"Stop it!" "Enough!" "I will hear no more!" "It's disgusting, appalling!" "But yet... I who thought it up, hatched it out in nights, in nights... ah!" "You do not know!" "For you it's a game spicing what else life offers you willingly." "But to me!" "A thirsty one!" "One who is at the point of pining away... mocked, harassed, abused by tortures which..." "Ah!" "The devil!" "That nature gave me, together with this face and this hump, such feelings, such greed... I beg you, quiet!" "The guardians of order are on watch and full of ambition." "Behind the doors the bribed servants are lurking," " in the gardens henchmen are hiding." " You exaggerate, my friend." "Scruples too profound are really out of place." "The fact that we are not satisfied with peasant girls and maidens, with merchants' daughters and hussies, that we choose the finest and prettiest, is a proof of our taste." "What was the watchword you gave us some weeks ago?" """Beauty be prey of the strong.""" """All splendour of the world succumb to the power of mind,""" """and the conqueror's glory shine brighter""" """and penetrate deeper, more painfully into the souls""" """than the brilliance which merely dazzles the eye.""" " lt's true!" " Thus you spoke." " And since then..." " What you created you shun." "You even avoid us!" "None of the clandestine festivities has welcomed you!" "Just because a few fathers wring their hands and a few mothers cry heart-rendingly!" "Just don't think the beauties themselves are angry with us." "Yesterday Alissa, the little Jewess, you should have seen her face!" "And the amazing daughter of Biparetto the poet, really, she was lovely!" "We snatch them from their lovers' arms heavy with everyday burdens!" "The misunderstood woman weeps not for the husband inexperienced in love!" "Out of cramped rooms into wide, mystic spaces..." "All fairy tales come to life, all dreams of secret nights..." "Dreams of the Orient, they come true!" "What no one admits and everyone longs for suddenly is reality!" "Quite so, quite so... lt is convincing." "But in one point, pardon me, for me it's not quite right." "You always only speak about yourself who are good-looking and endowed with charm, and you forget me, the cripple." "If he came to the festivities, as you demand, he would spoil them... and instead of lust horror would pave its way." "My friend, it seems to me that you overrate enormously the way women feel about beauty." "There were spring nights." "Through open windows it came in, dancing." "All sensuous magic, scent of flowers, heavy and inebriating." "And I had to leave, tossed by a fever, out into lonely lanes." "And I searched for a strumpet, a really depraved one." "Spoke to her, offered her gold, a lot of gold, still I felt like the beggar asking for alms." "By the light of the street lamp she looked me up and down with eyes... a smile..." "so humiliating that my blood ran cold." "There the gold had an effect!" "On coloured lips its blaze reflected my misery's dreadful need." "Lascivious words promised agreement, but I didn't have the strength to spit at myself and to desecrate the spring night." "My lord, the notary." " For goodness, Alviano..." " You're capable of..." "What's the notary supposed to do?" "Don't worry!" "Would you ask him to be patient for a short time." "What for?" "What's your plan?" "I forgot to confide it to you." "My island Elysium, with all its buildings, fountains and resplendent gardens, with all its miracles of art unheard of and rare treasures of generous nature," "as a donation I left it for perpetuity to the city." "You're out of your senses!" "You don't know what you're doing!" "Your life's work!" "You spent half your fortune on it;" "you wasted it, thoughtlessly." "Tomorrow evening, after dusk, in the presence of the Senate and the PodestÁ, I'll officially announce it" "to the people." "Gentlemen, you are invited." "But, for goodness, do you forget... I considered everything." "You hand us over!" "The access to the underground hall... lf you fear discovery, avoid it from now on." "But excuse me now." "I await the town councillors and, together with the notary, I must lay down the wording and articles of the donation." " Hello!" "Vitelozzo!" " l am late." " We see!" " And out of breath!" "My friends..." "What's up?" "I am bewildered!" "Sancta Maria, what happened?" " Deeply moved..." " Oh, God!" "Unhappy one!" "...by such beauty!" " Ah!" " l thought so!" " A woman!" " Of course!" " No!" " A goddess." " An angel." " A flower." " We know this." " Please, be quiet!" "Where did you see this beauty?" "I came past the town hall when the city elders drove up in their coaches