University of Virginia Library

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.