 | The patriot, or the Italian Conspiracy |  |
1
ACT I.
SCENE I.
Scene the Piazza before or near the Palace.The Curtain rises and discovers Castrucio, Rimini, Lorenzo, Valori, Adimari, and Bernardo.
Castr.
[Aside to Valori pointing to Lorenzo and Rimini, talking to each other.]
I like not yon Lorenzo, Cosmo's Son,
So great, so intimate with Rimini—
He is a Spie set on us by his Father!
I hate the Name of Medici, the Peoples Idol,
And Bane of All the Noble men of Florence.
Valo.
Fear not Lorenzo, he is firmly Ours,
Bound to our Cause, as fast, as Love can bind him.
Bianca, Rimini's fair Daughter makes him ours;
Besides his Father Cosmo di Medici
Still curbs his haughty, and his fiery Temper.
2
Enough—And yet we shou'd be cautious—
For Friends, Valori, that wild Passion gives us,
Are Friends but while that lasts.
Val.
No more—see now they joyn us.
Loren.
No may my Sword ne'r do me Right, my Friend,
But hated Cowardice still blast my Name,
If ever I submit to this Mob Government,
Tho' my own Father stoops to be its Head.
The generous Spirits of the Medici
Throng to my Heart, and bid me guard their Glory;
Rescue the ancient Honours of their Race
From the degenerate Meaness of my Father.
Rim.
O! My Lorenzo! I will be thy Father—
Let but this dreadful Shock of State be past,
And my Bianca shall return to Florence,
And bless thy Arms, and make thee firm my Son.
But while our Country groans beneath this Load,
Th'enormous Load of popular Confusion.
Can any noble Soul indulge a Joy?
Or think of Pleasure midst our City's Pangs?
Lor.
O my dear Rimini!
Tho' thy fair Daughter's Life to my fond Soul
And every Beauty promise Worlds of Joy,
Yet my great Mind, m'ambitious Mind now thirsts
With so much Eagerness for what it aims at,
Immortal Honour in my Country's Rescue,
That ev'n my Love, with all its fierce Desires
Are still as Death, nor burn its pleasing Fires!
And Natures Voice tho' in a Father's Name
Dies e're it reach my Soul thus fixt on endless Fame.
Rim.
Come to my Arms, O thou so truly brave,
Thou may'st redeem the Errours of thy Race.
Castrucio, and Valori, Adimari, haste,
And thou Bernardo clasp him to your Bosom,
And bless those Pow'rs, that yet look kindly on us,
In giving Florence, in this Dearth of Virtue,
A Son like him.
Loren.
No, no, my Rimini,
Lorenzo is impatient of Delay.
3
The awful Throne of the illustrious Nobles,
Is now become the Receptacle of Knaves;
The Den of the impure, and rascally Rout;
Or those deputed by 'em, miscall'd Magistrates.
As yet you hold a share in Pow'r, delay not
To snatch poor Florence from this Infamy,
Least she too soon be ravish'd from your Hands.
You do not well Observe my cunning Father,
How he still strives to wean the Rable from you,
By preaching to 'em you're Rinaldo's Cousin;
Grown up, and fixt still in the Nobles Faction.
Where are the Honours paid your awful place?
Why are not you Saluted like proud Cosmo?
What are you but the Ape, the mimic God
To this new Thunderer, who appropriates
Those Bolts of Pow'r, that ought to be devided.
Rim.
'Tis just he shou'd, and I deserve it all!
That prompted by my Passion cou'd forget
My Duty to Rinaldo, and my Country,
And to a private Passion give up both.
By me the Senate, and Podesta sorm'd
Out of his Friends, soon call'd from hateful Exile
The fatal Cosmo, and gave him once again
To Lord it o're us.—
Arm'd thus by me he drove Rinaldo hence,
The Nobles Chief and Safeguard of our State.
Me! therefore me! first strike—for I betray'd
You and my self, with all the Rights of Florence.
Cast.
My Lord, to err is humane
The Wisest often err, o're-born by Passion.
It is enough you do not persevere;
But seek, e're 'tis too late, to rescue us
From your Mistake.
Lor.
But that requires much speed
My Father Cosmo, seeks to make Uberto
Captain of the People in your Place;
For he, like him, can fawn upon the Multitude.
Now, by my Soul, I hate their awker'd Pride,
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Most abjectly to court the brutish Vulgar!
O Rimini! have you no Eyes to find them?
Rim.
What means Lorenzo?
Lor.
To rouse you. Consider
Why Providence has rais'd you to this Pow'r
And kept it still, by Wonder in your Hands.
