Cal. (drawing his sword.) Who moves a step against them dies. Hold! hear Bertuccio What! are you appall'd to see A lone, unguarded, weaponless old man [mystery? Amongst you?-Israel, speak! what means this I. Ber. Let them advance and strike at their own Ungrateful suicides! for on our lives [bosoms, Depend their own, their fortunes, and their hopes. Doge. Strike!-If I dreaded death, a death more Than any your rash weapons can inflict, [fearful I should not now be here:-Oh, noble Courage! The eldest-born of Fear, which makes you brave Against this solitary hoary head!
See the bold chiefs, who would reform a state And shake down senates, mad with wrath and dread At sight of one patrician!-Butcher me, You can; I care not.-Israel, are these men The mighty hearts you spoke of? look upon them! Cal. Faith! he hath shamed us, and deservedly. Was this your trust in your true chief Bertuccio, To turn your swords against him and his guest? Sheathe them, and hear him.
I. Ber. They might and must have known a heart like mine Incapable of treachery; and the power They gave me to adopt all fitting means To further their design was ne'er abused. They might be certain that whoe'er was brought By me into this council had been led
To take his choice-as brother, or as victim.
Doge. And which am I to be? your actions leave Some cause to doubt the freedom of the choice. I. Ber. My lord, we would have perish'd here together,
Had these rash men proceeded; but, behold, They are ashamed of that mad moment's impulse, And droop their heads; believe me, they are such As I described them-Speak to them.
We are all listening in wonder. (1) I. Ber. (addressing the Conspirators.) You are safe, Nay, more, almost triumphant-listen then, And know my words for truth.
Doge. You see me here, As one of you hath said, an old, unarm'd, Defenceless man; and yesterday you saw me Presiding in the hall of ducal state, Apparent sovereign of our hundred isles, (2) Robed in official purple, dealing out The edicts of a power which is not mine, Nor yours, but of our masters-the patricians. Why I was there you know, or think you know; Why I am here, he who hath been most wrong'd, He who among you hath been most insulted, Outraged and trodden on, until he doubt If he be worm or no, may answer for me, Asking of his own heart what brought him here?
You know my recent story, all men know it, And judge of it far differently from those Who sate in judgment to heap scorn on scorn. But spare me the recital-it is here, Here at my heart the outrage-but my words, Already spent in unavailing plaints, Would only show my feebleness the more, And I come here to strengthen even the strong, And urge them on to deeds, and not to war With woman's weapons; but I need not urge you. Our private wrongs have sprung from public vices In this-I cannot call it commonwealth Nor kingdom, which hath neither prince nor people, But all the sins of the old Spartan state (3) Without its virtues-temperance and valour. The lords of Lacedæmon were true soldiers, But ours are Sybarites, while we are Helots, Of whom I am the lowest, most enslaved; Although dress'd out to head a pageant, as The Greeks of yore made drunk their slaves to form A pastime for their children. You are met To overthrow this monster of a state, This mockery of a government, this spectre, Which must be exorcised with blood,—and then We will renew the times of truth and justice, Condensing in a fair free commonwealth Not rash equality but equal rights, Proportion'd like the columns to the temple, Giving and taking strength reciprocal,
And making firm the whole with grace and beauty, So that no part could be removed without Infringement of the general symmetry.
