University of Virginia Library

SCENE V

A Hall of the Vatican with a Loggia at the back overlooking the Via just opened to Sant' Angelo, that is seen in the distance dressed with flags.
In the Loggia several Cardinals, the Lords Francesco Borgia, Bartolomeo of Segovia, Giovanni Michele, Gianstefano Ferreri and Giambattista Orsini.
In the Hall are Donna Adriana Orsini, Donna Lucrezia Borgia d'Aragon, Donna Sancia Borgia, Donna Giulia Farnese and Don Alfonso, Prince Duke of Bisceglia.
DONNA ADRIANA.
Already looking out;
The balcony already crammed with watchers,
That strain beyond the roofs! But this impatience
Is almost genius in its quality.
Poor children, you were hurried from your beds.

GIULIA.
As if there were a fire; and I am sleepy.
The early morning sleep, the beauty sleep
Dashed from our eyes! I am not half awake;
My eyes close, and I must to sleep again.

SANCIA.
You laggard, fie!
You will be out of favour.

GIULIA.
No!
I shall please him better if I am asleep.
He will not wake me,
His Holiness remembers I am young.

ALFONSO.
Young! If the young may take their fill of slumber—

LUCREZIA.
Come, I so softly stirred you—come, the dawn
Had not more softly coaxed you to awake.

ALFONSO.
I am sick and gaping.

LUCREZIA.
Hush!

SANCIA.
To wake in Naples, not this deadly Rome—
It is the air that kills!

ALFONSO.
A wish
I echo from my heart. We are roused as slaves,
As slaves put in subservient offices.

ADRIANA.
To ride with Prince Squillace by your side
After Duke Cesare is such distinction
You need not sulk from, prince.

SANCIA.
But we are dead afraid.

ADRIANA.
Ah, you have cause!

SANCIA.
What cause? Ippolito is fled.

LUCREZIA.
Ippolito—your beautiful Ippolito!
Poor little Sancia.
[Putting her arms round Alfonso.
But you must not fly—
Never again. Carissimo, I want you
For the bloom of every hour.

[The Lord Alexander VI. enters with Don Joffré Borgia. They rise and do him reverence. Lucrezia at once goes up to him.
ALEXANDER.
My daughter,
My child, you feel it ....
[Taking her hand and laying it on his heart.
As my heart is beating,
So beats your heart. There is within my substance
A change, a miracle. Too great a coming
And close descent of glory on my head!
So drooped
Our blessèd Lady at the infinite
Assault of the Almighty. In my bosom
How can I crush such agony of joy
As to receive a Prince,
A Governor, a Counsellor, all names
Of prophecy in one ....

ADRIANA.
Render to Cesar what is Cesar's—praise
For a most rare agility. The triumph
He wills is Pagan. He is young.

ALEXANDER.
Half the Romagna vanquished, Imola,
Forli with battered walls, and the Virago,
Fierce Catarina Sforza, like a Queen
Of Amazon, our Theseus' prisoner.

SANCIA.
For sixteen days she held his arms at bay.

ALEXANDER.
The seventeenth found her ringed around with fire.

LUCREZIA.
[Assuagingly.]
Dear father,
Think of our Cesar—he is coming home;
We shall embrace him!
No—you are crying? He will wear the collar
Of the king's gift. It makes me laugh for gladness.
Laugh too! I must not cry.

ALEXANDER.
[Crying and laughing as he clasps her.]
Alfonso, hopeless
The hope that ever you will sunder us!
She is eternal to me as my saints;
She saves me from all sorrow by her smile,
And she is ever smiling.

ALFONSO.
Then indeed her frowns
She must give me, and I shall take them if
She has not given them away before.
A husband should have something of his own

ALEXANDER.
Ho, child, we eat with varying appetite,
With varying zest: we savour as our palates
Extract the essences. I savour her.
La, la, I speak but as a fool, and gladly
You cannot suffer fools, not being wise.

ALFONSO.
[Kissing her neck.]
See, Father!

ALEXANDER.
Bacchus, she is blushing red!
My goblet full of pearls has left her marble.
Out on her, out! I must console myself!
[Pushing her to Alfonso and approaching Giulia.
Here is my idol, my carnality,
My rose of the flesh—how warm!

ADRIANA.
Lucrezia wrapped her thus.

[The Pope nods; then advances to the Loggia.
ALEXANDER.
Heigh, sentinels,
What recognition of this enemy
Who takes so easily our sacred streets,
For whom our women don their best attire?
[He shakes with laughter.
This is too scandalous! The balconies,
The heads in wreaths—the mothers and the daughters—
Fie! But the mothers do not move me.
[Turning to Giulia Farnese whom Sancia has awaked.
Giulia,
Look forth, my child. No, do not fix your gaze
On me, on what I look at.

GIULIA.
Holiness,
I fix my eyes on you that you may fix
Your eyes full on La Bella.

ALEXANDER.
Ha, ha! Morning dew
Salutes us with more dazzle than at eve.
Sleep has been kind.

GIULIA.
But I am drowsy still.
It is not well I should so early stir;
And I must sleep; I am so young.

ALEXANDER.
A flower—
You please me well—a poppy-lidded flower!
Lord Cardinals,
With your lynx-eyes what do you track beyond
The open street?

CARDINAL MICHELE.
Standards, long lances
At Ponte Milvio.

