by Thomas Otway
Ren. My friends, ’tis late; are we assembled all?
Where’s Theodore?
Theo. At hand.
Ren. Spinosa?
Spin. Here.
Ren. Brainville?
Brain. I’m ready.
Ren. Durand and Brabe?
Dur. Command us;
We are both prepared.
Ren. Mezzana, Revillido,
Ternon, Retrosi? oh, you’re men, I find,
Fit to behold your fate, and meet her summons;
To-morrow’s rising sun must see you all
Decked in your honours! Are the soldiers ready?
All. All, all.
Ren. You, Durand, with your thousand, must possess
St. Mark’s; you, captain, know your charge already;
’Tis to secure the Ducal Palace; you,
Brabe, with a hundred more, must gain the Secque;
With the like number, Brainville, to the Procurale.
Be all this done with the least tumult possible,
Till in each place you post sufficient guards:
Then sheathe your swords in every breast you meet.
Jaff. [Aside.] O reverend cruelty! Damned bloody villain!
Ren. During this execution, Durand, you
Must, in the midst, keep your battalia fast;
And, Theodore, be sure to plant the cannon
That may command the streets; whilst Revillido,
Mezzana, Ternon, and Retrosi guard you.
This done, we’ll give the general alarm,
Apply petards, and force the arsenal gates;
Then fire the city round in several places,
Or with our cannon, if it dare resist,
Batter it to ruin. But, above all, I charge you,
Shed blood enough, spare neither sex nor age,
Name nor condition; if there live a senator
After to-morrow, though the dullest rogue
That e’er said nothing, we have lost our ends;
If possible, let’s kill the very name
Of senator, and bury it in blood.
Jaff. [Aside.] Merciless, horrid slave! — [Aloud.]
Ay, blood enough —
Shed blood enough, old Renault! how thou charm’st me!
Ren. But one thing more, and then farewell till fate
Join us again, or separate us ever:
First, let’s embrace; Heaven knows who next shall thus
Wing ye together: but let’s all remember
We wear no common cause upon our swords;
Let each man think that on his single virtue
Depends the good and fame of all the rest,
Eternal honour or perpetual infamy.
Let us remember, through what dreadful hazards
Propitious fortune hitherto has led us;
How often on the brink of some discovery
Have we stood tottering, yet still kept our ground
So well, the busiest searchers ne’er could follow
Those subtle tracks which puzzled all suspicion.
You droop, sir.
Jaff. No; with most profound attention
I’ve heard it all, and wonder at thy virtue.
Ren. Though there be yet few hours ‘twixt them and ruin,
Are not the Senate lulled in full security,
Quiet and satisfied, as fools are always?
Never did so profound repose forerun
Calamity so great: nay, our good fortune
Has blinded the most piercing of mankind,
Strengthened the fearfullest, charmed the most suspectful,
Confounded the most subtle: for we live,
We live, my friends, and quickly shall our life
Prove fatal to these tyrants. Let’s consider
That we destroy oppression, avarice,
A people nursed up equally with vices
And loathsome lusts, which nature most abhors,
And such as without shame she cannot suffer.
Jaff. O Belvidera, take me to thy arms,
And show me where’s my peace, for I have lost it. [Exit.
Ren. Without the least remorse, then, let’s resolve
With fire and sword to exterminate these tyrants;
And when we shall behold those cursed tribunals
Stained by the tears and sufferings of the innocent,
Burning with flames, rather from Heaven than ours;
The raging, furious, and unpitying soldier
Pulling his reeking dagger from the bosoms
Of gasping wretches; death in every quarter,
With all that sad disorder can produce,
To make a spectacle of horror; then,
Then let us call to mind, my dearest friends,
That there is nothing pure upon the earth;
That the most valued things have most allays,
And that in change of all those vile enormities,
Under whose weight this wretched country labours,
The means are only in our hands to cure them.
Pier. And may those powers above that are propitious
To gallant minds record this cause, and bless it!
Ren. Thus happy, thus secure of all we wish for,
Should there, my friends, be found amongst us one
False to this glorious enterprise, what fate,
What vengeance were enough for such a villain?
Eliot. Death here without repentance, hell hereafter.
Ren. Let that be my lot, if as here I stand,
Listed by fate amongst her darling sons,
Though I had one only brother, dear by all
The strictest ties of nature; though one hour
Had given us birth, one fortune fed our wants,
One only love, and that but of each other,
Still filled our minds, — could I have such a friend
Joined in this cause, and had but ground to fear
He meant foul play, may this right hand drop from me,
If I’d not hazard all my future peace,
And stab him to the heart before you. Who,
Who would do less? wouldst not thou, Pierre, the same?
Pier. You’ve singled me, sir, out for this hard question,
As if ‘twere started only for my sake.
Am I the thing you fear? Here, here’s my bosom,
Search it with all your swords! Am I a traitor?
