_Giorgione._ Stay, let him speak, my master, as he wills.

_Aretino._ I say then, Seraph, of your amorosa, That she deceived me-- That I thought her dreams Were chaster than the moon, or by my beard, Which is not born, I should have tricked her senses Away from you ... if lies and treachery And tempting honeyed verses could have done it!

For an Elysium like her warm round body I never looked upon.

_Bellini._ Aretino!

_Giorgione._ Peace! he shall speak! for this is what should be.

_Aretino._ Ai, Messer Bellini, and your age forgets That he is well consoled with the dear thought That her first joy was his.

_Bellini._ Ah!...

_Aretino._ And that vision--!

Why, I have peeped upon her face, no farther.

But to have seen the beauty he has seen, The Aphrodite-dream of loveliness, I would have dared virginity's last door.

_Giorgione._ Then you shall see it.

_Bellini._ My son!

_Giorgione._ Yes, tho I die!

_Aretino._ How, what is this?

_Giorgione_ (_going to picture_). Aretino, t.i.tian-- You are here, tho there is less than love between us: For, pardon, if I say that you sometimes Have loathed my triumphs.

_t.i.tian._ That is so, Giorgione.

But with the brush I yet shall equal them.

_Giorgione._ You shall surpa.s.s them. For my last is done.

_t.i.tian._ Come, do you jest?

_Giorgione._ My last, and it is there!

[_Points to picture._

There that you two whose tongues have been so busy About the streets with laughing and innuendo, From ear to ear with jest and utter joy-- You, t.i.tian, a sycophant of Fame, And you, Aretino, who incarnate l.u.s.t, May know that Giorgione is above you.

You coveted Isotta with your eyes, Now you shall have her as shall all the world!

[_Flings the curtain back from the picture then sinks to the couch._

_As they gaze on the unclothed form, BELLINI turns away, when he sees ISOTTA enter. She is pale and ill, but moves smilingly down toward GIORGIONE, till happening to see the picture, she gives a deep cry._

_GIORGIONE, springing to his feet, dazedly beholds her._

_Bellini_ (_speechless till he sees ISOTTA'S pallor_).

Isotta! you are ill!... O would my breath Had never lasted to this evil hour--!

Shall I not bring the leech? (_when she does not answer; to GIORGIONE_) This price has pride!

[_He goes: then ARETINO and t.i.tIAN. The curtain falls back._

_Isotta_ (_whose eyes have closed_).

The flesh of women is their fate forever!

My poor, poor body! all I had to give So desecrated.

_Giorgione_ (_hoa.r.s.ely_). Why have you come here?

_Isotta._ To see Messer Giorgione--who is brave.

[_Smiles as one shattered._

To hear Messer Giorgione--who is gentle And honourable to women who are weak.

To--heal Messer Giorgione--then to die!

_Giorgione._ Rather to kill!

_Isotta._ Why, it may be. If love Still leads me, it were best that it be slain.

_Giorgione._ The love of a wanton?

_Isotta_ (_slowly_). Who beholds her body Given ... to unabated eyes--yet lives?

I think it must be so.

_Giorgione._ Alluring lies!

Out of pale lips of treachery but lies!

You have returned to me, whom you have cursed With craving for you, With an immortal love, Because this lisping Luzzi, With whom you fled, weary of falsity, Has cast you off.

_Isotta_ (_gently_). Kind Luzzi!

_Giorgione._ Ah! and blind?

Not knowing that you now are here again, Where you disrobed to my adoring soul, But thinking that you wait him with fair eyes Of fond expectancy--as once for me!

Believing that your breath is beating only With ecstasy for him!

_Isotta._ He is--but Luzzi!

_Giorgione._ And I but Giorgione, smiling quean!

[_She turns paler._

But Giorgione, a va.s.sal to your sway?

Back to your orgies! and may Venus, G.o.ddess Of black adulteries, but not of love, Be with them! May your blood, that I believed Vestal to all but me, run vile with pa.s.sions As any nymph's of Bacchus!

May your body, That I have painted here, be to all time An image of soul-cheating chast.i.ty!

[_His words have struck her down--and overwhelm him._

O, I am lost, lost, lost forevermore.

[_Falls into a seat._