SAVONAROLA: AN ELIZABETHAN' PLAY

BY MAX BEERBOHM

ACT I

SCENE: A Room in the Monastery of San Marco, Florence
Enter the SACRISTAN and a FRIAR

SACRISTAN. Savonarola looks more grim to-day

Than ever. Should I speak my mind, I'd say
That he was fashioning some new great scourge
To flay the backs of men.

FRIAR.
"T is even so.
Brother Filippo saw him stand last night
In solitary vigil till the dawn

Leapt o'er the Arno, and his face was such
As men may wear in Purgatory

nay,

Even in the inmost core of Hell's own fires.

SACRISTAN. I often wonder if some woman's face,

Seen at some rout in his old worldling days,

Haunts him e'en here, e'en here, and urges him
To further fury 'gainst the Florentines.

FRIAR. Savonarola love-sick! Ha, ha, ha!
Love-sick? He, love-sick? "T is a goodly jest!
The confirm'd misogyn a ladies' man!
Thou must have eaten of some strange red herb
That takes the reason captive. I will swear
Savonarola never yet hath seen

A woman but he spurn'd her. Hist! He comes.

[Enter SAVONAROLA, rapt in thought.]

Till thou, by Heaven's grace, hast wrought the work
Nearest thine heart.

I thank thee not, for that my thankfulness

(An such there be) gives thanks to Heaven alone.

FRIAR [to SACRISTAN]. "T is a right answer he hath given thee. Had Savonarola spoken less than thus,

Methinks me, the less Sav'narola he.

As when the snow lies on yon Apennines,
White as the hem of Mary Mother's robe,

[Enter LUCREZIA BORGIA, ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI, and LEONARDO DA VINCI LUCREZIA is thickly veiled.]

FRANCIS. This is the place.

LUCREZIA [pointing at SAVONAROLA]. And this the man! [Aside.] And I By the hot blood that courses i' my veins

I swear it ineluctably the woman!

SAVONAROLA. Who is this wanton?

FRANCIS.

[LUCREZIA throws back her hood, revealing her face.
SAVONAROLA starts back, gazing at her.]

The poisoner, right well-belov'd by all

Hush, Sir! T is my little sister

Whom she as yet hath spared. Hither she came

Mounted upon another little sister of mine
A mare, caparison'd in goodly wise.

She I refer now to Lucrezia

Desireth to have word of thee anent

Some matter that befrets her.

SAVONAROLA [to LUCREZIA]. Hence! Begone! Savonarola will not tempted be

By face of woman e'en tho' 't be, tho' 't is,

Surpassing fair. All hope abandon therefore.

I charge thee: Vade retro, Satanas.

LEONARDO. Sirrah, thou speakest in haste, as is the way

Of monkish men. The beauty of Lucrezia

Commends, not discommends, her to the eyes

Of keener thinkers than I take thee for.

I am an artist and an engineer,

Giv'n o'er to subtile dreams of what shall be

On this our planet. I foresee a day

When men shall skim the earth i' certain chairs

Not drawn by horses but sped on by oil

Or other matter, and shall thread the sky
Birdlike.

LUCREZIA. It may be as thou sayest, friend,

Or may be not. [To SAVONAROLA.] But touching this our errand,
I crave of thee, Sir Monk, an audience

[Enter DANTE]

FRANCIS [to DANTE]. How fares my little sister Beatrice?
DANTE. She died, alack, last sennight.

FRANCIS.

If the condolences of men avail

Thee aught, take mine.

DANTE.

Did she so?

They are of no avail.

SAVONAROLA [to LUCREZIA]. I do refuse thee audience.

LUCREZIA.

Didst thou not say so promptly when I ask'd it?

Then why

SAVONAROLA. Full well thou knowest that I was interrupted By Alighieri's entry.

[Noise without. Enter Guelfs and Ghibellines fighting.]

What is this?

LUCREZIA. I did not think that in this cloister'd spot There would be so much doing. I had look'd

To find Savonarola all alone

And tempt him in his uneventful cell.

Instead o' which spurn'd am I? I am I.

There was a time, Sir, look to 't! O damnation!