Not to set off his upstart Honours,
Where you are plac'd but like a winking Taper
In the Suns Eye, whose faint, and sickly Beams
Are swallow'd in the Blaze of his full Glory.
He, like a Meteor, rolls through the Abyss
Conspicuous in his Orb of fatal Light,
While your pale Lustre adds but to the Beard
That awes degenerate Florence.
Rim.
Why dost thou place my Infamy before me?
Lor.
When Cosmo late in Tryumph past thro' Florence
Fixt on his Courser, mark'd you how he bow'd?
On this, on that side to the Gazing Heads,
That pav'd the Streets, and all inboss'd the Windows,
That gap'd with eagerness to speak, but cou'd not?
So fast their Spirits flow'd to Admiration,
And that to Joy; which thus at last broke forth—
Cosmo! hail! Cosmo! Father of thy Country
Hail Guardian! hail Deliverer of Florence!
All hail! they cry'd, while the long Peal of Praises
Tormented with a Thousand ecchoing Shouts
The Ambient Air.
Rim.
No more on't, I'm sick of the Remembrance,
Lor.
But when you follow'd, how their bellying Bodies,
That ventur'd from the Casements more, than half
To look at Cosmo, nay that stuck like Snails
Upon the Walls, and from the Houses Tops
Hung down like clustring Bees upon each other,
How did they all draw back at sight of you?
To laze, and loll, and yawn, and rest from Rapture!
Are you a Man? Inrich'd with the best Blood
Of Florence? us'd too so long to Greatness,
And suffer this?
5
Be sure I will not.—But whither driv'st thou?
Lor.
I wou'd to Justice: to the Restoration
Of all the banish'd Noble-men Yes Rimini
I look upon my Father as a Traytor,
No more my Father now, by all my hopes.
And to redeem his Crime, I'll on as far,
As him, that laughs at Dying.
Rim.
O Soul! and Spirit of the ancient Medici!
Oh! once more to my Bosome let me clasp thee!
Yes, yes thou shalt have Work, thy active Mind
Shall soon have bright Employment.
So rich a Virtue shall not rust in Idleness,
Oh! that thy Brother had a Soul like thine?
Lor.
Oh! lucky be the Omen! for this Morning
My Brother Julio Marry'd Teraminta.
Rim.
Banish'd Rinaldo's Daughter?
Lor.
The same.
Rim.
Impossible.
Lor.
Most true.
Rim.
That must enrage his Father,
Who hates Rinaldo, and his noble House.
Lor.
And more, than once he has forbid his Love.
Rim.
This may indeed engage him in our Cause.
His Father's Rival in the peoples Hearts.
Enter Cosmo, Uberto Senators and Attendants.
But see Cosmo appears—
Stand we aside, and let the Pageant pass.
Cos.
speaks entering to Uberto.
No my Uberto, till thou'rt fixt my Mate
Joint Master in this great Authority,
Florence can ne'r be safe, or quiet.
While Rimini sits at the Helm
A universal Wreck is to be fear'd.
His false designs are not unknown to me.
Uber.
I have my self imploy'd an active Slave,
His name is Lando, giv'n him Wealth, and Freedom
To watch the motions of Castrucio
Of Adimari, and young Valori,
6
Castrucio has already Entertain'd him,
And something thence Important may be gather'd,
For these of all the Youth of Quality
Are most enclin'd to the false Nobles Faction.
Cosm.
That care was worthy my Uberto,
[looking about.
—Ha—See, Uberto, see! How here in Public;
And in the Face of day; the Eye of Florence,
The abject Captain mingles with those Boys!—
Now by my Countries Genius, that warms my Bosom,
And fires my Heart with more, than common Virtue,
I cannot bear the shocking sight, approbrious
To the name of Magistrate—
[goes up to him.
Vile Rimini, for Captain of the People,
Surrounded with this Herd, I blush to call thee,
This Herd of hot-brain'd, giddy, headlong Youth!
How long wilt thou forget thy awful Post?
The trust confided to thee by the People?
Rim.
What mean'st thou Cosmo?
Cos.
What mean'st thou Rimini?
To lay aside thy bright deputed Majesty,
And when thou should'st with an unweary'd Zeal
Thro' wakeful Nights, and thro' laborious Days,
Be watchful o're the Liberty of Florence,
To court, to hugg those Youths, she ought to dread?
Are these the Reverend Fathers you consult with
About the State of War, the Cities safe-gard?
Well may the people with united Votes
Accuse thee to the Senate.
Rim.
Accuse me to the Senate?
Cos.
