University of Virginia Library

GIOVANNA OF NAPLES.

CHARACTERS.

• Lewis, King of Hungary.
• Luigi, Prince of Taranto.
• Acciajoli, Seneschal of Naples.
• Ugo del Balzo.
• Spinello, General of Naples.
• Rienzi, Tribune of Rome.
• Fra Rupert.
• Boccaccio.
• Petrarca.
• Psein, a Hungarian Captain.
• Pope's Nuncio.
• Prior of the Celestines.
• Wife of Rienzi.
• Filippa of Catania.
• Sancia, her Granddaughter.
• Princess Maria.
• Fiammetta.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

GARDEN OF CAPO-DI-MONTE. Boccaccio and Fiammetta.
Boccaccio.
Adieu the starlit gardens of Aversa,
The groves of Capo-Monte!

Fiammetta.
Why adieu?

Boccaccio.
One night will throw its gloom upon them long.

Fiammetta.
It will indeed, but love can dwell in gloom,
And not repine in it.

Boccaccio.
The generous man,
Who might have much impeded ours, gave way
To bitter impulses. My face is flusht
To think of his hard doom, and find myself
Happy where he was happy, and so lately!

Fiammetta.
I too have sighs, nor for thee only, now.
Giovanna, had an angel told it me
The other day, I should have disbelieved.
We all are now alike. Even queen Sancia,
Whose sadness is scarce sadness, so resign'd
Is she to Heaven, at this balustrade
Lean'd and lookt over, hearing some one sing.
“Impatient is the singer there,” said she,
“To run thro' his delight, to fill the conch
Of song up to the brim, and wise were he
Thought he not, O my child, as think he might,
How every gust of music, every air,
Breathing its freshness over youthful breasts,
Is a faint prelude to the choirs above,
And how Death stands in the dark space between,
To some with invitations free and meek,
To some with flames athwart an angry brow;
To others holds green palm and aureole crown,
Dreadless as is the shadow of a leaf . .”
But, while she said it, prest my hand and wept,
Then prayed of Heaven its peace for poor Andrea.

Boccaccio.
We may think too as wisely as the queen
When we attain her age; of other flames
And other palms and other crowns just now.
Like every growth, thoughts also have their seasons;
We will not pluck unripe ones; they might hurt us.
That lady then was with you?

Fiammetta.
She herself
Led me up hither by the sleeve. Giovanna
Is there below, secure, in Castel-Nuovo.
Look you! what crowds are gathering round about it.

Boccaccio.
I see them, and implore you, my Fiammetta,
To tarry here, protected by queen Sancia.

Fiammetta.
And will you tarry near me?

Boccaccio.
While the queen
Your sister is quite safe.

Fiammetta.
What! thinkest thou
She ever can be otherwise than safe?
I will run down to her.

Boccaccio.
There is no danger
At present; if there should be, my weak aid
Shall not be wanting. He whom she laments
I too lament: this bond unites me with her;
And I will keep her in my sight, and follow
(As lighter birds follow the powerfuller)
Where'er the tempest drives her . . not to save,
But break the fall, or warn her from below.

Fiammetta.
Generously spoken, my own sweet Giovanni!
Do so, and I can spare you; but remember
Others may want a warning too, may want
Some one to break a fall, some one to save . . .
Giovanni! O Giovanni! to save what?
For what is left but love? . . save that, Giovanni!

Boccaccio.
Were any infelicity near you,
Crowns and their realms might perish: but your sister
Is part of you: had she but lookt into
Your cradle, and no more; had one kind word,
And only one, fallen from her upon you;
My life should be the price for it.

Fiammetta.
Your life!
We have but one, we two. But until she
Is safe again, and happier, you shall keep it.
Go, go then; follow her; but soon return.
While you are absent from me, shapeless fears
Must throng upon and keep awake my sorrow.

Boccaccio.
To grieve for what is past, is idle grief,
Idler to grieve for what may never be.
Courage! when both most wish it, we shall meet.

SCENE. II.

CASTEL-NUOVO. Giovanna and Del Balzo.
Giovanna.
Ugo del Balzo! thou art just and firm.
Seek we the murderers out, and bring them forth
Before their God and fellow-men, if God
Or fellow-men have they. Spare none who did
This cruel deed. The partner of my throne,
Companion of my days . . until that day . .
Avenge! In striking low the guilty head
Show mercy to my people. Take from me
And execute with promptness this commission.
O what a chasm in life hath one day made,
Thus giving way with such astounding crash
Under my feet, when all seem'd equable,
All hopeful, not a form of fear in sight.

Del Balzo.
Lady! if all could see the pangs within
Which rend your bosom, every voice would pause
From railing and reproach.

Giovanna.
Reproach who will,
Rail who delight in railing. Could my arm
Protect the innocent?

Del Balzo.
But strange reports
(With this commission in my hand I speak it)
Murmur throughout the city. Kindred, ay,
Close kindred are accused.

Giovanna.
Such accusations
Have burst upon my ear: they wrong my cousin.
A man more loyal than the brave Taranto
Nor court nor field e'er saw: but even he
Shall not escape if treachery be found
Within the shadow of that lofty mien.

Del Balzo.
No, by the sword of the archangel! no . .
Altho' his sister smiles this hour upon
Her first-born of my dear and only brother
The Duke of Andria. Thou must weep, Francesco!
And she and I; for such dishonour taints
The whole house through, obscuring past and future.
Was he not in Aversa?

Giovanna.
He was there.

Del Balzo.
And were no orders given that he keep on
His mask all evening?

Giovanna.
Yes, I gave those orders.

Del Balzo.
The Queen's commission reaches not the Queen.

Giovanna.
Imperfect then is that commission, Ugo!

Del Balzo.
Freedom of speech is limited.

Giovanna.
By what?

Del Balzo.
The throne.

Giovanna.
For once then push the throne more back,
And let thy words and actions have their scope.

Del Balzo.
Why was Aversa chosen for the revels? [The Queen hesitates and sighs deeply.

One answer comes from all. Because the town
Is Norman, the inhabitants are Norman,
Sworn enemies to an Hungarian prince;
The very name sounds hostilely; the walls
Built in aversion to the pride of Capua.

Giovanna.
I could give other answer, which such hearts
Would little understand. My happiest days
Were spent there . . O that there my last had closed!
Was it not in Aversa we first met?
There my Andrea, while our friends stood round
At our betrothment, fain would show me first
A horse they led for him from Hungary.
The hands we join'd were little hands indeed!
And the two rings we interchanged would ill
Let pass the bossy chain of his light hair
Entwisted with my darker, nor without
His teeth were then drawn through it. Those were days
When none saw quarrels on his side or mine,
Yet were there worse than there were latterly,
Or than since childhood ever. We have lived
From those days forth without distrust and strife.
All might have seen but now will not know that.

Del Balzo.
Lady! the court and people do remember
That none more courteous, none more beautiful,
Lives than the Prince Luigi . . they acknowledge
That Prince Andrea's qualities fell short . .

Giovanna.
Del Balzo! cease! he was your prince but now . .
His virtues were domestic . . few saw those.

Del Balzo.
Few, I confess it; not so few the other's.
His assiduities, his love.

Giovanna.
Do these
Remember too, whate'er advantages
The Prince Luigi of Taranto had,
I gave my hand where they who rear'd me will'd,
That no contention in our family
Might reach my people? Ugo! tell me now
To whom show'd I my love? To them or him?

Del Balzo.
Lady! 'twas nobly done. Yet he was seen
To walk among the maskers on that night,
Was ordered to keep on his mask, was known
To watch Andrea in the balcony,
To rush away, to fight below the place
Where the inhuman deed was perpetrated,
And then to fly.

Giovanna.
Oh! if Taranto could
Be guilty! . . but impossible! My sister
Saw him pursue three masks: and his own page
Found him in fight with one, where two were slain.

Del Balzo.
Would any court receive such testimony?

Giovanna.
Examine then more closely. I am lost,
Not in conjectures, for my mind flies off
From all conjecture, but in vague, in wild
Tumultuous thoughts, all broken, crost, and crazed.
Go, lose no moment. There are other things [Del Balzo goes.

I could have said . . what were they? . . there are things . .
Maria . . why not here! . . She knows there are . .
O! were the guilty so perplext as I am,
No guilt were undiscover'd in the world!

SCENE III.

Filippa, Sancia Terlizzi, Del Balzo.
Sancia Terlizzi.
Gentle and gracious and compassionate,
Companion and not queen to those about her,
Giovanna delegates her fullest powers
To stern Del Balzo; and already force
Enters the palace gates.

Filippa.
Let them be closed
Against all force. Send for the seneschal.

Sancio Terlizzi.
Acciajoli has departed for Aversa,
There to make inquest.

Filippa.
Who dares strike the door?

