David Rizzio

“ With one more look at David, Raissa hastened away.
It was only seldom and with great reluctance that David used to talk with me about Raissa and her family, especially since he had begun to expect his father's return. He could think of nothing but him, and how we should then live. He remembered him clearly, and used to describe him to me with great satisfaction: "Tall, strong: with one hand he could lift two hundred pounds. If he called, 'I say, boy!' the whole house could hear him. And such a man as he is—good and brave! I don't believe there's anything he's afraid of. ”

“ As if “low birth and indigent condition” have ever been, or will ever be, barriers sufficient to shut out genius and talent from the road to greatness. But Rizzio was in truth far from being of that officious, conceited, and encroaching disposition, which Buchanan has ascribed to him. Sir James Melville, who knew him well, gives quite an opposite impression of his character. He mentions, that not without some fear, Rizzio lamented his state to him, and asked his council how to conduct himself. ”

“ ADRIEL
How?
What reason can be? women are not clear;
And least unto themselves. ISHUI
Or to their fools. [He goes to curtains and draws out Adah.]
Your mistress, Merab, girl, whom does she love?
Unclench your hands. ADAH
I hate her. ISHUI
Insolent!
Answer; I am not milky Jonathan.
Answer; and for the rest—You hear? ADAH
She loves—
The shepherd David! ADRIEL
Who, girl? ADAH
I care not!
She is unkind; I wilt not spy for her
On Michal, and I’ll tell her secrets all!
And David does not love her—and she raves. ISHUI
Off to your sleep; now off— [Makes to strikes her.]
ADRIEL
Ishui, no. ”

“ Ever since that whimsical scholar had first taken kindly notice of the boy-tradesman, there had been a growing friendship between the two; and of late years Lord Driffield's interest in David's development and career had become particularly warm and cordial. He had himself largely contributed to the subtler sides of that development, had helped to refine the ambitions and raise the standards of the growing intellect; his advice, owing to his lifelong commerce with and large possession of books, had often been of great practical use to the young man ”

“ Being not only a scientific musician, but a good penman, well acquainted with French and Italian, supple and intelligent, Rizzio contrived to make himself generally useful, and was, in 1564, appointed French secretary to the queen. Some designing nobles, jealous of the favor enjoyed by this foreigner, and likewise desirous of effecting a permanent breach between Darnley and the queen, persuaded him that Rizzio was the author of the queen’s displeasure, and engaged him in a plot to murder him, which was thus carried into execution. ”

“ David had served him, once or twice, in Half Street, and had sent a special notice of his start and his intentions to Benet's Park, the Driffields' 'place.' Lord Driffield's first visit left him quivering with excitement, for the earl had a way of behaving as though everybody else were not only his social, but his intellectual equal—even a lad of twenty, with his business to learn. He would sit pleasantly smoking and asking questions—a benevolent, shabby person, eager to be informed. ”

“ The most important thing is that you should live yourself."
"I wish I knew how to spell and write properly," said Raissa, blushing slightly.
When she blushed she became at once amazingly pretty.
"It may be of use. Father in his time wrote a beautiful hand: he taught me it, too. Now he can hardly scrawl the letters."
"You must live for me," answered David, lowering his voice and gazing at her steadily. Raissa looked up quickly and blushed more deeply. "Live and spell as you please.—The devil! here's that old witch coming." (By the witch David meant my aunt.) "What brings her this way? ”

“ Rizzio started and a smile broke at the corners of his lips.
“Oh! You realize, then, that there is something else—something——?” He paused.
“I realize nothing,” growled the General. “Realization, Rizzio, is the one banality of existence! Uncertainty is the only thing worth while. When one is certain of anything it ceases to be interesting. That is why Herr Hammersley, whom you call a fool in one breath and a genius in the next, excites my profound attention. Come, I think you will agree with me that he is worth it.”
“I do not like Hammersley, Excellenz.” ”

“ We lived pleasantly until our misfortunes came upon us. They say his hair is become perfectly gray, but it used to be light red like mine. He's a powerful man."
David would never agree that we were going to live in Riasan. ”

