Methinks I am bold to look upon you thus:

The gentle violet hides beneath its leaf
And is afraid to look at the great sun

For fear of too much splendour, but my eyes,
O daring eyes! are grown so venturous

That like fixed stars they stand, gazing at you,
And surfeit sense with beauty.

DUCHESS
Dear love, I would

You could look upon me ever, for your eyes
Are polished mirrors, and when I peer

Into those mirrors I can see myself,
And so I know my image lives in you.

GUIDO
[taking her in his arms]

Stand still, thou hurrying orb in the high heavens,
And make this hour immortal! [A pause.]

DUCHESS
Sit down here,

A little lower than me: yes, just so, sweet,
That I may run my fingers through your hair,

And see your face turn upwards like a flower
To meet my kiss.

Have you not sometimes noted,
When we unlock some long-disused room

With heavy dust and soiling mildew filled,
Where never foot of man has come for years,

And from the windows take the rusty bar,
And fling the broken shutters to the air,

And let the bright sun in, how the good sun
Turns every grimy particle of dust

Into a little thing of dancing gold?
Guido, my heart is that long-empty room,

But you have let love in, and with its gold
Gilded all life. Do you not think that love

Fills up the sum of life?
GUIDO

Ay! without love
Life is no better than the unhewn stone

Which in the quarry lies, before the sculptor
Has set the God within it. Without love

Life is as silent as the common reeds
That through the marshes or by rivers grow,

And have no music in them.
DUCHESS

Yet out of these
The singer, who is Love, will make a pipe

And from them he draws music; so I think
Love will bring music out of any life.

Is that not true?
GUIDO

Sweet, women make it true.
There are men who paint pictures, and carve statues,

Paul of Verona and the dyer's son,
Or their great rival, who, by the sea at Venice,

Has set God's little maid upon the stair,
White as her own white lily, and as tall,

Or Raphael, whose Madonnas are divine
Because they are mothers merely; yet I think

Women are the best artists of the world,
For they can take the common lives of men

Soiled with the money-getting of our age,
And with love make them beautiful.

DUCHESS
Ah, dear,

I wish that you and I were very poor;
The poor, who love each other, are so rich.

GUIDO
Tell me again you love me, Beatrice.

DUCHESS
[fingering his collar]

How well this collar lies about your throat.
[LORD MORANZONE looks through the door from the corridor outside.]

GUIDO
Nay, tell me that you love me.

DUCHESS
I remember,

That when I was a child in my dear France,
Being at Court at Fontainebleau, the King

Wore such a collar.
GUIDO

Will you not say you love me?
DUCHESS

[smiling]
He was a very royal man, King Francis,

Yet he was not royal as you are.
Why need I tell you, Guido, that I love you?

[Takes his head in her hands and turns his face up to her.]
Do you not know that I am yours for ever,

Body and soul?
[Kisses him, and then suddenly catches sight of MORANZONE and leaps

up.]
Oh, what is that? [MORANZONE disappears.]

GUIDO
What, love?

DUCHESS
Methought I saw a face with eyes of flame

Look at us through the doorway.
GUIDO

Nay, 'twas nothing:
The passing shadow of the man on guard.

[The DUCHESS still stands looking at the window.]
'Twas nothing, sweet.

DUCHESS
Ay! what can harm us now,

Who are in Love's hand? I do not think I'd care
Though the vile world should with its lackey Slander

Trample and tread upon my life; why should I?
They say the common field-flowers of the field

Have sweeter scent when they are trodden on
Than when they bloom alone, and that some herbs

Which have no perfume, on being bruised die
With all Arabia round them; so it is

With the young lives this dull world seeks to crush,
It does but bring the sweetness out of them,

And makes them lovelier often. And besides,
While we have love we have the best of life:

Is it not so?
GUIDO

Dear, shall we play or sing?
I think that I could sing now.

DUCHESS
Do not speak,

For there are times when all existences
Seem narrowed to one single ecstasy,

And Passion sets a seal upon the lips.
GUIDO

Oh, with mine own lips let me break that seal!
You love me, Beatrice?

