The Count Arezzi A Tragedy, In Five Acts |
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| 5. | SCENE V. |
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 | The Count Arezzi |  |
SCENE V.
An Apartment in the Palace.Prince of Andria and the Duchess, meeting.
DUCHESS.
Your eyes speak first—they tell me something good!
Haste and interpret what it is.
PRINCE ANDRIA.
I will.
Love spurns his old obstructions, right and left;
The hard encumbrances of twenty years—
Now the heart makes its offerings unperplexed—
Honor not lessened by its love—and love
Sublimed, not cooled, by reverence—read these letters.
DUCHESS.
They came from Spain?
PRINCE ANDRIA.
Whose character is this?
133
Our prayers then are fulfilled!—I know the writing.
PRINCE ANDRIA.
The king has called me kinsman—and our child,
His son and nephew—look! how good and gracious!
DUCHESS.
The royal hand itself!
PRINCE ANDRIA.
And here he tells us
To make our marriage public when we please.—
“Your wisdom shall choose for you what to do,
“And how to claim your place. It is our will
“That Ferdinand be proclaimed and crowned—yourselves
“Stand near enough to judge if this your secret
“Should follow briefly to the public ear;
“Or come the first; or both be heard at once.
“Look to the people well—their thoughts will guide you,
“And He, whose care you are. We will not mix
“Your history in the letters to our son—
“Tell it when best yourselves.”
DUCHESS.
Well, tell it now.
PRINCE ANDRIA.
To-day—to-morrow—when you will—but say,
Have we been wise in waiting? Was it wrong
To watch the perfecting of time like this?
Now we may teach Arezzi what he is.
DUCHESS.
To-morrow is his birth-day.
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Let him learn
This and the rest at once.
DUCHESS.
He shall do so—
And many who would have made these clouds the blacker
Shall learn it too.
PRINCE ANDRIA.
To-morrow? We must make haste.
DUCHESS.
There will be time enough to call the guests:
We can prepare a banquet, where the duke
May practise royalty ere his throne is built—
The court expects no less, and he will thank us:
The feast may seem for him.
PRINCE ANDRIA.
And then, what next?
DUCHESS.
Then while a thousand eyes flash hate or love,
We will proclaim the birth-day of our child—
A prince, and sprung from kings, our own Arezzi!
PRINCE ANDRIA.
So, hide it from the duke, meanwhile?
DUCHESS.
From all
But one.
PRINCE ANDRIA.
Cicilia?
DUCHESS.
Grief, I know not why,
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Hath wrought with double strength to-day, and made
Her silence worse than cries. I would not waste
The comfort of an hour.
PRINCE ANDRIA.
I had forgotten—
Here hope seems kindling too. The duke shall have
An Austrian princess for his queen.
DUCHESS.
Who says so?
PRINCE ANDRIA.
The king.
DUCHESS.
This perfects all I wish—come, come.
[Exeunt.
| The Count Arezzi | |