The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems | Page 7

of fire, what justice shall be done??Sister, there be your books--peruse them. There?The sea-line--bide you so with back to it.?While the cold inward heat of cruelty?Warms what was once your heart, now crusted o'er?With duty and slimed with poisonous drip of tongues.?God help the Duke, if what he left he'd find!
_[Exit Lucio]_
Regent. Is't so, I wonder? Go, Lucetta, fetch
My glass, if haply I may tell.
_[Exit Lucetta.]_
Is't so??And have these years enforced, encrusted me?To something monstrous, neither woman nor man??My lord, my lord! too heavy was the load
You laid! Yet I'll not blame you: for myself?Ruled the straight path the long account correct?As in these books, my ledgers....
[_While she turns the pages, Gamba the Fool creeps?in and hoists himself on the balustrade. He?tries his viol, and sings_.
SONG: Gamba.
Bird of the South, my Rondinello--
Regent. Hey? That Song!
Gamba. Hie to me, fly to me, steel-blue mate!
Under my breast-knot flutters thy fellow;?Here can I rest not, and thou so late.?Home, to me, home!?'Love, love, I come!'?--Dear one, I wait!?_Quanno nacesti tu, nacqui pur io:?La lundananza tua, 'l desiderio mio_!?You know the song, madonna?
Regent. Ay, fool. Sit
Here at my feet, sing on.
_Gamba (sings)._
Bird of the South, my Rondinello?Under thy wing my heart hath lain?Till the rain falling on last leaves yellow?Drumm'd to thee, calling southward again.
Home, to me, home!?'Love, love, I come!'?Ah, love, the pain!?_Addio, addio! ed un' altra volt' addio!?La lundananza tua, 'l desiderio mio!?(Pause)._
A foolish rustic thing the shepherd wives?In our Abruzzi croon by winter fires,?Of their husbands in the plains.
Regent. Gamba!
Gamba. Madonna?
Regent. I'd make thee my confessor. Mindest thou,
By Villalago, where from Sanno's lake?The stream, our Tasso, hurls it down the glen??One noon, with Lucio--ever in those days?With Lucio--on a rock within the spray,?I wove a ferny garland, while the boy?Roamed, but returned in triumph, having trapped?A bee in a bell-flower--held it to my ear,?Laughing, dissembling that he feared to loose?The hairy thief. So laughed we--and were still,?As deep in Vallescura wound a horn,?And up the pathway 'neath the dappling bough?Came riding--flecked with sunshine, man and horse,--?My lord, my lover; and that song, that song?Upon his lips....
Voice of Watchman. Sail ho! a sail! a sail!
_[Murmur of populace below. It grows and swells to?a roar as enter hurriedly courtiers, guards, and?others: Cesario; Lucetta with mirror._]
Lucetta. My lady! O my lady!--
Cesario. See, they near!
Galley on galley--look, there, by the point!
Regent. O, could my heart keep tally with the surge
That here comes crowding!
Lucetta. Joy, my lady! Joy!
All. Joy! Joy, my lady!
_[They press flowers on her. A pause, while they?watch. On the canal the galleys come into?sight. They near: and as the oars rise and?fall, the rowers' chorus is borne from the distance.?It is the Rondinello song_
Chorus in Distance. La lundananza tua, 'l desiderio mio!
Regent. Thanks, my good, good friends!
And deem it not discourteous if alone?I'd tune my heart to bliss.
My glass, Lucetta!
_[Takes mirror.]_
Some thoughts there are--some thoughts----
Courtiers. God save you, madam!
_[They go out, leaving the Regent alone._]
_Regent (she loosens the clasp of her robe)._ Some thoughts --some thoughts--
Fall from me, envious robe!?Rest there, my crown--thou more than leaden ache!?Ah!--?God! What a mountain drops! I float--I am lifted?Like thistledown on nothing. Back, my crown--?Weight me to earth! Nay, nay, thy rim shall bite?No more upon this forehead ... Where's my glass??O mirror, mirror, hath it bit so deep??My love is coming, hark! O, say not grey,?Sweet mirror! Tell, what time to cure it now?
And he so near, so near!
How shall I meet him??Why how but as the river leaps to sea,?Steel to its magnet, child to mother's arms?
[_She catches up flowers from the baskets left by the?courtiers, and decks herself mildly._
Flowers for my hair, flowers at the breast! Sweet flowers, He'll crush you 'gainst his corslet. He has arms?Like bands of iron for clasping, has my love.?He'll hurt, he'll hurt ... But oh, sweet flowers, to lie And feel you helpless while he grips and bruises?Your weak protesting breasts! You'll die in bliss,?Panting your fragrance out.--
Wh'st! Hush, poor fool!?I have unlearned love's very alphabet.?Men like us coy, demure ... Then I'll coquet?And play Madam Disdain--but not to-day.
To-morrow I'll be shrewish, shy, perverse,?Exacting, cold--all April in my moods:?We'll walk the forest, and I'll slip from him,?Hide me like Dryad 'mid the oaks, and mark?His hot dark face pursuing; or I'll couch?In covert green, and hold my breath to hear?His blundering foot go by; then up I'll leap,?And run--and he'll run after. O this lightness!?I'll draw him like a fairy, dance and double--?Yet not so fast but he shall overtake?At length, and catch me panting. O, I charge you,?I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,?Wake not my love beneath the forest bough?Where we lie dreaming!
_[Fanfare of trumpets in the distance.]_
Trumpets, hark! and drums!?They have landed! From the quay they march!?Flowers! flowers!?They are near ... I see him!... Carlo! lord and love!
He looks--waves--O 'tis he! O foolish heart!--?I had feared