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We'll take it; but may do all this in calmness——
Deep Vengeance is the daughter of deep Silence.
I have yet scarce a third part of your years,
I love our house, I honour you, its chief,
The guardian of my youth, and its instructor-
But though I understand your grief, and enter
In part of your disdain, it doth appal me
To see your anger, like our Adrian waves,
O'ersweep all bounds, and foam itself to air.

Doge. I tell thee-must I tell thee-what thy father
Would have required no words to comprehend?
Hast thou no feeling save the external sense

Of torture from the touch? hast thou no soul-
No pride no passion-no deep sense of honour?
Ber. F. "Tis the first time that honour has been
And were the last, from any other sceptic. [doubted,
Doge. You know the full offence of this born villain,

Doge (interrupting him). There is no such thing-This creeping, coward, rank, acquitted felon,
It is a word--nay, worse-a worthless by-word:
The most despised, wrong'd, outraged, helpless wretch,
Who begs his bread, if 'tis refused by one,
May win it from another kinder heart;
But he, who is denied his right by those
Whose place it is to do no wrong, is poorer
Than the rejected beggar-he's a slave-
And that am I, and thou, and all our house,
Even from this hour; the meanest artisan
Will point the finger, and the haughty noble
May spit upon us: where is our redress?

Who threw his sting into a poisonous libel, (1)
And on the honour of O God!-my wife,
The nearest, dearest part of all men's honour,
Left a base slur to pass from mouth to mouth
Of loose mechanics, with all coarse foul comments,
And villanous jests, and blasphemies obscene;
While sneering nobles, in more polish'd guise,
Whisper'd the tale, and smiled upon the lie
Which made me look like them-a courteous wittol,
Patient-ay, proud, it may be, of dishonour.

Ber. F. The law, my prince

Doge (interrupling him). You see what it has doneI ask'd no remedy but from the law

I sought no vengeance but redress by law

I call'd no judges but those named by law-
As sovereign, I appeal'd unto my subjects,
The very subjects who had made me sovereign,
And gave me thus a double right to be so.
The rights of place and choice, of birth and service,
Honours and years, these scars, these hoary hairs,
The travel, toil, the perils, the fatigues,
The blood and sweat of almost eighty years,
Were weigh'd i' the balance, 'gainst the foulest stain,
The grossest insult, most contemptuous crime
Of a rank rash patrician-and found wanting!
And this is to be borne!

I say not that:

Ber. F.
In case your fresh appeal should be rejected,
We will find other means to make all even,

Doge. Appeal again! art thou my brother's son?
A scion of the house of Faliero?

The nephew of a Doge? and of that blood'
Which hath already given three dukes to Venice?
But thou say'st well-we must be humble now.
Ber. F. My princely uncle! you are too much
moved:----

I grant it was a gross offence, and grossly
Left without fitting punishment: but still
This fury doth exceed the provocation,
Or any provocation: if we are wrong'd,
We will ask justice; if it be denied,

does not at first understand it. This dutiful person com-
ments thus calmly on the matter, in a speech which, though
set down by Lord Byron in lines of ten syllables, we shall
take the liberty to print as prose-- which it undoubtedly is
-and very ordinary and homely prose too :- Ber. Fal. I
cannot but agree with you, the sentence is too slight for the
offence. It is not honourable in the Forty to affix so slight
a penalty to that which was a foul affront to you, and even
to them, as being your subjects; but 't is not yet without

Ber. F. But still it was a lie-you knew it false, And so did all men.

Doge.

Nephew, the high Roman Said, "Cæsar's wife must not even be suspected," And put her from him.

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Doge. It is-it is;-I did not visit on
The innocent creature, thus most vilely slander'd
Because she took an old man for her lord,
For that he had been long her father's friend
And patron of her house, as if there were
No love in woman's heart but lust of youth
And beardless faces;-I did not for this
Visit the villain's infamy on her,

But craved my country's justice on his head,
The justice due unto the humblest being
Who hath a wife whose faith is sweet to him,
Who hath a home whose hearth is dear to him,
Who hath a name whose honour's all to him,
When these are tainted by the accursing breath
Of calumny and scorn.

Ber. F.
And what redress
Did you expect as his fit punishment?

Doge. Death! Was I not the sovereign of the state-
Insulted on his very throne, and made

A mockery to the men who should obey me?

remedy: you can appeal to them once more, or to the Avogadori, who, seeing that true justice is withheld, will now take up the cause they once declined, and do you right upon the bold delinquent. Think you not thus, good uncle? Why do you stand so fixed? You heed me not. I pray you, hear me.'" Jeffrey.-L. E.

