Who sent up my appeal unto the Forty Ber. F. (addressing VINCENZO, then entering.) In the mean time the Forty doth salute The Prince of the Republic, and entreat And wise, and just, and cautious-this I grantAnd secret as the grave to which they doom The guilty; but with all this, in their aspectsAt least in some, the juniors of the numberA searching eye, an eye like yours, Vincenzo, Would read the sentence ere it was pronounced. Vin. My lord, I came away upon the moment, And had no leisure to take note of that Which pass'd among the judges, even in seeming; My station near the accused too, Michel Steno, Made me- Doge (abruptly). And how look'd he? deliver that. Vin. Calm, but not overcast, he stood resign'd To the decree, whate'er it were;-but lo! It comes, for the perusal of his highness. Enter the SECRETARY of the Forty. Sec. The high tribunal of the Forty sends (1)Marino Faliero, dalla bella moglie-altrì la gode, ed egli la mantiene." Sanuto.-L. E. (2) "It is not in the plot only, curtailed and crippled as is of what would have been its due proportions, that we think we can trace the injurious effects of Lord Byron's Continental prejudices and his choice of injudicious models. We trace them in the abruptness of his verse, which has all the harshness, though not all the vigour, of Alfieri, and which, instead of that richness and variety of cadence Which distinguishes even the most careless of our elder dramatists, is often only distinguishable from prose by the arelenting uniformity with which it is divided into deeasyllabic portions. The sentence of the College of Justice was likely, indeed, to be prosaic; and Shakspeare and our Ber. F. (reading.) Say on. "Decreed In council, without one dissenting voice, Doge. Give me the paper That Michel Steno". Ber. F. Proceed. My lord, 'tis finish'd. you?-finish'd! Do I dream?— (Snatches the paper and reads) "'Tis decreed in council -Nephew, thine arm! Nay, Cheer up, be calm; this transport is uncall'd forLet me seek some assistance. Doge. 'Tis past. Stop, sir-Stir not-- Ber. F. 1 cannot but agree with you To affix so slight a penalty to that other elder tragedians would have given it as bona fide prose, without that affectation (for which, however, Lord Byron has many precedents in modern times) which condemns letters, proclamations, the speeches of the vulgar, and the outcries of the rabble and the soldiery, to strut in the same precise measure with the lofty musings and dignified resentment of the powerful and the wise:-but Bertuccio Faliero might as well have spoken poetry." Heber.-L. E. (3) "The first scenes represent, rather tediously, the Doge waiting impatiently for the sentence of the senate, and rav ing very extravagantly at its lenity. We think all this part very heavily and even unskilfully executed; nor can it be at all surprising that ordinary readers should not enter into his highness's fury, when it appears that even his nephew 1 Venice' Duke! Doge. Ber. F. Doge (interrupting him). There is no such thing- poorer Than the rejected beggar-he's a slaveAnd that am I, and thou, and all our house, Even from this hour; the meanest artisan Will point the finger, and the haughty noble May spit upon us: where is our redress? Ber. F. The law, my prince Doge (interrupting him). You see what it has doneI ask'd no remedy but from the law I sought no vengeance but redress by law- I grant it was a gross offence, and grossly does not at first understand it. This dutiful person comments thus calmly on the matter, in a speech which, though set down by Lord Byron in lines of ten syllables, we shall take the liberty to print as prose--which it undoubtedly is -and very ordinary and homely prose too :- Ber. Fal. I cannot but agree with you, the sentence is too slight for the offence. It is not honourable in the Forty to affix so slight a penalty to that which was a foul affront to you, and even to them, as being your subjects; but 't is not yet without We'll take it; but may do all this in calmness- Doge. I tell thee-must I tell thee-what thy father Ber. F. 'Tis the first time that honour has been And were the last, from any other sceptic. [doubted, Doge. You know the full offence of this born villam, This creeping, coward, rank, acquitted felon, Who threw his sting into a poisonous libel, (1) And on the honour of-O God!