The Duchess of Padua Part 14

GUIDO

[taking it from her] O G.o.d!

d.u.c.h.eSS

I'll from the window look, and try If I can't see the porter's livery Who left it at the gate! I will not rest Till I have learned your secret.

[Runs laughing into the corridor.]

GUIDO

Oh, horrible!

Had I so soon forgot my father's death, Did I so soon let love into my heart, And must I banish love, and let in murder That beats and clamours at the outer gate?

Ay, that I must! Have I not sworn an oath?

Yet not to-night; nay, it must be to-night.

Farewell then all the joy and light of life, All dear recorded memories, farewell, Farewell all love! Could I with b.l.o.o.d.y hands Fondle and paddle with her innocent hands?

Could I with lips fresh from this butchery Play with her lips? Could I with murderous eyes Look in those violet eyes, whose purity Would strike men blind, and make each eyeball reel In night perpetual? No, murder has set A barrier between us far too high For us to kiss across it.

d.u.c.h.eSS

Guido!

GUIDO

Beatrice, You must forget that name, and banish me Out of your life for ever.

d.u.c.h.eSS

[going towards him]

O dear love!

GUIDO

[stepping back]

There lies a barrier between us two We dare not pa.s.s.

d.u.c.h.eSS

I dare do anything So that you are beside me.

GUIDO

Ah! There it is, I cannot be beside you, cannot breathe The air you breathe; I cannot any more Stand face to face with beauty, which unnerves My shaking heart, and makes my desperate hand Fail of its purpose. Let me go hence, I pray; Forget you ever looked upon me.

d.u.c.h.eSS

What!

With your hot kisses fresh upon my lips Forget the vows of love you made to me?

GUIDO

I take them back.

d.u.c.h.eSS

Alas, you cannot, Guido, For they are part of nature now; the air Is tremulous with their music, and outside The little birds sing sweeter for those vows.

GUIDO

There lies a barrier between us now, Which then I knew not, or I had forgot.

d.u.c.h.eSS

There is no barrier, Guido; why, I will go In poor attire, and will follow you Over the world.

GUIDO

[wildly]

The world's not wide enough To hold us two! Farewell, farewell for ever.

d.u.c.h.eSS

[calm, and controlling her pa.s.sion]

Why did you come into my life at all, then, Or in the desolate garden of my heart Sow that white flower of love -?

GUIDO

O Beatrice!

d.u.c.h.eSS

Which now you would dig up, uproot, tear out, Though each small fibre doth so hold my heart That if you break one, my heart breaks with it?

Why did you come into my life? Why open The secret wells of love I had sealed up?

Why did you open them -?

GUIDO

O G.o.d!

d.u.c.h.eSS

[clenching her hand]

And let The floodgates of my pa.s.sion swell and burst Till, like the wave when rivers overflow That sweeps the forest and the farm away, Love in the splendid avalanche of its might Swept my life with it? Must I drop by drop Gather these waters back and seal them up?

Alas! Each drop will be a tear, and so Will with its saltness make life very bitter.

GUIDO

I pray you speak no more, for I must go Forth from your life and love, and make a way On which you cannot follow.

d.u.c.h.eSS