Has spoiled the mirth of our festivity.
Good night, farewell; I will not make you longer
Spectators of our dull domestic quarrels.
Another time. —
[Exeunt all but CENCI and BEATRICE.
My brain is swimming round.
Give me a bowl of wine!
(To BEATRICE)
Thou painted viper!
Beast that thou art! Fair and yet terrible!
I know a charm shall make thee meek and tame,
Now get thee from my sight!
[Exit BEATRICE.
Here, Andrea,
Fill up this goblet with Greek wine. I said
I would not drink this evening, but I must; 170
For, strange to say, I feel my spirits fail
With thinking what I have decreed to do.
(Drinking the wine)
Be thou the resolution of quick youth
Within my veins, and manhood’s purpose stern,
And age’s firm, cold, subtle villainy;
As if thou wert indeed my children’s blood
Which I did thirst to drink! The charm works well.
It must be done; it shall be done, I swear!
[Exit.
Act II
SCENE I. — An Apartment in the Cenci Palace. Enter LUCRETIA and BERNARDO.
LUCRETIA
WEEP not, my gentle boy; he struck but me,
Who have borne deeper wrongs. In truth, if he
Had killed me, he had done a kinder deed.
O God Almighty, do thou look upon us,
We have no other friend but only thee!
Yet weep not; though I love you as my own,
I am not your true mother.
BERNARDO
Oh, more, more
Than ever mother was to any child,
That have you been to me! Had he not been
My father, do you think that I should weep? 10
LUCRETIA
Alas! poor boy, what else couldst thou have done!
Enter BEATRICE
BEATRICE (in a hurried voice)
Did he pass this way? Have you seen him, brother?
Ah, no! that is his step upon the stairs;
‘T is nearer now; his hand is on the door;
Mother, if I to thee have ever been
A duteous child, now save me! Thou, great God,
Whose image upon earth a father is,
Dost thou indeed abandon me? He comes;
The door is opening now; I see his face;
He frowns on others, but he smiles on me, 20
Even as he did after the feast last night.
Enter a Servant
Almighty God, how merciful thou art!
‘T is but Orsino’s servant. — Well, what news?
SERVANT
My master bids me say the Holy Father
Has sent back your petition thus unopened.
(Giving a paper)
And he demands at what hour ‘t were secure
To visit you again?
LUCRETIA
At the Ave Mary.
[Exit Servant.
So, daughter, our last hope has failed. Ah me,
How pale you look! you tremble, and you stand
Wrapped in some fixed and fearful meditation, 30
As if one thought were overstrong for you;
Your eyes have a chill glare; oh, dearest child!
Are you gone mad? If not, pray speak to me.
BEATRICE
You see I am not mad; I speak to you.
LUCRETIA
You talked of something that your father did
After that dreadful feast? Could it be worse
Than when he smiled, and cried, ‘My sons are dead!’
And every one looked in his neighbor’s face
To see if others were as white as he?
At the first word he spoke I felt the blood 40
Rush to my heart, and fell into a trance;
And when it passed I sat all weak and wild;
Whilst you alone stood up, and with strong words
Checked his unnatural pride; and I could see
The devil was rebuked that lives in him.
Until this hour thus you have ever stood
Between us and your father’s moody wrath
Like a protecting presence; your firm mind
Has been our only refuge and defence.
What can have thus subdued it? What can now 50
Have given you that cold melancholy look,
Succeeding to your unaccustomed fear?
BEATRICE
What is it that you say? I was just thinking
‘T were better not to struggle any more.
Men, like my father, have been dark and bloody;
Yet never — oh! before worse comes of it,
‘T were wise to die; it ends in that at last.
LUCRETIA
Oh, talk not so, dear child! Tell me at once
What did your father do or say to you?
He stayed not after that accursèd feast 60
One moment in your chamber. — Speak to me.
BERNARDO
Oh, sister, sister, prithee, speak to us!
BEATRICE (speaking very slowly, with a forced calmness)
It was one word, mother, one little word;
One look, one smile.
(Wildly)
Oh! he has trampled me
Under his feet, and made the blood stream down
My pallid cheeks. And he has given us all
Ditch-water, and the fever-stricken flesh
Of buffaloes, and bade us eat or starve,
And we have eaten. He has made me look
On my beloved Bernardo, when the rust 70
Of heavy chains has gangrened his sweet limbs;
And I have never yet despaired — but now!
What would I say?
(Recovering herself)
Ah no! ‘t is nothing new.
The sufferings we all share have made me wild;
He only struck and cursed me as he passed;
He said, he looked, he did, — nothing at all
Beyond his wont, yet it disordered me.
