University of Virginia Library

ACT III.

SCENE I.

—The Outside of a Court of Justice, R., a Crowd round the Gates—Persons descending the Steps from time to time.
Enter Paolo and the First Citizen, L., meeting the Second Citizen, who advances to them from the Steps.
Pao.
[To the Second Cit., R.]
How goes the trial?

Second Cit.
(C.)
Bravely.

Pao.
[To the First Cit. in front.]
A good day!
Good neighbour, thou'rt a stranger.

First Cit.
(L.)
I have been
Away from Rome, good Paolo, since the day
Of our deliverance, when Rienzi punished
A servant of the Ursini, for striking
Thy bonnet from thy head.

Pao.
And now thou find'st
This same Rienzi in a way to punish
The master.

First Cit.
Martin Ursini?

Pao.
The tribune
Now sits in judgment on him.

First Cit.
Wherefore?

Second Cit.
Sir,
For a breach of the new law—the mighty plunder
Of a vast wreck, an argosy—a booty
To tempt an emperor.

First Cit.
Martin Ursini!
Almost our senator! The fearful head
Of the fearfullest name of Rome.

Pao.
Ay, he is like.—
[To Cit. passing from the Hall, R.]
How goes the trial?

Third Cit.
Well.

[Crosses, L., and exit.
Pao.
Is like to swing
From a gibbet in the Forum.

First Cit.
Will he dare?

Second Cit.
Dare! why thou saw'st his spirit: now his power
Matches his will; and never lineal prince
Sate firmer on his throne, or lightlier swayed
The reins of empire. He hath swept away
The oppressors and extortioners—hath gained
Kingly allies—hath reconciled the pope—
Hath quelled the barons.

First Cit.
Ay, I rode to Rome
With a follower of Colonna. Angelo
Hath won his father to submission.

[Shouts within the court—Persons come rapidly out.
Pao.
[To a Citizen, passing.]
Hark!
The prisoner is condemned.

Fourth Cit.
He is. Rienzi
Heard him with a grave patience; almost leaning
To mercy. But the fact was flagrant.

[Persons passing from the Court the Justice over the Stage.
First Cit.
Hark!
Another shout. Where go ye?

Fifth Cit.
To the Forum,
To wait the execution.

Enter Rienzi, attended; and followed by Ursini, Frangipani, and other Nobles, R. U. E.
Second Cit.
Ha, the Tribune!
And the great prisoner's kindred.

Citizens.
Live Rienzi!
Live our just Tribune.

[All shout when Rienzi is in the front.
Urs.
(R. C.)
Good my lord, beseech ye—

Rie.
(C.)
Ye plead in vain.

Urs.
Yet hear me.—Force me not
To appeal against thy sentence.

Rie.
Ay! To whom?
There stand my judges, lords, and yours: the people,
The free and honest people! Seek of them
If I hold even the scales of justice.

Citizens.
Live
Our Tribune! our just Tribune.

[Shout—Exit, L., with Citizens.
Fra.
(R.)
Follow not,
But seek Lord Angelo: he hath a power
Over this haughty despot.

Urs.
(C.)
Gods! what tyranny
Men will endure in freedom's name. Yes, yes!
Lord Angelo! my foeman though he be,
His old hereditary pride will rise
Against this churl's base purpose. If his power—

Fra.
The daughter! Claudia! Quick to seek Colonna;
The Tribune holds his court at noon. Quick! Quick!

[Exeunt, R.

SCENE II.

—An Apartment in the Capitol.—A couch, C.
Enter Claudia, Berta, Teresa, and Rosa.—All but Claudia embroidering, &c.
Ter.
(R. C.)
Sweet lady, why so sad?

Cla.
(C.)
I know not.

Ber.
Try
Yon emerald carkanet, or let me braid
These pearls in thy long tresses.

Ter.
She affects not
Such glittering baubles; rather sing to her
One of thy songs from the cold north.

Rosa.
Shall Berta
Sing to thee, lady.

Cla.
Yes, I care not.

[Goes to the couch, C., and sits.
Ter.
Sing.

SONG.—Berta.

Ter.
Didst like the strain?

Cla.
There's a deep wisdom in it:
The lowly blossom, and the wintery friend,
They are the dearest. I'm set i'the sun
To wither.

Rosa.
She is sad again. Wouldst hear
A merry story, lady? “Or a tale of murder to divert thee?”

Ber.
Or a legend
Fresh from the Holy Land?

Enter Rienzi, L.
Ter.
The Tribune!

[Claudia rises hastily.
Rie.
Leave us.
[The ladies rise to go out, R.
“Claudia—nay, start not! Thou art sad to-day;
I found thee sitting idly, 'midst thy maids—
A pretty, laughing, restless band, who plied
Quick tongue and nimble finger.” Mute, and pale
As marble, those unseeing eyes were fixed
On vacant air; and that fair brow was bent
As sternly as if the rude stranger, Thought,
Age-giving, mirth-destroying, pitiless Thought,
Had knocked at thy young giddy brain.

