To own a thousand despots in his place. Better bow down before the Hun, and call

A Tartar lord, than these swoln silkworms masters!
The first at least was man, and used his sword
As sceptre: these unmanly creeping things
Command our swords, and rule us with a word
As with a spell

1. Ber.
It shall be broken soon.
You say that all things are in readiness;
To-day I have not been the usual round,
And why thou knowest; but thy vigilance
Will better have supplied my care: these orders
In recent council to redouble now
Our efforts to repair the galleys, have
Lent a fair colour to the introduction
Of many of our cause into the arsenal,
As new artificers for their equipment,

Or fresh recruits obtain'd in haste to man

The hoped-for fleet. —Are all supplied with arms? Cal. All who were deem'd trustworthy: there are

some

Whom it were well to keep in ignorance

Till it be time to strike, and then supply them;
When in the heat and hurry of the hour
They have no opportunity to pause,

But needs must on with those who will surround them. I. Ber. You have said well. Have you remark'd all such?

Cal. I've noted most; and caused the other chiefs

To use like caution in their companies.
As far as I have seen, we are enough

To make the enterprise secure, if 'tis
Commenced to-morrow; but, till 't is begun,
Each hour is pregnant with a thousand perils.

1. Ber. Let the Sixteen meet at the wonted hour, Except Soranzo, Nicoletto Blondo,

And Marco Giuda, who will keep their watch
Within the arsenal, and hold all ready

Expectant of the signal we will fix on.

Cal. We will not fail.
I. Ber.

Let all the rest be there; I have a stranger to present to them. Cal. A stranger! doth he know the secret? I. Ber.

Yes.

Cal. And have you dared to peril your friends' lives On a rash confidence in one we know not?

I. Ber. I have risk'd no man's life except my own-
Of that be certain: he is one who may
Make our assurance doubly sure, according
His aid; and if reluctant, he no less

Is in our power; he comes alone with me,
And cannot 'scape us; but he will not swerve.
Cal. I cannot judge of this until I know him:
Is he one of our order?

Although a child of greatness; he is one

Who would become a throne, or overthrow oneOne who has done great deeds, and seen great changes;

No tyrant, though bred up to tyranny;
Valiant in war, and sage in council; noble
In nature, although haughty; quick, yet wary:
Yet for all this, so full of certain passions,
That if once stirr'd and baffled, as he has been
Upon the tenderest points, there is no Fury
In Grecian story like to that which wrings
His vitals with her burning hands, till he
Grows capable of all things for revenge;

My object is to make your cause end well,
And not to push myself to power. Experience,
Some skill, and your own choice, had mark'd me out
To act in trust as your commander, till

Some worthier should appear: if I have found such
As you yourselves shall own more worthy, think you
That I would hesitate from selfishness,

And, covetous of brief authority,

Stake our deep interest on my single thoughts,
Rather than yield to one above me in

All leading qualities? No, Calendaro,
Know your friend better; but you all shall judge.
Away! and let us meet at the fix'd hour.
Be vigilant, and all will yet go well.

Cal. Worthy Bertuccio, I have known you ever Trusty and brave, with head and heart to plan What I have still been prompt to execute. For my own part, I seek no other chief; What the rest will decide I know not, but I am with you, as I have ever been, In all our undertakings. Now farewell, Until the hour of midnight sees us meet. [Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I.

Scene, the Space between the Canal and the Church of San Giovanni e San Paolo. An equestrian Statue before it. — A Gondola lies in the Canal at some distance.

Enter the DOGE alone, disguised.

Doge (solus). I am before the hour, the hour whose voice,

Pealing into the arch of night, might strike
These palaces with ominous tottering,
And rock their marbles to the corner-stone,
Waking the sleepers from some hideous dream
Of indistinct but awful augury

Of that which will befall them. Yes, proud city! Thou must be cleansed of the black blood which makes thee

A lazar-house of tyranny: the task
Is forced upon me, I have sought it not;
And therefore was I punish'd, seeing this
Patrician pestilence spread on and on,
Until at length it smote me in my slumbers,
And I am tainted, and must wash away
The plague-spots in the healing wave.
Where sleep my fathers, whose dim statues shadow
The floor which doth divide us from the dear,
Where all the pregnant hearts of our bold blood,
Moulder'd into a mite of ashes, hold

Tall fane!

