And, sooth to say, the eye did never weep, As blank as first you found it!-all our pains Have gone to lose our time.-pp. 16—20. Whilst this dialogue goes on, Leonardo is so overwhelmed at the appearance and exhibition of his Mariana, whom from the first he so well remembered, that he was forced to leave the apartment: Lorenzo himself shortly afterwards retired, assuring his client most warmly that her statement had satisfied him that no legal grounds existed for the proceedings. The second act then opens with a hall of justice, the judges and advocates, plaintiff and defendant, being all in a state of the most punctilious preparation: a perfect pattern of what a court of justice should be. Here it is essential that we should pause to explain the circumstances in which Leonardo was placed. It was his father that had been Duke of Mantua at the time that he went on his travels, as we have already mentioned. He himself being so long away, and it being also credibly believed that he was made away with by banditti in some unlucky part of his route, he was thought no more of in Mantua; and, therefore, when his father died, the succession to the dukedom fell to Ferrardo Gonzaga, the nephew of the late Duke, and consequently the first cousin of Leonardo. It is unnecessary to state that the latter attended the court on the trial, as well as the advocate, the former following the latter, and pretending to be his clerk. The case proceeds, Ferrardo being the sole judge: the evidence against Mariana is heard, and, without hearing the defence, the judge is about to decide against her. The advocate Lorenzo, the protector, the curate Antonio, boldly interfere, and the maiden herself backs their joint remonstrance with a threat that she will swallow before them the poisonous contents of a phial. Now, we must pause for a moment, to express our surprise at this very strange proceeding. We have no objection whatever to a wellmanaged and seasonable, and, if necessary, a fatal case of poisoning on the stage: but, when we consider the character which has been all along imputed by the author to this heroine-when we find, above all, that it was chiefly by her prayers that she thought she served her lover, on what she feared was his death-bed-how can we imagine such a violation of the proprieties as that which is so grossly implied in the act of suicide. This is certainly carrying the stage-effect principle much too far; and though we may forgive Juliet for her rashness in taking the contents of her small bottle on the stage, yet she neither was, nor pretended to be, under the influence of a religion which was wholly inconsistent for a moment with the suggestion of such a deed. In one of the paroxysms of Mariana, however, which very naturally resulted from the obstinacy with which the judge Ferrardo determined to deny her even the form of justice, Leonardo, who witnessed (and we must add that he did so with a degree of fortitude that gives us a vast idea of his natural serenity) the whole of her sufferings, came forth, and avowed himself, turning at once that scene, which was so awful to his Mariana, into one for her of comparative happiness. Not only did he declare himself the lover to whom she had been legally betrothed, but he at once claimed the right of assuming the office of his father, as the lawful heir to his dukedom. All was astonishment: but no opposition having been raised to the pretensions of Leonardo, Ferrardo, very good-naturedly, gave up the dignity, surrendering it with the most praiseworthy composure to his cousin. But the calmness with which he laid down the honours of the dukedom was only a cloak for the jealousy and envy which seized him on the instant, and impelled him to meditate, from that hour, on the most certain method of blasting his cousin's happiness. This he very soon had the opportunity of attempting to do; and, in order to let the reader into the secret of the effort, it is necessary that we should introduce to his notice an entirely new personage, who abruptly appears in the scene. This is St. Pierre, who presents himself before us under circumstances of great mystery. It appears, however, that he has been a bold, gallant, daring young man, who formerly associated with Ferrardo, whom he served as an agent in his intrigues and in many wicked projects. Before the vestibule of the ducal palace he waits for Ferrardo, of whom, like a sturdy beggar, he demands a sum of one hundred ducats. Ferrardo is struck with the notion, that this accommodating individual, who had been so subservient to him on other occasions, would become a suitable instrument, in his hands, against Leonardo, and he encouraged him accordingly. In the meantime, the dukedom was engaged in war; and Leonardo was forced to fly from the arms of his bride, and head the Mantuan army in the field. News soon arrived of his triumph over the enemy: but, strange to say, the despatches which contained the account of the final victory, were brought to Mantua by no other messenger than this very St. Pierre. Ferrardo, who was quite astonished when he heard of