University of Virginia Library

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!