University of Virginia Library

SHORTER FRAGMENTS FROM “THE CARDINAL PLAY”

I

ANGELO
I would I had thee like a drop of dew
That falls from heaven without history.

II

FRASCATI
Oh, mine Angelo,
These things creep out by every finger tip;
A footprint tells the tale. And women's love
Is noisy with perpetual echo; for they cry
In upper chambers whence the filtering sound
Grows tell-tale to the world; and next they write
Love-letters that go most directly wrong.

III

ANGELO
We spend a playful youth to find at last
A woman saviour of ourselves. I 've found.
And in my iron arms the surge can beat
Importunate and long. I shall not yield.
I loved her as in play: I love her now
With the great steady need of all a soul.

IV

LUCIA
[Singing at her window]
[Singing as she descends]

V

LUCIA
A parting, now!
To part! why, yes. But what 's in parting?
In such small separation as we plan
To fit our chances? what 's in leaving? Time.
And Time is long, and longer Time is Pain,
And Pain is death. O let us wholly die
Who lived too wildly—

ANGELO
So said I, Lucia,
Were 't not that one may roundly crawl about
The moving camps of Destiny, and build
Behind her passage fortresses of peace
To harbour life in.