The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 48

I thought to die; but a religious awe Restrains me, and the dread lest death itself Might be no refuge from the consciousness _150 Of what is yet unexpiated. Oh, speak!

ORSINO: Accuse him of the deed, and let the law Avenge thee.

BEATRICE: Oh, ice-hearted counsellor!

If I could find a word that might make known The crime of my destroyer; and that done, _155 My tongue should like a knife tear out the secret Which cankers my heart's core; ay, lay all bare, So that my unpolluted fame should be With vilest gossips a stale mouthed story; A mock, a byword, an astonishment:-- _160 If this were done, which never shall be done, Think of the offender's gold, his dreaded hate, And the strange horror of the accuser's tale, Baffling belief, and overpowering speech; Scarce whispered, unimaginable, wrapped _165 In hideous hints...Oh, most a.s.sured redress!

ORSINO: You will endure it then?

BEATRICE: Endure!--Orsino, It seems your counsel is small profit.

[TURNS FROM HIM, AND SPEAKS HALF TO HERSELF.]

Ay, All must be suddenly resolved and done.

What is this undistinguishable mist _170 Of thoughts, which rise, like shadow after shadow, Darkening each other?

ORSINO: Should the offender live?

Triumph in his misdeed? and make, by use, His crime, whate'er it is, dreadful no doubt, Thine element; until thou mayest become _175 Utterly lost; subdued even to the hue Of that which thou permittest?

BEATRICE [TO HERSELF]: Mighty death!

Thou double-visaged shadow! Only judge!

Rightfullest arbiter!

[SHE RETIRES, ABSORBED IN THOUGHT.]

LUCRETIA: If the lightning Of G.o.d has e'er descended to avenge... _180

ORSINO: Blaspheme not! His high Providence commits Its glory on this earth, and their own wrongs Into the hands of men; if they neglect To punish crime...

LUCRETIA: But if one, like this wretch, Should mock, with gold, opinion, law, and power? _185 If there be no appeal to that which makes The guiltiest tremble? If because our wrongs, For that they are unnatural, strange and monstrous, Exceed all measure of belief? O G.o.d!

If, for the very reasons which should make _190 Redress most swift and sure, our injurer triumphs?

And we, the victims, bear worse punishment Than that appointed for their torturer?

ORSINO: Think not But that there is redress where there is wrong, So we be bold enough to seize it.

LUCRETIA: How? _195 If there were any way to make all sure, I know not...but I think it might be good To...

ORSINO: Why, his late outrage to Beatrice; For it is such, as I but faintly guess, As makes remorse dishonour, and leaves her _200 Only one duty, how she may avenge: You, but one refuge from ills ill endured; Me, but one counsel...

LUCRETIA: For we cannot hope That aid, or retribution, or resource Will arise thence, where every other one _205 Might find them with less need.

[BEATRICE ADVANCES.]

ORSINO: Then...

BEATRICE: Peace, Orsino!

And, honoured Lady, while I speak, I pray, That you put off, as garments overworn, Forbearance and respect, remorse and fear, And all the fit restraints of daily life, _210 Which have been borne from childhood, but which now Would be a mockery to my holier plea.

As I have said, I have endured a wrong, Which, though it be expressionless, is such As asks atonement; both for what is past, _215 And lest I be reserved, day after day, To load with crimes an overburthened soul, And be...what ye can dream not. I have prayed To G.o.d, and I have talked with my own heart, And have unravelled my entangled will, _220 And have at length determined what is right.

Art thou my friend, Orsino? False or true?

Pledge thy salvation ere I speak.

ORSINO: I swear To dedicate my cunning, and my strength, My silence, and whatever else is mine, _225 To thy commands.

LUCRETIA: You think we should devise His death?

BEATRICE: And execute what is devised, And suddenly. We must be brief and bold.

ORSINO: And yet most cautious.

LUCRETIA: For the jealous laws Would punish us with death and infamy _230 For that which it became themselves to do.

BEATRICE: Be cautious as ye may, but prompt. Orsino, What are the means?

ORSINO: I know two dull, fierce outlaws, Who think man's spirit as a worm's, and they Would trample out, for any slight caprice, _235 The meanest or the n.o.blest life. This mood Is marketable here in Rome. They sell What we now want.

LUCRETIA: To-morrow before dawn, Cenci will take us to that lonely rock, Petrella, in the Apulian Apennines. _240 If he arrive there...

BEATRICE: He must not arrive.

ORSINO: Will it be dark before you reach the tower?

LUCRETIA: The sun will scarce be set.

BEATRICE: But I remember Two miles on this side of the fort, the road Crosses a deep ravine; 'tis rough and narrow, _245 And winds with short turns down the precipice; And in its depth there is a mighty rock, Which has, from unimaginable years, Sustained itself with terror and with toil Over a gulf, and with the agony _250 With which it clings seems slowly coming down; Even as a wretched soul hour after hour, Clings to the ma.s.s of life; yet, clinging, leans; And leaning, makes more dark the dread abyss In which it fears to fall: beneath this crag _255 Huge as despair, as if in weariness, The melancholy mountain yawns...below, You hear but see not an impetuous torrent Raging among the caverns, and a bridge Crosses the chasm; and high above there grow, _260 With intersecting trunks, from crag to crag, Cedars, and yews, and pines; whose tangled hair Is matted in one solid roof of shade By the dark ivy's twine. At noonday here 'Tis twilight, and at sunset blackest night. _265

ORSINO: Before you reach that bridge make some excuse For spurring on your mules, or loitering Until...

BEATRICE: What sound is that?

LUCRETIA: Hark! No, it cannot be a servant's step It must be Cenci, unexpectedly _270 Returned...Make some excuse for being here.

BEATRICE [TO ORSINO AS SHE GOES OUT]: That step we hear approach must never pa.s.s The bridge of which we spoke.

[EXEUNT LUCRETIA AND BEATRICE.]

ORSINO: What shall I do?

Cenci must find me here, and I must bear The imperious inquisition of his looks _275 As to what brought me hither: let me mask Mine own in some inane and vacant smile.

[ENTER GIACOMO, IN A HURRIED MANNER.]

How! Have you ventured hither? Know you then That Cenci is from home?

NOTE: _278 hither edition 1821; thither edition 1819.

GIACOMO: I sought him here; And now must wait till he returns.

ORSINO: Great G.o.d! _280 Weigh you the danger of this rashness?

GIACOMO: Ay!

Does my destroyer know his danger? We Are now no more, as once, parent and child, But man to man; the oppressor to the oppressed; The slanderer to the slandered; foe to foe: _285 He has cast Nature off, which was his shield, And Nature casts him off, who is her shame; And I spurn both. Is it a father's throat Which I will shake, and say, I ask not gold; I ask not happy years; nor memories _290 Of tranquil childhood; nor home-sheltered love; Though all these hast thou torn from me, and more; But only my fair fame; only one h.o.a.rd Of peace, which I thought hidden from thy hate, Under the penury heaped on me by thee, _295 Or I will...G.o.d can understand and pardon, Why should I speak with man?

ORSINO: Be calm, dear friend.

GIACOMO: Well, I will calmly tell you what he did.