To nurse them wisely. Foscari-you know | No less than master; I have probed his soul Your sentence, then? J. Foscari. Return to Candia? Marina. Who obtain'd that justice? Lored. One who wars not with women. Marina. But oppresses Men: howsoever, let him have my thanks For the only boon I would have ask'd or taken From him or such as he is. Lored. He receives them As they are offer'd. Marina. May they thrive with him So much!-no more. J. Foscari. Is this,sir, your whole mission? Because we have brief time for preparation, And you perceive your presence doth disquiet This lady, of a house noble as yours. Lored. How nobler? Marina. As more generous! We say the "generous steed" to express the purity Of his high blood. Thus much I've learnt, although Venetian(who see few steeds save of bronze), From those Venetians who have skimm'd the coasts Of Egypt, and her neighbour Araby: For such a son-thou cold inveterate hater! J. Foscari. That were difficult. Ay, he may veil beneath a marble-brow And sneering lip the pang, but he partakes it. A few brief words of truth shame the devil's servants | With death, and chains, and exile in his hand To scatter o'er his kind as he thinks fit: They are his weapons, not his armour, for I have pierced him to the core of his cold heart. I care not for his frowns! We can but die, And he but live, for him the very worst Of destinies: each day secures him more His tempter's. J. Foscari. This is mere insanity. Marina. It may be so; and who made us mad? Lored. Let her go on; it irks not me. Marina. That's false! You came here to enjoy a heartless triumph Of cold looks upon manifold griefs! You came To be sued to in vain-to mark our tears, And hoard our groans-to gaze upon the wreck Which you have made a prince's son-my husband; In short, to trample on the fallen—an office The hangman shrinks from, as all men from him! How have you sped? We are wretched, signor, as Your plots could make, and vengeance could desire us, And how feel you? Lored. As rocks. Marina. By thunder blasted: They feel not, but no less are shiver'd. Come, Foscari; now let us go, and leave this felon, The sole fit habitant of such a cell, Which he has peopled often, but ne'er fitly Till he himself shall brood in it alone. Enter the DOGE. J. Foscari. My father! Doge (embracing him). Jacopo! my sonmy son! J. Foscari. My father still! How long it is since I Have heard thee name my name—our name! Doge. My boy! Couldst thou but know— J. Foscari. I rarely, sir, have murmur'd. [She points to LOREDANO. The virtue which this noble lady most Doge. Daughter, it is superfluous; I have | Slaves, exiles-what you will; or if they are Females with portions, brides and bribes long Known Loredano. Lored. You may know him better. Marina. Yes; worse he could not. J. Foscari. Father, let not these Our parting hours be lost in listening to Reproaches, which boot nothing. Is it-is it, Indeed, our last of meetings? Doge. You behold These white hairs! J. Foscari. And I feel, besides, that mine Will never be so white. Embrace me, father! I loved you ever-never more than now. Look to my children-to your last child's children: Let them be all to you which he was once, Marina. No-not here. J. Foscari. They might behold their parent any where. Marina. I would that they beheld their father in A place which would not mingle fear with love, To freeze their young blood in its natural current. They have fed well, slept soft, and knew not that Their sire was a mere hunted outlaw. Well I know his fate may one day be their heritage, But let it only be their heritage, And not their present fee. Their senses, though Alive to love, are yet awake to terror; And these vile damps, too, and yon thick green wave Which floats above the place where we now stand A cell so far below the water's level, Sending its pestilence through every crevice, Might strike them: this is not their atmosphere, However you - and you- and, most of all, As worthiest you, sir, noble Loredano! May breathe it without prejudice. J. Foscari. I had not Reflected upon this, but acquiesce. J. Foscari. And must I leave them all? J. Foscari. Not one? Lored. They are the state's. In all things painful. If they're sick,they will J. Foscari. Alas! Marina. Touch it not, Foscari; 'twill sting you. Signor, Stand off! be sure, that if a grasp of yours They live, they'll make you soldiers, sena-Would raise us from the gulf wherein we tors, are plunged, No hand of ours would stretch itself to|(Like Barbarossa to the Pope) to beg him To have the courtesy to abdicate. And make him null. Barb. But will the laws uphold us? Lored. What laws?