Alas! I am forgetful of my duty;
I should preserve my senses for your sake.
LUCRETIA
Nay, Beatrice; have courage, my sweet girl. 80
If any one despairs it should be I,
Who loved him once, and now must live with him
Till God in pity call for him or me.
For you may, like your sister, find some husband,
And smile, years hence, with children round your knees;
Whilst I, then dead, and all this hideous coil,
Shall be remembered only as a dream.
BEATRICE
Talk not to me, dear Lady, of a husband.
Did you not nurse me when my mother died?
Did you not shield me and that dearest boy? 90
And had we any other friend but you
In infancy, with gentle words and looks,
To win our father not to murder us?
And shall I now desert you? May the ghost
Of my dead mother plead against my soul,
If I abandon her who filled the place
She left, with more, even, than a mother’s love!
BERNARDO
And I am of my sister’s mind. Indeed
I would not leave you in this wretchedness,
Even though the Pope should make me free to live 100
In some blithe place, like others of my age,
With sports, and delicate food, and the fresh air.
Oh, never think that I will leave you, mother!
LUCRETIA
My dear, dear children!
Enter CENCI, suddenly
CENCI
What! Beatrice here!
Come hither!
[She shrinks back, and covers her face.
Nay, hid
e not your face, ‘t is fair;
Look up! Why, yesternight you dared to look
With disobedient insolence upon me,
Bending a stern and an inquiring brow
On what I meant; whilst I then sought to hide
That which I came to tell you — but in vain. 110
BEATRICE (wildly staggering towards the door)
Oh, that the earth would gape! Hide me, O God!
CENCI
Then it was I whose inarticulate words
Fell from my lips, and who with tottering steps
Fled from your presence, as you now from mine.
Stay, I command you! From this day and hour
Never again, I think, with fearless eye,
And brow superior, and unaltered cheek,
And that lip made for tenderness or scorn,
Shalt thou strike dumb the meanest of mankind;
Me least of all. Now get thee to thy chamber! 120
Thou too, loathed image of thy cursèd mother,
(To BERNARDO)
Thy milky, meek face makes me sick with hate!
[Exeunt BEATRICE and BERNARDO.
(Aside) So much has passed between us as must make
Me bold, her fearful.—’T is an awful thing
To touch such mischief as I now conceive;
So men sit shivering on the dewy bank
And try the chill stream with their feet; once in —
How the delighted spirit pants for joy!
LUCRETIA (advancing timidly towards him)
O husband! pray forgive poor Beatrice.
She meant not any ill.
CENCI
Nor you perhaps? 130
Nor that young imp, whom you have taught by rote
Parricide with his alphabet? nor Giacomo?
Nor those two most unnatural sons who stirred
Enmity up against me with the Pope?
Whom in one night merciful God cut off.
Innocent lambs! They thought not any ill.
You were not here conspiring? you said nothing
Of how I might be dungeoned as a madman;
Or be condemned to death for some offence,
And you would be the witnesses? This failing, 140
How just it were to hire assassins, or
Put sudden poison in my evening drink?
Or smother me when overcome by wine?
Seeing we had no other judge but God,
And he had sentenced me, and there were none
But you to be the executioners
Of his decree enregistered in heaven?
Oh, no! You said not this?
LUCRETIA
So help me God,
I never thought the things you charge me with!
CENCI
If you dare to speak that wicked lie again, 150
I ‘ll kill you. What! it was not by your counsel
That Beatrice disturbed the feast last night?
You did not hope to stir some enemies
Against me, and escape, and laugh to scorn
What every nerve of you now trembles at?
You judged that men were bolder than they are;
Few dare to stand between their grave and me.
LUCRETIA
Look not so dreadfully! By my salvation
I knew not aught that Beatrice designed;
Nor do I think she designed anything 160
Until she heard you talk of her dead brothers.
CENCI
Blaspheming liar! you are damned for this!
But I will take you where you may persuade
The stones you tread on to deliver you;
For men shall there be none but those who dare
All things — not question that which I command.
On Wednesday next I shall set out; you know
That savage rook, the Castle of Petrella;
‘T is safely walled, and moated round about;
Its dungeons under ground and its thick towers 170
Never told tales; though they have heard and seen
What might make dumb things speak. Why do you linger?
Make speediest preparation for the journey!
[Exit LUCRETIA.
The all-beholding sun yet shines; I hear
A busy stir of men about the streets;
I see the bright sky through the window panes.
It is a garish, broad, and peering day;
Loud, light, suspicious, full of eyes and ears;
And every little corner, nook, and hole,
Is penetrated with the insolent light. 180
Come, darkness! Yet, what is the day to me?
