# Castruccio Castrucani/Act I

CASTRUCCIO CASTRUCANI.
ACT I.
Scene I.—A Market-place.
Citizens grouped together, talking earnestly.
1st citizen.
A dozen single handed.
2nd citizen.
To whose fair daughter he has been betrothed,
He was surrounded by those foreign bandits
That wear Count Ludolph's colours.
1st citizen.
2nd citizen.
Castruccio pass'd me as I hurried home;
Dark as it was, I knew his stately form!
He cross'd the street, and out of ambush sprung
The secret enemy. I saw him fling
His cloak upon the ground—out flash'd his blade—
But the dark night was lit with glittering steel,
And twenty swords were drawn to meet but one.
I heard the clash, then a fierce struggle—oaths—
And he was hurried past: the moon shone out,
And there lay on the ground a broken sword,
But red with blood.
Enter Cesario.
1st citizen.
The Count Cesario; he will tell us more.
2nd citizen.
CESARIO.
Castruccio lies within the city prison,
Thither convey'd by Ludolph's foreign band;
A thousand dangers circle him around,
The secret dagger, and the open scaffold.
2nd citizen.
CESARIO.
Found, in the shadow of Castruccio's name,
His best security.
2nd citizen.
1st citizen.
2nd citizen.
CESARIO.
He might have shared their power, and kept ye slaves.
2nd citizen.
No one could sit in quiet at his door.
Money and blood were the perpetual cry
Of our small tyrants.
CESARIO.
If your protector perish.
ALL.
CESARIO.
1st citizen.
CESARIO.
2nd citizen.
CESARIO.
If ye would know your strength!
2nd citizen.
CESARIO.
2nd citizen.
1st citizen.
Up! let our watch-word be Castruccio's name.
CESARIO.
Meek, pitiful spectators of his death?
2nd citizen.
1st citizen.
2nd citizen.
CESARIO.
2nd citizen.
CESARIO.
1st citizen.
Red with our blood before Castruccio die!
CESARIO.
ALL.
CESARIO.
Gather what force ye can; by two and threes
Return, and then we'll try the prison's strength.
2nd citizen
CESARIO.
What time the nobles seek the Senate-house.
2nd citizen.
CESARIO.
In one half hour seek ye the market-place;
Castruccio Castrucani is the word.—[Exeunt.
Enter Nobles.
1st Noble (putting two of the Citizens aside).
2nd noble.
And then complain of want?
1st citizen (Aside).
1st noble.
2nd noble.
I do not share Castruccio's sympathy
For those who are the dust beneath my feet.
1st noble.
Ne'er led the foremost, still himself the first.
I grudge the yielding to the Florentines
That now must follow.
2nd noble.
Than that within our gates; the citizens,
Stirr'd by Castruccio, talk of their rights:
Time was, a creditor, grown troublesome,
Might hang, a useful warning, at our door;
But Castrucani has so changed the state,
That not a knave who walks the market-place
But holds his life as precious as our own.
Why Lucca is as quiet as a bower.
1st noble.
Victory on victory o'er the Florentines.
2nd noble.
How stronger, hour by hour, has grown his sway.
Among ourselves, if it were left to him,
We should not have a single privilege
Beyond the meanest citizen.
Enter the Count Leoni, as if from a journey, speaking to his Page as he enters.
See all your charges safe: then follow me,
Bringing the casket where my cousin's name
Is work'd in pearls.
1st noble.
(All gather round him.)
LEONI.
To see my friends and native walls again.
2nd noble.
1st noble.
2nd noble.
One of Castruccio's partisans.
1st noble.
And hence betrothed his daughter to Castruccio.
LEONI.
1st noble.
2nd noble.
Your uncle will be there.
LEONI.
2nd noble.
The envoy sent from Florence.
LEONI.
The Florentines will gladly aid your cause.
They hate Castruccio—hate, because they fear.
2nd noble.
LEONI (Solus).
I came to struggle with mine enemy,
And, lo! he is subdued. Castruccio lies
A prisoner at the mercy of his foes.
For him there is one only ransom—death!
Soon will these hasty nobles want a head:
The power and wealth of our most ancient house
Point to Arrezi as the nobles' chief,
And he will be a cypher in my hands.
Now will my secret trafficking with Florence
Stand in good stead: my path is clear before me.
The odium of the Castrucani's death,
And the inglorious peace they now must make,
Rests with the nobles. Fortune, now thy tide
Is on the turn—I dare to ride thy waves.
Strange that Castruccio, who through life has been
My too successful rival, now should make
My first step in the ladder of ambition.
Now must I seek my cousin, fair Bianca,
So nearly lost; how will she greet me now?
Castruccio's sway has been right absolute,
Or never had Arrezi let his child
Link with our house's ancient enemy.Exit.
Scene II.—The Senate-house.
Count Gonsalvi, Count Arrezi, Nobles, Attendants, &c.
