University of Virginia Library

ACT V.

SCENE I.

PALACE OF AVERSA. Andrea and Giovanna.
Giovanna.
How gracefully thou sattest on thy horse,
Andrea!

Andrea.
Did I?

Giovanna.
He curveted so,
Sidled and pranced and croucht and plunged again,
I almost was afraid, but dared not say it.

Andrea.
Castagno is a sad curvetting rogue.

Giovanna.
'Twas not Castagno; 'twas Polluce.

Andrea.
Was it?
How canst thou tell, Giovanna?

Giovanna.
I can tell.

Andrea.
All at hap-hazard: I am very sure
'Twas not the horse you lookt at; nor did I
Think about riding, or about the palfrey,
Crimson and gold, half palfrey and half ostrich.
But thou too ridest like a queen, my dove!

Giovanna.
So very like one? Would you make me proud?

Andrea.
God forbid that! I love thee more for beauty.
Ne'er put on pride, my heart! thou dost not want it;
Many there are who do; cast it to them
Who can not do without it, empty souls!
Ha! how you look! is it surprise or pleasure?

Giovanna.
Pleasure, my love! I will obey with pleasure
This your first order. But indeed, my husband,
You must not look so fondly when the masks come,
For you and I, you know, shall not be masked.

Andrea.
A pretty reason for not looking fond!
Must people then wear masks for that?

Giovanna.
Most do.
I never saw such fondness as some masks
Presented.

Andrea.
Thou hast never seen half mine;
Thou shalt; and then shalt thou sit judge between us.
We have not spoken more to-day, my chuck,
Than many other days, yet thou appearest
Wiser than ever. I have gain'd from thee
More than I gave.

Giovanna.
And, without flattery,
I am more pleas'd with your discourse than ever.

Andrea
(fondly).
No, not than ever. In this very room
Didst thou not give to me this very hand
Because I talked so well?

Giovanna.
We foolish girls
Are always caught so.

Andrea.
Always kept so, too?
Well, we must see about it then, in earnest.

Giovanna.
Andrea! one thing see to: pray inquire
If, in the crowd that rushed so thro' the gates,
No accident has happen'd. Some cried out,
Some quarrell'd; many horses started off,
And bore amid them.

Andrea.
Never fear.

Giovanna.
But ask.

[He goes.

SCENE II.

Fiammetta, Maria, Filippa, and Sancia, enter.
Maria.
The bridegroom is among the other grooms,
Asking odd questions: what man's horse broke loose,
Who was knockt down, what fruit-stall overturn'd,
Who quarrell'd, who cried out, struck, ran away.

Giovanna.
Maria! this is pleasantry.

Andrea
(returning hastily).
They say,
Caraffa and Caraccioli are dead.

Giovanna.
It can not be: they were both well this morning.

Filippa.
The west-wind blew this morning . . no air now.

Giovanna.
O but, Filippa! they both came together.
Did not queen Sancia tell you?

Filippa.
I have seen
Two barks together enter the port yonder,
And part together.

Giovanna.
But to die at once!

Filippa.
Happy the friends whom that one fate befalls!

Giovanna.
So soon!

Filippa.
Perhaps so soon.

Giovanna.
It may be happy.
It must be strange; awfully strange indeed!

[Fiammetta goes out.
Andrea.
My darling! how you pity those two youths!
I like you for it.

Giovanna.
Both have fathers living:
What must they suffer! Each . . I never heard,
But may well fancy . . loved some girl who loves him.
I could shed tears for her.

Maria.
My dear Giovanna!
Do queens shed tears? and on the wedding-day?

Sancia.
I see no reason why they should not.

Filippa
(aside).
I,
Alas! see far too many why they should.

Andrea.
What did Filippa say? that brides should cry?

Filippa
(to Giovanna and Maria).
Not idly has the genial breath of song
Turn'd into pearls the tears that women shed;
They are what they are call'd: some may be brighter
Among your gems, none purer, none become
The youthful and the beautiful so well.

Andrea
(as Fiammetta enters).
Here enters one you never will teach that,
She is too light for grief, too gay for love,
And neither salt nor mistleto can catch her,
Nor springe nor net: she laughs at all of them
Like any woodpecker, and wings away.
I know you women; I'm a married man:

Fiammetta.
They will not give the story up: they draw
All different ways, but death they all will have.

