills, 
 Filled full of madness and of treachery. 
 
 [ With an impetuous gesture he drmos her toumrds 
 the fortified ivindow, and j^uts into her hand 
 the curd that hangs from the portcullis.] 
 Throw tlie portcullis open! 
 A child's hand opens it, 
 The mere touch of an innocent hand. 
 
 [He gathers a bundle of arrows and throios them 
 at the feet of Fkancesca. Then he loads 
 the crossbow.] 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 Ah, madman! 
 
 Madman! And do you think 
 
 My hand will tremble? Do you think to tempt 
 
 My soul after this fashion? I am ready 
 
 For any mortal ^^anie men play with fate, 
 
 Knowiiifi I shall not lose, 
 
 Seeinj^ that all is lost. 
 
 But you now stand 
 
 Upon tremendous limits, where God help you! 
 
 I o]>en for you. See! 
 
 Look straight before you, 
 
 And take tlie sign, if you would not have me 
 laiigli. 
 [She pulls the portcullis open with the cord, and 
 through the opening is seen the open sea, 
 shining under the last rays of light.] 
 
 The sea! The sea! 
 
 [Paolo aims the crossbow and fires.]
 
 92 FRANCESCA LA lilMINL 
 
 Paolo. 
 A good stroke ! It is gone 
 Through neck and neckpiece. 
 That's my good forerunner 
 In the laud of darkness ! 
 [Fkancesca lowers the portcullis, and the re- 
 turn arrow is heard against it. Paolo re- 
 loads the crossbow.] 
 
 Archers 
 
 [0)1 the tower]. 
 
 — Victory! 
 Yictoryl Death, death to the Parcitadi! 
 Long live Messer Malatesta and the Guelfs! 
 — Victory! Victory! the Ghibelline is broken 
 At the Patara bridge. 
 — The fuller's mill is empty! 
 — Messer Giovanni galloping vpith the spears 
 At the Gattolo gate! Cignatta scampering! 
 — Be careful not to wouud 
 Our own folk in the fray ! 
 — Victory to Malatesta! 
 
 Francesca 
 
 [In great emotion]. 
 I have seen the sea, 
 The eternal sea, 
 The witness of the Lord, 
 And on the sea a sail 
 That the Lord set to be a sign of saving. 
 Paolo, brother in God, 
 I make a vow 
 If the Lord of mercy 
 Have you in keeping!
 
 FRANCESCA DA EIMINI. 93 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 Baise the portcullis up ! 
 
 Francesca 
 
 I will not let it down again. This hazard 
 
 Shall be God's judgment, this judgment of the 
 arrow. 
 
 Man is deceit, but God is very truth. 
 
 Brother in God, the stain of fraud you have 
 
 Upon your soul, 
 
 Let it be pardoned to you with all love, 
 
 And let the judgment of God 
 
 Make proof of you 
 
 Now by the arrow 
 
 That it touch you not; 
 
 Or it were better 
 
 That you give your life, 
 
 And I with you. 
 
 [Holdiny the tightened cord in her hand she 
 kneels and prays, with her wide-open eyes 
 fixed on Paolo's smarmed head. Through 
 the raised portcullis can be seen the shining 
 sea. Paolo loads and fires the crossbow 
 without a pause. From time to time Ghibel- 
 line missiles enter by the window and strike 
 on the opposite wall or fall on the pavement 
 without wounding him. The cruel suspense 
 convulsrs the fare of the woman in prayer. 
 The syllables hardly form themselves on her 
 parted lips.] 
 
 Our Fatlier which art in heaven, 
 II;iil()wcd be thy name, 
 
 Tliy Kingd<)m como, 
 
 Tliy will be done in earth
 
 94 FRANCESCA DA ElMINI. 
 
 As it is in heaven. 
 Father, give us this day 
 Our daily bread. 
 
 [Paola, having failed in several shots, takes 
 aim more carefully, as if for a master-stroke. 
 He fires ; a clamour is heard among the 
 enemy.] 
 
 Paolo 
 
 [With fierce delight]. 
 
 Ah, Ugolino, I have found you out! 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 And forgive us our debts, as we 
 
 Forgive our debtors. 
 
 And lead us not 
 
 Into temptation, 
 
 But deliver us fi-om evil. 
 
 So be it, Amen. 
 
 {Meanwhile there is great rejoicing among the 
 Archers on the tower. Some carry the 
 killed and ivounded down through the trap- 
 door.] 
 
 Archers. 
 — Victory to Malatesta! 
 
 — Death to the Parcitadi and the Ghibelliues! 
 Montagna's men are flying 
 By the San Cataldo gate. — See, see, the fire 
 Is spreading. There's a powder-bai-rel burst 
 Over the house of Accarisio. See, 
 The fire is spreading! — Victory! Malatesta! 
 — Ah, Messer Ugolino 
 Cignatta has fallen from his horse. He is dead !
 
 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 95 
 
 — A bolt from a crossbow took him in the 
 
 mouth. 
 
 Who was it killed him? Was it Bartolo 
 
 Gambitta? 
 
 — Who, who killed him? One of ours? 
 
 A splendid stroke! 
 
 — Deserves a hundred lire, 
 
 A thousand golden crowns! — Victory! Victory! 
 [^1 shaft fjruzea the head o/Paolo Malatesta, 
 parsing throuyh his hair. Francesca ut- 
 ters a cry, letting go the cord; starting to 
 her feet, she takes his head in her hands, 
 feeling for the wound. A mortal pallor 
 overspreads his face at the touch. The cross- 
 bow falls at his feet.] 
 
 Fijancesca. 
 Paolo! Paolo! 
 
 [She looks at her hands to see if they are stained 
 with blood. They are lohite. She again 
 searches anxiously.] 
 
 O, what is this? Oh, God ! 
 Paolo! Paolo! You are not bleeding, and you 
 
 have 
 No single drop of blood upon your head, 
 Yet you look deathly. Paolo! 
 Paolo 
 [In a choking voice]. 
 
 I am not dying, 
 Francesca. Iron has not touched me. 
 
 Fhancesca. 
 
 Saved ! 
 
 O saved and pure! Cleansed utterly of fraud! 
 
 Give thanks to God! Kneel, brother!
 
 06 FRANCESCA da RIMINI. 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 But your hands 
 Have touched me, aud the soul 
 Has fainted in my heart, and icy cold 
 Takes hold on all my veins, and no more strength 
 Is in me now to live; 
 But of this other life 
 That comes to meet me — 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 
 Kneel, kneel, on your life I 
 Paolo. 
 Ah! an unspeakable fear takes hold on me. 
 And a scorn deeper even than the fear — 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 Kneel ! Kneel ! 
 
 Paolo. 
 Since I have lived 
 With such an infinite force, 
 Fighting apart, yet ever on the lonely 
 Height of your prayer. 
 And in the fiery solitude of your eyes — 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 Kneel! Kneel! Give thanks to God ! 
 I will not lose you now over again ! 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 Fighting apart, and slaying 
 Men — 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 You are pardoned now. 
 And you are cleansed, and yet you will be lost! 
 
 Paolo. 
 And all my courage drawn 
 Vehemently about my angry heart.
 
 PHANCESCA DA EIMINL 91 
 
 And all within me now 
 
 The power of ray most evil love sealed up. 
 
 Fbaxcesca, 
 
 Lost! Lost! Say you are mad, 
 
 Say, on your life, that you are mad, and say 
 
 That your most wretched soul 
 
 Has heard no word of all your mouth has said ! 
 
 By the arrow that passed by 
 
 And struck you not. 
 
 By the death that touched you with its finger-tip 
 
 And took you not, 
 
 Say that your life shall never, never speak 
 
 Those words again ! 
 
 Archers. 
 
 Long live Mcsser Giovanni Malatesta! 
 
 [Giovanni Malatesta comes up by the stairs 
 of the Mastra Tower, armed from head to 
 foot, and liohlimj a Sardinian rod in his 
 hand. He limps up the stairs, and, when he 
 has reached the top, raises fiis terrible spear, 
 while his harsh voice cuts through the 
 clamour l 
 
 Gianciotto. 
 
 By God, you craven creatures, 
 
 You cut-throat spawn, 
 
 I am well niiiided 
 
 To pitch you all headlong into the Ausa, 
 
 Like carrion that you are. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Your brother! 
 
 [Paoi.o jiicks up the crossbow].
 
 98 FBANC'ESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 You are more ready 
 To cry rejoicings 
 
 Than to belabour this tough Gliibelliue hide. 
 How should you work your crossbows without 
 
 sinews? 
 Had I not come to aid you with my horse, 
 Cignatta would have battered down your gates; 
 God break the arms of all of you for cowards ! 
 
 Archeks. 
 — We had used almost all our stock of arrows. 
 — The Astrologer was late in signalling. 
 — We have silenced them on the Galassa tower. 
 — We have piled up a heap on the Masdogua. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Poor fire, by God ! There are not many houses 
 To be seen burning. Badly thrown, your fire. 
 
 Archers. 
 
 — The house of Accarisio is still burning. 
 
 — And the good Cignatta, who unhorsed him 
 
 then? 
 — It was one of us that slit his windpipe for him? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Which one of you was standing at the window? 
 Akcheks. 
 
 — Was not this one here something of the cut? 
 A thousand golden crowns to the company ! 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Who was it at the windovr?
 
 FRANC ESC A DA IlIMIXI. 99 
 
 Archers. 
 — We have been slavinf^on au empty stomach. 
 — We are dead with hunger and with thirst. 
 
 — Long live 
 Messer Gianciotto the never-satisfied ! 
 
 [Paolo pickn up his helmet, jmts it on and goes 
 towards the tower. Francesca goes to- 
 wards the door by which she had entered, 
 opens it and calls.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Smaragdi ! Smaragdi ! 
 
 Gianciotto 
 
 [To the Archers]. 
 Be silent there. Your tongues dry up in you! 
 No talking while you work: I like you silent. 
 But come now, there is a great cask to hurl; 
 
 1 will teach you the right way of it; and I will 
 
 send it 
 To the old Parcitade for leave-taking 
 In my good father's name. Here, Berlingerio, 
 Where is my brother Paolo? 
 Did he not come up here? 
 
 [The Slave appears at the door; then, after an 
 order from her mistress, disappears. Fran- 
 cesca remains standing on the threshold. | 
 
 Paolo. 
 Here. I am here, Gianciotto. It was I 
 Who shot out of the window. The dumb thing 
 .Struck through the throat of one whose mouth 
 
 was open 
 To jest at you. 
 
 [There is a murmur among the Auchers.]
 
 100 FllANCESCA DA RlMlNl 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Brother, much thanks for this. 
 
 [He turns to the Men-at-arms]. 
 So sure a shot must needs 
 Come from a Malatesta, 
 My braggart bowmen. 
 
 [The Slave reappears ivith a jar and a cup. 
 Francesca covies forward. Gianciotto 
 comes down towards his brother.] 
 Paolo, I bring you news, 
 Good news. 
 
 [He sees his wife. His voice changes to a gentler 
 tone.] 
 
 Francesca! 
 
 Francesca. 
 All hail, my lord; you bring the victory. 
 [He goes up to her and embraces her.\ 
 
 Gianciotto. 
 Dear lady, why are you iu such a place. 
 [She draws back from the e^nbrace.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 You have blood upon your armour. 
 
 Gianciotto. 
 
 Have I painted you? 
 
 Francesca. 
 Tou are all over dust. 
 
 Gianciotto. 
 
 Lady, the dust 
 Is bread to me. 
 
 Francesca. 
 You are not wounded?
 
 FEANCESCA DA RnilNI. 101 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Wounds? 
 I feel none. 
 
 Francesca. 
 But you must be thirsty. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Yes, 
 I am very thirsty. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Samarafjdi, bring the wine. 
 [The Slave comes forward with the jar and the cup.] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO 
 
 [With delighted surprise]. 
 What my dear lady, you have talcen thought 
 I might be thirsty? Why, you must have set 
 Your slave to watch for me, that you should 
 
 know 
 My coming to the minute. 
 
 [Francesca pours out the wine and hands the 
 cup to her husband. Paolo stands aside in 
 silence, vmtrhing the men who are preparing 
 the fiery cask.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 Drink, it is wine of Scios. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Drink first, I pray you. 
 A draught. 
 
 Francesca. 
 I have not poisoned it, my lord. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 ^'()U laugli at ma. Not for suspicion's .sake, 
 But for the favour, for the favour of it,
 
 102 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Francesca, my true wife. 
 I have no fear of treachery from you. 
 My horse has not yet stumbled under me. 
 Drink, lady. 
 
 [Francesca touches the cup with her lips.] 
 It is sweet, 
 After the fight, to see your face again, 
 To take a strong wine from your hands, and 
 
 drink it 
 Down at a draught. 
 
 [He empties the cup.] 
 
 So. Why this warms my heart. 
 And Paolo? Where is Paolo? 
 Why has he not a word for you? He comes 
 Back from Cesena, and not 
 A word of welcome has my kinsman from you. 
 Paolo, come here. Are you not thirsty? Leave 
 Greek fire for Greek wine. Then 
 We will burn up the Parcitadi living! 
 Lady, pour out for him a cup brimful 
 And drink with him a draught, to do him 
 
 honour; 
 And welcome him, welcome the perfect archer. 
 
 Francesca. 
 I have already greeted him. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 But when? 
 Francesca. 
 When he was shooting. 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 Do you know, Gianciotto, 
 I came up on the tower
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 103 
 
 And found her iu the act of making trial 
 With Berlingerio of a fiery dart? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Is that the truth ? 
 
 Paolo. 
 She played 
 With lighted fire, and the poor man-at-arms 
 Was crying out for fear the tower should burn, 
 And she the while was laughing. I heard her 
 
 laugh. 
 While the fire lay as geutle at her feet 
 As a greyhound iu leash. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Is that the truth, 
 Francesca? 
 
 Francesca. 
 I was weary of my rooms 
 And of my whimpering women. And of a truth 
 I had rather look, my lord, on open war 
 Than feed fear closeted. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Daughter of Guido, 
 Your father's seal is on you. May God make 
 
 you 
 Fruitful to me, that you may give me many 
 Ami many a lion's cub! 
 
 [Francesca knits her brow.] 
 Paolo, you have not drunk! 
 Drink, you art; pale, Pour out a cup for him, 
 My woman warrior, fnll, and drink a draught. 
 He shot a splendid bolt.
 
 104 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 , Do you know, Gianciotto, 
 
 Who lifted up the window while I shot? 
 She ! In her hand she held the little cord 
 That lifts it, like the children of our soldiers; 
 And steady was her hand and firm her eye. 
 
 Gianciotto. 
 
 Why, come then, come, my lady, and make war 
 
 Among the castles! I will make for you 
 
 A breastplate of fine gold, and you shall go 
 
 Riding with sword and spear. 
 
 Like the brave Countess Aldruda di Bertinoro, 
 
 When she went out to fight with Marchesella 
 
 Against the Councillor of Magonza. Ah! 
 
 You have been apart from me too long, dear 
 
 lady. 
 Now with that dark band underneath your chin 
 And round your neck, you seem to wear a gor- 
 get: 
 It gives you a wild sort of grace. True, eh, 
 Paozzo? But you have not yet drunk! Drink, 
 
 now. 
 Drink, you are pale. You have worked well. 
 
 This night 
 We shall not sleep, two in our beds. So, lady, 
 Pour out the wine. 
 
 Francesca. 
 See, I am pouring it. 
 
 Gianciotto. 
 It is almost dark here; one can hardly see; 
 You might have spilt it.
 
 FRANC ESC A DA RIMINI. 105 
 
 Francesca. 
 Drink, my lord and kinsman, 
 Out of the cup in which your brother drank. 
 God give you both good fortune, 
 Each as the other, and alike to me! 
 [Paolo cZrinA^s, looking straight into Francesca' s 
 eyes.] 
 
 Gianciotto. 
 Good fortune, Paolo, 
 I had begun to tell you, and I stopped ; 
 I have happy tidings for you. In the hour 
 Of victory there came to our good father 
 Envoys from Florence, saying you are elected 
 The Captain of the People and the Commune 
 Of Florence, 
 
 Paolo. 
 Envoys came! 
 Gianciotto. 
 
 Why, yes. You are sorry? 
 
 Paolo. 
 No, I will go. 
 [Francesca turns her face to the shadow and moves 
 afevi steps nearer the tower. The Slave retires 
 to one side and stands motionless. ] 
 
 Gianciotto. 
 You must go within three days. 
 You will have time to go to Ghiaggiolo 
 To your Orat»ile, who is used by now 
 To being a widow. And from there you will go 
 To the city of gay living th;it has thriven 
 Under the gnifhuice of tlin joyous friars, 
 Full of fat merchants, and of merry-makers,
 
 106 FRANC ESC A DA RIMINI. 
 
 And gentry of the Court, and there the tables 
 Are spread both niglit and morning, and tliey 
 
 dance there 
 And sing tliere, and you can sport to heart's 
 
 content. 
 
 [Ills face clouds over and he becomes bitter 
 again.] 
 We will stay here and set the trap for wolves 
 And slit the throats of lambkins. Iron shall 
 
 knock 
 On iron for the pleasure of our ears, 
 Sardinian rod and hatchet of Orezzo 
 On bolt with rounded edge, morning and night 
 And night and morning. Here then we will 
 
 wait 
 Till in some escalade another stone 
 Fracture another knee. And then, why, then, 
 Giovanni, the old Lamester, Gianni Ciotto, 
 Shall have himself tied tightly on the back 
 Of a stallion with the staggers, and so slung 
 Neck and crop ravaging down the ways of hell. 
 
 [Francesca moves restlessly to and fro in the 
 shadoio, Through the archway is seen the 
 evening sky reddened by the flames]. 
 
 Paolo. 
 Giovanni, are you angry with me? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 No, 
 Did you not split the tongue of him who cried 
 His jests against me? " At him ! At him ! Ha! 
 The Lamester with the lovely wife! " cried out 
 Ugolino as he rode. His voice was loud :
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 107 
 
 Did it reacli you at the window? I was there, 
 Eye upon eye, aud stirrup against stirrup, 
 When your good shaft went straight 
 Into his snarling mouth, 
 
 Aud through, and out the back way of the head. 
 And yet you might have missed. 
 I felt the feathers of the arrow -shaft 
 Whistle against my face. You might have 
 missed. 
 
