 | The Virgin Widow ; or, A Sicilian Summer |  |
Scene II.
The Palazzo Malespino—Silisco, Ruggiero, and other Noblemen. Bruno and Conrado. A Manager and three Players. Singing and Dancing Girls, and amongst the former Aretina.Silisco.
Off with these viands and this wine, Conrado;
Feasting is not festivity: it cloys
That lightly fills the soul. My pretty friend,
Touch me that lute of thine, and pour thy voice
Upon the troubled waters of this world.
Aretina.
What ditty would you please to hear, my Lord?
Silisco.
Choose you, Ruggiero. See now, if that knave ...
Conrado, ho! A hundred times I've bid thee
To give what wine is over to the poor
About the doors.
Conrado.
Sir, this is Malvoisie
And Muscadel, a ducat by the flask.
Silisco.
Give it them not the less; they'll never know;
And better it went to enrich a beggar's blood
Than surfeit ours;—Choose you, Ruggiero!
Ruggiero.
I!
I have not heard her songs.
Silisco.
You sang me once
A song that had a note of either muse,
Not sad, nor gay, but rather both than neither.
What call you it?
Aretina.
(touching her lute).
I think, my Lord, 'twas this.
Silisco.
Yes, yes, 'twas so it ran; sing that, I pray you.
(sings).
Of the land and sea,
I wander whither I will;
But oft on the wing
I falter and sing
Oh fluttering heart, be still,
Be still,
Oh fluttering heart, be still.
But soft and kind,
And wander whither I may
The eye-bright sighs
And says with its eyes,
Thou wandering wind, oh stay,
Oh stay,
Thou wandering wind, oh stay.
Silisco.
There! have you heard elsewhere a voice like hers?
The soul it reaches not is far from Heaven,
Is't not, Ruggiero?
Ruggiero.
To say ay to that
Were for myself to claim a place too near;
For it not reaches only, but runs through me.
Manager.
Now, had she clapp'd her hand upon her heart
In the first verse, which says “Oh fluttering heart” ...
1st Player.
And at “oh stay” had beckoned thus or thus ...
2nd Player.
And with a speaking look ....
But no—she could not—
It was not in her.
Silisco.
You'll not take the gold?
Wear this then for my sake; it once adorn'd
The bosom of a Queen of Samarcand
And shall not shame to sit upon this throne.
[Hangs a jewel round her neck.
Aretina.
My heart, my Lord, would prize a gift of yours,
Were it a pebble from the brook.
Silisco.
What ho!
Are not the players in attendance? Ah!
A word or two with you, my worthy friends.
1st Girl.
Why, Aretina, 'tis the diamond
Was sold last winter for a hundred crowns.
2nd Girl.
A princely man!
3rd Girl.
In some things; but in others
He's liker to a patriarch than a prince.
1st Girl.
I think that he takes us for patriarchs,
He's so respectful.
2nd Girl.
Tell Spadone that;
Bid him believe such gifts are given for nothing;
A diamond for a song!
1st Girl.
Well, let it pass;
We're none of us St. Ursulas; forsooth
Even I have tripped at times; and Adrian swears
That on your mouth as many kisses meet
As on St. Peter's toe.
Speak for yourself,
And let my mouth alone.
Silisco.
With all my heart;
We'll have the scene where Brutus from the bench
Condemns his son to death. 'Twas you, Ruggiero,
Made me to love that scene.
Manager.
I think, my Lord,
We pleased you in it.
Ruggiero.
Oh you did, you did;
Yet still with reservations: and might I speak
My untaught mind to you that know your art,
I should beseech you not to stare and gasp
And quiver, that the infection of the sense
May make our flesh to creep; for as the hand
By tickling of our skin may make us laugh
More than the wit of Plautus, so these tricks
May make us shudder. But true art is this,
To set aside your sorrowful pantomine,
Pass by the senses, leave the flesh at rest,
And working by the witcheries of words
Felt in the fulness of their import, call
Men's spirits from the deep; that pain may thus
Be glorified, and passion flashing out
Like noiseless lightning in a summer's night,
Show Nature in her bounds from peak to chasm,
Awful, but not terrific.
Manager.
True, my Lord:
My very words; 'tis what I always told them.
Bruno.
A word, my Lord;
The Maddelena's mate is here without,
And craves to see you.
Silisco.
Call him in. Your pardon.
[To the players.
One moment and we'll hear you.
Ruggiero.
