ACT V.
SCENE I.
CASTLE OF MURO.
Giovanna. Agatha. Otho. Officers.
Giovanna.
What shouts are those? whose voice, above them all,
Above the neighing horse and trumpet's clang,
Calls to the rescue? Can I doubt? . .
My Otho!
My Otho! rush not rashly into fight:
Thou canst not free me.
Agatha.
He has beat them off . .
He enters.
Officer.
Yes, he enters.
Otho
(wounded mortally).
Take the ransom . .
'Tis small . . 'tis only one worn life . . and loose her.
Giovanna.
Not from thy neck, my Otho, while thou livest,
Or while I live.
Otho.
Giovanna hath embraced me . .
I now have lived . . life should be over now.
Officer.
His breath is gone: bear him away: the king
[Points to the Queen, who swoons.
May have commands for her.
Agatha.
My queen! my queen!
My friend! my comforter! Oh! that no more.
[Falls.
SCENE II.
PALACE, NAPLES.
Margarita. Durazzo.
Margarita.
I can not see what mighty things indeed
My aunt Giovanna ever did for me:
Can you?
Durazzo.
They long are over, if she did.
Margarita.
Beside . .
Durazzo.
Now what beside?
Margarita.
I had almost
Said such a foolish thing!
Durazzo.
You! Margarita!
Margarita.
I was about to say she did no more
For me than you. If she loved me, she loved me
Because she loved my mother, her own sister;
Where is the wonder? where the merit?
Durazzo.
None.
Margarita.
She even loved another sister, her
Whom people called Fiammetta; God knows why;
No Christian name, nought Christian-like about it.
She was the one of Sicily, who fancied
(O shame upon her!) somebody . . a writer.
Durazzo.
What writer?
Margarita.
Is not that enough? a writer!
Durazzo.
There is not much to thank her for, if all
Partake of her affection, even those
Who sink so low.
Margarita.
She played with you the most;
Perhaps because she thought you like her child.
She did show pleasure when she fondled me;
But 'twas not to make me the happier,
Although it did so, but herself . . herself.
Yet, Carlo, would you think it! there are times
When I am ready to desire of you
That you would let her out of such a den
At Muro.
Durazzo.
Had you mentioned it before,
As wishing it . . why, then indeed . .
Margarita.
So, then,
You would have let her out? How very kind!
Durazzo.
If we could have persuaded her to go.
Margarita.
Persuaded her? what! out of prison?
Durazzo.
Do not
Term it so harshly: who can bear to hear
Of prisons?
Margarita.
Is the tower indeed not lockt
Nor bolted?
Durazzo.
People would run into it
And trouble her devotions. At this time
She needs them most particularly.
Margarita.
Why?
Durazzo.
Her health declines.
Margarita.
Is she in danger?
Durazzo.
Some.
Margarita.
Imminent?
Durazzo.
There are fears.
Margarita.
About her life?
Durazzo.
Men shake their heads.
Margarita.
O Carlo! O my Carlo!
I have . . (will God forgive me?) been ungrateful.
And all this time! . . when, but one moment of it . .
My hand in hers, or hers upon my head . .
Durazzo.
Hush! Margarita! thou'rt a queen: be calm,
And worthy of the station we enjoy.
[He leads her out.
SCENE III.
PALACE, NAPLES.
High Steward. Chamberlain. Chancellor. Durazzo.
Chamberlain.
Wary and slow is this our chancellor,
Where title-deeds are fluttering in suspense;
The perill'd life and honour of his queen
He passes as he would a wretch in chains
On the road-side, saying, So! there thou art!
Lord High Steward.
We want such men's religion, their sound sense,
Coolness, deliberation, ponderous front,
Broad and dark eyebrow. Much of dignity,
Reverence and awe, build on these crags alone.
Lord Chamberlain.
Ye have them all in one. I hear his foot:
The king steps lighter: both advance.
Lord High Steward.
Who come
Behind? for there are many.
(Durazzo, Chancellor, Counsellors, enter.)
Durazzo.
Take your seats.
Gentlemen! ye have heard with indignation
The rash attempt against my peace and yours,
Made by the Suabian, husband of Giovanna.
Lord Chamberlain.
We hear, by Heaven's protection of your Highness,
It fail'd.
