House of Borgia

“ The Borgias were mortal enemies of the Gaetani, who narrowly escaped the fate prepared for them by Alexander VI and his terrible son. Beautiful Sermoneta and all the great fiefs in the Maremma fell into the maw of the Borgias, and your ancestors either found death at their hands or were driven into exile. Donna Lucretia became mistress of Sermoneta, and eventually her son, Rodrigo of Aragon, inherited the estates of the Gaetani.
Centuries have passed, and a beautiful and unfortunate woman may be forgiven for this confiscation of the appanages of your house. ”

“ In various places in the interior, and also without, on the towers of the stronghold, the same arms may be seen carved in stone. There are also two stones, with the arms very carefully chiseled, set in the walls of the entrance hall of the town house of Nepi, which were originally in the castle where they had been placed by Lucretia's orders. The Borgia arms and those of the house of Aragon, which Lucretia, as Duchess of Biselli, had adopted, are united under a ducal crown. ”

“ ROME ! A pleasant moonlight evening. The hour nine. The scene a splendidly-furnished apartment, in the palace of the Borgias. The only occupant of the room was an almost gloriously beautiful maiden, of seventeen summers, with hair as dark as night, and eyes as bright as the peerless diadems of her own native clime ! And she she was Lucretia Borgia ! ”

“ Not ever, not like Joffré, for a wife.
You shall not sit there looking lone—beside you,
Father, a power we have not measured yet,
That we shall measure. After all my wars,
And all my wars will be to draw you peace,
I shall return.
Kiss me.
ALEXANDER.
My heart,
No blessing—oh, a kiss!
SCENE III
A room in the Palace of Santa Maria in Porticu belonging to Donna Lucrezia Borgia d’Aragon. Donna Lucrezia sits at the head of a couch; Duke Cesare de Valentinois lies along it. They are both dressed in white satin, embroidered with gold and pearls.
LUCREZIA.
You have seen the little mother? ”

“ CESARE.
You startled me. How lost!
[He closes his eyes.
LUCREZIA.
[Stealing away to Adriana.] He is dreaming; he has quite forgotten me.
Come, Adriana, soft! As an astronomer
He must not be disturbed: he is quite lost.
SCENE V
The Pope’s Bedroom in the Borgia Apartments at the Vatican.
The Lord Alexander VI. is extended asleep on the bed.
The Lord Cardinal Bartolomeo of Segovia and Monsignore Gaspare Poto.
CARDINAL SEGOVIA.
I thank God for this sleep. ”

“ In Ferrara, where the Borgias reign. Where the cruel Duke Alfonzo reigns, where also his cruel wife is Duchess, the terrible Lucrezia Borgia.
See, in this grand square, there is the palace of the duke. Mark his arms carved over the gateway, the awful name Borgia swelling from the stone beneath.
The new Venetian ambassador with his suite had arrived.
It is night-time, and plot and murder are awake.
Look! is not this the figure of the tall, proud-looking man who watched the Borgia from a gondola in Venice. And the man with him, ’tis he who told of Gennaro. ”

“ He climbed to a high window and looked down into the moonlight. "The Nonesi in force. Cesare Borgia and the troops. Hist! He is going to speak to them; they are holding him up." He strained to listen—and it seems that he heard.
"Citizens," said the Borgia, in fact, "I pledge you my sacred word that the Duchess shall be delivered to you whole and in honour. She shall be in the Palace within an hour. The Secretary who has her there, who stabbed his master and (as I learn from Milan) hatched all the plot, must be left to me. Madonna Maria saved my life at the peril of her own. ”

“ The Borgian Bull,
A victim at its feet. The flames are blown;
There will be sacrifice! It was a dream
I told to Messer Bernardino....
[To Poto.] Swift,
Come swiftly to the Vatican! Giovanni—
Well, is he dead, or will he yet return?
SCENE III
The Vatican: a room overlooking the Tiber. It is twilight.
Don Joffré Borgia and Donna Sancia d’Aragon, who is weeping, look out from a distant window; near at hand the Lord Cardinals Francesco Borgia and Bartolomeo of Segovia are also looking out.
The Lord Alexander VI. is pacing backward and forward.
ALEXANDER.
[Pausing by the Cardinals.] ”