Del Balzo
(entering).
The laws.

Filippa.
Count Ugo! is the queen extinct?

Del Balzo.
The prince is. Therefore lead with due respect
These ladies, and the rest, away.

[To an Officer.
Filippa.
What means
This violence?

Del Balzo
(to the Officer).
Let none, I pray, be used. [To Filippa.

Behold the queen's commission! In that chamber
Where close examinations must ensue,
In clear untroubled order let your words
Leave us no future violence to be fear'd.

Filippa
(returning the paper).
The queen hath acted as she always acts,
Discreetly; bravely; it becomes her race
And station: what becomes a faithful subject
Let us do now.

[The Queen enters.
Sancia Terlizzi.
Turn: lo, the queen herself!

Del Balzo.
Lady! there is one chamber in the realm,
And only one, and that but for one day,
You may not enter.

Giovanna.
Which is that, Del Balzo?

Del Balzo.
Where the judge sits against the criminal.

Giovanna.
Criminal! none are here.

Del Balzo.
If all my wishes
Avail'd me, there were none.

Giovanna.
Sure, sure, the palace
Is sacred.

Del Balzo.
Sacred deeds make every place
Sacred, unholy ones make all unholy.

Giovanna.
But these are our best friends.

Filippa.
My royal mistress!
The name of friendship and the name of justice
Should stand apart. Permit me to retire . . [To Del Balzo.

Whither, sir, you must dictate.

Del Balzo.
Lead them on. [The Queen throws her arms round Filippa who gently removes them and goes.

Lady! would you protect the culpable?

Giovanna.
Ugo del Balzo! would you wrong the queen?

Del Balzo.
I recognise the lofty race of Robert,
And my arm strengthens and my heart dilates.

Giovanna.
Perform your duty, sir, and all your duty;
Win praise, win glory . . mine can be but tears.

[Goes.

SCENE IV.

Fra Rupert, Del Balzo.
Fra Rupert.
Confessionals are close; and closer still
The heart that holds one treasure.

Del Balzo.
Father Rupert!
What brought thee hither at this busy hour?

Fra Rupert.
My duty: I must not delay my duty.

Del Balzo.
What is it?

Fra Rupert.
I would fain absolve from sin
(Far as the Church allows) the worst of sinners.

Del Balzo.
In few plain words, who sent for thee?

Fra Rupert.
In fewer,
I scorn thy question.

Del Balzo.
Father! thou must wait.
The prince's death involves some powerful ones,
Whose guilt or innocence shall presently
Be ascertained.

Fra Rupert.
What! and shall man hear first
The guilty soul confess its secret sin?
Shall not the angels carry up the tale
Before the people catch it?

Del Balzo.
They, no doubt,
Already have done this.

Fra Rupert.
Not half, not half.

Del Balzo.
Father! it seems thou knowest more about it
Than I or any else. Why reddenest thou?

Fra Rupert.
Dost think, Del Balzo, any word escapes
The sanctuary of consciences? the throne
Of grace and mercy on our earth below?
The purifier, the confessional?
So then! some powerful ones are apprehended
For what they did! O merciful Del Balzo!
Be sparing of a woman's blood, Del Balzo!
And age hath claims upon our pity too;
And so hath youth, alas! and early ties
Suddenly broken shock far round about.
Beside; who knows . . thou canst not certainly . .
If any can . . they may be innocent,
Each of the three, one more, one less, perhaps:
Innocent should be all whose guilt lacks proof.
O my poor child Andrea, pardon me!
Thou wouldst not have sought blood for blood, Andrea!
Thou didst love all these women! most of all
Her . . but there's justice, even on earth, Andrea!

[Goes.
Del Balzo.
'Tis so! that stern proud bosom bursts with grief.

SCENE V.

Maria.
Ah, why, Del Balzo, have you let come in
The filthy monk, Fra Rupert? He has frightened
Sancia Terlizzi almost into fainting.
And tell me by what right hath he or any
Ordered her up into her room, and taken
Her mother down below, into those chambers
Which we have always been forbid to enter!

Del Balzo.
Perhaps to ask some questions; for the queen
Ought to be satisfied.

Maria.
Then let me go
And ask her: she would tell me in a moment
What they will never get from her.

Del Balzo.
Perhaps,
O princess! you may have mistaken.

Maria.
No:
I never was mistaken in Filippa.
Rudeness can neither move nor discompose her:
A word, a look, of kindness, instantly
Opens her heart and brings her cheek upon you.

Del Balzo.
The countess has more glorious qualities
Than noble birth has given any else.
Whether her heart has all that tenderness . .

Maria.
Is my heart tender.

Del Balzo.
Be it not too tender,
Or it may suffer much, and speedily,
And undeservedly. The queen your sister,
Gentle as you, hath fortitude.

Maria.
Giovanna
Is tenderer than I am; she sheds tears
Oftener than I do, though she hides them better.

Del Balzo.
I saw their traces: but more royally
Never shone courage upon grief opprest.

Maria.
The lovely platane in the garden-walk
Catches the sun upon her buds half-open,
And looks the brightest where unbarkt and unscathed.
O find them out who have afflicted her
With that most cruel blow.

Del Balzo.
'Tis what she bade me,
And what I now am hastening to perform.

[Goes.
Giovanna enters.
Maria.
Courage, Giovanna! courage, my sweet sister!
Del Balzo will find out those wicked men.
O! I forgot to tell him what assistance
Fra Rupert might afford him. Every crime
Is known to him. But certainly Fra Rupert,
Who loved Andrea so, will never cease
Until he find the slayer of his friend.
Ah my poor sister! if you had but heard
The praises of Del Balzo, you would soon
Resume your courage and subdue your tears.

Giovanna.
Before Del Balzo, sister, I disdain
To show them or to speak of them. Be mine
Hid from all eyes! God only knows their source,
Their truth or falsehood. In the light of day
Some lose their bitterness, run smoothly on,
And catch compassion, leisurely, serenely:
Never will mine run thus: my sorrows lie
In my own breast; my fame rests upon others,
Who throw it from them now the blast has nipt it.
'Tis ever so. Applauses win applauses,
Crowds gather about crowds, the solitary
Are shunned as lepers, and in haste past by.

Maria.
But we will not be solitary; we
Are not so easy to pass by in haste;
We are not very leper-looking.

Giovanna.
Cease,
Maria! nothing on this earth so wounds
The stricken bosom as such sportiveness,
Or weighs worn spirits down like levity.
Give me your hand . . Reproof is not reproach.
I might have done the same . . how recently!

Maria.
Hark! what is all that outcry?

Giovanna.
'Tis for him
Whom we have lost.

Maria.
But angry voices mixt
With sorrowful?

Giovanna.
To him both due alike.

Spinello enters.
Spinello.
Hungarian troops throng every street and lane,
Driving before them the infirm, the aged,
The children, of both sexes.

Giovanna.
Shelter them.

Spinello.
Such is the hope of those base enemies,
That, unprovided for defence, the castle
May fall into their hands: and very quickly
(Unless we drive them back) our scanty stores
Leave us exhausted.

Giovanna.
Dost thou fear, Spinello?

Spinello.
I do: but if my sovran bids me bare
This breast of armour and assail her foes,
Soon shall she see what fears there lie within.

Giovanna.
Let me too have my fears, nor worse than thine,
Loyal and brave Spinello! Dare I ask
Of God my daily bread nor give it those
Whose daily prayers have earned it for us all?
I dare not. Throw wide open every gate
And stand between the last of my poor people
And those who drive them in.

Spinello.
We then are lost.

Giovanna.
Not from God's sight, nor theirs who look to God.

Maria.
O sister! may that smile of yours be parent
Of many. It sinks back, and dies upon
The lovely couch it rose from. [Del Balzo enters.]
I will go;
Del Balzo looks, I think, more stern than ever.

Giovanna.
Del Balzo, I perceive thou knowest all,
And pitiest my condition.

[Del Balzo amazed.
Spinello.
Standest thou,
Lookest thou, thus, before thy sovran, sir?

Giovanna.
Be friends, be friends, and spare me one affront.
Wiser it were, and worthier, to devise
How tumults may be quell'd than how increast.
On your discretion lies your country's weal.

[Goes.
Spinello.
Ugo del Balzo! thou art strong in war,
Strong in alliances, in virtue strong,
But darest thou, before the queen, before
The lowest of the loyal, thus impute
With brow of scorn and figure fixt aslant,
Atrocious crimes to purity angelic?

Del Balzo.
Heard'st thou her words and askest thou this question?
Spinello! nor in virtue nor in courage
(Our best alliances) have I pretence
To stand before thee. Chancellor thou art,
And, by the nature of thy office, shouldst
Have undertaken my most awful duty:
Why didst thou not?

Spinello.
Because the queen herself
Will'd otherwise; because her chancellor,
She thought, might vindicate some near unduly.

