University of Virginia Library

ACT THE SECOND.

SCENE THE FIRST.

Julian, Lorenzo.
Lo.
Brother, what boots it? Thou hast hitherto
Trusted to me: does it now seem to thee
That, by my means, our influence is diminish'd?
Thou talkest of restraining men? are these
Restrain'd? If such had met with tolerance,
Say, had we risen to our present greatness?

Ju.
'Tis true, Lorenzo, a benignant star
Shines on us hitherto. We owe in part
To fortune our advancement; but still more
To our forefather's lofty counsels owe it.
Cosmo possess'd the state, but he possess'd it
Under the semblance of a private man.
Nor are the fetters yet so rivetted,
That with the exterior of royalty
We may securely grasp them. Let us leave
To fools, who form the multitude, the vain
Appearances of their lost liberty.
In its commencement, arbitrary power,
The less it is display'd, is more confirm'd.

Lo.
We have not yet obtain'd the height of greatness:
We are summon'd by the present times, oh Julian,
Rather to greatly dare, than nicely weigh.
Cosmo already centred in himself
His universal country; and by all,
As with one voice, was welcom'd as a father.
Little or nothing to the complex scheme
Pier our father added: adverse fate
Quickly cut short the few and feeble days
That he survived his sire: he added little;
But meanwhile he to Cosmo next succeeding,
And we to Pier, something is obtain'd
In thus accustoming the citizens
To hereditary right. Our foes thenceforward
Have been each day dispersed, enfeebled, slain;
Our friends accustomed or constrained to obey;
Now that all things invite us to complete
Cosmo's magnanimous enterprize, shall we
Be self-defeated by our cowardice?

Ju.
Wisely we ought to bring it to an end;
But in a manner moderate and humane.
Where gentle measures may effect our ends
With cautious speed, inflexible, yet mild;
And, when 'tis needful, sparingly severe.
Brother, believe me, to eradicate
Those seeds of liberty, by nature placed
In every human breast, no little art,
And management, besides a length of time,
Are requisite: these seeds may be suppress'd,
By spilling human blood, but not extinguish'd.
And oftentimes from blood they shoot again
With fresh luxuriance ...

Lo.
And do I wish
To shed the blood of these? The axe in Rome
Was Scylla's instrument; but e'en the rod
Is too imposing here: my words alone
Suffice to make them tremble.

Ju.
Blind reliance!
Knowest thou not that none are to be fear'd
Like men enslaved? Scylla dismiss'd his guards,
Yet hence was he not slain; but girt with arms,
With satellites, and mercenary spies,
Nero, Domitian, and Caligula,
And thousand others that have ruled o'er slaves,
By their own minions butcher'd, fell ignobly.
Why irritate those who obey already?
Obtain thy end by other means. 'Tis true,
The people here were never wholly free;
But notwithstanding never slaves to one.—
Thou should'st benumb their minds; and utterly
Enervate their affections; each high thought
Subtly eradicate; abolish virtue,
Or wither it by making it a jest;
Install among thy creatures the most pliant;
Degrade, by honouring them, the falsely proud;
Declaim in lofty and imposing tones
Of clemency, of country, glory, laws,
And citizens; and more than aught besides
Affect equality with thy inferiors.—
Behold the mighty means, by which in each
Are changed by little and by little first
The feelings, then the customs, thence the laws;
Then the deportment of the ruler; last,
That which alone remains to change, his name.

Lo.
Our ancestors with happy auspices
Already have adopted all these measures:
The foolish quarrels of the citizens,
If now a link is wanting to the chain,
Should fabricate that link. One, only one,
Openly dares, in short, to brave our power;
And ought he to be fear'd?

Ju.
Ferocious son
Of disaffected father, Raymond gives
Just ground for apprehension ...

Lo.
Both should be,
(And for this project I address myself,)
Blasted by scorn: e'en a revenge like that
Would not be undelightful ...

Ju.
'Tis not safe.

Lo.
Great as the project is, my mind is fix'd.
I from his rank will take that turbulent youth;
And suffer him to scatter at his will
Seditious words in vain: thus all shall see
How thoroughly I scorn his menaces.

Ju.
A foe offended, and not slain? At this,
What bosom, e'en though mail'd with triple steel,
Would tremble not? Should'st thou make him a foe
Whom thou could'st extirpate? Why thus give him,
Thyself, incautiously, so many pretexts
To agitate the state? Why make him thus
The head, and leader of the malecontents?
And they are numerous; many, many more
Than thou suspectest. Open force they have not?
I trust that it is so: but who will guard
Our back from treason? Will suspicion, say,
Suffice for this? It may suffice to spoil
Our quiet, not to give security.

Lo.
Audacity will be our best defence:
Audacity to the enterprizing breast,
Which is both sword, and intellect, and shield.
A silent invitation I will give
To the rebellious and impetuous youth
To new offences. Afterwards disgraced,
But not destroy'd by him who might destroy him,
He to the multitude whom now he heads
Will thus become an object of derision.

SCENE THE SECOND.

