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.
