MADDALO No access to the Duke! You have not said That the Count Maddalo would speak with him? PIGNA Did you inform his Grace that Signor Pigna Waits with state papers for his signature? MALPIGLIO The Lady Leonora cannot know That I have written a sonnet to her fame In which I Venus and Adonis. You should not take my gold and serve me not. ALBANO In truth I told her, and she smiled and said, 'If I am Venus, thou, coy Poesy, Art the Adonis whom I love, and he The Erymanthian boar that wounded him.' Oh, trust to me, Signor Malpiglio, Those nods and smiles were favors worth the zechin. MALPIGLIO The words are twisted in some double sense That I reach not; the smiles fell not on me. PIGNA How are the Duke and Duchess occupied? ALBANO Buried in some strange talk. The Duke was leaning, His finger on his brow, his lips unclosed. The Princess sate within the window-seat, And so her face was hid; but on her knee Her hands were clasped, veined, and pale as snow, And quivering -- young Tasso, too, was there. MADDALO Thou seest on whom from thine own worshipped heaven Thou drawest down smiles -- they did not rain on thee. MALPIGLIO Would they were parching lightnings for his sake On whom they fell! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...O BLACK AND UNKNOWN BARDS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON EPILOGUE TO LESSING'S LAOCOON by MATTHEW ARNOLD FATHERHOOD by HENRY CHARLES BEECHING REBECCA; WHO SLAMMED DOORS FOR FUN AND PERISHED MISERABLY by HILAIRE BELLOC THE SWALLOWS by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER |