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Thrills with intenser love than I for thee.
Not on God's altar, in any time or clime,
Burned there a holier fire than burneth now
Within my spirit for thee. And do I love?
Even for thy woes I love thee - even for thy woes
Thy beauty and thy woes.

Alas, proud Earl,

[Arising] 20

LALAGE.
Thou dost forget thyself, remembering me!
How, in thy father's halls, among the maidens
Pure and reproachless, of thy princely line,

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Could the dishonored Lalage abide?

Thy wife, and with a tainted memory

My seared and blighted name, how would it tally
With the ancestral honors of thy house,

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What need we more? Ha! glory! - now speak not of it:

By all I hold most sacred and most solemn

By all
wishes now
my
my fears hereafter
By all I scorn on earth and hope in heaven
There is no deed I would more glory in,
Than in thy cause to scoff at this same glory
And trample it under foot. What matters it

What matters it, my fairest, and my best,

That we go down unhonored and forgotten
Into the dust — so we descend together.

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Descend together - and then and then perchance
LALAGE. Why dost thou pause, Politian?

30 Speak not-speak not of glory! (S. L. M.).

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POLITIAN.

Arise together, Lalage, and roam

The starry and quiet dwellings of the blest,
And still

LALAGE. Why dost thou pause, Politian?
POLITIAN. And still together— together.
LALAGE.

And then perchance

Now, Earl of Leicester ! 50

Thou lovest me, and in my heart of hearts

I feel thou lovest me truly.

POLITIAN.

Oh, Lalage! [Throwing himself upon his knee]

And lovest thou me?

LALAGE.

Hist! hush! within the gloom

Of yonder trees methought a figure past

A spectral figure, solemn, and slow, and noiseless

Like the grim shadow Conscience, solemn and noiseless.

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[Walks across and returns]

I was mistaken -'t was but a giant bough

Stirred by the autumn wind. Politian!

POLITIAN. My Lalage - my love! why art thou moved? Why dost thou turn so pale? Not Conscience' self,

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Far less a shadow which thou likenest to it,

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Should shake the firm spirit thus. But the night wind
Is chilly and these melancholy boughs

Throw over all things a gloom.

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Thou speakest to me of love. Knowest thou the land
With which all tongues are busy a land new found
Miraculously found by one of Genoa

A thousand leagues within the golden west?

A fairy land of flowers, and fruit, and sunshine,

And crystal lakes, and over-arching forests,

And mountains, around whose towering summits the winds

Of Heaven untrammelled flow - which air to breathe

Is Happiness now, and will be Freedom hereafter

In days that are to come?

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POLITIAN.
Fly to that Paradise

Fly thither with me?

And Sorrow shall be

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my Lalage, wilt thou
There Care shall be forgotten,

no more, and Eros be all.

And life shall then be mine, for I will live

For thee, and in thine eyes - and thou shalt be

No more a mourner – but the radiant Joys
Shall wait upon thee, and the angel Hope
Attend thee ever; and I will kneel to thee
And worship thee, and call thee my beloved,
My own, my beautiful, my love, my wife,
oh, wilt thou wilt thou, Lalage,
Fly thither with me?

My all;

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A deed is to be done

LALAGE.

Castiglione lives!

POLITIAN.

And he shall die!

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[Exit]

LALAGE. [After a pause] And—he — shall — die ! — alas! Castiglione die? Who spoke the words?

Where am I? what was it he said? Politian!

Thou art not gone

thou art not gone, Politian.

I feel thou art not gone

yet dare not look,

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Lest I behold thee not; thou couldst not go

With those words upon thy lips — O, speak to me!

one word one word,
one little sentence,
- how thou dost hate

And let me hear thy voice -
To say thou art not gone,
To say how thou dost scorn
My womanly weakness. Ha! ha! thou art not gone
O speak to me! I knew thou wouldst not go !

I knew thou wouldst not, couldst not, durst not go.

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[Exit] 105

V.

The suburbs. POLITIAN alone

POLITIAN. This weakness grows upon me. I am faint, And much I fear me ill-it will not do

To die ere I have lived! Stay stay thy hand,

O Azrael, yet awhile!

Prince of the Powers

Of Darkness and the Tomb, O pity me!

O pity me! let me not perish now,
In the budding of my Paradisal Hope!

Give me to live yet — yet a little while :

'Tis I who pray for life — I who so late

Demanded but to die! - what sayeth the Count?

Enter BALDAZZAR

BALDAZZAR. That knowing no cause of quarrel or of feud Between the Earl Politian and himself,

He doth decline your cartel.

POLITIAN.

5

ΙΟ

What didst thou say?

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What answer was it you brought me, good Baldazzar?
With what excessive fragrance the zephyr comes

Laden from yonder bowers! - a fairer day,

Or one more worthy Italy, methinks

No mortal eyes have seen!

what said the Count?

BALDAZZAR. That he, Castiglione, not being aware

Of any feud existing, or any cause

Of quarrel between your lordship and himself
Cannot accept the challenge.

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All this is very true. When saw you, sir,
When saw you now, Baldazzar, in the frigid
Ungenial Britain which we left so lately,

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7 In the budding of my hopes—give me to live (S. L.M.).

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From the evil taint of clouds ? — and he did say?

BALDAZZAR. No more, my lord, than I have told

The Count Castiglione will not fight,

Having no cause for quarrel.

POLITIAN.

Now this is true

All very true. Thou art my friend, Baldazzar,
And I have not forgotten it— thou 'lt do me
A piece of service; wilt thou go back and say
Unto this man, that I, the Earl of Leicester,
Hold him a villain?-thus much, I prythee, say
Unto the Count-it is exceeding just

He should have cause for quarrel.

BALDAZZAR.

My lord!

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my friend! POLITIAN. [Aside] 'Tis he - he comes himself! [Aloud] Thou

reasonest well.

I know what thou wouldst say - not send the message

Well! I will think of it- I will not send it.

Now prythee, leave me - hither doth come a person
With whom affairs of a most private nature

I would adjust.

40

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CASTIGLIONE. The Earl of Leicester here!

POLITIAN. I am the Earl of Leicester, and thou seest,

Dost thou not? that I am here.

44 After this line, S. L.M. inserts:

If that we meet at all, it were as well
That I should meet him in the Vatican
In the Vatican within the holy walls
Of the Vatican.

45

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