You shall do both, if you possess the will;
And many thousands more not less oppressed,
Who wait but for a signal--will you give it?
And many thousands more not less oppressed,
Who wait but for a signal--will you give it?
Byron
Ber_.
Yet, thou wast born, and still hast lived, patrician.
_Doge_. In evil hour was I so born; my birth
Hath made me Doge to be insulted: but
I lived and toiled a soldier and a servant
Of Venice and her people, not the Senate;
Their good and my own honour were my guerdon.
I have fought and bled; commanded, aye, and conquered; 430
Have made and marred peace oft in embassies,
As it might chance to be our country's 'vantage;
Have traversed land and sea in constant duty,
Through almost sixty years, and still for Venice,
My fathers' and my birthplace, whose dear spires,
Rising at distance o'er the blue Lagoon,
It was reward enough for me to view
Once more; but not for any knot of men,
Nor sect, nor faction, did I bleed or sweat!
But would you know why I have done all this? 440
Ask of the bleeding pelican why she
Hath ripped her bosom? Had the bird a voice,
She'd tell thee 'twas for _all_ her little ones.
_I. Ber_. And yet they made thee Duke.
_Doge_. _They made_ me so;
I sought it not, the flattering fetters met me
Returning from my Roman embassy,
And never having hitherto refused
Toil, charge, or duty for the state, I did not,
At these late years, decline what was the highest
Of all in seeming, but of all most base 450
In what we have to do and to endure:
Bear witness for me thou, my injured subject,
When I can neither right myself nor thee.
_I. Ber_.
You shall do both, if you possess the will;
And many thousands more not less oppressed,
Who wait but for a signal--will you give it?
_Doge_. You speak in riddles.
_I. Ber_. Which shall soon be read
At peril of my life--if you disdain not
To lend a patient ear.
_Doge_. Say on.
_I. Ber_. Not thou,
Nor I alone, are injured and abused, 460
Contemned and trampled on; but the whole people
Groan with the strong conception of their wrongs:
The foreign soldiers in the Senate's pay
Are discontented for their long arrears;
The native mariners, and civic troops,
Feel with their friends; for who is he amongst them
Whose brethren, parents, children, wives, or sisters,
Have not partook[395] oppression, or pollution,
From the patricians? And the hopeless war
Against the Genoese, which is still maintained 470
With the plebeian blood, and treasure wrung
From their hard earnings, has inflamed them further:
Even now--but, I forget that speaking thus,
Perhaps I pass the sentence of my death!
_Doge_. And suffering what thou hast done--fear'st thou death?
Be silent then, and live on, to be beaten
By those for whom thou hast bled.
_I.
_Doge_. In evil hour was I so born; my birth
Hath made me Doge to be insulted: but
I lived and toiled a soldier and a servant
Of Venice and her people, not the Senate;
Their good and my own honour were my guerdon.
I have fought and bled; commanded, aye, and conquered; 430
Have made and marred peace oft in embassies,
As it might chance to be our country's 'vantage;
Have traversed land and sea in constant duty,
Through almost sixty years, and still for Venice,
My fathers' and my birthplace, whose dear spires,
Rising at distance o'er the blue Lagoon,
It was reward enough for me to view
Once more; but not for any knot of men,
Nor sect, nor faction, did I bleed or sweat!
But would you know why I have done all this? 440
Ask of the bleeding pelican why she
Hath ripped her bosom? Had the bird a voice,
She'd tell thee 'twas for _all_ her little ones.
_I. Ber_. And yet they made thee Duke.
_Doge_. _They made_ me so;
I sought it not, the flattering fetters met me
Returning from my Roman embassy,
And never having hitherto refused
Toil, charge, or duty for the state, I did not,
At these late years, decline what was the highest
Of all in seeming, but of all most base 450
In what we have to do and to endure:
Bear witness for me thou, my injured subject,
When I can neither right myself nor thee.
_I. Ber_.
You shall do both, if you possess the will;
And many thousands more not less oppressed,
Who wait but for a signal--will you give it?
_Doge_. You speak in riddles.
_I. Ber_. Which shall soon be read
At peril of my life--if you disdain not
To lend a patient ear.
_Doge_. Say on.
_I. Ber_. Not thou,
Nor I alone, are injured and abused, 460
Contemned and trampled on; but the whole people
Groan with the strong conception of their wrongs:
The foreign soldiers in the Senate's pay
Are discontented for their long arrears;
The native mariners, and civic troops,
Feel with their friends; for who is he amongst them
Whose brethren, parents, children, wives, or sisters,
Have not partook[395] oppression, or pollution,
From the patricians? And the hopeless war
Against the Genoese, which is still maintained 470
With the plebeian blood, and treasure wrung
From their hard earnings, has inflamed them further:
Even now--but, I forget that speaking thus,
Perhaps I pass the sentence of my death!
_Doge_. And suffering what thou hast done--fear'st thou death?
Be silent then, and live on, to be beaten
By those for whom thou hast bled.
_I.
