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

aside.) And then you plan this masquerade. You plan to make me care for you so greatly that even when I know you to be Count Eglamore I must still care for you. You plan to marry me, so as to placate Tebaldeo's kinsmen, so as to leave them—in your huckster's phrase—no longer unbought. It was a fine bold stroke of policy, I know, to use me as a stepping-stone to safety. But was it fair to me?

GUIDO
Graciosa … you shame me—

GRACIOSA Look you, Count Eglamore, I was only a child, playing here, alone, and not unhappy. Oh, was it fair, was it worth while to match your skill against my ignorance?

THE DUKE
Fie, Donna Graciosa, you must not be too harsh with Eglamore—

GRACIOSA Think how unhappy I would be if even now I loved you, and how I would loathe myself!

THE DUKE It is his nature to scheme, and he weaves his plots as inevitably as the spider does her web—

GRACIOSA
But I am getting angry over nothing. Nothing has happened except that
I have dreamed—of a Guido. And there is no Guido. There is only an
Eglamore, a lackey in attendance upon his master.

THE DUKE Believe me, it is wiser to forget this clever lackey—as I do—except when there is need of his services. I think that you have no more need to consider him—

He takes the girl's hand. GRACIOSA now looks at him as though seeing him for the first time. She is vaguely frightened by this predatory beast, but in the main her emotion is as yet bewilderment.

THE DUKE For you are very beautiful, Graciosa. You are as slim as a lily, and more white. Your eyes are two purple mirrors in each of which I see a tiny image of Duke Alessandro. (GUIDO takes a step forward, and the DUKE now addresses him affably.) Those nuns they are fetching me are big high-colored wenches with cheeks like apples. It is not desirable that women should be so large. Such women do not inspire a poet. Women should be little creatures that fear you. They should have thin plaintive voices, and in shrinking from you should be as slight to the touch as a cobweb. It is not possible to draw inspiration from a woman's beauty unless you comprehend how easy it would be to murder her.

GUIDO (Softly, without expression.) God, God!

The DUKE looks with delight at GRACIOSA, who stands bewildered and childlike.

THE DUKE You fear me, do you not, Graciosa? Your hand is soft and cold as the skin of a viper. When I touch it you shudder. I am very tired of women who love me, of women who are infatuated by my beauty. You, I can see, are not infatuated. To you my touch will always be a martyrdom, you will always loathe me. And therefore I shall not weary of you for a long while, because the misery and the helplessness of my lovely victim will incite me to make very lovely verses.

He draws her to the bench, sitting beside her.

THE DUKE Yes, Graciosa, you will inspire me. Your father shall have all the wealth and state that even his greedy imaginings can devise, so long as you can contrive to loathe me. We will find you a suitable husband—say, in Eglamore here. You shall have flattery and titles, gold and fine glass, soft stuffs and superb palaces and many lovely jewels—

The DUKE glances down at the pedler's pack.

THE DUKE But Eglamore also has been wooing you with jewels. You must see mine, dear Graciosa.

GRACIOSA (Without expression.) Count Eglamore said that I must.

THE DUKE (Raises the necklace, and lets it drop contemptuously.) Oh, not such trumpery as this. I have in Florence gems which have not their fellows anywhere, gems which have not even a name, and the value of which is incalculable. I have jewels engendered by the thunder, jewels taken from the heart of the Arabian deer. I have jewels cut from the brain of a toad, and from the eyes of serpents. I have jewels which are authentically known to have fallen from the moon. Well, we will select the rarest, and have a pair of slippers encrusted with them, and in these slippers you shall dance for me, in a room that I know of—

GUIDO (Without moving.) Highness—!

THE DUKE It will all be very amusing, for I think that she is now quite innocent, as pure as the high angels. Yes, it will be diverting to make her as I am. It will be an atrocious action that will inspire me to write lovelier verses than even I have ever written.

GUIDO
She is a child—

THE DUKE Yes, yes, a frightened child who cannot speak, who stays as still as a lark that has been taken in a snare. Why, neither of her sisters can compare with this, and, besides, the elder one had a quite ugly mole upon her thigh—But that old rogue Balthazar Valori has a real jewel to offer, this time. Well, I will buy it.

GUIDO
Highness, I love this child—

THE DUKE
Ah, then you cannot ever be her husband. You would have suited otherwise.
But we will find some other person of discretion—

For a moment the two men regard each other in silence. The DUKE becomes aware that he is being opposed. His brows contract a little, but he rises from the bench rather as if in meditation than in anger. Then GUIDO drops the cloak and gloves he has been holding until this. His lackeyship is over.

GUIDO
No!

THE DUKE
My friend, some long-faced people say you made a beast of me—

GUIDO
No, I will not have it.

THE DUKE
So do you beware lest the beast turn and rend you.

GUIDO I have never been too nice to profit by your vices. I have taken my thrifty toll of abomination. I have stood by contentedly, not urging you on, yet never trying to stay you as you waded deeper and ever deeper into the filth of your debaucheries, because meanwhile you left me so much power.

THE DUKE Would you reshape your handiwork more piously? Come, come, man, be content with it as I am. And be content with the kingdom I leave you to play with.

GUIDO It was not altogether I who made of you a brainsick beast. But what you are is in part my handiwork. Nevertheless, you shall not harm this child.

THE DUKE "Shall not" is a delightfully quaint expression. I only regret that you are not likely ever to use it to me again.

GUIDO
I know this means my ruin.