Del Balzo.
She thought so? what! of thee?

Spinello.
Thus it appears.
But on this subject never word escaped
Her lips to me: her own pure spirit frankly
Suggested it: her delicacy shunn'd
All explanation, lacking no excuse.
Thou askest if I heard her at thy entrance:
I heard her, like thyself. The words before
Thou didst not hear; I did. Her last appeal
Was for the wretched driven within the castle,
And doom'd to pine or force us to surrender.
For them she call'd upon thee, never else,
To pity her condition.

Del Balzo.
Pardon me!
I have much wrong'd her. Yet, among the questioned
Were strange confessions. One alone spake scornfully
Amid her tortures.

Spinello.
Is the torture, then,
The tongue of Truth?

Del Balzo.
For once, I fear, 'tis not.

Spinello.
It was Giovanna's resolute design
To issue her first edict through the land
Abolishing this horrid artifice,
Whereby the harden'd only can escape.
“The cruel best bear cruelty,” said she,
“And those who often have committed it
May once go through it.”

Del Balzo.
And would'st thou, Spinello!
Thus lay aside the just restraints of law,
Abolishing what wise and holy men
Raised for the safeguard of society?

Spinello.
The holy and the wise have done such things
As the unwise and the unholy shrink at.

Del Balzo.
It might be thought a hardship in a country
Where laws want ingenuity; where scales,
Bandage, and sword, alone betoken Justice.
Ill-furbisht ineffective armoury,
With nothing but cross-shooting shafts of words!

Spinello.
Since every deed like torture must afflict
A youthful breast, so mild, so sensitive,
Trust it to me, and we will then devise
How the event may best be laid before her.

Del Balzo.
A clue was given by unwilling hands,
Wherewith we entered the dark narrow chambers
Of this strange mystery. Filippa first,
Interrogated if she knew the murderer,
Denied it: then, if she suspected any;
“I do,” was her reply. Whom? She was silent.
Where should suspicion now (tell me, Spinello!)
Wander or fix? I askt her if the Queen
Was privy to the deed. Then swell'd her scorn.
Again I askt her, and show'd the rack.
“Throw me upon it; I will answer thence,”
Said with calm voice Filippa. She was rackt.
Screams from all round fill'd the whole vault. “See, children!
How those who fear their God and love their Prince
Can bear this childish cruelty,” said she.
Although no other voice escaped, the men
Trembled, the women wail'd aloud. “To-morrow,”
Said I, “Filippa! thou must answer Justice.
Release her.” Still the smile was on her face:
She was releast: Death had come down and saved her.

Spinello.
Faithfullest friend of the unhappy! plead
For us whose duty was to plead for thee!
Thou art among the Blessed! On, Del Balzo!

Del Balzo.
Sancia, her daughter's child . .

Spinello.
The playful Sancia?
Whose fifteenth birthday we both kept together . .
Was it the sixth or seventh of last March? . .
Terlizzi's bride two months ago?

Del Balzo.
The same.

Spinello.
And the same fate?

Del Balzo.
She never had seen Death:
She thought her cries could drive him off again,
Thought her soft lips might have relaxt the rigid,
And her warm tears . .

Spinello.
Del Balzo! wert thou there?
Or tearest thou such dreamery from some book,
If any book contain such?

Del Balzo.
I was there;
And what I saw I ordered to be done.
Justice would have it; Justice smote my heart,
Justice sustained it too.

Spinello.
Her husband would
Rather have died than hear one shriek from Sancia.

Del Balzo.
So all men would: for never form so lovely
Lighted the air around it.

Spinello.
Let us go
And bear her home.

Del Balzo.
To me the way lies open;
But much I fear, Spinello, the Hungarians
Possess all avenue to thy escape.

Spinello.
Escape is not the word for me, my friend.
I had forgotten the Hungarians
(It seems) the Queen, myself, captivity . .
I may not hence: relate then if more horrors
Succeeded.

Del Balzo.
When Terlizzi saw Filippa
Lie stiff before him, and that gentle bride
Chafing her limbs, and shrinking with loud yells
Whenever her soft hand felt some swol'n sinew,
In hopes to finish here and save all else,
He cried aloud, “Filippa was the murderess.”
At this she darted at him such a glance
As the mad only dart, and fell down dead.
“'Tis false! 'tis false!” cried he. “Speak, Sancia, speak!
Or hear me say 'tis false.” They dragg'd away
The wavering youth, and fixt him. There he lies,
With what result of such inconstancy
I know not, but am going to inquire . .
If we detect the murderers, all these pains
Are well inflicted.

Spinello.
But if not?

Del Balzo.
The Laws
Have done their duty and struck fear through all.

Spinello.
Alas! that duty seems their only one.

Del Balzo.
Among the first 'tis surely. I must go
And gather up fresh evidence. Farewell,
Spinello.

Spinello.
May good angels guide your steps!
Farewell! That Heaven should give the merciless
So much of power, the merciful so little!

ACT II.

SCENE I.

CASTEL-NUOVO. Giovanna and Maria.
Maria.
I do not like these windows. Who can see
What passes under? Never were contrived
Cleverer ones for looking at the sky,
Or hearing our Hungarians to advantage.
I can not think their songs are pastorals;
They may be; if they are, they are ill-set.
Will nothing do, Giovanna? Raise your eyes;
Embrace your sister.

Giovanna.
So, you too, Maria!
Have turgid eyes, and feign the face of joy.
Never will joy be more with us . . with you
It may be . . O God grant it! but me! me,
Whom good men doubt, what pleasure can approach?

Maria.
If good men all were young men, we might shudder
At silly doubts, like other silly things
Not quite so cold to shudder at.

Giovanna.
Again,
Maria! I am now quite changed; I am
Your sister as I was, but O remember
I am (how lately!) my Andrea's widow.

Maria.
I wish our little Sancia would come hither
With her Terlizzi . . those inseparables!
We scarcely could get twenty words from them
All the day long; we caught them after dinner,
And lost them suddenly as evening closed.

Giovanna.
Send for her. But perhaps she is with Filippa. . .

Maria.
Learning sedateness in the matron life.

Giovanna.
Or may-be with the queen whose name she bears,
And who divides her love, not equally
With us, but almost equally.

Maria.
If so,
No need to seek her; for the queen went forth
To San Lorenzo at the dawn of day,
And there upon the pavement she implores
Peace for the dead, protection for the living.

Giovanna.
O may her prayers be heard!

Maria.
If piety
Avails the living or the dead, they will.

Giovanna.
How, how much calmer than thy sweetest smile
Has that thought made me! Evermore speak so,
And life will almost be as welcome to me
As death itself.

Maria.
When sunshine glistens round,
And friends, as young as we are, sit beside us,
We smile at Death . . one rather grim indeed
And whimsical, but not disposed to hurt us . .
And give and take fresh courage. But, sweet sister!
The days are many when he is unwelcome,
And you will think so too another time.
'Tis chiefly in cold places, with old folks,
His features seem prodigiously amiss.
But Life looks always pleasant, sometimes more
And sometimes less so, but looks always pleasant,
And, when we cherish him, repays us well.
Sicily says it is the worst of sin
To cast aside what God hath given us,
And snatch at what he may hereafter give
In its due season . . scourges, and such comfits,
Cupboarded for Old-age. Youth has her games;
We are invited, and should ill refuse.
On all these subjects our sweet Sicily
Discourses with the wisdom of a man.
You are not listening: what avails our wisdom?

Giovanna.
To keep afloat that buoyant little bark
Which swells endanger. O may never storm
O'ertake it! never worm unseen eat thro'!

Maria.
I wish we were away from these thick walls,
And these high windows, and these church-like ceilings,
Without a cherub to look down on us,
Or play a prank up there, with psalter-book,
Or bishop's head, or fiddle, or festoon.

Giovanna.
Be satisfied awhile: the nobler rooms
Are less secure against the violence
Of those Hungarians.

Maria.
I saw one who bowed
Graceful as an Italian. “Send away
The men below,” said I, “then bow again,
And we will try which bows most gracefully.”

Giovanna.
My giddy, giddy sister!

Maria.
May my head
Be ever so, if crowns must steady it!

Giovanna.
He might have thought . .

Maria.
Not he; he never thinks.
He bowed and shook his head. His name is Psein.
Often hath he been here on guard before:
You must remember him.

Giovanna.
No, not by name.

Maria.
Effeminate and vain we fancied him,
Because he always had a flower in hand,
Or with his fingers combed his forehead hair.

Giovanna.
No little merit in that sullen race.

Maria.
If he has merit I will bring it out.

Giovanna.
Resign that idle notion. Power is lost
By showing it too freely. When I want
His services, I order them. We part.
Too large a portion of the hour already
Has been among the living. Now I go
To other duties for the residue
Of this sad day.

