The guardian of my youth, and its instructor- Doge. I tell thee-must I tell thee-what thy father And were the last, from any other sceptic. Doge. You know the full offence of this born villain, This creeping, coward, rank, acquitted felon, Who threw his sting into a poisonous libel, And on the honour of-Oh God!-my wife, The nearest, dearest part of all men's honour, Left a base slur to pass from mouth to mouth Of loose mechanics, with all coarse foul comments, And villainous jests, and blasphemies obscene; While sneering nobles, in more polish'd guise, Whisper'd the tale, and smiled upon the lie Which made me look like them a courteous wittol, Patient-ay, proud, it may be, of dishonour. Ber. F. But still it was a lie—you knew it false, And so did all men. Doge. It is it is: —I did not visit on But craved my country's justice on his head, Did you expect as his fit punishment? Doge. Death! Was I not the sovereign of the state Insulted on his very throne, and made A mockery to the men who should obey me? Who have forgot their duty to the sovereign ? Doge. Why, yes;-boy, you perceive it then at last : Whether as fellow citizen who sues For justice, or as sovereign who commands it, Ber. F. Not twelve hours longer, had you left to me Doge. No, nephew, he must live; At least, just now-a life so vile as his Great expiations had a hecatomb. Ber. F. Your wishes are my law; and yet I fain Would prove to you how near unto my heart The honour of our house must ever be. Doge. Fear not; you shall have time and place of proof; But be not thou too rash, as I have been. I am ashamed of my own anger now; Ber. F. Doge. Ay, think upon the causeForget it not: -When you lie down to rest, Let it be black among your dreams; and when The morn returns, so let it stand between The 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. (taking up and placing the ducal bonnet on I pray you to resume what you have spurn'd, [Exit BERTUCCIO FALIERO. Doge (solus). Adieu, my worthy nephew. Let me resume thee as I would a vizor. [Puts it on. Doge (solus). This patron may be sounded; I will try him. I know the people to be discontented: Will draw them forward: they shall pay themselves priesthood Will not be with us; they have hated me Since that rash hour, when, madden'd with the drone, 1 An historical fact. See Marin Sanuto's Lives of the Doges.[ Sanuto says that Heaven took away his senses for this buffet, and induced him to conspire: Però fu permesso che il Faliero perdette l' intelleto,' &c." - Byron Letters.] 2[This officer was chief of the artisans of the arsenal, and commanded the Bucentaur, for the safety of which, even if an By some well-timed concessions; but, above There are three thousand posted at Enter VINCENZO and ISRAEL BERTUCCIO. Vin. May it please Your highness, the same patron whom I spake of Is here to crave your patience. Doge. Vincenzo. Leave the chamber, [Exit VINCENZO. what would you? Sir, you may advance I. Ber. Redress. 1. Ber. Of whom? Of God and of the Doge. I. Ber. I am a man, my lord. Doge. Why so is he who smote you. 1. Ber. Nay, more, a noble one—at least, in Venice: But since he hath forgotten that I am one, And treats me like a brute, the brute may turn'Tis said the worm will. Behold my blood! the first time it e'er flow'd Dishonourably. Doge. Have you long time served? I. Ber. So long as to remember Zara's sicge, And fight beneath the chief who beat the Huns there, Sometime my general, now the Doge Faliero. — Doge. How are we comrades ?-the state's ducal robes Sit newly on me, and you were appointed So that I recognised you not. Who placed you? I. Ber. The late Doge; keeping still my old command As patron of a galley: my new office I little thought his bounty would conduct me Had any, Doge. Then wherefore came you here? I. Ber. I come for justice, Because my general is Doge, and will not See his old soldier trampled on. Save Faliero, fill'd the ducal throne, This blood had been wash'd out in other blood. Doge. You come to me for justice unto me! The Doge of Venice, and I cannot give it; I cannot even obtain it-'t was denied To me most solemnly an hour ago! I. Ber. How says your highness? Doge. To a month's confinement. 1. Ber. Yet, thou wast born, and still hast lived, patrician. Doge. In evil hour was I so born; my birth Hath made me Doge to be insulted: but I lived and toil'd a soldier and a servant Of Venice and her people, not the senate; Have made and marr'd peace oft in embassies, They made me so; I sought it not, the flattering fetters met me Steno is condemn'd Returning from my Roman embassy, I. Ber. What! the same who dared To stain the ducal throne with those foul words, That have cried shame to every ear in Venice? Doge. Ay, doubtless they have echo'd o'er the arsenal, Keeping due time with every hammer's clink As a good jest to jolly artisans ; Or making chorus to the creaking oar, In the vile tune of every galley-slave, Who, as he sung the merry stave, exulted Doge. You have heard the offence, And now you know his punishment; and then You ask redress of me! Go to the Forty, Who pass'd the sentence upon Michel Steno; They'll do as much by Barbaro, no doubt. I. Ber. Ah! dared I speak my feelings! Doge. Give them breath. Mine have no further outrage to endure. I. Ber. Then, in a word, it rests but on your word To punish and avenge-I will not say My petty wrong, for what is a mere blow, However