Transcribed from the 1908 Chatto and Windus edition by DavidPrice,
BY
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE
LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1908
Copyright, 1908, by Harper andBrothers
Dramatic rights reserved
POPE ALEXANDER VI.
FRANCESCO BORGIA, Duke of Gandia } his sons
CÆSAR BORGIA, Cardinal of Valencia }
DON MICHELE COREGLIA, called MICHELOTTO, agent for CæsarBorgia.
GIORGIO SCHIAVONE, a Tiber waterman.
TWO ASSASSINS.
AN OFFICER of the Papal Household.
VANNOZZA CATANEI, surnamed LA ROSA, concubine to the Pope.
LUCREZIA BORGIA, daughter to Alexander and Vannozza.
Scene: ROME.
Time: JUNE 14–JULY 22,1497.
TheVatican
Enter CÆSAR andVANNOZZA
CÆSAR
Now, mother, though thou love my brothermore,
Am I not more thy son than he?
VANNOZZA
Notmore.
CÆSAR
Have I more Spaniard in me—less ofthee?
Did our Most Holiest father thrill thy womb
With more Italian passion than brought forth
Me?
VANNOZZA
Child, thine elder never wasas thou—
Spake never thus.
CÆSAR
I doubt itnot. But I,
Mother, am not mine elder. He desires
And he enjoys the life God gives him—God,
The Pope our father, and thy sacred self,
Mother beloved and hallowed. I desire
More.
VANNOZZA
Thou wast ever sleepless asthe wind—
A child anhungered for thy time to be
Man. See thy purple about thee. Art thou not
Cardinal?
CÆSAR
Ay; my father’seminence
Set so the stamp on mine. I will not die
Cardinal.
VANNOZZA
Cæsar, wilt thou cleavemy heart?
Have I not loved thee?
CÆSAR
Ay, fairmother—ay.
Thou hast loved my father likewise. Dost thou love
Giulia—the sweet Farnese—called the Fair
In all the Roman streets that call thee Rose?
And that bright babe Giovanni, whom our sire,
Thy holy lord and hers, hath stamped at birth
As duke of Nepi?
VANNOZZA
When thysire begat
Thee, sinful though he ever was—fierce, fell,
Spaniard—I fear me, Jesus for his sins
Bade Satan pass into him.
CÆSAR
Andfill thee full,
Sweet sinless mother. Fear it not. Thou hast
Children more loved of him and thee than me—
Our bright Francesco, born to smile and sway,
And her whose face makes pale the sun in heaven,
Whose eyes outlaugh the sp