Andrea.
Ay, and one only will not satisfy them. [An Officer enters, and confers apart with him.

Certain?

Giovanna.
Some other accident less heavy,
Heaven! let us hope!

Andrea.
Strangled! O what a death!
One of them . . one (no matter now which of them)
Disliked me, shunn'd me; if we met, lookt at me
Straighter and taller and athwart the shoulder,
And dug his knuckles deep into his thigh.
I gave him no offence . . yet, he is gone . .
Without a word of hearing, he is gone!
To think of this! to think how he has fallen
Amid his pranks and joyances, amid
His wild heath myrtle-blossoms, one might say,
It quite unmans me.

Sancia.
Speak not so, my son!
Let others, when their nature has been changed
To such unwonted state, when they are call'd
To do what angels do and brutes do not,
Sob at their shame, and say they are unmann'd:
Unmann'd they can not be; they are not men.
At glorious deeds, at sufferings well endured,
Yea, at life's thread snapt with its gloss upon it,
Be it man's pride and privilege to weep.

SCENE III.

GRAND SALOON. Masks passing. Andrea, Giovanna, Maria, Fiammetta, Filippa.
Filippa.
It may be right, my lady, that you know
What masks are here.

Giovanna.
I have found out already
A few of them. Several waived ceremony
(Desirably at masks) and past unnoticed. .
The room fills rapidly.

Filippa.
Not to detain
My queen (for hundreds anxiously approach),
Pardon! I recognised the Prince Luigi.

Giovanna.
Taranto? Tell our cousin to keep on
His mask all evening. Hither! uninvited!

Maria
(out of breath).
Think you the dais will keep the masks from hearing?

Giovanna.
Why should it?

Maria.
Oh! why should it? He is here
Even Filippa could distinguish him.
Every one upon earth must know Taranto.

Giovanna.
Descend we then: beside the statue there
We may converse some moments privately.

Maria.
Radiant I saw him as the sun . . a name
We always gave him . . rapid as his beams.
I should have known him by his neck alone
Among ten thousand. While I gazed upon it,
He gazed at three mysterious masks: then rose
That graceful column, ampler, and more wreathed
With its marmoreal thews and dimmer veins.
The three masks hurried thro' the hall; Taranto
After them (fierce disdain upon his brow)
Darted as Mercury at Jove's command.
No doubt, three traitors who dared never face him
In his own country, are courageous here.

Giovanna.
Taranto then, Taranto was unmaskt
Against my orders!

Maria.
Rather say, before.
Luigi never disobeyed Giovanna.

Giovanna.
Filippa carried them.

Maria.
I know his answer.

Giovanna.
Repeat it then, for she may not to-night.

Maria.
“Tell her I come the cousin, not the prince,
Nor with pretension, nor design, nor hope;
I come the loyal, not the fond, Taranto.”
Why look you round?

Giovanna.
The voice is surely his.

Maria.
The thoughts are . .

Giovanna
(pressing her hand).
May, O Heaven! the speaker be!

[Both walk away.
Fra Rupert
(masked and disguised, to one next).
I heard our gracious queen, espoused to-day,
Give orders that Taranto keep well maskt.

Next Mask
(to another).
Ho then! Taranto here!

Second Mask.
What treachery!

Fra Rupert
(masked).
He could not keep away. Tempestuous love
Has tost him hither. Let him but abstain
From violence, nor play the jealous husband,
As some men do when husbands cross their road.

Second Mask.
Taranto is a swordsman to the proof.

First Mask
Where is he?

Fra Rupert.
He stood yonder, in sky-blue,
With pearls about the sleeves.

Second Mask.
Well call him Phœbus!
I would give something for a glimpse at what
That mask conceals.

Fra Rupert.
Oh! could we catch a glimpse
Of what all masks conceal, 'twould break our hearts.
Far better hidden from us! Woman! woman!

[Goes off.
First Mask
(to second).
A friar Rupert! only that his voice
Breathes flute-like whisperings, rather than reproofs.

Second Mask.
Beside, he stands three inches higher; his girth
Slenderer by much.

First Mask.
Who thought 'twas really he?
I only meant he talkt as morally.

Third Mask
(coming up to Fourth).
I am quite certain there is Frate Rupert.