'Tis a speech
That by a language of familiar lowness
Enhances what of more heroic vein
Is next to follow. But one fault it has:
It fits too close to life's realities,
In truth to Nature missing truth to Art;
For Art commends not counterparts and copies,
But from our life a nobler life would shape,
Bodies celestial from terrestrial raise,
And teach us, not jejunely what we are,
But what we may be when the Parian block
Yields to the hand of Phidias.
Enter Mate.
Silisco.
Well, what cheer?
Mate.
Spadone sends me, Sir, for sailing orders;
The wind is fair, and we may lose a day
That's worth a week.
Silisco.
Ay, say ye so? But stop;
Where may these Jews be found? You cannot sail
Upon the goods at Rhodes.
Bruno.
My Lord, the Jews
Have been these three hours in the outer hall
Much kicking of their heels and cursing Meroz.
You would have heard them, but I shut the door
By reason of the smell.
Silisco.
Oh, bring them in.
Aretina
(to the Mate.)
To meet him in the Catacombs? I will.
Take this, and tell him not you saw me here.
[Gives him money and exit.
Silisco.
Poor gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim!
I had forgotten them.
Ruggiero.
The day will come
When they will not permit you to forget them.
Your bondsman, Haggai, will be then perchance
Your Lord and Master.
Silisco.
When is that to be?
Oh, thank you; in the reign of Tush and Pish.
Ruggiero.
Farewell. I would not willingly look on
Whilst knavery prospers. Knavery, did I say?
Haggai and Sadoc, if I rightly read
The docket Nature scribbles on their skulls,
Are not more knaves than ruffians. Bear in mind
The Zita is in sight, which brings my friends
From Procida. You promised we should meet
At vespers, on the shore, to see her in.
[Exit.
Farewell. And you, my friends. I thank you all.
If business will not wait upon my leisure,
Still less shall you. To all a kind farewell.
[Exeunt all but Silisco and the Mate, Bruno, and Conrado.
Enter Haggai, Sadoc, and Shallum.
Silisco.
God save you, Jews; have you brought me
those writings?
Haggai.
Your worship shall behold them: here they
be. Two skins.
Silisco.
“To the rich and worshipful Nimshi, our
brother at Rhodes, these:”—This is the order for the
treasure. Take it, Mate, and begone; and by sunset let
the good ship Maddelena look small in the offing, like
a lobster with its legs up.
What next? the charter-party. Fifty ducats per diem
—crew to be found in all things needful,—was it so?—
Freightage—demurrage—brokerage— Brokerage!
Why Haggai, the ship being thine own and the bargain
struck betwixt thee and me, whence is the brokerage?
I saw no broker.
Haggai.
Your worship shall understand. In taking of
a ship on freight, there ever comes betwixt him that
owns her and him that takes her, that useful and that
profitable man, a broker. 'Tis the law and the usage.
Is it not, Sadoc? Is is not, Shallum?
Sadoc.
The law and the usage.
Shallum.
Justly the law and usage.
Silisco.
But is that useful, profitable man invisible?
for I saw him not; I dealt not with him.
Haggai.
Your worship shall understand. Lo! the
times are evil, and hardly shall your servant live if he
sweat not in two callings. Truly I own a ship, and in
the way of an honest industry I do likewise follow the
occupation of a broker.
Silisco.
Oh! I see. Thou wert thyself that profitable
man.
Haggai.
At half the charge that it should have cost
you else. Was it not, Sadoc?
Sadoc.
Yea, and that half halved.
Haggai.
Was it not, Shallum?
Shallum.
Truly, Sir, for a reasonable broker, there is
none other that I can commend you to but only the
worthy Haggai.
Silisco.
To make a bargain 'twixt himself and me.
What is the other? Oh! the mortgage. Stop.
Haggai.
His worship calls.
Sadoc.
Ho! pen and ink.
Shallum.
Lo, here!
Silisco.
If I understand this writing, it pledges, not
Villa Guastata only, but my other effects whatsoever.
Haggai.
Villa Guastata! Woe is me! I travelled and
gat me to the spot. Woe! Woe! Woe! a desolation
and a hissing!
Silisco.
Nay, nay, Haggai; the property is sufficient
for the charge. But as I have a purpose of payment, I
care not what effects thou makest answerable.
There—have we made an end?
Haggai.
Of this present business. But there be certain
lands at Punto Vecchio that bring your worship but little
profit at present.....
Silisco.
My worthy masters! Lo! the times are evil!
Surely your servant in more ways than one
Must use his diligence; and having spent
The past hour greatly to my profit here
The next I purpose spending in the woods
Amongst the nightingales. God speed you, Sirs.
| The Virgin Widow ; or, A Sicilian Summer | |