In operating this great change, I claim To be one of you-if you trust in me; If not, strike home,-my life is compromised, And I would rather fall by freemen's hands Than live another day to act the tyrant As delegate of tyrants: such I am not, And never have been-read it in our annals; I can appeal to my past government In many lands and cities; they can tell you If I were an oppressor, or a man Feeling and thinking for my fellow-men. Haply had I been what the senate sought, A thing of robes and trinkets, dizen'd out To sit in state as for a sovereign's picture; A popular scourge, a ready sentence-signer, A stickler for the Senate and "the Forty," A sceptic of all measures which had not The sanction of "the Ten," a council-fawner, A tool, a fool, a puppet,-they had ne'er Foster'd the wretch who stung me. What I suffer Has reach'd me through my pity for the people; That many know, and they who know not yet Will one day learn: meantime I do devote, Whate'er the issue, my last days of life- My present power such as it is, not that Of Doge, but of a man who has been great Before he was degraded to a Doge,
And still has individual means and mind; I stake my fame (and I had fame)—my breath— (The least of all, for its last hours are nigh)
My heart-my hope-my soul-upon this cast! Such as I am, I offer me to you
And to your chiefs, accept me or reject me, A prince who fain would be a citizen
Or nothing, and who has left his throne to be so. Cal. Long live Faliero!-Venice shall be free! Consp. Long live Faliero !
Pealing from out their patron saint's proud tower), Will then be gather'd in unto the harvest, And we will reap them with the sword for sickle. If some few should be tardy or absent them, "Twill be but to be taken faint and single, When the majority are put to rest.
Cal. Would that the hour were come! we will not [scotch,
Comrades! did I well? But kill. Is not this man a host in such a cause?
Doge. This is no time for eulogies, nor place
For exultation. Am I one of you?
Ber. Once more, sir, with your pardon, I Would now repeat the question which I ask'd Before Bertuccio added to our cause
Cal. Ay, and the first amongst us, as thou hast been This great ally who renders it more sure,
Of Venice-be our general and chief.
Doge. Chief!-general!—I was general at Zara, And chief in Rhodes and Cyprus, prince in Venice: I cannot stoop--that is, I am not fit To lead a band of
patriots: when I lay Aside the dignities which I have borne, Tis not to put on others, but to be
Mate to my fellows-But now to the point:
Israel has stated to me your whole plan- Tis bold, but feasible if I assist it,
And must be set in motion instantly.
And therefore safer, and as such admits Some dawn of mercy to a portion of
Our victims-must all perish in this slaughter? Cal. All who encounter me and mine, be sure, The mercy they have shown, I show.
Is this a time to talk of pity? when Have they e'er shown, or felt, or feign'd it? I. Ber.
This false compassion is a folly, and Injustice to thy comrades and thy cause!
Cal. E'en when thou wilt. Is it not so, my friends? Dost thou not see, that if we single out I have disposed all for a sudden blow;
Some for escape, they live but to avenge
The fallen? and how distinguish now the innocent From out the guilty? all their acts are one- A single emanation from one body, Together knit for our oppression! 'Tis Much that we let their children live; I doubt If all of these even should be set apart : The hunter may reserve some single cub From out the tiger's litter, but who e'er Would seek to save the spotted sire or dam, Unless to perish by their fangs? however, I will abide by Doge Faliero's counsel: Let him decide if any should be saved. Doge. Ask me not-tempt me not with such a Decide yourselves. [question-
You know their private virtues Far better than we can, to whom alone Their public vices, and most foul oppression, Have made them deadly; if there be amongst them One who deserves to be reprieved, pronounce.
Doge. Dolfino's father was my friend, and Lando Fought by my side, and Marc Cornaro shared (1) My Genoese embassy; I saved the life
Of Veniero-shall I save it twice? Would that I could save them and Venice also! All these men, or their fathers, were my friends Till they became my subjects; then fell from me As faithless leaves drop from the o'erblown flower, And left me a lone blighted thorny stalk, Which, in its solitude, can shelter nothing; So, as they let me wither, let them perish!
Cal. They cannot co-exist with Venice' freedom! Doge. Ye, though you know and feel our mutual mass Of many wrongs, eyen ye are ignorant (2) What fatal poison to the springs of life, To human ties, and all that's good and dear Lurks in the present institutes of Venice:
All these men were my friends; I loved them, they
"Bear witness with me ye who hear and know, And feel our mutual mass of many wrongs."--L. E.
