Well, by the lids of Venus, Giorgio,
It serves you well—or Eve was not a woman!
There were too many ripe for your assay.
Why, I believe that every damsel's lips
On the lagoons were pinched with longing for you!
Titian. Or enough, at least, to send spleen, Giorgio,
Into my eyes.
Giorgione.They will no more, Titian.
Aretino. In sooth! for since one wench in all the world
Prefers another, he will play the monk!
Since she, the amorous sun-kissed Isotta,
Had charms too fair for one to satisfy!
And yet—to choose this Luzzi,
This swaddling acolyte of Innocence,
For her new light-o'-love! to choose him out,
When, for a whiff, she might have had my arms——
[Giorgione quivers.
O, Titian, by the gods!
Bellini.Aretino!...
Giorgione. Stay, let him speak, my master, as he wills.
Aretino. I say then, Seraph, of your amorosa,
That she deceived me—
That I thought her dreams
Were chaster than the moon, or by my beard,
Which is not born, I should have tricked her senses
Away from you ... if lies and treachery
And tempting honeyed verses could have done it!
For an Elysium like her warm round body
I never looked upon.
Bellini.Aretino!
Giorgione. Peace! he shall speak! for this is what should be.
Aretino. Ai, Messer Bellini, and your age forgets
That he is well consoled with the dear thought
That her first joy was his.
Bellini. Ah!...
Aretino.And that vision—!
Why, I have peeped upon her face, no farther.
But to have seen the beauty he has seen,
The Aphrodite-dream of loveliness,
I would have dared virginity's last door.
Giorgione. Then you shall see it.
Bellini.My son!
Giorgione.Yes, tho I die!
Aretino. How, what is this?
Giorgione (going to picture). Aretino, Titian—
You are here, tho there is less than love between us:
For, pardon, if I say that you sometimes
Have loathed my triumphs.
Titian.That is so, Giorgione.
But with the brush I yet shall equal them.
Giorgione. You shall surpass them. For my last is done.
Titian. Come, do you jest?
Giorgione.My last, and it is there!
[Points to picture.
There that you two whose tongues have been so busy
About the streets with laughing and innuendo,
From ear to ear with jest and utter joy—
You, Titian, a sycophant of Fame,
And you, Aretino, who incarnate lust,
May know that Giorgione is above you.
You coveted Isotta with your eyes,
Now you shall have her as shall all the world!
[Flings the curtain back from the picture then sinks to the couch.
As they gaze on the unclothed form, Bellini turns away, when he sees Isotta enter. She is pale and ill, but moves smilingly down toward Giorgione, till happening to see the picture, she gives a deep cry. Giorgione, springing to his feet, dazedly beholds her.
Bellini (speechless till he sees Isotta's pallor).
Isotta! you are ill!... O would my breath
Had never lasted to this evil hour—!
Shall I not bring the leech? (when she does not answer; to Giorgione) This price has pride!
[He goes: then Aretino and Titian. The curtain falls back.
Isotta (whose eyes have closed). The flesh of women is their fate forever!
My poor, poor body! all I had to give
So desecrated.
Giorgione (hoarsely). Why have you come here?
Isotta. To see Messer Giorgione—who is brave.
[Smiles as one shattered.