for some festivity." "Maybe there is... what do you think... ln one of them, listen..." "My greetings, gentlemen, and thanks that my modest home has been honoured by such distinguished guests." "Your modest home?" "O noble Sir Salvago, you are too unassuming." "The splendour of the rooms we walked through is unequalled in all of Genoa." "Your compliment makes me happy." "But please permit:" "here are my friends, the best of Genoa's aristocracy." "You will recognize the names of illustrious descents." "This is my only child, my beloved daughter Carlotta." "I am afraid, sir, maybe you find her too liberal-minded." "She has, to my regret, a low opinion of social rules." "The admiration of your generosity and a very special request to you, she... I bid you welcome and, if I had the privilege to fulfil the young lady's desire, I would call myself lucky!" "But now, if you allow, we, delegated from the Senate," "want to bring to you the gratitude and the joyful amazement of the noble assembly." "Your document announces a donation to us, so great and important, so unexpected and seldom these days." "It's hard for the citizen to preserve his paltry possessions." "Gold he arduously worked for runs through his fingers like water, and yet... taxes increase even more." "We endured it, mostly patiently and grumbling but rarely, since the treasure of our family's sanctity remained to us and the belief in our Madonna." "But there it breaks in like a wolf into the flock and robs us of our wives and kidnaps our daughters and without defence, without help..." "But forgive me, sir, to complain to you about our sorrows was really not our delegation's intention." "For the first ray of light, after scared days, we have to thank you!" "The island's auspicious name, for us it augurs well." "Do you remember, Signorina, a rider this morning, his black horse took fright at the sight of the coaches." "The Duke Adorno... right of objection..." "we're dependent..." "What could he object..." "The rider looked into two sparkling eyes and, confused by them, he forgot to rein in the horse and nearly made an unwilling bow to the beauty, so that was you?" " l was very amused." " You are cruel." "And if, by falling off his horse, an arm or leg were broken..." "A glance from my eyes, isn't it worth it for you?" "I'd gladly give my life for you, yet..." "And if this were just what I wanted?" "You are so great, so mighty and strong, so far above me... I have to stretch myself, look, just to look into your eyes, oh, so sure of victory." "And I'd like to see you small and low and poor, far beneath me, reachable to my feet..." "The dead are poor." "But dead and mute." "I love the soul that fights and struggles, that sacrifices itself and suffers for love's reward." "If you're dead one day, what use is my love to you then?" "Have you gone mad, young lady!" "The answer... I will think about it" "and I will answer you tomorrow." "Wait, Vitelozzo!" "Why in such a hurry?" " Listen!" " We're in danger!" "He is to hand us over to those lousy citizens!" " The access to the underground hall!" " By Madonna," " We must stop it!" " let me go!" "Talk to Adorno!" "Do what you want, but leave me out of it!" " But you... one word!" " l know nothing, I want nothing, I am in love, I love..." "Do you hear?" "The plague upon you!" "That's settled then:" "you'll give us one more day." "The Senate will request the Duke's permission first." "And tonight you will be my guest." "As now you are mine." "I beg my noble guests not to disdain my invitation, just a simple meal." "Signorina, your arm!" "You're highly amusing," " Sir Alviano, really..." " Do you feel better then?" "I was scared; suddenly you reached for your heart" " and went pale..." " Ah, little one, I am as fit as a fiddle." "But did my father not tell you about a request?" "Yes, indeed." "So quickly you forget such important things?" " No, but..." " Well, you see... in front of the people it wouldn't have worked!" "And as all my winks, my furtive signs, my asking whether you possessed a painting or a rare sculpture to show me, as all this didn't help I had the idea..." "Ah, indeed!" "You must take me for a dolt, ignorant of life, naive and silly." "Yet I rarely have the pleasure to associate with pretty women... that's why that... do you understand?" "I understand." "But listen." "I paint." "Yes, really." "Don't look so amazed." "I do paintings." "Animals and men, trees and lakes... the sky, the light... but I like best painting souls." "And you can?" "I mean, do you succeed in painting souls?" "I don't know whether I can, and if I fail then it seems to me it's not always my fault." "You