ACT V
SCENE I
A very squalid, little street, giving on to the Tiber. It is low tide; some few stars are coming out. A masked figure seats itself on the remains of an old barge, tilted up.
Children peep from their play: then one of them whispers to his companions: they flee.
A few Bargemen come up and observe the Mask; one shakes his head.
BARGEMAN.
Better be absent! No, no! Do not observe him, Bernardo. If you hear nothing, see nothing, contain nothing, you cannot be hanged.
ANOTHER.
Do not cringe; haul in those nets. ’Tis safer so.
[They set to work; an oar drops with noise. One or two salute the Mask, but, at the slow turning of his head, they go away.