Enter VINCENZO.

There is one without

Vin.

Craves audience of your highness.

I'm unwell

Doge.
I can see no one, not even a patrician—
Let him refer his business to the council.
Vin. My lord, I will deliver your reply;
It cannot much import-he's a plebeian,
The master of a galley, I believe.

Doge. How! did you say the patron of a galley?
That is I mean-a servant of the state:

Admit him, he may be on public service.

[Exit VINCENZO. Doge (solus). This patron may be sounded; I will try him.

I know the people to be discontented;

They have cause, since Sapienza's adverse day,
When Genoa conquer'd: they have further cause
Since they are nothing in the state, and in
The city worse than nothing-mere machines,
To serve the nobles' most patrician pleasure.
The troops have long arrears of pay, oft promised,
And murmur deeply-any hope of change
Will draw them forward: they shall pay themselves
With plunder:-but the priests-I doubt the priesthood
Will not be with us; they have hated me

Since that rash hour, when, madden'd with the drone,
(1) I smote the tardy bishop at Treviso,
Quickening his holy march; yet, ne'ertheless,
They may be won, at least their chief at Rome,

By some well-timed concessions; but, above
All things, I must be speedy; at my hour
Of twilight little light of life remains.

Could I free Venice, and avenge my wrongs,
I had lived too long, and willingly would sleep
Next moment with my sires; and, wanting this,
Better that sixty of my fourscore years

Had been already where-how soon, I care not—
The whole must be extinguish'd;—better that
They ne'er had been, than drag me on to be
The thing these arch-oppressors fain would make me.
Let me consider-of efficient troops

There are three thousand posted at

Vin.

Enter VINCENZO and ISRAEL BERTUCCIO.

May it please Your highness, the same patron' whom I spake of Is here to crave your patience.

Doge. Vincenzo.

Leave the chamber,
[Exit VINCENZO.

Sir, you may advance-what would you?

I. Ber. Redress.

Doge.

I. Ber.

Of whom?

Of God and of the Doge.

Doge. Alas! my friend, you seek it of the twain Of least respect and interest in Venice.

You must address the council.

I. Ber.

'Twere in vain ;

For he who injured me is one of them.

Doge. There's blood upon thy face-how came it there?

I. Ber. 'Tis mine, and not the first I've shed for

But for the hope I had and have, that you,
My prince, yourself a soldier, will redress
Him, whom the laws of discipline and Venice
Permit not to protect himself;-if not-

I say no more.

Doge.

Is it not so?

I. Ber.

But something you would do—

I am a man, my lord.

Doge. Why so is he who smote you.
I. Ber.

He is call'd so;

Nay, more, a noble one-at least, in Venice:
But since he hath forgotten that I am one,
And treats me like a brute, the brute may turn—
'Tis said the worm will.

Doge.

I. Ber. Barbaro.

Doge.

Say his name and lineage?

What was the cause? or the pretext?

I. Ber. I am the chief of the arsenal, 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.—
Doge. How! are we comrades?-the state's ducal
-robes

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 command

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? I. Ber. Irreparably in my self-esteem.

Doge. Speak out; fear nothing: being stung at heart, What would you do to be revenged on this man?

I. Ber. That which I dare not name, and yet will do. Doge. Then wherefore came you here?

I. Ber.

I come for justice, 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-'twas denied
To me most solemnly an hour ago.
I. Ber. How says your highness?
Doge.

To a month's confinement.

I. Ber.

Steno is condemn'd

What! the same who dared

To stain the ducal throne with those foul words,
That have cried shame to every ear in Venice?

Doge. Ay, doubtless they have echo'd o'er the arsenal,
Keeping due time with every hammer's clink
As a good jest to jolly artisans;

Or making chorus to the creaking oar,
In the vile tune of every galley-slave,
Who, as he sung the merry stave, exulted
He was not a shamed dotard like the Doge.
I. Ber. Is't possible? a month's imprisonment!
No more for Steno?

Doge.
You have heard the offence,
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;
They'll do as much by Barbaro, no doubt.
I. Ber. Ah! dared I speak my feelings!
Doge.
Mine have no further outrage to endure.

Give them breath.

I. Ber. Then, in a word, it rests but on your word

To punish and avenge-I will not say

My petty wrong, for what is a mere blow,

However vile, to such a thing as I am?—
But the base insult done your state and person.

Doge. You overrate my power, which is a pageant. This cap is not the monarch's crown; these robes