this, resolved, with that ready ingenuity which characterised him, to make use of the accident in his favour. He then, by a series of well-arranged contrivances, brought it about that Mariana should receive St. Pierre, in the expectation that she would show such earnestness respecting her husband as would lead bystanders to suppose that it was to St. Pierre alone she was paying attention. Ferrardo played his part with a consummate skill that could only be equalled by an Iago; and so aptly did all circumstances concur with his objects, that even the curate Antonio, the protector and religious guardian of Mariana, became a convert to the impressions which Ferrardo had circulated unfavourable to her. The dialogue between the holy man and Mariana is wrought up with great power by the author : Antonio. You forget You are not now the commissary's ward, Mariana.-No, i'faith, the same! My skin is not of other texture-This, Than mellowing Time hath made it in his course! "Tis not the same I had, when I did sit On some wild turret of my native hills, And burn with love and gratitude to heaven That made a land so fair, and me its daughter! Antonio.-Hear me! You have wrong'd your lord. Mariana. I have wrong'd my lord! How have I wrong'd my lord? Antonio. By entertaining, With mark'd and special preference, a man Mariana.-Go on! Antonio. He is a libertine. Mariana.-Go on! Antonio.-A woman who has such a friend has nought To do with honest men. Mariana.-Go on! Antonio.-A wife Has done with friends! her heart, had it the room Of twenty hearts, her husband ought to fill: A friend that leaves not space for other friends, To house there. Mariana. You are right in that. Go on! Antonio. A court's a place where men have need to watch For prying eyes beset them round about, Of eyes that gap'd with marvel; groups that stood Whose whispers, were their import known to thee, Mariana.-So! Go on. Antonio.-What if they reach thy consort? Mariana.-What! Antonio.-Ay, what! Mariana.-He'll spurn them, as he ought: as I do spurn them. For shame! for shame! Me thou shouldst not arraign, But rather those who basely question me! Antonio.-This confidence offends me. Swerving virtue [Exit. (Mariana enters unperceived and kneels to him.) An air of such defiance Mariana.-Father! Antonio.-Daughter! Mariana.-I am thy daughter! O my father, bless me! Were I the best, I were not 'bove thy charity; Were I the worst, I should not be beneath it! Mariana.-Ere I break my fast To-morrow, father, I'll confess to thee; And thou shalt know how little or how much The courtiers and the whole population of Mantua now talked of nothing else than the infidelity of the Duchess, some in pity, others in ridicule. At length, so sure were the authorities of Mantua of the guilt of Mariana, that they sent a deputation to the camp where the Duke was, to lay before him the terrific intelligence that his wife was unfaithful. The course of these proceedings, with some episodical dialogues, well calculated to vary the interest of the scenes, carry the author through the fourth, and nearly the whole of the fifth act. The Duke would believe nothing of the charges, and said that he would confidently rely on the love and affection of his truehearted wife. This impression, however, began to be unsettled in his mind, when he was told that St. Pierre had fled from Mantua, and that Mariana had likewise absconded. But the whole secret soon exploded, for just when the Duke's fears were about to be confirmed, his wife and St. Pierre presented themselves in the tent, when Mariana, with the heroic boldness which innocence alone could give, challenged inquiry, and soon gave the most positive testimony that the whole was a plot of Ferrardo's, founded in deep-laid malice, and carried on with a deliberation which increased the enormity of his guilt. It turned out in the end that St. Pierre had been actually her brother. The bold address of Mariana to her husband, on her rushing into the tent, and when he had risen to meet her, calling her his loyal wife, was as follows: Mariana. My liege, stand off! Embrace me at the peril of your honour! Your cousin here! the Count! your confessor! Of a dishonour'd bed,-as her's, whose heart,-- Sun, earth, life, health, desire, knew nought but him,— Of what it loved so well, but by an act Matters being thus so satisfactorily explained, the fifth act of course was terminated, and it only remained for the author, in conformity with the statutes of poetical justice, to remove from the world such a sinner as St. Pierre, and this he effectually did by the dagger of Ferrardo. In the perusal even of the extracts which we have now given from this play, sufficient materials are furnished to show that the plan of the work and its execution are founded on the principle which we commenced by describing, namely, that it was composed with a view to its representation on the stage, and that the whole aim of the author was to render it as effective as possible-an object, the accomplishment of which was not always consistent with the perfections required to make the play equally engaging in the closet. |