The Jewel Merchants: A Comedy in One Act by James Branch Cabell (most important books of all time TXT) 📗

the Florentines, after three years of formally recognizing Jesus Christ as the sole lord and king of Florence, have lately altered matters as profoundly as was possible by electing Alessandro de Medici to be their Duke.

GRACIOSA is seated upon the bench, with a lute. The girl is, to our modern taste, very quaintly dressed in gold-colored satin, with a short tight bodice, cut square and low at the neck, and with long full skirts. When she stands erect, her preposterous "flowing" sleeves, lined with sky blue, reach to the ground. Her blonde hair, of which she has a great deal, is braided, in the intricate early sixteenth fashion, under a jeweled cap and a veil the exact color of this hair.

There is a call. Smiling, GRACIOSA answers this call by striking her lute. She pats straight her hair and gown, and puts aside the instrument. GUIDO appears at the top of the wall. All you can see of the handsome young fellow, in this posture, is that he wears a green skull-cap and a dark blue smock, the slashed sleeves of which are lined with green.

GUIDO
Ah, madonna….

GRACIOSA
Welcome, Ser Guido. Your journey has been brief.

GUIDO
It has not seemed brief to me.

GRACIOSA Why, it was only three days ago you told me it would be a fortnight before you came this way again.

GUIDO
Yes, but I did not then know that each day spent apart from you, Madonna
Graciosa, would be a century in passing.

GRACIOSA
Dear me, but your search must have been desperate!

GUIDO (Who speaks, as almost always hereinafter, with sober enjoyment of the fact that he is stating the exact truth unintelligibly.) Yes, my search is desperate.

GRACIOSA
Did you find gems worthy of your search?

GUIDO Very certainly, since at my journey's end I find Madonna Graciosa, the chief jewel of Tuscany.

GRACIOSA Such compliments, Guido, make your speech less like a merchant's than a courtier's.

GUIDO Ah, well, to balance that, you will presently find courtiers in Florence who will barter for you like merchants. May I descend?

GRACIOSA
Yes, if you have something of interest to show me.

GUIDO Am I to be welcomed merely for the sake of my gems? You were more gracious, you were more beautifully like your lovely name, on the fortunate day that I first encountered you … only six weeks ago, and only yonder, where the path crosses the highway. But now that I esteem myself your friend, you greet me like a stranger. You do not even invite me into your garden. I much prefer the manner in which you told me the way to the inn when I was an unknown passer-by. And yet your pennant promised greeting.

GRACIOSA (With the smile of an exceptionally candid angel.) Ah, Guido, I flew it the very minute the boy from the inn brought me your message!

GUIDO Now, there is the greeting I had hoped for! But how do you escape your father's watch so easily?

GRACIOSA My father has no need to watch me in this lonely hill castle. Ever since I can remember I have wandered at will in the forest. My father knows that to me every path is as familiar as one of the corridors in his house; and in no one of them did I ever meet anybody except charcoal-burners, and sometimes a nun from the convent, and—oh, yes!—you. But descend, friend Guido.

Thus encouraged, GUIDO descends from the top of the wall to the top of the bench, and thence, via its seat, to the ground. You are thereby enabled to discover that his nether portions are clad in dark blue tights and soft leather shoes with pointed turned-up toes. It is also noticeable that he carries a jewel pack of purple, which, when opened, reveals an orange lining.

GUIDO (With as much irony as the pleasure he takes in being again with this dear child permits.) That "Oh, yes, you!" is a very fitting reward for my devotion. For I find that nowadays I travel about the kingdom buying jewels less for my patrons at court than for the pleasure of having your eyes appraise them, and smile at me.

GRACIOSA (With the condescension of a great lady.) Guido, you have in point of fact been very kind to me, and very amusing, too, in my loneliness on the top of this hill. (Drawing back the sleeve from her left arm, she reveals the trinket there.) See, here is the turquoise bracelet I had from you the second time you passed. I wear it always—secretly.

