E-Text

Percy Shelley: Poems

The Cenci: Act 4


SCENE 4.1:

AN APARTMENT IN THE CASTLE OF PETRELLA.

ENTER CENCI.


CENCI:

She comes not; yet I left her even now

Vanquished and faint. She knows the penalty

Of her delay: yet what if threats are vain?

Am I not now within Petrella's moat?

Or fear I still the eyes and ears of Rome? _5

Might I not drag her by the golden hair?

Stamp on her? keep her sleepless till her brain

Be overworn? Tame her with chains and famine?

Less would suffice. Yet so to leave undone

What I most seek! No, 'tis her stubborn will _10

Which by its own consent shall stoop as low

As that which drags it down.

[ENTER LUCRETIA.]

Thou loathed wretch!

Hide thee from my abhorrence: fly, begone!

Yet stay! Bid Beatrice come hither.


NOTE:

_4 not now edition 1821; now not edition 1819.


LUCRETIA:

Oh,

Husband! I pray, for thine own wretched sake _15

Heed what thou dost. A man who walks like thee

Through crimes, and through the danger of his crimes,

Each hour may stumble o'er a sudden grave.

And thou art old; thy hairs are hoary gray;

As thou wouldst save thyself from death and hell, _20

Pity thy daughter; give her to some friend

In marriage: so that she may tempt thee not

To hatred, or worse thoughts, if worse there be.


CENCI:

What! like her sister who has found a home

To mock my hate from with prosperity? _25

Strange ruin shall destroy both her and thee

And all that yet remain. My death may be

Rapid, her destiny outspeeds it. Go,

Bid her come hither, and before my mood

Be changed, lest I should drag her by the hair. _30


LUCRETIA:

She sent me to thee, husband. At thy presence

She fell, as thou dost know, into a trance;

And in that trance she heard a voice which said,

'Cenci must die! Let him confess himself!

Even now the accusing Angel waits to hear _35

If God, to punish his enormous crimes,

Harden his dying heart!'


CENCI:

Why--such things are...

No doubt divine revealings may be made.

'Tis plain I have been favoured from above,

For when I cursed my sons they died.--Ay...so... _40

As to the right or wrong, that's talk...repentance...

Repentance is an easy moment's work

And more depends on God than me. Well...well...

I must give up the greater point, which was

To poison and corrupt her soul.

[A PAUSE, LUCRETIA APPROACHES ANXIOUSLY,

AND THEN SHRINKS BACK AS HE SPEAKS.]

One, two; _45

Ay...Rocco and Cristofano my curse

Strangled: and Giacomo, I think, will find

Life a worse Hell than that beyond the grave:

Beatrice shall, if there be skill in hate,

Die in despair, blaspheming: to Bernardo, _50

He is so innocent, I will bequeath

The memory of these deeds, and make his youth

The sepulchre of hope, where evil thoughts

Shall grow like weeds on a neglected tomb.

When all is done, out in the wide Campagna, _55

I will pile up my silver and my gold;

My costly robes, paintings, and tapestries;

My parchments and all records of my wealth,

And make a bonfire in my joy, and leave

Of my possessions nothing but my name; _60

Which shall be an inheritance to strip

Its wearer bare as infamy. That done,

My soul, which is a scourge, will I resign

Into the hands of him who wielded it;

Be it for its own punishment or theirs, _65

He will not ask it of me till the lash

Be broken in its last and deepest wound;

Until its hate be all inflicted. Yet,

Lest death outspeed my purpose, let me make

Short work and sure...


[GOING.]


LUCRETIA [STOPS HIM]:

Oh, stay! It was a feint: _70

She had no vision, and she heard no voice.

I said it but to awe thee.


CENCI:

That is well.

Vile palterer with the sacred truth of God,

Be thy soul choked with that blaspheming lie!

For Beatrice worse terrors are in store _75

To bend her to my will.


LUCRETIA:

Oh! to what will?

What cruel sufferings more than she has known

Canst thou inflict?


CENCI:

Andrea! Go call my daughter,

And if she comes not tell her that I come.

What sufferings? I will drag her, step by step, _80

Through infamies unheard of among men:

She shall stand shelterless in the broad noon

Of public scorn, for acts blazoned abroad,

One among which shall be...What? Canst thou guess?