hardly find models." "Only once it seemed to be successful." "The picture appeared, so wondrously fine." "Just an ugly shadow between chin and mouth..." "Look there... and ponder and try as I would, it appeared again and again." "Already I thought it gone and banished for ever." "There, all of a sudden, insidiously it crept out of the brushes and took root!" "This picture I gave up." "A long time I didn't attempt anything." "But you..." "You I'd love to paint." "Me?" "Damn it, are you out of your wits?" "I see!" "It had to happen." "I really thought you took me seriously, you were different from the others, the snakes with gentle faces, with enticing eyes and hearts like devils." "But just now I've seen it:" "the same look." "Oh, goodness, collect yourself!" "Perhaps as a fool in a painting among pretty men and women, an effective contrast, with a fool's cap, the hump would fit in quite well, for the people to jeer at for all time!" "Hush now!" "Don't forget that you are speaking to a lady." "You do me wrong." "Hear me out." "Where the town widens and the view opens on to the countryside," "there I have a cottage for a studio." "Early in the morning, the lanes and squares still deserted and empty, when the wan morning light is lapping around the canvas, colourless and soft," "then to me it seems the right time for work." "A road goes past my cottage, lined by tall cypresses." "You know it well." "You often walked on it," "shy and bowed down, lost in thought..." "Suddenly suspiciously watching the windows, whose curtains hide the observer." "But you did not see her." "Then arose, purple glowing, veils shimmering in a thousand colourings, shining mists like eerie heralds came along, announcing its approach: the sun..." "And a second miracle took place:" "I saw the small, wretched wanderer raise his head." "Every muscle tensed up in the frail body." "The arms raised up into the sky." "Thus he walked into the glare, towards the sun." "And I saw him becoming taller and taller, the figure was growing enormously." "My heart was beating." "Thus I was painting you, Signor Alviano." "Thus I was painting your figure:" "walking towards the sun." "But still I need the face and still I need the drunken eye" "in which all beauty will be reflected." "I am ashamed... I don't know... pardon me... I have never felt like this in my life!" "Will you come to my studio so that I can complete the painting?" "I'll be glad to come." "He's playing cat and mouse with us." "He has become far too mighty, the noble sir!" "His last triumph over Branciforte went to his head." "The people have spoilt him." " After all, they are indebted to him." " They pay him." "A noble mercenary, nothing more." " How are things going?" " He didn't say." "Not for and against." "On the one hand it would be welcome for the people of Genoa, on the other hand the aristocracy would regret if it were to lose a valuable property." "His heart would beat for the people, would decide in its favour." "But fairness and consideration for his friends would call him for caution, he ought to think it over and discuss it and similar catchphrases." "With all his heart he envies us the donation." "He detests the whole affair." "The man of the day is Alviano Salvago!" "The whole town is praising his name." "My daughter Carlotta, who is not easily conquered, spoke of him often, imagining his character." "Now he has taken her by storm." "Duke Adorno ought to be wary!" "He ought to be wary," "Duke Adorno!" "Do you hear it?" " This is the public mood." " Does the mob frighten you?" "You spoke differently yesterday." "Well, yesterday..." "Don't remind me!" "Do you speak to your friend like this?" "Excuse me." "But isn't it enough that I disdain myself?" "is your mockery supposed to turn a knife in my wounds and my friends' laughter to drive me mad?" "What ails you, Tamare?" "I do not recognize you." "The most brilliant gentleman of my court, like nobody else honoured," "beloved, idolized by the women, constantly in the mood for the most incredible pranks." "There are people who only see the light and darkness is alien to them." "I was one of that kind." "Life seemed to me a source of constant joy from which I drank with thirsty gulps, careless, without thinking." "When I stretched out my hand, I held the rose, drew in its fragrance and pulled the petals off." "When I dropped to the ground, I fell softly on moss, thorns shunned me as well as sharp stones." "When a friend poured out his heart to me I heard him perfectly well, but I did not understand him." "And now I have experienced at once all torment of hell, humiliation and disgrace." "Explain