The one of toil, the other in the field,
With a long race of other lineal chiefs
And sages, whose great labours, wounds, and state
I have inherited,-let the graves gape,
Till all thine aisles be peopled with the dead,
And pour them from thy portals to gaze on me!
I call them up, and them and thee to witness
What it hath been which put me to this task-
Their pure high blood, their blazon-roll of glories,
Their mighty name dishonour'd all in me,
Not by me, but by the ungrateful nobles

We fought to make our equals, not our lords:
And chiefly thou, Ordelafo the brave,

Who perish'd in the field, where I since conquer'd,
Battling at Zara, did the hecatombs

Of thine and Venice' foes, there offer'd up
By thy descendant, merit such acquittance ? ?
Spirits! smile down upon me; for my cause
Is yours, in all life now can be of yours,-
Your fame, your name, all mingled up in mine,
And in the future fortunes of our race!
Let me but prosper, and I make this city
Free and immortal, and our house's name
Worthier of what you were, now and hereafter!" 3

Welcome, my lord,-you are before the time.
Doge. I am ready to proceed to your assembly.
1. Ber. Have with you. I am proud and pleased
to see

Such confident alacrity. Your doubts
Since our last meeting, then, are all dispell'd?

Doge. Not so-but I have set my little left
Of life upon this cast: the die was thrown
When I first listen'd to your treason -Start not!
That is the word; I cannot shape my tongue
To syllable black deeds into smooth names,
Though I be wrought on to commit them.
I heard you tempt your sovereign, and forbore
To have you dragg'd to prison, I became
Your guiltiest accomplice: now you may,

If it so please you, do as much by me.

When

I. Ber. Strange words, my lord, and most unmerited;
I am no spy, and neither are we traitors.
Doge. We!-We!-no matter-you have earn'd
the right

To talk of us. But to the point. If this
Attempt succeeds, and Venice, render'd free
And flourishing, when we are in our graves,
Conducts her generations to our tombs,
And makes her children with their little hands

1["We fought to make our equals, not our lords: peers, and not our masters: " -MS.}

acquittance?

MS.]

2 [“ By thy descendant, merit such equital [The Doge, true to his appointment, is waiting for his conductor before the church of San Paolo e Giovanni. There is great loftiness, both of feeling and diction, in this passage. - JEFFREY.]

[There is a great deal of natural struggle in the breast of the high-born and haughty Doge, between the resentment with which he burns on the one hand, and the reluctance with which he considers the meanness of the associates with whom he has leagued himself on the other. The conspiring Doge is not, we think, meant to be ambitious for himself, but he is sternly, proudly, a Venetian noble; and it is impossible for him to tear from his bosom the scorn for every thing

Strew flowers o'er her deliverers' ashes, then
The consequence will sanctify the deed,
And we shall be like the two Bruti in
The annals of hereafter; but if not,
If we should fail, employing bloody means
And secret plot, although to a good end,
Still we are traitors, honest Israel ;- thou
No less than he who was thy sovereign
Six hours ago, and now thy brother rebel.
1. Ber. 'Tis not the moment to consider thus,
Else I could answer. Let us to the meeting,

Or we may be observed in lingering here. Doge. We are observed, and have been. 1. Ber.

Let me discover-and this stcel

We observed!

That warrior was the sire Of my sire's fathers, and that statue was Decreed to him by the twice rescued city: Think you that he looks down on us, or no?

1. Ber. My lord, these are mere fantasies; there

are

No eyes in marble.

Doge.

But there are in Death.
I tell thee, man, there is a spirit in
Such things that acts and sees, unseen, though felt;
And, if there be a spell to stir the dead,

"T is in such deeds as we are now upon.
Deem'st thou the souls of such a race as mine
Can rest, when he, their last descendant chief,
Stands plotting on the brink of their pure graves
With stung plebeians ? 4

1. Ber.
It had been as well
To have ponder'd this before, ere you embark'd
In our great enterprise. - -Do you repent?

Doge. No-but I feel, and shall do to the last.
I cannot quench a glorious life at once,
Nor dwindle to the thing I now must be, 5

And take men's lives by stealth, without some pause:
Yet doubt me not; it is this very feeling,
And knowing what has wrung me to be thus,
Which is your best security. There's not
A roused mechanic in your busy plot
So wrong'd as I, so fall'n, so loudly call'd
To his redress: the very means I am forced
By these fell tyrants to adopt is such,
That I abhor them doubly for the deeds
Which I must do to pay them back for theirs.

