University of Virginia Library

SCENE V.

The Great Hall of the Castle. A feast spread. At which are seated the Marquis and Marchioness di Tiburzzi, Marsio, Costanza, Filippia, Juranio, and other Guests. Servants in waiting. Enter Pulti, and stands behind Marsio. Then enter Salvatore, and seats himself.
Marquis.
We wait you, signore.

Salvatore.
Pardon my delay:
My need was urgent.

Marsio.
I have kept the wine.
Our cups, o'erbrimming with the sunny juice,
Stand to attend you.

Sal.
'T was a needless pause.
I never taste the vintage. By your leave,
I'll use the grape, as nature gives it to us,
Thus, in the ripened fruit. For I hold wine
To be a most ingenious fraud of Satan's;
Who is so ready to change Heaven's best gifts
Into some tempting form of sin. 'T is true
A healthy apple cozened mother Eve;
But I have wondered at that barefaced trick
Upon the simple woman. Why did not
The guileful devil change it into cider,
And gull her handsomely? My kinsman, too,
Is of my way of thinking.

Juranio.
I! what, I!
Why, Salvatore, I would quaff a sea
Of the rich earthly Lethe, were our night
Stretched to a polar length.

Mar.
You hear him, sir:
The Count is wild for wassail. You will not
Refuse my lady's health? 'Sblood! should this dog
Lap water only? Pulti, is it done?

[Apart to Pulti.]
Pulti.
You'll find it so.—Ho! ho!—

[Laughing.]
Mar.
Hist! be discreet.

[Apart to Pulti.]
Sal.
I will not balk you, to be curious.
A toast, a toast!

Mar.
Rise, sirs. Our union!

[They drink.]
Sal.
Simple and pregnant. Cleopatra's pearl
Suffers discredit by your tasteful pledge.
I drank it, with good relish, to the dregs;
Ay, and forgot my enmity to wine,
In seeing with what gust you boused it down.

Mar.
You flatter me. Your kinsman holds his peace:
I hope I touched him.

Sal.
Him! Why, look you, now;
His cup is dry,—the very moisture gone:
Heavens! what a fiery thirst!

Costanza.
Your lover's spirits
Mount to a wondrous height. It makes one sad
To see a man so merry.

Filippia.
Wait a while,
And his high spirits shall fly off with you.

Cos.
You have a hopeful fancy: it must be
A sorry thing to mark its failures.

Fil.
No;
I have fresh hopes to help the lame ones on.
They are like flowers that, dying, run to seed,
And multiply the race.—See, Marsio!

March.
What is the matter, signore?

Mar.
Nothing, nothing:
A passing pain.

Sal.
You drink too eagerly.
A sudden rush of wine into the frame
Shakes it with spasms sometimes.

Mar.
Are you a leech?
Physic yourself—'Sblood!

March.
Signore!—

Mar.
I am ill.

[They all rise.]
Sal.
Pray will you test my leechcraft?

Mar.
I feel faint.
Nay; I am stronger now. Come hither, Pulti.
What does this mean?

Pul.
I cannot tell.

Mar.
Those men,
Those devilish villains—Pulti, do you see them?—
Look well and merry. Ere this time, the snakes
Should have crawled homeward, with their venom in.
The poison but fulfils what nature skipt:
While I—Augh! Pulti—

[Apart to Pulti.]
Pul.
Let me see. (Runs to the table.)
O, Lord!
O! signore Marsio is poisoned! O!
The cups are changed. You drank the—

Mar.
Traitor, hold!
Or I will cut you to the belt!

March.
Good heaven!
Poisoned?

Marq.
Is this your plot? You—

Sal.
Wait the issue.

[Apart to the Marquis.]
March.
Run, run—a doctor!

Mar.
Forty thousand doctors
Were forty thousand short.

Cos.
How feel you, signore?

Mar.
Out! smooth drab!—O!—O!

Sal.
You have sprung the trap,
But caught yourself for game.

Mar.
Who did this thing?

Sal.
I.

Mar.
Hear! he confesses it. Seize on them—
Juranio and that man—my murderers!

March.
Ay; seize them, seize them!

[The Guests draw.]
Sal.
Patience, gentlemen,
I make you no resistance. On my honor,
I will not try to fly.

Mar.
A poisoner's honor!
Mercy, what a pang! 'Sdeath! an officer—
Send for an officer! Quick, quick—break up—
I do denounce them both—we'll have no feast!

Sal.
Ay, but we will; a marriage, too.

Mar.
How, how?

Sal.
We'll use Juranio, when you are gone.

Mar.
Ah, dog! may your tongue rot!

