Victor Hugo's Works (Guernsey Edition)/Volume 14/The Fool's Revenge/Act 1
ACT I.
SCENE I.
TORELLI.
Messer Bernardo, you shall judge between us:
Is Ordelaffi's here, a feasting face?
I say, 't is fitter for a funeral.
ASCOLTI.
An Ordelaffi scarce can love the feast
That greets Octavian Riario,
Lord of Forli and Imola.
ORDELAFFI.
Because our line were masters there of old,
Till they were fools enough to get pulled down.
I was born to no lordship but my sword.
Thanks to my stout black bands, I look to win
New titles, and so grieve not over lost ones.
My glove upon 't! I'll prove a lighter dancer,
A lustier wooer, and a deeper drinker
Than e'er a landed lordling of you all.
Is it a wager?
TORELLI.
My hand to that! There 's Malatesta's wife,
The fair Ginevra. Let 's try lucks with her.
ASCOLTI.
Ware hawk! Grey Guido 's an old-fashioned husband;
Look how he glares upon the Lord Manfredi.
Each of his soft words to the fair Ginevra's
A dagger in the old fool's heart.
ORDELAFFI.
Sublime! Ripe sixty wedded to sixteen,
And thinks to shut the foxes from his grapes!
TORELLI.
The Duke, too, for his rival! Poor old man!
ASCOLTI.
Let the Duke look to it. Ginevra's smiles
May breed him worse foes than Count Malatesta.
[Whispering.] The Duchess!
TORELLI.
Faith! 't is ill rousing Bentivoglio blood.
ORDELAFFI.
And she 's as jealous as her own pet greyhound.
TORELLI.
And sharper in the teeth. I wonder much
She leaves Faenza, knowing her Manfredi
So general a lover.
ASCOLTI.
She leaves Faenza.
TORELLI.
So they say,—to-morrow
Rides to Bologna to her grim old father,
Giovanni Bentivoglio.
ASCOLTI.
To complain
Of her hot-blooded husband?
TORELLI.
Nay, I know not;
Enough, she goes, and—fair dame as she is—
A murrain go with her, say I. There never
Was good time in Faenza, since she came
To spoil sport with her jealousy. Manfredi
Will be himself again when she is hence.
ASCOLTI.
Hush! here she comes—
ORDELAFFI.
With that misshapen imp,
Bertuccio. Gibing devil! I shall thrust
My dagger down his throat, one of these days!
TORELLI.
Call him a jester? He laughs vitriol!
ASCOLTI.
Spares nothing; cracks his random scurrile quips
Upon my master, great Lorenzo's self.
ORDELAFFI.
Do the knave justice; he's a king of tongue-fence.
Not a weak joint in all our armours round,
But he knows, and can hit. Confound the rogue!
I'm blistered still from a word-basting he
Gave me but yesterday. Would we were quits!
TORELLI.
Wait! I 've a rod in pickle that shall flay
The tough hide off his hump. A rare revenge!
ASCOLTI.
They 're here—avoid!
FRANCESCA (looking off, as if watching, and to herself).
Still with her! changing hot plans and long looks!
Hers for the dance, hers at the feast,—all hers!
Nothing for me but shallow courtesies,
And hollow coin of compliment that leaves
The craving heart as empty as a beggar
Bemocked with counters!
BERTUCCIO (counting on his fingers and looking at the moon).
Moon—Manfredi—moon!
FRANCESCA.
Ha, knave!
BERTUCCIO.
By your leave, Monna Cecca, I am ciphering.
FRANCESCA.
Some fool's sum?
BERTUCCIO.
Yes, running your husband's changes
Against the moon's. Manfredi has it hollow.
It comes out ten new loves 'gainst five new moons!
FRANCESCA.
Where do I stand?
BERTUCCIO.
First among the ten; your moon was a whole honey one.
Excluding that, it's nine loves to four moons.
FRANCESCA.
You pity me, Bertuccio?
