GUIDO

[taking his hand] O generous heart!

MORANZONE

One can buy everything in Rimini, And so I bought the gaolers! when your father Heard that a man child had been born to him, His noble face lit up beneath his helm Like a great fire seen far out at sea, And taking my two hands, he bade me, Guido, To rear you worthy of him; so I have reared you To revenge his death upon the friend who sold him.

GUIDO

Thou hast done well; I for my father thank thee. And now his name?

MORANZONE

How you remind me of him, You have each gesture that your father had.

GUIDO

The traitor’s name?

MORANZONE

Thou wilt hear that anon; The Duke and other nobles at the Court Are coming hither.

GUIDO

What of that? his name?

MORANZONE

Do they not seem a valiant company Of honourable, honest gentlemen?

GUIDO

His name, milord?

[Enter the DUKE OF PADUA with COUNT BARDI, MAFFIO, PETRUCCI, and other gentlemen of his Court.]

MORANZONE

[quickly] The man to whom I kneel Is he who sold your father! mark me well.

GUIDO

[clutches hit dagger] The Duke!

MORANZONE

Leave off that fingering of thy knife. Hast thou so soon forgotten? [Kneels to the DUKE.] My noble Lord.

DUKE

Welcome, Count Moranzone; ’tis some time Since we have seen you here in Padua. We hunted near your castle yesterday - Call you it castle? that bleak house of yours Wherein you sit a-mumbling o’er your beads, Telling your vices like a good old man. [Catches sight of GUIDO and starts back.] Who is that?

MORANZONE

My sister’s son, your Grace, Who being now of age to carry arms, Would for a season tarry at your Court

DUKE

[still looking at GUIDO] What is his name?

MORANZONE

Guido Ferranti, sir.

DUKE

His city?

MORANZONE

He is Mantuan by birth.

DUKE

[advancing towards GUIDO] You have the eyes of one I used to know, But he died childless. Are you honest, boy? Then be not spendthrift of your honesty, But keep it to yourself; in Padua Men think that honesty is ostentatious, so It is not of the fashion. Look at these lords.

COUNT BARDI

[aside] Here is some bitter arrow for us, sure.

DUKE

Why, every man among them has his price, Although, to do them justice, some of them Are quite expensive.

COUNT BARDI

[aside] There it comes indeed.

DUKE

So be not honest; eccentricity Is not a thing should ever be encouraged, Although, in this dull stupid age of ours, The most eccentric thing a man can do Is to have brains, then the mob mocks at him; And for the mob, despise it as I do, I hold its bubble praise and windy favours In such account, that popularity Is the one insult I have never suffered.

MAFFIO

[aside]

He has enough of hate, if he needs that.

DUKE

Have prudence; in your dealings with the world Be not too hasty; act on the second thought, First impulses are generally good.

GUIDO

[aside] Surely a toad sits on his lips, and spills its venom there.

DUKE

See thou hast enemies, Else will the world think very little of thee; It is its test of power; yet see thou show’st A smiling mask of friendship to all men, Until thou hast them safely in thy grip, Then thou canst crush them.