[EXEUNT LUCRETIA AND BEATRICE.]

ORSINO: 
What shall I do? 
Cenci must find me here, and I must bear
The imperious inquisition of his looks 275
As to what brought me hither:  let me mask
Mine own in some inane and vacant smile.
[ENTER GIACOMO, IN A HURRIED MANNER.]
How!  Have you ventured hither?  Know you then
That Cenci is from home?

NOTE: 
278 hither edition 1821; thither edition 1819.

GIACOMO: 
I sought him here;
And now must wait till he returns.

ORSINO: 
Great God! 280
Weigh you the danger of this rashness?

GIACOMO: 
Ay! 
Does my destroyer know his danger?  We
Are now no more, as once, parent and child,
But man to man; the oppressor to the oppressed;
The slanderer to the slandered; foe to foe:  285
He has cast Nature off, which was his shield,
And Nature casts him off, who is her shame;
And I spurn both.  Is it a father’s throat
Which I will shake, and say, I ask not gold;
I ask not happy years; nor memories 290
Of tranquil childhood; nor home-sheltered love;
Though all these hast thou torn from me, and more;
But only my fair fame; only one hoard
Of peace, which I thought hidden from thy hate,
Under the penury heaped on me by thee, 295
Or I will...God can understand and pardon,
Why should I speak with man?

ORSINO: 
Be calm, dear friend.

GIACOMO: 
Well, I will calmly tell you what he did. 
This old Francesco Cenci, as you know,
Borrowed the dowry of my wife from me, 300
And then denied the loan; and left me so
In poverty, the which I sought to mend
By holding a poor office in the state. 
It had been promised to me, and already
I bought new clothing for my ragged babes, 305
And my wife smiled; and my heart knew repose. 
When Cenci’s intercession, as I found,
Conferred this office on a wretch, whom thus
He paid for vilest service.  I returned
With this ill news, and we sate sad together 310
Solacing our despondency with tears
Of such affection and unbroken faith
As temper life’s worst bitterness; when he,
As he is wont, came to upbraid and curse,
Mocking our poverty, and telling us 315
Such was God’s scourge for disobedient sons. 
And then, that I might strike him dumb with shame,
I spoke of my wife’s dowry; but he coined
A brief yet specious tale, how I had wasted
The sum in secret riot; and he saw 320
My wife was touched, and he went smiling forth. 
And when I knew the impression he had made,