GUIDO That is wise, for the turquoise is a talisman. They say that the woman who wears a turquoise is thereby assured of marrying the person whom she prefers.

GRACIOSA I do not know about that, nor do I expect to have much choice as to what rich nobleman marries me, but I know that I love this bracelet—

GUIDO
In fact, they are handsome stones.

GRACIOSA Because it reminds me constantly of the hours which I have spent here with my lute—

GUIDO
Oh, with your lute!

GRACIOSA
And with your pack of lovely jewels—

GUIDO
Yes, to be sure! with my jewels.

GRACIOSA
And with you.

GUIDO There is again my gracious lady. Now, in reward for that, you shall feast your eyes.

GRACIOSA (All eagerness.) And what have you to-day?

GUIDO opens his pack. She bends above it with hands outstretched.

GUIDO (Taking out a necklace.) For one thing, pearls, black pearls, set with a clasp of emeralds. See! They will become you.

GRACIOSA (Taking them, pressing them to her cheek.) How cool! But I—poor child of a poor noble—I cannot afford such.

GUIDO Oh, I did not mean to offer them to you to-day. No, this string is intended for the Duke's favorite, Count Eglamore.

GRACIOSA (Stiffening.) Count Eglamore! These are for him?

GUIDO
For Count Eglamore.

GRACIOSA
Has the upstart such taste?

GUIDO If it be taste to appreciate pearls, then the Duke's chief officer has excellent taste. He seeks them far and wide. He will be very generous in paying for this string.

GRACIOSA drops the pearls, in which she no longer delights. She returns to the bench, and sits down and speaks with a sort of disappointment.

GRACIOSA
I am sorry to learn that this Eglamore is among your patrons.

GUIDO (Still half engrossed by the contents of his pack. The man loves jewels equally for their value and their beauty.) Oh, the nobles complain of him, but we merchants have no quarrel with Eglamore. He buys too lavishly.

GRACIOSA
Do you think only of buying and selling, Guido?

GUIDO
It is a pursuit not limited to us who frankly live by sale and purchase.
Count Eglamore, for example, knows that men may be bought as readily as
merchandise. It is one reason why he is so hated—by the unbought.

GRACIOSA (Irritated by the title.) Count Eglamore, indeed! I ask in my prayers every night that some honest gentleman may contrive to cut the throat of this abominable creature.

GUIDO (His hand going to his throat.) You pray too much, madonna. Even very pious people ought to be reasonable.

GRACIOSA (Rising from the bench.) Have I not reason to hate the man who killed my kinsman?

GUIDO (Rising from his gems.) The Marquis of Cibo conspired, or so the court judged—

GRACIOSA I know nothing of the judgment. But it was this Eglamore who discovered the plot, if there indeed was any plot, and who sent my cousin Cibo to a death—(pointing to the shrine)—oh, to a death as horrible as that. So I hate him.

GUIDO
Yet you have never even seen him, I believe?

GRACIOSA And it would be better for him never to see me or any of my kin. My father, my uncles and my cousins have all sworn to kill him—

GUIDO
So I have gathered. They remain among the unbought.

GRACIOSA (Returning, sits upon the bench, and speaks regretfully.) But they have never any luck. Cousin Pietro contrived to have a beam dropped on Eglamore's head, and it missed him by not half a foot—

GUIDO
Ah, yes, I remember.

GRACIOSA And Cousin Georgio stabbed him in the back one night, but the coward had on chain-armor under his finery—

GUIDO
I remember that also.

GRACIOSA And Uncle Lorenzo poisoned his soup, but a pet dog got at it first. That was very unfortunate.

GUIDO
Yes, the dog seemed to think so, I remember.

GRACIOSA However, perseverance is always rewarded. So I still hope that one or another of my kinsmen will contrive to kill this Eglamore before I go to court.

GUIDO (Sits at her feet.) Has my Lord Balthazar yet set a day for that presentation?

