 | The Conspiracy of the Pazzi |  |
324
SCENE THE SECOND.
Lorenzo, Julian, Guglielmo, Raymond.Gu.
Follow my footsteps, son; and I beseech thee
Suffer me here to speak alone.—Oh you,
(For yet I know not by what epithet
I ought to accost you) in a suppliant posture
Behold me here your once implacable,
And bitterest enemy. Better I know,
Better adapted to my age infirm,
Were free expressions, and still freer deeds;
Nor with my nature, though I use them, do
These servile ones accord. But I am not
The only one remaining of my house;
Whence to your fortune, and to tyrannous
And base necessity, I long have yielded.
Myself, my life, my substance, and my honour,
My children, all did I confide to you;
Nor was I more reluctant to obey
Than others were. Thence can I scarce believe
That which is now reported, that ye mean
With wrongs unmerited to injure Raymond,
And me in him. But grant, if this be true,
That I demand of you the cause for this.
Ju.
Why from thy son dost thou not first demand
The cause of his deportment, and his language? ...
Ray.
I refuse not to give account to him:
Nor can I ever meet with those, to whom
I would more freely, than to you, confess
My purposes ...
Lo.
Thy purposes I know.—
But I would teach thee, that, if thou would'st cope
325
Proportion'd to thy envy; and not less
Strength to that lofty enterprize proportion'd.
Say; fares it so with thee?
Gu.
I hitherto
Am chief of all our race; nor is there one
Who dares to move, if I precede him not.
I speak of deeds. And what, do ye likewise
Pretend to sit in judgment on secret thoughts?
Are ineffectual words high treason here?
Are we so far advanced?—If ye pretend
To exercise a right like this, I ask you,
That men may learn more abjectly to fear,
What are you? Whence your charter to such power?
Ray.
What are they? Dost thou ask it? Do not they
Tremendously, though tacitly, express it
In their imperious and cruel faces?—
Yes, they are all; and nothing we.
Ju.
We are
The fearless guardians of the sacred laws;
We are exterminating flames from heaven
To culprits like thyself; but to the good
Heart-cheering benefactors.
Lo.
In one word,
Such are we as to hold thee in contempt.
Our will to thee assign'd the gonfalon,
Another will of ours more just recalls it.
With dignity unmerited by us
Invested, didst thou ask on what pretence
The gonfalon was yielded to thy hands?
Ray.
Who knows it not? Your terror gave it me;
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Terror is law supreme and deity.
What attribute of king possess you not?
Already ye possess the public hate,
Their cruel artifice, their frantic vices,
Their infamous contrivances. Ye tread
The generous path trod by your ancestors:
Proceed, oh valiant, in full sail proceed,
While prosperous gales befriend you. Not wealth only,
But life and honour ye will take away
From those who give you umbrage: the sublime,
And only right to your authority,
From waste of blood arises. Greatly dare:
And try to imitate the many tyrants
By whom oppress'd Italia has been scourged ...
Gu.
My son, thou dost exceed all bounds. 'Tis true,
That it is lawful for each man to speak
His thoughts, while these have not thrown off the name
Of citizens: but we ...
Lo.
Too late thou'rt cautious:
Thy time hast thou ill chosen to restrain him.
Fret not thyself; his words are thy begetting.
Leave him to speak: on us depends to hear him.
Ju.
Audacious youth, minds ill-disposed already,
What boots it to exasperate? 'Twould be
The best for thee spontaneously to quit
The gonfalon, which in contempt of us
Thou wouldest keep in vain; thou seest it ...
Ray.
Shall I thus make myself deserving insults?
Hear me: these arts successfully perchance
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But not to ensure obedience. If I yield,
I yield alone to force. Honour sometimes
Is by submission gain'd, if we indeed
Submit to nothing but to absolute,
And dire necessity.—It pleases me,
As I have told you mine, to have heard your thoughts.
Now new means to new violence I wait
To see, and be they what they may, I swear
That I will be of rising tyranny
The victim, yes, but not the instrument.
| The Conspiracy of the Pazzi | |