DAN.

They are of no avail.

SAV. [To LUC.]

I do refuse thee audience.

LUC.

Then why Didst thou not say so promptly when I ask'd it?

SAV.

Full well thou knowst that I was interrupted By Alighieri's entry.

[Noise without. Enter Guelfs and Ghibellines fighting.]

What is this?

LUC.

I did not think that in this cloister'd spot There would be so much doing. I had look'd To find Savonarola all alone And tempt him in his uneventful cell.

Instead o' which--Spurn'd am I? I am I.

There was a time, Sir, look to 't! O d.a.m.nation!

What is 't? Anon then! These my toys, my gauds, That in the cradle--aye, 't my mother's breast-- I puled and lisped at,--'Tis impossible, Tho', faith, 'tis not so, forasmuch as 'tis.

And I a daughter of the Borgias!-- Or so they told me. Liars! Flatterers!

Currying lick-spoons! Where's the h.e.l.l of 't then?

'Tis time that I were going. Farewell, Monk, But I'll avenge me ere the sun has sunk.

[Exeunt LUC., ST. FRAN., and LEONARDO, followed by DAN. SAV., having watched LUC. out of sight, sinks to his knees, sobbing. FRI. and SACR.

watch him in amazement. Guelfs and Ghibellines continue fighting as the Curtain falls.]

ACT II

TIME: Afternoon of same day.

SCENE: Lucrezia's Laboratory. Retorts, test-tubes, etc. On small Renaissance table, up c., is a great poison-bowl, the contents of which are being stirred by the FIRST APPRENTICE. The SECOND APPRENTICE stands by, watching him.

SECOND APP.

For whom is the brew destin'd?

FIRST APP.

I know not.

Lady Lucrezia did but lay on me Injunctions as regards the making of 't, The which I have obey'd. It is compounded Of a malignant and a deadly weed Found not save in the Gulf of Spezia, And one small phial of 't, I am advis'd, Were more than 'nough to slay a regiment Of Messer Malatesta's condottieri In all their armour.

SECOND APP.

I can well believe it.

Mark how the purple bubbles froth upon The evil surface of its nether slime!

[Enter LUC.]

LUC. [To FIRST APP.]

Is 't done, Sir Sluggard?

FIRST APP.

Madam, to a turn.

LUC.

Had it not been so, I with mine own hand Would have outpour'd it down thy gullet, knave.

See, here's a ring of cunningly-wrought gold

That I, on a dark night, did purchase from A goldsmith on the Ponte Vecchio.

Small was his shop, and h.o.a.r of visage he.

I did bemark that from the ceiling's beams Spiders had spun their webs for many a year, The which hung erst like swathes of gossamer Seen in the shadows of a fairy glade, But now most woefully were weighted o'er With gather'd dust. Look well now at the ring!

Touch'd here, behold, it opes a cavity Capacious of three drops of yon fell stuff.

Dost heed? Whoso then puts it on his finger Dies, and his soul is from his body rapt To h.e.l.l or Heaven as the case may be.

Take thou this toy and pour the three drops in.

[Hands ring to FIRST APP. and comes down c.]

So, Sav'narola, thou shalt learn that I Utter no threats but I do make them good.

Ere this day's sun hath wester'd from the view Thou art to preach from out the Loggia Dei Lanzi to the cits in the Piazza.

I, thy Lucrezia, will be upon the steps To offer thee with phrases seeming-fair That which shall seal thine eloquence for ever.

O mighty lips that held the world in spell But would not meet these little lips of mine In the sweet way that lovers use--O thin, Cold, tight-drawn, bloodless lips, which natheless I Deem of all lips the most magnifical In this our city--

[Enter the Borgias' FOOL.]

Well, Fool, what's thy latest?

FOOL Aristotle's or Zeno's, Lady--'tis neither latest nor last. For, marry, if the cobbler stuck to his last, then were his latest his last in rebus ambulantibus. Argal, I stick at nothing but cobble-stones, which, by the same token, are stuck to the road by men's fingers.

LUC.

How many crows may nest in a grocer's jerkin?

FOOL A full dozen at c.o.c.k-crow, and something less under the dog-star, by reason of the dew, which lies heavy on men taken by the scurvy.

LUC. [To FIRST APP.]

Methinks the Fool is a fool.

FOOL And therefore, by auricular deduction, am I own twin to the Lady Lucrezia!

[Sings.]

When pears hang green on the garden wall With a nid, and a nod, and a niddy-niddy-o Then prank you, lads and la.s.ses all, With a yea and a nay and a niddy-o.

But when the thrush flies out o' the frost With a nid, [etc.]

'Tis time for loons to count the cost, With a yea [etc.]

[Enter the PORTER.]

PORTER O my dear Mistress, there is one below Demanding to have instant word of thee.

I told him that your Ladyship was not At home. Vain perjury! He would not take Nay for an answer.

LUC.

Ah? What manner of man Is he?

PORTER A personage the like of whom Is wholly unfamiliar to my gaze.