GONSALVI (taking a seat)
She will secure you in all ancient rights,
Immunity, and privilege: her sword
Will stand between ye and your enemies.
For this a yearly tribute must be paid
Of twenty thousand florins.
2nd noble.
GONSALVI.
Exhausted by the late vexatious war.
2nd noble.
GONSALVI.
2nd noble.
The goldsmiths round our market-place are rich.
The citizens, too, better being poor,
As more obedient, right that they should pay
The penalty of their rebellious spirit.
GONSALVI (rising).
The treaty ready for your signatures,
And will receive your homage and your oaths.—[Exit.
1st noble.
2nd noble.
1st noble.
SEVERAL NOBLES.
ARREZI.
2nd noble.
ARREZI.
2nd noble.
SEVERAL NOBLES.
ARREZI.
SEVERAL NOBLES.
ARREZI.
1st noble.
2nd noble.
While Lucca has a dagger?
1st noble.
2nd noble.
ARREZI.
1st noble.
The people gather fiercely in the streets.
2nd noble.
ARREZI.
1st noble.
Stabs and forgets; I'll send him to the prison.
2nd noble.
1st noble.
(While he is speaking the doors are burst open, and Castruccio enters, armed and attended.
CASTRUCCIO.
For an indifferent lodging. I have learnt
That prisons, tenanted with thoughts of death,
Is not a punishment to order lightly;
Therefore, ye shall not fill my vacant place.
2nd noble.
CASTRUCCIO.
Ye do mistake me, signors: all my thoughts
To ye are grateful ones. But for your rash
And ill-advised attempt, I had not known
How true the love on which my power is built—
How strong the cause the people trust with me!
Re-enter Count Gonsalvi
GONSALVI.
Are fill'd with people, and unwillingly
Would I shed blood. What! Castrucani here?
CASTRUCCIO.
And ask, what are the terms he brings from Florence?
GONSALVI.
I have arranged our treaty.
CASTRUCCIO.
GONSALVI.
True vassals unto Florence: and each year
Remit your tribute—twenty thousand florins!
CASTRUCCIO.
Men who have met ye bravely in the field?
Now hear me, Count Gonsalvi: Lucca rather
Would see her walls dismantled, than consent
To yield such base submission!
GONSALVI.
CASTRUCCIO
Does Lucca speak: she would be glad of peace,
An equal, sure, and honourable peace—
To terms like these she has but one reply—defiance.
GONSALVI.
CASTRUCCIO.
Since, in the field, we met. I think you found
More service from your spurs than from your swords.
GONSALVI.
CASTRUCCIO.
The right against the wrong. Your army came,
A mercenary and a selfish band,
Some urged by false ambition, some for spoil.
No noble motive noble impulse gave:
Ye were aggressors, and ye fought like such.
I tell you, count, with not a third your numbers I chased your flying hosts within your gates.
GONSALVI.
War or submission.
CASTRUCCIO.
Vast is the suffering—great the wrong of war!
But—and all Lucca speaketh in these words—
Rather we take the suffering; and the wrong
Rests on the oppressor's head, than we submit.
Not while one hand can strike on Lucca's side,
Not while one stone is left of Lucca's walls,
Not while one heart beats in our country's cause,
Will Lucca stoop beneath a foreign yoke.
Ye only fight for conquest or for spoil:
We for our homes, our rights, our ancient walls!
The sword is drawn—God be the judge between us!
GONSALVI.
CASTRUCCIO.
GONSALVI.
2nd noble.
Compared with Florence.
CASTRUCCIO.
Each time they fled before us. Oh! my friends,
If I may call ye such, we are not weak
Who have our own good swords, and urge a war
Just in the sight of heaven. Our weakness lies
In our dissension, in the small base aims
That disunite us from the common cause.
Lucca were strong, had Lucca but one heart!
Why should ye be mine enemies? I seek
Yours in the general good. I stand between
Ye and a people whom ye would oppress.
Know ye not, love has stronger rule than fear?
A country, fill'd with tyrants and with slaves,
What waits upon her history?—crime and shame!
But the free state, where every rank is knit
By general blessings, freedom shared by all,
There is prosperity—there those great names
Whose glory lingers though themselves be gone.
It is not I ye serve, it is your country!—(Applause.)
2nd noble (Aside).
He's master now.
CASTRUCCIO.
To your hereditary enemies,
There is no yoke so galling as the yoke
Foreign invaders place upon your neck!
The heavy and the arbitrary sway
That ye would fix upon your countrymen,
Would soon be on yourselves. Lucca is free;
To keep her so is trusted to your swords!
I march to meet the Florentines to-morrow;
Will ye not follow me for Lucca's sake?
NOBLES.
CASTRUCCIO.
(Sees Arrezi.) The Count Arrezi here!
ARREZI.
CASTRUCCIO.
ARREZI.
CASTRUCCIO.
I am impatient, too, to thank their love.
We will go forth together, and with them
Make common cause.[Exeunt.
END OF THE FIRST ACT.