Requited honourably my regards;
We served and fought; we smiled and wept in con- We revell'd or we sorrow'd side by side; We made alliances of blood and marriage; We grew in years and honours fairly,-till Their own desire, not my ambition, made
Them choose me for their prince, and then farewell! Farewell all social memory! all thoughts [ships, In common! and sweet bonds which link old friend- When the survivors of long years and actions, Which now belong to history, soothe the days Which yet remain by treasuring each other, And never meet, but each beholds the mirror Of half a century on his brother's brow, And sees a hundred beings, now in earth, Flit round them whispering of the days gone by, And seeming not all dead, as long as two Of the brave, joyous, reckless, glorious band, Which once were one and many, still retain A breath to sigh for them, a tongue to speak Of deeds that else were silent, save on marble— Oime! Oime!-and must I do this deed? (1)
I. Ber. My lord, you are much moved; it is not now That such things must be dwelt upon.
A moment-I recede not: mark with me The gloomy vices of this government.
From the hour that made me Doge, the Doge THEY
Of bitterness-until this last loud insult, Not only unredress'd, but sanction'd; then, And thus, I cast all further feelings from me— The feelings which they crush'd for me, long, long Before, even in their oath of false allegiance! Even in that very hour and vow, they abjured Their friend and made a sovereign, as boys make Playthings, to do their pleasure-and be broken!(4) I from that hour have seen but senators In dark suspicious conflict with the Doge, Brooding with him in mutual hate and fear; They dreading he should snatch the tyranny From out their grasp, and he abhorring tyrants. To me, then, these men have no private life, Nor claim to ties they have cut off from others; As senators for arbitrary acts Amenable, I look on them-as such Let them be dealt upon. (5)
Cal. And now to action! Hence, brethren, to our posts, and may this be The last night of mere words: I'd fain be doing! Saint Mark's great bell at dawn shall find me wakeful! I. Ber. Disperse, then, to your posts: be firm and vigilant ;
Your patience Think on the wrongs we bear, the rights we claim This day and night shall be the last of peril! Watch for the signal, and then march. I go To join my band; let each be prompt to marshal His separate charge: the Doge will now return To the palace to prepare all for the blow. We part, to meet in freedom and in glory! Cal. Doge, when I greet you next, my homage to Shall be the head of Steno on this sword!
Farewell the past! I died to all that had been, Or rather they to me: no friends, no kindness, No privacy of life-all were cut off:
They came not near me, such approach gave umbrage; They could not love me, such was not the law; They thwarted me, 't was the state's policy; They baffled me, 't was a patrician's duty; They wrong'd me, for such was to right the state; They could not right me, that would give suspicion : So that I was a slave to my own subjects; So that I was a foe to my own friends; Begirt with spies for guards-with robes for power- With pomp for freedom-gaolers for a council- Inquisitors for friends-and hell for life!
I had one only fount of quiet left, And that they poison'd! My pure household gods (2) Were shiver'd on my hearth, and o'er their shrine Sate grinning Ribaldry and sneering Scorn. (3)
I. Ber. You have been deeply wrong'd, and now Nobly avenged before another night. [shall be Doge. I had borne all-it hurt me, but I bore it- Till this last running over of the cup
(1) "The Doge is at last ushered into the presence of the conspirators, who are at first disposed to sacrifice both him and his introducer; but are pacified and converted by a speech of three pages, which is not very good; and then they put it to him to say, whether any of the devoted senate shall be spared in the impending massacre. He says
Ask me not-tempt me not with such a question- Decide yourselves.'-
But, on being further pressed, he, in these passages, gives way to feelings most natural to his own condition, but by no means calculated to recommend him to his new as- sociates and afterwards, when he is left alone with the chief conspirator, the contrast of their situation is still more finely and forcibly elicited," Jeffrey.-L. E.