What is 't? Anon then! These my toys, my gauds,
That in the cradle

aye, 't my mother's breast

I puled and lisped at 't is impossible,
Tho', faith, 't is not so, forasmuch as 't is.

And I a daughter of the Borgias!

Or so they told me. Liars! Flatterers!

Currying lick-spoons! Where's the Hell of 't then?
"T is time that I were going. Farewell, Monk,
But I'll avenge me ere the sun has sunk.

[Exeunt LUCREZIA, ST. FRANCIS, and LEONARDO, followed by DANTE.
SAVONAROLA, having watched LUCREZIA out of sight, sinks to his
knees, sobbing. FRIAR and SACRISTAN watch him in amazement.
Guelfs and Ghibellines continue fighting as the Curtain falls.]

ACT II

Afternoon of same day

SCENE: LUCREZIA's Laboratory. Retorts, test-tubes, etc. On small Renaissance table, up C., is a great poison bowl, the contents of which are being stirred by the FIRST APPRENTICE. The SECOND APPRENTICE stands by, watching him.

SECOND APPRENTICE. For whom is the brew destin'd?

FIRST APPRENTICE.

Lady Lucrezia did but lay on me

Injunctions as regards the making of 't,

The which I have obey'd. It is compounded

Of a malignant and a deadly weed

Found not save in the Gulf of Spezia;

I know not.

And one small phial of 't, I am advis'd,
Were more than 'nough to slay a regiment
Of Messer Malatesta's condottieri

In all their armor.

SECOND APPRENTICE. I can well believe it. Mark how the purple bubbles froth upon The evil surface of its nether slime!

[Enter LUCREZIA]

LUCREZIA [to FIRST APPRENTICE]. Is 't done, Sir Sluggard?

FIRST APPRENTICE.

LUCREZIA. Had it not been so, I with mine own hand

Would have outpour'd it down thy gullet, knave.

See, here's a ring of cunningly-wrought gold

That I, on a dark night, did purchase from
A goldsmith on the Ponte Vecchio.
Small was his shop, and hoar of visage he.
I did bemark that from the ceiling's beams
Spiders had spun their webs for many a year,
The which hung erst like swathes of gossamer
Seen in the shadows of a fairy glade,

But now most woefully were weighted o’er
With gather'd dust. Look well now at the ring!
Touch'd here, behold, it opes a cavity
Capacious of three drops of yon fell stuff.
Dost heed? Whoso then puts it on his finger
Dies, and his soul is from his body rapt

To Hell or Heaven as the case may be.

Take thou this toy and pour the three drops in.

Madam, to a turn.

[Hands ring to FIRST APPRENTICE, and comes down C.]

So, Sav'narola, thou shalt learn that I

Utter no threats but I do make them good.

Ere this day's sun hath wester'd from the view

Thou art to preach from out the Loggia
Dei Lanzi to the cits in the Piazza.
I, thy Lucrezia, will be upon the steps
To offer thee with phrases seeming fair
That which shall seal thine eloquence forever.
O mighty lips that held the world in spell
But would not meet these little lips of mine
In the sweet way that lovers use O thin,
Cold, tight-drawn, bloodless lips, which natheless I
Deem of all lips the most desirable

In this our city

[Enter the BORGIAS' FOOL]

Well, Fool, what's thy latest?

FOOL. Aristotle's or Zeno's, Lady't is neither latest nor last. For, marry if the cobbler stuck to his last, then were his latest his last in rebus ambulantibus.

Argal, I stick at nothing but cobblestones, which, by the same token, are stuck to the road by men's fingers.

LUCREZIA. How many crows may nest in a grocer's jerkin?

FOOL. A full dozen at cock-crow, and something less under the dog-star, by reason of the dew, which lies heavy on men taken by scurvy.

LUCREZIA [to FIRST APPRENTICE]. Methinks the Fool is a fool.

FOOL. And therefore, by auricular deduction am I own twin to the Lady Lucrezia!

FOOL. If he be right astronomically, Mistress, then is he the greater dunce in respect of true learning, the which goes by the globe. Argal, 't were better he widened his wind-pipe.

[Sings]

Fly home, sweet self,
Nothing's for weeping,
Hemp was not made
For lovers' keeping,

Lovers' keeping,

Cheerly, cheerly, fly away.