She shall become (for what she most abhors _85

Shall have a fascination to entrap

Her loathing will) to her own conscious self

All she appears to others; and when dead,

As she shall die unshrived and unforgiven,

A rebel to her father and her God, _90

Her corpse shall be abandoned to the hounds;

Her name shall be the terror of the earth;

Her spirit shall approach the throne of God

Plague-spotted with my curses. I will make

Body and soul a monstrous lump of ruin. _95


[ENTER ANDREA.]


ANDREA:

The Lady Beatrice...


CENCI:

Speak, pale slave! What

Said she?


ANDREA:

My Lord, 'twas what she looked; she said:

'Go tell my father that I see the gulf

Of Hell between us two, which he may pass,

I will not.'


[EXIT ANDREA.]


CENCI:

Go thou quick, Lucretia, _100

Tell her to come; yet let her understand

Her coming is consent: and say, moreover,

That if she come not I will curse her.

[EXIT LUCRETIA.]

Ha!

With what but with a father's curse doth God

Panic-strike armed victory, and make pale _105

Cities in their prosperity? The world's Father

Must grant a parent's prayer against his child,

Be he who asks even what men call me.

Will not the deaths of her rebellious brothers

Awe her before I speak? For I on them _110

Did imprecate quick ruin, and it came.

[ENTER LUCRETIA.]

Well; what? Speak, wretch!


LUCRETIA:

She said, 'I cannot come;

Go tell my father that I see a torrent

Of his own blood raging between us.'


CENCI [KNEELING]:

God,

Hear me! If this most specious mass of flesh, _115

Which Thou hast made my daughter; this my blood,

This particle of my divided being;

Or rather, this my bane and my disease,

Whose sight infects and poisons me; this devil

Which sprung from me as from a hell, was meant _120

To aught good use; if her bright loveliness

Was kindled to illumine this dark world;

If nursed by Thy selectest dew of love

Such virtues blossom in her as should make

The peace of life, I pray Thee for my sake, _125

As Thou the common God and Father art

Of her, and me, and all; reverse that doom!

Earth, in the name of God, let her food be

Poison, until she be encrusted round

With leprous stains! Heaven, rain upon her head _130

The blistering drops of the Maremma's dew,

Till she be speckled like a toad; parch up

Those love-enkindled lips, warp those fine limbs

To loathed lameness! All-beholding sun,

Strike in thine envy those life-darting eyes _135

With thine own blinding beams!


LUCRETIA:

Peace! Peace!

For thine own sake unsay those dreadful words.

When high God grants He punishes such prayers.


CENCI [LEAPING UP, AND THROWING HIS RIGHT HAND TOWARDS HEAVEN]:

He does his will, I mine! This in addition,

That if she have a child...


LUCRETIA:

Horrible thought! _140


CENCI:

That if she ever have a child; and thou,

Quick Nature! I adjure thee by thy God,

That thou be fruitful in her, and increase

And multiply, fulfilling his command,

And my deep imprecation! May it be _145

A hideous likeness of herself, that as

From a distorting mirror, she may see

Her image mixed with what she most abhors,

Smiling upon her from her nursing breast.

And that the child may from its infancy _150

Grow, day by day, more wicked and deformed,

Turning her mother's love to misery:

And that both she and it may live until

It shall repay her care and pain with hate,

Or what may else be more unnatural. _155

So he may hunt her through the clamorous scoffs

Of the loud world to a dishonoured grave.

Shall I revoke this curse? Go, bid her come,

Before my words are chronicled in Heaven.

[EXIT LUCRETIA.]

I do not feel as if I were a man, _160

But like a fiend appointed to chastise

The offences of some unremembered world.

My blood is running up and down my veins;

A fearful pleasure makes it prick and tingle:

I feel a giddy sickness of strange awe; _165

My heart is beating with an expectation

Of horrid joy.

[ENTER LUCRETIA.]

What? Speak!


LUCRETIA:

She bids thee curse;

And if thy curses, as they cannot do,

Could kill her soul...


CENCI:

She would not come. 'Tis well,

I can do both; first take what I demand, _170

And then extort concession. To thy chamber!

Fly ere I spurn thee; and beware this night

That thou cross not my footsteps. It were safer

To come between the tiger and his prey.

[EXIT LUCRETIA.]

It must be late; mine eyes grow weary dim _175

With unaccustomed heaviness of sleep.

Conscience! Oh, thou most insolent of lies!

