ACT IV.

Duke. The land and people’s mine; the crimes being known,
I must redress; my subjects’ wrong’s mine own.
Call for the two suspected for the murder
Of Mendoza, our endeared kinsman,
These voluntary murderers that confess
The murder of him that is yet alive.
We’ll sport with serious justice for a while;
In show we’ll frown on them that make us smile.

Enter (brought in with Officers) Claridiana and Rogero.[264]

Duke. Stand forth, you vipers, [you] that have suck’d blood,    20
And lopp’d a branch sprung from a royal tree!
What can you answer to escape tortures?

Rog. We have confessed the fact,[265] my lord, to God and man,
Our ghostly father, and that worthy captain:
We beg not life, but favourable death.

Duke. On what ground sprung your hate to him we loved?

Cla. Upon that curse laid on Venetians, jealousy. We thought he, being a courtier, would have made us magnificoes of the right stamp, and have play’d at primero in the presence, with gold of the city brought from our Indies.    31

Rog. Nay, more, my lord, we feared that your kinsman, for a mess of sonnets, would have given the plot of us and our wives to some needy poet, and for sport and profit brought us in some Venetian comedy upon the stage.

Duke. Our justice dwells with mercy; be not desperate.

Rog. Why, now I see thou lovest me; thou hast confirm’d
Thy friendship for ever to me by these words.
Why, I should never hear lanthorn and candle[266] call’d for
But I should think it was for me and my wife.
I’ll hang for that, forget not thy trick;
Upon ’em with thy trick; I long for sentence.

2d Sen. Will you appeal for mercy to the duke?    50

Cla. Kill not thy justice, duke, to save our lives;
We have deserved death.

Rog. Make not us precedents for after-wrongs;
I will receive punishment for my sins:
It shall be a means to lift me towards heaven.

Cla. Let’s have our desert; we crave no favour.

Duke. Take them asunder; grave justice makes us mirth;
That man is soulless that ne’er smiles[267] on earth.
Signor Rogero,[268] relate the weapon you kill’d him with,
and the manner.    60

Rog. My lord, your lustful kinsman—I can title him no better—came sneaking to my house like a promoter to spy flesh[269] in the Lent. Now I, having a Venetian spirit, watch’d my time, and with my rapier run him through, knowing all pains are but trifles to the horn of a citizen.

Duke. Take him aside. Signior Claridiana, what weapon had you for this bloody act? What dart used death?

Cla. My lord, I brain’d him with a [c]leaver my neighbour lent me, and he stood by and cried, “Strike home, old boy.”    71

Duke. With several instruments. Bring them face to face.
With what kill’d you our nephew?

Rog. With a rapier, liege.

Cla. ’Tis a lie;
I kill’d him with a [c]leaver, and thou stood’st by.

Rog. Dost think to save me and hang thyself? No, I scorn it; is this the trick thou said’st thou had’st? I kill’d him, duke.
He only gave consent: ’twas I that did it.    80

Cla. Thou hast always been cross to me, and wilt be to my death. Have I taken all this pains to bring thee to hanging, and dost thou slip now?

Rog. We shall never agree in a tale till we come to the gallows, then we shall jump.

Cla. I’ll show you a cross-point, if you cross me thus, when thou shalt not see it.

Duke. You hang together, that shall make you friends;
An everlasting hatred death soon ends.
To prison with them till the death;
Kings’ words, like fate, must never change their breath.

Men. I do confess I did intend to rob her;
In the attempt I fell and hurt myself.
Law’s thunder is but death; I dread it not,
So my Lentulus’ honour be preserved    140
From black suspicion of a lustful night.

SCENE II.

Pavia.—Isabella’s house.

Enter Isabella alone, Gniaca following her.

Isa. O Heavens, that I was born to be hate’s slave,
The food of rumour that devours my fame!
I am call’d Insatiate Countess, lust’s paramour,
A glorious devil, and the noble whore!
I am sick, vex’d, and tormented. O revenge!

Gni. On whom would my Isabella be revenged?

Isa. Upon a viper, that does eat[270] mine honour;
I will not name him till I be revenged.
See, here’s the libels are divulg’d against me—
An everlasting scandal to my name—    10
And thus the villain writes in my disgrace:—

[She reads.

Who loves Isabella the Insatiate,
Needs Atlas’ back for to content her lust,
That wand’ring strumpet, and chaste wedlock’s hate,
That renders truth deceit for loyal trust;
That sacrilegious thief to Hymen’s rites,
Making her lust her god, heaven her delights!
Swell not, proud heart, I’ll quench thy grief in blood;
Desire in woman cannot be withstood.

Isa. Massino.[271]    30

Gni. Ha!

