University of Virginia Library

SCENE III.

CHAMBER AT MURO. Giovanna. Maximin. Agatha.
Giovanna.
Accept my too few thanks, sir, for your zeal . .

Maximin.
Fine air, my lady queen, in this high tower;
Healthy as Hungary; may you enjoy it
These many days!

Giovanna
(bending).
I fancied Hungary
Was moister, leveler, than hereabout.

Maximin.
We have a plain in Hungary on which,
Just in the middle, all of Italy's
You shall pin down nor see them from the sides.
And then what cattle! horse, ox, sheep! God's blessing
Upon hard-working men, like furlough soldiers,
And rare sport at the foray, when the Turk
Might seize them if we sent them not to quarters.
Here too seems nothing wanting.

[Looking round.
Giovanna.
A few friends
Were welcome, could they but return, whose pen
And conversation lighten'd former hours.

Maximin.
Learned ones; ay?

Giovanna.
The learned came around me.

Maximin.
Whistle, and they are at the barley-corns,
Wing over wing, beak against beak, I warrant.
I knew two holy friars, as holy men
As ever snored in sackcloth after sinning,
And they were learned. What now was the upshot?
I should have said one's crucifix was white,
The other's black. They plied mild arguments
In disputation. Brother, was the term
At first, then sir, then nothing worse than devil.
But those fair words, like all fair things, soon dropt.
Fists were held up, grins in the face grew rife,
Teeth (tho' in these one had the better of it
By half a score) were closed like money-boxes
Against the sinner damn'd for poverty.
At last the learned and religious men
Fell to it mainly, crucifix in hand,
Until no splinter, ebony or linden,
Was left, of bulk to make a toothpick of.

Agatha.
Brother! such speech is here irreverent.

Giovanna.
Let him speak on: we are not queens all day.
Soldiers are rivals of the hierarchs,
And prone to jealousy, as less at ease,
Less wealthy, and, altho' the props of power,
Less powerful and commanding.

Maximin.
Never queen
Spoke truer. I bear lusty hate to them.

Agatha.
Again? O Maximin! before our princes
We never hate nor love.

Maximin.
Then, lady, I
Am your worst vassal.

Giovanna.
How?

Maximin.
Being taught to hate you . .
God pardon me! None but the frockt could teach
So false a creed. But now the heart let loose
Swings quite the other way. Folks say they love
Their princes: sure they must have wrong'd them first.
I turned away mine eyes from your young beauty,
And muttered to my beard, and made it quiver
With my hard breathing of hard thoughts: but now
Conspirators shall come in vain against you:
Here is the sill they tread upon who enter.

[Striking his breast.