vile, to such a thing as I am?But the base insult done your state and person. Doge. You overrate my power, which is a pageant. This cap is not the monarch's crown; these robes Might move compassion, like a beggar's rags; Toil, charge, or duty for the state, I did not, Of all in seeming, but of all most base In what we have to do and to endure: Bear witness for me thou, my injured subject, When I can neither right myself nor thee. I. Ber. You shall do both, if you possess the will; And many thousands more not less oppress'd, Who wait but for a signal-will you give it? Doge. You speak in riddles. A band of brethren, valiant hearts and true; For their great purpose; they have arms, and means, Till I am answer'd. Doge. I'll not answer that How, sir! do you menace? I. Ber. No; I affirm. I have betray'd myself; But there's no torture in the mystic wells Which undermine your palace, nor in those Not less appalling cells, the "leaden roofs," To force a single name from me of others. The Pozzi and the Piombi were in vain ; They might wring blood from me, but treachery never. And I would pass the fearful "Bridge of Sighs," Those who would live to think on 't, and avenge me. Doge. If such your power and purpose, why come here To sue for justice, being in the course I. Ber. Showing his confidence and his submission To that authority, can hardly be Suspected of combining to destroy it. Had I sate down too humbly with this blow, 1 The bells of San Marco were never rung but by order of the Doge. One of the pretexts for ringing this alarm was to have been an announcement of the appearance of a Genoese fleet off the Lagune. [The state dungeons, called Pozzi, or wells, were sunk in the thick walls of the palace; and the prisoner, when taken Had reach'd me. I had served you, honour'd you, And felt that you were dangerously insulted, Being of an order of such spirits, as Doge. You have deeply ventured; But all must do so who would greatly win: Thus far I'll answer you-your secret's safe. I. Ber. And is this all? Doge. Unless with all intrusted, The last may then be doubled, and the former Not were he your son. Doge. With but my nephew. Doge. Wretch! darest thou name my son? He died in arms At Sapienza for this faithless state. Oh! that he were alive, and I in ashes! Or that he were alive ere I be ashes! I should not need the dubious aid of strangers. I. Ber. Not one of all those strangers whom thou doubtest, But will regard thee with a filial feeling, So that thou keep'st a father's faith with them. I. Ber. Late, but the atmosphere is thick and dusky; 'Tis a sirocco. Doge. At the midnight hour, then, Near to the church where sleep my sires; the same, Lurk in the narrow channel which glides by I. Ber. I will not fail. And now retire I. Ber. In the full hope your highness will not falter In your great purpose. Prince, I take my leave. [Exit ISRAEL BERTUCCIO. Doge (solus). At midnight, by the church Saints Where sleep my noble fathers, I repair- And pluck me down amongst them? Would they could! For I should rest in honour with the honour'd. By the true touchstone of desert-success. 3 [The Doges were all buried in St. Mark's before Faliero. It is singular that when his predecessor, Andrea Dandolo, died, the Ten made a law that all the future Doges should be buried with their families in their own churches one would think, by a kind of presentiment. So that all that is said of his ancestral Doges, as buried at St. John's and Paul's, is altered from the fact, they being in St. Mark's. Make a note of this, and put Editor as the subscription to it. As I make such pretensions to accuracy, I should not like to be twitted even with such trifles on that score. Of the play they may say what they please, but not so of my costume and dram. pers. they having been real existences. - Byron Letters, Oct. 1820.] 2 A gondola is not like a common boat, but is as easily His highness has of late been greatly moved Ang. 'Twas a gross insult; but I heed it not His own still conscience smote him for the act, And every shadow on the walls frown'd shame Upon his coward calumny. He should be punish'd grievously. demn ? Ang. I know not that, but he has been detected. Mar. And deem you this enough for such foul scorn? Ang. I would not be a judge in my own cause, Nor do I know what sense of punishment May reach the soul of ribalds such as Steno; But if his insults sink no deeper in The minds of the inquisitors than they Have ruffled mine, he will, for all acquittance, Be left to his own shamelessness or shame. Mar. Some sacrifice is due to slander'd virtue. Ang. Why, what is virtue if it needs a victim? Or if it must depend upon men's words? The dying Roman said, "'t was but a name : rowed with one oar as with two (though, of course, not so swiftly), and often is so from motives of privacy; and, since the decay of Venice, of economy. 3" What Gifford says of the first act is very consolatory. English, sterling genuine English, is a desideratum amongst you, and I am glad that I have got so much left; though Heaven knows how I retain it: I hear none but from iny valet, and he is Nottinghamshire; and I see none but in your new publications, and theirs is no language at all, but jargon. Gifford says that it is good English, and Foscolo says that the characters are right Venetian Here are in all two worthy voices gain'd.'" -Byron Letters, Sept. 1820.] |