 Paolo. 
 But since I did not miss, why think of it? 
 
 GIA^'CIOTTO. 
 It is your way to run these sorts of risks. 
 At Florence be more cautious. You are going 
 To a hard post. Have sharp and rapid sight 
 But also prudent hand. 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 Since you advise me, 
 Does it not seem to you, brother, as if 
 'Twere wiser let it go? We shall have need 
 Of all our forces here. The year is turniua 
 Not over fortunately for the Guelfs, 
 Since the defeat of that Giovanni d'Appia 
 And the rebellion since in Sicily, 
 In favour of the Angevins. 
 
 Glanciotto. 
 
 Wo must needs 
 Accept, and that without delay. You now 
 Shall be the keeper of the jicace where once 
 Our mighty father was the Governor 
 Under King Charles, in the one great Guelf 
 city
 
 108 FEANCESCA DA BIMINI. 
 
 That prospers still. And so beyond the bounds 
 
 Of our Eomagna shall the name of us 
 
 Sound high and spread abroad; and each of us 
 
 Shall follow where his rising star leads on. 
 
 I go my way, my sword has eyes for me ; 
 
 My horse has not yet stumbled under me. 
 
 [While he speaks, Malatestino is brought, 
 wounded, down the stairs of the tower, be- 
 tween lighted torches, like a corpse. The 
 shadow grows darker]. 
 
 Francesca 
 [From the back]. 
 O, what is this? Horror! Do you not see 
 Malatestino, there, Malatestino, 
 The soldiers carrying him in their arms 
 Between the torches? They have killed his 
 father ! 
 SJie runs towards the Men, who are coming down 
 the side stairs, and passing through the 
 midst of the archers, who leave off their work 
 and make way in silence. Gianciotto and 
 Paolo run forward. Oddo Dalle Cami- 
 NATE andFoscoLoD'OLNANO are carrying 
 the bleeding Youth. Fouk Akchers with 
 long quivers accompany them with torches. 
 
 Francesca 
 [Bending over the Touth]. 
 
 Malatestino! O God, 
 His eye is black with blood. 
 His eye is cut and toin. How have they killed 
 him?
 
 FRANCESCA DA RnilNI. 109 
 
 O, has bis father seen it? Does he knoAv? 
 
 [GiA-SCioTTO feels over his body and listeiis to 
 his heart.] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Francesca, no, he is not dead! He breathes, 
 
 His heart is beating still. Do you not see? 
 
 He is coming to. The blow has struck him 
 
 senseless; 
 But he is coming to. 
 
 The life is sound in him; he has good teeth 
 To keep it back from going. Courage, now! 
 Set him down gently here, here on this heap 
 Of ropes. 
 [As the Bearers are setting him down, the 
 Youth begins to revive.] 
 
 Oddo, how was it? 
 
 Oddo. 
 
 From a stone 
 While they were scaling the Galassa tower. 
 
 FOSCOLO. 
 
 All by himself he had made prisoner 
 
 Montagna Parcitade, 
 
 And bound him with his sword-belt, and led him 
 
 back 
 To Cesser Malatesta; and returned 
 To take the Tower. 
 
 Oddo. 
 
 Just as he was, without 
 A visor to his helmet, heedlessly: 
 You know how hot he is! 
 
 FoSCOLO. 
 
 And he was angry
 
 110 FRANCE SC A DA BIMINI. 
 
 Because his father would not suffer him 
 To cut the prisoner's throat. 
 
 [FRANCESCApowrs a few drops of wine between 
 the lips of the Youth. Faol,o follows every 
 movement greedily with his eyes.] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO 
 
 [Looking at the wound], 
 A stone out of the hand; not from a sling. 
 Come, it is nothing. 
 Lean as he is, he needs 
 Crow-bar and catapult to put him under. 
 This is a heart of metal, a tough liver. 
 He bears the sign of God now, as I do, 
 In warfare. He shall be 
 Named, from henceforth, as I am, by his scar. 
 
 [He kisses Mm on the forehead.] 
 
 Malatestino ! 
 
 [The Youth shakes himself and recovers con- 
 sciousness.] 
 
 Drink, Malatestino! 
 
 [He drinks some of the wine, which Francesca 
 puis to his lips. Then he shakes his head, 
 and is about to raise to his wounded left eye 
 the hand still wearing its gauntlet. Fran- 
 cesca prevenis him.] 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 [As if suddenly awaking, ivith violence]. 
 He will escape, I say. He is not safe 
 In prison. I tell you he will find a way 
 To escape presently. Father, give me leave 
 To cut his throat! I took him for you! Father,
 
 FRANCESCA DA BIMINI. Ill 
 
 Dear Fathei-, let me kill him. I am sure 
 He will find a way to escape presently. 
 He is an evil one. Well, you then, give him 
 One hammer-stroke upon the head; one blow, 
 And he will turn upon himself three times. 
 
 Francesco. 
 Malatestino, what do you see? You are raving, 
 What do you see, Malatestino? 
 
 Oddo. 
 
 Still 
 
 He is raging at Montagu a. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Malatestino, do you not know me? See, 
 You are on the Mastra Tower. 
 Montagna is in good clutches. Be assured 
 He will not run away from you. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 Giovanni, 
 Where am I? O Fraucesca, and you too? 
 [He again raisea Ida hand to his eye.] 
 What is the matter with my eye? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 A stone 
 That caught you in it. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Are you suffering much? 
 [The Youth rises to his feet and shakes his head.] 
 
 Malatestino. 
 The Ktone-throw of a Gliibelline carap- 
 
 follower 
 To make me suffer? 
 Come, come, there's no use now
 
 112 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 No time to weave new linen with old thread. 
 Put on a bandage, quick, 
 Give me to drink, and then 
 To horse, to horse ! 
 [Francesca takes off the band that surrounds 
 her chin and throat.] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Can you see? 
 
 Malatestino. 
 One's enough for me. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Try now 
 If the left one is lost. 
 
 [He takes a torch from one of the Archers.] 
 Close your right eye. Francesca, 
 Put your hand over it. He has his gauntlet. 
 [She closes his eyelid with her fingers. GiANCi- 
 OTTO jJiits the torch before his face.] 
 Look! Do you see this torch? 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 No. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Not a glimmer? 
 Malatestino. 
 No, no! 
 [He takes Francesca' s wrist and pushes it away.] 
 But I can see with one. 
 
 Archer 
 
 [Excited by the Youth's courage]. 
 
 Long live 
 Messer Malatestino! Malatesta!
 
 PRANCESCA DA ttlMINL 113 
 
 Malatestino. 
 To horse, to horse! 
 
 Giovanni, though the day is won, yet, yet. 
 Is not old Parcitade living still, 
 And waiting i-einforcements? We must not 
 Be blinded. Oddo, Foscolo, the best 
 Is still to have. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO 
 
 [turning to the Archers]. 
 
 The cask ! is the cask ready? 
 [He goes towards the tower, to direct the opera- 
 ations of the catapult.] 
 
 Oddo. 
 You will fall half-way there. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Stay, Malatestino, 
 Do not go back into the fight! Stay here, 
 And I will bathe and heal you. Run, Smaragdi, 
 Prepare the water and the linen; send 
 For Maestro Almodoro. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 No, kinswoman, 
 Put on a bandage, quick. 
 And let me go. I will come back again 
 To find the doctor: bid the doctor wait. 
 I feel no pain at all. 
 
 But bandage me, I beg of you, kinswoman, 
 With the band that you have taken off your 
 face. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 I will do the best I can fi>r you, God knows,
 
 114 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 But it will not be well done. 
 [She binds up his eye. He observes Paolo, ivho 
 has not taken his eyes off Fkancesca.] 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 O, Paozzo, 
 
 What are you doing there? dreaming? 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 'Twill not 
 Je well done. 
 
 Malalestino. 
 
 You have been elected Captain 
 
 Of the People at Florence. When I haled 
 
 Montagna 
 
 Up to our father, bound, I saw the envoys, 
 
 The Guelfs of the Red Lily, 
 
 Who were with him then. 
 
 [A guttural cry is heard as the Men raise the 
 cask upon the catapult. Above the battle- 
 ments the glow of the fire spreads over the 
 sky. The bells ring in all directions. Trum- 
 pets are heard.] 
 
 They have shut up Montagna 
 
 In the sea prison. He will get away. 
 
 I begged my father, I begged him, on my knees, 
 
 To let me finish. 
 
 The envoys smiled. My father would not let 
 me, 
 
 Because of them, I know, 
 
 To seem magnanimous. Another night 
 
 Montagna must not sj^end here. Will you help 
 me? 
 
 Come to the prison ! Have you done, kinswoman? 
 
 But do not tremble.
 
 FRANCE SC A DA EIMINL 115 
 
 Francesca 
 
 [Tying the knot]. 
 Yes, yes, but it is not well done. Your forehead 
 Is burning. You ai'e feverish. Do not go, . 
 Malatestiuo. Listen to me. Stay, 
 For God's sake! 
 
 GlANCIOTTO 
 
 [On the toioer]. 
 Heave it! Let it go! 
 [The noise of the catapult is heard as it discharges 
 the cask with its lighted fuses] 
 
 Abcher. 
 
 Long life 
 To Malatesta! Long life to the Guelfs ! 
 Death to the Ghibellines and Parcitade! 
 
 Malatestino 
 
 [turning and running forward]. 
 To horse ! to horse ! to horse ! 
 
 [Oddo, Foscolo, and the Archers with their 
 torches follow him.] 
 
 [The stage darkens. The reflection of the fire 
 reddens the shadow in which Paolo and 
 Fkancesca remain alone.] 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 Farewell, Francesca. 
 [As he approaches her, she draws back with terror.] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO 
 
 [From the tower]. 
 Paolo! Paolo!
 
 116 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 Brother, farewell ! Brother! 
 
 [Paolo goes towards the Tower, from which the 
 aery staves are again being thrown. Fkan- 
 CESCA, left alone in the shadow, makes the 
 sign of the cross and falls on her knees, 
 bowing herself to the ground. At the back a 
 still brighter illumination lights up the sky.] 
 Akcheb. 
 Fire! fire! Death to the Ghibellines! Fire! 
 
 Death 
 To Parcitade and the Ghibellines! 
 Long live the Guelfs and long live Malatesta! 
 [The fiery shafts are let fly through th. battle- 
 ments. The bells ring in all aireciions. 
 The triunpets sound in the miasv of cries 
 rising from the streets of the burning and 
 blood-stained city.]
 
 ACT III. 
 
 A room painted in fresco, elegantly divided into 
 panels, portraying stories out of the romance of 
 Tristan, between birds, beasts, flowers, and fruits. 
 Under the moulding, around the walls, runs a 
 frieze in the form of festoons, on which are 
 written some words from a love-song: 
 '' Meglio 7ft'e dorinire gaudendo 
 C avere penzieri veghiando.^' 
 
 On the right is a beautiful alcove hidden by rich 
 curtains ; on the left a doorway covered by 
 a heavy hanging ; at the back a long window 
 with many panes, divided by little columns, 
 looking out on the Adriatic; a j)ot of basil 
 is on the window-sill. Near the door, raised 
 two feet above the floor, is a musicians^ gallery, 
 with compartments decorated ivith open carv- 
 ings. Near the window is a reading desk, on 
 which is open " The History of Launcelot 
 of the Lake," composed of large illuminated 
 pages, firmly bound together by thin boards 
 covered in crimson velvet. Besides it is a 
 couch, a sort of long chair without back or 
 arms, v)ilh many cushions of samite, almost 
 on the level of the windoW'Sill, on which any 
 one leaning back can see over the lohole sea- 
 shore of Rimini. A chamber organ of small
 
 118 FRANCESCA DA RIMINt. 
 
 size, xoith chest, pipes, keys, bellows, and reg- 
 isters finely worked, stands in the corner, a 
 lute and a viol beside it. On a small table 
 is a silver mirror, amongst scent-bottles, glasses, 
 purses, girdles, and other trinkets. Large iron 
 candlesticks stand beside the alcove and the 
 musicians^ gallery. Footstools are scattered 
 about, and in the midst of the Jloor is seen the 
 bolt of a trap-door, through which a passage 
 leads to the lower rooms. 
 |Francesca is reading in the book. The Women, 
 seated on the footstools in a circle, embroidering 
 the border of a coverlet, listen to the story ; 
 each of them has a little phial of seed pearls 
 and gold threads hanging from, her girdle. 
 The March sunlight beats on the crimson taffeta, 
 and sheds a diffused light on the faces bent 
 over the needlework. The Slave is near the 
 window-sill, gazing into the sky.] 
 
 France sc A 
 [reading]. 
 " Thereat Galeotto comes to her and says : 
 'Lady, have pity on him, for God's sake, 
 And do for me as I would do for you, 
 If you should ask it of me.' ' What is this 
 That I should pity ?' ' Lady, you well know 
 How much he loves you, and has done for you, 
 More than knight ever did for any lady.' 
 ' In truth he has done more for me than I 
 Can ever do for him again, and he 
 Could ask of me nothing I would not do ; 
 But he asks nothing of me, and he has
 
 FRANCE SC A DA RIMINI. 119 
 
 So deep a sadness, tliat I marvel at it." 
 And Galeotto saj's: ' Lady, have pity.' 
 ' That will I have,' says she, ' and even such 
 As you would have me ; hut he asks of me 
 Nothing. . .' " 
 
 [The Women laugh. Francesca throws her- 
 self back on the cushions, troubled and ener- 
 vated.] 
 
 Garsenda. 
 
 Madonna, 
 How ever could a knight, and Launcelot, 
 Have been so shamefaced? 
 
 Alda. 
 
 All the while the queen, 
 The poor queen, only longing she might give 
 Her lover what he would not ask of her I 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 She should have said to him: " Most worthy 
 
 knight, 
 Your sadness will avail you not a mite." 
 
 Altichiara. 
 Guenevere did but jest with him, and chose 
 To wait her time; but nothing in the world 
 Was iu her mind more than a speedy bed. 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 And Galeotto, though indeed he was 
 
 A noble prince, knew well enough the art 
 
 That is called — 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Adonella, hush I I tire
 
 120 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Of listening to your chattering so long. 
 Smaragdi, tell me, is the falcon back? 
 
 Slave. 
 No, lady; he has lost his way. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Do you hear 
 His little golden bell? 
 
 Slave. 
 
 I cannot hear it. 
 My eyes are good, and yet I cannot see him. 
 He has flown too high. 
 
 [Fbancesca turns to the window and gazes out] 
 
 Alda. 
 
 He will be lost, Madonna. 
 It was not well to let him out of leash. 
 He was a little haughty. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 
 He was one 
 They call the Ventimillia breed, brave birds; 
 This one had thirteen feathers in his tail. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 
 Their home is on an island ; 
 
 He will have flown back to his island home. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 He followed cranes, was good at catching them; 
 And Simonetto begs of you, Madonna, 
 That he may have a crane, to make two fifes 
 Of the two leg-bones, and he says they sound 
 Sweetly as might be.
 
 FRANCESCA DA EIMINL 121 
 
 Garsenda. 
 
 No, 
 He is not coming back; he was too proud; 
 Ah, like the one who gave him to you, Messer 
 Malatestino, I would say: may he 
 Not hear me ! If you had but rubbed his beak, 
 At dead of night, 
 With horse's belly-grease, 
 
 He would have come to love you so. Madonna, 
 He never would have flown out of your hand. 
 
 [The Women burst out laughiny.] 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 Now listen to the learned doctoress! 
 
 Alticuiara. 
 At dead of night with horse's belly-grease! 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Why, yes, I have read the book that Danchi 
 
 wrote. 
 The first and best master of falconry; 
 It gives you all the rules. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Go, Adonella, 
 Run to the falconer, tell him what has hap- 
 pened. 
 And bid him go with his decoy, and call 
 And search all over. He has fiown, perhaps, 
 Up to some tower, and perched there. Bid him 
 
 go 
 And search all over. 
 I Adonella drops her needle and hurries out.]
 
 122 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 
 He has fled away, 
 Madonna, after the first swallows. 
 
 Alda. 
 
 See, 
 The blood of all the swallows 
 Is raining on the sea. 
 
 BlANCOFIOEE 
 
 [singing]. 
 " Fresh in the Calends of March, 
 O swallows, coming home, 
 Fresh from the quiet lands beyond the sea." 
 
 Francesca. 
 O, yes, yes, Biancofiore ! 
 Some music, give me music! 
 Sing over a low song 
 In the minor key! 
 Leave off your sewing, go 
 And bring me music. 
 [The WoMEK rise quickly and fold up the taffeta.] 
 
 Look 
 For Simonetto, Biancofiore. 
 
 Biancofiore. 
 
 Yes, 
 Madonna. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 And you, Alda, look for Bordo 
 And Signorello and Rosso, 
 
 And bid them come and bring the instruments 
 And bring the tablature 
 For maKing music in the room here.
 
 FEANCESCA DA RIMINI. 123 
 
 Alda. 
 
 Yes, 
 Madonna. 
 
 Fhancesca. 
 Altichiara, if you see 
 The doctor, send him to me. 
 Altichiara. 
 
 Yes, Madonna. 
 Francesca. 
 And you, Garsenda, if you come across 
 The merchant who is here from Florence bid 
 
 him 
 Come hither. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Yes, Madonna, I will seek him. 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 Bring me aparland of March violets* 
 To-day 'tis the March calends. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 Madonna, you shall have one, and a fair one. 
 [All fjo out.] 
 [Francesca turiiH to the Slave, who is still 
 gazing into the sky]. 
 
 Francesca. 
 O Smaragdi, he is not coming back? 
 Slave. 
 
 He is not coming back. 
 
 The falconer will bring him back again. 
 
 Do not be troubled. 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 But I am troubled, yes; Malatestino
 
 124 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Will be enraged with me, because I have kept 
 His gifts so ill. He tells me that he gave me 
 The king of falcons. I have lost it. 
 Slave. 
 
 Wild 
 And thankless and unkind, if so it flies 
 From the face of man. 
 
 [Fkancesca is silent for a feio instants.] 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 I am afraid of him. 
 
 Slave. 
 Afraid of whom, lady? 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 I am afraid 
 Of Malatestino. 
 
 Slave. 
 
 Is it his blind eye 
 That frightens you? 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 No, no, the other one, 
 The one he sees with : it is terrible. 
 