GRACIOSA
Not yet.

GUIDO
I wish to have this Eglamore's accounts all settled by that date.

GRACIOSA But in three months, Guido, I shall be sixteen. My sisters went to court when they were sixteen.

GUIDO In fact, a noble who is not rich cannot afford to continue supporting a daughter who is salable in marriage.

GRACIOSA No, of course not. (She speaks in the most matter-of-fact tone possible. Then, more impulsively, the girl slips down from the bench, and sits by him on the around.) Do you think I shall make as good a match as my sisters, Guido? Do you think some great rich nobleman will marry me very soon? And shall I like the court! What shall I see there?

GUIDO
Marvels. I think—yes, I am afraid that you will like them.

GRACIOSA
And Duke Alessandro—shall I like him?

GUIDO
Few courtiers have expressed dislike of him in my presence.

GRACIOSA
Do you like him? Does he too buy lavishly?

GUIDO
Eh, madonna! some day, when you have seen his jewels—

GRACIOSA
Oh! I shall see them when I go to court?

GUIDO Yes, he will show them to you, I think, without fail, for the Duke loves beauty in all its forms. So he will take pleasure in confronting the brightness of your eyes with the brightness of the four kinds of sapphires, of the twelve kinds of rubies, and of many extraordinary pearls—

GRACIOSA (With eyes shining, and lips parted.) Oh!

GUIDO And you will see his famous emerald necklace, and all his diamonds, and his huge turquoises, which will make you ashamed of your poor talisman—

GRACIOSA
He will show all these jewels to me!

GUIDO (Looking at her, and still smiling thoughtfully.) He will show you the very finest of his gems, assuredly. And then, worse still, he will be making verses in your honor.

GRACIOSA
It would be droll to have a great duke making songs about me!

GUIDO It is a preposterous feature of Duke Alessandro's character that he is always making songs about some beautiful thing or another.

GRACIOSA Such strange songs, Guido! I was singing over one of them just before you came,—

    Let me have dames and damsels richly clad
      To feed and tend my mirth,
    Singing by day and night to make me glad—

But I could not quite understand it. Are his songs thought good?

GUIDO
The songs of a reigning duke are always good.

GRACIOSA
And is he as handsome as people report?

GUIDO
Tastes differ, of course—

GRACIOSA
And is he—?

GUIDO
I have a portrait of the Duke. It does not, I think, unduly flatter him.
Will you look at it?

GRACIOSA
Yes, yes!

GUIDO (Drawing out a miniature on a chain.) Here is the likeness.

GRACIOSA
But how should you—?

GUIDO (Seeing her surprise.) Oh, it was a gift to me from his highness for a special service I did him, and as such must be treasured.

GRACIOSA Perhaps, then, I shall see yon at court, Messer Guido, who are the friend of princes?

GUIDO If you do, I ask only that in noisy Florence you remember this quiet garden.

GRACIOSA (Looks at him silently, then glances at the portrait. She speaks with evident disappointment.) Is this the Duke?

GUIDO
You may see his arms on it, and on the back his inscription.

GRACIOSA
Yes, but—(looking at the portrait again)—but … he is … so …

GUIDO You are astonished at his highness' coloring? That he inherits from his mother. She was, you know, a blackamoor.

GRACIOSA
And my sisters wrote me he was like a god!

GUIDO
Such observations are court etiquette.

GRACIOSA (With an outburst of disgust.) Take it back! Though how can you bear to look at it, far less to have it touching you! And only yesterday I was angry because I had not seen the Duke riding past!

GUIDO
Seen him! here! riding past!

GRACIOSA Old Ursula told me that the Duke had gone by with twenty men, riding down toward the convent at the border. And I flung my sewing-bag straight at her head because she had not called me.

GUIDO That was idle gossip, I fancy. The Duke rarely rides abroad without my—(he stops)—without my lavish patron Eglamore, the friend of all honest merchants.

GRACIOSA But that abominable Eglamore may have been with