I would die happier if he would kiss me, But he will not do that. I did not know him.
I thought he meant to sell me to the Judge;
That is not strange; we women never know Our lovers till they leave us.
[Bell begins to toll]
Thou vile bell, That like a bloodhound from thy brazen throat Call'st for this man's life, cease! thou shalt not get it.
He stirs - I must be quick: [Takes up cup.]
O Love, Love, Love, I did not think that I would pledge thee thus!
[Drinks poison, and sets the cup down on the table behind her: the noise wakens GUIDO, who starts up, and does not see what she has done. There is silence for a minute, each looking at the other.]
I do not come to ask your pardon now, Seeing I know I stand beyond all pardon;
Enough of that: I have already, sir, Confessed my sin to the Lords Justices;
They would not listen to me: and some said I did invent a tale to save your life;
You have trafficked with me; others said That women played with pity as with men;
Others that grief for my slain Lord and husband Had robbed me of my wits: they would not hear me, And, when I sware it on the holy book, They bade the doctor cure me. They are ten, Ten against one, and they possess your life.
They call me Duchess here in Padua.
I do not know, sir; if I be the Duchess, I wrote your pardon, and they would not take it;
They call it treason, say I taught them that;
Maybe I did. Within an hour, Guido, They will be here, and drag you from the cell, And bind your hands behind your back, and bid you Kneel at the block: I am before them there;
Here is the signet ring of Padua, 'Twill bring you safely through the men on guard;
There is my cloak and vizard; they have orders Not to be curious: when you pass the gate Turn to the left, and at the second bridge You will find horses waiting: by to-morrow You will be at Venice, safe. [A pause.]
Do you not speak?
Will you not even curse me ere you go? -
You have the right. [A pause.]
You do not understand There lies between you and the headsman's axe Hardly so much sand in the hour-glass As a child's palm could carry: here is the ring:
I have washed my hand: there is no blood upon it:
You need not fear. Will you not take the ring?
GUIDO
[takes ring and kisses it]
Ay! gladly, Madam.
DUCHESS
And leave Padua.
GUIDO
Leave Padua.
DUCHESS
But it must be to-night.
GUIDO
To-night it shall be.
DUCHESS
Oh, thank God for that!
GUIDO
So I can live; life never seemed so sweet As at this moment.
DUCHESS
Do not tarry, Guido, There is my cloak: the horse is at the bridge, The second bridge below the ferry house:
Why do you tarry? Can your ears not hear This dreadful bell, whose every ringing stroke Robs one brief minute from your boyish life.
Go quickly.
GUIDO
Ay! he will come soon enough.
DUCHESS
Who?
GUIDO
[calmly]
Why, the headsman.
DUCHESS
No, no.
GUIDO
Only he Can bring me out of Padua.
DUCHESS
You dare not!
You dare not burden my o'erburdened soul With two dead men! I think one is enough.
For when I stand before God, face to face, I would not have you, with a scarlet thread Around your white throat, coming up behind To say I did it.
GUIDO
Madam, I wait.
DUCHESS
No, no, you cannot: you do not understand, I have less power in Padua to-night Than any common woman; they will kill you.
I saw the scaffold as I crossed the square, Already the low rabble throng about it With fearful jests, and horrid merriment, As though it were a morris-dancer's platform, And not Death's sable throne. O Guido, Guido, You must escape!
GUIDO
Madam, I tarry here.
DUCHESS
Guido, you shall not: it would be a thing So terrible that the amazed stars Would fall from heaven, and the palsied moon Be in her sphere eclipsed, and the great sun Refuse to shine upon the unjust earth Which saw thee die.
GUIDO
Be sure I shall not stir.
DUCHESS
[wringing her hands]
Is one sin not enough, but must it breed A second sin more horrible again Than was the one that bare it? O God, God, Seal up sin's teeming womb, and make it barren, I will not have more blood upon my hand Than I have now.
GUIDO
[seizing her hand]
What! am I fallen so low That I may not have leave to die for you?
DUCHESS
[tearing her hand away]
Die for me? - no, my life is a vile thing, Thrown to the miry highways of this world;
You shall not die for me, you shall not, Guido;
I am a guilty woman.
GUIDO
Guilty? - let those Who know what a thing temptation is, Let those who have not walked as we have done, In the red fire of passion, those whose lives Are dull and colourless, in a word let those, If any such there be, who have not loved, Cast stones against you. As for me -
DUCHESS
Alas!
GUIDO
[falling at her feet]
You are my lady, and you are my love!
O hair of gold, O crimson lips, O face Made for the luring and the love of man!
Incarnate image of pure loveliness!
Worshipping thee I do forget the past, Worshipping thee my soul comes close to thine, Worshipping thee I seem to be a god, And though they give my body to the block, Yet is my love eternal!
[DUCHESS puts her hands over her face: GUIDO draws them down.]
Sweet, lift up The trailing curtains that overhang your eyes That I may look into those eyes, and tell you I love you, never more than now when Death Thrusts his cold lips between us: Beatrice, I love you: have you no word left to say?
Oh, I can bear the executioner, But not this silence: will you not say you love me?
Speak but that word and Death shall lose his sting, But speak it not, and fifty thousand deaths Are, in comparison, mercy. Oh, you are cruel, And do not love me.
DUCHESS
Alas! I have no right For I have stained the innocent hands of love With spilt-out blood: there is blood on the ground;
I set it there.
GUIDO
Sweet, it was not yourself, It was some devil tempted you.
DUCHESS
[rising suddenly]
No, no, We are each our own devil, and we make This world our hell.
GUIDO
Then let high Paradise Fall into Tartarus! for I shall make This world my heaven for a little space.
The sin was mine, if any sin there was.