They say that sleep, that healing dew of Heaven,

Steeps not in balm the foldings of the brain

Which thinks thee an impostor. I will go _180

First to belie thee with an hour of rest,

Which will be deep and calm, I feel: and then...

O, multitudinous Hell, the fiends will shake

Thine arches with the laughter of their joy!

There shall be lamentation heard in Heaven _185

As o'er an angel fallen; and upon Earth

All good shall droop and sicken, and ill things

Shall with a spirit of unnatural life,

Stir and be quickened...even as I am now.


[EXIT.]


SCENE 4.2:

BEFORE THE CASTLE OF PETRELLA.

ENTER BEATRICE AND LUCRETIA ABOVE ON THE RAMPARTS.


BEATRICE:

They come not yet.


LUCRETIA:

'Tis scarce midnight.


BEATRICE:

How slow

Behind the course of thought, even sick with speed,

Lags leaden-footed time!


LUCRETIA:

The minutes pass...

If he should wake before the deed is done?


BEATRICE:

O, mother! He must never wake again. _5

What thou hast said persuades me that our act

Will but dislodge a spirit of deep hell

Out of a human form.


LUCRETIA:

'Tis true he spoke

Of death and judgement with strange confidence

For one so wicked; as a man believing _10

In God, yet recking not of good or ill.

And yet to die without confession!...


BEATRICE:

Oh!

Believe that Heaven is merciful and just,

And will not add our dread necessity

To the amount of his offences.


[ENTER OLIMPIO AND MARZIO BELOW.]


LUCRETIA:

See, _15

They come.


BEATRICE:

All mortal things must hasten thus

To their dark end. Let us go down.


[EXEUNT LUCRETIA AND BEATRICE FROM ABOVE.]


OLIMPIO:

How feel you to this work?


MARZIO:

As one who thinks

A thousand crowns excellent market price

For an old murderer's life. Your cheeks are pale. _20


OLIMPIO:

It is the white reflection of your own,

Which you call pale.


MARZIO:

Is that their natural hue?


OLIMPIO:

Or 'tis my hate and the deferred desire

To wreak it, which extinguishes their blood.


MARZIO:

You are inclined then to this business?


OLIMPIO:

Ay, _25

If one should bribe me with a thousand crowns

To kill a serpent which had stung my child,

I could not be more willing.

[ENTER BEATRICE AND LUCRETIA BELOW.]

Noble ladies!


BEATRICE:

Are ye resolved?


OLIMPIO:

Is he asleep?


MARZIO:

Is all

Quiet?


LUCRETIA:

I mixed an opiate with his drink: _30

He sleeps so soundly...


BEATRICE:

That his death will be

But as a change of sin-chastising dreams,

A dark continuance of the Hell within him,

Which God extinguish! But ye are resolved?

Ye know it is a high and holy deed? _35


OLIMPIO:

We are resolved.


MARZIO:

As to the how this act

Be warranted, it rests with you.


BEATRICE:

Well, follow!


OLIMPIO:

Hush! Hark! What noise is that?


MARZIO:

Ha! some one comes!


BEATRICE:

Ye conscience-stricken cravens, rock to rest

Your baby hearts. It is the iron gate, _40

Which ye left open, swinging to the wind,

That enters whistling as in scorn. Come, follow!

And be your steps like mine, light, quick and bold.


[EXEUNT.]


SCENE 4.3:

AN APARTMENT IN THE CASTLE.

ENTER BEATRICE AND LUCRETIA.


LUCRETIA:

They are about it now.


BEATRICE:

Nay, it is done.


LUCRETIA:

I have not heard him groan.


BEATRICE:

He will not groan.


LUCRETIA:

What sound is that?


BEATRICE:

List! 'tis the tread of feet

About his bed.


LUCRETIA:

My God!

If he be now a cold, stiff corpse...


BEATRICE:

O, fear not _5

What may be done, but what is left undone:

The act seals all.

[ENTER OLIMPIO AND MARZIO.]

Is it accomplished?


MARZIO:

What?


OLIMPIO:

Did you not call?


BEATRICE:

When?


OLIMPIO:

Now.


BEATRICE:

I ask if all is over?


OLIMPIO:

We dare not kill an old and sleeping man;

His thin gray hair, his stern and reverend brow, _10

His veined hands crossed on his heaving breast,

And the calm innocent sleep in which he lay,

Quelled me. Indeed, indeed, I cannot do it.


NOTE:

_10 reverend]reverent all editions.