I. Ber. Let us away-hark-the hour strikes. plebeian which has been implanted there by birth, education, and a long life of princely command. There are other thoughts, too, and of a gentler kind, which cross from time to time his perturbed spirit. He remembers he cannot entirely forget the days and nights of old companionship, by which he had long been bound to those whose sentence he has consented to seal. He has himself been declaiming against the folly of mercy, and arguing valiantly the necessity of total extirpation, and that, too, in the teeth even of some of the plebeian conspirators themselves: yet the Poet, with profound insight into the human heart, makes him shudder when his own impetuosity has brought himself, and all who hear him, to the brink. He cannot look upon the bloody resolution, no not even after he himself has been the chief instrument of its formation. - LOCKHART.] the thing I now must be, ["Nor dwindle to a cut-throat without shuddering."—

MS.]

Of trusting to their faith: who, save ourselves
And our more chosen comrades, is aware
Fully of our intent? they think themselves
Engaged in secret to the Signory, 1

To punish some more dissolute young nobles
Who have defied the law in their excesses;

But once drawn up, and their new swords well-flesh'd
In the rank hearts of the more odious senators,
They will not hesitate to follow up
Their blow upon the others, when they sce
The example of their chiefs, and I for one
Will set them such, that they for very shame
And safety will not pause till all have perish'd.
Ber. How say you? all!

Cal. Ber.

Whom wouldst thou spare?
I spare?

I have no power to spare. I only question'd,
Thinking that even amongst these wicked men
There might be some, whose age and qualities
Might mark them out for pity.

Cal.
Yes, such pity
As when the viper hath been cut to pieces,
The separate fragments quivering in the sun,
In the last energy of venomous life,
Deserve and have. Why, I should think as soon
Of pitying some particular fang which made

One in the jaw of the swoln serpent, as

Of saving one of these; they form but links

Of one long chain; one mass, one breath, one body;
They eat, and drink, and live, and breed together,
Revel, and lie, oppress, and kill in concert, —
So let them die as one!

Dag.

Should one survive,

You are welcome,

Cal. When once our enterprise is o'er, which must not Be interrupted by a private brawl.

Ber. I am no brawler; but can bear myself
As far among the foe as any he
Who hears me; else why have I been selected
To be of your chief comrades? but no less
I own my natural weakness; I have not
Yet learn'd to think of indiscriminate murder
Without some sense of shuddering; and the sight
Of blood which spouts through hoary scalps is not
To me a thing of triumph, nor the death
Of men surprised a glory. Well-too well

I know that we must do such things on those
Whose acts have raised up such avengers; but
If there were some of these who could be saved
From out this sweeping fate, for our own sakes
And for our honour, to take off some stain
Of massacre, which else pollutes it wholly,
I had been glad; and see no cause in this
For sneer, nor for suspicion !

Calm thee, Bertram;

Dag. For we suspect thee not, and take good heart. It is the cause, and not our will, which asks Such actions from our hands: we'll wash away All stains in Freedom's fountain!

Enter ISRAEL BERTUCCIO, and the DocE, disguised. Dag. Welcome, Israel. Consp. Most welcome. -Brave Bertuccio, thou

art lateWho is this stranger?

Cal. It is time to name him. Our comrades are even now prepared to greet him In brotherhood, as I have made it known That thou wouldst add a brother to our cause, Approved by thee, and thus approved by all, Such is our trust in all thine actions. Now Let him unfold himself. I. Ber.

Consp. To arms! Doge !

Stranger, step forth! [The DoGE discovers himself. we are betray'd-it is the

Down with them both! our traitorous captain, and The tyrant he hath sold us to!

Hold! hold!

Cal. (drawing his sword). Who moves a step against them dies. Hold hear B rtuccio What! are you appall'd to see A lone, unguarded, weaponless old man Amongst you?-Israel, speak! what means this [bosoms,

mystery ?

I. Ber. Let them advance and strike at their own Ungrateful suicides! for on our lives

Depend their own, their fortunes, and their hopes.