 Slave. 
 Let him not see you, lady. 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 Ah, Smaragdi, what was the wine you brought 
 That night, upon the Mastra tower, when all 
 The city was in arms? Was it bewitched? 
 
 Slave. 
 Lady, what are you saying? 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 It is as if you brought me a drugged wine ;
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 125 
 
 The poison is takiufr hold 
 
 Upon the veins of her that drank of it, 
 
 And all my fate grows cruel to me again. 
 
 Slave. 
 What is this sadness, lady? 
 Although the falcon has not yet come back, 
 He has come back to you, 
 Lady, who is the sun that your soul loves. 
 
 Francesca 
 [turnimj pale, and speaking with repressed 
 anger]. 
 Unhappy woman! 
 
 How do you dare to speak it? Treachery 
 Even in you? Accursed be the hour 
 In which you brought him to me, and his fraud 
 With him ! Was it not you 
 Who made the way that leads me to my death? 
 Three cups of bitterness I do not leave you; 
 It is you that set them down before me, you 
 That brim them up each day, without a tear. 
 
 [The Si.A\E flings herself on the ground.] 
 Slave. 
 Tread on me, tread on me! Between two stones 
 Crush in my head! 
 
 FliANCESCA 
 
 \More calmli/]. 
 
 Rise up, 
 It is no fault of yours, my poor Smaragdi, 
 It is no fault of yours. 
 Sii<l(l(Mily like a sjjirit of my heart 
 Voii ran to meet my joy! On your eyes too 
 There was a veil; and veiled by the same fate
 
 126 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Was the iniquity of my father. We, 
 
 All of us, were made powerless and unpitying, 
 
 Wretched and ignorant, 
 
 Upon the bank of a river, 
 
 Unblamable all of us, 
 
 Upon the bank of a loud rushing river. 
 
 I crossed it, I alone, 
 
 I had no thought of you; 
 
 I found myself upon the other side. 
 
 And we are thrust apart. 
 
 Ah me, and never to be one again. 
 
 And I now say to you : 
 
 I cannot. And you say: 
 
 Cross and come back. 
 
 And I: I do not know. 
 
 [<S/te gives to the last words almost the cadence 
 of a melody; then she laughs a dry and bitter 
 laugh, which seems as if torn out of her. 
 But the sound of her own laughter fright- 
 ens her. The Slave stands trejnbling.] 
 
 my poor reason, rule 
 Still, do not turn away! 
 
 What is this demon that has hold on me? 
 The enemy was laughing in my heart: 
 Did you not hear him? 
 
 1 cannot pray now, I can pray no longer. 
 
 Slave 
 [In a low voice]. 
 Shall I not call him? 
 
 Francesca 
 [Starting]. 
 
 Who?
 
 PKANCESCA DA BIMtNL 127 
 
 [She looks about her anxiously: her eye turns to 
 the motionless curtain over the door. Her 
 craving overcomes her, her voice sounds 
 hoarse. \ 
 Smaragdi, did you see Messer Giovauui 
 Take horse? 
 
 Slave. 
 Yes, lady, with the old man too, 
 With Messer Malatesta, the old man. 
 They are going surely to an act of peace 
 With the Lord Bishop. They are riding now 
 By Saut' Arcaugelo 
 
 Francesca 
 [darkly]. 
 You watch, Smaragdi; you see all, hear all, 
 Know all; well, be so always. 
 
 Slave. 
 
 Doubt me not, 
 Lady. Sleep safe and sound. Could I but give 
 
 you 
 Joy, as the stone whose name I bear could give 
 you! 
 
 Francksca. 
 
 And do you know where Malatestino is? 
 
 Slave. 
 
 At Tloncofreddo, sent there by his father 
 With thirty hor.sc. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 I am afraid of him. 
 Keep him away from me.
 
 128 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Slavk. 
 
 But why so, lady? 
 When he was sick, did you not care for him, 
 Day and night, like a sister? 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 
 O, that name 
 Is like a poison here. Samaritana, 
 Where are you? and the stream of your young 
 
 freshness, 
 Where does it run, that now can never slake 
 My thirst when I am nigh to perishing? 
 I see about me, in the shadow about me. 
 Eyes, savage eyes, that spy on me, the eyes 
 Of wild beasts only waiting to take hold 
 And fight over their prey; 
 And they are all veined with the selfsame 
 
 blood. 
 They are all brothers; 
 One mother gave them birth. Ah me! what 
 
 sad 
 Sorcery have I suffered? Who has set 
 Thus, thus, upon the threshold of my life 
 This mortal sin? You, creature of the earth, 
 Who dig about the roots of poisonous flowers, 
 Say, where was this unnatural evil born? 
 It is from you I know 
 The old hard song: 
 "If three I find, three I take!" Now thr 
 
 demon 
 Has taken them all together, three has taken. 
 And me with them. 
 
 Slave. 
 Call not upon the enemy!
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 129 
 
 Be it forgiven to you, body and soul! 
 
 You are deceived in this. 
 
 The shadow is a glass to you, and therein 
 
 You see your own eyes burn. 
 
 Call not upon your head 
 
 Some evil fortune ! May the Lord God watch 
 
 Over you as your slave will surely watch ! 
 
 Francesca. 
 There is no escape, Smaragdi. You have said 
 
 it: 
 The shadow is a glass to me; and God 
 Lets me be lost. What days 
 And nights I spent alone by the bedside 
 Of the sick man, that I might purge myself 
 Of evil thoughts that faded, faded out. 
 I touched the horrible wound, 
 Praying; I washed away 
 
 That evil foulness with my prayers. And then 
 My soul, amid that horror, seemed to see 
 Grace and salvation; then it was I found 
 The beast desire that wakened in the veins 
 Of that too violent life. Do yo)i understand? 
 The gaping wound under the forehead closed 
 And another opened, far more horrible, 
 Within the breast. And thoughts 
 That had faded out, my old despairing 
 
 thoughts. 
 Seemed to infect me with a blacker venom. 
 More cruelly; and my flesh 
 Upon my sorrow like a covering 
 Intolerable; 
 
 And exiled from the world 
 All the sweet things of springtide and of sleep;
 
 130 fhakcesca da riminl 
 
 And the very face of love 
 
 Turned into stone, and turned 
 
 To a terror; only hatred and desire, 
 
 Bewildered in the darkness of the world, 
 
 And reeling blindly in their work of death, 
 
 Like drunken slaughterers. 
 
 That, full of wine 
 
 And fury, slay each other witlessly. 
 
 Slave 
 [in a lov) voice]. 
 Do not despair! Listen, listen ! I know 
 A spell to cast on him who makes you fear; 
 I know a drink that drives these thoughts 
 
 away 
 And cures remembrance. You must give it 
 
 him 
 With the left hand 
 
 When he dismounts wearied and hungering. 
 I will teach you how to say the spell. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Smaragdi, 
 If it avails at all, give it to me. 
 And let me drink it, and be free again. 
 But there is no escape. Will you interpret 
 The dream I always dream. 
 Night after night? 
 
 Slave. 
 
 Lady, tell me the dream; 
 I will interpret it. 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 Night after night I see the savage hunt 
 Nastagio degli Onesti saw one day
 
 FBANCESCA DA BIMINL 131 
 
 In the pine-wood of Ravenna, as I heard 
 
 Bannino tell the story when we went 
 
 Down to the shore at Chiassi. In my dream 
 
 I see it as it was in very truth. 
 
 A naked woman, through the depth of the 
 
 wood, 
 Dishevelled, torn by branches and by thorns. 
 Weeping and crying for mercy, 
 Euns, followed by two mastiffs at her heels 
 That bite her cruelly when they overtake her; 
 See, and behind her through the depth of the 
 
 wood. 
 Mounted on a black charger, 
 A dark knight, strong and angry in the face. 
 Sword in hand, threatening her 
 With a swift death in terrifying words. 
 Then the dogs, taking hold 
 Of the woman's naked side. 
 Stop her; and the fierce knight, coming abreast, 
 Dismounts from off his horse, 
 And with his sword in hand 
 Runs at the woman so, 
 
 And she, upon her knees, pinned to the earth 
 By the two mastiffs, cries to him for mercy; 
 And he thereat drives at her with full strength. 
 Pierces her in the breast 
 So that the sword goes through her; and she 
 
 falls 
 Forward, upon her face. 
 Still always weeping; and the knight draws 
 
 forth 
 A dagger, and oitciis her 
 By the hip-bone, and draws
 
 132 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Her heart out, and the rest, 
 
 And throws it to the dogs that hungrily 
 
 Devour it of a sudden. But she has lain 
 
 Not long before, as if she were not dead, 
 
 She rises up and she begins again 
 
 Her lamentable running toward the sea; 
 
 And the two dogs after her, tearing her, 
 
 Always, and always after her the knight, 
 
 Upon his horse again. 
 
 And with his sword in hand, 
 
 Always threatening her. 
 
 Tell me, can you interpret me my dream, 
 
 Smaragdi? 
 
 [The Slave, as she listeyis, seems stricken with 
 
 terror.] 
 
 Are you frightened? 
 [Gaesenda enters followed by the Merchant 
 and his Boy carrying a pack.] 
 Gaesenda 
 [gaily]. 
 Madonna, here is the merchant with his goods. 
 May he come in? He is the Florentine, 
 Who came to Rimino yesterday with the escort 
 Of Messer Paolo. 
 
 [Francesca, her face suddenly flushing, shakes 
 off her gloomy thoughts, and seems eager to 
 seek forgetfulncss of her mortal anguish ; but 
 a kind of painful tension accompanies her 
 volubility.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Come in, come in, we are minded to renew 
 Our robes with the new season.
 
 FEAXCESCA DA EUIINL 133 
 
 Come in, come in. I would have sometliinjj made 
 
 Of sarcenet woven of many coloured threads, 
 
 Of many colours, of a hundred colours, 
 
 So that at each turn and return of light 
 
 And of sight the aspect changes ; O Smaragdi, 
 
 A raiment of pure joy ! 
 
 [The Merchant inclines hunibli/.] 
 Good merchant, what have you to offer me? 
 
 Merchant. 
 Noble Madonna, everything that suits 
 With your nobility ; light taffetas, 
 Highly embroidered, circlet upon circlet. 
 Sarcenet, samite, and damask, 
 Grogram and bombasin. 
 Camlet, barracan, fustian, 
 Serge, Neopolitau doublets, 
 Sicilian tunics, 
 
 Watered silk, high or low, watered with gold 
 And silver thread, and waved ; 
 Linen of Lucca, Osta, Dondiscarte, 
 Of Bruges, of Tournai, and of Terremonde, 
 And of Mostavolieri in Normandy, 
 Fine serge from Como, changeable taffeta. 
 Cloth of silk worked in trees and squares and 
 
 eyelets 
 And patterns toothed and lish-boned. 
 Velvets of every sort 
 And every make. 
 Velvets one piled, and two piled, and three piled. 
 
 [Garsknua hiirsLs nut lnii<j)iinij.\ 
 Fkancesca 
 
 Enough! enough! And have you found a ware- 
 bouse 
 ill Hiiniiio for 80 many goods?
 
 134 FRANCMSCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Merchant. 
 
 I am 
 
 Giotto di Bernarduccio Boninsegni, 
 The agent of the Company of Piero 
 Di Niccolaio degli Oiicellaii, 
 That has its thousand samples in the ware- 
 houses 
 Of Calimala and of Calimaruzza, 
 And sends its agents over all the west, 
 As far as IreUmd, and, in the Levant, 
 As far as the Cattaio, noble Madonna. 
 [Garsenda laughs. The Merchant turns and 
 looks at her] 
 
 Garsenda. 
 A florin or tvpo, eh? 
 You lent to Prester John, 
 (Poor wretch!) or to the Khan of Babylon. 
 
 [The Merchant opens the pack before Fran- 
 CESCA, tvho stands at the reading desk, and 
 exhibits his goods.] 
 
 Merchant. 
 We go to Armalecco, to buy vair, 
 Sable and ermine, 
 
 And marten-skins, and lynx, and other skins ; 
 And to buy woollen too. 
 
 To the monasteries of England, and to Chinna, 
 To Bilignass, Croccostrande, and Isticchi, 
 To Diolacresca, Giuttebi, and Bufeltro, 
 In Cornwall. 
 
 [Garsenda laughs.] 
 Garsenda. 
 
 Then you saw 
 
 King Mark in Cornwall, then
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 135 
 
 The fair-haired Iseult bought brocades from 
 
 you, 
 Sky-coloured, of a surety? Or you carried 
 Her'Tristau, hidden in your pack of goods, 
 Into her chamber? 
 
 Merchant. 
 
 They say that in Romagna 
 All fowling, nay, all gulling, is permitted ; 
 But the blackbird has already crossed the stream 
 And his mate has crossed the Po already. 
 
 Gabsenda. 
 
 Shafts 
 Of Florence make and Lombard : bastard 
 
 shafts. 
 They neither shine nor sting. 
 Because I do not know them. 
 [Francesca seems intent on turning over the 
 stuffs. ] 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 This is good, 
 Brocade with golden pomegranates. And how, 
 Giotto, did you come here to Rimino? 
 
 Merchant. 
 
 Noble Madonna, full of perils is 
 
 The life of merchants. Needs must be we take 
 
 Every occasion that is offered us. 
 
 I, by good fortune, chanced to come upon 
 
 The escort of the noble Messer Paolo, 
 
 And had good leave to follow it in safety. 
 
 So swift a journey may I never make
 
 t36 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Again ; -with Messer Paolo you ride 
 
 The whole day long, and never sleep at all. 
 
 [FBANCESCA/eeZs over the stuffs, outwardly calm, 
 but an unconquerable smile burns in her eyes. 
 Garsenda has gone down on her knees to 
 see the stuffs. ] 
 
 Frakcesca. 
 You rode so swiftly? 
 
 Merchant. 
 
 Without rest or stay, 
 With tightened bridles, if I might so put it ; 
 And every stream they forded, could not wait 
 Until the flood had ebbed. And Messer Paolo 
 Laboured his horse with spur in such a haste 
 That there was always between him and us, 
 A mile or so of distance. I should say 
 He has some urgent business here. He asked 
 The Commune leave of absence 
 After two months, or little more, that he 
 Had entered into office ; truth it is 
 That the whole city sorrows at it, never 
 A more accustomed and more civil knight 
 Was Captain of the People there in Florence. 
 
 Francesca. 
 I will take this brocade. 
 
 Merchant. 
 
 Good, very good, 
 Madonna, And Bernardino della Porta 
 Of Parma, they have chosen 
 To take his place, is worth. 
 Why not so much as one hair of the head 
 Of Messer Paolo.
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 137 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 And this samite too. 
 
 Merchant. 
 Madonna, this with patterns all of gold, . . 
 
 Francesca. 
 Yes, I like this one too. It seems to me 
 You Florentines keep feast on feast, and make 
 The year a holiday, and care for nothing 
 Except for games and sports and banquetings 
 And dances. 
 
 Merchant. 
 
 Yes, Madonna, 'tis a sweet 
 And blessed land, our Florence : 'tis the fiowef 
 Of the others, Fioreuza! 
 
 Francesca. 
 I will take this silk too with the silver lines. 
 And the Captain of the People, 
 Was he well liked by all the companies 
 Of knights and ladies? 
 
 Merchant. 
 
 Each rivalled with each 
 Of all the companies 
 
 To have his presence, as the most well-spoken 
 And gallant man he indeed is; but he, 
 Uy what I know, would hold himself apart, 
 A trifle haughtily, and rare it was 
 To see him at their suppers. And in time 
 Of Carnival, in Santa Felicita 
 Beyond the Arno, I know by Messer Betto 
 De'Ilossi that tlioy made a company, 
 A thousand men or more, all dressed in white, 
 And Messer I'aolo by this company
 
 138 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Was chosen Lord of Love, 
 But he would not consent . . . 
 Francesca. 
 
 Here, this shot sarcenet 
 And this buff-coloured cotton. You were say- 
 ing. 
 Giotto . . . 
 
 [Garsenda takes the stuffs selected, and puts 
 them aside, first holding them up to the 
 light.] 
 
 Merchant. 
 I have seen him sometimes go about 
 With Guido of the Messers Cavalcante 
 Dei Cavalcanti ; he that is, they say, 
 One of the best logicians in the world, 
 And a most manifest 
 Natural philosopher. 
 And, as they say, he seeks, 
 Among the tombs, to find 
 There never was a God. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Garsenda, you may have this violet samite. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 O Madonna, much thanks ! 
 
 Merchant. 
 'Tis a fine violet, 
 One of the finest colours of the dye. 
 
 Francesca. 
 And for you, Smaragdi? You were saying, 
 Giotto . . . 
 
 Merchant. 
 Often he had with him 
 Good singers and good players, specially
 
 FRANCESCA DA RUIINL 139 
 
 Ca.sella da Pistoia the musician, 
 
 A master in the ai"t of singing songs 
 
 Of love . . . 
 
 Francesca, 
 For you, Smaragdi, you shall have 
 This green-brown serge. And Altichiara too 
 And Biancofiore, each of you must have 
 A new dress. 
 
 Merchant. 
 This, Madonna, is a colour 
 Of the newest fashion, it is called the seamew, 
 A very marvel, with its golden bunches; 
 Mona Giuglia degli Adimari, the other week, 
 Bought from me full ten yards of it. And this 
 With the goose pattern. Capon's foot, bear's ear. 
 Young pigeon, angel's wing, 
 Iris, corn-flower, new colours . . . 
 [Francesca rises impetuously, as if breaking 
 some conslralnt.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Merchant, leave it, 
 And I will choose at leisure. 
 
 [She turns towards the window and looks out on 
 the shining sea, shading her eyes with her 
 hand. 1 
 
 How the sun 
 Is strong, this March, and fierce! 
 There goes a little ship with a red sail! 
 Here are the swallows coming back in flocks! 
 
 Garsenda 
 [to the Merchant!. 
 How long shall you be staying in Rimino?
 
 140 FBANCESCA DA BIMINL 
 
 Merchant. 
 Three days. And then I have to make my way 
 To Barletta and from Barletta I take ship 
 For Cypi-us. 
 
 [The SvAVE lights iqj, hearing the name of her 
 country.] 
 
 Gaksenda. 
 
