CLOTALDO. Listen! hear me! wait! oh, stay!
What a labyrinthine thicket
Is all this, where reason gives
Not a thread whereby to issue?
My own honour here is wronged,
Powerful is my foe's position,
I a vassal, she a woman;
Heaven reveal some way in pity,
Though I doubt it has the power;
When in such confused abysses,
Heaven is all one fearful presage,
And the world itself a riddle.
* * * * *
ACT THE SECOND.
A HALL IN THE ROYAL PALACE.
* * * * *
SCENE I.
BASILIUS and CLOTALDO.
CLOTALDO. Everything has been effected
As you ordered.
BASILIUS. How all happened*
Let me know, my good Clotaldo.
[footnote] *The metre of this and the following scene is the asonante in a—e.