I would that I could wake him!
O God, put back the sun a little space,
And from the roll of time blot out to-night,
And bid it not have been! Put back the sun,
And make me what I was an hour ago!
No, no, time will not stop for anything,
Nor the sun stay its courses, though Repentance
Calling it back grow hoarse; but you, my love,
Have you no word of pity even for me?
O Guido, Guido, will you not kiss me once?
Drive me not to some desperate resolve:
Women grow mad when they are treated thus:
Will you not kiss me once?

GUIDO (holding up knife): I will not kiss you
Until the blood grows dry upon this knife,
And not even then.

DUCHESS: Dear Christ! How little pity
We women get in this untimely world;
Men lure us to some dreadful precipice,
And, when we fall, they leave us.

GUIDO (wildly): Back to your dead!

DUCHESS (going up the stairs): Why, then I will be gone! And may you find
More mercy than you showed to me to-night!

GUIDO: Let me find mercy when I go at night
And do foul murder.

DUCHESS (coming down a few steps): Murder did you say?
Murder is hungry, and still cries for more,
And Death, his brother, is not satisfied,
But walks the house, and will not go away,
Unless he has a comrade! Tarry, Death,
For I will give thee a most faithful lackey
To travel with thee! Murder, call no more,
For thou shalt eat thy fill.

There is a storm
Will break upon this house before the morning,
So horrible, that the white moon already
Turns grey and sick with terror, the low wind
Goes moaning round the house, and the high stars
Run madly through the vaulted firmament,
As through the night wept tears of liquid fire
For what the day shall look upon. O weep,
Thou lamentable heaven! Weep thy fill!
Though sorrow like a cataract drench the fields,
And make the earth one bitter lake of tears,
It would not be enough.

A peal of thunder.

Do you not hear,
There is artillery in the Heaven to-night.
Vengeance is wakened up, and has unloosed
His dogs upon the world, and in this matter
Which lies between us two, let him who draws
The thunder on his head beware the ruin
Which the forked flame brings after.

A flash of lightning followed by a peal of thunder.

GUIDO: Away! Away!

Exit the DUCHESS, who as she lifts the crimson curtain looks back for a moment at GUIDO, but he makes no sign. More thunder.

Now is life fallen in ashes at my feet.
And noble self-slain; and in its place
Crept murder with its silent bloody feet.
And she who wrought it – Oh! And yet she loved me,
And for my sake did do this dreadful thing.
I have been cruel to her: Beatrice!
Beatrice, I say, come back.