 Listen, listen, 
 Smaragdi I 
 
 Slave 
 \anxiously]. 
 Do you go to Cyprus, merchant? 
 
 Merchant. 
 I go there yearlj% We have warehouses 
 At Famagosta, and there yearly gell 
 Thousands and tliousands besants' worth of 
 
 goods. 
 Are you from Cyprus? 
 
 Slave. 
 Salute for me the Mount Chionodes, 
 His head in snow and olives at his feet ; 
 And drink for me at the spring of Chitria 
 A draught for my heart's sake. 
 
 Francesca 
 
 {turning], 
 " And Cyprus I would make for, 
 And at Limisso anchor, 
 And land my sailors for a kiss, my captains 
 For love! " 
 
 {Instruments and merry voices are heard pre- 
 luding while she goes towards the bed, droop- 
 ingly, as if to lie down on it]
 
 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 141 
 
 Slave. 
 And who is king there? Sire Ughetto? 
 Merchant. 
 Ughetto died young, Ugo di Lusignauo, 
 His cousin, is king now. And there have been 
 Most evil deeds, 
 And poisonings of women. 
 And treachery of barons and the plague, 
 Locusts and earthquakes, 
 And Venus, queen of devils, has appeared. 
 [The sounds of music and voices and laughter 
 come nearer. Francesca lies back on the 
 bed between the half-closed curtains.] 
 
 [The Women, with the exception of AbonelIjA, 
 enter, followed by the Doctor, the Astrol- 
 oger, i/ie Jester and the Musicians, who 
 tune their instruments and prelude on them. 
 The Doctor wears a dressing-gown, down 
 to the heels, of a dark tan-colour; the As- 
 trologer a green-brown robe and a black 
 turban striped with yellow; the Jester a 
 scarlet jerkin. The Musicians go up on 
 their gallery, and range themselves in order. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 Madonna, here is Maestro Almodoro. 
 
 Alda. 
 And we have found the astrologer, Madonna. 
 
 Biancofiore. 
 
 And the Jester too, Gian Figo, that procures 
 Rpclpos against melanrlioly with songs 
 And storios and the dust of No-Man's I^and.
 
 142 FRANCESCA DA BIMINI. 
 
 Alda. 
 And the voices and the players 
 On bagpipe, flute and lute, 
 Rebec and monochord. 
 
 [Standing upright between the curtains, Fran- 
 CESCA looks before her as if bewildered, 
 neither smiling nor speaking.] 
 
 BlANCOFIORE 
 
 [co7ning forioard]. 
 Here is the garland 
 Of violets. May it chase your melancholy! 
 
 [She offers it to her gracefully. Francesca 
 takes it, while Altichiara takes the mir- 
 ror from the table and holds it up before her 
 face as she puts on the garland. The Slave 
 slowly goes out.] 
 
 Garsenda. 
 O Maestro Almodoro, 
 Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicenna 
 Returned to earth inside one doctor's gown, 
 Can you tell us what is melancholy? 
 
 [The 'Doctor places himself in their midst, and 
 assumes a solemn air.] 
 
 Doctor. 
 
 Melancholy 
 Is a dark humour many call black bile, 
 And it is cold and dry. 
 And has its situation in the spine; 
 Its nature is of the earth 
 And of the autumn. Nee dubium est quidem 
 Melancholicus morbus 
 Ab impostore Diabolo. .
 
 FRANCESCA DA lUMINL 143 
 
 [The Jester 2>M<s himself in front of him, cover- 
 ing him. The Women and the Musicians 
 laugh and whisper.] 
 
 Jester. 
 
 When 
 Your devil was born, my devil had found his 
 
 legs. 
 Melancholy is to drink as the Gei'mans do, 
 Madonna; to backbite as the Greeks do, 
 To sing as the French do, 
 To dance as the Moors do. 
 To sleep as the English do, 
 And to stand steady like 
 Messere Ferragunze the Cordelier. 
 Madonna, I have had from you those two 
 Pieces of scarlet in advance: but see. 
 The jerkin that was new has become old. 
 Have you two other pieces, may it please you. 
 Of velvet? 
 
 [The Women laugh. He eyes the vierchunV s 
 wares, scattered over the couch.\ 
 
 Gars EN DA. 
 
 The Astrologer! Speak now, 
 Astrologer of Syria who sees all things! 
 
 [The bearded Astrologer puts on a gloomy 
 look and speaks vnth a voice that seems to 
 come from a deep cave.] 
 
 Astrologer. 
 All darts he sees not, who sees every dart; 
 But he who blindly aims against the heart 
 Takes aim from thence, whence doth all life 
 depart.
 
 144 FRANCESCA DA EIMINI. 
 
 Jester. 
 And I believe not in your art. 
 
 [Fbancesca looks sharply at the Saracen 
 as if fearing something.] 
 Francesca. 
 What do you mean by this dark riddle? Speak, 
 Maestro Isacco, explain. 
 
 Astrologer. 
 Lady, who iuwai-d looks, 
 
 Looks not, but he who wills that which he 
 looks. 
 
 Jester. 
 And yet the man of Friuli has said : 
 He who wants woman wants a lord and master, 
 And he who wants a lord and master wants — 
 Catch who catch can ! And then 
 In the book of Madam Mogias of Egypt, 
 That is called the Book of Piercing to the Heart, 
 It is declared that woman's enemies 
 Are seventeen — 
 
 [Adonella enters, carrying five garlands of 
 white narcissi, hanging from a gold loire 
 that binds them together.] 
 Adonella. 
 Madonna, the falconer 
 Has called the falcon back. Some of his feath- 
 ers 
 Ai-e bent or broken a little ; but warm water 
 And a soft bandage will soon set them right. 
 
 Astrologer. 
 The falcon's beak thou shalt not shear or break. 
 But scanty clippings take;
 
 FBANCESCA DA BIMINI. 145 
 
 For these, well mixed with wool, long talons 
 make. 
 
 Francesca. 
 You speak in riddles, then. 
 To-day, Maestro Isacco '? 
 
 Astrologer. 
 Not every one who speaketh speaks, but he 
 Who sleeps must silent be ; 
 Evils in life and truth in prophecy. 
 
 Jester. 
 
 So may it be, amen ! Bring in the bier. 
 
 O Saracen Isacco, 
 
 You are a very great astronomer ; 
 
 You prophesy, besides ; 
 
 But you must make a little matter plain. 
 
 Tell me, which is the easier to know, 
 
 The things that are now past. 
 
 Or else the things that are to come ? 
 
 Astrologer. 
 
 O fool, 
 Who does not know the things that he has seen, 
 The things that are behind ? 
 
 Jester. 
 Good, very good ; we'll see how well you know 
 
 them. 
 Now tell me this, 
 
 What were you doing on the last March calends, 
 A year ago ! 
 
 [The Astrologer thinkH.] 
 Well, then, six months ago ?
 
 146 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 [The Astrologer thinks. The Women laugh. 
 The Jester speaks rapidhj.] 
 I will ask you, tlieu, oue last time : can you tell me 
 What weather it was three mouths ago ? 
 
 [The Astrologer thinks and stares before him. 
 The Jester plucks him by the robe.] 
 Isacco, 
 Don't cast nativities, you need not gape, 
 Stand steady. Now, what ship 
 Came here, a month ago ? What ship set sail ? 
 What do you gape at ? Did you eat indoors 
 Or out of doors a fortnight since ? 
 Astrologer. 
 
 Wait, wait 
 A little. 
 
 Jester. 
 Wait! What ? But I will not wait. 
 Come now, what were you doing, 
 A week ago to-day ? 
 
 Astrologer. 
 Give me a little respite. 
 
 Jester. 
 
 Why, what respite 
 Should such as I give such as you who know 
 The things that are to come ? What did you eat 
 Four days ago ? 
 
 Astrologer. 
 Ah, I will tell you that. 
 Jester. 
 What did you say ? 
 
 Astrologer. 
 You are in such haste.
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 147 
 
 Jester. 
 What haste ? Well, tell me now, what did you 
 
 eat 
 Yesterday morning ? Tell me ! 
 
 [The Astrologer, annoyed, turns his back up- 
 071 him. He plucks him by the sleeve.] 
 Stop ! Look at me a moment ! 
 I lay you ten to one you do not know 
 If you are wide awake or if you dream. 
 
 Astrologer. 
 I know I do not sleep, and that you are 
 The greatest fool now living in the world I 
 
 Jkstkk. 
 But I assure you that you do not know. 
 Come here. Don't go like tlr.it against the wind 
 Of Mongibello. Tell mc, have you not 
 Hundreds of times gone up and down the stairs 
 Of the belfry-tower of Santa Colomba ? Well, 
 How many stairs are there ? Come here, I say! 
 Don't run away from me. Have you ever eaten 
 Medlars ? How many pips are in a medlar ? 
 [The infuriated AsTROLOOER/rees himself from 
 the r/rip of the Jester, amidst much lawjh- 
 ter.] 
 
 Then if you don't know that, 
 How can you know things that arc in the sky, 
 And in the hearts of women, and in hair ? 
 Find a cordwainor, hid him make a roi>o 
 Out of your beard, and hang you to a star. 
 
 Biancofiore. 
 Madonna has smiled ! 
 Giau Figo has made even Madonna smile I
 
 148 FRANCESCA DA BIMtlft 
 
 Go, go, dear doctoi-, to your house again, 
 
 And take your medicine and your Latin with 
 
 you, 
 To-day is the March calends ! Song means dance 
 To-day, and dance means song. 
 Play, Simonetto, play ! 
 
 [The Musicians begin a prelude. Those stand- 
 ing near go to the back, so as to leave room 
 for the dance. Adonella unlooses the gold 
 wire, and distributes the garlands of narcissi 
 to her comjyanions, who put them on; and 
 retains for herself the one that bears two 
 swallows' wings. Alda takes out of a little 
 bag four painted wooden swallows that have 
 a kind of small handle under the breast, and 
 gives one to each of her companions; loho, 
 standing ready for the dance, hold them each 
 raised in the left hand. Adonella whis- 
 tles, in imitation of the chirruping of swal- 
 lows, and, lohile the other four dance and 
 sing, she utters at intervals, according to the 
 rhythm, the loud chirping that heralds the 
 spring.] 
 
 Alda. 
 Fresh, fresh, in the calends of March, 
 O swallows, coming home 
 Fresh from the quiet lauds beyond the sea; 
 First to bring back the great good messages 
 Of joy, and first to taste the good wild scent. 
 O creature of pure joy. 
 Come in your garments white and black, fiy 
 
 hither. 
 And bring your springtide gladness to our dance!
 
 FRANC£:SCA DA BIMINI. 149 
 
 Alticiiiaba. 
 March comes, and February 
 Goes witli the wind to-day; 
 Bring out your taft'ety 
 And put the vair away. 
 And come with me, I pvay, 
 Across the streams in flood, 
 Under the branching wood that leans along, 
 With dancing and with song in company 
 With fleet-foot lovers, or upon the lea 
 Gather the violets, 
 Where the grass smells more sweet because her 
 
 feet, 
 Have passed that way, the naked feet of 
 
 Spring ! 
 
 Garsexua. 
 To-day the earth appeals 
 New-wedded like a girl ; 
 The face that the sea wears 
 To-day is like apenrl. 
 Hark, hark, is tliat the merle 
 Deep in the thicket ? Hark, 
 How swift upsoars tlie lark Into the sky I 
 The cruel wind goes by, and in his mouth 
 Bears ravished nests ! O swallow of the south. 
 Thy tail's an arrow feather. 
 And like the twanging of a bow thy cry 
 WlKicby the spring will strike, the hands of 
 
 Spring! 
 
 Biancofiore. 
 O creature of deliglit, 
 Lead thou tbe dancing feet. 
 In robe of black and white,
 
 150 FRANCESCA DA BIMINL 
 
 As is thy usage sweet. 
 
 Make here thy stay,0 fleet 
 
 Swallow, here in this room 
 
 Wherein is seen, in gloom or light of day, 
 
 The tale of Iseult, the fair flower of Ireland, 
 
 As here thou seest, and this shall be thy gar- 
 land, 
 
 Thy nest, no prison-mesh, 
 
 Seeing that the fresh fair lady seated here 
 
 Is not Francesca, but is very — 
 
 [The Dancers return rapidly, towards Fran- 
 cesca and form in a line, stretching out to- 
 wards her the hand that holds the swallow, 
 and the other; and they all sing with 
 BiANCOFiORE, without interval, the last 
 word of the stanza.] 
 
 All 
 
 Spring! 
 
 [At the beginning of the last movement the 
 Slave appears on the threshold. As the 
 Musicians 2)lay the last notes, she goes up 
 to Francesca hurriedly and whispers to 
 her something that suddenly disturbs her.\ 
 Francesca 
 (Impetuously). 
 Eiancofiore, Altichiara, Alda, Adonella, 
 Garsenda, for the new 
 Delight of this new dance, 
 I must give you something new : 
 These dresses, take them, each! 
 
 [Shejncks up some of the scattered goods and 
 gives them.] 
 Here's for you, and for you!
 
 FRANCESVA DA lilMiyi. 151 
 
 [The Jester comes forward in a slJclonrj way.] 
 
 And for you too, 
 Gian Figo, but no jesting. 
 
 \The Jester takes it and decamjys.] 
 Gaiseuda, take this too for the Musicians, 
 They can make jackets of it, 
 With stripes of red and yellow. And see, too, 
 
 Merchant 
 You set aside two lengths of some good serge 
 For Maestro Almodoro, and Maestro Isacco. 
 Now go, I have given you something, all of you. 
 For the INIarch calends' sake. Go now, and, 
 
 go ins, 
 
 Sing in the court the song of the March swal- 
 lows. 
 
 You must come back again, Merchant; Garsenda 
 
 Will bring you word. You may leave your 
 wares here now. 
 
 Go, and be merry, until vesper-time; 
 
 Adonella, lead the way into the court. 
 
 A happy spring to you! 
 
 [The MrsiciANS come down from their gallery, 
 playing, and go out. The Jester .skips 
 after them. Ai,L the others bow before 
 FjiAN(;KS('A and take the gifts they have 
 received, following the Musicians toith 
 whi.tpering and laughter. The Si.ave rc- 
 mrtius, busy wrapping vp the 7imrps in 
 bundles. Francehca abandons herself to 
 her anxiety. She takes several steps, blindly; 
 vnth a sudden movement, she draws the 
 rurtnins of the alrorr, whirh are half open, 
 showing the bed. Then she sits dovm be-
 
 152 FEANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 fore the reading-desk, and glances at the 
 open book, but, in turning, the train of her 
 dress catches in the lute, which falls, and 
 lies on the ground. She trembles.] 
 
 No, no, Smaragdi! Kun, and tell him not 
 
 To come! 
 
 [The sounds die aioay in the distance. The 
 Slave, having finished, goes towards the 
 door. Francesca takes a step towards 
 her as if to call her back.] 
 
 Smaragdi! 
 
 [The Slave goes out] 
 [After a few moments, a hand raises the cur- 
 tain, and Paolo Malatesta appears. 
 The door closes behind him]. As Paolo 
 and Fkancesca gaze at one another, for 
 a moment, without finding loords, both 
 change colour. The sound of Music dies 
 away through the palace. The room is 
 gilded by the rays of the setting sun, which 
 shine through the long ivindow.] 
 Francesca. 
 Welcome, my lord and kinsman. 
 
 Paolo 
 
 I have come, 
 Hearing a sound of music, to bring greetings, 
 My greetings of return. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 You have come back 
 Speedily, sir; indeed with the first swallow. 
 My women even now 
 Were singing a new song that they have made
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 153 
 
 To welcome March. And there was also here 
 The merchant out of Florence, who had come 
 Among your following. Of him I had 
 Tidings of you. 
 
 Paolo . 
 
 But I, of you, no tidings, 
 None, I heard nothing there, 
 Nothing of you at all, 
 From that day onward, when, one perilous 
 
 night 
 You put a cup of wine into my hands, 
 And said to me, " farewell!" 
 And said to me, " God-speed!" 
 Fkancesca. 
 
 I have no memory. 
 
 My lord, concerning this. I have prayed much, 
 
 Paolo. 
 You have forgotten then ? 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 I have prayed much. 
 
 Paolo. 
 And I have suffered much. 
 If it be true that he wlio suffers conquers, 
 I think I must needs contjuer. . . . 
 
 FitANCKSCA. 
 
 What ? 
 Paolo. 
 
 My fate. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 And yet you have come back?
 
 154 FBANCESCA DA BIMINI. 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 I have come back 
 
 To live. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Not to die now? 
 
 rAoi.o. 
 All, you remember 
 The death I was to die, 
 
 And you that would not ! So much, at the least, 
 You have remembered. 
 
 [She draws hack towards the window, as if with- 
 drawing herself from his scarcely repressed 
 violence.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Paolo, give me peace! 
 It is so sweet a thing to live forgetting, 
 But one hour only, and be no more tossed. 
 Out of the tempest. 
 Do not call back, I pray, 
 The shadow of that time in this fresh light 
 That slakes my thirst at last 
 Like that long draught 
 That at the ford I drank. 
 Out of the living water. 
 And now, I desire now 
 To think my soul has left 
 That shore to come into this sheltering shore, 
 Where music and where hope are sisters; so 
 To forget all the sorrow that has been 
 Yesterday, and shall be 
 To-morrow, and so let 
 All of my life, and all the veins of it. 
 And all the days of it,
 
 FRANCESCA DA EIMINI. 155 
 
 And all old tliin,2;s in it, far-away things, 
 
 But for one liour, one hour, 
 
 Slip away quietly, a quiet tide, 
 
 Unto that sea, 
 
 Even these eyes mi^^ht behold smilingly, 
 
 Were it not hidden by the tears that tremble 
 
 And do not fall. O peace, peace in that sea 
 
 That was so wild with waves 
 
 Yesterday, and to-day is like a pearl. 
 
 Give me peace! 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 It is the voice of spi'ing 
 I hear, and from your lips the music runs 
 Over the world, that I have seemed to hear, 
 Riding against the wind. 
 Sing in the voice of the wind. 
 At every turn of the way. 
 At every glade, and high 
 
 On the hill-tops, and on the edges of the woods, 
 And under them the streams, 
 When my desire bent back. 
 
