Borgia A Period Play |
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| 3. | SCENE III |
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 | Borgia |  |
SCENE III
A room in the Palace of Santa Maria in Porticu belonging to Donna Lucrezia Borgia d'Aragon. Donna Lucrezia sits at the head of a couch; Duke Cesare de Valentinois lies along it. They are both dressed in white satin, embroidered with gold and pearls.LUCREZIA.
You have seen the little mother?
CESARE.
To what end?
My mother?—No, Lucrezia.
LUCREZIA.
Then some farewell message
That I may comfort her. You start for France,
Cesare, and you leave us for a bride.
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What of our mother
In my alliance? Dead forgetfulness!
O Beauty, we are passing on our ways
Of policy; we must pass eagle-eyed,
For we have thrones to conquer.
Curse your Naples!
I would be wedded there.
LUCREZIA.
[Stroking his eye-brows.]
There I am wedded;
Therefore no curse.
CESARE.
[Suddenly turning and resting his elbow on her knee.
Lucrece, do you like this boy
We call your husband? Will he move your love;
Will you forget your godhead?
LUCREZIA.
Do not forget that you yourself have chosen
My husband for me.
CESARE.
'Tis but for a season.
We keep the paces of the gods, and all
Our actions are as theirs irrelevant
Beside ourselves, as we conceive ourselves.
Lucrezia, do but feel how thick my hair
Is brushing up beside the little tonsure!
There springs the Cesar. You have seen me amble
Beside Giovanni's stallion on my mule ....
And I am tempered through and through for war.
While others all day long were waging battle,
I have gone out to chase—oh, think of it!—
That I might follow some mean animal,
And catch the sound of Mars across the lake.
...Your fingers press me . . .
Why is their touch less soft?
LUCREZIA.
You so desired
What now you have.
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Giovanni ....
LUCREZIA.
Yes? [She waits but he says nothing.
Poor Giovanni! We have enemies.
CESARE.
We have. I silence yours. Are you all tears?
LUCREZIA.
You start for France—
Give me some charge. We part so suddenly . . .
His Holiness . . .
CESARE.
Be gamesome to our father
While I am absent, for he has a trick
Of dwindling down as Tiber on his bed,
Parched Tiber on his bed, when I withdraw.
We are his twin divinities, his Pollux,—
Since Castor is by chance thrust out—his Pollux,
And his most gracious Helen .... The rare smile,
The cypher smile! Your spells are on again.
Our father loves the dance—dance to fatigue.
LUCREZIA.
Pas seul; I cannot!
CESARE.
Then ....
[Springing up, he lightly takes her hand, and, looking into each other's eyes, they dance a slow measure.
[As they break off.]
This is the perfect spectacle, I own;
This swells the veins upon the father's brow.
But thou canst dance,
Lucrezia, to thyself as airily
As any creature of the air: dance thus.
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[Laughing.]
Oh, I will dance to giddiness, and yet
So slow it is the dance within a jewel,
And infinite movement in a prisoned spark—
The poets say. I heed them not.
CESARE.
How wisely!
LUCREZIA.
To you I dance.
CESARE.
Oh, when you speak
From the bosom of your silence .... Little, fair One,
But you are dull; I want you
To feel how great are the fresh lusts that haunt me,
And with complaisance take their part and smile.
[Lifting her hand to his breast and keeping it there.
Once and for ever—and you falter now!
LUCREZIA.
[Closing her eyes.]
You are no more a priest ....
CESARE.
O little, fair One,
That deadly languor
Of being a priest, cut off! You draw a cry,
An anguish from me. When I am a king
You are my counterpart, for evermore
A place beside me vacant, or your throne.
When I am Emperor, still I have chosen you
My counterpart. We played, a little flock,
Luis, Giovanni, Joffré—you and I
Were sole to one another.
LUCREZIA.
[Standing apart.]
We are sole.
[Cesare scrutinises her a long time, then says suddenly.
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Come, little Venus,
Come with me, see the cramoisie, the jewels
For Cesar's wedding triumph, for the Duke
Of Valentinois' progress. All my trappings
Are gold—d'or frizé: thirty thousand ducats
Lie in the damasks of my equipage.
I will put on my doublets—and you too
Shall try them on.
LUCREZIA.
Fie, fie!
[She hastily takes a veil and mask.
CESARE.
[Leading her to the door.]
What readiness!—
Answering, as a woman should, with answer
So even to my pleasure.
[A knock.
Ah, is that your husband?
Who is it knocks?
[He moves away and masks.
LUCREZIA.
But enter!
[The Lord Alexander VI. stands at the door.
CESARE.
[With a short laugh, unmasking.]
Oh, my father!
LUCREZIA.
But enter, enter, Holiness.
ALEXANDER.
[To Cesare, as he embraces Lucrezia.]
My heart,
Where do you draw the sweetheart? Cesare,
Stay—let her breathe the morning to me. Where
Would Cesare conduct you?
LUCREZIA.
Blessèd Father,
To show me all his jewelled taffetas
And cloth of gold, brocades and silver damasks.
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His! He will look a Phœbus
That rose and clomb in gold. But for my daughter—
Her eyes shall rest on veils enmeshed of light,
Darting their gems of parti-coloured flash
On stuffs dark-grained enough to set them free,
Or of a tissue white to blandish them.
You need not view his gauds, Lucrece.
It is immoment
For her to learn your worldly splendour, boy,
She, who is treasure.
Sweet, yet we will chuckle
At all the benefices in his stars
Of gems, his satins. Lead on, Cesare;
For we will go together, laugh together.
| Borgia | |