‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore

VASQUES
[Aside to SORANZO] Remember sir, what you have to do: be wise
and resolute.
SORANZO
[Aside to VASQUES] Enough, my heart is fixed. [To CARDINAL]
Pleaseth your grace
To taste these coarse confections? Though the use
Of such set entertainments more consists	5
In custom than in cause, yet, reverend sir,
I am still made your servant by your presence.
CARDINAL
And we your friend.
SORANZO
But where’s my brother Giovanni?
Enter GIOVANNI with a heart upon his dagger
GIOVANNI
Here, here, Soranzo, trimmed in reeking blood	10
That triumphs over death, proud in the spoil
Of love and vengeance! Fate, or all the powers
That guide the motions of immortal souls
Could not prevent me.
CARDINAL What means this?
FLORIO
Son Giovanni!
SORANZO [Aside] Shall I be forestalled?	15
GIOVANNI
Be not amazed: if your misgiving hearts

Shrink at an idle sight, what bloodless fear
Of coward passion would have seized your senses,
Had you beheld the rape of life and beauty
Which I have acted? My sister, O my sister!	20
FLORIO
Ha! What of her?
GIOVANNI The glory of my deed
Darkened the midday sun, made noon as night.
You came to feast, my lords, with dainty fare.
I came to feast too, but I digged for food
In a much richer mine than gold or stone	25
Of any value balanced. ’Tis a heart,
A heart, my lords, in which is mine entombed.
Look well upon’t; d’ee know’t?
VASQUES
What strange riddle’s this?
GIOVANNI
’Tis Annabella’s heart, ’tis. Why d’ee startle?	30
I vow ’tis hers: this dagger’s point ploughed up
Her fruitful womb, and left to me the fame
Of a most glorious executioner.
FLORIO
Why, madman, art thyself?
GIOVANNI
Yes father, and, that times to come may know	35
How as my fate I honoured my revenge,
List, father: to your ears I will yield up
How much I have deserved to be your son.
FLORIO
What is’t thou say’st?
GIOVANNI Nine moons have had their changes,
Since I first throughly viewed and truly loved	40
Your daughter and my sister.
FLORIO How! Alas,
My lords, he’s a frantic madman!

GIOVANNI Father, no.
For nine months’ space in secret I enjoyed
Sweet Annabella’s sheets; nine months I lived
A happy monarch of her heart and her.	45
Soranzo, thou know’st this: thy paler cheek
Bears the confounding print of thy disgrace,
For her too fruitful womb too soon bewrayed
The happy passage of our stol’n delights,
And made her mother to a child unborn.	50
CARDINAL
Incestuous villain!
FLORIO O, his rage belies him!
GIOVANNI
It does not, ’tis the oracle of truth:
I vow it is so.
SORANZO I shall burst with fury.
Bring the strumpet forth!
VASQUES
I shall, sir. Exit
GIOVANNI Do, sir. Have you all no faith	55
To credit yet my triumphs? Here I swear
By all that you call sacred, by the love
I bore my Annabella whilst she lived,
These hands have from her bosom ripped this heart.
Enter VASQUES
Is’t true or no, sir?
VASQUES ’Tis most strangely true.	60
FLORIO
Cursed man! Have I lived to - Dies
CARDINAL Hold up, Florio.

[To GIOVANNI] Monster of children, see what thou hast done,
Broke thy old father’s heart! Is none of you
Dares venture on him?
GIOVANNI Let ’em! O, my father,
How well his death becomes him in his griefs!	65
Why, this was done with courage; now survives
None of our house but I, gilt in the blood
Of a fair sister and a hapless father.
SORANZO
Inhuman scorn of men, hast thou a thought
T’ outliive thy murders?
GIOVANNI Yes, I tell thee yes;	70
For in my fists I bear the twists of life.
Soranzo, see this heart which was thy wife’s:
Thus I exchange it royally for thine, [Stabs him]
And thus, and thus. Now brave revenge is mine.
VASQUES
I cannot hold any longer. You sir, are you grown insolent in your	75
butcheries? Have at you!
[VASQUES and GIOVANNI] fight
GIOVANNI
Come, I am armed to meet thee.