“ The handsome, intelligent young fellow, with his out-of-the-way strains of knowledge, with his frank self-conceit and his equally frank ignorance, caught the fancy of those who stayed to talk with him. A certain number of persons had been already taken with him in Purcell's shop, and were now vastly amused by the lad's daring and the ambitious range of his first stock.
As for Lord Driffield, on the first occasion when he had dropped in he had sat for an hour at least, talking and smoking cigarettes across David's primitive counter. ”

“ He asserts that Rizzio was brought over from Italy by James V., lived twenty years in Scotland, and thus had sufficient time to get a knowledge of the style, and ample opportunities for improving it. It is well known, on the contrary, that Rizzio came over in the suite of the Piedmontese Ambassador in 1561, 19 years after the death of James V., and was little more than four years in Scotland. That he ever composed anything in any style has yet to be shown. Tassoni, who was born the year of Rizzio's death (1565) , and who speaks of Scotish music—as has already been noticed—entirely ignores him. ”

“ Her husband, JOHN, seated at the table in his shirt-sleeves with his head in his hands, reads hard at the paper and tries to look unconcerned.
DAVID. Aw—but, Lizzie—
LIZZIE (with splendid firmness) . It's nae use, feyther. I'm no' gaein' to gie in to the wean. Ye've been tellin' yer stories to him nicht after nicht for dear knows how long, and he's gettin' to expect them.
DAVID. Why should he no' expect them?
LIZZIE. It disna do for weans to count on things so. He's layin' up a sad disappointment for himself yin o' these days.
DAVID. He's gettin' a sad disappointment the noo. ”

“ Roman, Irish, Scotch, and ancient Anglican Martyrologies. His festival was celebrated in England with rulers of the choir, and nine lessons. Pope Callixtus II. ordered him to be venerated throughout the Christian world. There are no very ancient accounts of S. David, The oldest is a life existing in MS. at Utrecht, which was not known to Usher or Colgan. Usher cites Ricimer, Giraldus, and John of Tynemouth, a Durham priest, who collected the Acts of the English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish Saints, and who lived in 1360. Ricimer was Bishop of S. David's about 1085, and died about 1096. ”

“ Then, when David had fallen into the trap, and was holding forth—proud, it might be, of certain bits of knowledge which no one else in Manchester possessed—Lord Driffield would throw in a gentle comment, and then another and another, till the trickle became a stream, and the young man would fall blankly listening, his mouth opening wider and wider. When it was over, and the earl, with his draggled umbrella, his disappeared, David sat, crouched on his wooden stool, consumed with hot ambition and wonder. How could a man know so much—and an earl, who didn't want it? ”

“ John Rizzio was wise in the ways of women and the particular woman now thrown upon his mercy, even though she was the one woman in the world he had thought the most desirable, was to be treated with the delicate consideration due to her unfortunate dependence upon him. ”

“ This Rizzio was by birth an Italian of very low degree; a man of crouched stature, and of an uncomely physiognomy, being yellow-skinned and black-haired, with a beak-nose, and little quick eyes of a free and familiar glance, but shrewd withal, and possessed of a pleasant way of winning facetiously on the ladies, to the which his singular skill in all manner of melodious music helped not a little ”

“ The girl’s companion, his back half turned to David, his face still expressive of amusement, and looking straight before him at the ripple of water kissing the pebbles at his feet, spoke in a loud, harsh voice:
“Una,” he said, “remember the schoolmaster! This man’s world is not ours. What does he know of Rysdale?”
She looked down confusedly, aware that her uncle—for it was Harold Leighton—without seeing this stranger who had so quickly aroused her interest, spoke as if he knew who he was and all about him. When she looked again, David was gone. ”

“ Now he has gone to sleep." Raissa suddenly drew a deep sigh: "Oh, David! David!" She drew her half-closed hand across her [pg 605] brow and eyes, a gesture graceful and sad, like all her movements.
"But you must take care of yourself," said David. "You can't have slept at all; and why cry? It won't help matters."
"I have no time to cry," answered Raissa.
"The rich can indulge themselves in the luxury of crying," said David.
Raissa started to go, but she turned back: "We are thinking of selling the yellow shawl: you know the one that belonged to mother's trousseau. ”