Cla.
(R. C.)
Nay, father,
Mock not thine own poor Claudia.

Rie.
Claudia used
To bear a merry heart, with that clear voice,
Prattling; and that light busy foot, a stir
In her small housewifery, the blithest bee
That ever wrought in hive.

Cla.
Oh! mine old home!

Rie.
What ails thee, lady-bird?

Cla.
Mine own dear home!
Father, I love not this new state; these halls,
Where comfort dies in vastness; these trim maids,
Whose service wearies me. Oh! mine old home!
My quiet, pleasant chamber, with the myrtle
Woven round the casement; and the cedar by,
Shading the sun; my garden overgrown
With flowers and herbs, thick-set as grass in fields;
My pretty snow-white doves; my kindest nurse;
And old Camillo.—Oh! mine own dear home!

Rie.
Why, simple child, thou hast thine old fond nurse,
And good Camillo, and shalt have thy doves,
Thy myrtles, flowers, and cedars; a whole province
“Laid in a garden, an' thou wilt. My Claudia,
Hast thou not learnt thy power? Ask orient gems,
Diamonds, and sapphires, in rich caskets, wrought
By cunning goldsmiths; sigh for rarest birds,
Of farthest Ind, like winged flowers, to flit
Around thy stately bower; and, at thy wish,
The precious toys shall wait thee.” Old Camillo!
Thou shalt have nobler servants,—emperors, kings,
Electors, princes! not a bachelor
In Christendom but would right proudly kneel,
To my fair daughter.

Cla.
Oh! mine own dear home!

Rie.
Wilt have a list to choose from? Listen, sweet!
If the tall cedar, and the branchy myrtle,
And the white doves, were tell-tales, I would ask them
Whose was the shadow on the sunny wall?
And if, at eventide, they heard not oft
A tuneful mandoline, and then a voice,
Clear in its manly depth, whose tide of song
O'erwhelmed the quivering instrument; and then
A world of whispers, mixed with low response,
Sweet, short, and broken, as divided strains
Of nightingales.

Cla.
Oh, father! father!

Rie.
Well!
Do'st love him, Claudia?

Cla.
Father!

Rie.
Do'st thou love
Young Angelo? Yes? Saidst thou yes? That heart—
That throbbing heart of thine, keeps such a coil,
I cannot hear thy words. He is returned
To Rome; he left thee on mine errand, dear one;
And now—Is there no casement-myrtle wreathed,
No cedar in our courts, to shade to-night
The lover's song?

Cla.
Oh, father! father!

Rie.
Now,
Back to thy maidens, with a lightened heart,
Mine own beloved child. Thou shalt be first
In Rome, as thou art fairest; never princess
Brought to the proud Colonna such a dower
As thou. Young Angelo hath chosen his mate
From out an eagle's nest.

Cla.
Alas! alas!
I tremble at the height. Whene'er I think
Of the hot barons, of the fickle people,
And the inconstancy of power, I tremble
For thee, dear father.

Rie.
Tremble! Let them tremble.
I am their master, Claudia, whom they scorned,
Endured, protected.—Sweet, go dream of love.
I am their master, Claudia.

[Exeunt, R.

SCENE III.

—A Magnificent Hall in the Capitol.
Enter Colonna, R., Ursini, Frangipani, Cafarello, the Nuncio, an Ambassador, Nobles, &c., R. and L.
Col.
(R.)
Gibbet and cord! a base plebeian death!
And he the head of the great Roman name,
That rivalled the Colonna! Ursini,
Thy brother shall not die. The grief is thine,
The shame is general. How say ye, barons?

Urs.
If ye resist, ye share his doom. Plead! plead!
Dissemble with the tyrant,—stifle hate,
And master scorn, as I have done. Plead for him.

Col.
To Cola! Can I frame my speech to sue
To Cola—most familiar of the drones
That thronged my hall of afternoons, content
To sit below the salt, and bear all jests,—
The retinue and pest of greatness. Sue
To Cola!

Urs.
(C.)
Fear not, but revenge will come,
We being friends, from whose dissension sprang
The usurper's strength. An hour will come.
Enter Angelo, L.
Lord Angelo,
Thou wilt not fail us.

Ang.
Surely, no! 'tis stern,
[Goes up to Ursini.
Revengeful, cruel, pitiless! The people—
To soothe the fickle people—yet he's wiser:
He'll be persuaded.

Fra.
He approaches.

[Music without, R.
Col.
What!
Ushered with music as a king.