Maria.
Unwelcome is Maria
Where sorrow is?

Giovanna.
Her sorrow is unwelcome;
Let me subdue my own; then come and join me.
Thou knowest where the desolate find one
Who never leaves them desolate.

[Goes.
Maria.
'Tis hard
To linger here alone.

Officer.
The Seneschal
Of Naples. Acciajoli.

SCENE II.

Acciajoli and Maria.
Acciajoli.
By command
Of our most gracious queen, O royal lady!
I come for yours.

Maria.
That is, to bear me company.

Acciajoli.
Such only as the humblest bear the highest.

Maria.
Seneschal! you excell the best in phrases.
You might let others be before you there,
Content to shine in policy and war.

Acciajoli.
I have been placed where others would have shone.

Maria.
Come, do not beat me now in modesty.
Had I done anything, I might not boast,
Nor should I think I was improving it
By telling an untruth and looking down.
I do not like our lodgment, nor much wish
To see an arrow quivering in that wainscot:
The floors are well enough; I would not see them
Paved with smooth pebbles from Hungarian slings.
Can not you send those soldiers to their quarters?

Acciajoli.
In vain have I attempted it.

Maria.
Send Psein
To me.

Acciajoli.
He, like the rest, is an insurgent.
Civilest of barbarians, yet may Psein
(With horror I must utter it) refuse.

Maria.
Fear of refusal has lost many a prize. [Acciajoli goes.

I hope the Seneschal will go himself,
Not send another. How I wisht to ask it!
But, at my years, to hint an act of delicacy
Is too indelicate. He has seen courts,
Turn'd over their loose leaves (each more than half
Illumination, dulness the remainder),
And knows them from the cover to the core.

SCENE III.

Psein conducted by Acciajoli, who retires.
Maria.
The queen
Desires your presence; I alone command it.
Eyes have seen you, commander Psein!

Psein.
Impossible!

Maria.
Yes, eyes have seen you, general Psein! they have,
And seen that they can trust you.

Psein.
By my troth
To all that's lovely!

Maria.
Ah, sad man! swear not . .
Unless you swear my words.

Psein.
To hear and swear
And treasure them within this breast, is one.

Maria
(Psein repeating).
“I swear to love and honour and obey” . .
Ha! not the hand . . it comes not quite so soon . .

Psein.
I have but little practice in the form;
Pardon me, gracious lady!

Maria.
Earn your pardon
By your obedience. Now repeat again.
“Whatever perils may obstruct her path,
I give safe-conduct to my royal mistress,
Giovanna, queen of Naples.” (He starts.)
Have you taken
Me for my sister all this while? I told you
It was not she commanded you, 'twas I.

Psein.
Oaths are sad things! I trot to church so seldom
They would not let me out of mine for little
(Not they!) like any good old customer.

Maria.
And so! you would deceive me, general?

Psein
(aside).
I am appointed! that sounds well: but general!
She said the same before: it must be true.

Maria.
Tell me at once, nor hesitate. Another
May reap the harvest while you whet the sickle.

Psein.
But I have sworn to let none pass, before
The will of my superiors be announced.

Maria.
Behold them here! their shadow fills this palace,
And in my voice, sir, is their will announced.

Psein.
I swore.

Maria.
I heard you.

Psein.
But before.

Maria.
Before
Disloyalty, now loyalty. Are brave
And gallant men to ponder in the choice?

Psein.
Devoted as I am to you, O lady!
It can not be.

Maria.
Is that the phrase of Psein?
We love the marvellous; we love the man
Who shows how things which can not be can be.
Give me this glove again upon the water,
And queen Giovanna shall reward you for it.

Psein.
Upon the water or upon the fire,
The whirlpool or volcano . . By bad luck
(What fools men are! they always make their own!)
The troops are in revolt. Pride brightens zeal
But not invention. How shall we contrive
To manage them at present?

Maria.
Tell the troops
We will have no revolts. Sure, with your powers
Of person and persuasion, not a man
Would hesitate to execute his duty.

Psein.
We are but three . .

Maria.
We are but two: yet, Psein!
When two are resolute they are enough.
Now I am resolute, and so are you,
And if those soldiers dare to disobey
It is rank mutiny and halbert-matter.
Await the Seneschal: he now returns.

[Goes.
Psein.
She knows the laws of war as well as I,
And looks a young Minerva, tho' of Naples.

SCENE IV.

Acciajoli and Psein.
Acciajoli.
Sorrow and consternation are around.

Psein.
Men could not have cried louder had they lost
Policinello, who begets them fun,
While princes but beget them blows and taxes.
When will they see things straightly, and give these
Their proper station?

Acciajoli.
Have you not your king?

Psein.
O! quite another matter! We have ours,
True; but his taxes are for us; and then
The blows . . we give and take them, as may happen.

Acciajoli.
We too may do the same, another day. [Psein expresses contempt.

So! you imagine that your arms suffice
To keep this kingdom down! War is a game
Not of skill only, not of hazard only,
No, nor of both united.

Psein.
What the ball
Is stuft with, I know not, nor ever lookt;
I only know it is the very game
I like to play at.

Acciajoli.
Many are the chances.

Psein.
Without the chances I would throw it up.
Play me at Naples only five to one,
I take the odds.

Acciajoli.
All are not Neapolitans.

Psein.
Then strike off three.

Acciajoli.
Some Normans.

Psein.
Then my sword
Must be well whetted and my horse well fed,
And my poor memory well poked for prayers.
And, hark ye! I should like one combatant
As well as twenty, of that ugly breed.
Lord Seneschal, be ready at your post.

Acciajoli.
I trust I shall be.

Psein.
At what hour?

Acciajoli.
Not yet.

Psein.
Ay, but the queen must fix it.

Acciajoli.
She inclines
To peace.

Psein.
I know it; but for flight ere peace.

Acciajoli.
Flight is not in the movements of our queen.

Psein.
Departure then.

Acciajoli.
Sir! should she will departure,
Breasts are not wanting to repell the charge
Of traitor or intruder.

Psein.
Here is one,
Lord Seneschal! as ready to defend her
As any mail'd with iron or claspt with gold.
Doubtest thou? Doubt no longer.

[Shows the glove.
Acciajoli.
Whose is that?

Psein.
The names we venerate we rarely speak;
And love beats veneration out and out.
I will restore it at the vessel's side,
And ask it back again when she is safe
And the less happy lady whom you serve.
It then behoves me to retrace my steps
And rally my few countrymen for safety.

SCENE V.

A Herald enters. Psein goes.
Acciajoli.
Whence come you, sir?

Herald.
From Gaeta.

Acciajoli.
What duty?

Herald.
To see the queen.

Acciajoli.
The queen you can not see:
Her consort died too lately.

Herald.
Therefore I
Must see the queen.

Acciajoli.
If you bring aught that throws
Light upon that dark treason, speak at once.

Herald.
The light must fall from Rome. Cola Rienzi,
Tribune of Rome, and arbiter of justice
To Europe, tarrying on the extremest verge
Of our dominions, to inspect the castles,
Heard the report, brought with velocity
Incredible, which man gave man along
The land, and ship gave ship along the coast.

Acciajoli.
Then 'twas prepared: and those who spread the news
Perpetrated the deed.

Herald.
Such promptitude.
Could not escape the Tribune. He demands
The presence of Giovanna queen of Naples,
To plead her cause before him.

Acciajoli.
Is Rienzi
A king? above a king?

Herald.
Knowest thou not
Rienzi is the tribune of the people?

Acciajoli.
Sir! we have yet to learn by what authority
He regulates the destiny of princes.

Herald.
The wisest men have greatly more to learn
Than ever they have learnt: there will be children
Who in their childhood shall know more than we do.
Lord Seneschal! I am but citizen
In my own city, nor among the first,
But I am herald here, and, being herald,
Let no man dare to question me. The king
Of Hungary is cited to appear,
Since in his name are accusations made
By some at Naples, which your queen must answer.

Acciajoli.
Her dignity and wisdom will decide,
I am well pleas'd that those around the castle
Threw no obstruction in your way.

Herald.
The soldiers
Resisted my approach; but instantly
Two holy friars spread out their arms in front,
And they disparted like the Red-sea waves,
And grounded arms before me.

Acciajoli.
Then no hindrance
To our most gracious queen, should she comply?

Herald.
None; for Rienzi's name is spell against it.

Giovanni
(enters).
O! is there one to hear me patiently?
Let me fly to him!

Acciajoli.
Hath our sovran heard
The order of Rienzi?

Giovanna.
Call it not
An order, lest my people be incenst.

Herald.
Lady! if plainly hath been understood
The subject of my mission, the few words
Containing it may be unread by me.
Therefore I place them duly in the hands
Of the Lord Seneschal. With brief delay
Your presence were desirable.