“ No name could have been more welcome to the motley bands, for Borgia was by far the richest man in the College of Cardinals. With a rush like that of the whirlwind the crowds sped toward the Borgian palace and seized every movable thing to be found within its chambers. The cardinal, sure of his victory at the conclave, had removed every thing of great value but there was enough left to satisfy the savage plunderers.
In all the history of popedom there had never been an election like this which placed Roderigo Borgia on the so-called throne of St. Peter. ”

“ None so dreaded as Neri, the sorcerer, whose rare and subtle poisons were distilled in a secret room of the Borgia palace.
"A pity that the Duke della Varnese—worthy gentleman!—will suffer a heart attack before dawn."
"To commemorate the first visit of an Orsini to a Borgia—a little wine?"
"To your devastating charm!"
"Let your lips perfume the wine."
"We Borgia do not share with another."
"Let no man scorn so wise an example, sweet teacher!"
"The rose is richer by a great experience."
"We Borgia approve of cleverness in our friends—we have no clever enemies!" ”

“ Every emperor has left some vestige of his power, and so has every pope. The yesterdays of Rome may be taken almost literally.
Numerous are the souvenirs of the Borgias. Of some of them I have spoken in other chapters, but all of them are interesting and valuable to the historian. Next to the Borgia apartments in the Vatican, mentioned elsewhere at some length, the one building richest in Borgia memorials is the famous Castel Sant' Angelo. Alexander, though he had not even a conscience in embryo, never ceased to dread the Roman populace. ”

“ When all things take enchantment, even sin,
And pardon waits if one should sin too deep
[Pointing to the Pope.] Of Heaven itself, shall we not be content?
Shall we not cease from talking?
ALFONSO.
[Vehemently drawing her to his breast.] While he sleeps.
SCENE III
An apartment next to the Borgia Tower, which is reached by a passage on which the door gives. Don Michelotto Corella stands in the centre, the door being open. Suddenly Duke Cesare de Valentinois della Romagna comes to him in a blaze of passion.
CESARE.
Eigh, Michelotto, shall a vermin kill? ”

“ Ah, Paynim, had you been chosen for me instead of Joffré!
CESARE. You have chosen me instead of Joffré.{37}
SANCIA.
My little Joffré is no more to me than the pet foal of the stables. If His Holiness would grant divorce....
CESARE.
What may not His Holiness grant at my suggestion! Commend me by letter to your cousin Carlotta. I shall meet her in France; persuade her to desire me, and your Ippolito shall be safe. I would marry Naples, the rightful line.
SANCIA.
For this you have flaunted me through the stone-staring church! You Borgia! Always the trap in your mighty simpleness. ”

“ You hold his place, while his son, at the Borgia’s footstool, eats in Rome the husks of charity.”
Frà Girolamo answered sternly, while the light of enthusiasm kindled to red fire in his eyes.
“Who are you who speak for the wicked? Piero de’ Medici abused his power; he would have sold our liberty to the French–lustful, vain, hollow; he was banished Florence for his sins [192] and a price put upon his head. Woe to this city if he returns! At the Borgia’s footstool, you say! It is fitting that such a prince should fly to such a Pope!” ”

“ In the study of the history of the Borgias, we repeat, there has been too much acceptance without question, too much taking for granted of matters whose incredibility frequently touches and occasionally oversteps the confines of the impossible.
One man knew Cesare Borgia better, perhaps, than did any other contemporary, of the many who have left more or less valuable records; for the mind of that man was the acutest of its age, one of the acutest Italy and the world have ever known. ”

“ In the Loggia several Cardinals, the Lords Francesco Borgia, Bartolomeo of Segovia, Giovanni Michele, Gianstefano Ferreri and Giambattista Orsini.
In the Hall are Donna Adriana Orsini, Donna Lucrezia Borgia d’Aragon, Donna Sancia Borgia, Donna Giulia Farnese and Don Alfonso, Prince Duke of Bisceglia.
DONNA ADRIANA.
Already looking out;
The balcony already crammed with watchers,
That strain beyond the roofs! But this impatience
Is almost genius in its quality.
Poor children, you were hurried from your beds.
{55} GIULIA.
As if there were a fire ”

“ CESARE.
Publish wide the news;
Shout his escape! Send doctors, send the best—
The Bishop of Venosa.
[Exit into the Pope’s chamber.
[Cardinal Pallavicini goes out, as Cardinals and Physicians pass in.
After a while Donna Lucrezia Borgia d’Aragon enters and stands waiting till some one passes out of the bed-chamber.
CARDINAL SEGOVIA.
[Passing out.] Your Excellency, the Pope’s Holiness
Has at the very edge of death been spared.
LUCREZIA.
I am so thankful! ”