 Burning with breath, the mane of my wild horse, 
 Over the saddle-bow, and the soul lived. 
 In tlie swiftness of that Hight, 
 On swiftness, 
 
 Like a torch carried in the wind, and all 
 The thou<ihts of all my soul, save one, save one, 
 Were all V)lown backward, spent 
 Like sparks behind me. 
 
 FUANfKSCA. 
 
 Ah, I'aolf), like sparks 
 All your words are, and still they take no rest, 
 And all your soul lives still
 
 156 FRANCESCA DA BUIINI. 
 
 In the strong wind and swiftness of your coming, 
 
 And drags me with it, and I am full of fear. 
 
 I pray you, I pray you now, 
 
 That you will give me peace 
 
 For this hour only, 
 
 My fair friend, my sweet friend, 
 
 That I may quiet and put to sleep in me 
 
 The old sick pain, and forget all the rest; 
 
 Only bring back into my eyes the first. 
 
 Look that took hold on me out of your face. 
 
 Unknown to me ; for these dry eyelids have 
 
 No need of any healing but that dew. 
 
 Only to bring back and to have in them 
 
 Again the miracle of that first look ; 
 
 And they will feel that grace has come to them, 
 
 As they felt once, out of the heart of a dream, 
 
 The coming near of the dawn ; 
 
 And feel that they are to be comforted, 
 
 Perhaps in the shade 
 
 Of the new garland. 
 
 Paolo. 
 And so garlanded 
 With violets I saw you yesterday 
 In a meadow, as I stayed. 
 Pausing in journeying, 
 
 And being alone, and having far outstripped 
 My escort. I could hear 
 Only the champing bit 
 Of my horse pasturing, and see from there 
 The towers of Meldola in a wood. And all 
 Palpitated with you 
 
 In the high morning. And you came to me 
 With violets, and returning to your lips
 
 FBANCESCA DA lUMINI. 157 
 
 I heard again a word that you had spoken, 
 Saying : I pardon you, and with much love! 
 
 Francesca. 
 That word was spoken 
 And perfect joy awaits upon the word. 
 
 IPaolo's eyes wander over the room.] 
 Ah, do not look around 
 Upon these things, 
 Silent, as if with joy, 
 And only full of sorrow and of shame. 
 No autumn withered them, 
 They shall not be awakened with the spring. 
 Look on the sea, the sea 
 
 That has borne witness for us once with God 
 To certain words once spoken, vast and calm 
 And shining where the battle came between, 
 And silent where the rage of clamour came 
 Between, and one sail passed upon the sea, 
 Going alone upon its way, like this, 
 See, yonder? And our souls 
 Were tried, as if with fire. 
 But now sit here, upon the window-seat, 
 And not with weapons now for killing men. 
 But without cruelty. See, Paolo, 
 With tills mere sprig of basil. 
 
 [She takes a cluster from her head, and offers it 
 to him ; as he steps nearer, his foot strikes 
 ayainst the catch of the trap-door, and he 
 stops. 1 
 
 You have struck your foot 
 Against the ring of the trap-door. It leads 
 From here into another room beneath. 
 [Paolo stoops to look at it.\
 
 158 FRANGESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Paolo. 
 Ah, you can go from here into a room 
 Beneath. 
 
 Fbancesca 
 [Giving him the sprig of basil]. 
 Come, take it, smell it; it is good. 
 Smaragdi planted it in memory 
 Of Cyprus, in this vase; 
 And when she waters it, 
 She sings: " Under your feet 
 I spread sweet basil, 
 I bid you sleep there, 
 I bid you pluck it, 
 I bid you smell it. 
 And remember the giver! " 
 At Florence all the women 
 Have their sweet basil on the window-sill. 
 Do you not know? But come, 
 Will you not tell me something of your life? 
 Sit here, and tell me something of yourself, 
 How you have, lived. 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 Why do you ask of me 
 To live the misery of my life twice over? 
 All that was joy to others was to me 
 Sorrow and heaviness. One only thing. 
 Music, could ever give me pleasant hours. 
 I went sometimes to a great singer's house, 
 He was by name Casella, 
 And there were met many of gentle birth, 
 Among them Guido Cavalcanti, and these 
 Were wont to make rhymes in the vulgar tongue; 
 And there was Ser Brunetto,
 
 FRANCESCA DA BIMINL 159 
 
 Returned from Paris, wise 
 
 With rhetoric of the schools, 
 
 Also a youth 
 
 Of the Alighieri, Dante was his name, 
 
 And I much loved this youth, he was so full 
 
 Of thoughts of love and sorrow, 
 
 So hurning and so loverlike for song. 
 
 And something like a healing influence passed 
 
 Out of his heart to mine, 
 
 That seemed shut up in me; for the exceeding 
 
 And too much sweetness hid 
 
 Sometimes within the song moved him to weep 
 
 Silently, silent tears. 
 
 And seeing his weeping, I too wept with him. 
 
 [ffer e7jesfill with tears and her voice trembles.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 You wept? 
 
 Paolo. 
 Francesca! 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 Wept? Ah, Paolo mine. 
 Blessed be he that taught your heart such tears, 
 Such tears! I will pray always for his peace. 
 For now I see you, now 1 see you again 
 As you were then, sweet friend. 
 The grace has come with healing to my eyes. 
 [ Slie ajipcars tix if transfigured with ]>erfectjoy. 
 YVith a slowniovcnicnt she takes the garland 
 from her head and lays it on the open book 
 beside her]. 
 
 Paoi.o. 
 Why do you take ihe garland from your head?
 
 160 FRANCESCA DA BIMINt 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Because it was not you who gave it me. 
 I gave you once a rose 
 From that sarcophagus. 
 But now, poor flowers, I feel 
 Your freshness is all spent! 
 
 [Paolo rises, and goes up to the reading desk 
 and touches the violets.] 
 
 Paolo. 
 'Tis true! Do you remember? on that night 
 Of fire and blood, you asked of me the gift 
 Of a fair helmet; and I gave it you: 
 'Twas finely tempered. 
 The steel aud gold of it have never known 
 What rust is, soiling. And you let it fall. 
 Do you remember? 
 
 I picked it up, and I have held it dear 
 As a king's crown. 
 
 Since then, when I have set it on my head, 
 I feel twice bold, and there is not a thought 
 Within my heart that is not as a flame. 
 
 [He bends over the hook.\ 
 Ah, listen, the first words that meet my eye^ 
 '• Made richer by that gift than had you given 
 
 him 
 The gift of all the world." 
 What book is this? 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 The famous history 
 Of Lancelot of the Lake. 
 
 [She rises and goes over to the reading-desk.]
 
 fRANCESCA DA BUtlNI. 161 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 And have you read 
 The book all tbroush? 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 
 I have but 
 Come in my reading to this point. 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 To where? 
 Here, where the mark is? 
 [He reads.\ 
 
 " but you ask of me 
 
 Nothing " Will you go on? 
 
 Francksca. 
 Look how the sea is growing white with light! 
 
 Paolo. 
 Will you not read the page with me, Francesca? 
 
 Fhancksca. 
 Look yonder, how a flight 
 Of swallows comes, and coming sets a shadow 
 On the white sea! 
 
 Paolo. 
 Will you not read, Francesca? 
 
 FRANCE.SCA. 
 
 And there in one sail, and so red it seems 
 Like fire. 
 
 Paolo 
 [Beading]. 
 
 '* * Assuredly, my lady ' says 
 Thereat Galeotto, ' he is not so hot, 
 lie does not ask you any single thing 
 For love of you, borauso he fears, but I 
 Make suit toyuu for him; and know that I
 
 102 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Had never asked it of you, but that you 
 
 Were better off for it, seeing it is 
 
 The richest treasure you shall ever compass.' 
 
 Whereat says she " 
 
 [Paolo draws Francesca gently by the hand.] 
 But now, will you not read 
 What she says ? Will you not be Guenevere? 
 See now how sweet they are. 
 Your violets 
 That you have cast away ! Come, read a little. 
 
 [Their heads lean together over the book.] 
 Francesca 
 [Reading]. 
 " Whereat says she : ' This know I well, and I 
 Will do whatever thing you ask of me.' 
 And Galeotto answers her: ' Much thanks, 
 Lady! I ask you that you give to him 
 Your love ' " 
 
 [She stops.] 
 Paolo. 
 But read on. 
 
 Francesca. 
 No, I cannot see 
 The words. 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 Bead on. It says : " Assuredly " 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 " ' Assuredly,' says she, ' I promise it. 
 
 But let hira be mine own and I all his. 
 
 And let there be set straight all crooked things 
 
 And evil ' " Enough, Paolo.
 
 FBANCESCA DA UIMIXI. 163 
 
 Paolo 
 [Reading : hoarsely and tremulously.] 
 "•Lady!' says be, 'much thanks, but kiss hi in 
 
 then. 
 Now, anil before my face, for a beginning 
 
 Of a true love '" You, you! what does 
 
 she say ? 
 Now, what does she say? Here. 
 
 [Their white faces lean over the book, until their 
 cheeks almost touch.] 
 
 Francesca 
 [Readiny]. 
 
 " Says she : ' For what 
 Shall I be then entreated. But I will it 
 More than he wills it . . . ' " 
 Paolo 
 [Folloxoinc/ brokenly]. 
 "And they draw apart 
 And the queen looks on him and sees that he 
 Cannot take heart on liini U> do aught more. 
 Thereat she takes him by the chin, and slowly 
 
 Kisses him on the mouth " 
 
 [He makes the same movement towards Fiian- 
 CESCA, and kisses her. As their mouths 
 separate, Fkancesca staggers and falls back 
 on the cushions.] 
 
 Fuancesca 
 [Faintly]. 
 No, Paolo!
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 An octagonal hall, of gray stone, with Jive of its 
 sides in perspective. High up, on the bare stone, 
 is a frieze of unicorns on a gold background. 
 On the wall at the back is a large window with 
 glass panes, looking out on the mountain, fur- 
 nished with benches in the recess. On the wall 
 at right angles to it, on the right, is a grated 
 door leading to the subterranean prison. Against 
 the opposite wall, to the left, is a long toooden 
 seat ivith a high back, in front of lohich is a long 
 narrow table laid with fruit and wine. In each 
 of the other two sides facing, is a door; the left, 
 near the table, leads to the room of Francesca, 
 the right to the corridor and stairs. All round 
 are placed torchbearers of iron; on brackets are 
 hung shoulder-belts, waist-belts, quivers, and 
 different portions of armour ; pikes, lances, hal- 
 berds, spears, axes, balistas lean against them. 
 [Francesca is seated at the window, and Ma- 
 LATESTiNO Stands at her feet.] 
 Francesca. 
 
 You would be justicer, Malatestino ! 
 
 Your cradle, of a surety, was hewn out
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMIjSfl. 165 
 
 From some old tiee-truuk by a savage axe 
 That had cut many heads off before then. 
 Malatestino 
 [laughs convulsively]. 
 Kinswoman, do I fright you? 
 And should I please you better 
 If 1 had had my cradle in the rose 
 Of a calm lute? 
 
 Francesca. 
 You are a cruel boy to take revenge 
 Upon a falcon ! 
 Why did you kill him, if you held him dear? 
 
 Malatestino. 
 Merely for justice' sake. 
 See, I had let him loose upon a crane, 
 The crane went up, the falcon followed him 
 And went up far above him, and under him 
 Saw a young eagle flying, and he took him 
 And struck him to the ground, and held him so 
 Till he had killed him. 
 I ran to take him, thinking him the crane, 
 But found it was an eagle. 
 Then I was angry, and struck off the head 
 Of the fair falcon who had killed his lord. 
 
 Fkaxcesca. 
 It was a foolish deed. 
 
 Malatestixo. 
 
 I5ut lie had killed 
 His lord. I did but justice. 
 
 Francesca. 
 It was a wicked folly, Malatestino.
 
 166 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 The fool shall pass, and with the fool his folly, 
 Aud the time passes, but not every time. 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 Why do you speak so strangely? 
 You are athirst for blood 
 Always, always at watch, 
 The enemy of all things. In all your words 
 There is a secret menace ; 
 Like a wild beast you bite 
 And tear and claw whatever comes your way. 
 Where were you born? Your mother gave you 
 
 milk 
 As to another? And you are so young! 
 The down is scarcely shadowed on your cheek. 
 
 Malats:stino 
 [With sudden violence]. 
 
 You are a goad to me, 
 
 The thought of you is like a goad to me, 
 
 Always. You are my wrath. 
 
 [Fkancesca rises and moves aioay from the 
 loindow, as if to escape from a snare. She 
 stands near the wall against which arms are 
 heaped up.} 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 Malatestino, enough ! Have you no shame? 
 Your brother will be here. 
 
 Malatestino 
 
 [following her]. 
 You strain me like a bow, 
 That vibrates in an hour 
 A thousand times, and piei'ces at a venture.
 
 FRAXCESCA DA lllMINI. 167 
 
 Tour baud is terrible, 
 That holds my force in it, 
 
 And casts it out to wound where it has flown. 
 I fly you, and you follow. 
 You are with me suddenly, 
 Like a sharp storm of rain, 
 In the fields and on the ways, 
 When I go out 
 Against the enemy. 
 
 I breathe you when I breathe the dust of battles. 
 The cloud that rises from the trampled earth 
 Takes on your very form. 
 
 And you live and breathe and you dissolve again 
 Under the pawing of the panting horses 
 In the tracks that redden and fill up with blood. 
 I will clasp you, I will clasp you now at last! 
 [Fkancesca retreats along the wall until she 
 comes to the grated door.} 
 Fkancesca. 
 You do not touch me, madman, or I call 
 Your brother! Get you gone. I pity you. 
 You are a boy. If you would not be whipped. 
 Get you gone. You are a boy, 
 A wicked boy. 
 
 M.\.LATESTlNO. 
 
 Whom would you call? 
 Fkancesca. 
 
 Your brother. 
 Malatestino. 
 Which? 
 
 [Fkancesca starts, hear'mu a cry rise up from 
 heiov:, iJiroinih the door against mhieh she ia 
 standing.]
 
 168 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Who ci-ied there? Did you not hear it? 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 One 
 Who has to die. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Montagna 
 DeiParcitadi? 
 
 [Another cry comes from the prison.] 
 
 Malatestino. 
 I too will say : Enough ! 
 Enough, Francesca, to-day you seal your fate. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Ah, now I cannot hear him; but at night 
 He howls, howls like a wolf; 
 Ilis crying rises to me in my room. 
 What have you done to him? 
 Have you put him to the torture? 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 Listen to me. Giovanni 
 Sets out at Vespers for the Podesteria 
 Of Pesaro. You have prepared for him 
 Food for the journey. 
 
 [Hepoints to the table.\ 
 
 Listen. I can give him 
 Food for another journey. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 What do you mean? 
 
 Malatestino. 
 Look well at me. I can still see with one.
 
 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 169 
 
 FlIANCESCA. 
 
 What do you mean? You tlireaten me? You 
 
 net 
 Some treachery against your brother. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 Treachery? 
 
 I would have thought, kinswoman, that such a 
 
 word 
 Had burnt your tongue ; I see 
 Your lips are scathless, though 
 A little paler. I but spoke at random. 
 My judgment was at fault. Only I say 
 This one time more .... 
 {The crying of the Prisoner is again heard-l 
 
 FUANCESCA 
 
 \Tremblin<j loith horrorl. 
 
 How he cries! How he cries! 
 Who tortures him, or what new agony 
 Have you found out for him? 
 Have you walled him up alive? Will he cry so 
 All his life long? Go, put an end to it, 
 And take him from his torture. 
 I will not hear his crying any more. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 Well, I will go. I will see that you shall have 
 A quiet night and an untroubled sleep. 
 Because to-morrow you must sleep alone. 
 While my good brotlier rides to Pesaro. 
 [He goes up to the wall and chooses an axe from 
 among the vjeapons piled up against it.] 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 What are you doing?
 
 110 FLANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 I? 
 I would be justicer, 
 And by your wish and will, 
 Kinswoman. 
 
 yile exaininca the blade of the xoeapon; then un- 
 bolts the barred door, which opens upon 
 black darkness.] 
 
 Fkanc'esca. 
 You are going to kill him? Ah, 
 Wild beast, but you have lived too long, I think, 
 Since I bound up your wound for you, and you 
 Raved at your father. Still I hear you. Then 
 You bit the hand that gave you medicine. 
 Cared for you in your sickness, soothed your 
 
 pain. 
 Accursed be the hour in which I bent 
 Over your pillow to give ease to you! 
 
 Malatestino. 
 Francesca, listen, Francesca: even so sure 
 As death is in the point of this good weapon 
 I hold here in my hand, so sure is life 
 In that one word 
 You still may say to me. 
 Full-blooded life, do you not understand? 
 And full of winds, and full of conquering days. 
 [Francesca replies slowly, in an equable voice, 
 ns in a momentary respite from horror and 
 anxiety.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 What is the word? Who is there that could say 
 
 it? 
 You live in a loud noise,
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 171 
 
 But where I live is silence. The prisoner 
 
 Is not so far and lonely 
 
 As you are far and lonely, O poor blind 
 
 Slaughterman, drunk with shoutings, and with 
 
 blows ! 
 But fate is very silent. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 Ah, if you could but see the countenance 
 Of the overhanging fate! 
 There is a wretched knot within my head, 
 A knot of thoughts like pent-up lightnings: soon 
 They will break out. But listen, 
 Listen! If your hand will but touch my hand, 
 If your hair will lean over me again, 
 Over my fever, and . . . 
 [^1 more prolonged cry is heard from below.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 horror! horror! 
 
 [She moves hdck to the embrasure of the vnndow, 
 alts down, and puis her elbows on her knees, 
 and her head between her hands. ] 
 Malatestino 
 [Lnokinf/ aside at her]. 
 Tliis slftiU be from you. 
 [I la takes down a torch, puts the axe on the 
 ground, takes the steel, strikes it, and lights 
 the torch, while he speaks. | 
 
 1 go. Von will not hoar him any more. 
 I will see that you sliall have 
 
 A quiet night and an untroubled sleep, 
 And 1 will give my father quiet too;
 
 172 FRANC ESC A DA RIMINI. 
 
 He feai's his flight. And I would have Gio- 
 vanni 
 In passing by Gradara, give him this 
 Most certain token. 
 O kinswoman, good vespers! 
 Fbancesca remains motionless as if hearing 
 nothing. 
 