Giovanna.
What time
Return you, sir?

Herald.
This evening.

Giovanna.
And by sea?

Herald.
In the same bark which brought me.

Giovanna.
If some ship
More spacious be now lying at the mole,
I will embark in that; if not, in yours,
And we will sail together. You have power
Which I have not in Naples; and the troops,
And those who seem to guide them, hear your words.

Herald.
Lady! not mine; but there are some they hear.

Giovanna.
Entreat them to let pass the wretched ones
Who fancied I could succour them within,
Whom famine must soon seize. Until they pass
I can not. Dear is fame to me; but far
Be Fame that stalks to us o'er hurried graves.
Lord Seneschal! see Rome's ambassador
Be duly honoured: then, whatever else
Is needful for departure, be prepared.

ACT III.

SCENE I.

ROME. CAPITOL. Rienzi and the Pope's Nuncio.
Nuncio.
With infinite affliction, potent Tribune!
The Holiness of our Lord the Sovran Pontiff
Learns that Andrea, prince of Hungary,
Hath, in the palace of Aversa, been
Traitorously slain. Moreover, potent Tribune!
The Holiness of our Lord the Sovran Pontiff,
Hears sundry accusations: and, until
The guilt or innocence of those accused
Be manifested, in such wise as He,
The Holiness of our Lord, the Sovran Pontiff
Shall deem sufficient, he requires that troops
March from his faithful city, and possess
Otranto and Taranto, Brindisi
And Benevento, Capua and Bari,
Most loving cities and most orthodox.
And some few towns and villages beside,
Yearning for peace in his paternal breast,
He would especially protect from tumult.
Laying his blessing on your head thro' me
The humblest of his servitors, thus speaks
The Holiness of our Lord the Sovran Pontiff.

Rienzi
(seated).
Lord Cardinal! no truer stay than me
Hath, on Italian or Provenzal ground,
The Holiness of our Lord the Sovran Pontiff.
The cares that I have taken off his hands
The wisdom of his Holiness alone
Can measure and appreciate. As for troops,
That wisdom, seeing them so far remote,
Perhaps may judge somewhat less accurately.
The service of his Holiness requires
All these against his barons. Now, until
I hear the pleas of Hungary and Naples,
My balance is suspended. Those few cities,
Those towns and villages, awhile must yearn
For foreign troops among them; but meantime
Having the blessing of his Holiness,
May wait contentedly for any greater
His Holiness shall opportunely grant.
Kissing the foot of his Beatitude,
Such, my lord Cardinal, is the reply
From his most faithful Cola di Rienzi,
Unworthy tribune of his loyal city.

Nuncio.
We may discuss anew this weighty question
On which his Holiness's heart is moved.

Rienzi.
If allocution be permitted me
To his most worthy Nuncio, let me say
The generous bosom would enfold about it
The friend, the neighbour, the whole human race,
And scarcely then rest satisfied. With all
These precious coverings round it, poisonous tongues
Can penetrate. We lowly men alone
Are safe, and hardly we. Who would believe it?
People have heretofore been mad enough
To feign ambition (of all deadly sins
Surely the deadliest) in our lord the pope's
Protecting predecessors! Their paternal
Solicitude these factions thus denounced.
Ineffable the pleasure I foretaste
In swearing to his Holiness what calm
Reluctance you exhibited; the same
His Holiness himself might have exprest,
In bending to the wishes of those cities
So orthodox and loving; and how fully
You manifested, by your faint appeal,
You sigh as deeply to decline, as they
Sigh in their fears and fondness to attain. [Nuncio going.

Help my lord Cardinal. This weather brings
Stiffness of joints, rheums, shooting pains. Way there!

SCENE II.

CAPITOL. Rienzi, Acciajoli, Petrarca, and Boccaccio.
Boccacio.
If there was ever upon throne one mind
More pure than other, one more merciful,
One better stored with wisdom, of its own
And carried from without, 'tis hers, the queen's.
Exert, my dear Francesco, all that eloquence
Which kings and senates often have obeyed
And nations have applauded.

Petrarca.
My Boccaccio!
Thou knowest Rome, thou knowest Avignon:
Altho' so brief a time the slave of power,
Rienzi is no longer what he was,
Popes are what they have ever been. They all
Have families for dukedoms to obey.

Boccaccio.
O! had each holy father twenty wives
And each wife twenty children! then 'twere hard
To cut out dukedoms for so many mouths,
And the well-furred tiara could not hatch
So many golden goose-eggs under it.

Petrarca.
We must unite our efforts.

Boccaccio.
Mine could add
Little to yours; I am not eloquent.

Petrarca.
Thou never hast received from any court
Favour or place; I, presents and preferments.

Boccaccio.
I am but little known: for dear to me
As fame is, odious is celebrity.

Petrarca.
I see not why it should be.

Boccaccio.
If no eyes
In the same head are quite alike, ours may
Match pretty well, yet somewhat differ too.

Petrarca.
Should days like yours waste far from men and friends?

Boccaccio.
Leave me one flame; then may my breast dilate
To hold, at last, two (or almost two) friends:
One would content me: but we must, forsooth,
Speculate on more riches than we want.
Moreover, O Francesco! I should shrink
From scurril advocate, cross-questioning
Whom knew I in the palace? whence my knowledge?
How long? where first? whence introduced? for what?
Since in all law-courts I have ever entered,
The least effrontery, the least dishonesty,
Has lain among the prosecuted thieves.

Petrarca.
We can not now much longer hesitate;
He hath his eye upon us.

Boccaccio.
Not on me;
He knows me not.

Petrarca.
On me it may be then,
Altho' some years, no few have intervened
Since we last met.

Boccaccio.
But frequent correspondence
Retains the features, nay, brings back the voice;
The very shoe creaks when the letter opens.

Petrarca.
Rienzi was among those friends who sooner
Forget than are forgotten.

Boccaccio.
They who rise
Lose sight of things below, while they who fall
Grasp at and call for anything to help.

Petrarca.
I own I cease to place reliance on him.
Virtue and Power take the same road at first,
But they soon separate, and they meet no more.

Usher.
The Tribune, ser Franceso! claims your presence.

Rienzi.
Petrarca! pride of Italy! most welcome!

Petrarca.
Tribune of Rome! I bend before the fasces.

Rienzi.
No graver business in this capitol,
Or in the forum underneath its walls,
Or in the temples that once rose between,
Engaged the thoughts of Rome. No captive queen
Comes hither, none comes tributary, none
Courting dominion or contesting crown.
Thou knowest who submits her cause before
The majesty that reigns within this court.

Petrarca.
Her, and her father, and his father knew I,
Nor three more worthy of my love and honour
(Tho' born to royalty) adorn our earth.
Del Balzo hath supplied the facts: all doubts
On every side of them hath Acciajoli
Clear'd up.

Rienzi.
But some will spring where others fall,
When intellect is strongly exercised.

Petrarca.
The sources of our intellect lie deep
Within the heart; what rises to the brain
Is spray and efflorescence; they dry up.

Rienzi.
However, we must ponder. So then truly,
Petrarca! thou dost think her innocent?

Petrarca.
Thou knowest she is innocent, Rienzi!
Write then thy knowledge higher than my belief:
The proofs lie there before thee.

Rienzi.
But these papers
Are ranged against them.

Petrarca.
Weigh the characters
Of those who sign them.

Rienzi.
Here the names are wanting.

Petrarca.
Remove the balance then, for none is needed.
Against Del Balzo, upright, stern, severe,
What evidence can struggle?

Rienzi.
From Del Balzo
The Queen herself demands investigation
Into the crime, and bids him spare not one
Partaker.

Petrarca.
Worthy of her race! Now ask
If I believe her guiltless.

Rienzi.
May we prove it!

Acciajoli.
She shall herself, if needful. Should more answers
Be wanted from me, I am here before
That high tribunal where the greatest power
And wisdom are united; where the judge
Gives judgment in the presence of such men
As Rome hath rarely seen in ancient days,
Never in later. What they hear, the world
Will hear thro' future ages, and rejoice
That he was born in this to raise an arm
Protecting such courageous innocence.

Rienzi.
Lord Seneschal of Naples, Acciajoli!
We have examined, as thou knowest, all
The documents before us, and regret
That death withholds from like examination
(Whether as witnesses or criminals)
Some inmates of your court, the most familiar
With queen Giovanna.

Acciajoli.
Did she then desire
Their death? as hidden enemies accuse her
Of one more awful. I presume the names
Of the young Sancia, count Terlizzi's bride,
And hers who educated that pure mind
By pointing out Giovanna, two years older,
Filippa of Catana.

Rienzi.
They are gone
Beyond our reach.

Acciajoli.
Sent off, no doubt, by one
Who loved them most, who most loved her! sent off
After their tortures, whether into Scotland
Or Norway or Laponia, the same hand
Who wrote those unsign'd papers may set forth.