-The Ten are laws; and if they were not, I will be legislator in this business. Barb. But he has twice already Lored. The better reason Lored. It shows The impression of his former instances: If they were from his heart, he may be thankful; If not, 'twill punish his hypocrisy. Come, they are met by this time; let us join them, And be thou fix'd in purpose for this once. I have prepared such arguments as will not Fail to move them, and to remove him: since Their thoughts, their objects, have been sounded, do not You, with your wonted scruples, teach us pause, And all will prosper. Barb. Could I but be certain This is no prelude to such persecution Lored. Forthwith- when this long leave of the sire as has fallen upon the son, I would support you. Lored. He is safe, I tell you; His fourscore years and five may linger on As long as he can drag them: 'tis his throne Alone is aim'd at. Barb. But discarded princes Are seldom long of life. Lored. And men of eighty More seldom still. Barb. And why not wait these few years? Lored. Because we have waited long enough, and he Lived longer than enough. Hence! In to council! [Exeunt Loredano and Barbarigo. Alone can answer: they are rarely wont Senator. For them, but not for us; Memmo. You will know why anon, If you obey, and, if not, you no less Will know why you should have obey'd, Memmo. Why Thus hesitate?-The Ten have call'd in aid To mingle with a body so august. Senator. Most true. I say no more. Senator. Let us view them: they, Memmo. Being worth our lives Senator. I sought not A place within the sanctuary; but being Memmo. Let us not Be latest in obeying the Ten's summons. Senator. All are not met, but I am of your thought So far-let's in. Memmo. The earliest are most welcome In earnest councils-we will not be least so. [Exeunt. Enter the DOGE, JACOPO FOSCARI, and MARINA. Yet-yet-I pray you to obtain for me Doge. Son Jacopo, Go and obey our country's will: 'tis not J. Foscari. But still I must You ever were my dearest offspring, when Of your three goodly brothers, now in earth, And their desponding shades came flitting round To impede the act, I must no less obey Will quickly clear the harbour. Marina. In human breasts. Alas! J. Foscari. Never yet did mariner prosperous And pleasant breezes, as I call upon you, The land I love, and never shall see more! No J. Foscari. No not for thee, too good, too kind! And tear the vessel, till the mariners, destroys me Will be more merciful than man, and bear me, received One lacerated like the heart which then Will be-But wherefore breaks it not? why live I? Marina. To man thyself, I trust, with A sufferer, but not a loud one: why, Imprisonment and actual torture? It must be borne. Father, your blessing. It could avail thee! but no less thou hast it. Doge. What? J. Foscari. My poor mother for my birth, And me for having lived, and you yourself (As I forgive you) for the gift of life, Which you bestow'd upon me as my sire. Marina. What hast thou done? J. Foscari. Nothing. I canuot charge My memory with much save sorrow: but I have been so beyond the common lot Chasten'd and visited, I needs must think That I was wicked. If it be so, may What I have undergone here keep me from A like hereafter. Marina. Fear not: that 's reserved J. Foscari. Let me hope not. J. Foscari. I cannot wish them all they have inflicted. Marina. All! the consummate fiends! A thousand fold! Marina. Hold thy peace, old man! I am no daughter now-thou hast no son. Oh, Foscari! Officer. We must remove the body. Marina. Touch it not, dungeon-miscreants! your base office Ends with his life, and goes not beyond murder, Even by your murderous laws. Leave his remains To those who know to honour them. Inform the signory, and learn their pleasure. May the worm which ne'er dieth feed upon They have no further power upon those them! Lend me your arm, good signor. Officer. You turn pale ashes: Doge. My unhappy children! You feel it then at last-you!-- Where is now Doge (throwing himself down by the body). Let me support you-paler-ho! some aid I thought you had no tears-you hoarded there! Some water! Marina. Ah, he is dying! J. Foscari. Now, I'm ready My eyes swim strangely-where's the door? Marina. Away! Let me support him-my best love! Oh, God! them Until they are useless ; but weep on ! he never Shall weep more-never, never more. Enter LOREDano and Barbarigo. Lored. What's here? Marina. Ah! the devil, come to insult the dead! Avaunt! Incarnate Lucifer! 'tis holy ground. A martyr's ashes now lie there, which make it [Officer presents him with water. A shrine. Get thee back to thy place of Officer. He will be better, Perhaps, in the air. torment! Barb. Lady, we knew not of this sad event, pass'd here merely on our path from council. J. Foscari. I doubt not. Father-wife-But Your hands! Marina. There's death in that damp Marina. Pass on. Lored. We sought the Doge. Marina (pointing to the Doge, who is still on the ground by his son's body). He's busy, look, |