yourself." "Beautiful as the daylight, but not of equal rank with me..." " a bourgeois child." " Well." "And then?" "When I spoke to her the first time I think I did not understand her right." "She asked for a sacrifice as a pledge of my love." "But what she desired..." "a lot of nonsense, madness, born at that moment I tried to understand, to interpret following the rules of courtly manners." "After a night of battling I thought I'd found it and mounted my horse, free and proud like a god, my filled heart puffed up with noble feelings." "And I rode through the town and, lost in dreams, I drew up the courting and I saw the beauty flush happily, stunned and moved by the honour!" "A Count Andrae Vitelozzo Tamare offers heart and hand..." "You are really mad." "Be patient, Duke!" "When I stood before her, like the first time, at once I fell in despair." "The strange look in her eyes, her cool and amazed smile confused me." "But to guard timid heart I behaved haughtily, arrogant and gruffly, I talked about the sacrifice I would make for her more evil than self-mutilation and death..." "And since I finally got her ""No"", I completely lost the remnants of my senses." "I threw myself at her feet, about my possessions I wildly talked gibberish." "Clasping her knees I implored her for forgiveness and mercy!" "Tamare, pull yourself together." "Do you hear, Vitelozzo?" "Who is this woman?" "The PodestÁ's daughter, Carlotta." "Ah!" "An important painter once mentioned her name to me as that of a rare talent." "I'd like to warn you for some reasons, but I know the futility of such an action and how he who warns is detested by him who loves unfortunately." "That's why I prefer helping you instead of giving advice to you." "Ah, if you could... I will court for you." "You don't know this woman." "But I know women." "That's why I hope for you." "But promise me one thing:" "if I bring back a bad message, if I return with empty hands, then do not rage against yourself and me, be strong, don't despair, shake it off and forget this woman!" "Listen, Duke, I want to forget her." "I want to forget her." "But first she has to be mine." "Not until I have drunk the breath of her mouth and my hands are soaked with the scent of her hair, not until this woman, if she refuses to be my wife, has been my whore!" "That'll stir up bad feelings!" "We are bound by law and order like everybody else." "Don't forget." "My friends sent me to appeal to you:" "you may prevent that Alviano's island, Elysium," " pass into the town's possession." " Damn it, what has Salvago, what has the island to do with your heinous intrigues?" "On that island an artificial grotto makes wonderful rooms accessible," "especially created for love's celebrations." "When you enter the grotto, a blue light dazzles your eyes." "Heavy fragrances confuse your senses, crimson flames, flaring up like visions, distant music and soft singing lure you deeper and deeper." "A narrow path leads to the cave's entrance, hidden by shrubs of roses." "But if someone discovers the grotto's secret then we are lost." "Does Salvago know about your doing?" "Salvago, ha ha!" "A whim of nature, if you like, a strange caprice." "Genoa's ugliest man is the creator of this adventure," "of this materialized idea of beauty." "And he himself..." "He himself keeps away." "Maybe he has regrets." "But I don't understand it." "The torches' glow gilds everything." "In the orgy's frenzy ugliness becomes beautiful, and beauty becomes ugly." "The contrasts vanish in the rapture!" "And this fool Salvago, after he cultivated on his land blooms of vice and poisonous plants of sin... he gives up the land and himself and you?" "He warned us." "Yet he did not consider how difficult it is to control passion, once it is unbridled." "That is my curse:" "your immoderation." "Your unbridled passion compels me to actions I condemn!" "I will rescue what can still be rescued." "I will keep my promise to you because your love keeps you from the company of miscreants and because of our friendship since youth." "Beware, Vitelozzo, you have been warned of violence." "Salvago ought to restrain his urge for donation for a long time." "This benefactor of people, he will obey, or woe to him and woe to you all!" "Our times are full of strange things." "I knew a woman, like me she learned to paint at the Antwerp School, she painted hands." "Fine, slim hands with delicate blue-veined structures, rough and strong fists of men," "a woman's hand with rings, voluptuous and tender, with nails, pointed and rosy, flashing like drops of pale blood." "There I saw a hand which dug its nails in healthy flesh and another plucked