(2) "I could have forgiven the dagger or the bowl, any thing, but the deliberate desolation piled upon me, when I stood alone upon my hearth, with my household gods shivered around me. Do you suppose I have forgotten or forgiven it? It has, comparatively, swallowed up in me every other feeling, and I am only a spectator upon earth till a
Doge. No; let him be reserved unto the last, Nor turn aside to strike at such a prey, (6) Till nobler game is quarried: his offence Was a mere ebullition of the vice, The general corruption, generated By the foul aristocracy: he could not— He dared not, in more honourable days, Have risk'd it. I have merged all private wrath Against him in the thought of our great purpose. A slave insults me-I require his punishment From his proud master's hands; if he refuse it, The offence grows his, and let him answer it,
Cal. Yet, as the immediate cause of the alliance Which consecrates our undertaking more, I owe him such deep gratitude, that fain I would repay him as he merits; may I?
Doge. You would but lop the hand, and I the head; You would but smite the scholar, I the master; tenfold opportunity offers. It may come yet." B. Letters, 1819.-L. E.
(3) In the MS.- ( ribaldry "Sate grinning nockery (4) In the MS.-
and sneering scorn."-L. E.
Playthings, to do their pleasure-and
then perish. be broken."-LE (5) "The struggle of feelings with which the Doge under takes the conspiracy is admirably contrasted with the fe rocious eagerness of his low-born associates; and only loses its effect because we cannot but be sensible that the ma who felt thus could not have gone on with his guilty pro ject, unless stimulated by some greater and more accumsa lated injuries than are, in the course of the tragedy, brought before the perception of the reader." Heber.-L. E. (6) In the MS.
You would but punish Steno, I the senate.
cannot pause on individual hate,
in the absorbing, sweeping, whole revenge,
So they have me: but you ne'er spake with them; You never broke their bread, nor shared their salt; You never had their wine-cup at your lips;
Which, like the sheeted fire from heaven, must blast You grew not up with them, nor laugh'd, nor wept,
Without distinction, as it fell of yore,
Where the Dead Sea hath quench'd two cities' ashes. I. Ber. Away, then, to your posts! I but remain A moment to accompany the Doge
To our late place of tryst, to see no spies Have been upon the scout, and thence I hasten To where my allotted band is under arms. Cal. Farewell, then,—until dawn! I. Ber.
Success go with you! Consp. We will not fail-Away! My lord, farewell!(1)
[The Conspirators salute the DOGE and ISRAEL BERTUCCIO, and retire, headed by PHILIP CALENDARO. The DOGE and ISRAEL BERTUCCIO
I. Ber. We have them in the toil-it cannot fail! Now thou'rt indeed a sovereign, and wilt make A name immortal greater than the greatest: Free citizens have struck at kings ere now; Cesars have fallen, and even patrician hands Have crush'd dictators, as the popular steel Has reach'd patricians: but, until this hour, What prince has plotted for his people's freedom, Or risk'd a life to liberate his subjects? For ever, and for ever, they conspire Against the people, to abuse their hands To chains, but laid aside to carry weapons Against the fellow-nations, so that yoke On yoke, and slavery and death may whet, Not glat, the never-gorged Leviathan! Now, my lord, to our enterprise;-'t is great, And greater the reward; why stand you rapt? A moment back, and you were all impatience! Doge. And is it then decided! must they die? I. Ber. Who?
Doge. My own friends, by blood and courtesy, And many deeds and days-the senators?
