Lucio

“ Lucio replied, that Claudio would gladly marry Juliet, but that the lord deputy had sentenced him to die for his offence; "Unless," said he, "you have the grace by your fair prayer to soften Angelo, and that is my business between you and your poor brother." "Alas," said Isabel, "what poor ability is there in me to do him good? I doubt I have no power to move Angelo." "Our doubts are traitors," said Lucio, "and make us lose the good we might often win, by fearing to attempt it. Go to lord Angelo! When maidens sue, and kneel, and weep, men give like gods." ”

“ A great chill froze Lucio's heart, and rooted him to the spot, as he thought:
"She does not suffer; she is resigned and tranquil."
He remained motionless as the doors were banged to and closed violently, while the orders for departure were transmitted briskly, and the locomotive whistled. Without stirring, he watched the train move, the carriage draw away where Lilian Temple sat, and the beloved face disappear behind the white veil. Then, in the suddenly empty station, when he was left alone, an immense bitterness invaded him, and bitterly he thought:
"She will forget me." ”

“ Exit Cesario.
List to me, Lucio: listen, brother dear, First playmate-child, tending whose innocence Myself learned motherhood. Shall I deny Youth to be loved and follow after love? There is a love breaks like a morning beam On the husht novice kneeling by his arms; And worse there is, whose kisses strangle love, Whose feet take hold of hell. My Lucio, Follow not that!
Lucio. Why, who—who hath maligned The Countess?
Regent Not maligned. Lucetta, here—
Lucio. Lucetta! Curse Lucetta and her tongue! Am I a child, to be nagged by waiting-maids?
Regent. No, but a man, and shall weigh evidence. ”

“ Lucio, the friend of Claudio, visited him in the prison, and Claudio said to him: “I pray you, Lucio, do me this kind service. Go to my sister Isabel, who this day proposes to enter the convent of Saint Clare; acquaint her with the danger of my state; implore her that she make friends with the strict deputy; bid her go herself to Angelo. I have great hopes in that; for she can discourse with prosperous art, and well she can persuade; besides, there is a speechless dialect in youthful sorrow such as moves men.” ”

“ It had been a different thing, however, when Messer Leonardo, the Duke’s own petted protégé, had proposed to introduce Lucio into the great picture of the Last Supper he was about to paint for the monks of Santa Maria delle Grazie. And as its divine protagonist! Here was service deliriously sanctified. Lucio must be enraptured to consecrate his young glowing beauty to an end so sublime. And he went, indeed, to the great Master’s atelier in the Palace, and was made the subject of innumerable studies, pending his appearance in the fresco. ”

“ I have fastened Lucio’s wedding-gift round my waist,—the beautiful snake of jewels that clings to me as though it were charged with an embrace from him,—ah! would I could cheat myself into so pleasing a fancy! ... I am trembling, but not with cold or fear,—it is simply an excitation of the nerves,——an instinctive recoil of flesh and blood at the near prospect of death.... How brilliantly the sun shines through my window!—its callous golden stare has watched so many tortured creatures die without so much as a cloud to dim its radiance by way of the suggestion of pity! ”

“ But from Lord Angelo by special charge.
Claud. Thus can the demigod Authority
115 Make us pay down for our offence by weight
The words of heaven;—on whom it will, it will;
On whom it will not, so; yet still ’tis just.
Re-enter Lucio and two Gentlemen.
Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio! whence comes this restraint?
Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty:
120 As surfeit is the father of much fast,
So every scope by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,
A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die. ”

“ It is as if I had taken her by the hand, led her up there to the Isola Persa, and pointing to the precipice had said to her—'Throw yourself down.' Thus am I guilty."
"Your reasonable grief blinds you, Lucio."
"No, no," he answered in his desperate voice, "I am [310] not blind, I am not mad. Time has passed over my sorrow: it has become vast and deep like a great, black lake which I have in the depths of my soul. I am neither mad nor blind. I exist, I live, I perform coldly and surely all the acts of life. ”

