University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV.

A Chamber in the Palace.
The Duke, Don Gabriel Lucerna, and Don Florez Zava.
DUKE.
You never loved him much.

DON GABRIEL.
Nor had much cause:
He never loved your Grace.

DUKE.
I think he did:
At least he seemed to do so.

DON GABRIEL.
Ay—he seemed—
Were all men what they seem!—

DUKE.
Arezzi is—
We must speak justly, Gabriel.—

DON GABRIEL.
Heaven forbid
That I should question what he is. I speak
More from my blood than brain—it is my nature.
I cannot do as some much wiser men,
Who wink on both sides slily; shake by the hand
Their patron's slanderer; listen with meek smiles
To all, and neutral 'twixt the wronged and wronger—
Wish that they could be friends—I cannot do it,
And what is worse, I cannot strive to do it.
My soul is with my service—Where your Grace
Loves, I love too—and where you hate, I hate.

DUKE.
Well—well—then love, Arezzi—learn to hate
When I know how to teach you. By my hopes
Now and to come, I would not harm the count—
No, not in thought, for worlds!

DON FLOREZ.
He wrongs your highness
In more than thought—in deed.

DON GABRIEL.
He thinks it safer
To pluck the beard of Jove, than touch one hair
Worn by Jove's priests. Your highness has a sword
Too sacred for the use of private strife—
And this he knows.

DON FLOREZ.
Hush! hush!—we must not say so.

DON GABRIEL.
Pasquin usurps the privilege to speak,
And he may mock the pope.—A boy! a meddler!
A child too young for love!—and he, forsooth,
Just old enough!—Don Florez, for ourselves,
We too will learn the thrift of such a trade,
And purchase love with scorn.

DON FLOREZ.
The price for honor
Once, was obedience.

DON GABRIEL.
Blockheads as we are,
We pay it still.

DUKE.
And so shall he, and all.
What profit has he made him yet from scorn?
How does it grace him, Gabriel?—come—no more.

[Exeunt.