MARZIO:

But I was bolder; for I chid Olimpio,

And bade him bear his wrongs to his own grave _15

And leave me the reward. And now my knife

Touched the loose wrinkled throat, when the old man

Stirred in his sleep, and said, 'God! hear, O, hear,

A father's curse! What, art Thou not our Father?'

And then he laughed. I knew it was the ghost _20

Of my dead father speaking through his lips,

And could not kill him.


BEATRICE:

Miserable slaves!

Where, if ye dare not kill a sleeping man,

Found ye the boldness to return to me

With such a deed undone? Base palterers! _25

Cowards and traitors! Why, the very conscience

Which ye would sell for gold and for revenge

Is an equivocation: it sleeps over

A thousand daily acts disgracing men;

And when a deed where mercy insults Heaven... _30

Why do I talk?

[SNATCHING A DAGGER FROM ONE OF THEM, AND RAISING IT.]

Hadst thou a tongue to say,

'She murdered her own father!'--I must do it!

But never dream ye shall outlive him long!


OLIMPIO:

Stop, for God's sake!


MARZIO:

I will go back and kill him.


OLIMPIO:

Give me the weapon, we must do thy will. _35


BEATRICE:

Take it! Depart! Return!

[EXEUNT OLIMPIO AND MARZIO.]

How pale thou art!

We do but that which 'twere a deadly crime

To leave undone.


LUCRETIA:

Would it were done!


BEATRICE:

Even whilst

That doubt is passing through your mind, the world

Is conscious of a change. Darkness and Hell _40

Have swallowed up the vapour they sent forth

To blacken the sweet light of life. My breath

Comes, methinks, lighter, and the jellied blood

Runs freely through my veins. Hark!

[ENTER OLIMPIO AND MARZIO.]

He is...


OLIMPIO:

Dead!


MARZIO:

We strangled him that there might be no blood; _45

And then we threw his heavy corpse i' the garden

Under the balcony; 'twill seem it fell.


BEATRICE [GIVING THEM A BAG OF COIN]:

Here, take this gold, and hasten to your homes.

And, Marzio, because thou wast only awed

By that which made me tremble, wear thou this! _50

[CLOTHES HIM IN A RICH MANTLE.]

It was the mantle which my grandfather

Wore in his high prosperity, and men

Envied his state: so may they envy thine.

Thou wert a weapon in the hand of God

To a just use. Live long and thrive! And, mark, _55

If thou hast crimes, repent: this deed is none.


[A HORN IS SOUNDED.]


LUCRETIA:

Hark, 'tis the castle horn: my God! it sounds

Like the last trump.


BEATRICE:

Some tedious guest is coming.


LUCRETIA:

The drawbridge is let down; there is a tramp

Of horses in the court; fly, hide yourselves! _60


[EXEUNT OLIMPIO AND MARZIO.]


BEATRICE:

Let us retire to counterfeit deep rest;

I scarcely need to counterfeit it now:

The spirit which doth reign within these limbs

Seems strangely undisturbed. I could even sleep

Fearless and calm: all ill is surely past. _65


[EXEUNT.]


SCENE 4.4:

ANOTHER APARTMENT IN THE CASTLE.

ENTER ON ONE SIDE THE LEGATE SAVELLA,

INTRODUCED BY A SERVANT,

AND ON THE OTHER LUCRETIA AND BERNARDO.


SAVELLA:

Lady, my duty to his Holiness

Be my excuse that thus unseasonably

I break upon your rest. I must speak with

Count Cenci; doth he sleep?


LUCRETIA [IN A HURRIED AND CONFUSED MANNER]:

I think he sleeps;

Yet, wake him not, I pray, spare me awhile, _5

He is a wicked and a wrathful man;

Should he be roused out of his sleep to-night,

Which is, I know, a hell of angry dreams,

It were not well; indeed it were not well.

Wait till day break...

[ASIDE.]

Oh, I am deadly sick! _10


NOTE:

_6 a wrathful edition 1821; wrathful editions 1819, 1839.


SAVELLA:

I grieve thus to distress you, but the Count

Must answer charges of the gravest import,

And suddenly; such my commission is.


LUCRETIA [WITH INCREASED AGITATION]:

I dare not rouse him: I know none who dare...

'Twere perilous;...you might as safely waken _15

A serpent; or a corpse in which some fiend

Were laid to sleep.