Sal.
Before you, signore?

Mar.
Silence the miscreant! Are you men, to see—
O, heaven! these pains!

Ju.
What means this, Salvatore?

Sal.
Peace, my dear boy; the time is mine.

Mar.
You think—
You two—your countship and that pliant lady—
You think, I say, when the grave swallows me,
To wed?—Ha! do ye? If the dead can rise—
And I will up! I'll haunt you till ye pray
To sleep beside me. I will crawl between
Your eager kisses with my wormy lips;
I'll eat with you; I'll drink—I'll drink again—
O, heaven! some water, water! I consume—
Till all my flesh has rotted from me. Gods!
Ha! ha! I'll make a merry guest! You wretch—
Now I feel easier—you Salvatore,
I'll fight with you, through all your odious days,
Until I drive you in your grave. O! curse you!
Do I look better? I may yet be well.
O! O! these searching cramps! Where do you go?
Come back, I say! I will not die alone!
I do denounce them—Pulti, Pulti too.
Seize them—seize all! Have pity on me, Heaven!
I will—I will!—The room is full of smoke.
Cut down the poisoners! I am not dead yet!
[Draws, rushes at Juranio, and falls.]
O! mercy, heaven! O! curse you—O!

[Faints.]
Sal.
Well done!
He shows his death-bed in perspective.

March.
Base,
Base man, to glory in your victim's death!
Sirs, apprehend him.

[The Guests advance.]
Sal.
Gently, gentlemen—
I use my cutlery with the best of you—
Marsio 's not dead. A simple opiate
Caused all this terror.

Fil.
'T is ill news, but true.
Find out some den to keep this monster in.

[Servants carry off Marsio.]
Sal.
Wake from your apathy! You stand like marble.

Cos.
I never dreamed such horrors.

Ju.
What, not dead?

March.
O! joy, joy, joy!

Sal.
Call in your priest and notary.
Are they in waiting?

Marq.
As I promised you.
But I can scarcely see my way through this.

(Enter a Priest and a Notary.)
Sal.
I am your pilot: trust me.

Marq.
As you will.

Sal.
Now sign this paper, lady; and you, Count.
'T is hasty, not dishonorable. Keep faith.

Cos.
How, sir!

Ju.
But, Salvatore, Marsio lives.

Sal.
He lives a felon! And I roundly swear,
If you two people are not wed to-night,
I'll have him hung upon a moving gallows,
And wheel him after you around the world.
I'll have no trifling.

March.
Marsio a felon!

Sal.
He sought to poison Count Juranio,
And honored me by joining me with him.
Where are you, Pulti?

Pulti.
Here, sir. Room, room, room,
For Marsio's prime minister of drugs!
This vial, and my oath, might go some lengths
To speed his journey to a hotter world.
Advance my relique!

[Salvatore shows the vial.]
March.
O! the horrid viper!
What an escape poor, dear Costanza made!

Sal.
You still hang back?

Cos.
My father still is bound.

Sal.
He is well cared for. Ere another day,
I pledge myself to buy your father's debts
At my own price. 'Sdeath! do you falter now?
My lord, your promise.

Marq.
I command you, daughter:
Obey my friend.

March.
Is Count Juranio rich?

[Apart to the Marquis.]
Marq.
Pshaw! madam.

Cos.
I obey—perhaps too kindly;
But the mere thought of your security
Sends my heart upward, like a loosened bird,
Dizzy with hope, and strength, and ecstasy;
For I am free again! (Turns to Salvatore.)
To you I owe
More than a common show of gratitude;
But, now, forgive me; my o'erflowing thoughts
Would drown the happy prospect of my speech,
By sheer abundance of their offerings.
To you, Juranio—

Ju.
Nay, dear Costanza,
Let my heart whisper what your words might be.

Sal.
Hide all your roses in your lover's breast.
Go talk it over, go—we'll never look—
Then come to us, and notary and priest
Shall knit you up.

Ju.
Dear kinsman—

Sal.
Silence, sir!
This place is nauseous with stale sentiment.
Mind your affairs; I 've business of my own.
Fair lady, have I won?

Fil.
Yes, Salvatore.
[Giving her hand.]
Would it were worthier!

Sal.
Not for my sake, love:
You cannot add a morsel to content.

Marq.
Peace crown you all! I have such friends, at last,
As money could not buy—the gifts of heaven:
I thank it humbly. As for Marsio,
He'll wake to-morrow, and behold what gulfs
Crime opens 'twixt the richest criminal
And the frank brotherhood of honest men,
However poor,—gulfs that must yawn forever!