Rienzi.
I cannot know their characters.

Acciajoli.
I know them
Loyal and wise and virtuous.

Rienzi.
But Filippa
Guided, 'tis said, the counsels of king Robert.

Acciajoli.
And were those counsels evil? If they were,
How happens it that both in life and death
The good king Robert was his appellation?

Rienzi.
How many kings are thrust among the stars
Who had become the whipping-post much better?

Acciajoli.
Was Robert one?

Rienzi.
We must confess that Robert
Struck down men's envy under admiration.

Acciajoli.
If then Filippa guided him, what harm?

Rienzi.
She might have fear'd that youth would less obey
Her prudent counsels than experience did.

Acciajoli.
Well might she: hence for many a year her cares
Have been devoted to our queen's instruction,
Together with queen Sancia, not without:
And neither of these ladies (I now speak
As president) have meddled with our councils.

Rienzi.
When women of low origin are guides
To potentates of either sex, 'tis ill.

Acciajoli.
I might have thought so; but Filippa showed
That female wisdom much resembles male;
Gentler, not weaker; leading, not controlling.
Again! O tribune! touching low estate.
More vigorously than off the downier cradle
From humble crib springs up the lofty mind.

Rienzi.
Strong arguments, and cogent facts, are these! [To an Usher.

Conduct the queen of Naples into court.

Acciajoli.
That, by your leave, must be my office, sir!

SCENE III.

Rienzi, Acciajoli, Giovanna, and Prior of the Celestines.
Rienzi.
Giovanna, queen of Naples! we have left you
A pause and space for sorrow to subside;
Since, innocent or guilty, them who lose
So suddenly the partner of their hours,
Grief seizes on, in that dark interval.
Pause too and space were needful, to explore
On every side such proofs as may acquit
Of all connivance at the dreadful crime
A queen so wise, and held so virtuous,
So just, so merciful. It can not be
(We hope) that she who would have swept away
Playthings of royal courts and monkish cells,
The instruments of torture, that a queen
Who in her childhood visited the sick,
Nor made a luxury or pomp of doing it,
Who placed her little hand, as we have heard,
In that where fever burnt, nor feared contagion,
Should slay her husband.

Acciajoli.
Faintness overpowers her,
Not guilt. The racks you spoke of, O Rienzi!
You have applied, and worse than those you spoke of.

Rienzi.
Gladly I see true friends about her.

Acciajoli.
Say
About her not; say in her breast she finds
The only friend she wants . . her innocence.

Rienzi.
People of Rome! your silence, your attention,
Become you. With like gravity our fathers
Beheld the mighty and adjudged their due.
Sovran of Naples, Piedmont, and Provence,
Among known Potentates what other holds
Such wide dominions as this lady here,
Excepting that strong islander whose sword
Has cut France thro', and lies o'er Normandy,
Anjou, Maine, Poictou, Brittany, Touraine,
And farthest Gascony; whose hilt keeps down
The Grampians, and whose point the Pyrenees?
Listen! she throws aside her veil, that all
May hear her voice, and mark her fearless mien.

Giovanna.
I say not, O Rienzi! I was born
A queen; nor say I none but God alone
Hath right to judge me. Every man whom God
Endows with judgment arbitrates my cause.
For of that crime am I accused which none
Shall hide from God or man. All are involved
In guilt who aid, or screen, or spare, the guilty.
Speak, voice of Rome! absolve me or condemn,
As proof, or, proof being absent, probability,
Points on the scroll of this dark tragedy.
Speak, and spare not: fear nought but mighty minds,
Nor those, unless where lies God's shadow, truth.

Rienzi.
Well hast thou done, O queen, and wisely chosen
Judge and defenders. Thro' these states shall none
Invade thy realm. I find no crime in thee.
Hasten to Naples! for against its throne
Ring powerful arms and menace thy return.

[Acciajoli leads the Queen out.
Prior of the Celestines.
Thou findest in that wily queen no crime.
So be it! and 'tis well. But tribune, know,
Ill chosen are the praises thou bestowest
On her immunity from harm, in touching
The fever'd and infected. She was led
Into such places by unholy hands.
I come not an accuser: I would say
Merely, that Queen Giovanna was anointed
By the most potent sorceress, Filippa
The Catanese.

Rienzi.
Anointed Queen?

Prior.
Her palms
Anointed, so that evil could not touch them.
Filippa, with some blacker spirits, helpt
To cure the sick, or comfort them unduly.

Rienzi.
Among the multitude of sorceresses
I find but very few such sorceries,
And, if the Church permitted, would forgive them.

Prior.
In mercy we, in mercy, should demur.

Rienzi.
How weak is human wisdom! what a stay
Is such stout wicker-work about the fold!

Prior.
Whether in realms of ignorance, in realms
By our pure light and our sure faith unblest,
Or where the full effulgence bursts from Rome,
No soul, not one upon this varied earth,
Is unbeliever in the power of sorcery:
How certain then its truth, the universal
Tongue of mankind, from east to west, proclaims.

Rienzi.
With reverential and submissive awe,
People of Rome! leave we to holy Church
What comes not now before us, nor shall come,
While matters which our judgments can decide
Are question'd, while crown'd heads are bowed before us.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.

RIENZI'S OWN APARTMENT IN THE CAPITOL. Rienzi, Friar Anselmo, and poor Neapolitans.
Rienzi.
Who creeps there yonder with his fingers folded?
Hither; what wantest thou? who art thou, man?

Anselmo.
The humblest of the humble, your Anselmo.

Rienzi.
Mine?

Anselmo.
In all duty.

Rienzi.
Whence art thou?

Anselmo.
From Naples.

Rienzi.
What askest thou?

Anselmo.
In the most holy names
Of Saint Euphemia and Saint Cunigund!
And in behalf of these poor creatures ask I
Justice and mercy.

Rienzi.
On what count?

Anselmo.
On life.

Rienzi.
Who threatens it in Rome?

Anselmo.
In Rome none dare
Under the guardianship of your tribunal.
But Naples is abandoned to her fate
By those who ruled her. Those, alas! who ruled her
Heaven has abandoned. Crimes, outrageous crimes,
Have swept them from their people. We alone
In poverty are left for the protection
Of the more starving populace. O hear,
Merciful Tribune! hear their cries for bread!

[All cry out.
Anselmo
(to them).
Ye should not have cried now, ye fools! and choak ye!

Rienzi.
That worthy yonder looks well satisfied:
All of him, but his shoulder, seems at ease.

Anselmo.
Tommaso! art thou satisfied?

Tommaso.
Not I.
A fish upon my bread, at least on Friday,
Had done my body and my soul some good,
And quicken'd one and t'other at thanksgiving.
Anchovies are rare cooks for garlic, master!

[To Rienzi.
Anselmo.
I sigh for such delusion.

Rienzi.
So do I.
How came they hither?

Anselmo.
By a miracle.

Rienzi.
My honest friends! what can we do for you
At Rome?

Anselmo.
Speak. Does the Devil gripe your tongues?

Mob.
We crave our daily bread from holy hands,
And from none other.

Rienzi.
Then your daily bread
Ye will eat hot, and delicately small.
Frate Anselmo, what means this?

Anselmo.
It means,
O tribune, that the lady, late our queen,
Hath set aside broad lands and blooming gardens
For hospitals; which, with unrighteous zeal,
She builds with every church. There Saint Antonio
Beyond the gate of Capua! there Saint Martin
On Mount Saint-Eremo! there Saint Maria
Incoronata! All their hospitals!
No one hath monastery! no one nuns!

Rienzi.
Hard, hard upon you! But what means were yours
To bring so many supplicants so long
A journey with you?

Anselmo.
'Twas a miracle.

Rienzi.
Miracles never are of great duration.
Hurry them back! Hurry ye while it lasts!
I would not spoil it with occult supplies,
I reverence holy men too much for that,
And leave them to the only power above them.
Possibly quails and manna may not cross you
If you procrastinate. But, setting out
To-morrow, by whichever gate seems luckiest,
And questioning your honest mules discreetly,
I boldly answer for it, ye shall find
By their mild winking (should they hold their tongues)
The coin of our lord Clement on the back
Of one or other, in some well-thonged scrip.

Anselmo
(aside).
Atheist!

Tommaso.
Ah no, father! Atheists
Never lift up their eyes as you and he do. [Going together.

I know one in a twinkling. For example,
Cosimo Cappa was one. He denied
A miracle his mother might have seen
Not twelve miles from his very door, when she
Was heavy with him; and the saint who workt it,
To make him one, cost thirteen thousand ducats.
There was an atheist for you! that same Cappa . .
I saw him burnt . . a fine fresh lusty man.
I warrant I remember it: I won
A heap of chestnuts on that day at morra.
A sad poor place this Rome! look where you will,
No drying paste here dangles from the windows
Across the sunny street, to make it cheerful;
And much I doubt if, after all its fame,
The nasty yellow river breeds anchovies.