(1) In the MS.

"Who threw his sting into a poisonous rhyme."—LE

Was I not injured as a husband? scorn'd
As man? reviled, degraded, as a prince?
Was not offence like his a complication
Of insult and of treason?-and he lives!
Had he instead of on the Doge's throne
Stamp'd the same brand upon a peasant's stool,
His blood had gilt the threshold; for the carle
Had stabb'd him on the instant.

Ber. F.
Do not doubt it,
He shall not live till sunset-leave to me
The means, and calm yourself.
Doge.
Hold, nephew: this
Would have sufficed but yesterday; at present
I have no further wrath against this man.

Ber. F. What mean you? is not the offence redoubled

By this most rank--I will not say-acquittal;
For it is worse, being full acknowledgment
Of the offence, and leaving it unpunish'd?

Doge. It is redoubled, but not now by him:
The Forty hath decreed a month's arrest-
We must obey the Forty.

Ber. F.

Obey them!

Who have forgot their duty to the sovereign?
Doge. Why yes;-boy, you perceive it then at last:
Whether as fellow-citizen who sues

For justice, or as sovereign who commands it,
They have defrauded me of both my rights
(For here the sovereign is a citizen);
But, notwithstanding, harm not thou a hair
Of Steno's head-he shall not wear it long.

Ber. F. Not twelve hours longer, had you left to me
The mode and means: if you had calmly heard me,
I never meant this miscreant should escape,
But wish'd you to suppress such gusts of passion,
That we more surely might devise together
His taking off.

Doge.

No, nephew, he must live, At least, just now-a life so vile as his Were nothing at this hour; in the olden time Some sacrifices ask'd a single victim,

Great expiations had a hecatomb.

Ber. F. Your wishes are my law: and yet I fain Would prove to you how near unto my heart The honour of our house must ever be.

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The leader, and the statesman, and the chief
Of commonwealths, and sovereign of himself!
I wonder'd to perceive you so forget

All prudence in your fury at these years,
Although the cause-

Doge.

AY think upon the causeForget it not:-When you lie down to rest, Let it be black among your dreams; and when The morn returns, so let it stand between The sun and you, as an ill-omen'd cloud Upon a summer-day of festival:

So will it stand to me; -- but speak not, stir not,(1) "The youth, being at last talked into a better sense of what their house's honour requires, leaves the Doge brooding over some terrible revenge. At this moment, the captain of a galley comes to complain of an insult he had just received from a senator; and when the Doge rails at the whole se nate in terms of great bitterness, is encouraged to inform him, that a plot is on foot for its destruction, which he

Leave all to me;-we shall have much to do, And you shall have a part.-But now retire, "Tis fit I were alone.

Ber. F. (taking up and placing the ducal bonnet on the table.) Ere I depart,

I pray you to resume what you have spurn'd,
Till you can change it, haply for a crown.
And now I take my leave, imploring you
In all things to rely upon my duty,

As doth become your near and faithful kinsman,
And not less loyal citizen and subject.

[Exit BERTUCCIO FALIERO. Doge (solus). Adieu, my worthy nephew.-(1) Hollow bauble! [Taking up the ducal cap.

[Puts it on.

Beset with all the thorns that line a crown,
Without investing the insulted brow
With the all-swaying majesty of kings;
Thou idle, gilded, and degraded toy,
Let me resume thee as I would a vizor.
How my brain aches beneath thee! and my temples
Throb feverish under thy dishonest weight.
Could I not turn thee to a diadem?
Could I not shatter the Briarean sceptre
Which in this hundred-handed senate rules,
Making the people nothing, and the prince
A pageant? In my life I have achieved
Tasks not less difficult-achieved for them,
Who thus repay me!-Can I not requite them?
Oh for one year! Oh! but for even a day
Of my full youth, while yet my body served
My soul as serves the generous steed his lord,
I would have dash'd amongst them, asking few
In aid to overthrow these swoln patricians;
But now I must look round for other hands
To serve this hoary head;-but it shall plan
In such a sort as will not leave the task
Herculean, though as yet 'tis but a chaos
Of darkly-brooding thoughts: my fancy is
In her first work, more nearly to the light
Holding the sleeping images of things
For the selection of the pausing judgment.
The troops are few in-

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I can see no one, not even a patrician-
Let him refer his business to the council.
Vin. My lord, I will deliver your reply;
It cannot much import-he's a plebeian,
The master of a galley, I believe.