Ren. No; but I fear your late-commended friend
Is little less. Come, sirs, ’tis now no time
To trifle with our safety. Where’s this Jaffier?
Spin. He left the room just now in strange disorder.
Ren. Nay, there is danger in him: I observed him,
During the time I took for explanation.
He was transported from most deep attention
To a confusion which he could not smother;
His looks grew full of sadness and surprise,
All which betrayed a wavering spirit in him,
That laboured with reluctancy and sorrow.
What’s requisite for safety must be done
With speedy execution: he remains
Yet in our power: I for my own part wear
A dagger.
Pier. Well.
Ren. And I could wish it —
Pier. Where?
Ren. Buried in his heart.
Pier. Away! we’re yet all friends;
No more of this, ‘twill breed ill blood amongst us.
Spin. Let us all draw our swords, and search the house,
Pull him from the dark hole where he sits brooding
O’er his cold fears, and each man kill his share of him.
Pier. Who talks of killing? Who’s he’ll shed the blood
That’s dear to me? Is’t you? or you? or you, sir?
What, not one speak? how you stand gaping all
On your grave oracle, your wooden god there!
Yet not a word. Then, sir — [To Renault] — I
’ll tell you a secret; —
Suspicion’s but at best a coward’s virtue!
Ren. A coward! [Handles his sword.
Pier. Put, put up thy sword, old man,
Thy hand shakes at it. Come, let’s heal this breach,
I am too hot; we yet may all live friends.
Spin. Till we are safe, our friendship cannot be so.
Pier. Again? who’s that?
Spin. ’Twas I.
Theo. And I.
Rev. And I.
Eliot. And all.
Ren. Who are on my side?
Spin. Every honest sword.
Let’s die like men, and not be sold like slaves.
Pier. One such word more, by Heaven, I’ll to the Senate,
And hang ye all like dogs in clusters.
Why peep your coward swords half out their shells?
Why do you not all brandish them like mine?
You fear to die, and yet dare talk of killing!
Ren. Go to the Senate and betray us; hasten,
Secure thy wretched life; we fear to die
Less than thou darest be honest.
Pier. That’s rank falsehood.
Fear’st not thou death? fie! there’s a knavish itch
In that salt blood, an utter foe to smarting.
Had Jaffier’s wife proved kind, he had still been true.
Faugh! how that stinks!
Thou die! thou kill my friend! or thou, or thou;
Or thou, with that lean, withered, wretched face!
Away! disperse all to your several charges,
And meet to-morrow where your honour calls you;
I’ll bring that man whose blood you so much thirst for,
And you shall see him venture for you fairly.
Hence, hence, I say. [Exit Renault angrily.
Spin. I fear we’ve been to blame,
And done too much.
Theo. ’Twas too far urged against the man you loved.
Rev. Here, take our swords, and crush them with your feet.
Spin. Forgive us, gallant friend.
Pier. Nay, now you’ve found
The way to melt and cast me as you will.
I’ll fetch this friend, and give him to your mercy:
Nay, he shall die, if you will take him from me;
For your repose, I’ll quit my heart’s jewel;
But would not have him torn away by villains
And spiteful villany.
Spin. No; may you both
For ever live, and fill the world with fame!
Pier. Now you are too kind. Whence rose all this discord?
Oh, what a dangerous precipice have we ‘scaped!
How near a fall was all we had long been building!
What an eternal blot had stained our glories,
If one, the bravest and the best of men,
Had fallen a sacrifice to rash suspicion!
Butchered by those whose cause he came to cherish!
Oh, could you know him all as I have known him,
How good he is, how just, how true, how brave,
You would not leave this place till you had seen him,
Humbled yourselves before him, kissed his feet,
And gained remission for the worst of follies.
Come but to-morrow, all your doubts shall end;
And to your loves me better recommend,
That I’ve preserved your fame, and saved my friend. [Exeunt.
ACT THE FOURTH.
SCENE I. — A Public Place.
Enter Jaffier and Belvidera.
Jaff. Where dost thou lead me?
Every step I move,
Methinks I tread upon some mangled limb
Of a racked friend. O my dear charming ruin!
Where are we wandering?
Belv. To eternal honour;
To do a deed shall chronicle thy name
Among the glorious legends of those few
That have saved sinking nations: thy renown
Shall be the future song of all the virgins,
Who by thy piety have been preserved
From horrid violation; every street
Shall be adorned with statues to thy honour,
And at thy feet this great inscription written,
“Remember him that propped the fall of Venice.”
Jaff. Rather remember him who, after all
The sacred bonds of oaths and holier friendship,
In fond compassion to a woman’s tears,
Forgot his manhood, virtue, truth, and honour,
To sacrifice the bosom that relieved him.
Why wilt thou damn me?
Belv. O inconstant man!