And wherefore should I wish for night, who do
A deed which shall confound both night and day?
‘T is she shall grope through a bewildering mist
Of horror; if there be a sun in heaven,
She shall not dare to look upon its beams;
Nor feel its warmth. Let her, then, wish for night;
The act I think shall soon extinguish all
For me; I bear a darker, deadlier gloom
Than the earth’s shade, or interlunar air, 190
Or constellations quenched in murkiest cloud,
In which I walk secure and unbeheld
Towards my purpose. — Would that it were done!
[Exit.
SCENE II. — A Chamber in the Vatican. Enter CAMILLO and GIACOMO, in conversation.
CAMILLO
There is an obsolete and doubtful law
By which you might obtain a bare provision
Of food and clothing.
GIACOMO
Nothing more? Alas!
Bare must be the provision which strict law
Awards, and aged sullen avarice pays.
Why did my father not apprentice me
To some mechanic trade? I should have then
Been trained in no highborn necessities
Which I could meet not by my daily toil.
The eldest son of a rich nobleman 10
Is heir to all his incapacities;
He has wide wants, and narrow powers. If you,
Cardinal Camillo, were reduced at once
From thrice-driven beds of down, and delicate food,
An hundred servants, and six palaces,
To that which nature doth indeed require? —
CAMILLO
Nay, there is reason in your plea; ‘t were hard.
GIACOMO
‘T is hard for a firm man to bear; but I
Have a dear wife, a lady of high birth,
Whose dowry in ill hour I lent my father, 20
Without a bond or witness to the deed;
And children, who inherit her fine senses,
The fairest creatures in this breathing world;
And she and they reproach me not. Cardinal,
Do you not think the Pope will interpose
And stretch authority beyond the law?
CAMILLO
Though your peculiar case is hard, I know
The Pope will not divert the course of law.
After that impious feast the other night
I spoke with him, and urged him then to check 30
Your father’s cruel hand; he frowned and said,
‘Children are disobedient, and they sting
Their fathers’ hearts to madness and despair,
Requiting years of care with contumely.
I pity the Count Cenci from my heart;
His outraged love perhaps awakened hate,
And thus he is exasperated to ill.
In the great war between the old and young,
I, who have white hairs and a tottering body,
Will keep at least blameless neutrality.’ 40
Enter ORSINO
You, my good lord Orsino, heard those words.
ORSINO
What words?
GIACOMO
Alas, repeat them not again!
There
then is no redress for me; at least
None but that which I may achieve myself,
Since I am driven to the brink. — But, say,
My innocent sister and my only brother
Are dying underneath my father’s eye.
The memorable torturers of this land,
Galeaz Visconti, Borgia, Ezzelin,
Never inflicted on their meanest slave 50
What these endure; shall they have no protection?
CAMILLO
Why, if they would petition to the Pope,
I see not how he could refuse it; yet
He holds it of most dangerous example
In aught to weaken the paternal power,
Being, as ‘t were, the shadow of his own.
I pray you now excuse me. I have business
That will not bear delay.
[Exit CAMILLO.
GIACOMO
But you, Orsino,
Have the petition; wherefore not present it?
ORSINO
I have presented it, and backed it with 60
My earnest prayers and urgent interest;
It was returned unanswered. I doubt not
But that the strange and execrable deeds
Alleged in it — in truth they might well baffle
Any belief — have turned the Pope’s displeasure
Upon the accusers from the criminal.
So I should guess from what Camillo said.
GIACOMO
My friend, that palace-walking devil, Gold,
Has whispered silence to His Holiness;
And we are left, as scorpions ringed with fire. 70
What should we do but strike ourselves to death?
For he who is our murderous persecutor
Is shielded by a father’s holy name,
Or I would —
[Stops abruptly.
ORSINO
What? Fear not to speak your thought.
Words are but holy as the deeds they cover;
A priest who has forsworn the God he serves,
A judge who makes Truth weep at his decree,
A friend who should weave counsel, as I now,
But as the mantle of some selfish guile,
A father who is all a tyrant seems, — 80
Were the profaner for his sacred name.
GIACOMO
Ask me not what I think; the unwilling brain
Feigns often what it would not; and we trust
Imagination with such fantasies
As the tongue dares not fashion into words —
Which have no words, their horror makes them dim
To the mind’s eye. My heart denies itself
To think what you demand.
ORSINO
But a friend’s bosom
Is as the inmost cave of our own mind,
Where we sit shut from the wide gaze of day 90
And from the all-communicating air.
You look what I suspected —
GIACOMO
Spare me now!
I am as one lost in a midnight wood,
Percy Bysshe Shelley Page 100