with gentle fingers a twig, growing out of green bushes." "But the oddest thing was one painting:" "a hand, waxen and pale, pale as death, with weird long and skinny fingers," "it was grasping something you could not see." "Only a faint reddish gleam penetrated the eerie fingers, but this glow was like a silent dirge," "like a suppressed moaning cry, like a scream, restrained and in mortal fear," "like a restrained cry for release..." "But, the painting's meaning?" "The poor one probably never felt what inspires artists to great works:" "the happiness of love or the ardent desire for it." "She may have been anxious that once on her path of life she might encounter an event, some sensuously intoxicating charm to which she would surrender." "How strange, fear of happiness?" "The driving force of this poor life was greed for fame and the fountain from which it was nourished was pain." "Not mentally, a physical pain." "Your hand, Signorina, is not as steady as your voice, if you want to paint..." "No." "You are wrong!" "My hand is quite steady and the story soon comes to an end." "My friend suffered from her heart since her youth." "All too often it would beat too passionately and sometimes she felt as if a merciless hand clutched at the twitching thing and squeezed it, dreadful and aching," "so that it may come to rest!" "This hand, this cruel hand" "she painted and her pain, too." "Even though you deny it, you are deeply moved, so it really touched you?" "I loved her..." "So she died?" "I think she is still alive." "Tell me of your youth or why you are so gloomy and in such a bad mood today... or rather why your eyes so fearfully evade mine." "What have I done?" "Are you angry with me?" "Signorina Carlotta, if this is nothing but a game for you, the pleasure of playing around or even worse, then you are, despite your sweet face and your voice which sounds like a message from heaven," "a devil!" "Why should I who am so good to you be as vicious and evil as you describe me?" "I implore you, don't be angry with me!" "Just have some patience with me!" "I don't understand:" "it is like a dream and I fear..." "No, do not fear!" "You are a man and totally without any self-confidence." "is it so unthinkable that a woman should find herself in love and friendship for you?" "Ha ha!" "The old story!" "But the way you look, with eyes whose glow alone is promise..." "And when your mouth smiles I feel as if on earth there were nothing that is named ""friendship"", as if this word, this miserable word, were an absurdity, a lie and disgrace!" "And if it were more..." "I do not say it is..." "Should there be on this earth among millions of beating hearts not to be found one that strives for you in love?" "For me... me who hates himself, who flees from himself, who banished the mirrors out of his rooms!" "A fool you are!" "Who like nobody else clings to that which slips away like a day in May:" "this bit of beauty which leaves us women when the first furrow is on its way!" "We are scarcely conscious of spring, when buds turn to fruit." "The leaves wither and fall." "And this should be the one thing?" "Did you never go out on a sunny day, gloomy and sad, without knowing why?" "And not even the most outstanding person, not the most flourishing tree could rescue you from your anxiety." "And some other time, on rainy days, did it not make you happy, even overjoyed, to see an old, lonely man, wrinkled and ugly, who went on his way and looked at you with naive eyes?" "But if, on a glorious day, in a bed of the loveliest flowers, you were to find a grim monster which put you in a bad mood?" "But I notice one thing:" "you evade me, once with looks, now with words." "But I have to tell you." "Carlotta, consider..." "You shall know that I love you." "Carlotta!" "For God's sake, Signor, how you do stare at me!" "There, take my hands, kiss them quickly!" "But let me go on working." "I need your eyes for my painting." "Thus they are right for me." "Carlotta!" "Beloved!" "I beg you, do not speak." "Just look at me just straight, look deeply into my eyes and think about beautiful things, that I am your sun that chases away all darkness from your life with streaming light." "For God's sake, Carlotta, I must at your feet." "I am happy beyond words." "I beg you, stay." "Just look at me and consider that never again will you be lonely and unloved despite your ugliness." "See how calmly I say the word which tormented you for so long." "Now it's over." "Since it's a word... and a concept..." "Nothing more." "But you must be good to me, Alviano, and tender, my dear!" "Because I am quite a fragile toy." "Carlotta!" "That's