To get his place or fortune: I scorn to flatter
A blown-up fool above, or crush the wretch
Beneath me.-
Yet, Jaffier, for all this, I am a villain.
Jaff A villain!
Pier. Yes, a most notorious villain:
To see the suff'rings of my fellow-creatures,
And own myself a man: to see our senators
Cheat the deluded people with a shew
Of liberty, which yet they ne'er must taste of;
They say, by them our hands are free from fetters,
Yet whom they please they lay in basest bonds;
Bring whom they please to infamy and sorrow;
Drive us like wrecks down the rough tide of pow'r,
Whilst no hold's left to save us from destruction:
All that bear this are villains, and I one,
Not to rouse up at the great call of nature,
And check the growth of these domestic spoilers,
That make us slaves, and tell us 'tis our charter.
Jaff. Oh, Aquilina! friend, to lose such beauty,
The dearest purchase of thy noble labours;
She was thy right by conquest, as by love.
Pier. Oh Jaffier! I'd so fix'd my heart upon That wheresoe'er I fram'd a scheme of life For time to come, she was my only joy, With which I wish'd to sweeten future cares; 1 fancied pleasures, none but one that loves And doats as I did, can imagine like them: When in th' extremity of all these hopes, In the most charming hour of expectation, Then when our eager wishes soar the highest, Ready to stoop and grasp the lovely game, A haggard owl, a worthless kite of prey, With his foul wings sail'd in, and spoil'd my quarry. Jaff. I know the wretch, and scorn him as thou
Pier. Curse on the common good that's so protected, Where ev'ry slave that heaps up wealth enough To do much wrong, becomes a lord of right:
I, who believ'd no ill could e'er come near me,
Found in th' embraces of my Aquilina,
A wretched, old, but itching senator;
A wealthy fool, that had bought out my title:
A rogue, that uses beauty like a lamb-skin,
Barely to keep him warm: that filthy cockatoo,
Was in my absence crept into my nest,
And spoiling all my brood of noble pleasure.
Jaff. Didst thou not chase him thence?
Pier. I did; and drove
The rank, old, bearded Hirco stinking home:
The matter was complain'd of in the senate,
I summon'd to appear, and censur'd basely,
For violating something they call privilege--
This was the recompense of all my service;
Would I'd been rather beaten by a coward!
A soldier's mistress, Jaffier,'s his religion,
When that's profan'd, all other ties are broken:
That ev'n dissolves all former bonds of service,
And from that hour I think myself as free
To be the foe as e'er the friend of Venice-
Nay, dear revenge, whene'er thou call'st, I'm ready.
Jaff. I think no safety can be here for virtue,
And grieve, my friend, as much as thou, to live
In such a wretched state as this of Venice,
Where all agree to spoil the public good,
And villains fatten with the brave man's labours.
Pier. We've neither safety, unity, nor peace,
For the foundation's lost of common good;
Justice is lame as well as blind amongst us;
The laws (corrupted to their ends that make 'em)
Serve but for instruments of some new tyranny,
That ev'ry day starts up t'enslave us deeper:
Now could this glorious cause but find out friends
To do it right! oh, Jaffier! then might'st thou
Not wear these seals of woe upon thy face:
The proud Priuli should be taught humanity,
And learn to value such a son as thou art.
I dare not speak! but my heart bleeds this moment!
Jaff. Curst be the cause, tho' I thy friend be part on't:
Let me partake the troubles of thy bosom,
For I am us❜d to misery, and perhaps
May find a way to sweeten't to thy spirit.
Pier. Too soon 'twill reach thy knowledge→
Jaff. Then from thee
Let it proceed. There's virtue in thy friendship
Would make the saddest tale of sorrow pleasing,
Strengthen my constancy, and welcome ruin.
Pier. Then thou art ruin'd!
Jaff. That I long since knew;
I and ill fortune have been long acquainted.
Pier. I past this very moment by thy doors,
And found them guarded by a troop of villains;
The sons of public rapine were destroying:
They told me, by the sentence of the law
They had commission to seize all thy fortune:
Nay, more; Priuli's cruel hand had sign'd it.
