The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems | Page 9

seven years
My life hath
lacked, which wanting, all your cannon,
Your banners, vivas, bells
that rock the roofs,
Throng'd windows, craning faces--all--all--all

Were phantasms, were noise.--

Lucio (exclaims). Why look, here's blood!
Here, on the boy's hand!
Regent. Ay! a scratch, no worse,
Here, when I pinned my robe.
Duke (continuing). Nay, friends, this moment
My Duchy her dear
hand restores to me
To me's a dream. More buoyant would I tread

Dumb street, deserted square, climb ruin'd wall,
Where in a heap
beneath a broken flag
Lay Adria.--
So that amid the ruins stood my
love
And stretched her hands so faintly--stretched her hands
So
faintly. See! She's mine! She lifts them--
Regent (_totters and falls into his arms with a tired, happy laugh, which
ends in a cry as his arms enfold her_). Ah!
[She faints.
Duke. (after a moment, releasing her a little). What's
here? Ottilia!
Lucetta. My mistress swoons!
A Courtier. 'Tis happiness--
Duke. Fetch water!
Lucio. Nay this blood--
Came of no scratch!
Lucetta. Loosen her bodice--
Duke. Blood?
Why blood? Where's blood?
(Stares as the mantle is imclasped and falls open).
Ah, my God!

Lucetta. Murder! murder!
The Countess Fulvia--
Cesario. Speak!
Lucetta. There--while she knelt--
Stabbed her, and fled.
Cesario. Which way?
[_Lucetta points to the stairs. He dashes off in
pursuit._
Duke. All-seeing God!
Where were thine eyes, or else thy justice?
Dead?
O, never dead!
Lucio. Ay, Duke, push God aside,
As I push thee. I have the better
right:
I killed her--I. O never pass, sweet soul,
Till thou hast drunk a
shudder of this wretch,
Thy brother, playmate, murderer!
Duke. Wine! bring wine--
Regent (as the wine is brought and revives her).
Flower, he will crush
thee--but the bliss, the bliss!
I swim in bliss. What ... Lucio? Where's
my lord?
Dear, bring him: he was here awhile and held me.
Say he
must hold, or the light air will lift
And bear me quite away.
[_Re-enter Cesario. In one hand he carries his
sword, in the other a
dagger._
Lucio. Cesario!
What! Is that devil escaped? To think--to think
I
drank her kisses!--What? Where is she?
Cesario. Dead.
I raised the cry: the people pointed after;
Ran with
me, ravening. Just this side the bridge
She heard our howl and
turned--drew back the dagger
Red with our lady's blood, then drove it
home
Clean to her own black heart.
Regent. God pardon her!
I would what blood of mine clung to the

blade
Might mix with hers and sweeten it for mercy.
Lucio. Will you forgive her? Then forgive not me!
Regent. Dear Lucio!--You'll not pluck away your hand
This time?
Hush! Where's Cesario?... Friend, farewell.
Where lies the body?
Cesario. Sooth, madonna, I flung it
To the river's will, to roll it down
to sea
Or cast on muddy bar, for dogs to gnaw.
Regent. The river? Ah! How strong the river rolls!
Hold me, my
lord--
Duke. Love, love, I hold you
Regent.--Ay!
The child, too--You will hold the child?...
This roar

Deafens but will not drown us.
[_Within the Chapel the choir is chanting a dirge.
Gamba goes and
closes the door on the sound:
then creeps to the foot of the couch. The

dying woman gently motions aside the cross
a priest is holding to
her, and looks up at her
husband._
[_Below the terrace a voice is heard singing the
Rondinello song._
Look! beyond
Be waters where no galley moves with oar,
So wide,
so waveless,--and, between the woods,
Meadows--O land me there!...
Hark, my lord's voice
Singing in Vallescura! Soft my, love,
I am so
tired--so tired! Love, let me play!
[Dies.
[_The Courtiers lift the body in silence and bear it
to the Chapel, the
Duke and his train following.
The doors close on them. On the stage
are
left only Cesario, standing by the balustrade;
and Gamba, who
has seated himself with his
viol and touches it, as still the voice sings

below--_

Addio, Addio! ed un'altra volt'addio!
La lundananza tua, 'l desiderio
mio!
[_On the last note a string of the viol cracks, and with
a cry the Fool
flings himself, heart-broken, on
the empty couch. Cesario steps
forward and
stands over him, touching his shoulder gently._
CURTAIN.
POEMS
EXMOOR VERSES
I. VASHTI'S SONG
Over the rim of the Moor,
And under the starry sky,
Two men came
to my door
And rested them thereby.
Beneath the bough and the star,
In a whispering foreign tongue,

They talked of a land afar
And the merry days so young!
Beneath the dawn and the bough
I heard them arise and go:
And my
heart it is aching now
For the more it will never know.
Why did they two depart
Before I could understand?
Where lies
that land, O my heart?
--O my heart, where lies that land?
II. SATURN
From my farm, from hèr farm
Furtively we came.
In either home a
hearth was warm:
We nursed a hungrier flame.
Our feet were foul with mire,
Our faces blind with mist;
But all the
night was naked fire
About us where we kiss'd.
To her farm, to my farm,
Loathing we returned;
Pale beneath a

gallow's arm
The planet Saturn burned.
III. DERELICTION
O'er the tears that we shed, dear
The bitter vines twist,
And the
hawk and the red deer
They keep where we kiss'd:
All