An idle legend.
Mar.

You talk wildly, and

Had better now be seated, nor as yet

300

Depart. Ah! now you look as looked my husband! Bar. He sinks-support him!-quick-a chairsupport him!

Doge. The bell tolls on !-let's hence-my brain's on fire !

Bar. I do beseech you, lean upon us!
Doge.

No!

A Sovereign should die standing. My poor boy!
Off with your arms !—That bell! 1

Mar.

[The DOGE drops down and dies.

My God! My God!

Is there then

'Tis all over.

Bar. (to Lor.). Behold! your work 's completed!
Chief of the Ten.

No aid? Call in assistance !

Att.

Chief of the Ten. If it be so, at least his obsequies 310 Shall be such as befits his name and nation,

His rank and his devotion to the duties
Of the realm, while his age permitted him
To do himself and them full justice.

Say, shall it not be so?

Bar.

Brethren,

He has not had

The misery to die a subject where

He reigned: then let his funeral rites be princely."
Chief of the Ten. We are agreed, then?
All, except Lor., answer,

Yes.

i. The wretchedness to die -.- [MS. M.]

1. [Vide ante, Introduction to The Two Foscari, p. 118.]

2.

["A decree was at once passed that a public funeral should be accorded to Foscari, . . . and the bells of St. Mark were ordered to peal nine times. . . . The same Council also determined that on Thursday night, November 3, the corpse should be carried into the room of the Signori di notte, dressed in a golden mantle, with the ducal bonnet on his head, golden spurs on his feet, . . the gold sword by his side." But Foscari's wife, Marina (or Maria) Nani, opposed. "She declined to give up the body, which she had caused to be dressed in plain clothes, and she maintained that no one but herself should provide for the funeral expenses, even should she have to give up her dower." It is needless to add that her protest was unavailing, and that the decree of the Ten was carried into effect.-The Two Doges, 1891, pp. 129, 130.]

Chief of the Ten. Heaven's peace be with him!
Mar. Signors, your pardon: this is mockery.
Juggle no more with that poor remnant, which,
A moment since, while yet it had a soul,
(A soul by whom you have increased your Empire,
And made your power as proud as was his glory),
You banished from his palace and tore down
From his high place, with such relentless coldness;
And now, when he can neither know these honours,
Nor would accept them if he could, you, Signors,
Purpose, with idle and superfluous pomp,
To make a pageant over what you trampled.
A princely funeral will be your reproach,
And not his honour.

Chief of the Ten.

Lady, we revoke not

Our purposes so readily.

Mar.

I know it,

As far as touches torturing the living.

I thought the dead had been beyond even you,

320

330

Though (some, no doubt) consigned to powers which may Resemble that you exercise on earth.

Leave him to me; you would have done so for

His dregs of life, which you have kindly shortened:
It is my last of duties, and may prove

A dreary comfort in my desolation.

Grief is fantastical, and loves the dead,
And the apparel of the grave.

Chief of the Ten.

Pretend still to this office?

Mar.

Do you

I do, Signor.

Though his possessions have been all consumed
In the State's service, I have still my dowry,
Which shall be consecrated to his rites,

And those of

340

[She stops with agitation. Chief of the Ten. Best retain it for your children. Mar. Aye, they are fatherless, I thank you. Chief of the Ten.

We

350

Cannot comply with your request. His relics
Shall be exposed with wonted pomp, and followed
Unto their home by the new Doge, not clad

i. comfort to my desolation.-[MS. M.]

As Doge, but simply as a senator.

Mar. I have heard of murderers, who have interred
Their victims; but ne'er heard, until this hour,
Of so much splendour in hypocrisy

O'er those they slew.1 I've heard of widows' tears-
Alas! I have shed some-always thanks to you!
I've heard of heirs in sables-you have left none
To the deceased, so you would act the part

Of such. Well, sirs, your will be done! as one day,
I trust, Heaven's will be done too!1
Chief of the Ten.

360

Know you, Lady, To whom ye speak, and perils of such speech? Mar. I know the former better than yourselves; The latter-like yourselves; and can face both. Wish you more funerals?

Bar.

Heed not her rash words;

Her circumstances must excuse her bearing.
Chief of the Ten. We will not note them down.
Bar. (turning to Lor., who is writing upon his tablets).
What art thou writing,

With such an earnest brow, upon thy tablets?
Lor. (pointing to the Doge's body). That he has paid

me! 2

i. I trust Heaven's will be done also.—[MS.]

་

1. The Venetians appear to have had a particular turn for breaking the hearts of their Doges. The following is another instance of the kind in the Doge Marco Barbarigo: he was succeeded by his brother Agostino Barbarigo, whose chief merit is here mentioned.—"Le doge, blessé de trouver constamment un contradicteur et un censeur si amer dans son frère, lui dit un jour en plein conseil: Messire Augustin, vous faites tout votre possible pour hâter ma mort; vous vous flattez de me succéder; mais, si les autres vous connaissent aussi bien que je vous connais, ils n'auront garde de vous élire.' Là-dessus il se leva, ému de colère, rentra dans son appartement, et mourut quelques jours après. Ce frère, contre lequel il s'était emporté, fut précisément le successeur qu'on lui donna. C'était un mérite dont on aimait à tenir compte; surtout à un parent, de s'être mis en opposition avec le chef de la république."-DARU, Hist. de Venise, 1821, iii. 29.

2. "L'ha pagata." An historical fact. See Hist. de Vénise, par P. DARU, 1821, ii. 528, 529.

[Daru quotes Palazzi's Fasti Ducales as his authority for this story. According to Pietro Giustiniani (Storia, lib. viii.), Jacopo Loredano was at pains to announce the decree of the Ten to the Doge in courteous and considerate terms, and begged him to pardon him for what it was his duty to do. Romanin points out that this version of the interview is inconsistent with the famous "l'ha pagata."-Storia, etc., iv. 290, note 1.]

Chief of the Ten. What debt did he owe you? 370 Lor. A long and just one; Nature's debt and mine.1 [Curtain falls.?

1. [Here the original MS. ends. The two lines which follow, were added by Gifford. In the margin of the MS. Byron has written, "If the last line should appear obscure to those who do not recollect the historical fact mentioned in the first act of Loredano's inscription in his book, of Doge Foscari, debtor for the deaths of my father and uncle,' you may add the following lines to the conclusion of the last

act:

Chief of the Ten. For what has he repaid thee?
Lor.
For my father's
And father's brother's death-by his son's and own!
Ask Gifford about this."]

2. [The Appendix to the First Edition of The Two Foscari consisted of (i.) an extract from P. Daru's Histoire de la République Française, 1821, ii. 520-537; (ii.) an extract from J. C. L. Simonde de Sismondi's Histoire des Républiques Italiennes du Moyen Age, 1815, x. 36-46; and (iii.) a note in response to certain charges of plagiarism brought against the author in the Literary Gazette and elsewhere; and to Southey's indictment of the "Satanic School," which had recently appeared in the Preface to the Laureate's Vision of Judgement (Poetical Works of Robert Southey, 1838, x. 202-207). See, too, the "Introduction to The Vision of Judgment, Poetical Works, 1891, iv. pp. 475-480.]

CAIN:

A MYSTERY.

"Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which

the Lord God had made."

Genesis,

Chapter 3rd, verse 1.