University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

An Apartment in the Monastery at night.
Savelli and Gerardo.
GERARDO.
Thou wilt be abbot, ere the duke is king?
Good news—but how?

SAVELLI.
The words stick hard, Gerardo—
By that which answers for us both, man—power.

GERARDO.
We talk in riddles.

SAVELLI.
First, expound me this;
“He called me traitor to my beard, and I
“Would risk my neck to make his words prove true.”

GERARDO.
'Twas mine of Andria.

SAVELLI.
Let us both repent;
Each has been loud in folly.

GERARDO.
What I said
I hold by still—thou dost distrust me, brother.

SAVELLI.
I do.

GERARDO.
Indeed! it is unjustly then.

SAVELLI.
But wisely nevertheless. I have my scruples,
Or else—

GERARDO.
Else what?

SAVELLI.
I could suggest a thing
Fit for vexed hearts like ours, great as our need,
Bold as our wishes, easier than our fears,
Less dangerous than our present state.

GERARDO.
What is it?
Tell me what sort of thing?

SAVELLI.
Why, such an one
As twice has given the world to those who did it,
And ten times, crown and thrones. The wisest risk
All lesser things for this—to us, Gerardo,
Success were empire—if we failed, defeat
Could only leave us where we are.

GERARDO.
Come, come,
Dost think I would betray thee?

SAVELLI.
Indeed I fear it.

GERARDO.
No, by my faith, believe me.

SAVELLI.
I pray thee, give
A mortgage on thy land as well, transfer
Thy rents and lordships. Twenty years ago
That faith was lost at Milan, pledged again
In Venice, Florence, Modena—and since
Full twenty times a year, with twenty oaths,
To twenty men at least.

GERARDO.
And twenty women—
But what is that to thee?

SAVELLI.
Why, marry—'tis much.
I do not like the bond—hast nothing else?

GERARDO.
Our friendship, then, Savelli.

SAVELLI.
Thou would'st sell it
Some Friday morn in Lent to buy an egg—
I will be better conjured yet.

GERARDO.
Well, hear—
By all my services.

SAVELLI.
They must be, then,
The services to come. This charm is stronger,
And shall prevail.

GERARDO.
Be honest with me, brother.

SAVELLI.
Give me thine hand—so now I would not change thee
For Maia's child by Jupiter, or take—
Winged as he is—their servant from the gods.
Ye both are covetous though poor, expert
In fraud and falsehood; patrons both to knaves;
Furnished with twofold faces, fair in the light,
In darkness terrible—and your office is
To guide stray souls below.

GERARDO.
I wish it were,
So thy turn came the next. My mind is changed,
I will not hear thy secret—may it choke thee!

SAVELLI.
Why, you have owned all this.

GERARDO.
Then let it rest,
What need to speak it twice?

SAVELLI.
To try the baby!
Art fit to travail midst the clouds with me,
And slant their lightnings at the heads of kings?
Thou petulant splenetic ape! a lighted reed
Can make the caldron of thy bile run o'er,
Ever brimfull and boiling! thou that hast gained
The wisdom to discern men's thoughts, a tongue
Skilled to persuade and charm, a heart withal
Untrammell'd by remorse—why these, all these
Are worse than barren, for they yield thee still
Disgrace and poverty.

GERARDO.
Well, let it be so—
What thou hast more say on.

SAVELLI.
The spirit which leads thee
Provokes disaster—thou dost ever look
Beside, or else beyond thine aim, and thus
No arrow strikes.

GERARDO.
I was a god till now,
Your Joveship's Mercury.

SAVELLI.
Thou hast still, Gerardo,
Wings plumed to reach the skies, a power within
Which should uplift its owner from the crowd,
And place him on his pedestal so high
That all might see and worship. What I fear
Is less than treachery, though as bad—by fraud
Thou canst not harm me, or I would not trust thee.

GERARDO.
Either may hang the other.

SAVELLI.
Art sure of that?
Then study to be first. We have been friends,
The night has heard and hidden what day would blush at;
Strong wine has exorcised the ghost of fear—
Yet, in our mirth, there was a hand above thee,
Naples herself is slumbering in its shade.

GERARDO.
If I might ever fear—it should be thee,
I know, but do not yet.

SAVELLI.
Look—he who knows me,
Lives while he serves me—let his heart rebel,—
And arm or hide him as he may, my wrath
Shall pluck it out.

GERARDO.
Thou canst do this?

SAVELLI.
Why, thus
Valerio doubted if I could—he held
The place which thou dost now.

GERARDO.
Valerio! mercy!
Thou didst not murder him?

SAVELLI.
He did betray me.

GERARDO.
By all those stars, I never dreamed of this!
He seemed a son, a servant.

SAVELLI.
He forgot
That sons and servants should obey—so now
Awake and gaze. We both have ventured forth,
And o'er this perilous sea, whose breezes swell
To storms at last, nor ever change toward shore,
Our boat has drifted easily along—
But in so small a crew, one should have brains.
Thou, while the feast seems good, dost eat and drink
Despite the reckoning—I have cares for that:
Thou, while the abbey's purse shrank daily less,
Didst trust what I did not.

GERARDO.
Brother, it was
The common trust of both to raise and place thee
Where none dare mark its emptiness.

SAVELLI.
It was
My hope, my trust was better placed elsewhere.

GERARDO.
In what?

SAVELLI.
Dominion, wider than these walls,
Power, taken as the right of all who gain it,
The crowning gift of Nature where she loves.
I must not govern in a house like this,
So now to leave the crosier for a sword,
And climb up higher! This plethorick city groans
With lust and vanity: we have around us
The vintage of long peace o'er ripe—contempt
And splenetic restlessness, a critical tongue,
Hatred toward Spain, ambition ill-employed,
Unhonored wealth, and luxury unfed—
Large debts, much pride, licentious wants, and wishes
Which will find means. Here many, like ourselves,
Can stay no longer what they are, and some,
Though well, must change. There are of every sort—
Zealots, who build the churches' roof to Heaven,
Saints, who would lower and cleanse it—Atheists too
Who can endure no master in the skies,
Yet worship one unseen, and will obey
They know not whom—myself. I class apart
The proud, the base, the idle—not one man
Can see beyond his tribe; and, out of all,
Thou only knowest who rules them.

GERARDO.
Take my soul
With all its services! A place like this
Is level with my hopes.

SAVELLI.
We have enough
To strike the unguarded down, but after that,
Shall want a better face to meet the sun.
Some brave there are, some noble—none renowned—
The people love old names; to those who change
Opinion strengthens force. The Count Arezzi
Is loved, and might do much.

GERARDO.
The Count Arezzi!
My brother's ward!

SAVELLI.
Even such—but then he was
Savelli's pupil—he hath studied that
Which mars this guardianship. His friend Cimbelli
Is with us body and soul; we two must strive
To catch the Count. Now let us part—good night.

[Exeunt.