 He picks up the weapon and goes into the 
 darkness ivith his silent cat-like step, hold- 
 ing the lighted torch in his left hand. The 
 little door remains open. Francesca rises 
 and watches the light fade away in the open- 
 ing ; suddenly she runs to the door, and stops, 
 shuddering. The barred door grates in the 
 silence. She turns, and moves away with 
 slow steps, her head bent, as if under a 
 heavy weight.] 
 
 Francesca 
 [In a low voice, to herself]. 
 And an untroubled sleep! 
 
 [Through the great door on the right is heard 
 the ^.arsh voice of Gianciotto. Francesca 
 stops suddenly.] 
 
 Giovanni. 
 Look you for Messer Paolo my brother, 
 And tell him I set out for Pesaro 
 In an hour's time from now, 
 And that I wait him. 
 
 [He enters fully armed. Seeing his wife, he 
 goes up to her.] 
 Ah my dear lady, you are waiting me! 
 Why do you tremble, why are you so pale? 
 [He takes her hands.]
 
 FBANCESCA DA EIMIXI. 173 
 
 And you are cold too, cold as if with fear. 
 But why? 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Malatestino 
 Had scarcely entered when I heard again 
 The crying of the prisoner, 
 Who cries these many days so horribly 
 Out of the earth; and, seeing me distraught, 
 Flamed into anger and went suddenly 
 Down to the prison by the door there, armed 
 With a great axe, saying that he would kill him, 
 Against the express commandments of his father 
 That fretted him too much. 
 Cruel he is, your brother, my good lord, 
 And does nut love me. 
 
 GlA_>fCIOTTO. 
 
 Do not tremble, lady. 
 Where has your valiance gone? But now you 
 
 were 
 Fearless among the fighters, 
 And saw men fall witli arrows in their throats, 
 And flung about the Greek fire in your hands. 
 Wliy does the life then of an enemy 
 So greatly trouble you? and a cry affright you, 
 Or an axe brandished? 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 To fight in battle is a lovely thing, 
 But secret slaying in the dark I hate. 
 
 GlANflOTTO. 
 
 Malatestino tired of keeping watch 
 
 Sf» long, and so long waiting for the ransom 
 
 That the old Parcitade would not pay,
 
 1T4 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 The old foul miser that in taking flight 
 Took with him certain rights and privileges 
 Of the Commune at Rimino . . . But why 
 Do you say he does not love you? 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 I do not know. It seems so. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Is he unkind with you? 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 He is a boy, and like 
 Young mastiffs, he must bite. But come, my 
 
 lord, 
 Take food and drink 
 Before you go your journey. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 But perhaps 
 Malatestino . . . 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 Come, why do you think 
 Of what I said but lightly? " Heart of metal, 
 Tough liver : " I remember your own word. 
 And when you said it. He will love his horse 
 Until the horse falls sick; 
 His armour, till the steel begins to wear. 
 I have no mind to trouble you with him, 
 My lord. 'Tis almost vespers. 
 Come, here is food and drink. Do you mean to 
 
 go 
 The way of the seashore? 
 
 [GlANCIOTTO is moody, while he follows Fban- 
 cesca tovmrds the spread table. lie takes 
 off his basnet, unclasps his gorget , and gives
 
 FRANCESCA DA lilMINL 175 
 
 them to his wife, who sets them down on a 
 seat, with sudden graceful movements, talk- 
 iny raixidly]. 
 
 You will have all the freshness of the night. 
 
 It is September, and the uij^hts are soft; 
 
 Just before midnight the moon rises. When 
 
 Do you reach Pesaro, 
 
 Messere il Podesta? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 To-morrow at the third hour, 
 For I must staj' a little with my father 
 In passing through Gradara. 
 [He unbuckles his sword-belt and gives it to his ivife.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 Is it for long that you must stay at Pesaro, 
 Before you come again? 
 
 [The terrible cry of Montagna is heard from 
 below. Fkancesc'A shudders, and lets fall 
 the sword, which slijisfroin its scabbard-] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 It is done now. 
 Do not be frightened, lady. There will be 
 Nothing but silence now. May fJod so take 
 The heads of all our enemies! From this forth 
 There shall no wind root into Rimino 
 Tliis evil seed l)etween the stones of it. 
 And may God scatter it out of all Itomagna 
 In this mo.st bloody year, if it so be 
 He wills to have his holy Kastor held 
 By the Guclfs of (Jalboli with the (jhibellino 
 blood
 
 176 FRANC ESC A BA RIMINI. 
 
 Of Aldobrandin degli Argogliosi! 
 
 [He stoops and picks up the bare blade.\ 
 
 Pope 
 Martino is dead and good King Carlo went 
 Before him into paradise. That's ill! 
 As for this Pietro di Stefano that Onorio 
 Sends us for governor, 
 I doubt him, he's no friend, 
 He's not a Polentani, not your father's, 
 Francesca. We shall still have need to keep 
 Our swords unsheathed, and eyes in all our 
 swords. 
 \IIe puts himself on guard, then looks along the 
 blade from the hilt.] 
 This is inflexible! 
 
 [He puts it back in its scabbard. ] 
 
 Francesca. 
 Give it to me, my lord, 
 
 1 will not let it fall -^ 
 
 Twice over. And sit down, take food and drink. 
 [He gives her the sword and sits down on the 
 bench before the table.] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Good so, my own dear lady. 
 
 I talk of war to you, and now I think 
 
 That I have never given you a flower. 
 
 Ah, we are hard. I give you arms iu heaps 
 
 To hold in those white hands, 
 
 Malatestino gave to you at least 
 
 A falcon. Paolo gives you 
 
 Flowers pei-haps. The Captain of the People 
 
 Learnt all the courteous virtues in his Florence,
 
 FRANCESCA DA EIMINI. 177 
 
 But left his force upon the banks of Ai-no 
 
 And now is more in love with idleness 
 
 Than any labour. He is always with 
 
 His music-makers. 
 
 [He breaks the bread and pours out the wine, 
 while Francesca sits besides him, at tlie 
 table, with her hands on the hilt of the sword. ] 
 But you, 
 
 Francesca, love your chamber-music too. 
 
 Are not your women ever tired of singing? 
 
 Their voices must have covered 
 
 The cries of Parcitade, 
 
 Surely? You turn the tower 
 
 Of the Malatesti 
 
 Into a singing wood of nightingales 
 [£fe eats and drinks.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 I and Samaritana, 
 
 My sister, at Ravenna, in our home. 
 
 Lived always, always in the midst of singing. 
 
 Our mother had indeed a throat of gold. 
 
 From our first infancy 
 
 Music flowed over us and bont our souls 
 
 As the water bends the grass upon the bank. 
 
 And our mother said to me : 
 
 Sweet singing can put out all harmful things. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 My mother said to us. 
 
 Do you know wliat woman is a j)ropcr woman? 
 .Slie that in spiiniing tliinks upon the si)indle, 
 She that in 8])inning spins without a knot. 
 She that in spinning lets not fall the spindle,
 
 173 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 She tluat winds thread in order about thread, 
 She that knows when the spindle is full or half- 
 way. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Then why did you not seek for such a woman, 
 My lord, through all the country? 
 
 [A knocking is heard at the little barred door. 
 Francesca rises to her feet, drops the sword 
 on the table and turns to go out.] 
 Malatestino back ! 
 I will not wait to see him. 
 
 The Voice of Malatestino. 
 
 Who has shut it? 
 Kinswoman are you there? Have you shut me 
 in? 
 
 [He kicks at the door.] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Wait, wait, and I will open! 
 
 The Voice of Malatestino. 
 
 Ah, Giovanni! 
 Open, and I will bring you 
 A good ripe heavy fruit, 
 Food for yonr journey: 
 A ripe September fig. 
 And how it weighs! 
 
 [GlANCIOTTO goes to the door to open it. Fran- 
 cesca follows ]ds limping steps for some 
 instants loith her eyes, then moves toioards 
 the door that leads to her rooms, and goes 
 out.] 
 
 Be quick!
 
 FRANCESCA DA nUflNI. 179 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Why, here I am. 
 
 [He opens the door, and Malatestino appears 
 in the narrow doorway holding in his left 
 hand the Uyhted torch, in his right, by a 
 knotted cord, the head of Montagna 
 wrapped in a cloth.] 
 
 Maxatestino 
 [Handing the torch to his brother]. 
 Here, brother, put it out. 
 [Giovanni stamps out the flame under his foot.] 
 
 Was not your wife 
 With you? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO 
 [Roughbj]. 
 
 She was with me? 
 What do you want of her? 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 Ah, then you know 
 What fruit it is I am bringing to your table? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Did you not fear to disobey our father? 
 
 Malatestino. 
 Feel how it weighs! now feel ! 
 
 [He hands the bundle to Giovanni, loho weighs 
 it in his hand, and lets it fall vn thepaveinent 
 with a dull thud.] 
 It is yours; it is the head 
 Of Montagna dei Parcitadi; take it. 
 It is for your saddle bow. 
 For you to carry with you to Gadara 
 And leave it with our father, and say to him:
 
 180 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 "Malatestino sends you 
 
 This token, lest you doubt his guardianship, 
 
 And pledges you his word 
 
 He will not let the prisoner escape ; 
 
 And asks you in return 
 
 The three foot black white-spotted horse you 
 
 said 
 That you would give him, 
 With saddle set with gold." 
 How hot it is! 
 
 [He wipes the sweat from his forehead. Gianci- 
 OTTO has seated himself again at the table.] 
 I tell you, 
 When the light struck upon his eyes, he snorted. 
 As a horse does when it shies. Give me to 
 drink. 
 [He drains a cup that stands full. Gianciotto 
 seems gloomy, and chews in silence, without 
 swallowing, like an ox ruminating. The 
 slnijer of MotiTA.G'SA sits wliere Francesca 
 had been sitting. The blood-stained bundle 
 lies on the pavement ; through the loindow 
 can he seen the sun as it sets behind the Apen- 
 nines, crimsoning the peaks and the clouds.] 
 
 You are not wroth with me? 
 
 You did not want to have us wait a year 
 
 In hopes of ransom from the Perdecittade? 
 
 I tell you we should not have had the ransom, 
 
 Sure as a florin's yellow. 
 
 From this day backwards 
 
 The Malatesti never have given quarter, 
 
 Since they first cut their teeth. 
 
 It is not two months now, at Cesena, our father
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. ISI 
 
 Just saved his skiu by a mere miracle 
 
 From the clutches of Corrado Montefeltvo, 
 
 And the bastard Filipuccio is still liviug! 
 
 Heaven bless and save 
 
 Frate Alberigo, 
 
 Who knows full well the way to spare at once 
 
 Both trunk and branches! 
 
 It is time now for every Ghibelline 
 
 To come to his desert, 
 
 As the gay Knight would have us. 
 
 [He takes the moord lying across the table, and 
 
 strikes the scabbard with his hand.] 
 And here is the dessert for every feast 
 Of peace and amity. 
 Do not be wroth with me, 
 Giovanni, I am yours. 
 Are you not called the Lamester 
 And am I not the One-eyed? . . . 
 
 [Ue is silent an instant, deceitfully.] 
 But Paolo is the Beautiful! 
 
 \GtlXiiO\OTTo lifts his head and gazes fixedly at 
 
 Malatestino. In the silence is heard the 
 
 jingling of his spurs as he moves his foot 
 
 restlessly on the floor,] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 You are a babbler too? 
 
 IMalatkstino is (ihont to pour out more wine. 
 His brother arrests his hand. ] 
 No, do not drink, 
 But answer me. What is it you have done 
 To vex Franf-e.sca? 
 What have you done to her?
 
 182 FRANCESCA DA RiMiNt 
 
 Malatestino. 
 I! Wbat is it she says? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 You have changed colour. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 What is it she says? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Answer me now ! 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 [Pretending to be confused.] 
 
 I cannot answer you. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 What do you harbour against her in your mind? 
 Malatestino 
 [With a yleani in his eye]. 
 She told you this ? And did she not change 
 
 colour 
 While she was saying it ? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Enough, Malatestino! 
 Look at me in the eyes. 
 
 I limp in going, but I go straight before me. 
 You go a crooked way, and you smooth out 
 The souud your feet have made. Only, take 
 
 heed 
 I do not set my hand upon you. There 
 You would writhe your best in vain. 
 So now I say to you : 
 Woe to you if you touch ray lady ! You, 
 You should know, having seen me at the work, 
 That a less time it is
 
 FRANCE SC A DA RIMINI. ISS 
 
 Between the touch of the spur and the first leap 
 
 Of the Barbary horse 
 
 Than between my saying and doing. Think of it. 
 
 Malatestino 
 [In a low voice, with downcast eye]. 
 
 And if the brother sees that there is one 
 That touches of a trutli his brother's wife, 
 And is incensed at it, and stirs himself 
 To wipe tlie shame out, does he therefore sin? 
 And if, for this, he is accused to have 
 Harboured ill thought i gainst the woman, say: 
 Is the accusation just? 
 
 [GiANCiOTTO sprinr/s up and raises his fists as 
 if to crush the youth. But he restrai}i,s him- 
 self, his arms fall.] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO 
 
 (Malatestino, scourge of hell, if you 
 Would hnvo, 'ue not put out 
 The other cy'" by which your blinking soul 
 Offends the world, speak now. 
 And tell me what it is that you have seen. 
 
 IMalatkstino rises and goes with his silent, 
 cat-like stcjjs to the door near the table. lie 
 listens for some instants; then opens the door 
 suddenly with a siuift movement, and looks. 
 He sees no one. lie (joes back to his brothtr's 
 side. 
 Speak. 
 
 Malatkstixo. 
 Not for thii-ats. Yi»u frighten mo, I say. 
 Because I wore no visor, I was made 
 Blind of one eye; but you must wear indoors
 
 184 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Visor and headpiece, cliin-piece, eye-piece, all 
 Of tempered steel, without a flaw in it! 
 Ton will see nothing, nothing can come through 
 The iron-barred approaches to your brain. 
 
 GlANC'IOTTO. 
 
 Come, come, the thing! None of your talk! 
 
 The thing! 
 Tell me what you have seen! Tell me the man ! 
 
 Malatestino. 
 Were you nowise surprised 
 When some one who had gone away from here 
 No later than December, suddenly 
 Gave up his post at Florence 
 And was already back by February? 
 
 [One of the silver cups is heard to crack, as it is 
 crushed in Gianciotto's hand.] 
 
 GlANClOTTO, 
 
 Paolo? No, no. It is not. 
 
 [He rises, leaves the table, and walks to and fro 
 in the room, grimly, rvlth overclouded eyes. 
 He stumbles against the blood-stained bun- 
 dle. He goes towards the windovi, whose 
 panes glitter in the light of the setting sun. 
 He sits down on the window-seat, and takes 
 his head between his hands, as if to collect 
 his thoughts. Malatestino plays ivith the 
 sword, drawing it half in and half out of the 
 scabbard.] 
 
 Malatestino, here ! 
 [The youth comes across to him swiftly, almost 
 without sound, as if his feet were shod with 
 felt. Gianciotto enfolds him in his arms,
 
 FRANCESCA DA RnilXI. 185 
 
 and holds him tightbj hr.tv;een his armoured 
 knees, and ipeaks to him breath to breath.] 
 Are you sure? Have you seen this? 
 Malatestino. 
 Yes. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 How and when? 
 
 Malatestiso. 
 I have seen him often enter . . . 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Enter where? 
 Malatestino. 
 Enter the room. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Well? That is not enough. 
 He is a kinsman. They might talk together. 
 There are the women . . . You have seen him 
 
 With the musicians, it may be . . . 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 At night. 
 
 For God's sake, do not hurt me! Not so hard ! 
 You have your iron gauntlets. Let me go. 
 [Ue writhes in his f/rasp.] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Have I heard right? You said . . . 
 Say it again. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 At night, 
 At night, 1 say, 1 have seen him.
 
 186 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 If you should lie, I will break 
 Your body iu two. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 At night, 
 
 I have seen him entei', and go out at dawn. 
 
 You were in arms against the Urbinati. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 I will break you, if you lie. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 Would you like to see and feel ? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 I must do so. 
 If you have any will to go alive 
 Out of these mortal pincers. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 Then, to-night? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 To-night, then. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 Bnt can you find out the way 
 To cheat, to smile? Ah, no, you cannot smile. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Let my revenge teach me the way to smile, 
 If my delight could never. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 Can you kiss 
 Both, one after the other, and not bite 
 Instead? 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Yes, I will kiss them, thinking them 
 Already dead.
 
 FRANCESCA DA BIMINI. 187 
 
 Malatkstino. 
 
 You must put both your arms 
 About them, you must talk to them, and not 
 Tremble. 
 
 GlAXCIOTTO. 
 
 Ah, you are playing with my sorrow 1 
 Beware ! it has two edges. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 Do not hurt me, 
 For God's sake! 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Good; but tell me how you think: 
 The way, and speedily. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 You must take your leave, 
 And go from here, take horse, and by the gate 
 Of San Genesio with all your escort 
 Set out for Pesaro. I will come with you. 
 You will say you arc wroth with me 
 For the Parcitade's head's sake, and desire 
 To take me to our father at Gradara, 
 That he may punish me or pardon me. 
 So they will think 
 
 That they are left alone. Do you understand? 
 Then, half-way througli the night, 
 We will leave the escort, and come back again, 
 And enter by the gate of the Gattolo 
 Before the moon is up. Wo will give the signal 
 To Rizio. But let me dispose of that. 
 Saddle your swiftest horse, and take with you 
 A little linen 
 To bind about his hoofs, in case of need,
 
 188 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Because at night the stones 
 
 Upon the noisy way 
 
 May well be traitors, brother. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Then shall I see? 
 You are sure? Then I shall take them in the 
 
 4X0 U • • • • 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 Not so hard! Now I think, 
 
 There is the slave, there is the Cyprian 
 slave .... 
 
 She is their go-between. 
 
 Sly is she, works with charms .... 
 
 I have seen her as she goes 
 
 Snuffing the wind. ... I must find a way to 
 lead her 
 
 Into a snare, and blindfold her. But this, 
 
 Leave this to me: you need not think of any- 
 thing 
 
 Till you are at the door. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 On your life now, shall I take them in the act? 
 
 Malatestino. 
 Enough of this, by God ! 
 Let me go, now, let me go! I am not 
 Tour pre J'. 
 
