Scene II The Rialto
Enter Jaffier.
Jaff. I’m here; and thus, the shades of night around me,
I look as if all hell were in my heart,
And I in hell. Nay, surely, ’tis so with me;
For every step I tread, methinks some fiend
Knocks at my breast, and bids it not be quiet.
I’ve heard how desperate wretches, like myself,
Have wandered out at this dead time of night
To meet the foe of mankind in his walk:
Sure I’m so cursed that, though of Heaven forsaken,
No minister of darkness cares to tempt me.
Hell! hell! why sleep’st thou?
Enter Pierre.
Pier. Sure I’ve stayed too long:
The clock has struck, and I may lose my proselyte.
Speak, who goes there?
Jaff. A dog, that comes to howl
At yonder moon: what’s he that asks the question?
Pier. A friend to dogs, for they are honest creatures,
And ne’er betray their masters; never fawn
On any that they love not. Well met, friend:
Jaffier?
Jaff. The same. O Pierre! thou’rt come in season;
I was just going to pray.
Pier. Ah, that’s mechanic;
Priests make a trade on’t, and yet starve by’t too:
No praying; it spoils business, and time’s precious.
Where’s Belvidera?
Jaff. For a day or two
I’ve lodged her privately, till I see farther
What fortune will do with me. Pr’ythee, friend,
If thou wouldst have me fit to hear good counsel,
Speak not of Belvidera—
Pier. Speak not of her?
Jaff. Oh, no!
Pier. Nor name her? May be I wish her well.
Jaff. Whom well?
Pier. Thy wife, the lovely Belvidera;
I hope a man may wish his friend’s wife well,
And no harm done!
Jaff. You’re merry, Pierre!
Pier. I am so:
Thou shalt smile too, and Belvidera smile;
We’ll all rejoice. Here’s something to buy pins;
[Gives him a purse.
Marriage is chargeable.
Jaff. I but half wished
To see the devil, and he’s here already.
Well!—
What must this buy, rebellion, murder, treason?
Tell me which way I must be damned for this.
Pier. When last we parted, we’d no qualms like these,
But entertained each other’s thoughts like men
Whose souls were well acquainted. Is the world
Reformed since our last meeting? What new miracles
Have happened? Has Priuli’s heart relented?
Can he be honest?
Jaff. Kind Heaven! let heavy curses
Gall his old age; cramps, aches,67 rack his bones;
And bitterest disquiet wring his heart;
Oh, let him live till life become his burden!
Let him groan under it long, linger an age
In the worst agonies and pangs of death,
And find its ease but late!
Pier. Nay, couldst thou not
As well, my friend, have stretched the curse to all
The senate round, as to one single villain?
Jaff. But curses stick not: could I kill with cursing,
By Heaven, I know not thirty heads in Venice
Should not be blasted; senators should rot
Like dogs on dunghills; but their wives and daughters
Die of their own diseases. Oh for a curse
To kill with!
Pier. Daggers—daggers are much better!
Jaff. Ha!
Pier. Daggers.
Jaff. But where are they?
Pier. Oh, a thousand
May be disposed in honest hands in Venice.
Jaff. Thou talk’st in clouds.
Pier. But yet a heart half wronged
As thine has been would find the meaning, Jaffier.
Jaff. A thousand daggers, all in honest hands!
And have not I a friend will stick one here?
Pier. Yes, if I thought thou wert not to be cherished
To a nobler purpose, I would be that friend.
But thou hast better friends; friends whom thy wrongs
Have made thy friends; friends worthy to be called so.
I’ll trust thee with a secret: there are spirits
This hour at work. But as thou art a man
Whom I have picked and chosen from the world,
Swear that thou wilt be true to what I utter;
And when I’ve told thee that which only gods,
And men like gods, are privy to, then swear
No chance or change shall wrest it from thy bosom.
Jaff. When thou wouldst bind me, is there need of oaths?—
Green-sickness girls lose maidenheads with such counters—
For thou’rt so near my heart that thou mayst see
Its bottom, sound its strength and firmness to thee:
Is coward, fool, or villain, in my face?
If I seem none of these, I dare believe
Thou wouldst not use me in a little cause,
For I am fit for honour’s toughest task,
Nor ever yet found fooling was my province;
And for a villanous inglorious enterprise,
I know thy heart so well, I dare lay mine
Before thee: set it to what point thou wilt.
Pier. Nay, ’tis a cause thou wilt be fond of, Jaffier:
For it is founded on the noblest basis,—
Our liberties, our natural inheritance;
There’s no religion, no hypocrisy in’t;
We’ll do the business, and ne’er fast and pray for it:
Openly act a deed the world shall gaze
With wonder at, and envy when ’tis done.
Jaff. For liberty?
Pier. For liberty, my friend!
Thou shalt be freed from base Priuli’s tyranny,
And thy sequestered fortunes healed again;
I shall be freed from those opprobrious wrongs
That press me now, and bend my spirit downward;
All Venice free, and every growing merit
Succeed to its just right; fools shall be pulled
From wisdom’s seat,—those baleful unclean birds,
Those lazy owls, who, perched near fortune’s top,
Sit only watchful with their heavy wings
To cuff down new-fledged virtues, that would rise
To nobler heights, and make the grove harmonious.
Jaff. What can I do?
Pier. Canst thou not kill a senator?
Jaff. Were there one wise or honest, I could kill him
For herding with that nest of fools and knaves.
By all my wrongs, thou talk’st as if revenge
Were to be had, and the brave story warms me.
Pier. Swear then!
Jaff. I do, by all those glittering stars,
And yon great ruling planet of the night!
By all good powers above, and ill below!
By love and friendship, dearer than my life!
No power or death shall make me false to thee.
Pier. Here we embrace, and I’ll unlock my heart.
A council’s held hard by, where the destruction
Of this great empire’s hatching: there I’ll lead thee.
But be a man, for thou’rt to mix with men
Fit to disturb the peace of all the world,
And rule it when it’s wildest—
Jaff. I give thee thanks
For this kind warning: yes, I will be a man,
And charge thee, Pierre, whene’er thou seest my fears
Betray me less, to rip this heart of mine
Out of my breast, and show it for a coward’s.
Come, let’s be gone, for from this hour I chase
All little thoughts, all tender human follies
Out of my bosom: vengeance shall have room—
Revenge!
Pier. And liberty!
Jaff. Revenge! Revenge! [Exeunt.