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An Apartment in the Castle. | |
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Enter BEATRICE and LUCRETIA | |
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| Lucretia. They are about it now. | |
| Beatrice. Nay, it is done. | |
| Lucretia. I have not heard him groan. | 5 |
| Beatrice. He will not groan. | |
| Lucretia. What sound is that? | |
| Beatrice. List ’tis the tread of feet | |
| About his bed. | |
| Lucretia. My God! | 10 |
| If he be now a cold stiff corpse… | |
| Beatrice. O, fear not | |
| What may be done, but what is left undone: | |
| The act seals all. | |
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Enter OLIMPIO and MARZIO | 15 |
| Is it accomplished? | |
| Marzio. What? | |
| Olimpio. Did you not call? | |
| Beatrice. When? | |
| Olimpio. Now. | 20 |
| Beatrice. I ask if all is over? | |
| Olimpio. We dare not kill an old and sleeping man; | |
| His thin gray hair, his stern and reverent brow, | |
| His veined hands crossed on his heaving breast, | |
| And the calm innocent sleep in which he lay, | 25 |
| Quelled me. Indeed, indeed, I cannot do it. | |
| Marzio. But I was bolder; for I chid Olimpio, | |
| And bade him bear his wrongs to his own grave | |
| And leave me the reward. And now my knife | |
| Touched the loose wrinkled throat, when the old man | 30 |
| Stirred in his sleep, and said, “God! hear, O, hear, | |
| A father’s curse! What, art though not our father?” | |
| And then he laughed. I knew it was the ghost | |
| Of my dead father speaking through his lips, | |
| And could not kill him. | 35 |
| Beatrice. Miserable slaves! | |
| Where, if ye dare not kill a sleeping man, | |
| Found ye the boldness to return to me | |
| With such a deed undone? Base palterers! | |
| Cowards and traitors! Why, the very conscience | 40 |
| Which ye would sell for gold and for revenge | |
| Is an equivocation: it sleeps over | |
| A thousand daily acts disgracing men; | |
| And when a deed where mercy insults Heaven… | |
| Why do I talk? [Snatching a dagger from one of them and raising it. | 45 |
| Hadst thou a tongue to say, | |
| She murdered her own father, I must do it! | |
| But never dream ye shall outlive him long! | |
| Olimpio. Stop, for God’s sake! | |
| Marzio. I will go back and kill him. | 50 |
| Olimpio. Give me the weapon, we must do thy will. | |
| Beatrice. Take it. Depart! Return! [Exeunt OLIMPIO and MARZIO. | |
| How pale thou art! | |
| We do but that which ’twere a deadly crime | |
| To leave undone. | 55 |
| Lucretia. Would it were done! | |
| Beatrice. Even whilst | |
| That doubt is passing through your mind, the world | |
| Is conscious of a change. Darkness and Hell | |
| Have swallowed up the vapour they sent forth | 60 |
| To blacken the sweet light of life, My breath | |
| Comes, methinks, lighter, and the jellied blood | |
| Runs freely thro’ my veins. Hark! | |
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Enter OLIMPIO and MARZIO. | |
| He is… | 65 |
| Olimpio. Dead! | |
| Marzio. We strangled him that there might be no blood; | |
| And then we threw his heavy corpse i’ the garden | |
| Under the balcony; ’twill seem it fell. | |
| Beatrice (giving them a bag of coin). Here, take this gold and hasten to your homes. | 70 |
| And, Marzio, because thou wast only awed | |
| By that which made me tremble, wear thou this! [Clothes him in a rich mantle. | |
| It was the mantle which my grandfather | |
| Wore in his high prosperity, and men | |
| Envied his state: so may they envy thine. | 75 |
| Thou wert a weapon in the hand of God | |
| To a just use. Live long and thrive! And, mark, | |
| If thou hast crimes, repent: this deed is none. [A horn is sounded. | |
| Lucretia. Hark, ’tis the castle horn; my God! it sounds | |
| Like the last trump. | 80 |
| Beatrice. Some tedious guest is coming. | |
| Lucretia. The drawbridge is let down; there is a tramp | |
| Of horses in the court; fly, hide yourselves! [Exeunt OLIMPIO and MARZIO. | |
| Beatrice. Let us retire to counterfeit deep rest; | |
| I scarcely need to counterfeit it now: | 85 |
| The spirit which doth reign within these limbs | |
| Seems strangely undisturbed. I could even sleep | |
| Fearless and calm: all ill is surely past. [Exeunt. | |
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