Unto your noble and most trusting father,
I had forgotten there was hunting there.

At Genoa they say,
Indeed I doubt them not, that the red mullet

Runs larger in the harbour of that town
Than anywhere in Italy.

[Turning to one of the Court.]
You, my lord,

Whose gluttonous appetite is your only god,
Could satisfy our Duchess on that point.

DUCHESS
And Orvieto?

DUKE
[yawning]

I cannot now recall
Why I did not surrender Orvieto

According to the word of my contract.
Maybe it was because I did not choose.

[Goes over to the DUCHESS.]
Why look you, Madam, you are here alone;

'Tis many a dusty league to your grey France,
And even there your father barely keeps

A hundred ragged squires for his Court.
What hope have you, I say? Which of these lords

And noble gentlemen of Padua
Stands by your side.

DUCHESS
There is not one.

[GUIDO starts, but restrains himself.]
DUKE

Nor shall be,
While I am Duke in Padua: listen, Madam,

Being mine own, you shall do as I will,
And if it be my will you keep the house,

Why then, this palace shall your prison be;
And if it be my will you walk abroad,

Why, you shall take the air from morn to night.
DUCHESS

Sir, by what right -?
DUKE

Madam, my second Duchess
Asked the same question once: her monument

Lies in the chapel of Bartholomew,
Wrought in red marble; very beautiful.

Guido, your arm. Come, gentlemen, let us go
And spur our falcons for the mid-day chase.

Bethink you, Madam, you are here alone.
[Exit the DUKE leaning on GUIDO, with his Court.]

DUCHESS
[looking after them]

The Duke said rightly that I was alone;
Deserted, and dishonoured, and defamed,

Stood ever woman so alone indeed?
Men when they woo us call us pretty children,

Tell us we have not wit to make our lives,
And so they mar them for us. Did I say woo?

We are their chattels, and their common slaves,
Less dear than the poor hound that licks their hand,

Less fondled than the hawk upon their wrist.
Woo, did I say? bought rather, sold and bartered,

Our very bodies being merchandise.
I know it is the general lot of women,

Each miserably mated to some man
Wrecks her own life upon his selfishness:

That it is general makes it not less bitter.
I think I never heard a woman laugh,

Laugh for pure merriment, except one woman,
That was at night time, in the public streets.

Poor soul, she walked with painted lips, and wore
The mask of pleasure: I would not laugh like her;

No, death were better.
[Enter GUIDO behind unobserved; the DUCHESS flings herself down

before a picture of the Madonna.]
O Mary mother, with your sweet pale face

Bending between the little angel heads
That hover round you, have you no help for me?

Mother of God, have you no help for me?
GUIDO

I can endure no longer.
This is my love, and I will speak to her.

Lady, am I a stranger to your prayers?
DUCHESS

[rising]
None but the wretched needs my prayers, my lord.

GUIDO
Then must I need them, lady.

DUCHESS
How is that?

Does not the Duke show thee sufficient honour?
GUIDO

Your Grace, I lack no favours from the Duke,
Whom my soul loathes as I loathe wickedness,

But come to proffer on my bended knees,
My loyal service to thee unto death.

DUCHESS
Alas! I am so fallen in estate

I can but give thee a poor meed of thanks.
GUIDO

[seizing her hand]
Hast thou no love to give me?

[The DUCHESS starts, and GUIDO falls at her feet.]
O dear saint,

If I have been too daring, pardon me!
Thy beauty sets my boyish blood aflame,

And, when my reverent lips touch thy white hand,
Each little nerve with such wild passion thrills

That there is nothing which I would not do
To gain thy love. [Leaps up.]

Bid me reach forth and pluck
Perilous honour from the lion's jaws,

And I will wrestle with the Nemean beast
On the bare desert! Fling to the cave of War

A gaud, a ribbon, a dead flower, something
That once has touched thee, and I'll bring it back

Though all the hosts of Christendom were there,
Inviolate again! ay, more than this,

Set me to scale the pallid white-faced cliffs
Of mighty England, and from that arrogant shield

Will I raze out the lilies of your France
Which England, that sea-lion of the sea,

Hath taken from her!
O dear Beatrice,

Drive me not from thy presence! without thee
The heavy minutes crawl with feet of lead,

But, while I look upon thy loveliness,
The hours fly like winged Mercuries

And leave existence golden.
DUCHESS

I did not think
I should be ever loved: do you indeed

Love me so much as now you say you do?
GUIDO

Ask of the sea-bird if it loves the sea,
Ask of the roses if they love the rain,

Ask of the little lark, that will not sing
Till day break, if it loves to see the day:-

And yet, these are but empty images,
Mere shadows of my love, which is a fire

So great that all the waters of the main
Can not avail to quench it. Will you not speak?