BERTUCCIO.
Not a whit.
I pity sparrows, but not sparrow-hawks.
FRANCESCA.
I read your riddle. I am strong enough
To right my own wrongs! So I am, while here.
BERTUCCIO.
Then stay!
FRANCESCA.
My father, at Bologna, looks for me.
BERTUCCIO.
Then go!
FRANCESCA.
And leave him here—with her—both free,
And not a friend that I can trust to watch
And give me due report how things go 'twixt them?
Had I one friend—
BERTUCCIO.
You have Bertuccio.
FRANCESCA.
Men call you faithless, bitter, loving wrong
For wrong's sake, Duke Manfredi's worst counsellor,
Still prompting him to evil.
BERTUCCIO.
How folks flatter!
FRANCESCA.
How, then, am I to trust you?
BERTUCCIO.
Monna Cecca,
You know the wild beasts that your husband keeps
Down in the castle fosse? There's a she-leopard
I lie and gaze at by the hour together;
So sleek, so graceful, and so dangerous!
I long to see her let loose on a man.
Trust me to draw the bolt, and loose my leopard.
FRANCESCA.
I'll trust your love of mischief—not of me.
BERTUCCIO.
That 's safest!
FRANCESCA.
I must know how fares this fancy
Of Duke Manfredi for yon pale Ginevra.
Mark him and her,—their meetings, communings;
I know you 're private with my lord.
BERTUCCIO (with a dry chuckle).
He trusts me!
FRANCESCA.
Here! take my ring; your letters sealed with this,
My page Ascanio will bring me straight.
'T is but three hours' hard riding, and in six
I'm here again. Mark! write not on suspicion.
Let evil thought ripen to evil act,
That in the full flush of their guilty joys
I may strike sudden and strike home.
No Bentivoglio pardons.
BERTUCCIO.
Have a care!
Faenza is Manfredi's! These court-flies,
[Pointing to the guests.
Who flutter in the sunshine of his favour,
Have stings; the pudding-headed citizens
Love his free ways,—he leaves their wives alone.
You play your own head, touching his.
FRANCESCA.
Give me my vengeance,—then come what come may.
Enough! I am resolved. Now for the dance!
They shall not see a cloud upon my brow,
Though my heart ache and burn. I can smile, too,
On him and her. Bertuccio, remember!
BERTUCCIO (looking at the ring).
A blood-stone—apt reminder!
Does she think
That none but her have wrongs? That none but her
Means to revenge them? What! "No Bentivoglio
Pardons?" There is a certain vile Bertuccio,
A twisted, withered, hunch-backed court buffoon,—
A thing to make mirth, and to be made mirth of;
A something betwixt ape and man,—that claims
To run in couples with your ladyship.
You hunt Manfredi; I hunt Malatesta.
Let 's try which of the two has sharper fangs!
[Manfredi and Ginevra appear in the background, R.
The Duke and Malatesta's wife! [He retires up stage.
MANFREDI.
Not yet,—but one more round! The feast is blank
For me when you are gone. The flowers lack perfume,
Missing your fragrant breath. The music sounds
Harsh and untunable when your sweet voice
Makes no more under melody. Oh, stay!
GINEVRA.
I am summoned, sir; my husband waits for me.
MANFREDI.
What spoil-sports are these husbands! [Aside.] And these wives
Per Bacco! I could wish Count Malatesta
Would lend my duchess escort to Bologna,
So we were both well rid. [Malatesta beckons to Ginevra.
GINEVRA.
Your pardon, sir.
My husband beckons. It is I, not you,
Must bear his moods to-night; I dare not stay.
MANFREDI.
I would not bring a cloud to your fair brow
For all Faenza. Fare you well, sweet lady!
[He leads her to Malatesta.
I render up your jewel, Malatesta;
See that you guard it as befits its price.
MALATESTA.
Trust me for that, my lord.
MANFREDI. (to GINEVRA).
Sweet dreams wait on you.
