GUIDO
Ah, dear love,
I am so wounded by that bolt myself
That with untended wounds I lie a-dying,
Unless you cure me, dear Physician.
DUCHESS
I would not have you cured; for I am sick
With the same malady.
GUIDO
Oh, how I love you!
See, I must steal the cuckoo's voice, and tell
The one tale over.
DUCHESS
Tell no other tale!
For, if that is the little cuckoo's song,
The nightingale is hoarse, and the loud lark
Has lost its music.
GUIDO
Kiss me, Beatrice!
[She takes his face in her hands and bends down and kisses him; a
loud knocking then comes at the door, and GUIDO leaps up; enter a
Servant.]
SERVANT
A package for you, sir.
GUIDO
[carelessly] Ah! give it to me. [Servant hands package wrapped in
vermilion silk, and exit; as GUIDO is about to open it the DUCHESS
comes up behind, and in sport takes it from him.]
DUCHESS
[laughing]
Now I will wager it is from some girl
Who would have you wear her favour; I am so jealous
I will not give up the least part in you,
But like a miser keep you to myself,
And spoil you perhaps in keeping.
GUIDO
It is nothing.
DUCHESS
Nay, it is from some girl.
GUIDO
You know 'tis not.
DUCHESS
[turns her back and opens it]
Now, traitor, tell me what does this sign mean,
A dagger with two leopards wrought in steel?
GUIDO
[taking it from her] O God!
DUCHESS
I'll from the window look, and try
If I can't see the porter's livery
Who left it at the gate! I will not rest
Till I have learned your secret.
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