SAVELLA:

Lady, my moments here

Are counted. I must rouse him from his sleep,

Since none else dare.


LUCRETIA [ASIDE]:

O, terror! O, despair!

[TO BERNARDO.]

Bernardo, conduct you the Lord Legate to _20

Your father's chamber.


[EXEUNT SAVELLA AND BERNARDO.]


[ENTER BEATRICE.]


BEATRICE:

'Tis a messenger

Come to arrest the culprit who now stands

Before the throne of unappealable God.

Both Earth and Heaven, consenting arbiters,

Acquit our deed.


LUCRETIA:

Oh, agony of fear! _25

Would that he yet might live! Even now I heard

The Legate's followers whisper as they passed

They had a warrant for his instant death.

All was prepared by unforbidden means

Which we must pay so dearly, having done. _30

Even now they search the tower, and find the body;

Now they suspect the truth; now they consult

Before they come to tax us with the fact;

O, horrible, 'tis all discovered!


BEATRICE:

Mother,

What is done wisely, is done well. Be bold _35

As thou art just. 'Tis like a truant child

To fear that others know what thou hast done,

Even from thine own strong consciousness, and thus

Write on unsteady eyes and altered cheeks

All thou wouldst hide. Be faithful to thyself, _40

And fear no other witness but thy fear.

For if, as cannot be, some circumstance

Should rise in accusation, we can blind

Suspicion with such cheap astonishment,

Or overbear it with such guiltless pride, _45

As murderers cannot feign. The deed is done,

And what may follow now regards not me.

I am as universal as the light;

Free as the earth-surrounding air; as firm

As the world's centre. Consequence, to me, _50

Is as the wind which strikes the solid rock,

But shakes it not.


[A CRY WITHIN AND TUMULT.]


VOICES:

Murder! Murder! Murder!


[ENTER BERNARDO AND SAVELLA.]


SAVELLA [TO HIS FOLLOWERS]:

Go search the castle round; sound the alarm;

Look to the gates, that none escape!


BEATRICE:

What now?


BERNARDO:

I know not what to say...my father's dead. _55


BEATRICE:

How; dead! he only sleeps; you mistake, brother.

His sleep is very calm, very like death;

'Tis wonderful how well a tyrant sleeps.

He is not dead?


BERNARDO:

Dead; murdered.


LUCRETIA [WITH EXTREME AGITATION]:

Oh no, no!

He is not murdered though he may be dead; _60

I have alone the keys of those apartments.


SAVELLA:

Ha! Is it so?


BEATRICE:

My Lord, I pray excuse us;

We will retire; my mother is not well:

She seems quite overcome with this strange horror.


[EXEUNT LUCRETIA AND BEATRICE.]


SAVELLA:

Can you suspect who may have murdered him? _65


BERNARDO:

I know not what to think.


SAVELLA:

Can you name any

Who had an interest in his death?


BERNARDO:

Alas!

I can name none who had not, and those most

Who most lament that such a deed is done;

My mother, and my sister, and myself. _70


SAVELLA:

'Tis strange! There were clear marks of violence.

I found the old man's body in the moonlight

Hanging beneath the window of his chamber,

Among the branches of a pine: he could not

Have fallen there, for all his limbs lay heaped _75

And effortless; 'tis true there was no blood...

Favour me, Sir; it much imports your house

That all should be made clear; to tell the ladies

That I request their presence.


[EXIT BERNARDO.]


[ENTER GUARDS, BRINGING IN MARZIO.]


GUARD:

We have one.


OFFICER:

My Lord, we found this ruffian and another _80

Lurking among the rocks; there is no doubt

But that they are the murderers of Count Cenci:

Each had a bag of coin; this fellow wore

A gold-inwoven robe, which, shining bright

Under the dark rocks to the glimmering moon _85

Betrayed them to our notice: the other fell

Desperately fighting.


SAVELLA:

What does he confess?


OFFICER:

He keeps firm silence; but these lines found on him

May speak.


SAVELLA:

Their language is at least sincere.

[READS.]

'To the Lady Beatrice. _90

That the atonement of what my nature sickens to conjecture may soon

arrive, I send thee, at thy brother's desire, those who will speak and

do more than I dare write...

'Thy devoted servant, Orsino.'

[ENTER LUCRETIA, BEATRICE, AND BERNARDO.]

Knowest thou this writing, Lady?


BEATRICE:

No.


