Vittoria
501
Vittoria. I do not understand, but it is sweet—Part of the undreamed beauty that I findFilling a world where all is strange to me:In new hill slopes, new pathways, and in you.
Luigi. Beloved, do not leave me! Tell me whyYou tremble when I speak.
Vittoria.tremble when I speak.It is not you,But through you something great and terribleSpeaks to me, and I bow my head in fear.
Luigi. Are you content? Always mouth smiles, yetSometimes I find your brown eyes hungry still,And then I am afraid that my great loveIs not the message that you longed to hear.And yet, if aught can ever lead your feetWhither they wish to come, it must be love.
Vittoria. It is a message that I wonder at!My lord and lover, if my eyes ask aught,It is more love, and more, and more. I knowBut one need now.
[Again comes the chant of the monks:Requiem eternam dona eis, Domine et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Luigi. For me it is no longer my life bloodBeating within my pulses; it is you.The very green and gold threads of your gownHave woven finest meshes in my brain.Oh, tell me once again before you goThat you do love me, and I will believe!
Vittoria. You ask me that? But fourteen days agoI had not seen you, Now, in all the worldIs naught but you. The sunshine on the grass,The long, green hillside slopes where peach-trees bloom,The music that finds out I know not whatUnknown recesses of my soul, and hurts—All, all is you! I cannot grasp my joy,So great it is, as it comes beating inUpon my heart, like tide-beats in the sea.
Luigi (bending to kiss the hem of her dress). I am unworthy—I!
Vittoria.am unworthy—I!Nay, nay, not you!An ignorant and uninstructed girl,Lo, what am I, that a great heart like yoursShould come to rest on mine? But take me, all,You who are strong and wise, for utterlyI give myself, and there is nothing left.Make of me what you will.
[Again come the requiem, dying in:Requiescat in pace. Amen. Amen.
[Luigi shivers.
Vittoria. And you, too, are afraid?
Luigi.And you, too, are afraid?Through love comes fear.Yet what is there in all the world to dreadWhen you and I love thus?
Vittoria. you and I love thus?One thing aloneIn this great safety of your presence IThink of with fear: that you should go away,That any time I might not see your face.Dear one, you will not, even for a day,Let life be as it was before?
Luigi.life be as it was before?I swearNo sun by day nor thousand stars by nightShall find me anywhere but at your side.My love shall be the shade that every dayKeeps the heat from you; it shall be each nightA cover from the cold. So, hand in hand,We shall go on forever, with our feetKeeping one time along the selfsame road.
[A voice comes from the chapel:Memento mei, Domine, quia ventus est vita mea. . . .Homo natus de muliere, brevi vivens tempore, repletur multis miseriis. Qui quasi flos egreditur, et conteritur, et fugit velut umbra, et nunguam in eodem statu permanet.
Vittoria. Tell me, what does it mean?
Luigi (Passionately, his voice rising to a cry)..It means that love,Love only, lasts forever, eternal,Unchangeable, triumphant over chance.
ACT IV
Scene I.—Frate Giacomo walks in the cloister before the open chapel door. He forgets his prayers, but goes on counting his beads.
Frate Giacomo. They kneel before the altar, their heads bowed—I see them where the holy candles makeA little light in the surrounding gloom,Our Father Ambrose, clad in robe and stole,Reads over them the marriage service. HereIt never yet has sounded. Hark, they speak!“Volo” the young man says, and “Volo” comesThe woman’s softer voice. Who, what are theyThat they should utter in these sacred wallsThe unknown word “desire”? [The sound of chanted prayer and response comes to him. He strains his ears.Oh, what a changeIs wrought here! Great the shock that has been given!Just as before a storm the air is fullOf dull foreboding, my soul waits in fearOf what may come, for they are living stillWhere things may happen, and they have no rightIn this our foretaste of eternal lifeWhose peace they have disturbed. [There is a sudden burst of music, then, in the full triumph of many voices:Kyrie Eleison! Christe Eleison! Kyrie Eleison.
Frate Giacomo.Christe Eleison!God pity thoseWho have no walls to shut temptation out.[The music of the processional begins.Ah, here they come, the lovers hand in hand,One flush upon both faces; after themThe white-haired father, aged, but with eyesStill fierce with love and pain. I go to pray.Pater noster, ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nosa malo. Amen. Amen.
Scene II.—Outside the chapel.
Vittoria. Only a little way, dear father, thenLike two good children we will turn againWithout a word toward home. May we not come?
Father. Your marriage garment, daughter, is too whiteFor the long dusty way.
Vittoria.long dusty way.That can be changed!One moment only and I come in blueAlready dusty from the blessed roadThat led us here.
