Hath set me this hard task, for when I say

What can I do—what can I get for thee?

He answers, “Get the Count to give me his falcon,

And that will make me well.” Yet if I ask,

He loves me, and he knows I know he loves me!

Will he not pray me to return his love—

To marry him?—(pause)—I can never marry him.

His grandsire struck my grandsire in a brawl

At Florence, and my grandsire stabb’d him there.

The feud between our houses is the bar