University of Virginia Library

SCENE III.

Consul and Erminia.
Consul.
Erminia! read this letter. Wait awhile . .
Repress thy curiosity . . First tell me,
Erminia! would'st thou form some great alliance?

Erminia.
Yes, father! who would not?

Consul.
I know that none
Hath won that little heart of thine at present.

Erminia.
Many, many have won it, my dear father!
I never see one run across the street
To help a lame man up or guide a blind man
But that one wins it: never hear one speak
As all should speak of you, but up my arms
Fly ready to embrace him!

Consul.
And when any
Says thou art beautiful, and says he loves thee,
What are they ready then for?

Erminia.
Not to beat him
Certainly: but none ever said such things.
They look at me because I am your daughter,
And I am glad they look at me for that,
And always smile, tho' some look very grave.

Consul.
Well now, Erminia, should his Holiness
The Pope have sent his nephew with this letter,
Would you receive him willingly?

Erminia.
Most willingly.

Consul.
Nay, that is scarcely maidenly, so soon.

Erminia.
I would not if you disapprove of it.

Consul.
I do suspect he came aboard the galleys.

Erminia.
O then, the galleys are not enemies.

Consul.
Not if thou givest him thy hand. What say'st thou?

Erminia.
I never saw him.

Consul.
But suppose him handsome.
Indeed I hear much of his comeliness.

Erminia.
Is that enough?

Consul.
And virtues.

Erminia.
That alone
Is not enough, tho' very, very much.
He must be handsome too, he must be brave,
He must have seen me often, and must love me,
Before I love or think of him as lover:
For, father, you are not a king, you know,
Nor I a princess: so that all these qualities
(Unless you will it otherwise) are necessary.

Consul.
Thou art grown thoughtful suddenly, and prudent.

Erminia.
Do not such things require both thought and prudence?

Consul.
In most they come but slowly; and this ground
Is that where we most stumble on. The wise
Espouse the foolish; and the fool bears off
From the top branch the guerdon of the wise:
Ay, the clear-sighted (in all other things)
Cast down their eyes and follow their own will,
Taking the hand of idiots. They well know
They shall repent, but find the road so pleasant
That leads into repentance.

Erminia.
Ah, poor souls!
They must have lost their fathers: then what wonder
That they have lost their way!

Consul.
Now, in few words,
Erminia, for time presses, let me tell thee,
The Pope will succour us against our foe
If I accept his nephew for a son.

Erminia.
O father! does that make our cause more righteous?
Or more unrighteous theirs who persecute us?

Consul.
No, child: but wilt thou hear him? Rank and riches
Will then be thine. Altho' not born a princess,
Thou wilt become one.

Erminia.
I am more already;
I am your daughter; yours, whom not one voice
Raised over all, but thousands.

Consul.
I resign
My station in few days.

Erminia.
O stay in it
Until the enemy is beaten back,
That I may talk of it when I am old,
And, when I weep to think of you, may dry
My tears, and say, My father then was Consul.

Consul.
The power may be prolonged until my death.

Erminia.
O no: the laws forbid it: do they not?

Consul.
He who can make and unmake every law,
Divine and human, will uphold my state
So long, acknowledging his power supreme;
And laying the city's keys before his feet.

Erminia.
Hath he not Peter's? What can he want more?
O father! think again! I am a child
Almost, and have not yet had time enough
Quite to unlearn the lessons you enforced
By precept and example. Bear with me!
I have made you unhappy many times,
You never made me so until this hour:
Bear with me, O my father!

Consul.
To my arms,
Erminia! Thou hast read within my breast
Thy lesson backward, not suspecting guile.
Yes, I was guileful. I would try thy nature:
I find it what is rarely found in woman,
In man as rarely. The Venetian fleet
Would side with us; their towers, their catapults
Would all be ours, and the Pope's nephew thine,
Would but thy father place the power supreme
Within his hands, becoming his vicegerent.
I turn aside from fraud, and see how force
May best be met, in parley with the German.