—my wife, The nearest, dearest part of all men's honour, Left a base slur to pass from mouth to mouth Of loose mechanics, with all coarse foul comments, And villanous jests, and blasphemies obscene; While sneering nobles, in more polish'd guise, Whisper'd the tale, and smiled upon the lie Which made me look like them-a courteous witt, Patient-ay, proud, it may be, of dishonour. Ber. F. But still it was a lie-you knew it false, And so did all men. Doge. Nephew, the high Roman Said, "Cæsar's wife, must not even be suspected," And put her from him. Doge. It is-it is;-I did not visit on But craved my country's justice on his head, Ber. F. Doge. Death! Was I not the sovereign of the stateInsulted on his very throne, and made A mockery to the men who should obey me? remedy you can appeal to them once more, or to the Ar gadori, who, seeing that true justice is withheld, will no take up the cause they once declined, and do you rig upon the bold delinquent. Think you not thus, good uncle Why do you stand so fixed? You beed me not. I pra you, hear me.'" Jeffrey.-L. E. (1) In the MS.- Who threw his sting into a poisonous rhyme."-L. E Obey them! Tho have forgot their duty to the sovereign? For justice, or as sovereign who commands it, Ber. F. Not twelve hours longer, had you left to me The mode and means: if you had calmly heard me, sever meant this miscreant should escape, at wish'd you to suppress such gusts of passion, hat we more surely might devise together is taking off. Doge. me sacrifices ask'd a single victim, reat expiations had a hecatomb. Ber. F. Your wishes are my law: and yet I fain oald e honour of our house must ever be. Dage. Fear not; you shall have time and place of [proof: it be not thou too rash, as I have been. nashamed of my own anger now; pray you, pardon me. Ber. F. Why that's my uncle! leader, and the statesman, and the chief commonwealths, and sovereign of himself! Wonder'd to perceive you so forget prudence in your fury at these years, though the cause Doge. Ay, think upon the cause— get it not:-When you lie down to rest, Sun and you, as an ill-omen'd cloud a summer-day of festival: will it stand to me;-but speak not, stir not,— The youth, being at last talked into a better sense of at their house's honour requires, leaves the Doge brooding Bome terrible revenge. At this moment, the captain of alley comes to complain of an insult he had just received a senator; and when the Doge rails at the whole se Leave all to me;-we shall have much to do, And you shall have a part.-But now retire, 'Tis fit I were alone. in terms of great bitterness, is encouraged to inform that a plot is on foot for its destruction, which he Ber. F. (taking up and placing the ducal bonnet on the table.) Ere I depart, I pray you to resume what you have spurn'd, As doth become your near and faithful kinsman, [Exit BERTUCCIO FALIERO. Let me resume thee as I would a vizor. [Puts it on. Doge. I'm unwell I can see no one, not even a patrician- Doge. How did you say the patron of a galley? [Exit VINCENZO. Doge (solus). This patron may be sounded; I will I know the people to be discontented: [try him. They have cause, since Sapienza's adverse day, would do well to join: to which his highness, with marvellous little hesitation, assents, and agrees to come at midnight to this assemblage of plebeian desperadoes. If this were ever so authentically set down in history-which, however, it is not-it would still be a great deal too improbable for a modern tragedy." Jeffrey.-L. E. To serve the nobles' most patrician pleasure. Had been already where-how soon, I care not- There are three thousand posted at Enter VINCENZO and ISRAEL BERTUCCIO. May it please Doge. Vincenzo. Leave the chamber, [Exit VINCENZO. Doge. What was the cause? or the pretext? I. Ber. I am the chief of the arsenal, (2) employ'd At present in repairing certain galleys But roughly used by the Genoese last year. This morning comes the noble Barbaro Full of reproof, because our artisans Had left some frivolous order of his house, To execute the state's decree; I dared To justify the men-he raised his hand;Behold my blood! the first time it e'er flow'd Dishonourably. Doge. Have you long time served? I. Ber. So long as to remember Zara's siege, And fight beneath the chief who beat the Huns there, Sometime my general, now the Doge Faliero. [robes man Doge How are we comrades?