 | Paolo & Francesca |  |
Scene II.
—A Wayside Inn out of Rimini. View of Rimini in distance, towers flushed with sunset.Enter Marco and other Soldiers, Mirra, and other Girls, a Sergeant.
A Soldier.
What! Are we all to say good-bye
here, then?
A Girl.
We can come no further out of Rimini.
Another Soldier.
We must all have a kiss
before we go.
Another Girl.
Ah! you are ready to kiss us,
and you are ready to go.
Soldier.
That is the soldier's life.
Girl.
To love and go away? Yes, we know
you.
Mar.
To love and go, and love again, to fight
and love again, and go—a good life, too.
Listen to him! He tells us he will
love some one else. Well, we have all had a
merry time.
Mar.
So we have; but the world is large.
Little Mirra here is not the first or the last.
[They laugh.
A Soldier.
One last cup of wine all round.
Mar.
Come, Mirra, we'll drink together out of
this cup. Here's your health, sweetheart, and
many other lovers to you.
A Girl.
Ah! he knows life is short. Isn't he
a pretty fellow?
Mar.
[Sings.]
O I love not, I, the long road and the march,
With the chink, chink, chinking, and the parch.
But I love the little town that springs in sight
At the falling of the day, with many a light.
It is sweet! it is sweet—
(Chorus)
Ha, ha! Ha, ha!
To clatter down the pebbly street,
When the taverns all are humming,
And the lads in front are drumming,
And the windows fill with girls,
All laughing, and all shaking down their curls.
(Chorus)
Ha, ha! Ha, ha!
[Mar.]
Then your armour's all unlaced,
And your arm is round a waist:
And she seems so much afraid,
You could swear she was a maid—
Sergeant.
[Interrupting.]
Come, lads, give the
girls the slip: your duty! We must start
again.
Mir.
[Clinging to Marco.]
You will come back
again, won't you, Marco?
Mar.
May and may not, Mirra. Who can tell?
Mir.
Because—because—
A Girl.
Look at her—she's crying! Why,
he was only playing with you.
I know, I know.
A Girl.
And they say his play has ended in
some earnest.
Another Girl.
Well, what then? Fools must
go their own way.
Mar.
Good-bye, girls: we have had a merry
time.
Girls.
Good-bye, good-bye!
[All exeunt.
Enter Corrado, Valentino, Luigi and Paolo.
Cor.
Here's an inn—the first since Rimini.
Bring us some wine.
Pao.
How straight the road is from here to
Rimini! One can see the town at the end.
Val.
Yes, and your brother's castle.
[Enter
Landlord with wine.]
Come, Lord Paolo, some
wine. Why so dull?
Pao.
It is that old wound pains me.
Cor.
[Drinking.]
Come, lad, out with it! Is
it a debt or a wench? Let me talk with him.
I can advise you, Paolo.
I have loved more, owed more, drunk more, and
lived more. Confess to me!
Lui.
Who would not to so easy a priest?
Val.
[To Corrado.]
Still staring down the
road.
Cor.
[Whispering.]
I have it, then.
Val.
Corrado says that when a man sits down
outside an inn and refuses wine, and stares back
along the road he came, he is in love.
Cor.
Didn't you observe one of those girls as
we passed them, crying? Shame, Paolo! and
in your own town, too!
Lui.
He doesn't hear us.
Cor.
Well, here's a health to her, whoever she
is! Now, Paolo, let me speak to you. I have
myself so often felt this—give me a word.
Val.
Pang!
Cor.
Pang—yes, pang!
Lui.
So often?
More times than I can count. Why,
man, I have thriven on pangs. There was the
landlord's wife at Ancona; there was the little
black-eyed girl out of Florence. To look at me,
you would scarcely suppose that I have left half
the cities of Italy sighing behind me. I have
suffered, and I have inflicted. There was—
Lui.
O, Corrado! Not these old stories.
Cor.
Well, the fruit of all this! You must
know that love is a thing physical. It can be
sweated out of a man by hard riding; it evaporates
from the body like any humour.
Val.
Ha! ha!
Cor.
My advice is this—fill up, drink, and
get to fighting quickly; and if, after a bottle or
so, you have taken a girl on your knee in the
twilight—Why, Paolo! consider you have left
behind you, perhaps, another soldier for your
brother's wars. You have done a brotherly
act, and—
[Rising.]
Corrado, we have been fast
comrades, and I think you know me; but another
word of this and there will be an end of talk
between us—you understand?
Cor.
O! ho!
Val.
I tell you—you see, it is one of those
serious matters, where the spirit is more concerned
than the flesh. Come, Paolo, let us have
it!
Cor.
Before he begins, I think it would be
more fitting if we uncovered our heads, for the
recitation is likely to be solemn.
Lui.
Come, come, we must be going!
Cor.
God send us another inn soon.
[Exeunt Corrado and Valentino.
Lui.
Give me your hand, Paolo—you know
me. Tell me the trouble.
Pao.
I cannot, Luigi.
Lui.
Have you fallen out with your brother?
You and he were such friends.
No.
Lui.
Is it the young wife that he has married,
and now he seems more cold to you? But this
is natural at first. How can I help you?
Pao.
No one can help me, Luigi.
Lui.
Up, and lead us on, then!
Pao.
I will catch you in a moment.
Lui.
I am very sorry, Paolo.
[Exit Luigi.
Pao.
I have fled from her; have refused the rose,
Although my brain was reeling at the scent.
I have come hither as through pains of death;
I have died, and I am gazing back at life.
Yet now it were so easy to return,
And run down the white road to Rimini!
And might I not return? [He starts up and looks at the towers, red with sunset.]
Those battlements
Are burning! they catch fire, those parapets!
And through the blaze doth her white face look out
Might I not then return? Ah, no! no! no!
For I should tremble to be touched by her,
And dread the music of her mere good-night.
Howe'er I sentinelled my bosom, yet
That moment would arrive when instantly
Our souls would flash together in one flame,
And I should pour this torrent in her ear
And suddenly catch her to my heart.
[A drum is heard.
A drum!
O, there is still a world of men for a man!
I'll lose her face in flashing brands, her voice
In charging cries: I'll rush into the war!
[Soldiers pass across the stage. Seeing Paolo, they cheer and call him by name—then exeunt. He makes to follow, then stops.
I cannot go; thrilling from Rimini,
A tender voice makes all the trumpets mute.
O God! what is Thy will upon me? Ah!
One path there is, a straight path to the dark.
There, in the ground, I can betray no more,
And there for ever am I pure and cold.
The means! No dagger blow, nor violence shown
Upon my body to distress her eyes.
Under some potion gently will I die;
And they that find me dead shall lay me down
Beautiful as a sleeper at her feet.
CURTAIN.
| Paolo & Francesca | |