Strange thoughts beget strange deeds; and here are both:

I judge thee not.

140   Beatrice.   And yet, if you arrest me,

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

145Which is a mask without it. ’Tis most false

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.

150Now leave us free: stain not a noble house

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.

155I pray that you prepare yourselves for Rome:

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

160To trample accusation. God is there

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,

165As soon as you have taken some refreshment,

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?

170   Lucretia. Ha! they will bind us to the rack, and wrest

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

175Which is in every heart! O, misery!

[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

180All things to guilt which is its nutriment.

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

185Stand at the judgement-seat of mortal man,

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 THE FOURTH ACT.

ACT V

SCENE I.—An apartment in ORSINO’s Palace. Enter ORSINO and GIACOMO.

   Giacomo. Do evil deeds thus quickly come to end?

O, that the vain remorse which must chastise

Crimes done, had but as loud a voice to warn

As its keen sting is mortal to avenge!

5O, that the hour when present had cast off

The mantle of its mystery, and shewn

The ghastly form with which it now returns

When its scared game is roused, cheering the hounds

Of conscience to their prey! Alas! Alas!

10It was a wicked thought, a piteous deed,

To kill an old and hoary-headed father.

   Orsino. It has turned out unluckily, in truth.

   Giacomo. To violate the sacred doors of sleep;

To cheat kind nature of the placid death

15Which she prepares for overwearied age;

To drag from Heaven an unrepentant soul

Which might have quenched in reconciling prayers

A life of burning crimes …

   Orsino.    You cannot say

I urged you to the deed.

   Giacomo.  O, had I never

20Found in thy smooth and ready countenance

The mirror of my darkest thoughts; hadst thou

Never with hints and questions made me look

Upon the monster of my thought, until

It grew familiar to desire …

   Orsino.    ’Tis thus

25Men cast the blame of their unprosperous acts

Upon the abettors of their own resolve;

Or any thing but their weak, guilty selves.

And yet, confess the truth, it is the peril

In which you stand that gives you this pale sickness

30Of penitence; Confess ’tis fear disguised

From its own shame that takes the mantle now

Of thin remorse. What if we yet were safe?

   Giacomo. How can that be? Already Beatrice,

Lucretia and the murderer are in prison.

35I doubt not officers are, whilst we speak,

Sent to arrest us.

   Orsino.   I have all prepared

For instant flight. We can escape even now,

So we take fleet occasion by the hair.

   Giacomo. Rather expire in tortures, as I may.

40What! will you cast by self-accusing flight

Assured conviction upon Beatrice?

She, who alone in this unnatural work,

Stands like God’s angel ministered upon

By fiends; avenging such a nameless wrong

45As turns black parricide to piety;

Whilst we for basest ends … I fear, Orsino,

While I consider all your words and looks,

Comparing them with your proposal now,

That you must be a villain. For what end

50Could you engage in such a perilous crime,

Training me on with hints, and signs, and smiles,

Even to this gulph? Thou art no liar? No,

Thou art a lie! Traitor and murderer!

Coward and slave! But, no, defend thyself;      [Drawing.

55Let the sword speak what the indignant tongue

Disdains to brand thee with.

   Orsino.    Put up your weapon.

Is it the desperation of your fear

Makes you thus rash and sudden with a friend,

Now ruined for your sake? If honest anger

60Have moved you, know, that what I just proposed

Was but to try you. As for me, I think,

Thankless affection led me to this point,

From which, if my firm temper could repent,

I cannot now recede. Even whilst we speak

65The ministers of justice wait below:

They grant me these brief moments. Now if you

Have any word of melancholy comfort

To speak to your pale wife, ’twere best to pass

Out at the postern, and avoid them so.

70   Giacomo. O, generous friend! How canst thou pardon me?

Would that my life could purchase thine!

   Orsino.       That wish

Now comes a day too late. Haste; fare thee well!

Hear’st thou not steps along the corridor?   [Exit GIACOMO.

I’m sorry for it; but the guards are waiting

75At his own gate, and such was my contrivance

That I might rid me both of him and them.

I thought to act a solemn comedy

Upon the painted scene of this new world,

And to attain my own peculiar ends

80By some such plot of mingled good and ill

As others weave; but there arose a Power

Which graspt and snapped the threads of my device

And turned it to a net of ruin … Ha!   [A shout is heard.

Is that my name I hear proclaimed abroad?

85But I will pass, wrapt in a vile disguise;

Rags on my back, and a false innocence

Upon my face, thro’ the misdeeming crowd

Which judges by what seems. ’Tis easy then

For a new name and for a country new,

90And a new life, fashioned on old desires,

To change the honours of abandoned Rome.

And these must be the masks of that within,

Which must remain unaltered … Oh, I fear

That what is past will never let me rest!

95Why, when none else is conscious, but myself,

Of my misdeeds, should my own heart’s contempt

Trouble me? Have I not the power to fly

My own reproaches? Shall I be the slave

Of … what? A word? which those of this false world

100Employ against each other, not themselves;

As men wear daggers not for self-offence.

But if I am mistaken, where shall I

Find the disguise to hide me from myself,

As now I skulk from every other eye?   [Exit.

SCENE II.—A Hall of Justice. CAMILLO, Judges, etc., are discovered seated; MARZIO is led in.

   First Judge. Accused, do you persist in your denial?

I ask you, are you innocent, or guilty?

I demand who were the participators

In your offence? Speak truth and the whole truth.

5   Marzio. My God! I did not kill him; I know nothing;

Olimpio sold the robe to me from which

You would infer my guilt.

   Second Judge.  Away with him!

   First Judge. Dare you, with lips yet white from the rack’s kiss

Speak false? Is it so soft a questioner,

10That you would bandy lover’s talk with it

Till it wind out your life and soul? Away!

   Marzio.