Lord High Steward.
And that he fell in the attempt.
Durazzo.
Desperate, he cut his way, tho' wounded, thro'
My bravest troops, but could not force the gate;
Horsemen are weak at walls nine fathoms high;
He had scarce twenty with him.
Chancellor.
There he paid
His forfeit life, declared already traitor.
Durazzo.
On this we are not met, but to deliberate
On the state's safety. My lord chancellor,
Is the queen guilty?
Chancellor
(starts).
We must try her first,
Privately; then decide.
Durazzo.
Yea, privately;
So pleaseth me. Take then your secretaries
And question her; decorously, humanely.
SCENE IV.
CASTLE OF MURO.
Giovanna. Chancellor. High Steward. Chamberlain. Secretaries.
Chancellor.
Lady! we have heard all, and only ask
(For the realm's weal) your Highness will vouchsafe
To sign this parchment.
Giovanna
(Taking it).
What contains it?
Chancellor.
Peace.
Giovanna.
I then would sign it with my blood; but blood
Running from royal veins never sign'd peace.
[Reads.
It seems I am required to abdicate
In favour of Duke Carlo of Durazzo.
Chancellor.
Even so.
Giovanna
(to the others).
To you I turn me, gentlemen!
If ever you are told that I admitted
His unjust claims, if ever you behold
Sign'd, as you fancy, by my hand the parchment
That waives our kingdom from its rightful heir,
Believe it not: only believe these tears,
Of which no false one ever fell from me
Among the many 'twas my fate to shed.
I want not yours; they come too late, my friends;
Farewell, then! You may live and serve your country;
These walls are mine, and nothing now beyond.
SCENE V.
NAPLES.
Maximin. Stephen.
Maximin.
Among the idle and the fortunate
Never drops one but catafalc and canopy
Are ready for him: organ raves above,
And songsters wring their hands and push dull rhymes
Into dull ears that worse than wax hath stopt,
And cherubs puff their cheeks and cry half-split
With striding so across his monument.
Name me one honest man for whom such plays
Were ever acted.
They will ne'er lay Otho
With kindred clay! no helm, no boot beside
His hurried bier! no stamp of stately soldier
Angry with grief and swearing hot revenge,
Until even the paid priest turns round and winks.
I will away: sick, weary . .
(Stephen enters.)
Stephen.
Hast thou heard
The saddest thing?
Maximin.
Heard it? . . committed it,
Say rather. But for thee and thy curst gold,
Which, like magician's, turns to dust, I trow,
I had received him in the gate, and brought
The treasure of his soul before his eyes:
He had not closed them so.
Stephen.
Worst of it all
Is the queen's death.
Maximin.
The queen's?
Stephen.
They stifled her
With her own pillow.
Maximin.
Who says that?
Stephen.
The man
Runs wild who did it, through the streets, and howls it,
Then imitates her voice, and softly sobs
“Lay me in Santa Chiara.”
SCENE VI.
NAPLES. BEFORE THE PALACE. AMONG GUARDS.
Maximin. Durazzo.
Maximin.
Gallant prince!
Conqueror of more than men, of more than heroes!
What may that soldier merit who deserts
His post, and lets the enemy to the tent?
Durazzo.
Death is the sentence.
Maximin.
Sign that sentence then.
I shall be found beside a new-made grave
In Santa Chiara.
Durazzo.
Art thou mad?
Maximin.
I shall be
If you delay.
Durazzo
(to Guards).
See this man into Hungary.
SCENE VII.
NAPLES. MONASTERY GARDEN.
Rupert
(alone).
There are some pleasures serious men sigh over,
And there are others maniacs hug in chains:
I wonder what they are: I would exchange
All mine for either, all that e'er were mine.
I have been sadly treated my whole life,
Cruelly slighted, shamefully maligned:
And this too will be laid upon my shoulders.
If men are witty, all the wit of others
Bespangles them; if criminal, all crimes
Are shoveled to their doors.
God knows how truly
I wisht her life; not her imprisonment
More truly. Maximin and Agatha
In the queen's life would never have come forth.
Men of late years have handled me so roughly,
I am become less gentle than I was.
Derision, scoffs and scorns, must be rebuft,
Or we can do no good in act or counsel.
