No More Learning

_Lor. _ Let him call up into life
My sire and uncle--I consent. Men may,
Even aged men, be, or appear to be,
Sires of a hundred sons, but cannot kindle
An atom of their ancestors from earth.
The victims are not equal; he has seen
His sons expire by natural deaths, and I
My sires by violent and mysterious maladies. 280
I used no poison, bribed no subtle master
Of the destructive art of healing, to
Shorten the path to the eternal cure.
His sons--and he had four--are dead, without
_My_ dabbling in vile drugs.

_Bar. _ And art thou sure
He dealt in such?

_Lor. _ Most sure.

_Bar. _ And yet he seems
All openness.

_Lor. _ And so he seemed not long
Ago to Carmagnuola.

_Bar.
_ The attainted
And foreign traitor?

_Lor. _ Even so: when _he_,
After the very night in which "the Ten" 290
(Joined with the Doge) decided his destruction,
Met the great Duke at daybreak with a jest,
Demanding whether he should augur him
"The good day or good night? " his Doge-ship answered,
"That he in truth had passed a night of vigil,
In which" (he added with a gracious smile)
"There often has been question about you. "[76]
'Twas true; the question was the death resolved
Of Carmagnuola, eight months ere he died;
And the old Doge, who knew him doomed, smiled on him 300
With deadly cozenage, eight long months beforehand--
Eight months of such hypocrisy as is
Learnt but in eighty years. Brave Carmagnuola
Is dead; so is young Foscari and his brethren--
I never _smiled_ on _them_.

_Bar. _ Was Carmagnuola
Your friend?

_Lor. _ He was the safeguard of the city.
In early life its foe, but in his manhood,
Its saviour first, then victim.

_Bar. _ Ah! that seems
The penalty of saving cities. He
Whom we now act against not only saved 310
Our own, but added others to her sway.

_Lor.