We'll take it; but may do all this in calmness—— Doge. I tell thee-must I tell thee-what thy father Of torture from the touch? hast thou no soul- Doge (interrupting him). There is no such thing-This creeping, coward, rank, acquitted felon, Who threw his sting into a poisonous libel, (1) Ber. F. The law, my prince Doge (interrupling him). You see what it has doneI ask'd no remedy but from the law I sought no vengeance but redress by law I call'd no judges but those named by law- I say not that: Ber. F. Doge. Appeal again! art thou my brother's son? The nephew of a Doge? and of that blood' I grant it was a gross offence, and grossly does not at first understand it. This dutiful person com- Ber. F. But still it was a lie-you knew it false, And so did all men. Doge. Nephew, the high Roman Said, "Cæsar's wife must not even be suspected," And put her from him. Doge. It is-it is;-I did not visit on But craved my country's justice on his head, Ber. F. Doge. Death! Was I not the sovereign of the state- A mockery to the men who should obey me? remedy: you can appeal to them once more, or to the Avogadori, who, seeing that true justice is withheld, will now take up the cause they once declined, and do you right upon the bold delinquent. Think you not thus, good uncle? Why do you stand so fixed? You heed me not. I pray you, hear me.'" Jeffrey.-L. E. (1) In the MS. "Who threw his sting into a poisonous rhyme."—LE Was I not injured as a husband? scorn'd Ber. F. Ber. F. What mean you? is not the offence redoubled By this most rank--I will not say-acquittal; Doge. It is redoubled, but not now by him: Ber. F. Obey them! Who have forgot their duty to the sovereign? For justice, or as sovereign who commands it, Ber. F. Not twelve hours longer, had you left to me Doge. No, nephew, he must live, At least, just now-a life so vile as his Were nothing at this hour; in the olden time Some sacrifices ask'd a single victim, Great expiations had a hecatomb. Ber. F. Your wishes are my law: and yet I fain Would prove to you how near unto my heart The honour of our house must ever be. The leader, and the statesman, and the chief All prudence in your fury at these years, Doge. AY think upon the causeForget it not:-When you lie down to rest, Let it be black among your dreams; and when The morn returns, so let it stand between The sun and you, as an ill-omen'd cloud Upon a summer-day of festival: So will it stand to me; -- but speak not, stir not,(1) "The youth, being at last talked into a better sense of what their house's honour requires, leaves the Doge brooding over some terrible revenge. At this moment, the captain of a galley comes to complain of an insult he had just received from a senator; and when the Doge rails at the whole se nate in terms of great bitterness, is encouraged to inform him, that a plot is on foot for its destruction, which he Leave all to me;-we shall have much to do, And you shall have a part.-But now retire, "Tis fit I were alone. Ber. F. (taking up and placing the ducal bonnet on the table.) Ere I depart, I pray you to resume what you have spurn'd, As doth become your near and faithful kinsman, [Exit BERTUCCIO FALIERO. Doge (solus). Adieu, my worthy nephew.-(1) Hollow bauble! [Taking up the ducal cap. [Puts it on. Beset with all the thorns that line a crown, I can see no one, not even a patrician- Doge. How! did you say the patron of a galley? That is I mean-a servant of the state: Admit him, he may be on public service. [Exit VINCENZO. Doge (solus). This patron may be sounded; I will I know the people to be discontented: [try him. They have cause, since Sapienza's adverse day, When Genoa conquer'd: they have further cause, Since they are nothing in the state, and in The city worse than nothing-mere machines, would do well to join: to which his highness, with marvellous little hesitation, assents, and agrees to come at midnight to this assemblage of plebeian desperadoes. If this were ever so authentically set down in history-which, however, it is not-it would still be a great deal too improbable for a modern tragedy." Jeffrey.-L. E. To serve the nobles' most patrician pleasure. Had been already where-how soon, I care not→→→ Enter VINCENZO and ISRAEL BERTUCCIO. May it please Doge. Vincenzo. Leave the chamber, [Exit VINCENZO. Sir, you may advance-what would you? I. Ber. Redress. Doge. 1. Ber. Of whom? Of God and of the Doge. Doge. Alas! my friend, you seek it of the twain Of least respect and interest in Venice. You must address the council. I. Ber. 