“ Never, even in the later years of her life, does she appear as a woman of unusual genius; she had none of the characteristics of the viragos Catarina Sforza and Ginevra Bentivoglio; nor did she possess the deceitful soul of an Isotta da Rimini, or the spirituelle genius of Isabella Gonzaga. If she had not been the daughter of Alexander VI and the sister of Cæsar Borgia, she would have been unnoticed by the historians of her age or, at most, would have been mentioned only as one of the many charming women who constituted the society of Rome. ”

“ I urge the fulfilment of your promise now, this very hour."
" And what if I refuse ? " asked Borgia, with assumed carelessness, as an evil look appeared in his dark eyes.
"Refuse! You dare not; nor is it wise in you to trifle longer with me. Mercado is still in a loathsome dun- geon "
" Where he will remain till he becomes food for worms," interrupted the Pope, with a look of infernal tri- umph. " Dare not ! There 's not a heaven I dare not defy, a hell I dare not brave, when, by so doing, I can avenge the injuries I received at the hands of your mother." ”

“ He appears to be sleeping, except that now and again he slowly rolls from hand to hand a gold ball of perfumes. His Spanish page Juanito Grasica is asleep. Behind the couch, across a table, the great ceremonial sword lies naked, and near it is a new purchase, the sleeping Cupid with broken foot of Messer Buonarotti.
Donna Lucrezia Borgia enters with Donna Adriana Orsini, whose hand she clasps: she looses it, and, after a moment’s pause, comes to her brother.
LUCREZIA.
Madonna Adriana brought me here ”

“ We will do it, Mardocchi--we will do it; for, although there is a very palpable hint in Borgia's missive that no harm is to be done to the cousin of King Louis, yet, perhaps, we can so manage that he shall find means to harm himself. He has an army at his back to help Cæsar Borgia in carving out a principality from the heart of Italy; but the vicars of the Holy See, and I as the humblest of them, must reverently crave his Holiness to spare us the burden of the prefect's troops. We will receive him gladly with a noble train, but methinks we cannot admit an armed French force within our walls. ”

“ In that he failed, nor could any artist have succeeded. Being honest with his artistic conscience he produced the finest type of Venus to be found in Rome to this day, the many classic creations all included. Had he done nothing else, this speaking statue of Borgia's last and most beautiful concubine would entitle him to rank high among the sculptors of any age. He has made the "Venus of the Vatican" breathe and live and cast her spell on every beholder, even the pious pilgrims who gaze at the sight in wonder and in absolute, if blessed, ignorance of the facts. ”

“ Paganism and the devil triumphed with. the triumph of Popery. If Borgia was a criminal every one of the purpled dignitaries that were present when he ascended the papal throne was his fellow criminals.
The cardinals showered their congratulations on him and Sforza, the man whose vote had fetched the highest price, solemnly declared amid the murmured approval of his colleagues in the purple that the election had manifestly been "the work of God, who had chosen the worthiest among the cardinals to represent Him and to guide His Church." For once in his life Borgia played the hypocrite. ”

“ The tyrant of Bologna, who owed his escape from Cæsar wholly to the protection of the French, spared nothing to honor his enemy's sister. Accompanied by several hundred riders, he led her in triumph through the city, where the arms of the Borgias, of Cæsar, the Pope, and Lucretia, and those of France, and of the Este met her eye on every side. The proud matron Ginevra, surrounded by a large number of noble ladies, received Lucretia at the portals of her magnificent palace. How this famous [Pg 236] woman, the aunt of Giovanni Sforza of Pesaro, must in her soul have hated this Borgia! ”

“ However, the cat survived with eight of its lives. Then a rabbit a friend of Giuseppe's wanted to get rid of was given the rest. He also lived and thrived. After these experiments we don't think much of Borgia poisons.
One of the rooms behind the salon (so large that it is divided into four) has the most beautiful frescoed ceiling. It is a pity that it is so dark there that one cannot see it properly. Perhaps originally it was a chapel and the frescoes were easier seen when the altar-candles were burning. But can one imagine a Borgia needing a chapel or a Borgia ever praying? ”