MALATESTA. (aside).
This night sees her safe past Faenza's walls;
She 's too fair for this liquorish court of ours.
MANFREDI.
A peerless lady!
BERTUCCIO (coming forward).
And a churlish spouse!
MANFREDI.
Bertuccio!
BERTUCCIO.
"At your elbow, sir!" quoth Satanus.
MANFREDI.
Come, fool, let 's rail at husbands.
BERTUCCIO.
Shall I call
Your wife to help us?
MANFREDI.
Out on thee, screech-owl!
Just when I felt my chains about to fall
Thou mind'st me of my jailer. Thank the saints,
I shall be free to-morrow, for a while
I'm thirsty to employ my liberty.
Come, my familiar, help me to some mischief,—
Some pleasant deviltry, with just the spice
Of sin to make the enjoyment exquisite.
BERTUCCIO.
Let's see! Throat-cutting's pleasant, but that 's stale;
Plotting has savour in it, but 't is too tedious;
Say, a campaign with Ordelaffi's band,
So you may feed all the seven sins at once?
MANFREDI.
Out, barren hound! thy wits are growing dull.
BERTUCCIO.
A man can't always be finding out new sins,—
Think they're as hard to hit on as new pleasures.
My head on 't, Alexander had not run
So wide a round of pleasures as you of sins,
And yet he offered kingdoms for a new one.
You must invoke Asmodeus, not Beelzebub.
MANFREDI.
What's he?
BERTUCCIO.
The devil specially charged with love;
He has more work to do than all the infernal legion.
There's Malatesta's wife; she's young and fair,
And good, they say. Rare matter for sin there,
Though 't is the oldest of them all.
MANFREDI.
But show me
How to win her! She's cold as she is fair;
I have spent enough sweet speech to have softened stone,
And all in vain.
BERTUCCIO.
The monks say Hannibal
Melted the rocks with vinegar, not sugar.
MANFREDI.
But she is adamant!
BERTUCCIO.
When all else fails,
You've still force to fall back on. Carry her off
From under Guido's grizzled beard.
MANFREDI.
By Bacchus,
There's metal in thy counsel, knave! I'll think on 't.
BERTUCCIO.
It needs no brains neither,—only strong hands
And hard hearts. Here come both.
MANFREDI.
What say you. gentlemen; may I trust your arms?
TORELLI.
They're yours in any quarrel.
ASCOLTI.
So are mine!
ORDELAFFI.
And mine!
BERTUCCIO.
One at a time. You said "arms!" Of Torelli
You should ask legs! His did such famous service
In carrying him out of danger at Sarzana,
I think they may be trusted. [All laugh except Torelli.
TORELLI.
Scurrile knave!
But I'll be even with thee!
BERTUCCIO.
That were pity.
A hump would be a sore disfigurement
Upon a back that you're so fond of showing!
ASCOLTI.
This rogue needs gagging.
BERTUCCIO (to Ascolti).
What, for speaking truth?
I cry you mercy! I forgot how ugly
It must sound to a Florentine Ambassador—
MANFREDI.
Well thrust, Bertuccio!
ORDELAFFI (angrily).
My lord! my lord!
The slave is paid to find us wit—
BERTUCCIO (interrupting).
Hold there!
No man is bound to impossibilities,—
'T is a known maxim of the Roman law;
How then can I find wit for Ordelaffi?
[All laugh but Ordelaffi.
But look! there 's Serafino, big with a sonnet:
I must help him to reason for his rhymes.
MANFREDI.
Stay!
BERTUCCIO.
Not I! You 're for finding out new sins:
With three such counsellors, I am superfluous.
[Aside.] The evil seed is sown, 't will grow! 't will grow! [Exit Bertuccio.
TORELLI.
Toad!
ASCOLTI.
Foul-mouthed scoffer!
ORDELAFFI.
Warped in wit and limb!
ASCOLTI.
My lord, you give your monkey too much rope.