Doge. How! did you say the patron of a galley? That is I mean-a servant of the state:

Admit him, he may be on public service.

[Exit VINCENZO. Doge (solus). This patron may be sounded; I will I know the people to be discontented: [try him. They have cause, since Sapienza's adverse day, When Genoa conquer'd: they have further cause, Since they are nothing in the state, and in The city worse than nothing-mere machines,

would do well to join: to which his highness, with marvellous little hesitation, assents, and agrees to come at midnight to this assemblage of plebeian desperadoes. If this were ever so authentically set down in history-which, however, it is not-it would still be a great deal too improbable for a modern tragedy." Jeffrey.-L. E.

To serve the nobles' most patrician pleasure.
The troops have long arrears of pay, oft promised,
And murmur deeply-any hope of change
Will draw them forward: they shall pay themselves
With plunder:-but the priests-I doubt the priest-
Will not be with us; they have hated me [hood
Since that rash hour, when, madden'd with the drone,
I smote the tardy bishop at Treviso, (1)
Quickening his holy march; yet, ne'ertheless,
They may be won, at least their chief at Rome,
By some well-timed concessions; but, above
All things, I must be speedy: at my hour
Of twilight little light of life remains.
Could I free Venice, and avenge my wrongs,
I had lived too long, and willingly would sleep
Next moment with my sires; and, wanting this,
Better that sixty of my fourscore years

Had been already where-how soon, I care not→→→
The whole must be extinguish'd;-better that
They ne'er had been, than drag me on to be
The thing these arch-oppressors fain would make me.
Let me consider-of efficient troops
There are three thousand posted at-

Enter VINCENZO and ISRAEL BERTUCCIO.
Vin.

May it please
Your highness, the same patron whom I spake of
Is here to crave your patience.

Doge.

Vincenzo.

Leave the chamber, [Exit VINCENZO. Sir, you may advance-what would you? I. Ber. Redress.

Doge.

1. Ber.

Of whom?

Of God and of the Doge. Doge. Alas! my friend, you seek it of the twain Of least respect and interest in Venice.

You must address the council.

I. Ber. 'T were in vain ; For he who injured me is one of them. [there? Doge. There's blood upon thy face-how came it I. Ber. 'Tis mine, and not the first I've shed for But the first shed by a Venetian hand: [Venice,

A noble smote me.

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Doge. What was the cause? or the pretext? I. Ber. I am the chief of the arsenal, (2) employ'd At present in repairing certain galleys But roughly used by the Genoese last year. This morning comes the noble Barbaro Full of reproof, because our artisans Had left some frivolous order of his house, To execute the state's decree; I dared To justify the men-he raised his hand;Behold my blood! the first time it e'er flow'd Dishonourably. Doge.

Have you long time served?

I. Ber. So long as to remember Zara's siege, And fight beneath the chief who beat the Huns there, Sometime my general, now the Doge Faliero.

[robes

Doge How! are we comrades?-the state's ducal
Sit newly on me, and you were appointed
Chief of the arsenal ere I came from Rome;
So that I recoguised you not. Who placed you?
I. Ber. The late Doge; keeping still my old com-
As patron of a galley: my new office
Was given as the reward of certain scars
(So was your predecessor pleased to say):

I little thought his bounty would conduct me
To his successor as a helpless plaintiff';
At least, in such a cause.

Doge.

[mand

Are you much hurt? 1. Ber. Irreparably, in my self-esteem. Doge. Speak out; fear nothing: being stung at heart, What would you do to be revenged on this man? I. Ber. That which I dare not name, and yet will do. Doge. Then wherefore came you here?

I. Ber. I come for justice, Because my general is Doge, and will not See his old soldier trampled on. Had any, Save Faliero, fill'd the ducal throne, This blood had been wash'd out in other blood. Doge. You come to me for justice-unto me! The Doge of Venice, and I cannot give it; I cannot even obtain it-'t was denied To me most solemnly an hour ago. I. Ber. How says your highness? Doge.

To a month's confinement.

Steno is condemn'd

I. Ber. What! the same who dared To stain the ducal throne with those foul words, That have cried shame to every ear in Venice? Doge. Ay, doubtless they have echo'd o'er the

arsenal,

Keeping due time with every hammer's clink

As a good jest to jolly artisans;

Or making chorus to the creaking oar,

In the vile tune of every galley-slave,

Who, as he sung the merry stave, exulted
He was not a shamed dotard like the Doge.
I. Ber. Is't possible? a month's imprisonment!
No more for Steno?