1. Ber. You pass'd their sentence, and it is a just one. Doge. Ay, so it seems, and so it is, to you; You are a patriot, a plebeian GracchusThe rebel's oracle, the people's tribuneI blame you not—you act in your vocation; They smote you, and oppress'd you, and despised you;
"The great defect of Marino Faliero is, that the nature and character of the conspiracy excite no interest. It mattere little that Lord Byron has been faithful to history, if the event is destitute of a poetic character. Like Alfieri, to whom, in many points, his genius approximates, he is fettered by an intractable story, which is wholly remote from the instincts and feelings of mankind. How elevated soever may be his diction, how vivid soever his colouring, a moral truth is wanting,-that charm, so difficult to define, so easy to apprehend, which, diffused over the scene, excites in generous bosoms an exalted enthusiasm for the great inerests of humanity. This is the poesy of history. It is the charm of the William Tell of Schiller; it is felt in the awful plot of Brutus, and, to a certain degree, in the conspiracy of Herre and Jaffier; for the end and purpose of these conspiracies were, to redeem their country from insult and pression. But in Marino Faliero's attempt against the state, we contemplate nothing but the project of a sanguinary ruffian, seeking to grasp unlimited authority, and making, after the established precedents of all usurpers, the wrongs and sufferings of the commonalty his pretence; while, in another aspect of his character, we see him goaded, yan imagined injury, into an enterprise which would have inundated Venice with her best blood. Is this a sublime
Nor held a revel in their company;
Ne'er smiled to see them smile, nor claim'd their smile In social interchange for yours, nor trusted Nor wore them in your heart of hearts, as I have: These hairs of mine are grey, and so are theirs, The elders of the council: I remember When all our locks were like the raven's wing, As we went forth to take our prey around The isles wrung from the false Mahometan; And can I see them dabbled o'er with blood? Each stab to them will seem my suicide. (2)
I. Ber. Doge! Doge! this vacillation is unworthy A child; if you are not in second childhood, Call back your nerves to your own purpose, nor Thus shame yourself and me. By heavens! I'd rather Forego even now, or fail in our intent,
Than see the man I venerate subside From high resolves into such shallow weakness! You have seen blood in battle, shed it, both Your own and that of others; can you shrink then From a few drops from veins of hoary vampires, Who but give back what they have drain'd from mil- lions?
Doge. Bear with me! Step by step, and blow on blow, I will divide with you; think not I waver: Ah! no; it is the certainty of all
Which I must do doth make me tremble thus. But let these last and lingering thoughts have way, To which you only and the night are conscious, And both regardless; when the hour arrives, 'Tis mine to sound the knell, and strike the blow, Which shall unpeople many palaces,
And hew the highest genealogic trees Down to the earth, strew'd with their bleeding fruit, And crush their blossoms into barrenness: This will I-must 1-have I sworn to do, Nor aught can turn me from my destiny; But still I quiver to behold what I Must be, and think what I have been! Bear with me. I. Ber. Re-man your breast; I feel no such remorse, I understand it not: why should you change? You acted, and you act, on your free will.
Doge. Ay, there it is-you feel not, nor do I,
spectacle, calculated to purge the mind, according to the aphorism of Aristotle, by means of terror or pity?" Ecl. Rev.-L. E.
(2) "The unmixed selfishness of the motives with which the Doge accedes to the plot perpetually escapes him. Not that he is wholly untouched by the compunctious visitings of nature. But the fearful unity of such a character is broken by assigning to it the throbbings and the pangs of human feelings, and by making him recoil with affright from slaughter and desolation. In the roar and whirlwind of the mighty passions which precede the acting of a dreadful plot, it is wholly unreasonable and out of keeping to put into his mouth the sentimental effusions of affectionate pity for his friends, whom he thinks of rather too late to give these touches of remorse and mercy any other character than that of hypocritical whining. The sentiments are certainly good, but lamentably out of time and place, and remind us of Scarron's remark upon the moralising Phlegyas in the infernal regions,
Else I should stab thee on the spot, to save A thousand lives, and, killing, do no murder; You feel not-you go to this butcher-work As if these high-born men were steers for shambles! When all is over, you'll be free and merry, And calmly wash those hands incarnadine; But I, outgoing thee and all thy fellows In this surpassing massacre, shall be, Shall see and feel-oh God! oh God! 'tis true, And thou dost well to answer that it was "My own free will and act," and yet you err, For I will do this! Doubt not-fear not; I Will be your most unmerciful accomplice! And yet I act no more on my free will,
Nor my own feelings-both compel me back; But there is hell within me and around, And, like the demon who believes and trembles, Must I abhor and do. Away! away! Get thee unto thy fellows, I will hie me To gather the retainers of our house.