He'll soon forget all tricks in the scurvy one
Of making his grinders meet in our soft parts.
MANFREDI.
Nay, give the devil his due; if he hits hard,
He hits impartially. I take my share
Of buffets with the rest. Best cure the smart
By laughing at your neighbour that smarts worse;
But about this business, where your arms may help me.
ASCOLTI.
Is it an enemy to be silenced?
ORDELAFFI.
A castle
To be surprised? A merchant to be squeezed?
ASCOLTI.
Or aught in which ducats or brains of Florence
Can help?
MANFREDI.
No. Who was queen of the feast to-night,
In your skilled judgment, Messer Gian Maria?
ORDELAFFI.
I ought to say your duchess, fair Francesca;
But if another tongue had asked the question—
MANFREDI.
Speak out thy honest judgment!
ORDELAFFI.
Not a lady
In all Faenza's worthy to compare
With proud Ginevra. Malatesta!
TORELLI.
I think I know a fairer—but no matter!
MANFREDI.
I hold with Ordelaffi. I have mounted
Ginevra's colours in my cap and heart;
But she's too proud, or fearful of old Guido,
To smile upon my suit. 'T is the first time
I've found so coy a dame.
ASCOLTI.
Trust one who knows them:
The coyest are not always chastest.
MANFREDI.
How say you, if I spared her shame of yielding
By a night escalade?
ORDELAFFI (shaking his head)
Carry her off?
A Malatesta! Were it an enemy's town—
MANFREDI.
Hear him! How modestly he talks! Why, man,
Since when shrank'st thou from climbing balconies,
And forcing doors without an invitation?
ORDELAFFI
Oh, citizens, I grant you; but a noble's!
One of ourselves!
ASCOLTI.
Remember, Malatesta
Is cousin to the old lord of Cesena.
The affair might breed a feud, and so let in
The sly Venetian.
TORELLI.
Be advised, my lord;
If you must breathe your new-fledged liberty,
Try safer game! Old Malatesta's horns
Might prove too sharp for pastime!
MANFREDI.
Out, you faint hearts!
Do you fall off? Then, by St. Francis' bones,
I and Bertuccio will adventure it.
TORELLI.
Bertuccio! My jewel to his hump,
'T was he put this mad frolic in your head!
MANFREDI.
And if it were? At least he'll stand by me.
Perchance his wits may be worth all your brawn.
ASCOLTI.
Here comes one who may claim to be consulted
Upon this business. [Enter Malatesta, L.
MANFREDI (disconcerted).
Guido Malatesta!
Why, how now, Count? You left our feast so soon,
I thought you warm i' the sheets this good half hour.
MALATESTA.
I had forgot my duty to your lordship,
So now repair my lack of courtesy.
To-morrow I purpose riding to Cesena,
And would not go without due leave-taking.
MANFREDI (aside).
This jumps well with my project.
[Aloud.] What, to-morrow!
You ride alone?
MALATESTA.
No, with my wife.
MANFREDI (aside).
The devil!
[Aloud.] Why, this is sudden. She spoke no word of this
To-night.
MALATESTA.
Tush! Women know not their own minds,
How should they know their husband's?
MANFREDI.
But your reason?
MALATESTA.
Your air here in Faenza is too warm,
And scarce so pure as fits my wife's complexion.
She'll be better in my castle at Cesena;
The walls are five feet thick, and from the platform
There's a rare view. She'll need no exercise.
MANFREDI (aside).
The jailer! [Aloud.] But what says the lady's will?
MALATESTA.
I never ask that, and so escape all risk
Of finding it run counter to my own.
MANFREDI.
Faenza will have great miss of you both.
MALATESTA.
Oh, fear not; I'll return. Your wine 's too good
To be left lightly. I'll be back to-morrow,
Before the gates are shut. Meanwhile, accept
This leave-taking by proxy from my wife.
MANFREDI.
Not so; I must exchange farewell with her
To-morrow.
MALATESTA.
