ACT I
SCENE I
An apartment of the Vatican: at the further end the door of the Treasury by which the Lord Cardinal Casanova is seated.
The Lord Alexander VI. and an Envoy from Naples.
The Pope is seated; from time to time he plunges his hands into a coffer of pearls, letting the pearls stream through his fingers.
ALEXANDER.
All are for her! Each an epitome
Of her—the very skin of them her own,
Our Pearl above all others. So your monarch
Will mate his nephew with her?
ENVOY.
He consents, Holiness,
Having o’erlooked the letter
Giovanni, lord of Pesaro, has written
In affirmation of her virgin state—
The fault being his.