How will you promise! how will you deceive!
Do, return back, replace me in my bondage;
Tell all thy friends how dangerously thou lovest me;
And let thy dagger do its bloody office.
O, that kind dagger, Jaffier, how ‘twill look
Stuck through my heart, drenched in my blood to the hilts!
Whilst these poor dying eyes shall with their tears
No more torment thee; — then thou wilt be free.
Or if thou think’st it nobler, let me live
Till I’m a victim to the hateful lust
Of that infernal devil, that old fiend
That’s damned himself, and would undo mankind.
Last night, my love!
Jaff. Name, name it not again;
It shows a beastly image to my fancy,
Will wake me into madness. O, the villain
That durst approach such purity as thine
On terms so vile! Destruction, swift destruction
Fall on my coward head, and make my name
The common scorn of fools, if I forgive him!
If I forgive him! if I not revenge
With utmost rage, and most unstaying fury,
Thy suffering, dear darling of my life.
Belv. Delay no longer then, but to the Senate;
And tell the dismallest story ever uttered;
Tell them what bloodshed, rapines, desolations,
Have been prepared; how near’s the fatal hour;
Save thy poor country, save the reverend blood
Of all its nobles, which to-morrow’s dawn
Must else see shed; save the poor tender lives
Of all those little infants which the swords
Of murderers are whetting for this moment;
Think thou already hear’st their dying screams,
Think that thou seest their sad distracted mothers
Kneeling before thy feet, and begging pity,
With torn dishevelled hair and streaming eyes,
Their naked mangled breasts besmeared with blood,
And even the milk, with which their fondled babes
Softly they hushed, dropping in anguish from them:
Think thou seest this, and then consult thy heart.
Jaff. Oh!
Belv. Think, too, if thou lose this present minute,
What miseries the next day brings upon thee.
Imagine all the horrors of that night,
Murder and rapine, waste and desolation,
Confusedly ranging. Think what then may prove
My lot! The ravisher may then come safe,
And, ‘midst the terror of the public ruin,
Do a damned deed; perhaps too lay a train
May catch thy life: then where will be revenge,
The dear revenge that’s due to such a wrong?
Jaff. By all Heaven’s powers, prophetic truth dwells in thee,
For every word thou speak’st strikes through my heart
Like a new light, and shows it how it has wandered;
Just what thou’st made me, take me, Belvidera,
And lead me to the place where I’m to say
This bitter lesson; where I must betray
My truth, my virtue, constancy, and friends: —
&nbs
p; Must I betray my friend? Ah! take me quickly,
Secure me well before that thought’s renewed;
If I relapse once more, all’s lost for ever.
Belv. Hast thou a friend more dear than Belvidera?
Jaff. No; thou’rt my soul itself; wealth, friendship, honour,
All present joys and earnest of all future,
Are summed in thee: methinks, when in thy arms
Thus leaning on thy breast, one minute’s more
Than a long thousand years of vulgar hours.
Why was such happiness not given me pure?
Why dashed with cruel wrongs, and bitter wantings?
Come, lead me forward now, like a tame lamb
To sacrifice. Thus in his fatal garlands,
Decked fine and pleased, the wanton skips and plays,
Trots by the enticing flattering priestess’ side,
And, much transported with his little pride,
Forgets his dear companions of the plain;
Till, by her bound, he’s on the altar lain,
Yet then too hardly bleats, such pleasure’s in the pain.
Enter Officer and six Guards.
Offi. Stand; who goes there?
Belv. Friends.
Jaff. Friends, Belvidera! hide me from my friends.
By Heaven, I’d rather see the face of hell
Than meet the man I love.
Offi. But what friends are you?
Belv. Friends to the Senate and the state of Venice.
Offi. My orders are, to seize on all I find
At this late hour, and bring them to the Council,
Who now are sitting.
Jaff. Sir, you shall be obeyed.
Hold, brutes! stand off, none of your paws upon me.
Now the lot’s cast, and, fate, do what thou wilt. [Exeunt.
SCENE II.-The Senate House.
The Duke of Venice, Priuli, Antonio, and eight other Senators discovered in session.
Duke. Antony, Priuli, senators of Venice,
Speak; why are we assembled here this night?
What have you to inform us of, concerns
The state of Venice’ honour, or its safety?
Priu. Could words express the story I’ve to tell you,
Fathers, these tears were useless, these sad tears
That fall from my old eyes; but there is cause
We all should weep; tear off these purple robes,
And wrap ourselves in sackcloth, sitting down
On the sad earth, and cry aloud to Heaven.
Heaven knows if yet there be an hour to come
Ere Venice be no more!
All the Senators. How!
Priu. Nay, we stand
Upon the very brink of gaping ruin.
Within this city’s formed a dark conspiracy
To massacre us all, our wives and children,
Kindred and friends; our palaces and temples