ENVOY.
She flat refuses the lord Cardinal.
ALEXANDER.
She has not seen him, blond and beautiful.
A churchman! You may look with candlelight
To find his tonsure. Even my dear Giovanni
Is only half a prince, his brother by,
Although a rare one in his splendid right.
And as for mode and elegance all know
Our youthful Cardinal is just a gallant
Most Frenchified in form.
Well, well, well! I am dreaming:
Poetry, you call my dreams....
This pleasant marriage
Of Don Alfonso and my Donna Lucrece
Will make us jaunty in the Vatican.
My pearls!—
You watch them through my fingers—lucent lumps;
This pear-shaped ovule heavy with its light;
The pearls and pearlets dropping
With patters loud and soft together—listen!
My daughter will have more and lovelier pearls
Than any woman in the greedy world.
Would you have sight of one large coffer filled,
This emulates?
[Rising]. There is the treasury door,
There the Lord Casanova, full of winks
At voices from the cave.
Enter Monsignore Gaspare Poto.
POTO.
Your Holiness,
I sought his Excellence the Duke Giovanni
In his apartments, but he is not there.
ALEXANDER.
[To the Envoy.] So strange! My son the Duke of Gandia, fails me
To-day with greeting, and to-day we fix
The hour when I review his armaments
Under our blessèd gonfalon. ’Tis strange.
[To Poto.] Go to Madonna de’ Catanei’s house:
His mother made a supper, I was told,
For him and for his brother. [Exit Poto.
[To the Envoy.] You conduct
Don Cesare when, next month, as our Legate,
He goes to crown your king?