it, it's finished." "Now come and hold me." "I am exhausted, yet you must..." "For all saints' sake..." "Dear, what happens to you?" "You sweet, poor one..." "You loveliest one!" "You gave life to me, you gave back to me the belief in God and mankind." "I want to consecrate to you all I have." "I want to spread myself out beneath your feet." "I want to be infinitely good to you and tender." "Lady!" "Duke Adorno!" "The Duke, what on earth can he want?" "Please tell him to wait." "Since yesterday I have been hearing voices everywhere." "Singing in the air and murmuring in the bushes..." "Carlotta's silvery laugh a while ago, but probably it was a delusion." "Ah, sir, how changed and happy I am since the day you first entered my house." "Your daughter, so soon to be my wife, how beautiful beyond words she is, so full of sincere kindness." "But you are reserved." "What troubles you, PodestÁ?" "I am bewildered and dazzled." "What you have just shown me, it is incredible that the brain of a single man should have thought up this realm of magic!" "Many people helped me." "The artists were active." "I only contributed the yearning." " But where is Carlotta?" " Come on, let us look for her." "Did you not hear?" "They are looking for you, Carlotta, and you hide yourself in the shadows." "Then you run away from your fiancé?" "Don't think badly of me, Duke." "After all I don't know what happens to me." "Yesterday when I answered you ""No"" for Count Vitelozzo I felt proud and secure, grand and joyful." "But yet, since I finished the painting, which pleased you so much," "the portrait of Alviano," "it seems to me as if something had grown weary within me, as if my love were no longer the same." "Not poorer, don't get me wrong." "But as though now he had given me his all, his everything and as though I had nothing... nothing more to expect." "And further... yet I don't know if a woman's conflicting feelings are of interest to you or whether they provoke your scorn, Duke?" "Pray, trust me, how true and authentic you are," "Signorina!" "I came to this island full of secret fear." "As if I had drunk wine, heavy and mixed with enchanting herbs, or that strange drink, brewed with the blood from the heart of a love-stricken virgin!" "It is the dreadful spell of beauty, normally bound, half-concealed from the senses and now raging, exposed to the daylight and lecherous eyes like a beautiful woman's limbs, shyly covered in the years of desire," "suddenly enjoying nakedness, displaying its charms for the rejoicing eyes of the loving youth!" "O Duke, you who know life and women, you sinned against Alviano, but he sinned even more against himself, because when I saw him, there, with my father, in all this splendour he created through the burning power of his mind," "when I saw him, the poorest, who himself tore the kind-hearted veils in which mercy wraps us as well as the strange power which tames the senses, then I remembered the saying of this unhappy one in his sole joyful hour:" """But if, on a glorious day,""" """in a bed of the loveliest flowers,""" """you were to find a grim monster...""" " For God's sake, young lady..." " Let me go, Duke!" "Calm down then; the sole joyful hour, you said it yourself, he owes to you." "This may console you." "You shall not console me." "I do not want any mercy." "Torture and hatred I do deserve, desperation and death!" "So listen to one last thing." "He was not worthy and did not deserve your love." "He is not the noble man you think he is." "He is obsessed by evil desire and today it befalls him... I won't hear anything." "You try to defame him, but he is noble and sublime and I am miserable and depraved." "I hate myself and the world and you." "Only the night... this very night I love and its shadows." "Then God may have mercy upon you." "Come now, I'll take you to your father." "Go, go!" "But leave me here!" "Ah, what a night!" "What a glowing summer night!" "I want to crawl into its dark light, dive into its shining darkness!" "With stars I'll dance the summer night's dance, but with goblins I'll sleep in the bushes." "Ah, what a night!" "What a glowing summer night!" "Ah, what a night!" "What a glowing summer night!" "With stars I'll dance the summer night's dance, but with goblins I'll sleep in the bushes." "Ah, what a night!" "What a glowing summer night!" "Where is my bride?" "Has no one seen Carlotta?" "Why are you fleeing from me?" "No, I am not fleeing from you." "You know me then?" "I don't know who you are." "But if it were someone who loves you, beauty?" "You love me?" "Well then." "But let me peep at your face to see whether your eyes are bright or dull." "Are