DUCHESS
I hardly know what I should say to you.

GUIDO
Will you not say you love me?

DUCHESS
Is that my lesson?

Must I say all at once? 'Twere a good lesson
If I did love you, sir; but, if I do not,

What shall I say then?
GUIDO

If you do not love me,
Say, none the less, you do, for on your tongue

Falsehood for very shame would turn to truth.
DUCHESS

What if I do not speak at all? They say
Lovers are happiest when they are in doubt

GUIDO
Nay, doubt would kill me, and if I must die,

Why, let me die for joy and not for doubt.
Oh, tell me may I stay, or must I go?

DUCHESS
I would not have you either stay or go;

For if you stay you steal my love from me,
And if you go you take my love away.

Guido, though all the morning stars could sing
They could not tell the measure of my love.

I love you, Guido.
GUIDO

[stretching out his hands]
Oh, do not cease at all;

I thought the nightingale sang but at night;
Or if thou needst must cease, then let my lips

Touch the sweet lips that can such music make.
DUCHESS

To touch my lips is not to touch my heart.
GUIDO

Do you close that against me?
DUCHESS

Alas! my lord,
I have it not: the first day that I saw you

I let you take my heart away from me;
Unwilling thief, that without meaning it

Did break into my fenced treasury
And filch my jewel from it! O strange theft,

Which made you richer though you knew it not,
And left me poorer, and yet glad of it!

GUIDO
[clasping her in his arms]

O love, love, love! Nay, sweet, lift up your head,
Let me unlock those little scarlet doors

That shut in music, let me dive for coral
In your red lips, and I'll bear back a prize

Richer than all the gold the Gryphon guards
In rude Armenia.

DUCHESS
You are my lord,

And what I have is yours, and what I have not
Your fancy lends me, like a prodigal

Spending its wealth on what is nothing worth.
[Kisses him.]

GUIDO

• anywhere [´eniweə] ad.无论何处；任何地方 (初中英语单词)
• appetite [´æpitait] n.欲望；食欲 (初中英语单词)
• surrender [sə´rendə] vt.&n.交出；引渡；放弃 (初中英语单词)
• league [li:g] n.同盟；社团 (初中英语单词)
• barely [´beəli] ad.公开地；仅仅 (初中英语单词)
• chapel [´tʃæpəl] n.小教堂 (初中英语单词)
• marble [´mɑ:bəl] n.大理石 a.大理石的 (初中英语单词)
• endure [in´djuə] vt.忍耐，忍受；坚持 (初中英语单词)
• wretched [´retʃid] a.可怜的；倒霉的 (初中英语单词)
• pardon [´pɑ:dən] n.&vt.原谅；饶恕；赦免 (初中英语单词)
• passion [´pæʃən] n.激情；激怒；恋爱 (初中英语单词)
• ribbon [´ribən] n.缎带；带子；色带 (初中英语单词)
• winged [´wiŋd] a.有翼的 (初中英语单词)
• existence [ig´zistəns] n.存在；生存；生活 (初中英语单词)
• measure [´meʒə] n.量度；范围 vt.测量 (初中英语单词)
• scarlet [´skɑ:lit] n.猩红色 a.猩红的 (初中英语单词)
• wealth [welθ] n.财富，财产 (初中英语单词)
• duchess [´dʌtʃis] n.公爵夫人；女公爵 (高中英语单词)
• ragged [´rægid] a.衣服破烂的 (高中英语单词)
• mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
• quench [kwentʃ] v.熄灭；平息；压制 (高中英语单词)
• rightly [´raitli] ad.正义地；正确地 (英语四级单词)
• merriment [´merimənt] n.欢乐 (英语四级单词)
• loathe [ləuð] vt.厌恶，嫌恶 (英语四级单词)
• proffer [´prɔfə] vt.&n.提供；贡献 (英语四级单词)
• daring [´deəriŋ] a.&n.勇敢(的) (英语四级单词)
• boyish [´bɔiiʃ] a.少年的；幼稚的 (英语四级单词)
• wrestle [´resəl] n.&v.摔交；搏斗；角力 (英语四级单词)
• nightingale [´naitiŋgeil] n.夜莺 (英语四级单词)
• unlock [ʌn´lɔk] vt.开锁；开启；池露 (英语四级单词)
• trusting [´trʌstiŋ] a.信任的；相信的 (英语六级单词)
• hunting [´hʌntiŋ] n.打猎 (英语六级单词)
• miserably [´mizərəbli] ad.悲惨地；糟糕地 (英语六级单词)
• unobserved [´ʌnəb´sə:vd] a.没有观察到 (英语六级单词)
• christendom [´krisəndəm] n.基督教徒 (英语六级单词)
• arrogant [´ærəgənt] a.傲慢的；自大的 (英语六级单词)