They might and must have known a heart like mine

Incapable of treachery; and the power
They gave me to adopt all fitting means
To further their design was ne'er abused.
They might be certain that whoe 'er was brought
By me into this council had been led

To take his choice -as brother, or as victim.

Doge. And which am I to be? your actions leave Some cause to doubt the freedom of the choice.

I. Ber. My lord, we would have perish'd here together,

Had these rash men proceeded; but, behold,
They are ashamed of that mad moment's impulse,
And droop their heads; believe me, they are such
As I described them-Speak to them.

1. Ber. (addressing the Conspirators). You are safe,
Nay, more, almost triumphant-listen then,
And know my words for truth.
Doge.
You see me here,
As one of you hath said, an old, unarm'd,
Defenceless man; and yesterday you saw me

Presiding in the hall of ducal state,
Apparent sovereign of our hundred isles,
Robed in official purple, dealing out

The edicts of a power which is not mine,

Nor yours, but of our masters- the patricians.
Why I was there you know, or think you know;
Why I am here, he who hath been most wrong'd,
He who among you hath been most insulted,
Outraged and trodden on, until he doubt
If he be worm or no, may answer for me,
Asking of his own heart, what brought him here?
You know my recent story, all men know it,
And judge of it far differently from those
Who sate in judgment to heap scorn on scorn.
But spare me the recital - it is here,

Here at my heart the outrage-but my words,
Already spent in unavailing plaints,
Would only show my feebleness the more,
And I come here to strengthen even the strong,
And urge them on to deeds, and not to war
With woman's weapons; but I need not urge you.
Our private wrongs have sprung from public vices,
In this - I cannot call it commonwealth
Nor kingdom, which hath neither prince nor people,
But all the sins of the old Spartan state!

sins of the old Spartan state.

[ But all their sins of the Spartan state."— MS.]

Without its virtues-temperance and valour.
The lords of Lacedæmon were true soldiers,
But ours are Sybarites, while we are Helots,
Of whom I am the lowest, most enslaved;
Although dress'd out to head a pageant, as
The Greeks of yore made drunk their slaves to form
A pastime for their children. You are met
To overthrow this monster of a state,

This mockery of a government, this spectre,
Which must be exorcised with blood, and then
We will renew the times of truth and justice,
Condensing in a fair free commonwealth
Not rash equality but equal rights,

Proportion'd like the columns to the temple,
Giving and taking strength reciprocal,

And making firm the whole with grace and beauty,
So that no part could be removed without
Infringement of the general symmetry.

In operating this great change, I claim
To be one of you- if you trust in me;
If not, strike home, my life is compromised,
And I would rather fall by freemen's hands
Than live another day to act the tyrant
As delegate of tyrants: such I am not,
And never have been-read it in our annals;
I can appeal to my past government
In many lands and cities; they can tell you
If I were an oppressor, or a man

Feeling and thinking for my fellow men.
Haply had I been what the senate sought,
A thing of robes and trinkets, dizen'd out
To sit in state as for a sovereign's picture;
A popular scourge, a ready sentence-signer,
A stickler for the Senate and "the Forty,"
A sceptic of all measures which had not
The sanction of "the Ten," a council-fawner,
A tool, a fool, a puppet, they had ne'er
Foster'd the wretch who stung me. What I suffer
Has reach'd me through my pity for the people;
That many know, and they who know not yet
Will one day learn: meantime, I do devote,
Whate'er the issue, my last days of life-
My present power such as it is

not that

Of Doge, but of a man who has been great
Before he was degraded to a Doge,

And still has individual means and mind;

I stake my fame (and I had fame)—my breath
(The least of all, for its last hours are nigh)
My heart-my hope-my soul-upon this cast!
Such as I am, I offer me to you

And to your chiefs, accept me or reject me,

A Prince who fain would be a citizen

Or nothing, and who has left his throne to be so. Cal. Long live Faliero!-Venice shall be free! Consp. Long live Faliero!

I. Ber.

Comrades! did I well? Is not this man a host in such a cause? Doge. This is no time for eulogies, nor place For exultation. Am I one of you?

Cal. Ay, and the first amongst us, as thou hast been Of Venice-be our general and chief.

