I can see nothing to be mended in thee
But the too constant paleness of thy cheek.
I’d give the kingdom, but to purchase there
The breadth of a red Rose, in natural colour,
And think it the best bargain that ever king made yet,
But Fate’s my hinderer,
And I must only rest content with Art,
And that I’ll have in spite on’t.
Accordingly an artist in painting and perfumery is summoned to adorn the face of the corpse and give it a fresh lively red colour. However this merchant of cosmetics is none other than Govianus, the rightful heir, disguised, and he fucuses the dead cheeks and lips with a peter which is confected with a strong poison, so that when the Tyrant lustfully kisses the cold flesh, he is blasted with the venom and falls in the agonies of death. The incident is extremely powerful, if extremely horrible. As the Tyrant expires Govianus taunts him thus:
O thou sacrilegious villain,
Thou thief of rest, robber of monuments,
Cannot the body after funeral
Sleep in the grave for thee? Must it be raised
Only to please the wickedness of thine eye?
Does all things end with death and not thy lust?
Hast thou devised a new way to damnation,
More dreadful than the soul of any sin
Did ever pass yet between earth and hell?
A very large number of plays are founded upon what may be termed the “Romeo and Juliet” motive, the awakening, or the restoration to life in some sort, of a loved one supposed dead, arousing from a trance, it may be, or a coma, a theme admitting almost innumerable variants. In the Italian, French and German theatres alone—nor does this rough list pretend to be exhaustive—we have Sforza d’ Oddi’s Imorti vivi (1576); Pagnini’s Imorti vivi (1600); Rota’s La morta viva (1674); Douville’s Les morts vivans (1654); Quinault’s Le fantôme amoureux (1659); Boursault’s Le mort vivant (1662); Sedaine’s Der Tote ein Freyer (1778); Kurländer’s Der tote Neffe; Friedrich Rambach’s Der Scheintoten; Leopold Huber’s Der Scheintote; Theodore Friedrich’s Die Scheintoten; F. L. W. Meyer’s Der Verstorbene; G. Lebrun’s Die Verstorbenen; Tenelli’s Der Verstorbene; Holbein’s “romantisches Gemälde” Der Verstorbene; Paers’ opera Die lebenden Toten; and a ballet
