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A barrier between us far too high

       For us to kiss across it.

      DUCHESS Guido!

      GUIDO

       Beatrice,

       You must forget that name, and banish me

       Out of your life for ever.

      DUCHESS

       [going towards him]

       O dear love!

      GUIDO

       [stepping back]

       There lies a barrier between us two

       We dare not pass.

      DUCHESS

       I dare do anything

       So that you are beside me.

      GUIDO

       Ah! There it is,

       I cannot be beside you, cannot breathe

       The air you breathe; I cannot any more

       Stand face to face with beauty, which unnerves

       My shaking heart, and makes my desperate hand

       Fail of its purpose. Let me go hence, I pray;

       Forget you ever looked upon me.

      DUCHESS

       What!

       With your hot kisses fresh upon my lips

       Forget the vows of love you made to me?

      GUIDO

       I take them back.

      DUCHESS

       Alas, you cannot, Guido,

       For they are part of nature now; the air

       Is tremulous with their music, and outside

       The little birds sing sweeter for those vows.

      GUIDO

       There lies a barrier between us now,

       Which then I knew not, or I had forgot.

      DUCHESS

       There is no barrier, Guido; why, I will go

       In poor attire, and will follow you

       Over the world.

      GUIDO [wildly]

       The world’s not wide enough

       To hold us two! Farewell, farewell for ever.

      DUCHESS

       [calm, and controlling her passion]

       Why did you come into my life at all, then,

       Or in the desolate garden of my heart

       Sow that white flower of love -?

      GUIDO O Beatrice!

      DUCHESS

       Which now you would dig up, uproot, tear out,

       Though each small fibre doth so hold my heart

       That if you break one, my heart breaks with it?

       Why did you come into my life? Why open

       The secret wells of love I had sealed up?

       Why did you open them -?

      GUIDO O God!

      DUCHESS [clenching her hand]

       And let

       The floodgates of my passion swell and burst

       Till, like the wave when rivers overflow

       That sweeps the forest and the farm away,

       Love in the splendid avalanche of its might

       Swept my life with it? Must I drop by drop

       Gather these waters back and seal them up?

       Alas! Each drop will be a tear, and so

       Will with its saltness make life very bitter.

      GUIDO

       I pray you speak no more, for I must go

       Forth from your life and love, and make a way

       On which you cannot follow.

      DUCHESS

       I have heard

       That sailors dying of thirst upon a raft,

       Poor castaways upon a lonely sea,

       Dream of green fields and pleasant water-courses,

       And then wake up with red thirst in their throats,

       And die more miserably because sleep

       Has cheated them: so they die cursing sleep

       For having sent them dreams: I will not curse you

       Though I am cast away upon the sea

       Which men call Desolation.

      GUIDO O God, God!

      DUCHESS

       But you will stay: listen, I love you, Guido.

       [She waits a little.]

       Is echo dead, that when I say I love you

       There is no answer?

      GUIDO

       Everything is dead,

       Save one thing only, which shall die tonight!

      DUCHESS

       If you are going, touch me not, but go.

       [Exit GUIDO.]

       Barrier! Barrier!

       Why did he say there was a barrier?

       There is no barrier between us two.

       He lied to me, and shall I for that reason

       Loathe what I love, and what I worshipped, hate?

       I think we women do not love like that.

       For if I cut his image from my heart,

       My heart would, like a bleeding pilgrim, follow

       That image through the world, and call it back

       With little cries of love.

       [Enter DUKE equipped for the chase, with falconers and hounds.]

      DUKE

       Madam, you keep us waiting;

       You keep my dogs waiting.

      DUCHESS I will not ride to-day.

      DUKE How now, what’s this?

      DUCHESS My Lord, I cannot go.

      DUKE

       What, pale face, do you dare to stand against me?

       Why, I could set you on a sorry jade

       And lead you through the town, till the low rabble

       You feed toss up their hats and mock at you.

      DUCHESS Have you no word of kindness ever for me?

      DUKE

       I hold you in the hollow of my hand

       And have no need on you to waste kind words.

      DUCHESS Well, I will go.

      DUKE

       [slapping his boot with his whip]

       No, I have changed my mind,

       You will stay here, and like a faithful wife

       Watch from the window for our coming back.

       Were it not dreadful if some accident

       By chance should happen to your loving Lord?

       Come, gentlemen, my hounds begin to chafe,

       And I chafe too, having a patient wife.

      

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