LUCRETIA:
You think we should devise
His death?
BEATRICE:
And execute what is devised,
And suddenly. We must be brief and bold.
ORSINO:
And yet most cautious.
LUCRETIA:
For the jealous laws
Would punish us with death and infamy _230
For that which it became themselves to do.
BEATRICE:
Be cautious as ye may, but prompt. Orsino,
What are the means?
ORSINO:
I know two dull, fierce outlaws,
Who think man’s spirit as a worm’s, and they
Would trample out, for any slight caprice, _235
The meanest or the noblest life. This mood
Is marketable here in Rome. They sell
What we now want.
LUCRETIA:
To-morrow before dawn,
Cenci will take us to that lonely rock,
Petrella, in the Apulian Apennines. _240
If he arrive there…
BEATRICE:
He must not arrive.
ORSINO:
Will it be dark before you reach the tower?
LUCRETIA:
The sun will scarce be set.