Lorenzo, Julian, Guglielmo, Raymond.
Gu.
Follow my footsteps, son; and I beseech thee
Suffer me here to speak alone.—Oh you,
(For yet I know not by what epithet
I ought to accost you) in a suppliant posture
Behold me here your once implacable,
And bitterest enemy. Better I know,
Better adapted to my age infirm,
Were free expressions, and still freer deeds;
Nor with my nature, though I use them, do
These servile ones accord. But I am not
The only one remaining of my house;
Whence to your fortune, and to tyrannous
And base necessity, I long have yielded.
Myself, my life, my substance, and my honour,
My children, all did I confide to you;
Nor was I more reluctant to obey
Than others were. Thence can I scarce believe
That which is now reported, that ye mean
With wrongs unmerited to injure Raymond,
And me in him. But grant, if this be true,
That I demand of you the cause for this.

Ju.
Why from thy son dost thou not first demand
The cause of his deportment, and his language? ...

Ray.
I refuse not to give account to him:
Nor can I ever meet with those, to whom
I would more freely, than to you, confess
My purposes ...

Lo.
Thy purposes I know.—
But I would teach thee, that, if thou would'st cope
With those in pow'r, there's need of enterprize
Proportion'd to thy envy; and not less
Strength to that lofty enterprize proportion'd.
Say; fares it so with thee?

Gu.
I hitherto
Am chief of all our race; nor is there one
Who dares to move, if I precede him not.
I speak of deeds. And what, do ye likewise
Pretend to sit in judgment on secret thoughts?
Are ineffectual words high treason here?
Are we so far advanced?—If ye pretend
To exercise a right like this, I ask you,
That men may learn more abjectly to fear,
What are you? Whence your charter to such power?

Ray.
What are they? Dost thou ask it? Do not they
Tremendously, though tacitly, express it
In their imperious and cruel faces?—
Yes, they are all; and nothing we.

Ju.
We are
The fearless guardians of the sacred laws;
We are exterminating flames from heaven
To culprits like thyself; but to the good
Heart-cheering benefactors.

Lo.
In one word,
Such are we as to hold thee in contempt.
Our will to thee assign'd the gonfalon,
Another will of ours more just recalls it.
With dignity unmerited by us
Invested, didst thou ask on what pretence
The gonfalon was yielded to thy hands?

Ray.
Who knows it not? Your terror gave it me;
Your terror takes it from me: to yourselves
Terror is law supreme and deity.
What attribute of king possess you not?
Already ye possess the public hate,
Their cruel artifice, their frantic vices,
Their infamous contrivances. Ye tread
The generous path trod by your ancestors:
Proceed, oh valiant, in full sail proceed,
While prosperous gales befriend you. Not wealth only,
But life and honour ye will take away
From those who give you umbrage: the sublime,
And only right to your authority,
From waste of blood arises. Greatly dare:
And try to imitate the many tyrants
By whom oppress'd Italia has been scourged ...

Gu.
My son, thou dost exceed all bounds. 'Tis true,
That it is lawful for each man to speak
His thoughts, while these have not thrown off the name
Of citizens: but we ...

Lo.
Too late thou'rt cautious:
Thy time hast thou ill chosen to restrain him.
Fret not thyself; his words are thy begetting.
Leave him to speak: on us depends to hear him.

Ju.
Audacious youth, minds ill-disposed already,
What boots it to exasperate? 'Twould be
The best for thee spontaneously to quit
The gonfalon, which in contempt of us
Thou wouldest keep in vain; thou seest it ...

Ray.
Shall I thus make myself deserving insults?
Hear me: these arts successfully perchance
May be adopted to ensure command,
But not to ensure obedience. If I yield,
I yield alone to force. Honour sometimes
Is by submission gain'd, if we indeed
Submit to nothing but to absolute,
And dire necessity.—It pleases me,
As I have told you mine, to have heard your thoughts.
Now new means to new violence I wait
To see, and be they what they may, I swear
That I will be of rising tyranny
The victim, yes, but not the instrument.

SCENE THE THIRD.

Lorenzo, Julian, Guglielmo.
Lo.
Go; if thou carest for thy son, pursue him:
To adapt his conduct better to the times
Instruct him; and to this do thou thyself,
By thy example, aid him. Equally
With him indeed thou hatest us, yet thou
Hast yielded to us, and dost yield. Engraft
Thy own discretion on his headstrong will.
I do not e'en pretend regard for you;
I'll have ye feign'd; and nothing it annoys me.
Haste, but obey; and yet obeying, tremble.
Go thou, and tell to this thy mountebank,
And pigmy Brutus, that his prototype,
The real Brutus, fell in vain with Rome.

Gu.
I see my son's incautious. Yet I always
Applied to him a father's wise reproofs;
I preach endurance, but he learns it not.
This is an art to which we've not been used:
Failings of youth are worthy of excuse;
He will amend.—But thou, oh Julian, thou
Who art with honours and prosperity
Somewhat less drunken, mollify thy brother;
And make him recollect, that if a Brutus
Fail'd to regenerate Rome, yet many others
Were sacrificed ere Rome and Brutus fell.

