30
Beatric e
(On her knees)
I do beseech you, let me stay with you!
Filippo
I cannot, for I love you now, no longer. Thou art
nothing more to me, than other trivial things,
Like light or air. ‘Twere utter selfishness for me
To think to take you with me.
Beatrice
Drive me not away,
I cannot be so much despised by you, so soon.
How dare you hold me so unworthy, just to die with you?
You send me home, as if I were a haughty child,
And scold, as if I did not understand the meaning
of your words. Here at thy feet I do beseech you!
Let me stay.
Filippe
(Very coldly)
Beatrice, you must go quickly!
With every word you..utter the danger waxes.
Beatrice
What wouldst thou do?
Filippo
Go!
Go!
What matters that to you?
(Aside, and in doubt)
Ah! One there was who came to me, my friend,
The would have won me back, myorfeit strength and manhood,
The nobility I lost so long ago.
How could I have spurned him? He strove to save me.
But, alas, I heard a stranger's voice,
Her step upon the path, outside my door.
(Shudders)
Well, it is done!
Beatrice
I stay.