Guido. Fool! take your strangling fingers from my throat.
I am my father’s only son; the State
Has but one heir, and that false enemy France
Waits for the ending of my father’s line
To fall upon our city.
Simone. Hush! your father
When he is childless will be happier.
As for the State, I think our state of Florence
Needs no adulterous pilot at its helm.
Your life would soil its lilies.
Guido. Take off your hands
Take off your damned hands. Loose me, I say!
Simone. Nay, you are caught in such a cunning vice
That nothing will avail you, and your life
Narrowed into a single point of shame
Ends with that shame and ends most shamefully.
Guido. Oh! let me have a priest before I die!
Simone. What wouldst thou have a priest for? Tell thy sins
To God, whom thou shalt see this very night
And then no more for ever. Tell thy sins
To Him who is most just, being pitiless,
Most pitiful being just. As for myself. . .
Guido. Oh! help me, sweet Bianca! help me, Bianca,
Thou knowest I am innocent of harm.
Simone. What, is there life yet in those lying lips?
Die like a dog with lolling tongue! Die! Die!
And the dumb river shall receive your corse
And wash it all unheeded to the sea.
Guido. Lord Christ receive my wretched soul to-night!
Simone. Amen to that. Now for the other.