GENNARO.. Let us drink, gentlemen! (They bring their glasses together.) MAFFIO. To thy health, Gennaro! and mayst thou soon recover thy mother! May God hear thee! GENNARO. (All drink, except Gubetta, who throws his wine over his shoulder.) MAFFIO (in a whisper to Jeppo). This time, at all events, Jeppo, I saw it clearly. Come, a song, gentlemen! I am going to sing you a song worth all the sonnets of the Marquis Oloferno. I swear, by the good old scull of my father, that I did not make the song, and that I have not wit enough to make two rhymes jingle at the end of an idea. Here's my song—it's addressed to St. Peter, the celebrated porter of Paradise, and it has for its subject that delicate thought that God's heaven belongs to the drinkers. JEPPO (to Maffio, whispering). He is more than drunk; the fellow's a drunkard. All (except Gennaro). The song! the song! GUBETTA (singing). St. Peter, St. Peter, ho! To the drinker, who'll bring Domino! Domino! All in chorus (except Gennaro.) (They clash their glasses together, and laugh loudly. Voice without. Sanctum et terribile nomen ejus, initium sapientiæ timor Domini! JEPPO (laughing still louder). Listen, gentlemen; by the body of Bacchus, while we are singing "to drink," Echo is singing "to pray!" Listen! All. Voice without (a little nearer). Nisi Dominus custodierit civitatem, frustra vigilat qui custodit eam. (They all burst out laughing.) MAFFIO. It's some procession passing. GENNARO. At midnight!-that's a little late. JEPPO. Bah! Go on, Monsieur de Belverana. Voice without, and which comes nearer and nearer. Oculos habent et non videbunt, nares habent et non odorabunt, aures habent et non audient. (All laughing louder and louder.) JEPPO. Trust the monks for bawling! MAFFIO. Look, Gennaro; the lamps are going out here—a minute more, and we shall be in darkness. (The lamps get pale, as if for want of oil.) Voice without, still nearer. Manus habent et non palpabunt, pedes habent et non ambulabunt, non clamabunt in gutture suo. GENNARO. It seems to me as if the voices approached. JEPPO. It seems to me as if the procession were at this moment under our windows. Let's drink to the health of him they are going to bury. GUBETTA. How do you know whether there be not many? JEPPO. Well, then, let's drink to all their healths! APOSTOLO (to Gubetta). Bravo! and let's continue our invocation to St. Peter. GUBETTA. Speak, then, more politely; one says Mr. St. Peter, honourable holder of the patent place of jailer, and door-keeper of Paradise. (He sings.) St. Peter, St. Peter, ho! To the drinker, who'll bring Gloria Domino! GUBETTA. To the drunkard, who, stanch Is't a man-or a cask? All (in clashing their glasses together, and laughing loudly.) Gloria Domino! (The great door at the farther end of the stage opens silently to its full width. You see within-an immense room hung with black-lit with torches-and with a large silver cross at the end of it. A long line of penitents in white and black, and whose eyes are visible through their hoods, cross on head, and torch in hand, enter by the great door, chanting in an ominous and loud voice De profundis ad te Domine! (Then they arrange themselves on the two sides of the room, and stand immoveable as statues, while the young gentlemen regard them stupified. What does this mean? MAFFIO. JEPPO (forcing a laugh). It's some joke.-I'll lay my charger against a pig, and my name of Liveretto against the name of Borgia, that it is our charming comtesses, who have disguised themselves in this fashion to try our courage, and that if we lift up one of those hoods, we shall find under it the fresh and wicked face of a pretty dame. Let's see! (He raises, laughingly, one of the capuchins, and stands petrified at seeing under it the livid face of a monk, who stands motionless; the torch in his hand, and his eyes bent to the ground. cowl fall, and totters back. This begins to be strange! MAFFIO. He lets the I don't know why my blood chills in my veins (The penitents sing with a loud voice.) Conquassabit capita in terrâ multorum! JEPPO. What a terrible snare! Our swords, our swords! Ah! gentlemen, we are with the devil here. ACT III. SCENE II. The same. DONNA LUCRECE (appearing of a sudden, robed in black, on the threshold of the door). You are my guests! All (except Gennaro, who observes every thing from the recess of a window, where he is not seen by Donna Lucrèce). Lucrèce Borgia! DONNA LUCRECE. It's some days ago since all of you whom I see here repeated that name in triumph. To-day you repeat it in dread. Yes, you may look at me with your eyes glassed by terror. It's I, gentlemen! I come to announce to you a piece of news-you are poisoned, all of you, my lords; here is not one of you who has an hour to live. Don't stir! The room adjoining is filled with pikes. It's my turn now to speak high, and to crush your heads beneath my heel. Jeppo Liveretto, go join thy uncle Vitelli whom I had poniarded in the caves of the Vatican! Ascanio Petrucci, go rejoin your cousin Pandolfo, whom I had assassinated in order to rob him of his town! Oloferno Vitellozzo, thy uncle expects thee-thou knowest that Jago d'Appiani whom I had poisoned at a fête. Maffio Orsini, go talk of me in another world to thy brother Gravina, whom I had strangled in his sleep. Apostolo Gazella, I had thy father Francisco Gazella beheaded. I had thy cousin Alphonso of Arragon slain, say'st thou:-go and join them! On my soul, I think the supper I gave you at Ferrara is worth the ball you gave me at Venice. Fête for fête, my lords! JEPPO. This is a rude waking, Maffio' MAFFIO. Let us think of God! DONNA LUCrece. Ah! my young friends of last carnival, you did not |