The Duke of Gandia | Page 2

thee smile than weep, Mother. Thou art lovelier, smiling.
VANNOZZA
What is this Thou hast at heart to do? God's judgment hangs Above us. I that girdled thee in me As Mary girdled Jesus yet unborn - Thou dost believe it? A creedless heretic Thou art not?
CAESAR
I? God's vicar's child?
VANNOZZA
Be God Praised! I, then, I, thy mother, bid thee, pray, Pray thee but say what hungers in thy heart, And whither thou wouldst hurl the strenuous life That works within thee.
CAESAR
Whither? Am not I Hinge of the gate that opens heaven--that bids God open when my sire thrusts in the key - Cardinal? Canst thou dream I had rather be Duke?
Enter FRANCESCO
FRANCESCO
Wilt thou take mine office, Caesar mine? I heard thy laugh deride it. Mother, whence Comes that sweet gift of grace from dawn to dawn That daily shows thee sweeter?
CAESAR
Knowest thou none Lovelier?
VANNOZZA
My Caesar finds me not so fair. Thou art over fond, Francesco.
CAESAR
Nay, no whit. Our heavenly father on earth adores no less Our mother than our sister: and I hold His heart and eye, his spirit and his sense, Infallible.
Enter the POPE
ALEXANDER
Jest not with God. I heard A holy word, a hallowing epithet, Cardinal Caesar, trip across thy tongue Lightly.
CAESAR
Most holiest father, I desire Paternal absolution--when thy laugh Has waned from lip and eyelid.
ALEXANDER
Take it now, And Christ preserve thee, Caesar, as thou art, To serve him as I serve him. Rose of mine, My rose of roses, whence has fallen this dew That dims the sweetest eyes love ever lit With light that mocks the morning?
VANNOZZA
Nay, my lord, I know not--nay, I knew not if I wept.
ALEXANDER
Our sons and Christ's and Peter's whom we praise, Are they--are these--fallen out?
FRANCESCO
Not I with him, Nor he, I think, with me.
CAESAR
Forbid it, God! The God that set thee where thou art, and there Sustains thee, bids the love he kindles bind Brother to brother.
ALEXANDER
God or no God, man Must live and let man live--while one man's life Galls not another's. Fools and fiends are men Who play the fiend that is not. Why shouldst thou, Girt with the girdle of the church, and given Power to preside on spirit and flesh--or thou, Clothed with the glad world's glory--priest or prince, Turn on thy brother an evil eye, or deem Your father God hath dealt his doom amiss Toward either or toward any? Hath not Rome, Hath not the Lord Christ's kingdom, where his will Is done on earth, enough of all that man Thirsts, hungers, lusts for--pleasure, pride, and power - To sate you and to share between you? Whence Should she, the godless heathen's goddess once, Discord, heave up her hissing head again Between love's Christian children--love's? Hath God Cut short the thrill that glorifies the flesh, Chilled the sharp rapturous pang that burns the blood, Because an hundred even as twain at once Partake it? Boys, my boys, be wise, and rest, Whatever fire take hold upon your flesh, Whatever dream set all your life on fire, Friends.
CAESAR
Friends? Our father on earth, thy will be done.
FRANCESCO
Christ's body, Caesar! dost thou mock?
CAESAR
Not I. Hast thou fallen out with me, then, that thy tongue Disclaims its lingering utterance?
ALEXANDER
Now, by nought, As nought abides to swear by, folly seen So plain and heard so loud might well nigh make Wise men believe in even the devil and God. What ails you? Whence comes lightning in your eyes, With hissing hints of thunder on your lips? Fools! and the fools I thought to make for men Gods. Is it love or hate divides you--turns Tooth, fang, or claw, when time provides them prey, To nip, rip, rend each other?
CAESAR
Hate or love, Francesco?
FRANCESCO
Why, I hate thee not--thou knowest I hate thee not, my Caesar.
CAESAR
I believe Thou dost not hate or love or envy me; Even as I know, and knowing believe, we all - Our father, thou and I--triune in heart - Hold loveliest of all living things to love This.
Enter LUCREZIA
LUCREZIA
Mother! What do tears and thou for once Together? Rain in sunshine?
VANNOZZA
Ask thy sire, Am I not now the moon? Saint Anna bore Saint Mary Virgin--did not God prefer The child, and thrust behind with scarce a smile The mother?
ALEXANDER
Thrust not out thy thorns at heaven, Rose.
LUCREZIA
But what ailed her? And she will not say.
CAESAR
Sister, I sinned--sin must be mine. A word Fell out askance between us, and she wept Because our father chid us.
LUCREZIA
How should strife Find here a tongue to hiss with? Are not we, Brothers and sire and sister, sealed of God Lovers--made one in love?
ALEXANDER
Deride not God, Lucrezia.
LUCREZIA
Father, dost thou fear him, then?
ALEXANDER
I say not and I know not if I fear.
FRANCESCO
Thou canst not. Father, were he terrible, How long wouldst thou live--thou, his mask on earth?
ALEXANDER
Boy, art thou all a child? What knew they more, The men that