The World's Greatest Books [Volumes 1-15, 17-20]

Pierre : So, then, all's over:

Venice has lost her freedom, I my life? No more! Farewell!

Duke : Say, will you make confession Of your vile deeds, and trust the Senate's mercy?

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Pierre: Cursed be your Senate! Cursed your constitution ! The curse of growing factions and divisions Still vex your councils, shake your public safety. Duke: Pardon, or death? Pierre : Death! Honourable death! Renault : Death's the best thing we ask, or you can

give. Duke: Break up the council. Captain, guard your prisoners! Jaffier, you are free, but these must wait for judgment.

[Exeunt all the Senators. Pierre : Come, where's my dungeon ? Lead me to my straw: It will not be the first time I've lodged hard To do the Senate service. Jaffier: Hold, one minute.

Pierre: Who's he disputes the judgment of the Senate ? Presumptuous rebel. On! [Strikes Jaffier.

Jaffier : I must be heard, I must have leave to speak. Thou hast disgraced me, Pierre, by a vile blow: Had not a dagger done thee nobler justice? But use me as thou wilt, thou canst not wrong me, For I am fallen beneath the basest injuries; Yet look upon me with an eye of mercy; Shut not thy heart against a friend's repentance.

Pierre: What whining monk art thou? What holy cheat That wouldst encroach upon my credulous ears? And canst thus vilely ? Hence, I know thee not! Jaffier: Not know me, Pierre? Pierre : No, know thee not. What art thou ? Jaffier: Jaffier, thy friend; thy once loved, valued

friend. Pierre: By Heavens, thou liest! The man so called, my friend,

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Was generous, honest, faithful, just and valiant,

Noble in mind, and in his person lovely,

Dear to my eyes, and tender to my heart:

But thou, a wretched, base, false, worthless coward;

Poor even in soul, and loathsome in thy aspect;

'All eyes must shun thee, and all hearts detest .thee.

Jaffier: I have not wronged thee; by these tears I have not, But still am honest, true, and hope, too, valiant; My mind still full of thee: therefore, still noble. Let not thine eyes, then, shun me; nor thy heart Detest me utterly. Oh, look upon me ! What shall I do—what say to make thee hear me ?

Pierre: Dar'st swear thou hast not wronged me? Whence these chains? Whence the vile death which I may meet this moment ? Whence this dishonour but from thee, thou false one?

Jaffier : All's true, yet grant one thing, and I've done asking.

Pierre: What's that?

Jaffier : To take thy life on such conditions The Council have proposed.

Pierre: Life! Ask my life? Confess? record myself A villain for the privilege to breathe, And carry up and down this cursed city A discontented and repining spirit? No! This vile world and I have long been jangling, And cannot part on better terms than now, When only men like thee are fit to live in't!

Jaffier: I'll weary out thy most unfriendly cruelty: Lie at thy feet and kiss them, though they spurn me, Till, wounded by my sufferings, thou relent, And raise me to thy arms with dear forgiveness.

Pierre: Art not a traitor, a most scandalous coward, Spiritless, void of honour, one who has sold Thy everlasting fame for shameless life?

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Jaffier: All, all, and more, much more: my faults are numberless.

Pierre : And wouldst thou have me live on terms like thine ?

Jaffier : The safety of thy life was all I aimed at; In recompense for faith and trust so broken.

Pierre : I scorn it more, because preserved by thee: 'And as when first my foolish heart took pity On thy misfortunes, sought thee in thy miseries, Relieved thy wants, and raised thee from thy state To rank thee in my list of noble friends, 'All I received in surety for thy truth Were unregarded oaths, and this—this dagger, Given with a worthless pledge thou since hast stolen, So I restore it back to thee again; Swearing by all those powers which thou hast violated, Never from this cursed hour to hold communion, Friendship, or interest with thee. Take it. Farewell! For now I owe thee nothing.

Jaffier: My eyes won't lose the sight of thee, But languish after thine, and ache with gazing.

Pierre: Leave me! Nay, then thus—thus I throw thee from me, And curses, great as is thy falsehood, catch thee!

[Exeunt Pierre and conspirators, guarded.

Belvidera enters and tries to console Jaffier in his access of remorse and humiliation. She then tells him that the Senate has gone back on its word, and has issued warrants for the execution of the exempted conspirators, who are first to be racked and then broken on the wheel. In his agony, Jaffier at first tries to keep his vow by plunging the dagger into Belvidera's heart; but her caresses unman him, and, confessing himself a coward, he beseeches her to fall at her father's feet and not to rise till she has obtained the Senate's pardon for Pierre. 58

Act III

Scene I.—Belvidera becomes reconciled to her father and obtains from him a promise that he will do his best to have the lives of the conspirators spared. But Priuli's efforts prove unavailing, and in a final harrowing interviezv between Belvidera and Jaffier, the latter, torn between love for the partner of his domestic joys and hatred for the betrayer of his honour, bids his wife an everlasting farewell, telling her he goes to attend the execution of Pierre, who has desired to see him before he dies, and has offered him his last forgiveness.