SAVELLA:

Nor thou? _95


LUCRETIA [HER CONDUCT THROUGHOUT THE SCENE IS MARKED BY EXTREME AGITATION]:

Where was it found? What is it? It should be

Orsino's hand! It speaks of that strange horror

Which never yet found utterance, but which made

Between that hapless child and her dead father

A gulf of obscure hatred.


SAVELLA:

Is it so? _100

Is it true, Lady, that thy father did

Such outrages as to awaken in thee

Unfilial hate?


BEATRICE:

Not hate, 'twas more than hate:

This is most true, yet wherefore question me?


SAVELLA:

There is a deed demanding question done; _105

Thou hast a secret which will answer not.


BEATRICE:

What sayest? My Lord, your words are bold and rash.


SAVELLA:

I do arrest all present in the name

Of the Pope's Holiness. You must to Rome.


LUCRETIA:

O, not to Rome! Indeed we are not guilty. _110


BEATRICE:

Guilty! Who dares talk of guilt? My Lord,

I am more innocent of parricide

Than is a child born fatherless...Dear mother,

Your gentleness and patience are no shield

For this keen-judging world, this two-edged lie, _115

Which seems, but is not. What! will human laws,

Rather will ye who are their ministers,

Bar all access to retribution first,

And then, when Heaven doth interpose to do

What ye neglect, arming familiar things _120

To the redress of an unwonted crime,

Make ye the victims who demanded it

Culprits? 'Tis ye are culprits! That poor wretch

Who stands so pale, and trembling, and amazed,

If it be true he murdered Cenci, was _125

A sword in the right hand of justest God.

Wherefore should I have wielded it? Unless

The crimes which mortal tongue dare never name

God therefore scruples to avenge.


SAVELLA:

You own

That you desired his death?


BEATRICE:

It would have been _130

A crime no less than his, if for one moment

That fierce desire had faded in my heart.

'Tis true I did believe, and hope, and pray,

Ay, I even knew...for God is wise and just,

That some strange sudden death hung over him. _135

'Tis true that this did happen, and most true

There was no other rest for me on earth,

No other hope in Heaven...now what of this?


SAVELLA:

Strange thoughts beget strange deeds; and here are both:

I judge thee not.


BEATRICE:

And yet, if you arrest me, _140

You are the judge and executioner

Of that which is the life of life: the breath

Of accusation kills an innocent name,

And leaves for lame acquittal the poor life

Which is a mask without it. 'Tis most false _145

That I am guilty of foul parricide;

Although I must rejoice, for justest cause,

That other hands have sent my father's soul

To ask the mercy he denied to me.

Now leave us free; stain not a noble house _150

With vague surmises of rejected crime;

Add to our sufferings and your own neglect

No heavier sum: let them have been enough:

Leave us the wreck we have.


SAVELLA:

I dare not, Lady.

I pray that you prepare yourselves for Rome: _155

There the Pope's further pleasure will be known.


LUCRETIA:

O, not to Rome! O, take us not to Rome!


BEATRICE:

Why not to Rome, dear mother? There as here

Our innocence is as an armed heel

To trample accusation. God is there _160

As here, and with His shadow ever clothes

The innocent, the injured and the weak;

And such are we. Cheer up, dear Lady, lean

On me; collect your wandering thoughts. My Lord,

As soon as you have taken some refreshment, _165

And had all such examinations made

Upon the spot, as may be necessary

To the full understanding of this matter,

We shall be ready. Mother; will you come?


LUCRETIA:

Ha! they will bind us to the rack, and wrest _170

Self-accusation from our agony!

Will Giacomo be there? Orsino? Marzio?

All present; all confronted; all demanding

Each from the other's countenance the thing

Which is in every heart! O, misery! _175


[SHE FAINTS, AND IS BORNE OUT.]


SAVELLA:

She faints: an ill appearance this.


BEATRICE:

My Lord,

She knows not yet the uses of the world.

She fears that power is as a beast which grasps

And loosens not: a snake whose look transmutes

All things to guilt which is its nutriment. _180

She cannot know how well the supine slaves

Of blind authority read the truth of things

When written on a brow of guilelessness:

She sees not yet triumphant Innocence

Stand at the judgement-seat of mortal man, _185

A judge and an accuser of the wrong

Which drags it there. Prepare yourself, my Lord;

Our suite will join yours in the court below.


[EXEUNT.]


END OF ACT 4.