'T were in vain ; For he who injured me is one of them. [there? Doge. There's blood upon thy face-how came it I. Ber. 'Tis mine, and not the first I've shed for But the first shed by a Venetian hand: [Venice, A noble smote me. Doge. What was the cause? or the pretext? I. Ber. I am the chief of the arsenal, (2) employ'd At present in repairing certain galleys But roughly used by the Genoese last year. This morning comes the noble Barbaro Full of reproof, because our artisans Had left some frivolous order of his house, To execute the state's decree; I dared To justify the men-he raised his hand;Behold my blood! the first time it e'er flow'd Dishonourably. Doge. Have you long time served? I. Ber. So long as to remember Zara's siege, And fight beneath the chief who beat the Huns there, Sometime my general, now the Doge Faliero. [robes Doge How! are we comrades?-the state's ducal I little thought his bounty would conduct me Doge. [mand Are you much hurt? 1. Ber. Irreparably, in my self-esteem. Doge. Speak out; fear nothing: being stung at heart, What would you do to be revenged on this man? I. Ber. That which I dare not name, and yet will do. Doge. Then wherefore came you here? I. Ber. I come for justice, Because my general is Doge, and will not See his old soldier trampled on. Had any, Save Faliero, fill'd the ducal throne, This blood had been wash'd out in other blood. Doge. You come to me for justice-unto me! The Doge of Venice, and I cannot give it; I cannot even obtain it-'t was denied To me most solemnly an hour ago. I. Ber. How says your highness? Doge. To a month's confinement. Steno is condemn'd I. Ber. What! the same who dared To stain the ducal throne with those foul words, That have cried shame to every ear in Venice? Doge. Ay, doubtless they have echo'd o'er the arsenal, Keeping due time with every hammer's clink As a good jest to jolly artisans; Or making chorus to the creaking oar, In the vile tune of every galley-slave, Who, as he sung the merry stave, exulted Doge, with his life. He mounted guard at the ducal palace during an interregnum, and bore the red standard before the new Doge on his inauguration; for which service his perquisites were the ducal mantle, and the two silver basins from which the Doge scattered the regulated pittance which be was permitted to throw among the people. Amelot de la Houssaye, 79.-L. E. They'll do as much by Barbaro, no doubt. 1. Ber. Ah! dared I speak my feelings! Doge. Give them breath; Mine have no further outrage to endure. I. Ber. Then, in a word, it rests but on your word To punish and avenge-I will not say My petty wrong, for what is a mere blow, However vile, to such a thing as I am?— But the base insult done your state and person. Doge. You overrate my power, which is a pageant. This cap is not the monarch's crown; these robes Might move compassion, like a beggar's rags ; Nay, more, a beggar's are his own, and these But lent to the poor puppet, who must play Its part with all its empire in this ermine. I. Ber. Wouldst thou be king? Doge. Yes-of a happy people. I. Ber. Yet, thou wast born, and still hast lived, Doge. In evil hour was I so born; my birth Hath made me Doge to be insulted: but I lived and toil'd a soldier and a servant Of Venice and her people, not the senate; Their good and my own honour were my guerdon. I have fought and bled; commanded, ay, and conquer'd; Have made and marr'd peace oft in embassies, They made me so; I sought it not, the flattering fetters met me Returning from my Roman embassy, And never having hitherto refused Toil, charge, or duty for the state, I did not, At these late years, decline what was the highest (1) "Upon this the Admiral returned, My Lord Duke, if you would wish to make yourself a prince, and cut all those cuckoldy gentlemen to pieces, I have the heart, if you do but help me, to make you prince of all the state; and then you may punish them all.' Hearing this, the Duke said,How can such a matter be brought about?' and so they discoursed thereon." Such is Sanuto's narrative, and we have nothing more certain to offer. It is not easy to say whence he obtained his intelligence. If such a conversation as that which he relates really did occur, it must have taken