“ So the whole party, Lucy timidly attaching herself to Mrs. Shepton, moved slowly through a long suite of beautiful rooms, till they reached the great cedar-fitted library, which was Lord Driffield's paradise. Here was every book to be desired of the scholar to make him wise, and every chair to make him comfortable. Lord Driffield went to one of the bookcases, and took a vellum-bound book, found a passage in it, and showed it to David Grieve. Canon Aylwin and the Dean pressed in to look, and they all fell back into the recess of a great oriel, talking earnestly. ”

“ Indeed, when David has ceased speaking, one waits involuntarily for Ananias to begin in his shrill treble tones. He is a hopeless child to correct, for when you imagine you are scolding him very severely, and you look for the tears of penitence to flow, he puts up his little face with an angelic smile, and lisps, "Tiss me."
Drusilla, whose slight acquaintance you have already made, is three and comes from Savage Cove. The father has gradually become blind and the mother is crippled. Drusilla keeps us all on the alert, for we never know what she will be doing next. ”

“ Deeper than all the skill of time can draw,
I spare thee not the furrowed face of pain....
Delirious wings of hope that fluttered up,
At last to fall! [Moves to go.]
MICHAL
David! DAVID
Farewell! MICHAL
... You must not! DAVID
Peace to you—peace and joy! MICHAL
You must not go! [He turns. She sways, then reaches out her arms. As irresistibly they move toward each other, Doeg and Merab appear through the curtains. Michal utters a low cry. They vanish.]
MICHAL
[In numb affright] Merab and Doeg! DAVID
Yet what matter, now! ”

“ I felt no anxiety about his Rochester engagement. My sister's excitement, however, had communicated itself to me, and all during the concert my thoughts were with her whose fierce love and hope were now being fulfilled. David's violin charmed the audience and he was acclaimed with an enthusiasm seldom accorded a young artist in his native town.
Arriving in New York, I was approached by the Newspaper Enterprise Association, controlled by the Scripps-Howard newspapers, for an essay on how the American people could help establish peace on earth and good will towards men. ”

“ Riccio's place as French secretary to the queen was given to his brother Joseph, who, a youth of eighteen years of age, arrived in Scotland shortly after David's death in the suite of Mauvissière, the French ambassador (Randolph to Cecil, 25 April 1566, in Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1566–8, No. 305) . It would appear that in January 1566–7 Joseph Riccio had been guilty of some indiscretion, of which he wished to lay the blame on one Joseph Lutyni, then in England on the way to France. ”

“ To give a few sketches of the character and habits of David Ritchie, and contrast them with those of the more sublime Elshender, will, it is hoped, prove a more grateful entertainment.
David Ritchie was a pauper, who lived the greater part of a long life, and finally died so late as the year 1811, in a solitary cottage situated in the romantic glen of Manor in Peebles-shire. This vale, now rendered classic ground by the abode of the Black Dwarf, was otherwise formerly remarkable as having been the retirement of the illustrious and venerable Professor Ferguson. ”

“ Between the crags to the East is the far blue of the Dead Sea; and still beyond, bathed in the waning afternoon, stretch the purple shores of Moab. During the act the scene grows crimson with sunset and a thunder-cloud rises over the sea.
Lying on a pallet of skins near the cliff’s verge, DAVID tosses feverishly. Three of his followers and a lad, who serves him, are gathered toward the front, ragged, hungry, and hunted, in altercation over a barley-cake. ”

“ Rizzio is a spy of Germany!”
“Impossible! John Rizzio——” she whispered aghast.
He laughed.
“The pot callin’ the kettle black—what? It’s the truth.”
“But Rizzio! What object would he have in betraying England? A man of his position!”
“That’s the kind of men England’s enemies want,” put in Cyril dryly.
“But he has no need of money. Not money. Impossible!”
“No, not money. There are other things that John Rizzio values more than money.”
“What?”
He caught her by the arm impressively to make his meaning clear. “You don’t know the passion of collectors. ”