Limbo and Other Essays Part 12

A marvellous story, dear Master. And I thank you from my heart for having told it me. I always loved you, and I thought I knew you. I know you better still, now. You are--a most magnanimous prince.

DUKE

Alas, dear lad, I am but a poor prisoner of my duties; a poorer prisoner, and a sadder far, than there in Barbary----O Diego, how I have longed for her! How deeply I still long, sometimes! But I open my eyes, force myself to stare reality in the face, whenever her image comes behind closed lids, driving her from me----And to end my confession. At the beginning, Diego, there seemed in thy voice and manner something of _her_; I saw her sometimes in thee, as children see the elves they fear and hope for in stains on walls and flickers on the path. And all thy wondrous power, thy miraculous cure--nay, forgive what seems ingrat.i.tude--was due, Diego, to my sick fancy making me see glances of her in thy eyes and hear her voice in thine. Not music but love, love's delusion, was what worked my cure.

DIEGO

Do you speak truly, Master? Was it so? And now?

DUKE

Now, dear lad, I am cured--completely; I know bushes from ghosts; and I know thee, dearest friend, to be Diego.

DIEGO

When these imaginations still held you, my Lord, did it ever happen that you wondered: what if the bush had been a ghost; if Diego had turned into--what was she called?----

DUKE

Magdalen. My fancy never went so far, good Diego. There was a grain of reason left. But if it had----Well, I should have taken Magdalen's hand, and said, "Welcome, dear sister. This is a world of spells; let us repeat some. Become henceforth my brother; be the Duke of Mantua's best and truest friend; turn into Diego, Magdalen."

_The_ DUKE _presses_ DIEGO'S _arm, and, letting it go, walks away into the moonlight with an enigmatic air. A long pause_.

Hark, they are singing within; the idle pages making songs to their ladies' eyebrows. Shall we go and listen?

(_They walk in the direction of the palace_.)

And (_with a little hesitation_) that makes me say, Diego, before we close this past of mine, and bury it for ever in our silence, that there is a little Moorish song, plaintive and quaint, she used to sing, which some day I will write down, and thou shalt sing it to me--on my deathbed.

DIEGO

Why not before? Speaking of songs, that mandolin, though out of tune, and vilely played, has got hold of a ditty I like well enough. Hark, the words are Tuscan, well known in the mountains. (_Sings_.)

I'd like to die, but die a little death only, I'd like to die, but look down from the window; I'd like to die, but stand upon the doorstep; I'd like to die, but follow the procession; I'd like to die, but see who smiles and weepeth; I'd like to die, but die a little death only.

(_While_ DIEGO _sings very loud, the mandolin inside the palace thrums faster and faster. As he ends, with a long defiant leap into a high note, a burst of applause from the palace_.)

DIEGO (_clapping his hands_)

Well sung, Diego!

ACT IV

_A few weeks later. The new music room in the Palace of Mantua. Windows on both sides admitting a view of the lake, so that the hall looks like a galley surrounded by water. Outside, morning: the lake, the sky, and the lines of poplars on the banks, are all made of various textures of luminous blue. From the gardens below, bay trees raise their flowering branches against the windows. In every window an antique statue: the Mantuan Muse, the Mantuan Apollo, etc. In the walls between the windows are framed panels representing allegorical triumphs: those nearest the spectator are the triumphs of Chast.i.ty and of Fort.i.tude. At the end of the room, steps and a bal.u.s.trade, with a harpsichord and double ba.s.ses on a dais. The roof of the room is blue and gold; a deep blue ground, constellated with a gold labyrinth in relief. Round the cornice, blue and gold also, the inscription_: "RECTAS PETO," _and the name_ Ferdinandus Mantuae Dux.

_The_ PRINCESS HIPPOLYTA _of Mirandola, cousin to the_ DUKE; _and_ DIEGO. HIPPOLYTA _is very young, but with the strength and grace, and the candour, rather of a beautiful boy than of a woman. She is dazzlingly fair; and her hair, arranged in waves like an antique amazon's, is stiff and l.u.s.trous, as if made of threads of gold. The brows are wide and straight, like a man's; the glance fearless, but virginal and almost childlike_. HIPPOLYTA _is dressed in black and gold, particoloured, like Mantegna's d.u.c.h.ess. An old man, in scholar's gown, the_ Princess's Greek Tutor, _has just introduced_ DIEGO _and retired_.

DIEGO

The Duke your cousin's greeting and service, ill.u.s.trious damsel. His Highness bids me ask how you are rested after your journey hither.

PRINCESS

Tell my cousin, good Signor Diego, that I am touched at his concern for me. And tell him, such is the virtuous air of his abode, that a whole night's rest sufficed to right me from the fatigue of two hours' journey in a litter; for I am new to that exercise, being accustomed to follow my poor father's hounds and falcons only on horseback. You shall thank the Duke my cousin for his civility. (PRINCESS _laughs_.)

DIEGO

(_bowing, and keeping his eyes on the_ PRINCESS _as he speaks_)

His Highness wished to make his fair cousin smile. He has told me often how your ill.u.s.trious father, the late Lord of Mirandola, brought his only daughter up in such a wise as scarcely to lack a son, with manly disciplines of mind and body; and that he named you fittingly after Hippolyta, who was Queen of the Amazons, virgins unlike their vain and weakly s.e.x.

PRINCESS

She was; and wife of Theseus. But it seems that the poets care but little for the like of her; they tell us nothing of her, compared with her poor predecessor, Cretan Ariadne, she who had given Theseus the clue of the labyrinth. Methinks that maze must have been mazier than this blue and gold one overhead. What say you, Signor Diego?

DIEGO (_who has started slightly_)

Ariadne? Was she the predecessor of Hippolyta? I did not know it. I am but a poor scholar, Madam; knowing the names and stories of G.o.ds and heroes only from songs and masques. The Duke should have selected some fitter messenger to hold converse with his fair learned cousin.

PRINCESS (_gravely_)

Speak not like that, Signor Diego. You may not be a scholar, as you say; but surely you are a philosopher. Nay, conceive my meaning: the fame of your virtuous equanimity has spread further than from this city to my small dominions. Your precocious wisdom--for you seem younger than I, and youths do not delight in being very wise--your moderation in the use of sudden greatness, your magnanimous treatment of enemies and detractors; and the manner in which, disdainful of all personal advantage, you have surrounded the Duke my cousin with wisest counsellors and men expert in office--such are the results men seek from the study of philosophy.

DIEGO

(_at first astonished, then amused, a little sadly_)

You are mistaken, n.o.ble maiden. 'Tis not philosophy to refrain from things that do not tempt one. Riches or power are useless to me. As for the rest, you are mistaken also. The Duke is wise and valiant, and chooses therefore wise and valiant counsellors.

PRINCESS (_impetuously_)

You are eloquent, Signor Diego, even as you are wise! But your words do not deceive me. Ambition lurks in every one; and power intoxicates all save those who have schooled themselves to use it as a means to virtue.

DIEGO

The thought had never struck me; but men have told me what you tell me now.

PRINCESS

Even Antiquity, which surpa.s.ses us so vastly in all manner of wisdom and heroism, can boast of very few like you. The n.o.blest souls have grown tyrannical and rapacious and foolhardy in sudden elevation. Remember Alcibiades, the beloved pupil of the wisest of all mortals. Signor Diego, you may have read but little; but you have meditated to much profit, and must have wrestled like some great athlete with all that baser self which the divine Plato has told us how to master.

DIEGO (_shaking his head_)

Alas, Madam, your words make me ashamed, and yet they make me smile, being so far of the mark! I have wrestled with nothing; followed only my soul's blind impulses.