place without the presence of witnesses, and therefore could be disclosed only by one of the parties. It is far more likely that the chronicler is relating that which he supposed, than that which he knew; and, as it must be admitted that the interview with the admiral of the arsenal occurred, and Not thou, Nor I alone, are injured and abused, Feel with their friends; for who is he amongst them Doge. And suffering what thou hast done-fear'st thou death? Be silent then, and live on, to be beaten I. Ber. No, I will speak At every hazard; and if Venice' Doge Doge. From me fear nothing; out with it! I. Ber. Know then, that there are met and sworn in secret (2) A band of brethren, valiant hearts and true; For their great purpose; they have arms, and means, My life, my honour, all my earthly hopes that immediately after it the Doge was found linked with the daring band of which that officer was chief, there is no violation of probability in granting that some such conver sation took place; and that the train was ignited by this collision of two angry spirits." See Sketches of Venetian History (forming vols. xx. and xxi. of The Family Library), vol. i. p. 265.-L. E. (2) Galt suggests that this description of the conspirators is applicable to, as it was probably derived from, the Carbonari, with whom Byron was himself disposed to take a part.-P. E. (3) The bells of San Marco were never rung but by order of the Doge. One of the pretexts for ringing this alarm was to have been an announcement of the appearance of a Genoese fleet off the Lagune. Doge. How many are ye? 1. Ber. Till I am answer'd. Doge. I'll not answer that How, sir! do you menace? I. Ber. No; I affirm. I have betray'd myself; Those who would live to think on't, and avenge me. To do yourself due right? 1. Ber. Because the man, Who claims protection from authority, Showing his confidence and his submission To that authority, can hardly be Suspected of combining to destroy it. Had I sate down too humbly with this blow, [here A moody brow and mutter'd threats had made me But loud complaint, however angrily It shapes its phrase, is little to be fear'd, Doge. What was that? Doge. With but my nephew. Not were he your son. Doge. Wretch! darest thou name my son? He died in arms At Sapienza, for this faithless state. Oh! that he were alive, and I in ashes! Or that he were alive ere I be ashes! I should not need the dubious aid of strangers. I. Ber. Not one of all those strangers whom thou But will regard thee with a filial feeling, [doubtest So that thou keep'st a father's faith with them. Doge. The die is cast. Where is the place of I. Ber. At midnight I will be alone and mask'd I. Ber. Some rumours that the Doge was greatly You shall receive our homage, and pronounce moved (I) "The state dungeons, called Pozzi, or wells, were sunk in the thick walls of the palace; and the prisoner, when taken out to die, was conducted across the gallery to the other side, and being then led back into the other com. partment, or cell, upon the bridge, was there strangled. The low portal through which the criminal was taken into this cell is now walled up; but the passage is open, and is still known by the name of the Bridge of Sighs." Hobhouse. -L. E. (2) "That deep descent (thou canst not yet discern Under the flood, where light and warmth were never; Lurking for prey, which, when a victim came, Upon our project. Doge. The moon? At what hour arises (3) "The Doges were all buried in St. Mark's, before Faliero. It is singular that when his predecessor, Andrea Dandolo, died, the Ten made a law that all the future Doges should be buried with their families in their own churches one would think, by a kind of presentiment. So that all that is said of his ancestral Doges, as buried at St. John's and Paul's, is altered from the fact, they being in St. Mark's. Make a note of this, and put Editor as the subscription to it. As I make such pretensions to accuracy, I should not like to be twitted even with such trifles on that score. Of the play they may say what they please, but not so of my costume and dram, pers.—they having been real existences." B. Letters, Oct. 1820.-L. E. (4) A gondola is not like a common boat, but is as easily rowed with one oar as with two (though, of course, not so swiftly), and often is so from motives of privacy, and, since the decay of Venice, of economy. |