Isa. What! does his name affright thee, coward lord!
Be mad, Isabella! curse on thy revenge!
This lord was knighted for his father’s worth,
Not for his own.
Farewell, thou perjured man! I’ll leave you all;
You all conspire to work mine honour’s fall.

Gni. Stay, my Isabella; were he my father’s son,
Composed of me, he dies!
Delight still keep with thee. Go in.

Isa. Thou art just;    40
Revenge to me is sweeter now than lust.

[Exit Isabella.

Enter Massino;[272] they see one another and draw and make a pass; then enter Anna.

Ann. What mean you, nobles? Will you kill each other?

Ambo. Hold!

Mass. Thou shame to friendship, what intends thy hate?

Gni. Love arms my hand, makes my soul valiant!
Isabella’s wrongs now sit upon my sword,
To fall more heavy to thy coward’s head
Than thunderbolts upon Jove’s rifted oaks.
Deny thy scandal, or defend thy life.

Mass. What?—hath thy faith and reason left thee both,    50
That thou art only flesh without a soul?
Hast thou no feeling of thyself and me?
Blind rage, that will not let thee see thyself!

Gni. I come not to dispute but execute:
And thus comes death!

[Another pass.

Mass. And thus I break thy dart.
Here’s at thy whore’s face!

Gni. ’Tis miss’d. Here’s at thy heart!
Stay, let us breathe.

Mass. Let reason govern rage yet, let us leave;
Although most wrong be mine, I can forgive.
In this attempt thy shame will ever live.    60

Gni. Thou hast wrong’d the Phœnix of all women rarest—
She that’s most wise, most loving, chaste, and fairest.

Mass. Thou dotest upon a devil, not a woman,
That has bewitch’d thee with her sorcery,
And drown’d thy soul in lethy faculties.
Her quenchless[273] lust has [quite] benumbed thy knowledge;
Thy intellectual powers oblivion smothers,
That thou art nothing but forgetfulness.

Gni. What’s this to my Isabella? My sin’s mine own.
Her faults were none, until thou madest ’em known.    70

Mass. Leave her, and leave thy shame where first thou found’st it;
Else live a bondslave to diseasèd lust,
Devour’d in her gulf-like appetite,
And infamy shall write thy epitaph;
Thy memory leave nothing but thy crimes—
A scandal to thy name in future times.

Gni. Put up your weapon; I dare hear you further.
Insatiate lust is sire still to murther.

Mass. Believe it, friend, if her heart-blood were vext,
Though you kill me, new pleasure makes you next.    80
She loved me dearer than she loves you now;
She’ll ne’er be faithful, has twice broke her vow.
This curse pursues female adultery,
They’ll swim through blood for sin’s variety;
Their pleasure like a sea, groundless and wide,
A woman’s lust was never satisfied.

Gni. Fear whispers in my breast, I have a soul
That blushes red for tend’ring[274] bloody facts.
Forgive me, friend, if I can be forgiven;
Thy counsel is the path leads me to heaven.    90

Mass. I do embrace thy reconcilèd love——

Gni. That death or danger now shall ne’er remove.
Go tell thy Insatiate Countess, Anna,
We have escap’d the snares of her false love,
Vowing for ever to abandon her.

Mass. You have heard our resolution; pray, be gone.

Ann. My office ever rested at your pleasure;
I was the Indian, yet you had the treasure.
My faction often sweats, and oft takes cold;
Then gild true diligence o’er with gold.    100

Mass. Thy speech deserves it. There’s gold;

[Gives her gold.

Be honest now, and not love’s noddy,
Turn’d up and play’d on whilst thou keep’st the stock.
Prithee formally let’s ha’ thy absence.

Ann. Lords, farewell.

[Exit Anna.

Mass. ’Tis whores and panders that makes earth like hell.

Gni. Now I am got out of lust’s labyrinth,
I will to Venice for a certain time,
To recreate my much abusèd spirits,
And then revisit Pavy and my friend.    110

Mass. I’ll bring you on your way, but must return;
Love is like Ætna, and will ever burn.
Yet now desire is quench’d, flamed once in height:
Till man knows hell he never has firm faith.

SCENE III.

The balcony of Isabella’s house at Pavia.

Enter Isabella raving,[275] and Anna.

Isa. Out, screech-owl, messenger of my revenge’s death!
Thou dost belie Gniaca; ’tis not so.

Ann. Upon mine honesty, they are united.

Isa. Thy honesty?—thou vassal to my pleasure,
Take that!

[Strikes her.

Darest thou control me when I say no?
Art not my footstool—did not I create thee,
And made thee gentle, being born a beggar?
Thou hast been my woman’s pander for a crown,
And dost thou stand upon thy honesty?    10

Ann. I am what you please, madam; yet ’tis so.