Accuse thee? Yes—and all with one Accord
Demand thy suddain Banishment.
Rim.
O! base ingrateful! Cosmo! I find thee here;
Thy subtle arts appear in this too plain!
Yet I deserve it, for recalling thee!
For banishing my Friend the Brave Rinaldo
For since I gave thee Pow'r 'twas I that did it.—
Yet—If this popular Goverment do's please thee
If Florence, ought enjoys by this sad Change
7
Are these the just Returns she makes for Benefits?
—And thou ingratefully are grown my Foe,
Striving to crush the Man that made thee great!
Cos.
Thy Passion not thy Virtue made thee ours,
'Twas thy Revenge; and not the Love of Florence
That made thee act at first, as still thou oughtst;
But finding, by my Vigilance prevented,
Thou coudst not on Rinaldo's Ruin mount,
To Tyrannies, thy blind Ambition aimd at,
Thy native Vice took Place, and thou lookst back,
With a desiring Eye one those curs'd Days,
When all but Virtue had a public License.
Unable to be great, thou woudst be Wicked.
For had the Love of Florence, and of Virtue,
Inspir'd thy Soul to do, what thou didst do,
Thou still hadst persever'd. But now thou'rt grown
The head of Factions, and of Malecontents.
Rim.
Dawb not thy private Ends, with public Good,
Ambitious Cosmo; thou woudst rule alone,
And tho thou rail'st at brave Rinaldo's Pow'r,
'Tis but to rise up to Rinaldo's Pow'r.
Thou woudst but change the Man, and not the Tyrant.
Uber.
This shews thy Rancour Rimini.
Rim.
I shows I dare speak Truth,
Which you his Flaterer dare not.
Cos.
I laugh at thy poor Malice—
When I am so, or once in thought Conspire
The Bondage of my Countrymen, strike, strike me
Y'avenging Pow'rs, tear me O Florence! Piecemeal,
And let your Cosmo be more loath'd than he is.
Uber.
This needed not, the People know thy Virtue.
Rim.
His Gods the People know indeed their Cosmo.
Castr.
My Lord pray check your Passion, or you're ruin'd.
What here in Public, mid the giddy Rout?
Now by our Cause 'tis Madness to contend
Retire in time, and watch a Lukyer hour
To curb his Pride.
8
His Insolence I cou'd not bear—
Well Cosmo, if the people, as you say,
Accuse me, I shall attend the Senate
And doubt not but my Innocence will clear me.
[Going.
Cos.
Hold—And e're you go, here listen to your Sentence!
By me the Senate banish thee from Florence,
If here thou'rt found to Morrow, thou shalt Dye.
And to Uberto they have given thy Office.
Rim.
I go—with Joy from out the Tuscan State,
Pleas'd, since I cou'd not save my falling Country,
I shall but hear, and not behold its Ruin:
But as for thee, her Evil Genius, soon,
Soon may'st thou find her Veering Temper,
And sink beneath her Frown, whose Smiles betray
Thy little Soul to a vain Pride of Empire.
Here ev'n in her Bosom, let her crush thee,
As she will surely do, if still she's Florence.
[Exit with Valori, Lorenzo salutes him.
Cos.
Ha that Boy! observ'st thou my Uberto?
Fawn'd he not on that Rebel, as he went?
I fear he is a Weed—
Tho' sprung from me; tho' grafted in my stock,
But if he prove so; by Heav'n no more but this—
Away with him.—
I'll tear him up, tho' rooted in my Heart.—
Lorenzo.
Lor.
My Lord.
Cos.
I say no more of young Ualori
I warn'd you too of Adimari.
Are my words wind, that thus you let 'em pass?
Hast thou forgot thy Father?
Lor.
No my Lord.
Cos.
Thou ly'st—but tho' thou scorn the Father's Rod,
The Ax may reach thee—think on that!—
As if Imperial Toyl were not enough
To break my heart, thou add'st thy Disobedience.
But by the Pow'rs, that guard this State, I Swear
If after double Warning, thou despise me,
9
Like the most vile offender to the Law.
[Exeunt Cosmo and his Train.
Lor.
Now by those Pow'rs, with which he menac'd me,
I here put off all Nature, since he turns me
Thus desperate to the World, I do renounce him,
And when we meet again, he is my Foe.
All Blood, all Reverence, all duty be forgot!
Yes from this hour, I all those Tyes disown,
Like Jove this sullen Saturn I'll dethrone;
And from this Pride of Pow'r, will hurle him headlong down.
The End of the First Act.
| The patriot, or the Italian Conspiracy | |