you Alviano?" "No, you aren't." "Of nice build, a handsome man." "O beautiful Carlotta, how strangely you speak!" "Strangely, my love?" "Give me your hand, ah, it's soft and hot, and it feels pleasant." "Do you feel my heart beating passionately!" "For you, my dear!" "For you!" "But listen, young man, you hold it gently with your soft hands, you must not torment it, you clasp it, gently and softly." "Come on, my dear!" "Come on, let us hurry!" " Sweet is the night," " The night is short, dawn is close!" " Feel my heart beating." " Let us hurry, the night is short, dawn is close!" " For you!" " For you!" "I hear her voice!" "It resounds to me from heights and chasms a thousand times!" "Singing from the air, a mocking song from the depths of hell!" "Her figure dances before me, peers out of bushes, here and there her dress glitters like a will-o'-the-wisp she rushes me, uphill, downhill, into the air, into the swamps... and yet I held her, after all she was mine!" "Or was she not?" " Vivat Alviano Salvago!" " He gave us joy!" "Bearer of beauty!" "Father of the people!" "What do you want?" "Be silent!" "I am not a king." "A fool, a cripple!" "A beggar, a monster!" "Where is my bride?" "Bring her to me!" "I will be grateful." "I'll give you all my worldly goods." "Then I will be prince, king, god!" "But give me Carlotta!" "I will be grateful!" "Then I will be prince, king, god!" "Vivat Alviano, Apollo!" "The Muses' friend!" "Crown the king!" "Where is the crown, the crown of rosaries?" "This people's friend, lift him up!" "Crown him with roses!" "Cheers for Alviano!" "Stop it, no, stop it..." "Stop it, people of Genoa!" "Stop it, beguiled people!" "Madmen you are!" "You crown the one who kidnapped your daughters, who seduced and abused your children, perhaps killed!" "What is this?" "What does he mean?" "The Council of Eight!" "Dreadful!" " He?" " Alviano?" "!" " Don't believe him!" " l see!" " The Alberghi." " The sly dogs!" " lt's done cleverly!" " These envious persons!" " Slander!" " Cheers for Alviano!" "Be quiet!" "Silence!" "Listen to the Council of Eight!" "Through the Holy Council of Eight, I, Duke Adorno, the people's protector and loyal friend, bring a charge against the knight Alviano Salvago." "I accuse him of kidnapping girls, of seduction and rape, committed against virgins, of procuring" " and encouragement to the same." " Was there not a scream?" "Did you not hear a scream?" "By virtue of our power as judges and keepers of the law we extend the charge against the knight Alviano Salvago and accuse him who is possessed by the Evil One, who became a slave of Satan and wicked demons," "of having bewitched the people." "We cast a ban on the island Elysium." "It shall be devastated by fire, as a breeding ground of vices and devilish sin." "Sir Salvago, you..." "You see, it comes down to this!" " They rob us!" " They grudge us the joy!" "Cursed thieves!" "Beasts!" " Down with Adorno!" " Death to the Alberghi!" "Kill the bastards!" " lt's all a lie!" " Defend yourself!" " Alviano, speak!" " We believe you!" "We stand by you!" "Alviano, speak!" "We protect you!" "For you!" " Don't you hear it?" "Music..." " Feel my heart beating." "The night is short, dawn is close." "Cymbals, flutes, harps... and wild singing?" "You see, he is obsessed, the demon speaks through him!" "Alviano, listen, it's a matter of life and death." "Defend yourself!" "They will interrogate him under torture." "Lead him away!" "Stop!" "Do not touch him!" "Him who is silent we trust more than you who speak." "He did us good." "If you want to arrest him, give us proof!" "Proof!" "Bring along that woman." "Take your veil off, Ginevra!" "Ginevra Scotti!" "For God's sake, let me go!" "Speak frankly and without reserve, Ginevra Scotti." "Where were you hidden, before you fled to Duke Adorno, seeking help?" "In the house of Alviano Salvago." " Hear!" " Hear this!" " Silence!" "Who is it?" " Hear this!" "What are you waiting for?" "Why don't you move?" "Old man, have mercy and let me go!" "I begin to realize, terribly clearly..." "Speak frankly and without reserve, Signorina Scotti." "Who robbed you of freedom and honour?" "A nobleman who called himself Menaldo Negroni." " Ah!" "The Alberghi!" " Look!" " Listen!" "Yet, what about Salvago?" "Spit out the truth!" "Old man, she is in danger, I see the correlation before me!" "The head of this gang of wild fellows, of noble robbers, is Alviano Salvago." "All this was brought before the Duke by Count Vitelozzo Tamare." "Who spoke the name?" "Who snatched it from my brain?" "It's him!" "He kidnapped her." "He was after her." "He courted her. I know it, know it..." "Are