Whence all the harm came,—and that Pietro first
Bethought him of advantage to himself
I’ the deed, as part revenge, part remedy
For all miscalculation in the pact. (580)
“I am the wronged, solely, from first to last,
“Who gave the dignity I engaged to give,
“Which was, is, cannot but continue gain.
“My being poor was a bye-circumstance,
“Miscalculated piece of untowardness,
“Might end to-morrow did heaven’s windows ope,
“Or uncle die and leave me his estate.
“You should have put up with the minor flaw,
“Getting the main prize of the jewel. If wealth, (590)
“Not rank, had been prime object in your thoughts,
“Why not have taken the butcher’s son, the boy
“O’ the baker or candlestick-maker? In all the rest,
“It was yourselves broke compact and played false,
“And made a life in common impossible.
“Show me the stipulation of our bond
“That you should make your profit of being inside
“My house, to hustle and edge me out o’ the same.
“First make a laughing-stock of mine and me,
“Then round us in the ears from morn to night (600)
“(Because we show wry faces at your mirth)
“That you are robbed, starved, beaten, and what not!
“You fled a hell of your own lighting-up,
“Pay for your own miscalculation too:
“You thought nobility, gained at any price,
“Would suit and satisfy,—find the mistake,
“And now retaliate, not on yourselves, but me.
“And how? By telling me, i’ the face of the world,
“I it is have been cheated all this while,
“Abominably and irreparably,—my name (610)
“Given to a cur-cast mongrel, a drab’s brat,
“A beggar’s bye-blow,—thus depriving me
“Of what yourselves allege the whole and sole
“Aim on my part i’ the marriage,—money to-wit.
“This thrust I have to parry by a guard
“Which leaves me open to a counter-thrust
“On the other side,—no way but there’s a pass
“Clean through me. If I prove, as I hope to do,
“There’s not one truth in this your odious tale
“O’ the buying, selling, substituting—prove (620)
“Your daughter was and is your daughter,—well,
“And her dowry hers and therefore mine,—what then?
“Why, where’s the appropriate punishment for this
“Enormous lie hatched for mere malice’ sake
“To ruin me? Is that a wrong or no?
“And if I try revenge for remedy,
“Can I well make it strong and bitter enough?”
Which of the two here sinned most? A nice point!
Which brownness is least black,—decide who can, (630)
Wager-by-battle-of-cheating! What do you say,
Highness? Suppose, your Excellency, we leave
The question at this stage, proceed to the next,
Both parties step out, fight their prize upon,
In the eye o’ the world?
The grinding of such blades, each parry of each,
Throws terrible sparks off, over and above the thrusts,
And makes more sinister the fight, to the eye,
Than the very wounds that follow. Beside the tale (640)
Which the Comparini have to re-assert,
They needs must write, print, publish all abroad
The straitnesses of Guido’s household life—
The petty nothings we bear privately
But break down under when fools flock around.
What is it all to the facts o’ the couple’s case,
How helps it prove Pompilia not their child,
If Guido’s mother, brother, kith and kin
Fare ill, lie hard, lack clothes, lack fire, lack food?
That’s one more wrong than needs. (650)
Guido,—whose cue is to dispute the truth
O’ the tale, reject the shame it throws on him,—
He may retaliate, fight his foe in turn
And welcome, we allow. Ay, but he can’t!
He’s at home, only acts by proxy here:
Law may meet law,—but all the gibes and jeers,
The superfluity of naughtiness,
Those libels on his House,—how reach at them?
Two hateful faces, grinning all a-glow, (660)
Not only make parade of spoil they filched,
But foul him from the height of a tower, you see.
Unluckily temptation is at hand—
To take revenge on a trifle overlooked,
A pet lamb they have left in reach outside,
Whose first bleat, when he plucks the wool away,
Will strike the grinners grave: his wife remains
Who, four months earlier, some thirteen years old,
Never a mile away from mother’s house
And petted to the height of her desire, (670)
Was told one morning that her fate was come,
She must be married—just as, a month before,
Her mother told her she must comb her hair
And twist her curls into one knot behind.
These fools forgot their pet lamb, fed with flowers,
Then ’ticed as usual by the bit of cake,
Out of the bower into the butchery.
Plague her, he plagues them threefold: but how plague?
The world may have its word to say to that:
You can’t do
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