A FLORENTINE TRAGEDY
[The scene represents a tapestried upper room giving on to a balcony or loggia in an old house at Florence. A table laid for a frugal meal, a spinning-wheel, distaff, etc., chests, chairs and stools.]
As the Curtain rises enter Bianca, with her Servant, Maria.
Maria. Certain and sure, the sprig is Guido Bardi,
A lovely lord, a lord whose blood is blue!
Bianca. But where did he receive you?
Maria. Where, but there
In yonder palace, in a painted hall!—
Painted with naked women on the walls,—
Would make a common man or blush or smile
But he seemed not to heed them, being a lord.
Bianca. But how know you ’tis not a chamberlayne,
A lackey merely?
Maria. Why, how know I there is a God in heaven?
Because the angels have a master surely.
So to this lord they bowed, all others bowed,
And swept the marble flags, doffing their caps,
With the gay plumes. Because he stiffly said,
And seemed to see me as those folk are seen
That will be never seen again by you,
‘Woman, your mistress then returns this purse
Of forty thousand crowns, is it fifty thousand?
Come name the sum will buy me grace of her.’
Bianca. What, were there forty thousand crowns therein?
Maria. I know it was all gold; heavy with gold.