ALEXANDER.
Ha! We shall be surprised:
This victor travels as he made retreat.
Come, Joffré, you have learnt your part: or is it
Alfonso plays the squire when he alights?
But start each one of you; in rivalry
Toil for the privilege.

ALFONSO.
To hold the stirrup!
I must decline: I cannot stoop so far.

ALEXANDER.
Prince of Squillace, you will hold the stirrup,
And in your company take Don Alfonso.

ALFONSO.
My wife forbids me leave her.

LUCREZIA.
Nay, Lucrezia
Has never said forbid. I yield my husband
For just this hour, knowing that all his hours,
And mine—even Cesare's—are but one glass
[Kissing the Pope's hand.
This hand may run the sands of at its pleasure.
Go, and be mannerly.

[Exeunt Don Joffré and Don Alfonso.
SANCIA.
It seems
This bridegroom travels homeward with no bride.
Is he ashamed that, jewelled to the eyes,
He could not win my cousin's hand—Carlotta's?

[The Pope takes Sancia's fan from a table and tears it.
ALEXANDER.
His bride is Italy.

SANCIA.
I thought she was of France.

ALEXANDER.
He is of France. The fleur-de-luce is broidered
On his banners with our Bull. César de France,
Of Italy—the world. You may retire
From our presence: later we will give you rooms
Convenient in Sant' Angelo.
[Exit Sancia.
Fair ladies, Adriana,
I warn you that this Charlotte of Navarre
Is of no further interest than a city
Captured and left behind. The confidences ....
[Pinching Lucrezia's chin.
What have you heard, Discretion? Not the story ....
Enough!
We no more lose our Cesar for a wife,
Treasure, then we have lost you in a groom.
[Turning to the Cardinals.
Francesco, there is flutter in your robe,
You crane your neck. What of the cavalcade?

CARDINAL BORGIA.
We cannot see it yet.

CARDINAL SEGOVIA.
We can but see the flags
Beating the sky about Sant' Angelo.

CARDINAL MICHELE.
The cavalcade itself we shall not see,
Not till the cannon roar at its approach.

[The Pope sinks down exhausted in his chair and closes his eyes.
ALEXANDER.
Triumphs—St. Peter! . . .
In a bossy car,
Its base the wide spine of an elephant,
Rode Alexander into Babylon,
Invincible, my namesake and a god.
But not for me the riding, not the shouts,
Though mine the empire: it is Cesar, Cesar,
Who comes to Rome, and this is Cesar's triumph.
The chariots and the laurels and the helmets,
The antique cuirasses and helmets—laurels
Fresh from my gardens: we will act it all
Before the eye to-morrow, and translate
This modern triumph into classic glory,
As epitaphs go down in sounding Latin
To generations after. Cesar's Triumph!
Burcardus shall arrange the pomp, the order,
The circuit of the pageant. Alexander ... Cesar . . .
Cesar ....

[The cannon boom, all rush to the Loggia.
LUCREZIA.
[Running to her father as if for protection.
O Holiness, but he is coming now!
Oh!

ALEXANDER.
Out to the Loggia! Cease your clinging, child!
You check my haste, you flutter,
And check me.
[There is tumult of cannon, shouting and trumpet-blasts.
[In the Loggia.]
O my lords, where is he, where?
[Looking down.]
My God, what splendour! But . . .

LUCREZIA.
See, see, that simple rider
In black, the foil to all—you know him, father!
You see his collar of Saint Michel gleam;
His hair in golden circle—Cesare!

ALEXANDER.
A presence, oh, a presence! Recollect,
Daughter, we must receive him as the Pope
Receives his Captain-General. He is riding
As in a picture .... Help, Lord Cardinals, help me!
Is the Triregno set about my head
With nicety? This jewel flames aside,
That should be central. Shift my cope. There, there!
We will go in and take the throne.

LUCREZIA.
[Throwing a kiss down.]
He has alighted, father.

[The Pope, seated, waits, his Court round him.
ALEXANDER.
How this remoteness enervates! Come, come, come, come!

[The door is thrown open, Duke Cesare de Valentinois stands gravely on the threshold and makes a deep reverence. He is presented by Monsignore Burchard and followed by Prince Don Joffré and Prince Don Alfonso, the Generals of his staff, and the accompanying Cardinals and Ambassadors.
CESARE.
[With another deep reverence].
Your Holiness,
How can I thank you for the benefits
That even in absence weighed me with the blessing.
Of your great recollection.

ALEXANDER.
No, my son, the Church
Would give you thanks upon my lips for service
Of princely measure—service ....
[As Cesare bends to kiss the Pope's foot, Alexander, with a passionate gesture, catches him in his arms.
Cesare!
My son! Superb this beauty! Home at last,
Son of my bowels!

CESARE.
Holiness, your captain,
Your servant, and your creature.

ALEXANDER.
[Close to his ear.]
No, no, no, my son
By nature, my dear flesh, my very substance
Gone out to victory! Rise! Rise! We must not
Beggar all welcomes other than our own.
Donna Lucrezia—see! ... Children!

[Prince Alfonso has come to her and holds her by the hand.
CESARE.
A loving couple!
Though one of them fled off awhile ago.
[To Alfonso.]
Lured back?
Lucrezia, do you welcome me?
Then welcome me with hands and lips.
[She drops Alfonso's hand and goes quickly up to Cesare.
[As he kisses her.]
Come home!