No More Learning

_Doge_. I must bear these reproaches, though they wrong me.
Couldst thou but read----

_Mar. _ 'Tis not upon thy brow,
Nor in thine eyes, nor in thine acts,--where then 140
Should I behold this sympathy? or shall?

_Doge_ (_pointing downwards_). There.

_Mar. _ In the earth?

_Doge_. To which I am tending: when
It lies upon this heart, far lightlier, though
Loaded with marble, than the thoughts which press it
Now, you will know me better.

_Mar. _ Are you, then,
Indeed, thus to be pitied?

_Doge_. Pitied!
None
Shall ever use that base word, with which men
Cloak their soul's hoarded triumph, as a fit one
To mingle with my name; that name shall be,
As far as _I_ have borne it, what it was 150
When I received it.

_Mar. _ But for the poor children
Of him thou canst not, or thou wilt not save,
You were the last to bear it.

_Doge_. Would it were so!
Better for him he never had been born;
Better for me. --I have seen our house dishonoured.

_Mar. _ That's false! A truer, nobler, trustier heart,
More loving, or more loyal, never beat
Within a human breast. I would not change
My exiled, persecuted, mangled husband,
Oppressed but not disgraced, crushed, overwhelmed, 160
Alive, or dead, for Prince or Paladin
In story or in fable, with a world
To back his suit. Dishonoured! --_he_ dishonoured!
I tell thee, Doge, 'tis Venice is dishonoured;
His name shall be her foulest, worst reproach,
For what he suffers, not for what he did.
'Tis ye who are all traitors, Tyrant! --ye!