 {Through the door is heard the voice 0/ Paolo.] 
 Paolo 
 
 \Outside\. \ 
 
 Where is Giovanni? 
 
 [GlANCIOTTO lets Malatestino go, and rises 
 with a ivhiteface.]
 
 FRANCESCA DA BIMINI. 189 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 Look to it now, 
 Look to it; no suspicion! 
 
 [As Paolo oijens the door and enters, Malates- 
 Tixo pretewcZs to be angry loith GiANCi- 
 
 OTTC] 
 
 Ah, at last 
 You have let me go! 
 
 [lie pretends to suffer in Ms wrists.] 
 
 By God, it is well for you 
 You were born my elder brother, otherwise. . . . 
 Ah, Paolo, well met! 
 
 [Paolo wears a long rich surtout falling below 
 his knees nearly to the ankle, girt at the 
 waist by a jewelled belt through tohich in 
 thrust a beautiful damascened dagger. ITis 
 curled hair, not parted, but vmving in a 
 mass, surrounds his face like a cloud.] 
 Paolo. 
 What is the matter? 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 See, 
 Giovanni is cnrageA 
 
 Because I have lost all patience at the last 
 And have struck dumb Montagna, bein<^ weary 
 Of Hstcniiij^ to liis cries ( Franccsca t()o 
 Could get no sleep) and weary too of hearing 
 My father say twice over, 
 By word of mouth and message; 
 "Will you keep watch on him? 
 Are you sure you can keep watch? 
 I know he will escape;
 
 190 FRANC ESC A DA RIMINI. 
 
 I know that you will let him go, and then, 
 When he has gone, you will not bring him 
 
 back!" 
 By God, I was tired of it. There is his head. 
 
 Paolo. 
 Tou cut it off yourself ? 
 
 Malatestino. 
 
 Yes, I myself, 
 And neatly. 
 
 [Paolo looks at the bundle, but draws back so 
 as not to stain himself with the dripping 
 blood.] 
 Ah, you draw back, it seems 
 You fear to stain your garments? 
 I did not know I had 
 Two sisters, both so dainty ! 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Enough of jesting! Paolo, 
 
 I have to take him with me to Gradara, 
 
 To our father; he must plead 
 
 His cause himself. 
 
 For disobeying. What do you say to it ? 
 
 Paolo. 
 I say that it is well for him to go, 
 Giovanni. 
 
 Malatestino. 
 I am content. 
 But I must bear the token ; 
 I will hang it to my saddle: that is staunch. 
 
 [He takes up the bundle by the cord.] 
 I have no fear our father will be angry. 
 He will be filled with joy,
 
 PEANCESCA DA HlMINt. 191 
 
 I tell you, when the knots are all untied. 
 And he will give me the hlack horse for war, 
 And maybe the grey jennet for the chase. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Get ready then, and without lingering, 
 It is already evening. 
 
 [Malatestino takes up the bundle to carry it 
 aioay.] 
 
 Paolo 
 
 [To GlOVANXl]. 
 
 I see your men are armed at front and back. 
 And wait the clarion. 
 
 [The two brothertt r/o towards the window lit up 
 by the sunsfit, and sit down.] 
 
 Malatestino 
 
 [Goiny]. 
 Ah, but how heavy! and without a helmet! 
 The Parcitadi always were gross oxen, 
 Fatted for slaughtering, great horned heads. 
 Ah, Paozzo, where you go 
 You leave behind a scent of orange-water. 
 Take care, a drop may drip upon your clothes. 
 [He goes out.] 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 He is all teeth and claws, ready for biting. 
 Our men at arms usfd once 
 To say he always slept with one eye closed 
 And one eye open, even in his sleep. 
 Now I believe he never sleeps at all. 
 Nor slacks the sinews of his cruelty. 
 He was made to conquer lands, and die some 
 day
 
 102 FRANCESCA DA lUMINI. 
 
 Of extreme cold, God keep him, our good 
 
 brother! 
 So you are Podesta of Pesaro ! 
 Our father from Gradara scans the hill 
 Of Pesaro as if he watched his prey. 
 You, with your strength and wisdom, 
 Should give it to him soon, 
 Giovanni. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 It is not a year yet since 
 You went to Florence, Captain of the People, 
 And now I go as Podesta Not long 
 You stayed at Florence. I shall stay there long, 
 Because it is not well for me to yield 
 The office to another. Yet to leave 
 Francesca for so long, 
 Goes to my heart a little. 
 
 Paolo. 
 You can come back again from time to time, 
 Pesaro is not far. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 The Podesta is not allowed to leave 
 
 His post, so long as lasts 
 
 His office, as you know, nor bring with him 
 
 His wife. But I will leave her in your care. 
 
 Brother, my most dear wife; you will be here. 
 
 Paolo. 
 I have held her always 
 As a dear sister might be held. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 I know, 
 Paolo.
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMIXL 193 
 
 Paolo. 
 Be very sure 
 That I will guard her for you well. 
 
 GlAXCIOTTO. 
 
 I know, 
 Paolo. You from Ravenna 
 Brought her a virgin to your brother's bed 
 And you will keep her for me from all harm. 
 
 Paolo. 
 I will tell Orabile 
 To leave Ghaggiolo and come 
 To Rimino to keep her company. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 See that they love each other, Paolo, 
 For they are kinswomen. 
 Paolo. 
 
 Francesca often 
 Sends gifts to her. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Go, call her. It is late. 
 The sun has set, and I shall have to rest 
 A little at Gradara, 
 And yet be at the gates 
 Of Pesaro before the third hour. Go, 
 Go you yourself and call her. She has gone 
 Back to her room, because Malatestino 
 Frighted her with his cruelty. Go you, 
 CV)tnfort her, toll lior not to be afraid 
 Of being left alone, and call her here. 
 
 [He r'lHon and putu his hand lUjhtly on hin 
 hroUiPr' H nhouhlcr as ift.oiirfif hhn. Paolo 
 yoeH lowardn the door. Giovanni ulanda
 
 194 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 motionless, and follow hhn ivlth murdcrotts 
 eyes. As he goes out, Giovanni stretches 
 out his hand as if to swear an oath. Then 
 he moves towards the table, and takes up the 
 cracked cup, wishing to hide it. He turns, 
 sees the little barred door still open, throws 
 the cup into the darkness, and closes the 
 door. At the other door Francesca ap- 
 pears by the side of Paolo. J 
 Francesca. 
 Pardon me, my dear lord, 
 If I have left you hastily. You know 
 The reason. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 My dear lady, I know well 
 The reason, and I am sorry 
 That you have had to suffer by the fault 
 Of this sad brother. And I go to see 
 Both to your peace and to his punishmentj 
 For I intend to take him to our father, 
 For judgment at Gradara. He prepares 
 Already to set forth. Within a little 
 We shall have left the city. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 He will bear 
 Ill-will against me, if you should accuse him 
 Before his father. Pardon him, I pray. 
 He is a boy. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Yet, lady, it is better, 
 For your sake, that he comes with me. I leave 
 Paolo with you. Trust Paolo. His Orabile
 
 FRANC ESC A DA RIMINI. 195 
 
 Will come to stay with you at Rimino, 
 And keep you company: he promises. 
 Often from Pesaro 
 
 I mean to send you messages, and hope 
 Often to have the like from Rimino. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Surely, my lord. You need not fear for me. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Put every trouble freely from your mind, 
 
 Let songs and music give you joy, and have 
 
 Beautiful robes, and lovely odours. Not 
 
 To Guido's daughter suits the spinning wheel. 
 
 I know it. And I say 
 
 My mother's saying but to make you smile. 
 
 You are not angry with me? 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 In your saying 
 There seems to lie secret rebuke for me, 
 My lord. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 A good old saying, that was born 
 Within the dark walls of Verrucchio, 
 That now are grown too narrow to hem in 
 The Malatesi in our house to-day. 
 If any spin, they spin 
 
 Only the purple, and with golden distaffs. 
 Come to my arms, my most dear lady! 
 
 (Francesca goen up to him; he takes her in 
 hiK arniH and kisufs her. Paolo stands si- 
 Itiit in the doorway.] 
 
 Now 
 I have to say farewell. Never so fair
 
 196 FBANCE8CA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Tou seemed to me, never so sweet. And yet 
 I leave you. 
 
 [He smooths her hair roith his hand; then looses 
 her. ] 
 
 O, my brother, 
 Keep her in safety and heaven keep you both. 
 Come, and pledge faith with me. 
 
 [Paolo goes up to him, and they embrace.'] 
 
 Where is my gorget? 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 Here it is. 
 
 [She gives it to him.] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO 
 
 [Putting it on]. 
 
 Paolo, buckle it for me. 
 
 [Paolo buckles it on. Francesca hands him 
 the basnet.] 
 
 Do you remember, brother. 
 
 That night before the Mastra Tower, that bolt 
 
 Out of a crossbow? You, 
 
 Francesca, do you remember? 
 
 It was at just this hour. 
 
 Cignatta was killed then. To-day Montagna 
 
 Joins him. 'Tisnot a year. 
 
 The house is silent now ; then, all the towers 
 
 Were crackling to the sky. 
 
 [Francesca takes the sword from the table and 
 buckles his sword-belt.] 
 Francesca, do you i-emember? Then you gave 
 us
 
 FRANCESCA DA ItlMINI. 197 
 
 Wine, Scian wine, to drink. We drank togetlier 
 Out of one cup. 
 
 [ He is fu I ly a r m ed.\ 
 
 Now let me drink again ! 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 One of the cups is missing. There were two. 
 Where is the other? 
 
 [iSViC looks to see if it hasfallen.] 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 One will do for us 
 Still. 
 
 [He pours out the wine and offers it to Fkan- 
 cesca.] 
 And good luck God give you! 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 I cannot drink 
 
 This wine, my lord. I am not used to it. 
 
 GlANCIOTTO. 
 
 Drink as you drank then, and pass on the cup 
 That your kinsman may drink also, as he drank 
 then 
 JFuancksca drinks and offers the cup to 
 Paoi.o, rnho Uikes it.] 
 Paolo. 
 Good luck to tlic Podesta of Pesaro! 
 
 [He drinks throuiiiKj hack his curled head. 
 Through the door is heard the voice of 
 Malatksttno, who throws open the door, 
 and uitpears in full armour. From the 
 court ii heard the sound of bwjles.] 
 Mai.atestino. 
 Kcady, Giovanni? Hark, the clarion! 
 To horse i To horse! 
 
 ,1
 
 ACT V. 
 
 The room with the curtained alcove, the musicians' 
 gallery, the lectern with the book closed. Four 
 waxen torches burn in the iron candlestick ; two 
 tapers on the small table. The compartments of 
 the long loindow are almost all open to the peaceful 
 night air. The pot of basil is on the window-sill, 
 and beside it is a gilt plate heaped with bunches of 
 early grapes. 
 
 [Francesca is seen through the half-drawn cur- 
 tains of the alcove, lying on the bed, on which 
 she has laid herself without undressing. 
 The Women, who xoear white fillets, are 
 seated on low stools ; they speak quietly, 
 so as not to disturb their mistress. Near 
 them, on a stool, are laid five silver lamps, 
 which have gone out.] 
 
 Adonella. 
 She has fallen asleep. She dreams. 
 
 [BiANCOFiORE rises and goes softly up to the 
 alcove, looks, then turns, and goes back to 
 her seat] 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 How beautiful she is! 
 
 Altichiara. 
 Summer is come; she grows 
 In beauty with the summer.
 
 FEANCESCA DA EIMINI. 199 
 
 Alda, 
 Like ears of corn. 
 
 Gabsenda. 
 And like 
 Poppies. 
 
 BlANCOFIOBE. 
 
 O, beautiful 
 Summer, go not away ! 
 The nights begin to grow a little cool. 
 Do you feel the breeze ? 
 
 Alda. 
 
 It comes 
 From the sea. Oh, the delight! 
 [ With her face to the windoio, she draws in a long 
 breath\ 
 Adoneli-a. 
 Lord Autumn comes our way 
 With grass and figs in his lap. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 September! Grape and fig begin to droop. 
 Alticiiiaka 
 [Poinliny to the plate]. 
 Here, Adonella, take 
 A bunch of grapes to strip. 
 
 AdON'ELLA. 
 
 You are too greedy. 
 Altickiara. 
 Come, come, your mouth is watering for them. 
 [Adoneli.a taken a bunch of (/rapes from (he 
 plate, and goes hark to her seat, holding the 
 bunch in the air, while the others strip it of 
 its grapes. ]
 
 200 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 It is like sweet muscutel. 
 Alda. 
 Don't throw away the skin! 
 
 Altichiara. 
 It is all good to eat, kernel and skin. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Here is a bitter kernel. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 Grown on the shady side. 
 
 Adonella. 
 How still it is ! 
 
 Alda. 
 How tranquil! 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Listen ! I hear a galley 
 Weigh anchor. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 For to-night 
 Madonna has no singing. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 
 She is weary. 
 
 Alda. 
 Why does the prisoner 
 Cry out no moi-e? 
 
 Garsenda, 
 
 Messer Malatestino has cut off 
 His head. 
 
 Alda. 
 Is that the truth ?
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMIXI. 201 
 
 Garsenda. 
 The truth ; to-day, at Vespers. 
 
 Alda. 
 
 How do you know? 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Smaragdi told it me, 
 And had seen him, too. 
 
 Tie something huddled in a cloth to his saddle, 
 When, with Messer Giovanni 
 He mounted in the court. It was the head, 
 The prisoner's head. 
 
 Adonella. 
 Where do they carry it? 
 Altichiaba. 
 To whom do they carry it? 
 
 BlANCOFIOBE. 
 
 Now they are riding 
 By the sea shore, 
 Under the stars. 
 They and the murdered 
 Head ! 
 
 Adonella. 
 Where will they have come? 
 
 Alda. 
 
 They should have come 
 To hell, and stayed there ! 
 
 Garsenda. 
 One can breallio in the house 
 Now they are here no h)ngi!r. 
 The lame man and the blind man !
 
 202 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 Hush ! hush! let not Madonna 
 Hear you. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 She is hardly breathing. 
 
 Alda. 
 
 Messer Paolo 
 Is back again? 
 
 Altichiara. 
 Hush ! 
 [Francesca groans in her sleep]. 
 Adonella. 
 
 She is wakening. 
 [Site throws the grape-stalk out of the window. 
 BiANCOFioRE again rises, and goes up to 
 the alcove, and looks.] 
 
 BlANCOFIORK. 
 
 No, 
 She is not awake; she is crying in her sleep. 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 She is dreaming. 
 
 Alda. 
 
 O Garsenda, does she know 
 The prisoner is not crying any more 
 Because they have cut his head off? 
 
 Garsenda. 
 
 Certainly 
 She knows. 
 
 BlANCOFIOKE. 
 
 Perhaps she is dreaming of it now.
 
 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 203 
 
 Adonella. 
 We must sit up to-uight, 
 Who knows to what hour? 
 Alda. 
 Are you sleepy, Adonella? 
 
 Altichiara. 
 Simonetto, the fifer, is waiting on the stairs! 
 
 Adonella. 
 Who waits for you, then? Suzzo, the falconer, 
 With lure of pretty leather? 
 Alda. 
 Hush ! She is wakening. 
 
 BlANXOFIORE. 
 
 And did it bleed, Garseuda? 
 Gaksenda. 
 Bleed? What? 
 
 BlANCOFIOKE. 
 
 That buiulle at the saddle-bow? 
 Gaksknda. 
 I saw but dimly, for the court was dark. 
 But til is I know : Smaraj^^ll had to wash 
 The pavement, there, in the hall. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 Now they are neariug the Cattolica. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 God keep them far away, and let them never 
 Find their way back again! 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 Think of the frightened horse 
 
 Feeling the dead thing dangle in the night!
 
 204 FEANCESCA BA BIMINL 
 
 Adonella. 
 How sweetly the sweet basil smells by niglit! 
 
 Altichiaba. 
 How thick it i^rows; the pot 
 No longer holds it. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 You know, Garsenda, tell us 
 The story of Lisabetta of Messina, 
 That loved a youth of Pisa, and how her brothers 
 Killed him in secret, and she found his body 
 And cut the head away 
 From off the shoulders, set it in a pot, 
 And earth with it, and planted 
 A sprig of basil plant. 
 And watered it with her tears, 
 And saw it blossom so, out of her weeping. 
 Tell us, Garsenda, very quietly 
 While we are waiting. 
 
 [Francesca gives a deeper groan, and turns as 
 if half stifled on the bed. The Women 
 shiver. ] 
 
 Alda. 
 
 Listen, 
 She is crying in her sleep. It is some bad 
 dream. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 
 She is sleeping on her back; the nightmare 
 
 weighs 
 Upon her breast. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 Shall we awake her?
 
 FEANCESCA DA BIMINI. 205 
 
 BlANCOFIOKE. 
 
 Evil 
 It is too suddenly 
 To rouse the heart that sees. 
 How should we know 
 What truth she sees revealed? 
 
 Adonella. 
 The Slave interprets all her dreams to her. 
 [Fkancesca uiters a cry of terror, springs from 
 the bed, and seems in the act tojlyfrom some 
 savage pursuit, throwing out her hands as if 
 to unloose herself from some grasp.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 No, no, it is not I, it is not I! 
 
 Ah, ah, they seize me with their teeth! Help! 
 help! 
 
 They snatch my heart. Help, help! 
 
 Paolo ! 
 
 [She shudders, stops, and turns on herself, pale, 
 and breathing with difficulty, while her 
 Women surround her in consternation, try- 
 ing to comfort her.] 
 
 Gaksenda. 
 Madonna, Madonna, we are hei"e, see, see, 
 We are here, Madonna. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 
 Do not be afraid ! 
 
 Adonella. 
 There is no one here ; there is no one here but we, 
 Madonna. No one is IiarminK you, Madonna,
 
 206 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Francesca 
 [Shivering]. 
 What have I said? Did I call? 
 O God, what have I done? 
 Alda. 
 You have had some discomfortable dream, 
 Madonna. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Novr it is finished. We are here. 
 All's quiet. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Is it late? 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 The sweat is standing out upon your forehead. 
 
 [She wipes it off.] 
 Francesca. 
 
