The Jewel Merchants | Page 6

Tastes differ, of course--
GRACIOSA And is he--?
GUIDO I have a portrait of the Duke. It does not, I think, unduly flatter
him. Will you look at it?
GRACIOSA Yes, yes!
GUIDO (_Drawing out a miniature on a chain._) Here is the likeness.
GRACIOSA But how should you--?
GUIDO (_Seeing her surprise._) Oh, it was a gift to me from his
highness for a special service I did him, and as such must be treasured.
GRACIOSA Perhaps, then, I shall see yon at court, Messer Guido, who
are the friend of princes?
GUIDO If you do, I ask only that in noisy Florence you remember this
quiet garden.
GRACIOSA (_Looks at him silently, then glances at the portrait. She
speaks with evident disappointment._) Is this the Duke?
GUIDO You may see his arms on it, and on the back his inscription.
GRACIOSA Yes, but--(_looking at the portrait again_)--but ... he is ...
so ...
GUIDO You are astonished at his highness' coloring? That he inherits
from his mother. She was, you know, a blackamoor.
GRACIOSA And my sisters wrote me he was like a god!
GUIDO Such observations are court etiquette.
GRACIOSA (_With an outburst of disgust._) Take it back! Though
how can you bear to look at it, far less to have it touching you! And

only yesterday I was angry because I had not seen the Duke riding past!
GUIDO Seen him! here! riding past!
GRACIOSA Old Ursula told me that the Duke had gone by with
twenty men, riding down toward the convent at the border. And I flung
my sewing-bag straight at her head because she had not called me.
GUIDO That was idle gossip, I fancy. The Duke rarely rides abroad
without my--(_he stops_)--without my lavish patron Eglamore, the
friend of all honest merchants.
GRACIOSA But that abominable Eglamore may have been with him. I
heard nothing to the contrary.
GUIDO True, madonna, true. I had forgotten you did not see them.
GRACIOSA No. What is he like, this Eglamore? Is he as appalling to
look at as the Duke?
GUIDO Madonna! but wise persons do not apply such adjectives to
dukes. And wise persons do not criticize Count Eglamore's appearance,
either, now that Eglamore is indispensable to the all-powerful Duke of
Florence.
GRACIOSA Indispensable?
GUIDO It is thanks to the Eglamore whom you hate that the Duke has
ample leisure to indulge in recreations which are reputed to be--curious.
GRACIOSA I do not understand you, Guido.
GUIDO That is perhaps quite as well. (_Attempting to explain as much
as is decently expressible._) To be brief, madonna, business annoys the
Duke.
GRACIOSA Why?
GUIDO It interferes with the pursuit of all the beautiful things he asks
for in that song.
GRACIOSA But how does that make Eglamore indispensable?
GUIDO Eglamore is an industrious person who affixes seals, and signs
treaties, and musters armies, and collects revenues, upon the whole,
quite as efficiently as Alessandro would be capable of doing these
things.
GRACIOSA So Duke Alessandro merely makes verses?
GUIDO And otherwise amuses himself as his inclinations prompt,
while Eglamore rules Tuscany--and the Tuscans are none the worse off
on account of it. (_He rises, and his hand goes to the dagger at his
belt._) But is not that a horseman?

GRACIOSA (_She too has risen, and is now standing on the bench,
looking over the wall._) A solitary rider, far down by the convent, so
far away that he seems hardly larger than a scarlet dragon-fly.
GUIDO I confess I wish to run no risk of being found here, by your
respected father or by your ingenious cousins and uncles.
GRACIOSA (_She turns, but remains standing upon the bench._) I
think your Duke is much more dangerous looking than any of them.
Heigho! I can quite foresee that I shall never fall in love with this Duke.
GUIDO A prince has means to overcome all obstacles.
GRACIOSA No. It is unbefitting and a little cowardly for Duke
Alessandro to shirk the duties of his station for verse-making and
eternal pleasure-seeking. Now if I were Duke--
GUIDO What would you do?
GRACIOSA (_Posturing a little as she stands upon the bench._) If I
were duke? Oh ... I would grant my father a pension ... and I would
have Eglamore hanged ... and I would purchase a new gown of silvery
green--
GUIDO In which you would be very ravishingly beautiful.
_His tone has become rather ardent, and he is now standing nearer to
her than the size of the garden necessitates. So GRACIOSA demurely
steps down from the bench, and sits at the far end._
GRACIOSA And that is all I can think of. What would you do if you
were duke, Messer Guido?
GUIDO (_Who is now sitting beside her at closer quarters than the