Fourth Mask.
Where is he not? The Devil's ubiquity!
But, like the Devil, not well known when met.
How found you him so readily? What mark?

Third Mask.
Stout is he, nor ill-built, tho' the left shoulder
Is half a finger's breadth above the right.

Fourth Mask.
But that man's . . let me look . . That man's right shoulder
Stands two good inches highest.

Third Mask.
Doubt is past . .
We catch him! over-sedulous disguise!

SCENE IV.

Andrea.
We have a cousin in the house, my queen!
What dost thou blush at? why art troubled? sure
We are quite grand enough for him: our supper
(I trust) will answer all his expectations.

Maria.
So you have lookt then at the supper-table?

Andrea.
'Twould mortify me if Giovanna's guests
Were disappointed.

Giovanna.
Mine! and not yours too?

Andrea.
Ah sly one! you have sent then for Taranto
And would not tell me! Cousin to us both,
To both he should be welcome as to one.
Another little blush! Why, thou art mine,
And never shalt, if love's worth love, repent it.

Giovanna.
Never, my own Andrea! for such trust
Is far more precious than the wealthiest realms,
Or all that ever did adorn or win them.

Andrea.
I must not wait to hear its value told,
We shall have time to count it out together.
I now must go to greet our cousin yonder,
He waits me in the balcony; the guards
Have sent away the loiterers that stood round,
And only two or three of his own friends
Remain with him. To tarry were uncourteous.

Maria
(earnestly).
I do believe Luigi is below.

Andrea.
Do not detain me: we have never met
Since your proud sister spoke unkindly to him,
And, vaulting on his horse, he hurried home.

[Goes.
Maria.
The soldiers there do well to guard the balcony,
And close the folding-doors against intrusion.

[Cry is heard.
Fiammetta.
Ha! some inquisitive young chamber-lady,
Who watcht Luigi enter, pays for it.
Those frolicsome young princes are demanding
A fine for trespass.

Giovanna.
Nay, they are too rude,
Permitting any rudeness. Struggles! sobs!
Andrea never caused them.

Maria.
Shame, Taranto!

Giovanna.
Stifling of screams! Those nearer are alarmed;
Those farther off are running for the staircase;
And many come this way! What can they mean?
See, they look angry as they run, and dash
Their hands against their foreheads! [Very alarmed.

Where's a page?

[A page stands masked in the doorway; crowds of unmasked behind him.
Maria.
A page! a page!

Page
(to himself).
I am one; and discovered!

[Advances.
Giovanna.
Run; see what those young courtiers round the princes
Are doing in the balcony. Below;
Not there.

Page.
I might mistake the Prince Andrea,
Not having ever seen him.

Maria.
Who then are you.

Page.
The Prince Luigi's page, whom I awaited,
To say his groom and horse are near at hand.

Maria.
He goes then?

Page.
Ere it dawn.

Giovanna.
O! hasten! hasten
Below, and instantly run back again,
Reporting me what you can discover there.

Page
(returns).
Lady! the lamps about the balcony
Are all extinguisht.

Giovanna.
Is the wind so high?
What didst thou hear, what didst thou note, beside?

Page
(hesitating).
Against the gentlest, the most virtuous queen,
Opprobrious speech, threats, imprecations . .

Giovanna.
Pass it.

Page.
Upon the stairs; none from the gardens.

Giovanna.
There
What sawest thou?

Page.
Over the balcony
Downward some burden swang.

Giovanna.
Some festive wreath
Perhaps.

Page.
Too heavy; almost motionless.

Maria.
Several damask draperies thrown across.

Page.
May-be. The wind just stirr'd the bottom of them:
I had no time to look: I saw my prince
Fighting.

Maria.
O heaven! was ever night like this . .

Page.
For gallant sword! it left two proofs behind:
The third man, seeing me (poor help for arm
So valiant!) fled.

Maria.
O! we are safe then, all.

[Very joyous.
Page.
No cap lost they, nor did the one who fled:
Whose in the world of Naples, can be this? [He takes from under his richly embroidered cloak the cap of Andrea. Giovanna clasps it to her face, and falls with a stifled scream.
[Another Page brings in Andrea's ermine cloak.

This cloak fell near me from the balusters.

Maria.
His own! Ha! this dark speck is not the ermine's.

Filippa.
See! she revives! Hide it away! O guests
Of our unhappy festival, retire.