University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV.

PALACE IN NAPLES. Durazzo. Chancellor. Privy-counsellors.
Durazzo.
Speak, my lord chancellor: you now have read
The letter through: can doubt remain upon it? [Chancellor shakes his head.

Gentlemen! you have heard it: what think you?

First Counsellor.
Traitorous, if there be treason.

Second Counsellor.
Sentence then.

Chancellor.
Powerful is Rupert: many think him saintly,
All know him wise and wary: he has friends
In every house, and most among the women.
Such men are dangerous to impeach: beside,
Being now bishop . .

Durazzo.
Not quite yet: appointed,
Not seated.

Chancellor.
No? This changes the whole aspect.
Once bearing that high dignity, once throned . .

Durazzo.
I like no thrones that narrow mine too much,
And wonder wherefore clergymen should mount them.

Chancellor.
However, sir, since such hath been the custom
From barbarous times . .

Durazzo.
Till times herein as barbarous . .

Chancellor.
We must observe the usage of the realm,
And keep our hands from touching things held sacred.
Few days ago, for lighter crimes the friar
Might have been punisht with severity.

First Counsellor.
Even now, although his legs begin to sprout
With scarlet plumage, we may crop his crest;
But better on the beam than in the yard.

Third Counsellor.
It would put by much bickering.

Fourth Counsellor.
There are many
Expectants, holy men, who would condemn
In any court ecclesiastical
Appeal so manifest to foreign force,
And strip him to the skin to wash him clean.

Fifth Counsellor.
And there are civil laws which tread on velvet
And leave no scandal when they pass the door;
Modest and mild and beautifully drest,
And void of all loquacity, all pomp;
They, should you ask them what they are, reply
“We are not laws; we are prerogatives.”

Carlo.
Paoluccio! wit may give the best advice.
Far be from me all violence. If the criminal
Be strong and boisterous, the ecclesiastical
Craving and crafty, swift or slow at pleasure,
At least our civil laws are excellent,
And what you call prerogatives are civil.

Paoluccio.
I class them so.

Many at once.
They are the best of all.

Carlo.
I will pursue this counsel.
You may rise.