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169
SCENE VI.
Ridolfi. Del Nero. Tornabuoni.RIDOLFI.
See the last device
Of this religious mountebank to dupe
The trivial crowd.
DEL NERO.
A clever trick withal,
Suggested by Valori for his ends.
For superstitious piety, like wine,
Mounts to the brain and heats it servently.
TORNABUONI.
Pity that Piero neither drinks nor prays,
And so lacks courage for each enterprise.
Petrucci of Siena lent him aid
Beyond all hope; and thirteen hundred men
Bartolommeo d' Alviano raised,
Were ample for the deed.
RIDOLFI.
Besides, the gate
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Open, to let him through.
DEL NERO.
What avails force
To them that hesitate? Wide-open gates
But point the way for cowards to contempt.
Let us forget him.
RIDOLFI.
That, perchance, were wise
If you were Gonfaloniere still;
But, with a hostile Signory, our plans
May, though abortive, from the ground be dug.
DEL NERO.
Then do not contemplate their grave, lest thus
You draw attention from our enemies.
Now surely it were safer for us all,
Like a wise wind that lays itself to sleep
When once it learns its fierce fatuity,
To keep a neutral calm.
TORNABUONI.
Counsel, if safe,
Not very soaring.
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Have you never marked,
In cloudy weather, that the birds fly low?
Disdain not their instruction; for it is
The privilege of reason to grow wise
By noting tricks of instinct. Fare you well!
RIDOLFI.
[Taking Del Nero's arm.]
I have an errand leading me your way.
[To Tornabuoni.]
Heed what he says, and in this stumbling world
Learn, boy, to walk a thought more warily.
[Exeunt (left).]
TORNABUONI.
When blood grows cold by chilling of old age,
Men call it wisdom. Then how wise were death,
'Neath whose convincing frost the forward stream
Of slackening impulse stagnates and congeals.
But life means youth, youth signifies resolve,
And 'twixt resolve and action should intrude
No interval more long than takes to lift
The blade that is to fall!
[He crosses the stage (right). Enter Candida in haste (right).]
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O fly, sir! fly!
TORNABUONI.
Fly? Anywhere with you! Where shall it be?
CANDIDA.
Waste not the precious seconds in retort.
Your liberty, perchance your life, exists
On prompt escape.
TORNABUONI.
Why, you are out of breath!
How did you lose it?
CANDIDA.
O, in seeking you.
TORNABUONI.
Whom hitherto, alas! you always fled.
CANDIDA.
You never were in danger; now you are;
O, be advised, and fly!
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While you remain!
How small you measure me! Though you refuse
To admit me to the region of your breath,
Something it is to draw the selfsame air
That you inhale, and fancy I absorb
Into my lungs the zephyrs that have coursed
Through your sweet veins.
CANDIDA.
O, this but madness is.
TORNABUONI.
Madness that you would reckon sanity,
Did you but share it. See! these senseless stones
Are to me by your footsteps vivified.
Though each street corner hid a dagger's point,
I should select a danger where you dwelt,
Than dull security on any ground
That was by you untrodden.
CANDIDA.
O, you throw
Your life away!
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What is my life to you?
To you being nought, it nothing is to me.
CANDIDA.
It is so much to me, I fain would save it.
TORNABUONI.
Then save it by the only way that serves,
For all else kills. Life severed from your love
Is to me death made sensitive, a corpse
Interred before pulsation be extinct.
You bury me alive; the hands you dread
Would, kindlier, kill outright.
CANDIDA.
What can I more?
My life is mine to give, and I would give it
To save you, sir; but, for my love—
TORNABUONI.
It is
Not yours to give, then to another given.
CANDIDA.
I said not so.
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Need none is there to say.
Love, e'en in madness, reasons not amiss.
Farewell, and let me settle with my foes.
CANDIDA.
O, I beseech you!
[Enter armed Officers of the Signory.]
OFFICER.
Sir, the Signory
Have your arrest decreed, and we are here
To execute their order, under which
Signors Del Nero and Ridolfi lie
Already locked in durance.
TORNABUONI.
Fare you well!
The road to death, if now 'tis to be walked,
Will by your obduracy smooth be made,
O lovely executioner!
[Exit (left) with Officers. He turns to gaze at Candida, who covers her face with her hands. Meanwhile Letizia has entered (right). She approaches Candida.]
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Too late! Too late! Lead me away: I would
Be left alone a little.
[Exit Candida (right), supported by Letizia.]
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