VASQUES
No, will it not be yet? If this will not, another shall. – Not yet? I
shall fit you anon. – [Calls off stage] Vengeance!
Enter BANDITTI [all masked and armed]
GIOVANNI
Welcome! Come more of you, whate’er you be,	80
I dare your worst. –
[The BANDITTI surround and wound him]
O, I can stand no longer; feeble arms,
Have you so soon lost strength?
VASQUES
Now you are welcome, sir! Away, my masters, all is done.
Shift for yourselves; your reward is your own; shift for	85
yourselves.
BANDITTI
Away, away! Exeunt BANDITTI
VASQUES
How d’ee, my lord? See you this? How is’t?
SORANZO
Dead, but in death well pleased, that I have lived
To see my wrongs revenged on that black devil.	90
O Vasques, to thy bosom let me give
My last of breath: let not that lecher live – O! Dies
VASQUES
The reward of peace and rest be with him, my ever dearest lord
and master.
GIOVANNI
Whose hand gave me this wound?	95
VASQUES
Mine, sir, I was your first man. Have you enough?

GIOVANNI
I thank thee: thou hast done for me
But what I would have else done on myself.
Art sure thy lord is dead?
VASQUES O impudent slave,
As sure as I am sure to see thee die.	100
CARDINAL
Think on thy life and end, and call for mercy.
GIOVANNI
Mercy? Why, I have found it in this justice.
CARDINAL
Strive yet to cry to heaven.
GIOVANNI O, I bleed fast.
Death, thou art a guest long looked-for: I embrace
Thee and thy wounds. O, my last minute comes.	105
Where’er I go, let me enjoy this grace,
Freely to view my Annabella’s face. Dies
DONADO
Strange miracle of justice!
CARDINAL
Raise up the city! We shall be murdered all!
VASQUES
You need not fear, you shall not. This strange task being	110
no
ended, I have paid the duty to the son which I have vowed to
the father.
CARDINAL
Speak, wretched villain, what incarnate fiend
Hath led thee on to this?
VASQUES
Honesty, and pity of my master’s wrongs. For know, my	115
lord, I am by birth a Spaniard, brought forth my country
in my youth by Lord Soranzo’s father, whom, whilst he
lived I served faithfully; since whose death I have been to
this man, as I was to him. What I have done was duty,
and I repent nothing but that the loss of my life had not	120
ransomed his.

CARDINAL
Say, fellow, know’st thou any yet unnamed
Of counsel in this incest?
VASQUES
Yes, an old woman, sometimes guardian to this murdered
lady.	125
CARDINAL
And what’s become of her?
VASQUES
Within this room she is, whose eyes after her confession I
caused to be put out, but kept alive, to confirm what from Giovanni’s
own mouth you have heard. Now, my lord, what
I have done you may judge of, and let your own wisdom be a judge	130
in your own reason.
CARDINAL
Peace! First, this woman, chief in these effects,
My sentence is that forthwith she be ta’en
Out of the city, for example’s sake,
There to be burnt to ashes.
DONADO ’Tis most just.	135
CARDINAL
Be it your charge, Donado, see it done.
DONADO
I shall.
VASQUES
What for me? If death, ’tis welcome. I have been honest to the son
as I was to the father.
CARDINAL
Fellow, for thee: since what thou didst was done	140
Not for thyself, being no Italian,
We banish thee for ever, to depart

Within three days; in this we do dispense
With grounds of reason, not of thine offence.
VASQUES
’Tis well: this conquest is mine, and I rejoice that a Spaniard out	145
went an Italian in revenge. Exit
CARDINAL
Take up these slaughtered bodies, see them buried;
And all the gold and jewels, or whatsoever,
Confiscate by the canons of the Church,
We seize upon to the Pope’s proper use.	150
[RICHARDETTO takes off his disguise]
RICHARDETTO
Your grace’s pardon: thus long I lived disguised
To see the effect of pride and lust at once
Brought both to shameful ends.
CARDINAL
What, Richardetto, whom we thought for dead?
DONADO
Sir, was it you –
RICHARDETTO Your friend.
CARDINAL We shall have time	155
To talk at large of all; but never yet
Incest and murder have so strangely met.
Of one so young, so rich in Nature’s store,
Who could not say, ’Tis pity she’s a whore?
Exeunt [with the bodies]