“ Let me go back to the time when love came to me,—love, ardent, passionate, and eternal! Ah, what wild joy thrilled through me! what mad ecstasy fired my blood!—what delirious dreams possessed my brain!—I saw Lucio,—and it seemed as if the splendid eyes of some great angel had flashed a glory in my soul! With him came his friend, the foil to his beauty,—the arrogant, self-satisfied fool of a millionaire, Geoffrey Tempest,—he who bought me, and who by virtue of his purchase, is entitled by law to call himself my husband ... ”

“ Lucetta, here, the ladder and the man.
What man she will not say. Cesario
Has tracked his footprint on her garden plots.
Must we say more?
Fulvia. No need. Her fingering mind Is a close cupboard turning all things rancid.
Lucio. Yea, for such wry-necks all the world's a lawn To peek and peer and pounce a sinful worm;
The fatter, the more luscious.
Regent. Lucio, This woman nought gainsays. ”

“ With these words, and a playful salutation, she passed out of the room into the garden, and stood on the lawn at a little distance from us, her white robes shimmering in the mellow autumnal twilight,—and Lucio, springing up from his seat, looked after her, clapping his hand down heavily on my shoulder.
“By Heaven!” he said softly, “A perfect woman! I should be a churl to withstand her,—or you, my good Geoffrey,”—and he regarded me earnestly—“I have led a very devil of a life since I saw you last,—it’s time I reformed,—upon my soul it is! ”

“ Lucio laughed aloud.
“How well you carry your fortunes, Geoffrey!” he said—“For a poor devil of a Grub-street hack who lately was at a loss for a sovereign, how perfectly you follow the fashions of your time! If there is one man more than another that moves me to wondering admiration it is he who asserts his wealth strenuously in the face of his fellows, and who comports himself in this world as though he could bribe death and purchase the good-will of the Creator. It is such splendid effrontery,—such superlative pride! ”

“ I am in doubt whether Shakespeare's thoughts reached so far into ecclesiastical disputes. Every commentator is warped a little by the tract of his own profession. The question is, whether the second gentleman has ever heard grace. The first gentleman limits the question to grace in metre. Lucio enlarges it to grace in any form or language. The first gentleman, to go beyond him, says, or in any religion, which Lucio allows, because the nature of things is unalterable; grace is as immutably grace, as his merry antagonist is a wicked villain. ”

“ They chose one in a remote corner of the vast dining-room, and the banality of the table was adorned by the dark gentians, the spiked orchids, and the fresh edelweiss; like two children, looking around and fondling each other's hands, they filled a vase and two glasses with them. Lucio had the two places changed; instead of facing Lilian, he wished to have her beside him and while the waiter withdrew to serve their lunch, seated at the little table, they were alone like two lovers for the first time. ”

“ Lucio however had, it appeared, not forgotten, and an advance telegram from him had placed certain caterers at Leamington on their mettle, with the result that we sat down to a feast as delicate and luxurious as any two epicures could desire.
“Now I want you to do me a favour, Geoffrey,”—said Lucio, during our luncheon—“You will scarcely need to reside here till after your marriage; you have too many engagements in town. ”

“ That, amid the general impunity, the mere telling of some ridiculous lies to the disguised Duke about himself, should draw down a disproportionate severity upon Lucio, the lively, unprincipled, fantastic jester and wag, who might well be let pass as a privileged character, makes the whole look more as if done in mockery of justice than in honour of mercy. Except, indeed, the noble unfolding of Isabella, scarce any thing turns out to our wish ”

“ I did not answer,—the silence around us was indeed impressive;—the warbling of the thrush had ceased, and only the lark’s clear voice pealing over-head, echoed sweetly through the stillness of the lane.
“In the clerical Heaven,” went on Lucio dreamily—“there are no birds. There are only conceited human souls braying forth ‘Alleluia’! ”

“ There's nothing to do," he repeated, with an even harder accent; "therefore I am going elsewhere."
"You travel to find women?" asked Lucio coldly, placing himself in unison with Galatà.
"For nothing else," affirmed the Prince of Campobello. "It is the only thing that interests me, pleases me, amuses me. I find nothing else better in life, such as it is," and he sighed lightly. ”

