404

BYRON'S WORKS.

Doge. It is—it is :—I did not visit onThe innocent creature thus most vilely slander’dBecause she took an old man for her lord,

For that he had been long her father’s friendAnd patron of her house, as if there wereNo love in woman's heart but lust of youthAnd beardless faces ; I did not for thisVisit the villain’s infamy on her,

But craved my country’s justice on liis head,The justice due unto the humblest being"Who hath a wife whose faith is sweet to him,Who hath a home whose hearth is dear to him,Who hath a name whose honour’s ail to him,When these are tainted by the accursing* breathOf calumny and scorn.

Ber. F. And what redress

Did you expect as his fit punishment ?

Doge. Death! Was I not the' sovereign of thestate—

Insulted on his very throne, and madeA mockery to tlie men who should obey me ?Was I not injured as a husband ? scorn’dAs man ? reviled, degraded, as a prince ?

Was not offence like liis a complicationOf insult and of treason ?—and he lives!

Had he instead of on the Doge’s throneStamp’d the same brand upon a peasant’s stool,His blood had gilt the threshold; for the carleHad stabbed him on the instant.

Ber. F. Do not doubt it,

He shall not live till sunset—leave to meThe means, and calm yourself.

Doge. Hold, nephew : this

Would have sufficed but yesterday; at presentI have no farther wrath against this man.

Ber. F. What mean you ? is not the offenceredoubled

By this most rank—I will not say—acquittal;For it is worse, being full acknowledgmentOf the offence, and leaving it unpunished ?

Doge. It is redoubled, hut not now by him.

The Forty hath decreed a month’s arrest—

We must obey the Forty.

Ber. F. Obey them /

Who have'forgot their duty to a sovereign ?

Doge. Why yes;—boy, you perceive it then atlast:

Whether as fellow citizen who suesFor justice, or as sovereign who commands it,They have defrauded me of both my rights(For here the sovereign is a citizen) ;

But, notwithstanding, harm not thou a hairOf Steno’s head—he shall not wear it long.

Ber. F. Not twelve hours longer, had you leftto me

The mode and means: if you had calmly heardme,

I never meant this miscreant should escape,

But wished you to repress such gusts of passion,That we more surely might devise togetherHis taking off.

Doge. No, nephew, he must live :

At least, just now—a life so vile as hisWere nothing at this hour; in th’ olden timeSome sacrifices ask'd a single victim,

Great expiations had a hecatomb.

Ber. F. Your wishes are my law; and yet Ifuin

Would prove to you how near unto my heartThe honour of our house must ever he.

Doge, Fear not; you shall have time and placeof proof:

But be not tbou too rasli, as I have been.

I am ashamed of my own anger now 5I pray you pardon me.

Ber. F. Why that’s my uncle!

The leader, and the statesman, and tlie chiefOf commonwealths, and sovereign of himself !

I wonder’d to perceive you so forget j

All prudence in your fury at these years, I

Although the cause- j

Doge. Ay, think upon tlie cause-" !

Forget it not:—When you lie down to rest, jLet it he black among your dreams ; and when |The morn returns, so let it stand betweenThe sun and you, as an ill-omen’d cloud [

Upon a summer day of festival:

So will it stand to me;—but speak not, stir not,-"Leave all to me; we shall have much to do,

And you shall have a part.—But now retire,

’Tis fit I were alone.

Ber. F. (talcing up and placing the duealhonne *on the table). Ere I depart,

I pray you to resume what you have spurn’d,

Till you can change it haply for a crown.

And now I take my leave, imploring youIn all things to rely upon my dutyAs doth become your near and faithful kinsman*And not less loyal citizen and subject.

[[Exit Bcrtuccio Falicro <Doge, (solus). Adieu my worthy nephew.-"*Hollow bauble! iTaking up the ducal cal’* ,Beset with all the thorns that line a crown.Without investing the insulted brow 1

With the all-swaying majesty of kings,

Thou idle, gilded, aud degraded toy, ..

Let me resume thee as I would a vizor. [Puls b ^on. &

How my brain aches beneath tlice! and my tear Tpies

Throb feverish under tliy dishonest weight. I

Could I not turn thee to a diadem ? j

Could I not shatter the Briarean sceptre j

Which in this hundred-handed senate rules, j

Making the people nothing, aud the princeA pageant ? In my life I have achievedTasks no less difficult—achieved for them,

Who thus repay me ! Can I not requite them ?

Oh, for one year! Oil! but for even a dayOf my full youth, while yet my body servedMy soul as serves the generous steed liis lord,

I would have dashed amongst them, asking fetfIn aid to overthrow these swoln patricians ;

But now I must look round for other handsTo serve this hoary headbut it shall plau JIn such a sort as will not leave the taskHerculean, though as yet ’tis but a chaosOf darkly brooding thoughts: my fancy isIn her first work, more nearly to the lightHolding the sleeping images of things ,

For the selection of the pausing judgment.—

The troops are few in-

Enter YINCENZO. t

Yin. There is one with° tt

Craves audience of your highness.

Doge. # I’m unwc* 1

I can see no one, not even a patrician—

Let him refer his business tc the council.

Yin. My lord, I will deliver your reply;

It cannot much import—lie’s a plebeian,

The master of a galley, I believe. 9

Doge, Howl did you say the patron of a