 Is it night yet ? Garsenda, 
 Biancofiore, Alda, you are all in white. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 
 It might perhaps be four hours after midnight, 
 Madonna. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Have I slept so long ? Smaragdi, 
 Where is Smaragdi ? 
 She has not come back yet ? 
 
 Biancofiore. 
 
 She has not come back. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Why has she not come back?
 
 FBANCESCA DA RIMINI. 207 
 
 BlANCOFIORE 
 
 When did you seud her, 
 Madonna? 
 
 Francesca. 
 Are you not mistaken ? Sleep, 
 Perhaps, deceived you, and you did not see her 
 When she came in. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Madonna, 
 No, none of us closed eyelid; 
 We watched beside you all the night. 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 Perhaps 
 She has come back, and waits, as she is wont 
 Lying without the door. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Look out and see, 
 Adonella, see if she is there. 
 
 [Adonella draws back the folds of the curtain 
 opens the door, and looks out.] 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 Smaragdi! 
 Smaragdi! There is no answer. 
 No one is there. It is all dark. 
 Francesca. 
 
 But call, 
 
 Call her again. 
 
 Adonflla. 
 Smaragdi! 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Take a light.
 
 208 FBANCESCA DA lilMJNI. 
 
 [Garsenda takes one of the lamps, lir/hts it at a 
 
 taper, and goes lo the door. She and her 
 
 companion look a^'ound.] 
 
 She should have been here now some time ago. 
 
 What harm can have befallen her? God knows 
 
 what; 
 It can be no good thing. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 You have not yet 
 Come quite out of the horror of the dream, 
 Madonna. 
 
 Altichiara. ^-^ 
 
 Breathe the air, the night is fresh, 
 The night is still. 
 
 Francesca. 
 The moon 
 Is risen? 
 
 Alda. 
 It must be rising on the hills. 
 But there is yet no dawn upon the sea. 
 [Adonella and Garsexda re-enter. One of them 
 puts out the kmip.] 
 
 Francesca 
 [anxioushj]. 
 Well? Is she there? 
 
 Garsenda. 
 Madonna, there is no one. 
 
 Adonella. 
 Nothing but silence 
 And darkness everywhere; the whole house 
 sleeps.
 
 FRANCE SC A DA RIMINI. 209 
 
 Garsenda. 
 We only saw . . , 
 
 [She hesitates.] 
 Francesca. 
 You only saw . . . whom did you see? 
 Garsenda 
 [hesitating]. 
 
 Madonna, 
 Some one was there . . . some one was standing 
 
 there, 
 Leaning against the wall . . . 
 Still as a statue . . . all alone ... his girdle 
 Shining . . . Madonna, do not be afraid . . . 
 
 [Goes near to her arid lowers her voice.] 
 It was Messer Paolo ! 
 
 Francesca 
 [startled]. 
 
 O, why? 
 
 Adonella. 
 
 Madonna 
 Will have her hair made ready for the night? 
 
 Francesca. 
 No, no, I am not sleepy. I will wait. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 Her shoes unloosed? 
 
 Al.PA. 
 
 The perfumes ? 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 I will wait 
 A little more. T am no longer sleepy. 
 I will wait until .Sinarag<li <<>mcs.
 
 210 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Altichiara. 
 
 Let me go 
 And seek her. 
 
 Garsenda. 
 
 The poor thing is tired perhaps, 
 At the day's end, and sleeps where she has 
 
 dropped. 
 Perhaps she is lying now 
 Upon the stairs. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Go, go, and I will read 
 Till you return. Bring me a taper, Alda. 
 
 [Alda takes a taper and fixes it at the head of 
 the reading-desk.] 
 
 Go now. You are all in white ! 
 
 The Summer is not dead? 
 
 When it was evening, did you see the swallows 
 
 Begin to fly away? 
 
 I was elsewhere, 
 
 I was looking on the hills, 
 
 When the sun set to-night. 
 
 They have not all flown yet, have they ? But 
 
 perhaps 
 To-morrow all the other flocks will follow. 
 I will go up on the tower, to see them go. 
 And you will sing me a merry song, men dance 
 
 to. 
 As if 'twere the March calends. Have you still 
 The flight of swallows painted, as you had ? 
 
 Alda. 
 Yes, Madonna.
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 211 
 
 Francesca. 
 To-morrow at the dance 
 You will put on 
 Over these white 
 Dresses a vest of black. 
 You will be like 
 *' The creature of delight." 
 
 BlANCOFIORK. 
 
 Yes, Madonna. 
 Francesca. 
 
 Go, go ! 
 
 [She opens the book.] 
 
 [Each of the Women takes her silver lamp, which 
 swings from a cvrved handle. First Adon- 
 ELLA goes to the tall candlestick, and, 
 standing on tiptoe, lights her lamp at one 
 of the torches. She boios, and goes out, 
 while Francesca follows her with her 
 eyes.] 
 Go, too, Adonella! 
 
 [Garsenda does the same.] 
 
 And you, Garsenda. 
 
 (Ai.tichiara does the same.] 
 And you, too, Altichiara. 
 
 [Alda does the same.] 
 
 And you, Alda. 
 
 [The four have gone out, one by one. BiANO- 
 FioRE remains, and she also is about to 
 light her lamp, but as she i.s shorter than the 
 othfrs, she cannot reach the flame.] 
 Oh, Biaiicofiore, what a little one!
 
 212 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI 
 
 You ■will not ever reach to light your lamp. 
 You are the gentlest of them. Little dove, 
 
 [BiANCOFiORE turns smiling.] 
 Comel 
 [BiANCoFiORE goes up to her. Fbancesca ca- 
 resses her hair.\ 
 
 It is all of gold. You are, I think, 
 A little like my sister; you remember her, 
 Samaritaua? 
 
 BlAXCOFIORE. 
 
 Yes, indeed, Madonna. 
 Such sweetness cannot be forgot. I have her 
 Here, in my heart, with the angels. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 She v^^as sweet, 
 My sister; was she not sweet, Biancofiore? 
 Ah, if she were but here, if she mi.rht make 
 Her little bed beside my bed to-night! 
 If I might hear again 
 Her little naked feet run to the window, 
 If I mipht hear her run with naked feet, 
 My little dove, and say, and say to me: 
 " Francesca, now the moniing-star is born, 
 And it has chased away the Pleiades 1" 
 
 Biancofiore. 
 You weep, Madonna. 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 You tremble, Biancofiore. 
 She too was frightened of a sudden; I heard 
 Her heart beat; and she said to me: " O sister. 
 Listen to me: stay with me still, O stay 
 With me! we were born here:
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 213 
 
 Do not forsake me ! " 
 
 And I said to her: " O take me, 
 
 And let me be with you, 
 
 And let one covering cover usl " 
 
 BlAKCOFIORE. 
 
 O Madonna, 
 Your words pierce through my heart, 
 What melancholy holds you 
 Still? 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 No, no, do not weep : 
 Gentle you are. But come, light your lamp 
 here. 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 May I not stay with you? May I not sleep 
 Here, at the foot of the bed? 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 No, Biancofiore. Light your lamp, and go. 
 And God go with you. Now Saraaritana, 
 It may be, is thinking of her sister. 
 
 [Biancofiore lights her lamp at the taper, and 
 bends to kiss Francesca's hand \ 
 
 Go, 
 
 Go, do not weep. Let all sad thouglits go by. 
 To-morrow you .shall sing to me. Now go. 
 
 [Biancofiore turns and walks slowly towardi 
 the door. As she is going out, Francesca 
 gives way to her presenliment.] 
 
 Tou are not going, Biancofiore?
 
 214 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 BlAXCOFIORE. 
 
 No, 
 I will stay with you, Madonna. Let me stay 
 At least until Smaragdi has come back. 
 
 Fkancesca 
 [Hesitates an instant]. 
 Go I 
 
 BlANCOFIORE. 
 
 God keep you, Madonna. 
 
 [She goes out, closing the door behind her.] 
 [L^t alone, Fbancesca makes several steps 
 towards the door; then stands still, listening.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 And let it be so if it is my fate. 
 
 [Goes resolutely up to the door.] 
 I will call him. 
 
 [Hesitates and draws hack.] 
 
 He is still there, and he stands 
 Leaning against the wall; 
 Still as a statue, all alone; his girdle 
 Shining in the shadow. Who said that to me? 
 Who was it? Was it not said long ago? 
 Within the helmet all the face like fire . . , 
 
 [Visions pass before her soul in a flash.] 
 He is silent, and the lances 
 Of the spearmen round him. 
 He stands, and the arrow whistles through his 
 
 hair. 
 He is cleansed from the pollution of the guile. 
 He drains the long draught, throwing back his 
 
 head.
 
 FRANCESCA DA RUIINI. 215 
 
 Ah, now all's gone again I 
 The enemy holds fast 
 The secret and the sword. 
 " The executioner 
 I make me of your will." 
 But iron shall not divide the lips, but flame 
 Shall not divide the lips. 
 
 {She wanders to and fro, wretched and feverish.] 
 The utmost flame of fire shall not divide them. 
 [She takes up the silver mirror and looks at her- 
 self in it.] 
 
 silence, and still water, sepulchre, 
 Pale sepulchre of my facel 
 
 What is this voice that says 
 
 1 never was more beautiful than now? 
 " And in the solitude that was on fire 
 With your eyes, I have lived 
 
 With so swift energy. 
 Travailing secretly " . . . . 
 One voice alone cries out 
 On the topmost of my heart, 
 And all the blood flies .... Ah! 
 
 \ She starts, hearing a light knocking at the door. 
 She puts down the mirror, blows out the taper 
 with a breath, goes to the door, tottering, and 
 calls, in a low voice.] 
 
 Smaragdi! Smaragdi! 
 
 Paolo 
 [Voice heard]. 
 Francesca! 
 
 [She flings the door open vehemently. With a 
 craving as of thirst fhe throws herself into the 
 arms of her lover, j
 
 216 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Francesca. 
 Paolo! Paolo! 
 \He is dressed as at Vespers ; his head is bare.} 
 
 Paolo, 
 Life of my life, never was my desire 
 So ardent for you. In my heart I felt 
 A dying down 
 
 Of the bright spirits that live within your eyes. 
 My forces ebbed away into the night, 
 Out of my breast, a flood 
 Terrible, clangorous. 
 
 And fear took hold upon my soul, as when 
 In that sealed hour. 
 
 You put me to the test, God witnessing. 
 The test of the arrow. 
 And raised me there whither although he wills 
 
 it 
 No man returns by willing to return. 
 Is it not morning, is it not morning yet? 
 Tlie stars have all gone down into your hair, 
 Scattered about the confines of the shades, 
 Where life may never find them ! 
 
 [He kisses her hair passionately again and again.] 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 Pardon me, 
 Pardon me! Faraway 
 You come before me. 
 Far off and silent, 
 
 With fixed, dry eyeballs, as upon that day 
 Between the inflexible lances of the fight. 
 A hard sleep falling on me like a blow 
 Scattered my soul 
 As a stem breaks, and then I seemed to lie
 
 FRANC ESC A DA EIMINI. 217 
 
 Lost OD the stones. And then there came to 
 
 nie 
 The dream that long while now 
 I have seen in sleep, the strange 
 Dream that has tortured me; 
 And I was full of many terrors, full 
 Of terrors; and my women 
 Saw me, and how I trembled, 
 And how I wept . . . 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 O, wept! 
 
 Fkancesca. 
 Pardon me, pardon me, 
 Sweet friend i You have awakened me from 
 
 sleep. 
 Freed me from every anguish. 
 It is not morning yet. 
 
 The stars have not gone down into the sea, 
 The summer is not over, and you are mine, 
 And I, I am all yours. 
 And this is perfect joy 
 The passion of the ardour of our life. 
 
 [Paolo kisses her insatiably. ] 
 
 Paolo. 
 You shivered? 
 
 Francesca. 
 
 See, tlie door 
 Is open, and there passes 
 The breath of the night. Do you not feel it 
 
 too? 
 This is the hour, 
 The hour of silence,
 
 218 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 That sheds the dew of night 
 Upon the manes 
 Of horses on the roads. 
 But shut the door. 
 
 [Paolo shuts the door.] 
 
 Paolo, did you see with your own eyes 
 
 The horsemen as they went away? 
 Paolo. 
 
 Yes, yes, 
 
 I watched them from the tower, for a long 
 while 
 
 Until the last lance faded 
 
 Into the dark, and I could see no more. 
 
 Come, come, Francesca! Many hours of glad- 
 ness 
 
 We have before us. 
 
 With the wild melody of unknown winds 
 
 And the swift ravishment of solitude 
 
 In fire, and the violent 
 
 River without a goal, 
 
 And the immortal thirst; 
 
 But now this hour that flies 
 
 Fills me with lust to live 
 
 A thousand lives. 
 
 In the quiver of the air that kisses you, 
 
 In the short breath of the sea, 
 
 In the fury of the world. 
 
 That not one thing 
 
 Of all the infinite things 
 
 That are in you 
 
 Lie hid from me. 
 
 And I die not before I have ploughed up 
 
 Out of your depths
 
 \ 
 
 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 21i 
 
 And relished to its infinite root in you 
 My perfect joy. 
 
 \He draivs her towards the cushions by the windoios.] 
 
 . FBAJfCESCA. 
 
 I Kiss me upon my eyes, upon my brow, 
 ^ Upon my cheeks, my throat, 
 J So . . .so . . . 
 
 1 Stay, and my wrists, my fingers . . . 
 I So . . . so . . . And take my soul and pour it 
 out, 
 
 Because the breath of the niglit 
 
 Turns back ray soul again 
 
 To things of long ago, 
 
 And the low voices of the night turn back 
 
 My soul to things that were, 
 
 And joys enjoyed are they that now weigh 
 down 
 
 My heart, and as you were 
 
 I see you still, and not as you shall be, 
 
 My fair friend, ray sweet friend. 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 I will carry you where all things are forgot, 
 
 And no more time made slave 
 
 Is lord of our desire. 
 
 Then shall the day and night 
 
 Be minified even as one 
 
 Upon the earth as upon one sole pillow; 
 
 Then shall the hands of dawn 
 
 No more unclasp from one another's holding 
 
 Tlie dusky nrms and tlic white arms of them, 
 
 Nor yet untwist 
 
 The tangles of tlieir hair and veins.
 
 220 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 Fbancesca. 
 
 It says 
 Here in the book, here where you have not read : 
 " We have been one life; it were a seemly thing 
 That we be also one death." 
 
 Paolo. 
 
 Let the book 
 Be closed ! 
 
 [He rises, closes the book on the reading desk, and 
 blows out the taper. ] 
 
 And read in it no more. Not there 
 
 Our destiny is written, but in the stars, 
 
 That palpitate above 
 
 As your throat palpitates, 
 
 Your wrists, your brow, 
 
 Perhaps because they were your garland once, 
 
 Your necklet when you went 
 
 Burningly through the ways of heaven? From 
 what 
 
 Vineyard of earth were these grapes gathered in? 
 
 They have the smell 
 
 Of drunkenness and honey, 
 
 They are like veins, they are swollen with de- 
 light, 
 
 Fruits of the night! The flaming feet of Love 
 
 Shall tread them in the winepress. Give me 
 your mouth 
 
 Again! again! 
 
 [Francesca lies back on the cushions, forgetful 
 of everything. All at once, in the dead si- 
 lence, a violent shock is heard on the door.
 
 FRANCESCA DA BIMINI. 221 
 
 as if some one hurled Jdmself against it. The 
 lovers start up in terror, and rise to their 
 feet] 
 
 The Voice of Gianciotto. 
 
 Francesca, open! Francesca! 
 
 [The Woman is petrified with terror. Paolo 
 looks round the room, puttinfj his hand to 
 his dagger. He catches sight of the bolt of 
 the trap-door.] 
 
 Paolo 
 \In a low voice]. 
 Take heart, take heart, Fraucesca! I will get 
 
 down 
 By the way of the trap-door. 
 Go, go, and open to hira. 
 But do not tremble. 
 
 [He lifts the trap-door. The door seems to qui- 
 ver at (he repeated blows.] 
 
 The Voice of Gianciotto. 
 Open, Fraucesca, open! 
 
 Paolo. 
 Open to him ! Go now. 
 1 wait beneath. If he but touches you 
 Cry out and I am with you. 
 Go boldly, do not tremble! 
 
 \He begins to go down, while the Woman in obe- 
 dience to him, goes to open the door, totter- 
 ing.] 
 
 The Voice of Gianciotto. 
 Open! upon your life, Francesca, open! 
 [The door being opened GiANCiorro, armed, and 
 covered with dust, rushes furiously into the
 
 222 FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 
 
 room, looking for his brother in every direC' 
 tion. Suddenly he catches sight of Paolo, 
 standing head and shoulders above the level of 
 the floor, struggling to free himself from the 
 bolt of the trap-door, which has caught in a 
 corner of Ids cloak. Francesca utters a 
 piercing cry, while Gianciotto falls upon 
 hisbrother, seizing him by the hair, and forc- 
 ing him to come up. 
 
 Giaxciotto. 
 So, you are cau^lit in a trap, 
 Traitor ! They are good to have you by the hair, 
 Your ringlets ! 
 
 Francesca 
 [rusldng fonvard]. 
 Let him go! 
 Let him go! Me, take me! 
 
 [The husband loosens his hold. Paola springs 
 up on the other side of the trap-door, and un- 
 sheathes his dagger. Gianciotto, drawing 
 back, bares his sword, and rushes upon him 
 with terrible force. Francesca throws her- 
 self between the two men; but as her husband 
 has leant all his weight on the blow, and is un- 
 able to draw back, her breast is pierced by the 
 sword, she staggers, turns on herself, towards 
 Paola, who lets fall his dagger, and catches 
 her in his arms. \ 
 
 Francesca 
 [dying]. 
 
 Ah, Paolo! 
 [Gianciotto pauses for an instant. lie sees the 
 woman clasi>ed in the arms of her lover, who
 
 FRANCESCA DA RUII^^L 220 
 
 seals her expiring life with his lips. Mad 
 with rage and sorrow, he pierces his brother^s 
 side with another deadly thrust. The two 
 bodies sway to and fro for an instant without 
 a sound. Then, still linked together-, they fall 
 at full length on the pavement. Gtanciotto 
 stoops in silence, bends his knee with a painfull 
 effort, and, across the other knee, breaks his 
 blood-stained sword.\
 
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