Doge,
You have heard the offence,
And now you know his punishment; and then
You ask redress of me! Go to the Forty,
Who pass'd the sentence upon Michel Steno;

with his life. He mounted guard at the ducal palace during an interregnum, and bore the red standard before the new Doge on his inauguration; for which service his perquisites were the ducal mantle, and the two silver basins from which the Doge scattered the regulated pittance which be was permitted to throw among the people. Amelot de la Houssaye, 79.-L. E.

They'll do as much by Barbaro, no doubt. 1. Ber. Ah! dared I speak my feelings! Doge.

Give them breath; Mine have no further outrage to endure.

I. Ber. Then, in a word, it rests but on your word To punish and avenge-I will not say My petty wrong, for what is a mere blow, However vile, to such a thing as I am?— But the base insult done your state and person.

Doge. You overrate my power, which is a pageant. This cap is not the monarch's crown; these robes Might move compassion, like a beggar's rags ; Nay, more, a beggar's are his own, and these But lent to the poor puppet, who must play Its part with all its empire in this ermine. I. Ber. Wouldst thou be king? Doge.

Yes-of a happy people.

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I. Ber. Yet, thou wast born, and still hast lived, Doge. In evil hour was I so born; my birth

Hath made me Doge to be insulted: but

I lived and toil'd a soldier and a servant

Of Venice and her people, not the senate;

Their good and my own honour were my guerdon.

I have fought and bled; commanded, ay, and conquer'd;

Have made and marr'd peace oft in embassies,
As it might chance to be our country's 'vantage;
Have traversed land and sea in constant duty,
Through almost sixty years, and still for Venice,
My fathers' and my birthplace, whose dear spires,
Rising at distance o'er the blue Lagoon,
It was reward enough for me to view
Once more; but not for any knot of men,
Nor sect, nor faction, did I bleed or sweat!
But would you know why I have done all this?
Ask of the bleeding pelican why she
Hath ripp'd her bosom? Had the bird a voice,
She'd tell thee 'twas for all her little ones.
I. Ber. And yet they made thee duke.
Doge.

They made me so; I sought it not, the flattering fetters met me Returning from my Roman embassy,

And never having hitherto refused

Toil, charge, or duty for the state, I did not,

At these late years, decline what was the highest
Of all in seeming, but of all most base
In what we have to do and to endure:
Bear witness for me thou, my injured subject,

(1) "Upon this the Admiral returned, My Lord Duke, if you would wish to make yourself a prince, and cut all those cuckoldy gentlemen to pieces, I have the heart, if you do but help me, to make you prince of all the state; and then you may punish them all.' Hearing this, the Duke said,How can such a matter be brought about?' and so they discoursed thereon." Such is Sanuto's narrative, and we have nothing more certain to offer. It is not easy to say whence he obtained his intelligence. If such a conversation as that which he relates really did occur, it must have taken place without the presence of witnesses, and therefore could be disclosed only by one of the parties. It is far more likely that the chronicler is relating that which he supposed, than that which he knew; and, as it must be admitted that the interview with the admiral of the arsenal occurred, and

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Not thou,

Nor I alone, are injured and abused,
Contemn'd and trampled on; but the whole people
Groan with the strong conception of their wrongs:
The foreign soldiers in the senate's pay
Are discontented for their long arrears;
The native mariners, and civic troops,

Feel with their friends; for who is he amongst them
Whose brethren, parents, children, wives, or sisters,
Have not partook oppression, or pollution,
From the patricians? And the hopeless war
Against the Genoese, which is still maintain'd
With the plebeian blood, and treasure wrung
From their hard earnings, has inflamed them further:
Even now-but, I forget that, speaking thus,
Perhaps I pass the sentence of my death!

Doge. And suffering what thou hast done-fear'st thou death?

Be silent then, and live on, to be beaten
By those for whom thou hast bled.

I. Ber.

No, I will speak

At every hazard; and if Venice' Doge
Should turn delator, be the shame on him,
And sorrow too; for he will lose far more
Than I.

Doge. From me fear nothing; out with it!

I. Ber. Know then, that there are met and sworn in secret (2)

A band of brethren, valiant hearts and true;
Men who have proved all fortunes, and have long
Grieved over that of Venice, and have right
To do so; having served her in all climes,
And having rescued her from foreign foes,
Would do the same from those within her walls.
They are not numerous, nor yet too few

For their great purpose; they have arms, and means,
And hearts, and hopes, and faith, and patient courage.
Doge. For what then do they pause?