Isa. Slave, I will slit thy tongue, ’less thou say no!

Ann. No, no, no, madam.

Isa. I have my humour, though thy[276] no be false.
Faint-hearted coward, get thee from my sight!
When,[277] villain? Haste, and come not near me.

Ann. Madam, I run;—her sight like death doth fear me.

[Exit.

Isa. Perfidious cowards, stain of nobility!
Venetians, and be reconciled with words!
O that I had Gniaca once more here,    20
Within this prison made of flesh and bone,
I’d not trust thunder with my fell revenge,
But mine own hands should do the dire exploit,
And fame should chronicle a woman’s acts!
My rage respects the persons, not the facts:
Their place and worths hath power to defame me;
Mean hate is stingless, and does only name me:
I not regard it. ’Tis high blood that swells,
Give me revenge, and damn me into hells!

Enter Don Sago, a Coronel,[278] with a band of Soldiers and a Lieutenant.

A gallant Spaniard, I will hear him speak;    30
Grief must be speechless, ere the heart can break!

Sago. Lieutenant, let good discipline be used
In quart’ring of our troops within the city—
Not separated into many streets.
That shows weak love, but not sound policy:
Division in small numbers makes all weak;
Forces united are the nerves of war.
Mother and nurse of observation—
Whose rare ingenious sprite fills all the world,
By looking on itself with piercing eyes—    40
Will look through strangers’ imbecilities.
Therefore be careful.

Lie. All shall be order’d fitting your command,
For these three gifts which makes a soldier rare,
Is love and duty with a valiant care.

Sago. What rarity[279] of women feeds my sight,
And leads my senses in a maze of wonder?

[Sees Isabella.

Bellona,
Thou wert my mistress till I saw that shape;
But now my sword I’ll consecrate to her,    50
Leave Mars and become Cupid’s martialist.
Beauty can turn the rugged face of War,
And make him smile upon delightful Peace,
Courting her smoothly like a femalist.
I grow a slave unto my potent[280] love,
Whose power change[281] hearts, make our fate remove.

Isa. Revenge, not pleasure, now o’er-rules my blood;
Rage shall drown faint love in a crimson flood;
And were he caught, I’d make him murder’s hand!

Sago. Methinks ’twere joy to die at her command.    60
I’ll speak to hear her speech, whose powerful breath
Is able to infuse life into death.

Isa. He comes to speak: he’s mine; by love he is mine!

Sago. Lady, think bold intrusion courtesy;
’Tis but imagination alters them;
Then ’tis your thoughts, not I, that do offend.

Isa. You are a stranger to this land and me.
What madness is’t for me to trust you then?
To cozen women is a trade ’mongst men;
Smooth promises, faint passions, with a lie,
Deceives our sex[282] of fame and chastity.    80
What danger durst you hazard for my love?

Sago. Perils that ever mortal durst approve.
I’ll double all the works of Hercules,
Expose myself in combat against an host,
Meet danger in a place of certain death,
Yet never shrink, or give way to my fate;
Bare-breasted meet the murderous Tartar’s dart,
Or any fatal engine made for death:
Such power has love and beauty from your eye,[283]
He that dies resolute does never die!    90
’Tis fear gives death his strength, which I resisted,
Death is but empty air the fates have twisted.

Isa. Dare you revenge my quarrel ’gainst a foe?

Sago. Then ask me if I dare embrace you thus,
Or kiss your hand, or gaze on your bright eye,
Where Cupid dances on those globes of love!
Fear is my vassal; when I frown he flies;
A hundred times in life a coward dies![284]

Isa. I not suspect your valour, but your will.    99

Sago. To gain your love my father’s blood I’ll spill.

Isa. Many have sworn the like, yet broke their vow.

Sago. My whole endeavour to your wish shall bow;
I am your plague to scourge your enemies.

Isa. Perform your promise, and enjoy your pleasure;
Spend my love’s dowry, that is women’s treasure;
But if thy resolution dread the trial,
I’ll tell the world a Spaniard was disloyal.

Sago. Relate your grief; I long to hear their names
Whose bastard spirits thy true worth defames.
I’ll wash thy scandal off when their hearts bleeds;    110
Valour makes difference betwixt words and deeds.
Tell thy fame’s poison, blood shall wash thee white.

Isa. My spotless honour is a slave to spite.
These are the monsters Venice doth bring forth,
Whose empty souls are bankrupt of true worth:
False Count Guido,[285] treacherous Gniaca,
Counties[286] of Gazia, and of rich Massino.
Then, if thou beest a knight, help the oppress’d;
Through danger safety comes, through trouble rest.
And so my love——    120