SCENE II.

RIENZI'S OWN APARTMENT IN THE CAPITOL. Rienzi and his Wife.
Rienzi.
I have been sore perplext, and still am so.

Wife.
Yet falsehood drops from truth, as quicksilver
From gold, and ministers to purify it.

Rienzi.
The favour of the people is uncertain.

Wife.
Gravely thou givest this intelligence.
Thus there are people in a northern isle
Who tell each other that the weather changes,
And, when the sun shines, say the day looks bright,
And, when it shines not, there are clouds above.

Rienzi.
Some little fief, some dukedom, we'll suppose,
Might shelter us against a sudden storm.

Wife.
Not so: we should be crusht between two rocks,
The people and the barons. Both would hate thee,
Both call thee traitor, and both call thee truly.

Rienzi.
When we stand high, the shaft comes slowly up;
We see the feather, not the point; and that
Loses what venom it might have below.

Wife.
I thought the queen of Naples occupied
Thy mind entirely.

Rienzi.
From the queen of Naples
My hopes originate. The pope is willing
To grant me an investiture when I
Have given up to him, by my decree,
Some of her cities.

Wife.
Then it is untrue
Thou hast acquitted her of crime.

Rienzi.
I did;
But may condemn her yet: the king of Hungary
Is yet unheard: there are strong doubts: who knows
But stronger may arise! My mind misgives.
Tell me thou thinkest her in fault. One word
Would satisfy me.

Wife.
Not in fault, thou meanest.

Rienzi.
In fault, in fault, I say.

Wife.
No, not in fault,
Much less so foully criminal.

Rienzi.
O! could I
Absolve her!

Wife.
If her guilt be manifest,
Absolve her not; deliver her to death.

Rienzi.
From what the pope and king of Hungary
Adduce . . at present not quite openly . .
I must condemn her.

Wife.
Dost thou deem her guilty?

Rienzi.
O God! I wish she were! I must condemn her.

Wife.
Husband! art thou gone mad?

Rienzi.
None are much else
Who mount so high, none can stand firm, none look
Without a fear of falling: and, to fall! . .
No, no, 'tis not, 'tis not the worst disgrace.

Wife.
What hast thou done? Have thine eyes seen corruption?

Rienzi.
Thinkest thou gold could move Rienzi? gold
(Working incessantly demoniac miracles)
Could chain down Justice, or turn blood to water?

Wife.
Who scorns the ingot may not scorn the mine.
Gold may not move thee, yet what brings gold may.
Ambition is but avarice in mail,
Blinder, and often weaker. Is there strength,
Cola! or speed, in the oblique and wry?
Of blood turn'd into water talkest thou?
Take heed thou turn not water into blood
And show the pure impure. If thou do this,
Eternal is the stain upon thy hand;
Freedom thro' thee will be the proud man's scoff,
The wise man's problem; even the slave himself
Will rather bear the scourge than trust the snare.
Thou hast brought large materials, large and solid,
To build thy glory on: if equity
Be not the base, lay not one stone above.
Thou hast won the influence over potent minds,
Relax it not. Truth is a tower of strength,
No Babel one: it may be rais'd to heaven
And will not anger God.

Rienzi.
Who doubts my justice?

Wife.
Thyself. Who prosecutes the criminal?
Thyself? Who racks the criminal? Thyself.
Unhappy man! how maim'd art thou! what limb
Proportionate! what feature undisfigured!
Go, bathe in porphyry . . thy leprosy
Will never quit thee: thou hast eaten fruit
That brings all sins, and leaves but death behind.

Rienzi.
But hear me.

Wife.
I have heard thee, and such words
As one who loves thee never should have heard.

Rienzi.
I must provide against baronial power
By every aid, external and internal,
For, since my elevation, many friends
Have fallen from me.

Wife.
Throw not off the rest.
What! is it then enough to stand before
The little crags and sweep the lizards down
From their warm basking-place with idle wand,
While under them the drowsy panther lies
Twitching his paw in his dark lair, and waits
Secure of springing when thy back is turned?
Popular power can stand but with the people:
Let them trust none a palm above themselves,
For sympathy in high degrees is frozen.

Rienzi.
Such are my sentiments.

Wife.
Thy sentiments!
They were thy passion. Are they sentiments?
Go! there's the distaff in the other room.

Rienzi.
Thou blamed'st not what seemed ambition in me.

Wife.
Because it gave thee power to bless thy country.
Stood tribunitial ever without right?
Sat ever papal without perfidy?
O tribune! tribune! whom weak woman teaches!
If thou deceivest men, go, next enslave them;
Else is no safety. Would'st thou that?

Rienzi.
To make
Any new road, some plants there must be crusht,
And not the higher only, here and there.
Whoever purposes great good, must do
Some partial evil.

Wife.
Thou hast done great good
Without that evil yet. Power in its prime
Is beautiful, but sickened by excess
Collapses into loathsomeness; and scorn
Shrivels to dust its fierce decrepitude.

Rienzi.
Am I deficient then in manly deeds,
Or in persuasion?

Wife.
Of all manly deeds
Oftentimes the most honest are the bravest,
And no persuasion so persuades as truth.

Rienzi.
Peace! peace! confound me not.

Wife.
The brave, the wise,
The just are never, even by foes, confounded.
Promise me but one thing. If in thy soul
Thou thinkest this young woman free from blame,
Thou wilt absolve her, openly, with honour,
Whatever Hungary, whatever Avignon,
May whisper or may threaten.

Rienzi.
If my power
Will bear it; if the sentence will not shake
This scarlet off my shoulder.

Wife.
Cola! Cola!

SCENE III.

TRIBUNAL IN THE CAPITOL. Rienzi, Citizens, &c.
Citizen.
There is a banner at the gates.

Rienzi.
A banner!
Who dares hoist banner at the gates of Rome?

Citizen.
A royal crown surmounts it.

Rienzi.
Down with it!

Citizen.
A king, 'tis said, bears it himself in hand.

Rienzi.
Trample it in the dust, and drag him hither.
What are those shouts? Look forth.

Usher
(having looked out).
The people cry
Around four knights who bear a sable flag:
One's helm is fashion'd like a kingly crown.

Rienzi.
Strike off his head who let the accursed symbol
Of royalty come within Roman gate:
See this be done: then bind the bold offenders. [Lewis of Hungary enters.

Who art thou?

Lewis.
King of Hungary.

Rienzi.
What brings thee?

Lewis.
Tribune! thou knowest well what brings me hither.
Fraternal love, insulted honour, bring me.
Thinkest thou I complain of empty forms
Violated to chafe me? thinkest thou
'Tis that I waited in the port of Trieste
For invitation to my brother's wedding,
Nor invitation came, nor embassy?
Now creaks the motive. Silly masquerade
Usurpt the place of tilt and tournament;
No knight attended from without, save one,
Our cousin of Taranto: why he came,
Before all earth the dire event discloses.

Rienzi.
Lewis of Hungary! it suits not us
To regulate the laws of chivalry
Or forms of embassies. We know there may be
Less folly in the lightest festival
Than in the sternest and severest war.
Patiently have we heard; as patiently
Hear thou, in turn, the accused as the accuser;
Else neither aid nor counsel hope from me.

Lewis.
I ask no aid of thee, I want no counsel,
I claim but justice; justice I will have,
I will have vengeance for my brother's death.

Rienzi.
My brother too was murdered. Was my grief
Less deep than thine? If greater my endurance,
See what my patience brought me! all these friends
Around, and thee, a prince, a king, before me.
Hear reason, as becomes a Christian knight.

Lewis.
Ye always say to those who suffer wrong,
Hear reason! Is not that another wrong?
He who throws fuel on a fiery furnace
Cries, Wait my signal for it! blaze not yet!
Issue one edict more: proclaim, O tribune,
Heat never shall be fire, nor fire be flame.

Rienzi.
King Lewis! I do issue such an edict
(Absurd as thou mayest deem it) in this place.
Hell hath its thunders, loud and fierce as Heaven's,
Heaven is more great and glorious in its calm:
In this clear region is the abode of Justice.

Lewis.
Was it well, tribune, to have heard the cause,
Nay and to have decided it, before
Both sides were here? The murderess hath departed,
And may have won her city from the grasp
Of my brave people, who avenge their prince,
The mild Andrea. Justice I will have,
I will have vengeance.