Here stood a ruffian, with a horrid face,
Lording it o'er a pile of massy plate,
Tumbled into a heap for public sale:
There was another making villanous jests
At thy undoing; he had ta'en possession
Of all thy ancient most domestic ornaments,
Rich hangings, intermix'd and wrought with gold;
The very bed, which on thy wedding-night
Receiv'd thee to the arms of Belvidera,
The scene of all thy joys, was violated
By the coarse hands of filthy dungeon-villains,
And thrown amongst the common lumber.
Jaff. Now thank heav'n—
Pier. Thank heav'n! for what?
Jaff. That I'm not worth a ducat.
Pier. Curse thy dull stars, and the worse fate of
Venice,
Where brothers, friends, and fathers, all are false;
Where there's no trust, no truth; where innocence
Stoops under vile oppression, and vice lords it:
Hadst thou but seen, as I did, how at last
Thy beauteous Belvidera, like a wretch
That's doom'd to banishment, came weeping forth,
Shining thro' tears, like April-suns in showers,
That labour to o'ercome the cloud that loads 'em,
Whilst two young virgins, on whose arms she lean'd,
Kindly look'd up, and at her grief grew sad,
As if they catch'd the sorrows that fell from her:
Ev'n the lewd rabble that were gather'd round
To see the sight, stood mute when they beheld her;
Govern'd their roaring throats, and grumbled pity:
I cou'd have hugg'd the greasy rogues: they pleas'd me.
Jaff. I thank thee for this story, from my soul,
Since now I know the worst that can befal me:
Ah, Pierre! I have a heart, that could have borne
The roughest wrong my fortune could have done me:
But when I think what Belvidera feels,
The bitterness her tender spirit tastes of,
I own myself a coward: bear my weakness,
If throwing thus my arms about thy neck,
I play the boy, and blubber in thy bosom.
Oh! I shall drown thee with my sorrows!
Pier. Burn!
First burn, and level Venice to thy ruin.
What, starve like beggars' brats in frosty weather,
Under a hedge, and whine ourselves to death!
Thou, or thy cause, shall never want assistance,
Whilst I have blood or fortune fit to serve thee!
Command my heart: thou'rt ev'ry way it's master.
Jaff. No; there's a secret pride in bravely dying.
Pier. Rats die in holes and corners, dogs run mad;
Man knows a braver remedy for sorrow:
Revenge! the attribute of gods, they stamp'd it
With their great image on our natures: die!
Consider well the cause that calls upon thee:
And if thou'rt base enough, die then: remember
Thy Belvidera suffers; Belvidera!
Die damp first-What! be decently interr'd
In a church-yard, and mingle thy brave dust
With stinking rogues that rot in dirty winding-sheets,
Surfeit-slain fools, the common dung o'th' soil.
Jaff. Oh!
Pier. Well said, out with't, swear a little-
Jaff. Swear!
By sea and air! by earth, by heav'n, and hell,
I will revenge my Belvidera's tears!
Hark thee, my friend-Priuli-is-a senator!
Pier. A dog!
Jaff. Agreed.
Pier. Shoot him.
Jaff. With all my heart.
No more: where shall we meet at night?
Pier. I'll tell thee;
On the Rialto ev'ry night at twelve
I take my evening's walk of meditation:
There we will meet, and talk of precious mischief.
Jaff. Farewell.
Pier. At twelve.
Jaff. At any hour, my plagues
Will keep me waking.
Tell me why, good heav'n,
Thou mad'st me what I am, with all the spirit,
Aspiring thoughts, and elegant desires,
That fill the happiest man? Ah! rather why
Didst thou not form me sordid as my fate,
Base-minded, dull, and fit to carry burdens?
Why have I sense to know the curse that's on me?
Is this just dealing, Nature?-Belvidera!
Belv. Lead me, lead me, my virgins!
To that kind voice. My lord, my love, my refuge! Happy my eyes, when they behold thy face:
My heavy heart will leave it's doleful beating
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