“ Lucio. I tell you, she's my sister!
Cesario. Well, an you will, bridle on that. Lord Lucio, You named the Countess Fulvia. To my sorrow, Two hours ago I called on her and laid her Under arrest.
Lucio. The devil! For what?
Cesario. For that A lady, whose lord keeps summer in the hills To nurse a gouty foot, should penalize His dutiful return by shutting doors And hanging out a ladder made of rope, Or prove its safety by rehearsing it Upon a heavier man.
Lucio. I'll go to her. Oh, this is infamous!
Cesario. Nay, be advised: No hardship irks the lady, save to sit At home and feed her sparrows ”

“ A burst of laughter broke from all the men. Lucio laughed softly with them.
“We all have, I hope, enough instruction in modern science to be aware that there is no such thing as a soul in existence”—he continued. “Therefore, in proposing it as a stake for this game at baccarat, I really propose less than one hair of your head, because the hair is a something, and the soul is a nothing! Come! Will you risk that non-existent quantity for the chance of winning a thousand pounds?”
The Viscount drained off the last drop of brandy, and turned upon us, his eyes flushing mingled derision and defiance. ”

“ His brows knitted,—his face expressed pride, scorn and sorrow.
“There is some mystery about you Lucio;”—I said—“Some grief or loss that your wealth cannot repair—and that makes you the strange being you are. ”

“ To hate himself, because he hath some part
Of woman in him; seems not to endure
To see, or to be seen of any woman,
Only, because he knows it is their nature
To wish to tast that which is most forbidden:
And with this shew he may the better compass
(And with far less suspition) his base ends.
Lucio. Upon my life 'tis so.
Duke. And I doe know,
Before his slain wife gave him that offence,
He was the greatest servant to that Sex
That ever was: what doth this Lady here
With him alone? why should he rail at her to me?
Lucio. Because your grace might not suspect.
Duke. ”

“ Lucio is one of those mixed characters, such as are often generated amidst the refinements and pollutions of urban society, in whom low and disgusting vices, and a frivolity still more offensive, are blended with engaging manners and some manly sentiments. ”

“ As matters stand, your attitude of the outraged husband is not only ridiculous,—it is unfashionable. I assure you I do not feel the slightest prick of conscience in saying I love Lucio,—any woman might be proud of loving him;—he, however, will not, or cannot love me,—we have had a ‘scene,’ and you have completed the dramatic effect by witnessing it,—there is no more to be said or done in the affair. ”

“ Lucio. Yes, marry, did I: but I was fain to forswear it; they would else have married me to the rotten medlar.
Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest 170 you well.
Lucio. By my troth, I’ll go with thee to the lane’s end: if bawdy talk offend you, we’ll have very little of it. Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr; I shall stick.
Exeunt.
IV. 4 Scene IV. A room in Angelo’s house. Enter Angelo and Escalus.
Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.
Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions show much like to madness: pray heaven his wisdom be not tainted! ”

“ It breaks into cheers as Count Lucio comes springing up to the terrace.
Enter Lucio.
Lucio. News! Where's the Regent? Eh? is Mass not said? Cesario, news! I rode across the dunes; A pilot—Nestore—you know the man— Came panting. Sixteen sail beyond the point! That's not a galley lost!
Crowd. Long live the Duke! ”

“ Vitelli, Brother,
Ev'n for your Fathers soul, your uncles blood,
As you do love my life: but last, and most
As you respect your own Honor, and Fame,
Throw down your sword; he is most valiant
That herein yields first.
Vit. Peace, you fool.
Cla. Why Lucio,
Do thou begin; 'tis no disparagement:
He's elder, and thy better, and thy valor
Is in his infancy.
Gen. Or pay it me,
To whom thou ow'st it: Oh, that constant time
Would but go back a week, then Lucio
Thou would'st not dare to fight.
Eug. Lucio, thy Mother,
[Pg 233] Thy Mother begs it: throw thy sword down first. ”

“ When presently I walked off the course with Lucio, who as usual seemed to know and to be friends with everybody, he spoke in accents that were far more grave and gentle than I had ever heard him use before.
“With all your egotism, Geoffrey, there is something forcible and noble in your nature,—something which rises [p 292] up in bold revolt against falsehood and sham. Why, in Heaven’s name do you not give it way?” ”