SCENE THE FOURTH.

Lorenzo, Julian.
Ju.
Heard'st thou how these address us?

Lo.
Yes, I hear.
They're garrulous, and thence I fear them less.

Ju.
One may hatch plots ...

Lo.
But few will follow him.

Ju.
Raymond may be that one.

Lo.
That he may be
That one, is what I hope. I fully know
His courage, his resources, and his force:
He may attempt, but he will ne'er succeed.
What can I wish for more? I look to him,
Hoping that he our mandate may transgress.
Let him attempt it; we at once shall thwart him.
Each hostile enterprize confirms our power,
And to our just revenge at once prepares
An ample field for action. In calm seas
Progress is difficult; the earliest storm
Will drive our vessel to the wish'd-for port.

Ju.
To wish for all at once, often at once
Causes the loss of all. All danger's doubtful;
Nor he who fills the throne should e'er permit
Even the thought to cross his subjects' minds
That he's assailable by other men.
The opinion of the multitude, that holds
Our breasts invulnerable, is in itself
The very panoply that makes them so.
Woe if we leave the passage to our hearts
Once obvious to the point of traitrous swords!
A day will come when it will penetrate,
And find a passage to the very hilt.
To-day, oh brother, yield thyself to me;
No, our authority put not to proof,
Or their revenge. Ah, yield thyself to me.

Lo.
To reason I am always wont to yield,
And this I hope to prove to thee.—But see,
Bianca comes to us o'erwhelm'd with grief:
How painful is it to my soul to hear
Her lamentations! ... yet I'm forced to hear them.

SCENE THE FIFTH.

Bianca, Lorenzo, Julian.
Bi.
And is it true, oh brothers, 'tis your will
To shew yourselves to me oppressive lords,
Rather than brothers? Yet, if I to you
Was ever dear, I am your sister still;
And ye to Raymond gave me; ye who now
Are thus the first to insult him.

Lo.
Art thou thus
Become, Bianca, hostile to thy blood,
That thou no more discernest equity?
Hast thou with Raymond learn'd so much to hate us,
That now our hearts are known to thee no longer?
All that we wish to do is to defeat
His malice by our measures. Gentle means,
Far gentler than he merits, we adopt,
To obviate further mischief: be convinced.

Bi.
Dear are ye to me, brothers; he to me
Is also dear: I would do all for peace.
But why, if he already was your foe,
Give me to him in marriage? If ye gave
Me to him, why insult him afterwards?

Ju.
We hoped that thou at least would'st be a check
To his temerity ...

Lo.
But hoped in vain:
For such is Raymond that 'twere easier far
To exterminate than change him.

Bi.
But have you
Ever towards him the manners used, that change
A free, unconquer'd heart? If it grieves you
Not to be loved by him, who, save yourselves,
Prohibits his affection?

Lo.
Oh, my sister,
How has the traitor utterly transfused
His poison in thy heart! He hath estranged
Thee, thee our sister, from all duteous thoughts;
Guess then how banefully his hostile words
Will operate elsewhere.

Bi.
I might behold
With some complacency your sovereign power,
If one man I beheld, one, only one,
From your ferocious tyranny exempt;
And if that one were Raymond; he to whom,
By an indissoluble sacred tie,
Ye have united me; with whom I live
Inseparably join'd for many years,
With whom participate, with whom endure
A thousand injuries; to whom, alas!
Pledges of faith and of eternal love
(A wretched mother!) I have given already
Too numerous and too dear a progeny;—
Raymond, to whom I'm ready to yield all.

Ju.
To take from him his office, is to wrest
The power of self-destruction from his hands,
Rather than that of injury to ourselves.
Indeed to be the first, it now becomes thee,
To induce him to renounce it ...

Bi.
Ah! I see,
I manifestly see, by different means,
How to one end ye hasten. Of your views
I was the earliest victim; I was not
To real peace, but to delay'd revenge,
A sacrifice. Oh well ye understood
To assume at once the hearts and power of kings.
'Mid those resembling you, all natural ties
Are treated with derision ... Wretched me!
Why had I not discover'd this before?
Why knew it not before I was a mother?
But such I am; a mother and a wife ...

Lo.
I cannot blame thy grief; ... but longer now
I cannot hear it.—Brother, let us go
Whither our duty summons us.—And thou,
Who deem'st us tyrants in thy heart, think not
Of that which he has lost, but rather think
Of that which, nothing meriting, he keeps.

SCENE THE SIXTH.

Bianca.
Bi.
Thus sufferance to retain, kings deem a gift.—
With these my tears are vain: their hearts are mail'd
In adamant. Let me return once more
To unhappy Raymond: he at least beholds
My tears without contempt. Who knows? Perchance
My griefs may thus be lighten'd ... Why perchance?
Can there be doubt of this? We should behold
Each father promptly for his children's sake
Resign his life, ere that a single prince
Would to the tears of all his fellow-men,
Much less then to a sister's tears, resign
The paltry prize of one fantastic wish.