Respect is needful, is our air, our day,
'Tis in the sight of men we see ourselves,
Without it we are dark and halt and speechless.
Religion in respect and power hath being,
And perishes without them. Power I hold:
Why shun men's looks? why my own thoughts . . afraid?
No, I am not afraid: but phantasies
Long dwelt on let us thro'.
If I do quail,
'Tis not the mind, the spirit; 'tis the body.
A Monk
(entering).
Father I come from Muro, where a woman
(Sickly before) for days refused all food,
And now is dead.
Rupert.
What is her name?
Monk.
One Agatha.
Rupert.
Did she receive the holy Sacrament?
Monk.
You must have known she did, else why such joy?
She would receive nought else.
Rupert.
Then she is safe.
Monk.
We trust in God she is: yet she herself
Had pious doubt.
Rupert.
Of what was her discourse?
Monk.
Her mind, ere she departed, wandered from her.
Rupert.
What did she talk about? dost hear?
Monk.
She said,
“Rupert, if he could see me, might be” . . .
Rupert.
What?
Monk.
Her mind, observe, was wandering.
Rupert.
Thine is too.
Tell me the very word she uttered.
Monk.
“Saved.”
Blessings upon her! your uplifted hands
And radiant brow announce her present bliss.
Rupert.
Said she no more?
Monk.
“Since he's not here, take these,
And let the friar and his brotherhood
Say masses for my soul: it may do good
To theirs no less.”
I stoopt the holy taper,
And through her fingers and her palm could see
That she held something: she had given it
But it dropt out of them: this crucifix,
From which the square-set jewels were removed,
And this broad golden piece, with its long chain
Of soft dark hair, like our late queen Giovanna's.
Rupert.
Her medal . . anno primo . . All goes right.
Monk.
Your blessing!
Rupert.
Take it, pr'ythee, and begone.
[Monk goes.
Nothing has hurt me: none have seen me. None?
Ye saints of heaven! hath ever prayer been miss'd?
Penance, tho' hard, been ever unperform'd?
Why do ye then abandon me? like one
Whom in your wrath ye hurl aside; like one
Scathed by those lightnings which God's sleepless eye
Smites earth with, and which devils underneath,
Feeling it in the abysses of the abyss,
Rejoice was not for them.
Repent I did . .
Even of Agatha I did repent.
I did repent the noble friends had fallen.
Could they not have been wiser, and escaped,
By curbing evil passions, pride, distrust,
Defiance? It was wrong in them: in me
'Twas not quite well: 'twas harsh, 'twas merciless:
Andrea had not done it: wrong'd, betray'd,
Andrea had not done it.
Have my words
Sorcery in them? do they wake the dead?
Hide thy pale face, dear boy! hide from my sight
Those two dark drops that stain thy scanty beard,
Hide those two eyes that start so! Curse me, kill me;
'Twere mercy, 'twere compassion, not revenge;
Justice, the echo of God's voice, cries More!
I can endure all else.
I will arise,
Push off this rack that rends me, rush before him
And ask him why he made me what I am.
(Enter Officers.)
First Officer.
Traitor! the king hath traced all thy devices.
Rupert.
Without them he had ne'er been what ye style him.
Second Officer.
Avowest thou thy perfidy?
Rupert.
And his.
Third Officer.
Murderer! thou shalt confess.
Rupert.
'Twere royal bounty.
Third Officer.
And die.
Rupert.
'Twere more than royal.
First Officer.
Come thy way.
Rupert.
My way? my way? . . I've travell'd it enough,
With or without thee I will take another.
Second Officer.
Whither!
Rupert
(points to the window).
Look yonder!
There it lies.
[Stabs himself.
Andrea!
First Officer
(after a pause).
Merciful God! end thus his many crimes?
Third Officer
(after a pause).
What moans and piteous wailings from the street!
Second Officer.
Can they arise for him so suddenly?
First Officer.
There are too many. None hath told the deed
Beyond this spot, none seen it.
Third Officer.
Now you hear
Distinctly; if distinctly may be heard
The wail of thousands.
Second Officer.
Their queen's name they cry . .
Third Officer.
With blessings.
First Officer.
Now, at last, ye know Giovanna;
And now will Rupert too be known, tho' late.
