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Do they not seem a valiant company

       Of honourable, honest gentlemen?

      GUIDO His name, milord?

      [Enter the DUKE OF PADUA with COUNT BARDI, MAFFIO, PETRUCCI, and other gentlemen of his Court.]

      MORANZONE [quickly]

       The man to whom I kneel

       Is he who sold your father! mark me well.

      GUIDO [clutches hit dagger]

       The Duke!

      MORANZONE

       Leave off that fingering of thy knife.

       Hast thou so soon forgotten?

       [Kneels to the DUKE.]

       My noble Lord.

      DUKE

       Welcome, Count Moranzone; ‘tis some time

       Since we have seen you here in Padua.

       We hunted near your castle yesterday -

       Call you it castle? that bleak house of yours

       Wherein you sit a-mumbling o’er your beads,

       Telling your vices like a good old man.

       [Catches sight of GUIDO and starts back.]

       Who is that?

      MORANZONE

       My sister’s son, your Grace,

       Who being now of age to carry arms,

       Would for a season tarry at your Court

      DUKE [still looking at GUIDO]

       What is his name?

      MORANZONE Guido Ferranti, sir.

      DUKE His city?

      MORANZONE He is Mantuan by birth.

      DUKE [advancing towards GUIDO]

       You have the eyes of one I used to know,

       But he died childless. Are you honest, boy?

       Then be not spendthrift of your honesty,

       But keep it to yourself; in Padua

       Men think that honesty is ostentatious, so

       It is not of the fashion. Look at these lords.

      COUNT BARDI [aside]

       Here is some bitter arrow for us, sure.

      DUKE Why, every man among them has his price,

       Although, to do them justice, some of them

       Are quite expensive.

      COUNT BARDI [aside]

       There it comes indeed.

      DUKE

       So be not honest; eccentricity

       Is not a thing should ever be encouraged,

       Although, in this dull stupid age of ours,

       The most eccentric thing a man can do

       Is to have brains, then the mob mocks at him;

       And for the mob, despise it as I do,

       I hold its bubble praise and windy favours

       In such account, that popularity

       Is the one insult I have never suffered.

      MAFFIO [aside] He has enough of hate, if he needs that.

      DUKE

       Have prudence; in your dealings with the world

       Be not too hasty; act on the second thought,

       First impulses are generally good.

      GUIDO [aside]

       Surely a toad sits on his lips, and spills its venom there.

      DUKE

       See thou hast enemies,

       Else will the world think very little of thee;

       It is its test of power; yet see thou show’st

       A smiling mask of friendship to all men,

       Until thou hast them safely in thy grip,

       Then thou canst crush them.

      GUIDO [aside]

       O wise philosopher!

       That for thyself dost dig so deep a grave.

      MORANZONE [to him]

       Dost thou mark his words?

      GUIDO Oh, be thou sure I do.

      DUKE

       And be not over-scrupulous; clean hands

       With nothing in them make a sorry show.

       If you would have the lion’s share of life

       You must wear the fox’s skin. Oh, it will fit you;

       It is a coat which fitteth every man.

      GUIDO Your Grace, I shall remember.

      DUKE

       That is well, boy, well.

       I would not have about me shallow fools,

       Who with mean scruples weigh the gold of life,

       And faltering, paltering, end by failure; failure,

       The only crime which I have not committed:

       I would have men about me. As for conscience,

       Conscience is but the name which cowardice

       Fleeing from battle scrawls upon its shield.

       You understand me, boy?

      GUIDO

       I do, your Grace,

       And will in all things carry out the creed

       Which you have taught me.

      MAFFIO

       I never heard your Grace

       So much in the vein for preaching; let the Cardinal

       Look to his laurels, sir.

      DUKE

       The Cardinal!

       Men follow my creed, and they gabble his.

       I do not think much of the Cardinal;

       Although he is a holy churchman, and

       I quite admit his dulness. Well, sir, from now

       We count you of our household

       [He holds out his hand for GUIDO to kiss. GUIDO starts back in horror, but at a gesture from COUNT MORANZONE, kneels and kisses it.]

       We will see

       That you are furnished with such equipage

       As doth befit your honour and our state.

      GUIDO I thank your Grace most heartily.

      DUKE

       Tell me again

       What is your name?

      GUIDO Guido Ferranti, sir.

      DUKE

       And you are Mantuan? Look to your wives, my lords,

       When such a gallant comes to Padua.

       Thou dost well to laugh, Count Bardi; I have noted

       How merry is that husband by whose hearth

       Sits an uncomely wife.

      MAFFIO

       May it please your Grace,

       The wives of Padua are above suspicion.

      DUKE

       What, are they so ill-favoured! Let us go,

      

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