Enter Rienzi, R., attended.
Rie.
(R.)
Why, this
Is well, my lords, this full assemblage. Now
The chief of Rome stands fitly girt with names
Strong as their towers around him. Fall not off,
And we shall be impregnable.
[Advancing up the Room.
Lord Nuncio,
I should have asked thy blessing. I have sent
Our missions to the pontiff. Count Savelli,
(L.)
My lord ambassador, I crave your pardon.
What news from Venice, the sea-queen? Savelli,
I have a little maiden who must know
Thy fairest daughter. Angelo, colonna,
A double welcome! Rome lacked half her state
Wanting her princely Columns.

Col.
(R.)
Sir, I come
A suitor to thee.—Martin Ursini—

Rie.
(C.)
When last his name was on thy lips.—Well, sir,
Thy suit, thy suit! If pardon, take at once
My answer.—No.

[Crosses to Angelo, in R. corner.—Colonna goes up.
Ang.
Yet, mercy—

Rie.
Angelo,
Waste not thy pleadings on a desperate cause
And a resolved spirit. She awaits thee.
Haste to that fairer court.
[Exit Angelo, R.
My Lord Colonna,
This is a needful justice.

Col.
(R.)
Noble Tribune,
It is a crime which custom—

Rie.
Ay, the law
Of the strong against the weak—your law, the law
Of the sword and spear. But, gentles, ye live now
Under the good estate.

[Crossing to C.
Sav.
He is noble.

Rie.
Therefore,
A thousand times he dies. Ye are noble, sirs,
And need a warning.

Col.
Sick, almost to death.

Rie.
Ye have less cause to grieve.

Fra.
New-wedded.

Rie.
Ay,
Madonna Laura is a blooming dame,
And will become her weeds.

Caf.
Remember, Tribune,
He hath two uncles, cardinals. Wouldst outrage
The sacred college?

Rie.
The lord cardinals,
Meek, pious, lowly men, and loving virtue,
Will render thanks to him who wipes a blot
So flagrant from their name.

Col.
(R.)
An Ursini!
Head of the Ursini!

Urs.
Mine only brother!

[Crossing to Rienzi.
Rie.
And darest talk thou to me of brothers? Thou,
Whose groom—wouldst have me break my own just laws,
To save thy brother? thine! Hast thou forgotten
When that most beautiful and blameless boy,
The prettiest piece of innocence that ever
Breath'd in this sinful world, lay at thy feet,
Slain by thy pampered minion, and I knelt
Before thee for redress, whilst thou—didst never
Hear talk of retribution? This is justice,
Pure justice, not revenge!—Mark well, my lords,—
Pure equal justice. Martin Ursini
Had open trial, is guilty, is condemned,
And he shall die!

Col.
Yet listen to us—

Rie.
Lords,
If ye could range before me all the peers,
Prelates, and potentates of Christendom,—
The holy pontiff kneeling at my knee,
And emperors crouching at my feet, to sue
For this great robber, still I should be blind
As justice. But this very day a wife,
One infant hanging at her breast, and two,
Scarce bigger, first-born twins of misery,
Clinging to the poor rags that scarcely hid
Her squalid form, grasped at my bridle-rein
To beg her husband's life; condemned to die
For some vile petty theft, some paltry scudi:
And, whilst the fiery war-horse chaf'd and seared,
Shaking his crest, and plunging to get free,
There, midst the dangerous coil, unmov'd, she stood,
Pleading in piercing words, the very cry
Of nature! And, when I at last said no—
For I said no to her—she flung herself
And those poor innocent babes between the stones
And my hot Arab's hoofs. We sav'd them all,—
Thank heaven, we saved them all! but I said no
To that sad woman, midst her shrieks. Ye dare not
Ask me for mercy now.

Sav.
Yet he is noble!
Let him not die a felon's death:

Rie.
Again,
Ye weary me. No more of this. Colonna,
Thy son loves my fair daughter. 'Tis an union,
However my young Claudia might have graced
A monarch's side, that augurs hopefully—
Bliss to the wedded pair, and peace to Rome,
“And it shall be accomplished. Good my lords
I bid ye to the bridal; one and all,
I bid ye to the bridal feast. And now
A fair good morrow!

[Exit Rienzi, R., attended by Nuncio, Ambassador and other Lords, &c.
Sav.
Hath stern destiny
Clothed him in this man's shape, that, in a breath,
He deals out death and marriage? Ursini!
Colonna! be ye stunned?

Col.
I'll follow him!
Tyrant! usurper! base-born churl! to deem
That son of mine—

Urs.
(C.)
Submit, as I have done,
For vengeance. From our grief and shame shall spring
A second retribution; and this banquet,—
This nuptial banquet, this triumphal hour,
Shall be the very scene of our revenge!
I may not loiter here. The fatal moment
Of our disgrace is nigh.—Ere evening close,
I'll seek thee at thy palace. Seem to yield,
And victory is sure.

Col.
I'll take thy counsel.

[Exeunt Colonna, R., the rest, L.