We shall start an hour ere dawn;
You'll scarce be stirring.
MANFREDI (aside).
Plague upon the churl!
He meets me at all points. [Aloud.] At least, I hope
This absence of your wife will not be long;
My duchess cannot spare her. [Aside.] Saints forgive me!
MALATESTA.
When your fair lady wants her, she can send:
I'll answer for her coming on that summons.
Good-night, sweet lords. [Aside.] How crestfallen he looks!
Mass! 't is ill cozening an old condottiere!
Did he think I had forgot to guard my baggage? [Exit.
MANFREDI.
A murrain go with him! May the horse stumble
That carries him, and break his old bull-neck!
Oh, this is cruel! with my hand stretched out,
To have to draw 't back empty. I could curse!
TORELLI.
What if I helped you to a substitute
For coy Ginevra, passing her in beauty?
One, too, whose conquest puts no crown to risk,
And helps withal a notable requital
That we all owe Bertuccio, you included.
MANFREDI.
What mean you?
TORELLI.
Guess what 's happened to Bertuccio.
ORDELAFFI.
He 's grown good-natured?
ASCOLTI.
Or has dropped his hump?
MANFREDI.
He has found a monkey uglier than himself?
TORELLI.
No, something stranger than all these would be,
If they had happened,—he has found a mistress!
MANFREDI.
My lady's pet baboon? Bertuccio
Graced with a mistress? [He laughs.
ASCOLTI.
She is blind, of course?
ORDELAFFI.
And has a hump, I hope, to match his own?
What a rare breed 't will be, of two-humped babes,
Like Bactrian camels!
MANFREDI.
Bertuccio with a mistress! Why, the rogue
Ne'er yet made joke so monstrous or so pleasant!
TORELLI.
Laugh as you please, sirs; on my knightly faith,
He has a mistress,—and a rare one, too!
Nay, if you doubt my word— Here comes Dell' Aquila;
He knows, as well as I.
MANFREDI.
We'll question him.
[Enter Serafino Dell' Aquila, C.
Good-even to my poet. You walk late.
DELL' AQUILA (pointing to the moon).
I tend my mistress: poets and lunatics,
You know, are her liege subjects.
MANFREDI.
They are happy!
DELL' AQUILA.
Why?
MANFREDI.
They have a new mistress every month,
And each month's mistress no two nights alike.
But jesters can find mistresses, it seems,
As well as poets. There's Torelli swears
Bertuccio has one, and that you know it.
DELL' AQUILA.
I know he has a rare maid close mewed up,
But whether wife or daughter—
MANFREDI.
Tell not me!
A mistress for a thousand! But what of her?
How did you find her out?
DELL' AQUILA.
'T was some weeks since,
Attending vespers in your house's chapel,
At San Costanza, I beheld a maiden
Kneeling before that picture of Our Lady
By Fra Filippo,—oh, so fair, so rapt
In her pure, passionate prayers! I tell you, sirs,
I was nigh going on my knees beside her,
And asking for an interest in her orisons:
Such eyes of softest blue, crowned with such wreaths
Of glossy chestnut hair; a cheek of snow
Flushed tenderly, as when the sunlight strikes
Upon an evening alp; and over all,
A grace of maiden modesty that lay
More still and snowy round her than the folds
Of her white veil. And when she rose, I rose
And followed her, like one drawn by a charm,
To a mean house, where entering, she was lost.
MANFREDI.
She was alone?
DELL' AQUILA.
Only a shrewish servant
That saw her to the church, and saw her home.
MANFREDI.
A most weak wolf-dog for so choice a lamb!
DELL' AQUILA.
Methought, my lord, she needed no more guard
Than the innocence that sat, dove-like, in her eyes,
That shaped the folding of her delicate hands,
And timed the movement of her gentle feet.
MANFREDI.
You spoke to her?
DELL' AQUILA.
I dared not; some strange shame
Put weight upon my tongue. I only watched her,
And sometimes heard her sing. That was enough.