THE DUKE Indeed, I must venture to remind you, Count Eglamore, that I am still a ruling prince—

GUIDO
That is nothing to me.

THE DUKE And that, where you are master of very admirable sentiments, I happen to be master of all Tuscany.

GUIDO At court you are the master. At your court in Florence I have seen many mothers raise the veil from their daughters' faces because you were passing. But here upon this hill-top I can see only the woman I love and the man who has insulted her.

THE DUKE
So all the world is changed, and Pandarus is transformed into Hector!
Your words are very sonorous words, dear Eglamore, but by what deeds
do you propose to back them?

GUIDO
By killing you, your highness.

THE DUKE But in what manner? By stifling me with virtuous rhetoric? Hah, it is rather awkward for you—is it not—that our sumptuary laws forbid you merchants to carry swords?

GUIDO (Draws his dagger.) I think this knife will serve me, highness, to make earth a cleaner place.

THE DUKE (Drawing his long sword.) It would save trouble now to split you like a chicken for roasting…. (He shrugs, and sheathes his sword. He unbuckles his sword-belt, and lays it aside.) No, no, this farce ascends in interest. So let us play it fairly to the end. I risk nothing, since from this moment you are useless to me, my rebellious lackey—

GUIDO
You risk your life, for very certainly I mean to kill you.

THE DUKE Two go to every bargain, my friend. Now, if I kill you, it is always diverting to kill; and if by any chance you should kill me, I shall at least be rid of the intolerable knowledge that to-morrow will be just like to-day.

He draws his dagger. The two men engage warily but with determination, the DUKE presently advancing. GUIDO steps backward, and in the act trips over the pedler's pack, and falls prostrate. His dagger flies from his hand. GRACIOSA, with a little cry, has covered her face. Nobody strikes an attitude, because nobody is conscious of any need to be heroic, but there is a perceptible silence, which is broken by the DUKE'S quiet voice.

THE DUKE Well! am I to be kept waiting forever? You were quicker in obeying my caprices yesterday. Get up, you muddy lout, and let us kill each other with some pretension of adroitness.

GUIDO (Rising, with a sob.) Ah!

He catches up the fallen dagger, and attacks the DUKE, this time with utter disregard of the rules of fence and his own safety. GUIDO drives the DUKE back. GUIDO is careless of defence, and desirous only to kill. The DUKE is wounded, and falls with a cry at the foot of the shrine. GUIDO utters a sort of strangled growl. He raises his dagger, intending to hack at and mutilate his antagonist, who is now unconscious. As GUIDO stoops, GRACIOSA, from behind him, catches his arm.

GRACIOSA
He gave you your life.

GUIDO turns. He drops the weapon. He speaks with great gentleness, almost with weariness.

GUIDO
Madonna, the Duke is not yet dead. That wound is nothing serious.

GRACIOSA
He spared your life.

GUIDO
It is impossible to let him live.

GRACIOSA
But I think he only voiced a caprice—

GUIDO
I think so, too, but I know that all this madman's whims are ruthless.

GRACIOSA
But you have power—

GUIDO Power! I, who have attacked the Duke's person! I, who have done what your dead cousin merely planned to do!

GRACIOSA
Guido—!

GUIDO Living, this brain-sick beast will make of you his plaything—and, a little later, his broken, soiled and cast-by plaything. It is therefore necessary that I kill Duke Alessandro.

GRACIOSA moves away from him, and GUIDO rises.

GRACIOSA
And afterward—and afterward you must die just as Tebaldeo died!

GUIDO That is the law, madonna. But what he said is true. I am useless to him, a rebellious lackey to be punished. Whether I have his life or no, I am a lost man.

GRACIOSA
A moment since you were Count Eglamore, whom all our nobles feared—

GUIDO
Now there is not a beggar in the kingdom who would change lots with me.
But at least I shall first kill this kingdom's lord.

He picks up his dagger.

GRACIOSA You are a friendless and hunted man, in peril of a dreadful death. But even so, you are not penniless. These jewels here are of great value—

GUIDO laughs, and hangs the pearls about her neck.

GUIDO
Do you keep them, then.

GRACIOSA There is a world outside this kingdom. You have only to make your way through the forest to be out of Tuscany.

GUIDO (Coolly reflective.) Perhaps I might escape, going north to Bologna, and then to Venice, which is at war with the Duke—

GRACIOSA
I can tell you the path to Bologna.

GUIDO
But first the Duke must die, because his death saves you.

GRACIOSA
No, Guido! I would have Eglamore go hence with hands as clean as possible.

GUIDO
Not even Eglamore would leave you at the mercy of this poet.

GRACIOSA How does that matter! It is no secret that my father intends to market me as best suits his interests. And the great Duke of Florence, no less, would have been my purchaser! You heard him, "I will buy this jewel," he said. He would have paid thrice what any of my sisters' purchasers have paid. You know very well that my father would have been delighted.

GUIDO (Since the truth of what she has just said is known to him by more startling proofs than she dreams of, he speaks rather bitterly, as he sheathes the dagger.) And I must need upset the bargain between these jewel merchants!

GRACIOSA (Lightly.) "No, I will not have it!" Count Eglamore must cry. (Her hand upon his arm.) My dear unthrifty pedler! it cost you a great deal to speak those words.

GUIDO I had no choice. I love you. (A pause. As GRACIOSA does not speak, GUIDO continues, very quiet at first.) It is a theme on which I shall not embroider. So long as I thought to use you as an instrument I could woo fluently enough.