Doubt not, Saint Mark's great bell shall wake all Venice,
Except her slaughter'd senate: ere the sun
Be broad upon the Adriatic, there
Shall be a voice of weeping, which shall drown The roar of waters in the cry of blood! I am resolved--come on.
A damp like death rose o'er my brow; I strove To laugh the thought away, but 't would not be: Through all the music ringing in my ears A knell was sounding, as distinct and clear, Though low and far, as e'er the Adrian wave Rose o'er the city's murmur in the night, Dashing against the outward Lido's bulwark: So that I left the festival before
It reach'd its zenith, and will woo my pillow For thoughts more tranquil, or forgetfulness. Antonio, take my mask and cloak, and light The lamp within my chamber.
Ant. Command you no refreshment? Lioni.
Which will not be commanded.
Nought, save sleep, Let me hope it, [Exit ANTONIO.
Though my breast feels too anxious; I will try Whether the air will calm my spirits: 'tis A goodly night; the cloudy wind which blew From the Levant hath crept into its cave, And the broad moon has brighten'd. What a stil ness! [Goes to an open lattice And what a contrast with the scene I left, Where the tall torches' glare, and silver lamps' More pallid gleam along the tapestried walls, Spread over the reluctant gloom which haunts Those vast and dianly-latticed galleries A dazzling mass of artificial light,
Which show'd all things, but nothing as they were. There Age, essaying to recall the past, After long striving for the hues of youth At the sad labour of the toilet, and
Full many a glance at the too faithful mirror, Prank'd forth in all the pride of ornament, Forgot itself, and trusting to the falsehood Of the indulgent beams, which show, yet hide, Believed itself forgotten, and was fool'd.
Doge. Man, thou hast struck upon the chord which There Youth, which needed not, nor thought of suc
All nature from my heart. Hence to our task!
Vain adjuncts, lavish'd its true bloom, and health, And bridal beauty, in the unwholesome press [Exeunt. Of flush'd and crowded wassailers, and wasted Its hours of rest in dreaming this was pleasure, And so shall waste them till the sunrise streams On sallow cheeks and sunken eyes, which should not Have worn this aspect yet for many a year. The music, and the banquet, and the wine- The garlands, the rose-odours, and the flowers- The sparkling eyes, and flashing ornaments- The white arms and the raven hair-the braids And bracelets; swanlike bosoms, and the necklace, An India in itself, yet dazzling not
Palazzo of the Patrician LIONI. LIONI laying aside the mask and cloak which the Venetian Nobles wore in public, attended by a Domestic.
Lioni. I will to rest, right weary of this revel, The gayest we have held for many moons, And yet, I know not why, it cheer'd me not; There came a heaviness across my heart, Which, in the lightest movement of the dance, Though eye to eye, and hand in hand united Even with the lady of my love, oppress'd me, And through my spirit chill'd my blood, until
The eye like what it circled; the thin robes, Floating like light clouds 'twixt our gaze and heaven, The many-twinkling feet so small and sylph-like, Suggesting the more secret symmetry Of the fair forms which terminate so well- All the delusion of the dizzy scene, Its false and true enchantments-art and nature,
chantments of that which he has just quitted. Nothing ca be finer than this picture, in both its compartments. There is a truth and a luxuriance in the description of the rout which mark at once the hand of a master, and raise it to s moonlight view from the window is equally grand and very high rank as a piece of poetical painting;-while the beautiful, and reminds us of those magnificent and chanting lookings-forth in Manfred, which have left, we will confess, far deeper traces on our fancy than any thin in the more elaborate work before us." Jeffrey.-L. E
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