Rienzi.
Every man may ask
If what I do is well: and angry tones,
Tho' unbecoming, are not unforgiven
Where virtuous grief bursts forth. But, king of Hungary,
We now will change awhile interrogations.
I ask thee was it well to bring with thee
Into our states a banner that blows up
The people into fury? and a people
Not subject to thy sceptre or thy will?
We knew not of thy coming. When thy friends
In Naples urged us to decide the cause,
'Twas in thy name, as guardian to thy brother,
Bringing against the queen such accusations,
And so supported, that we ordered her
To come before us and defend herself.
She did it, nor delayed. The cardinal
Bishop of Orvieto and the Cardinal
Del Sangro on their part, on hers Del Balzo
And Acciajoli, have examined all
The papers, heard the witnesses, and signed
Their sentence under each. These we suggest
To the approval of thy chancery.

Lewis.
Chanceries were not made for murderesses.

Rienzi.
I am not learned like the race of kings,
Yet doth my memory hold the scanty lore
It caught betimes, and there I find it written,
Not in Hungarian nor in Roman speech,
Vengeance is mine. We execute the laws
Against the disobedient, not against
Those who submit to our award. The queen
Of Naples hath submitted. She is free,
Unless new proof and stronger be adduced
To warrant her recall into my presence.

Lewis.
Recall'd she shall be then, and proof adduced.

Rienzi.
We have detected falsehood in its stead.

Lewis.
I will have justice, come it whence it may.

Rienzi.
Cecco Mancino! read the law against
Those who accuse maliciously or lightly.

Mancino.
(reads).
“Who shall accuse another, nor make good
His accusation, shall incur such fine,
Or such infliction of the scourge, as that
False accusation righteously deserves.”

Rienzi.
Fine cannot satisfy the wrongs that royalty
Receives from royalty.

Lewis.
Wouldst thou inflict
The scourge on kings?

Rienzi.
The lictor would, not I.

Lewis.
What insult may we not expect ere long!
And yet we fare not worst from demagogues.
Those who have risen from the people's fist
Perch first upon their shoulders, then upon
Their heads, and then devour their addled brain.

Rienzi.
We have seen such of old.

Lewis.
Hast thou seen one
True to his feeder where power whistled shriller,
Shaking the tassels and the fur before him?

Rienzi.
History now grows rather dim with me,
And memory less vivacious than it was:
No time for hawks, no tendency to hounds!

Lewis.
Cold sneers are your calm judgments! Here at Rome
To raise false hopes under false promises
Is wisdom! and on such do we rely!

Rienzi.
Wisdom with us is not hereditary,
Nor brought us from the woods in ermine-skins,
Nor pinned upon our tuckers ere we chew,
Nor offered with the whistle on bent knee,
But, King of Hungary! we can and do
In some reward it and in all revere;
We have no right to scoff at it, thou hast.
Cecco Mancino!

Mancino.
Tribune most august!

Rienzi
(turning his back, and pointing to the eagles over his tribunal).
Furl me that flag. Now place it underneath
The eagles there. When the king goes, restore it.

[Walks down from the tribunal.

ACT V.

SCENE I.

PALACE ON THE SHORE NEAR NAPLES. Giovanna, Acciajoli, Del Balzo, Luigi of Taranto, Knights.
Acciajoli.
My queen! behold us in your native land
And lawful realm again!

Giovanna.
But other sounds
Than greeted me in earlier days I hear,
And other sights I see; no friends among them
Who guided me in childhood, warn'd in youth,
And were scathed off me when that thunderbolt
Fell down between us. Are they lost so soon!
So suddenly! Why could they not have come? [To Del Balzo.

Where is Filippa? where Terlizzi? where
Maternal Sancia?

Del Balzo.
Such her piety,
Nor stranger nor insurgent hath presumed
To throw impediment before her steps.
For friends alike and enemies her prayers
Are daily heard among the helpless crowd,
But loudest for Giovanna; at which name,
Alone she bends upon the marble floor
That saintly brow, and stirs the dust with sighs.

Giovanna
(to Acciajoli).
Arms only keep her from me. Whose are yonder?

Acciajoli.
I recognise Calabrian; Tarantine.

Giovanna.
Ah me! suspicion then must never cease!
Never, without Luigi, Tarantine
Arms glitter in the field. Even without him
(Which can not be) his troops in my defence
Would move again those odious thoughts, among
My easy people, guileless and misled.

Del Balzo.
His duty and his fealty enforce
What loyalty and honour would persuade.
Taranto is a fief: Taranto's prince
Must lead his army where his suzerain
Commands, or where, without commanding, needs.

Acciajoli.
He can not see your city in your absence
A prey to lawless fury, worse than war.

Del Balzo.
Ay, and war too: for those who came as pilgrims
And penitents, to kiss the holy frock
Of father Rupert, spring up into soldiers;
And thus are hundreds added to the guards
Which that most powerful friar placed around
Him whom we mourn for. Three strong companies
(Once only eight score each) are form'd within
The conquered city. Canopies of state
Covered with sable cloth parade the streets,
And crucifixes shed abundant blood
Daily from freshened wounds; and virgins' eyes
Pour torrents over faces drawn with grief.
What saint stands unforgotten? what uncall'd?
Unincenst! Many have come forth and walkt
Among the friars, many shouted loud
For vengeance. Even Luigi's camp stood wavering.
Only when first appeared your ship afar,
And over the white sail the sable flag,
Flapping the arms of Anjou, Naples, Hungary,
'Twas only then the rising mutiny
Paus'd, and subsided; only then Luigi,
Pointing at that trine pennant, turn'd their rage
Into its course.

Acciajoli.
Perhaps the boat I see
Crossing the harbour, may bring some intelligence;
Perhaps he may, himself . .

Giovanna.
No! not before . .
No! not at present . . Must I be ungrateful?
Never! . . ah, must I seem so?

SCENE II.

An Old Knight.
From the prince
Commanding us, O lady! I am here
To lay his homage at his liege's feet.
He bids me say, how, at the first approach
Of that auspicious vessel, which brought hither
Before her city's port its lawful queen,
His troops demanded battle. In one hour
He places in your royal hands the keys
Of your own capital, or falls before it.

Giovanna.
God grant he fall not! O return! return!
Tell him there are enow . . without, within . .
And were there not enow . . persuade, implore . .
Show how Taranto wants him; his own country,
His happy people . . they must pine without him!
O miserable me! O most ungrateful!
Tell him I can not see him . . I am ill . .
The sea disturbs me . . my head turns, aches, splits . .
I can not see him . . say it, sir! repeat it.

Knight.
May-be, to-morrow . .

Giovanna.
Worse, to-morrow! worse!
Sail back again . . say everything . . thanks, blessings.

Knight.
Too late! Those thundering shouts are our assault . .
It was unfair without me; it was hard . .
Those are less loud.

Giovanna.
Luigi is repulst!
Perhaps is slain! slain if repulst . . he said it.
Yes; those faint shouts . .

Knight.
Lady, they are less loud
Because the walls are between him and us.

Giovanna
(falls on her knees).
O! every saint in heaven be glorified!
Which, which hath saved him? [Rises.]
Yet, O sir! if walls
Are between him and us, then he is where
His foes are! That is not what you intend?
What is it? Cries again!

Knight.
Not one were heard
Had our prince dropt. The fiercest enemy
Had shrunk appall'd from such majestic beauty
Falling from heaven upon the earth beneath;
And his own people with closed teeth had fought.
Not for their lives, but for his death: no such
Loud acclamation, lady! had been heard,
But louder woe and wailing from the vanquisht.

Giovanna
(aside).
Praises to thee, O Virgin! who concealedst
So kindly all my fondness, half my fears!

Acciajoli.
The dust is rising nearer. Who rides hither
In that black scarf? with something in his hand
Where the sword should be. 'Tis a sword, I see,
In form at least. The dust hangs dense thereon,
Adhesive, dark.

Del Balzo.
Seneschal! it was brighter
This morning, I would swear for it.

Acciajoli.
He throws
The bridle on the mane. He comes.

Del Balzo.
He enters . .
We shall hear all.

SCENE III.

Luigi of Taranto
(throwing up his vizor).
Pardon this last disguise!
There was no time to take my vizor off,
Scarcely to throw my sword down in the hall.
My royal cousin! let a worthier hand
Conduct you to the city you have won,
The city of your fathers.

Giovanna.
O Luigi!
None worthier, none more loyal, none more brave.
Cousin! by that dear name I do adjure you!
Let others . . these my friends and ministers . .
Conduct me to the city you have won,
The city of your fathers, as of mine.
Let none who carried arms against the worst
Of my own people (for the very worst
Have only been misguided) come into it
With me, or after. Well thou governest
Thy vassals, O Luigi! Be thy dukedom
Increast in all the wealth my gratitude
Can add thereto, in chases, castles, towns;
But hasten, hasten thither! There are duties
(Alas! thou knowest like ourselves what duties)
I must perform. Should ever happier days
Shine on this land, my people will remember,
With me, they shine upon it from Taranto.