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My life, my honour, all my earthly hopes
Within thy power, but in the firm belief
That injuries like ours, sprung from one cause,
Will generate one vengeance: should it be so,
Be our chief now--our sovereign hereafter.

that immediately after it the Doge was found linked with the daring band of which that officer was chief, there is no violation of probability in granting that some such conver sation took place; and that the train was ignited by this collision of two angry spirits." See Sketches of Venetian History (forming vols. xx. and xxi. of The Family Library), vol. i. p. 265.-L. E.

(2) Galt suggests that this description of the conspirators is applicable to, as it was probably derived from, the Carbonari, with whom Byron was himself disposed to take a part.-P. E.

(3) The bells of San Marco were never rung but by order of the Doge. One of the pretexts for ringing this alarm was to have been an announcement of the appearance of a Genoese fleet off the Lagune.

Doge. How many are ye? 1. Ber.

Till I am answer'd.

Doge.

I'll not answer that

How, sir! do you menace?

I. Ber. No; I affirm. I have betray'd myself;
But there's no torture in the mystic wells
Which undermine your palace, nor in those
Not less appalling cells, the "leaden roofs,"
To force a single name from me of others,
The Pozzi(1) and the Piombi were in vain;
They might wring blood from me, but treachery never.
And I would pass the fearful "Bridge of Sighs," (2)
Joyous that mine must be the last that e'er
Would echo o'er the Stygian wave which flows
Between the murderers and the murder'd, washing
The prison and the palace walls: there are

Those who would live to think on't, and avenge me.
Doge. If such your power and purpose, why come
To sue for justice, being in the course

To do yourself due right?

1. Ber.

Because the man,

Who claims protection from authority,

Showing his confidence and his submission

To that authority, can hardly be

Suspected of combining to destroy it.

Had I sate down too humbly with this blow,

[here

A moody brow and mutter'd threats had made me
A mark'd man to the Forty's inquisition;

But loud complaint, however angrily

It shapes its phrase, is little to be fear'd,
And less distrusted. But, besides all this,
I had another reason.

Doge.

What was that?

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Doge. With but my nephew.
1. Ber.

Not were he your son.

Doge. Wretch! darest thou name my son? He died in arms

At Sapienza, for this faithless state.

Oh! that he were alive, and I in ashes!

Or that he were alive ere I be ashes!

I should not need the dubious aid of strangers.

I. Ber. Not one of all those strangers whom thou But will regard thee with a filial feeling, [doubtest So that thou keep'st a father's faith with them.

Doge. The die is cast. Where is the place of
meeting?

I. Ber. At midnight I will be alone and mask'd
Where'er your highness pleases to direct me,
To wait your coming, and conduct you where

I. Ber. Some rumours that the Doge was greatly You shall receive our homage, and pronounce

moved

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(I) "The state dungeons, called Pozzi, or wells, were sunk in the thick walls of the palace; and the prisoner, when taken out to die, was conducted across the gallery to the other side, and being then led back into the other com. partment, or cell, upon the bridge, was there strangled. The low portal through which the criminal was taken into this cell is now walled up; but the passage is open, and is still known by the name of the Bridge of Sighs." Hobhouse. -L. E.

(2) "That deep descent (thou canst not yet discern
Aught as it is) leads to the dripping vaults

Under the flood, where light and warmth were never;
Leads to a cover'd bridge- the Bridge of Sighs-
And to that fatal closet at the foot,

Lurking for prey, which, when a victim came,
Grew less and less, contracting to a span;-
An iron-door, urged onward by a screw,
Forcing out life." Rogers.-L. E.

Upon our project.

Doge.

The moon?

At what hour arises

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(3) "The Doges were all buried in St. Mark's, before Faliero. It is singular that when his predecessor, Andrea Dandolo, died, the Ten made a law that all the future Doges should be buried with their families in their own churches one would think, by a kind of presentiment. So that all that is said of his ancestral Doges, as buried at St. John's and Paul's, is altered from the fact, they being in St. Mark's. Make a note of this, and put Editor as the subscription to it. As I make such pretensions to accuracy, I should not like to be twitted even with such trifles on that score. Of the play they may say what they please, but not so of my costume and dram, pers.—they having been real existences." B. Letters, Oct. 1820.-L. E.

(4) A gondola is not like a common boat, but is as easily rowed with one oar as with two (though, of course, not so swiftly), and often is so from motives of privacy, and, since the decay of Venice, of economy.

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