rigid virtue.
BRAVO
(with irony)
The wretch!
COUNT
And he’s gone so far as to tell me that if I reappear in the street, although he’s old and a plebeian, and I am young and of the nobility—he will find a way to get rid of me.
BRAVO
(with irony)
The insolent.
COUNT
I cannot involve myself with this man, you understand?
BRAVO
Surely—these sorts of folks ought to be very happy when a lord of race and birth, like you, deigns to covet his wife or his daughter; that dishonors them but that ennobles them.
COUNT
Well! Now that’s what he fails to understand.
BRAVO
The beast.
COUNT
Then I thought of you to rid me of this man: arrived only a few days ago in Venice, he doesn’t know anyone and public rumor announces that he raised this delicious creature from charity, and she has, outside this old geezer, neither friends nor relatives under heaven.
Now the young girl is orphaned; the Republic, which is a good mother, adopts the abandoned child. A powerful man, a member of the Council of Ten, I, for example, I take responsibility, for the love of Humanity of placing her in a convent—I’ll pay her dowry—I’ll make a gift of a Raphael or a Titian to the Chapel of the monastery and the young girl is mine.
BRAVO
It’s a marvelous scheme, Milord, and I don’t see anything which is preventing this plan from succeeding for you have without doubt for me an order from the Council.
COUNT
What do you mean?
BRAVO
Which enjoins me to rid Venice of an old geezer suspected of virtue, forearmed with delicacy and very religiously determined to guard the honor of a young girl!
COUNT
Why haven’t you understood me?
BRAVO
On the contrary, Milord, I have understood you and perfectly. Why you told me the first, what you wanted and it’s my turn now to tell you what I want, an order from the Council.
COUNT
(pulling out a purse full of money)
Wait, here it is.
BRAVO
(pushing it away)
The Republic is magnificent, Milord; it rewards richly those who serve it, it covers with gold the weapon each time it spills blood—it’s a jealous mistress to whom I do not wish to be unfaithful—I want an official order—
COUNT
Why such a scruple on your part astonishes me, confounds me.
BRAVO
I have a bargain in blood with the Republic—it’s true Count Bellamonte—your father was a member of the Council when this bargain was imposed on me—as for him, he knew what motive had make me put this dagger in hand and this mask on my face; your father would not have come to me making the demand you are—I want an order.
COUNT
But if I obtain that order you won’t have committed one less murder.
BRAVO
For which I will answer to men—but which the Council of Ten will join me in answering before God.
COUNT
Well; since you absolutely must have an order you will get it. The old man is coming from Genoa, Genoa is at war with the Republic, and that man that no one knows here is without any doubt a spy of the Doria. I shall have the order and I will have it nailed to your door as is the custom of this tribunal.
Think now, that it will be no longer be to me, but to the Council, that you will render an account of your obedience.
BRAVO
That’s fine.
COUNT
Goodbye—don’t forget—behind the bridge of Paglia, facing the house of the gondolier Luigi.
BRAVO
Goodbye, Count.
(The Count leaves.)
BRAVO
(alone)
The day is not yet over it seems. The Republic is very hard to serve. No matter, let’s profit by the hour that is left to me.
(removing his mask which he hangs on a hook)
Infernal mask!
(removing his dagger which he places on a table)
Cursed dagger!
Which makes itself a part of me—as if the hand of God had imprinted the mask on my face and the other nailed to my belt.
Oh! Let my mouth breathe—now I am a man like all other men—ah!
(he stretches out, overcome, on the bed)
(Salfieri appears outside and jumps with agility into the room.)
BRAVO
Who goes there?
SALFIERI
Greetings to your Lordship.
BRAVO
(rushing to his dagger)
Who are you?
SALFIERI
A man against whom you have no need to draw this dagger—for you can kill me with a word—I’m proscribed.
BRAVO
And why come in like this, thorough the window?
SALFIERI
Because you probably would not have opened the door to me.
BRAVO
What do you want?
SALFIERI