DUCHESS
Ay! is it not strange

I should so love mine enemy?
GUIDO

Who is he?
DUCHESS

Why, you: that with your shaft did pierce my heart!
Poor heart, that lived its little lonely life

Until it met your arrow.
GUIDO

Ah, dear love,
I am so wounded by that bolt myself

That with untended wounds I lie a-dying,
Unless you cure me, dear Physician.

DUCHESS
I would not have you cured; for I am sick

With the same malady.
GUIDO

Oh, how I love you!
See, I must steal the cuckoo's voice, and tell

The one tale over.
DUCHESS

Tell no other tale!
For, if that is the little cuckoo's song,

The nightingale is hoarse, and the loud lark
Has lost its music.

GUIDO
Kiss me, Beatrice!

[She takes his face in her hands and bends down and kisses him; a
loud knocking then comes at the door, and GUIDO leaps up; enter a

Servant.]
SERVANT

A package for you, sir.
GUIDO

[carelessly] Ah! give it to me. [Servant hands package wrapped in
vermilion silk, and exit; as GUIDO is about to open it the DUCHESS

comes up behind, and in sport takes it from him.]
DUCHESS

[laughing]
Now I will wager it is from some girl

Who would have you wear her favour; I am so jealous
I will not give up the least part in you,

But like a miser keep you to myself,
And spoil you perhaps in keeping.

GUIDO
It is nothing.

DUCHESS
Nay, it is from some girl.

GUIDO
You know 'tis not.

DUCHESS
[turns her back and opens it]

Now, traitor, tell me what does this sign mean,
A dagger with two leopards wrought in steel?

GUIDO
[taking it from her] O God!

DUCHESS
I'll from the window look, and try

If I can't see the porter's livery
Who left it at the gate! I will not rest

Till I have learned your secret.
[Runs laughing into the corridor.]

GUIDO
Oh, horrible!

Had I so soon forgot my father's death,
Did I so soon let love into my heart,

And must I banish love, and let in murder
That beats and clamours at the outer gate?

Ay, that I must! Have I not sworn an oath?
Yet not to-night; nay, it must be to-night.

Farewell then all the joy and light of life,
All dear recorded memories, farewell,

• violet [´vaiələt] n.&a.紫罗兰(的)；紫色 (初中英语单词)
• singer [´siŋə] n.歌手，演唱者 (初中英语单词)
• collar [´kɔlə] n.衣领；(狗等的)项圈 (初中英语单词)
• perfume [´pə:fju:m, pə´fju:m] n.香味 vt.使发香 (初中英语单词)
• passion [´pæʃən] n.激情；激怒；恋爱 (初中英语单词)
• pierce [piəs] v.刺穿；突破；洞察 (初中英语单词)
• lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
• package [´pækidʒ] n.包(裹) vt.组装 (初中英语单词)
• traitor [´treitə] n.叛徒，卖国贼 (初中英语单词)
• wrought [rɔ:t] work 的过去式(分词) (初中英语单词)
• farewell [feə´wel] int.再见 n.&a.告别 (初中英语单词)
• methinks [mi´θiŋks] vi.据我看来 (高中英语单词)
• particle [´pɑ:tikl] n.微粒；极小量 (高中英语单词)
• quarry [´kwɔri] n.(采)石场；猎物 (高中英语单词)
• corridor [´kɔridɔ:] n.走廊；指定航路 (高中英语单词)
• duchess [´dʌtʃis] n.公爵夫人；女公爵 (高中英语单词)
• sweetness [´swi:tnis] n.甜蜜；芳香；亲切 (高中英语单词)
• learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
• banish [´bæniʃ] vt.流放；消除(顾虑等) (高中英语单词)
• daring [´deəriŋ] a.&n.勇敢(的) (英语四级单词)
• upwards [´ʌpwədz] ad.=upward (英语四级单词)
• unlock [ʌn´lɔk] vt.开锁；开启；池露 (英语四级单词)
• arabia [ə´reibiə] n.阿拉伯 (英语四级单词)
• nightingale [´naitiŋgeil] n.夜莺 (英语四级单词)
• hoarse [hɔ:s] a.嘶哑的；嗓门粗哑的 (英语四级单词)
• dagger [´dægə] n.短剑，匕首 (英语四级单词)