you raving?" "Count Vitelozzo kidnapped Ginevra?" "Who talks about Ginevra?" "Who is she?" "I don't know anything about her!" "Carlotta!" "You cur!" "You rake!" "You animal!" "If I had hold of you, I'd tear you to pieces, you beast!" "Come on, I'll lead you." "Do you see the blue light up there?" "Do you hear?" "Listen!" "is this not music?" "Wild and lascivious, screams and rejoicing..." "People of Genoa!" "I will lead you to your dishonoured daughters!" "To my poor, lost bride!" "Then I'll justify myself to you and you shall judge." "But woe to the others!" "Woe!" "Death upon them!" "You lie!" "You're wrong. I say the truth." "Listen, it might well be that she will not wake up any more," "that she will pass away into the other world." "And see, for me it meant so much." "I had nothing else." "In my whole life this woman was the only great, the only wonderful thing." "Realize, if you say to me:" """l kidnapped her, I took her by force,""" """l couldn't do otherwise because I loved her..."", then I must hate you, I must curse you since you took from a miserable one like me what he possessed, and you destroyed it." "But deep within me would still persist something, understand me, something like an aching consolation." "But if you say to me:" """She gave herself to me,""" """she, Carlotta, willingly, in love,""" """and she was happy,""" "yes, precisely, you said ""happy""," "then, then... then I had nothing, well, then you took nothing from me, then I am once again as miserable... just as miserable as I was..." "Thrown back into nothingness..." "Even if you kill me, I know nothing else to tell you." "Only one thing:" "this woman became a slave to me from the first day I saw her," "Alviano, according to your saying once," """Beauty be prey of the strong.""" "You fancied yourself strong, for one hour, but you were not." "Pleasure presented itself to you, there you avoided it, trembling and cowardly." "You only saw the darkness, the shadows, danger and sin." "Too bitterly branded for life you became by fate broken-winged, inhibited, self-conscious." "For your kind the precious flower is only living in dreams, but when she blossoms garishly and seducing by day it seems a dream to you, a vision, a nocturnal spectre." "For did not, Alviano, as you said," "Carlotta also give herself to you?" "Why did you not take her?" "Because, because..." "You devil, do not request that, before you go to hell, I reveal for all the world to see a crime" "so ghastly..." "Because I look into depths you can't even imagine, since I am a man and you?" "I don't know which one of us is looking deeper." "I don't know what is to be rated higher:" "a joyless life, a gradually wasting away or a death in rapture and transfiguration, in passionate embrace a blissful dying!" "What happens to me?" "Your words' meaning, but this is not possible..." "Her lips asked for mercy, incoherently they stammered the old song of fearful resistance." "But her eyes begged for lust." "An agonizing confession escaped from her lips, fear and horror..." "But from her eyes, boundless, wild, sparks of roused desire were flashing." "At last it forced its way:" "greater than you, she made herself free." "The sparkling dance of her laughing eyes was joined by the inebriate song of her lips:" """Grant death,"" her eyes rejoiced," " ""Grant happiness,"" craved her speech." " Dreadful!" "Wretch, knowingly you have..." "Roll your eyes, bare your teeth and clench your fists!" "My most blissful hour, no one can take it away from me!" "Then say a prayer!" "You're unable to get at me, what do you want?" "At a parish fair a hunchbacked fiddler stroke up a graceful tune." "The most beautiful one of the beauties was his love." "I picked her out of the dancing crowd and took her away." "He rushed after me, he stood before me like this one, his features contorted, contorted and full of hate!" "With his fiddle I killed him." "Come on then, with my hands I shall strangle all of you!" "Then die, scoundrel!" "Who was yelling there?" "Was it not... my love?" "No, no, look at me, Alviano..." "Carlotta, beloved... I am with you, he lied, lied, lied!" "Away, away!" "A troll!" "A nightmare!" "Help!" "Ugh, how heavy this bears!" "And the red light!" "Woe, woe!" "Give me water." "No, give me wine." "And my love shall come, my handsome, sweet... I want Vitelozzo ere I die... I want, I want..." "Yes, but where is the fiddle..." "At last I must go to the parish fair." "And my cap, my nice cap..." "Red with silver bells." "Has no one seen the cap?" "Leave me, I must at last..." "Wait... what was that?" "There is someone lying there..." "Good people, there lies a dead man."