MANFREDI.
Poets are easy satisfied. Well, you watched?
DELL' AQUILA.
And then I found that I was not alone
Upon my nightly post: there were two more;
One stayed outside, like me, and one went in.
TORELLI.
True to the letter! I was the outsider;
The third, and luckiest, was Bertuccio!
MANFREDI.
The hump-backed hypocrite!
ORDELAFFI.
The owl that screeched
The loudest against women!
ASCOLTI.
But is 't certain
That 't was Bertuccio?
TORELLI.
I can swear to that!
DELL' AQUILA.
And I!
ASCOLTI.
How do you know him?
TORELLI.
By his hump,
His gait—who could mistake that crab-like walk?
I could have knocked my head against the wall
To think I had been fool enough to trust
A woman's looks for once. Dell' Aquila,
I know, holds other faith about the sex.
DELL' AQUILA.
I would stake life upon her purity;
Yet, 't is past doubt Bertuccio is the man,
The ugly jailer of this prisoned bird.
MANFREDI.
Why, that 's enough to make it a mere duty
To break her prison-house, and shift her keeping
To titter hands,—say, mine. I'm lord of the town;
None else has right of prison here, but me.
DELL' AQUILA.
What would you do?
MANFREDI.
First see if she bears out
Your picture, Serafino; if she do,
Be sure I will not wait outside to mark
Her shadow. Shadows may suit poets; I
Want substance.
TORELLI.
She's meat for Bertuccio's master,
Not for Bertuccio. When shall it be?
MANFREDI.
To-morrow
I 'm a free man! Meet me at midnight, here.
DELL' AQUILA.
You would not harm her? Only see her face;
You will not have the heart to do her wrong.
MANFREDI.
What call you "wrong"?—to save so choice a creature
From such a guardian as Bertuccio?
He would have prompted me to play the robber
Of Malatesta's pearl. Let him guard his own!
ORDELAFFI.
If he resists, we'll knock him over the sconce;
Let me have that part of the business.
MANFREDI.
Nay, I 'd not have the rascal harmed; he's bitter,
But shrewdly witty, and he makes me laugh.
No, spare me my buffoon; who does him harm,
Shall answer it to me.
TORELLI.
'T were a rare plot to make the knave believe
Our scheme still held against old Malatesta,—
That his Ginevra was the game we followed.
ORDELAFFI.
So give him a rendezvous a mile away;
And while he waits our coming, to break open
The mew where he keeps close his tassel-gentle.
ASCOLTI (aside to Manfredi).
Ne'er trust a poet. What if he betrayed us?
MANFREDI.
He 's truth itself; and where he gives his faith,
'T is better than a bond of your Lorenzo's.
ASCOLTI.
Swear him to secrecy.
MANFREDI (to Dell' Aquila).
Your hand upon it:
You'll not spoil our sport by breaking to Bertuccio
What we intend?
DELL' AQUILA.
But think, oh, think, my lord,
What if this were no mistress—as—if looks
Have privilege to reveal the soul—she is none!
MANFREDI.
Mistress or maid, man, I will not be balked;
'T is for her good. I know the sex; she pines
In her captivity. I'll find a cage
More fitting such a bird as you've described.
Your hand on 't: not a whisper to Bertuccio!
DELL' AQUILA.
You force me! There's my hand! I will not speak
A word to him!
MANFREDI (taking his hand).
That's like a trusty liegeman
Of blind Lord Cupid!—Hark! a word with you.
DELL' AQUILA.
I'll save her from this wrong, or lose myself.
What tie there is betwixt these two, I know not,—
How one so fair and seeming gentle 's linked
With one so foul and bitter, a buffoon,
Who makes his vile office viler still
By prompting to the evil that he mocks.
But I will 'gage my life that she is pure,
And still shall be so, if my aid avail!
[Manfredi and Lords separate.
Once more, my lord: you'll not be stayed from this
That you propose?
MANFREDI.