Doge. Chief!-general!-I was general at Zara, And chief in Rhodes and Cyprus, prince in Venice: I cannot stoop that is, I am not fit

To lead a band of- - patriots: when I lay
Aside the dignities which I have borne,
'Tis not to put on others, but to be
Mate to my fellows

but now to the point:

Doge. So soon?—so late—each hour accumulates Peril on peril, and the more so now Since I have mingled with you; — know you not The Council, and “the Ten?" the spies, the eyes Of the patricians dubious of their slaves, [one? And now more dubious of the prince they have made I tell you, you must strike, and suddenly, Full to the Hydra's heart-its heads will follow.

Cal. With all my soul and sword, I yield assent; Our companies are ready, sixty each, And all now under arms by Israel's order; Each at their different place of rendezvous, And vigilant, expectant of some blow; Let each repair for action to his post! And now, my lord, the signal ? Doge. When you hear The great bell of St. Mark's, which may not be Struck without special order of the Doge (The last poor privilege they leave their prince), March on Saint Mark's !

Let your march be directed, every sixty

Entering a separate avenue, and still
Upon the way let your cry be of war

And of the Genoese fleet, by the first dawn
Discern'd before the port; form round the palace,
Within whose court will be drawn out in arms
My nephew and the clients of our house,
Many and martial; while the bell tolls on,
Shout ye, "Saint Mark !—the foe is on our waters!"
Cal. I see it now-but on, my noble lord.
Doge. All the patricians flocking to the Council,
(Which they dare not refuse, at the dread signal
Pealing from out their patron saint's proud tower,)
Will then be gather'd in unto the harvest,
And we will reap them with the sword for sickle.
If some few should be tardy or absent them,
'T will be but to be taken faint and single,
When the majority are put to rest.

[scotch,

Injustice to thy comrades and thy cause!
Dost thou not see, that if we single out
Some for escape, they live but to avenge
The fallen? and how distinguish now the innocent
From out the guilty? all their acts are one-
A single emanation from one body,
Together knit for our oppression ! 'Tis
Much that we let their children live; I doubt
If all of these even should be set apart :
The hunter may reserve some single cub
From out the tiger's litter, but who e'er
Would seek to save the spotted sire or dam,
Unless to perish by their fangs ? however,
I will abide by Doge Faliero's counsel :
Let him decide if any should be saved.
Doge. Ask me not-tempt me not with such a
question—

Decide yourselves.

I. Ber.

You know their private virtues Far better than we can, to whom alone Their public vices, and most foul oppression, Have made them deadly; if there be amongst them One who deserves to be repeal'd, pronounce.

Doge. Dolfino's father was my friend, and Lando Fought by my side, and Marc Cornaro shared My Genoese embassy: I saved the life Of Veniero-shall I save it twice? Would that I could save them and Venice also ! All these men, or their fathers, were my friends Till they became my subjects; then fell from me As faithless leaves drop from the o'erblown flower, And left me a lone blighted thorny stalk, Which, in its solitude, can shelter nothing; So, as they let me wither, let them perish !

Cul. They cannot co-exist with Venice' freedom! Doge. Ye, though you know and feel our mutual

mass

Of many wrongs, even ye are ignorant
What fatal poison to the springs of life,
To human ties, and all that's good and dear,
Lurks in the present institutes of Venice :

All these men were my friends; I loved them, they
Requited honourably my regards;

We served and fought; we smiled and wept in concert ;

We revell'd or we sorrow'd side by side;
We made alliances of blood and marriage;
We grew in years and honours fairly,- till
Their own desire, not my ambition, made
Them choose me for their prince, and then farewell!
Farewell all social memory! all thoughts [ships,

In common and sweet bonds which link old friend-
When the survivors of long years and actions,
Which now belong to history, soothe the days
Which yet remain by treasuring each other,
And never meet, but each beholds the mirror
Of half a century on his brother's brow,
And sees a hundred beings, now in earth,
Flit round them whispering of the days gone by,
And seeming not all dead, as long as two
Of the brave, joyous, reckless, glorious band,
Which once were one and many, still retain
A breath to sigh for them, a tongue to speak
Of deeds that else were silent, save on marble.
Oime! Oime!-and must I do this deed?

2 Bear witness with me! ye who hear and know,
And feel our mutual mass of many wrongs."-MS.]