-the state's ducal Sit newly on me, and you were appointed Chief of the arsenal ere I came from Rome; So that I recognised you not. Who placed you? I. Ber. The late Doge; keeping still my old com As patron of a galley: my new office Was given as the reward of certain scars (So was your predecessor pleased to say): I little thought his bounty would conduct me To his successor as a helpless plaintiff'"; At least, in such a cause. Doge. Are you much hurt? 1. Ber. Irreparably, in my self-esteem. Doge. Speak out; fear nothing: being stung at hear What would you do to be revenged on this man? I. Ber. That which I dare not name, and yet will Doge. Then wherefore came you here? I. Ber. I come for justic Because my general is Doge, and will not See his old soldier trampled on. Had any, Save Faliero, fill'd the ducal throne, This blood had been wash'd out in other blood. Doge. You come to me for justice-unto me! The Doge of Venice, and I cannot give it; I cannot even obtain it-'t was denied To me most solemnly an hour ago. I. Ber. How says your highness? Doge. To a month's confinement. Steno is conden I. Ber. Or making chorus to the creaking oar, Doge. You have heard the offend And now you know his punishment; and then You ask redress of me! Go to the Forty, Who pass'd the sentence upon Michel Steno; with his life. He mounted guard at the ducal palace d an interregnum, and bore the red standard before th Doge on his inauguration; for which service bis perq were the ducal mantle, and the two silver basi which the Doge scattered the regulated pittance whi was permitted to throw among the people. Ameli Houssaye, 79.-L. E. They'll do as much by Barbaro, no doubt. I. Ber. Then, in a word, it rests but on your word Yes-of a happy people. I. Ber. Wouldst thou be sovereign lord of Venice? (1) Doge. If that the people shared that sovereignty, So that nor they nor I were further slaves To this o'ergrown aristocratic hydra, The poisonous heads of whose envenom❜d body Have breathed a pestilence upon us all. Ay, [patrician. I. Ber. Yet, thou wast born, and still hast lived, Doge. In evil hour was I so born; my birth Hath made me Doge to be insulted: but I lived and toil'd a soldier and a servant Of Venice and her people, not the senate; Their good and my own honour were my guerdon. Have made and marr'd peace oft in embassies, | Ask of the bleeding pelican why she Hath ripp'd her bosom? Had the bird a voice, I. Ber. And yet they made thee duke. They made me so; I sought it not, the flattering fetters met me Returning from my Roman embassy, And never having hitherto refused Toil, charge, or duty for the state, I did not, At these late years, decline what was the highest In what we have to do and to endure: (1) Upon this the Admiral returned, 'My Lord Duke, if you would wish to make yourself a prince, and cut all those cuckoldy gentlemen to pieces, I have the heart, if you do but help me, to make you prince of all the state; and then you may punish them all.' Hearing this, the Duke said,How can such a matter be brought about?' and so they discoursed thereon." Such is Sanuto's narrative, and we have nothing more certain to offer. It is not easy to say whence he obtained his intelligence. If such a conversation as that which he relates really did occur, it must have taken place without the presence of witnesses, and therefore could be disclosed only by one of the parties. It is far more likely that the chronicler is relating that which he supposed, than that which he knew; and, as it must be admitted that the interview with the admiral of the arsenal occurred, and Not thou, Nor I alone, are injured and abused, Feel with their friends; for who is he amongst them Doge. And suffering what thou hast done-fear'st Be silent then, and live on, to be beaten I. Ber. No, I will speak At every hazard; and if Venice' Doge Doge. From me fear nothing; out with it! in secret (2) A band of brethren, valiant hearts and true; For their great purpose; they have arms, and means, I. Ber. My life, my honour, all my earthly hopes that immediately after it the Doge was found linked with the daring band of which that officer was chief, there is no violation of probability in granting that some such conversation took place; and that the train was ignited by this collision of two angry spirits." See Sketches of Venetian History (forming vols. xx. and xxi. of The Family Library), vol. i. p. 265.-L. E. (2) Galt suggests that this description of the conspirators is applicable to, as it was probably derived from, the Carbonari, with whom Byron was himself disposed to take a part.-P. E. (3) The bells of San Marco were never rung but by order of the Doge. One of the pretexts for ringing this alarm was to have been an announcement of the appearance of a Genoese fleet off the Lagune. |