Unconscionable bard!
What! when you've set my mouth a-watering
You'd have me put the dainty morsel from me?
Go, feed on signs and shadows! Such thin stuff
Is the best diet for you singing birds;
We eagles must have flesh!
DELL' AQUILA (to all).
Good-night, my lords!
[Aside.] Keep to your carrion, kites! She 's not for you.
MANFREDI.
But how to get sight of Bertuccio's jewel!
I'd see, before I 'd snatch.
TORELLI.
Trust me for that.
I am no poet. When I found the damsel
Admitted such a gallant as Bertuccio,
I thought it time to press my suit, and so
Accosted her on her way from San Costanza—
MANFREDI.
She listened?
TORELLI.
Long enough—the little fool!—
To learn my meaning, then she flushed and fled;
I followed—when, as the foul fiend would have it,
Ginevra Malatesta coming by
From vespers, with her train, sheltered the pigeon,
And spoiled my chase.
MANFREDI.
You did not give it up?
TORELLI.
I changed my plan; the mistress being coy,
I spread my net to catch the maid,—oh, lord!
The veriest Gorgon! You might swear none e'er
Had given her chase before; no coyness there.
A small expense of oaths and coin sufficed
To make her think herself a misprized Venus,
And me the most discriminating wooer
In all Faenza. 'T will not need much art
For me to win an entrance to the house;
And when I'm in it, it shall go hard, my lord,
But I find means to get you access too.
MANFREDI.
About it straight; at dusk to-morrow night
Be here, armed, masked, and cloaked.
ORDELAFFI.
While poor Bertuccio
Awaits our coming near San Stefano,—
A stone's throw from the casa Malatesta.
ASCOLTI.
He's here! [Enter Bertuccio, L.
BERTUCCIO.
Not yet a-bed!
Since when were the fiend's eggs so hard to hatch?
I left a pleasant little germ of sin
Some half an hour since; it should be full-grown
By this time. Is it?
MANFREDI.
Winged and hoofed and tailed.
If proud Ginevra Malatesta sleep
To-morrow night beneath old Guido's roof,
Then call me a snow-water-blooded shaveling.
BERTUCCIO.
Ha! 'T is resolved then?
TORELLI.
We have pledged our faith
To carry off the fairest in Faenza—
ASCOLTI.
Before the stroke of midnight.
ORDELAFFI.
'T was my plan
To gather one by one to the place of action;
Lest, going in a troop, we might awake
Suspicion, and put Guido on his guard.
BERTUCCIO.
A wise precaution, although it was yours.
I wronged you, gentlemen; I thought you shrunk
Even from sin, when there was danger in 't.
It seems there are deeds black enough to make
Even Torelli brave, Ascolti prompt,
And Ordelaffi witty. But the place?
MANFREDI.
Beside San Stefano.
BERTUCCIO.
The hour of meeting?
MANFREDI.
Half an hour after vespers. There await us.
And now good rest, my lords; the night wanes fast
My duchess will be weary.
ALL (going).
Sir, good-night!
BERTUCCIO.
Sleep well, Torelli. Dream of charging home
In the van of some fierce fight.
TORELLI.
My common dream.
BERTUCCIO.
'T is natural,—dreams go by contraries.
And you, Ascolti, dream of telling truth;
And, Ordelaffi, that you've grown wise.
TORELLI.
And you, that your back's straight, your legs a match.
ASCOLTI.
And your tongue tipped with honey.
ORDELAFFI.
Come, my lords;
Leave him to spit his venom at the moon,
As they say toads do!
BERTUCCIO.
Take my curse among you,
Fair, false, big, brainless, outside shows of men;
For once your gibes and jeers fall pointless from me.
My great revenge is nigh, and drowns all sense,
I am straight and fair and well-shaped as yourselves;
Vengeance swells out my veins, and lifts my head,
And makes me terrible! Come, sweet to-morrow,
And put my enemy's heart into my hand
That I may gnaw it!