I thought to meet the demon of combat, blind, unreasoning, vain and cruel, faithless and dissolute. . . . I found a man who bowed before me as a loving disciple bows before the master. He is lettered, eager for knowledge, and obedient to the voice of wisdom. . . . He seeks the reason of passions and events. I have told you that Prinzivalle seems wise, that he is humane and reasonable.
Man is made in that fashion.
A grief which should not be within the experience of man is on the point of touching you. . . . Ay, your Vanna. Guido Colonna , in the consciousness that the woman belongs to him, that no man may even look, with desire, upon her dazzling beauty, resents this mortal insult. He is willing that all the other women should face danger, that the little children of pisa should be exposed to hunger and destruction, rather than that he give up his possession. But Monna Vanna does not hesitate.