Читать книгу Borgia. A Period Play онлайн

8 страница из 32

Messer Bernardino Betti (Pintoricchio) and Messer Ercole are waiting to deliver a ceremonial sword.

Enter Lord Bonafede, Bishop of Chiusi.

The worshipful Lord Cardinal is coming;

I have announced you. The ambassadors

Had taken leave.

[Examining the sword in the hands of Messer Ercole.

By Hercules—your pardon,

Yet by your name, as if it were divine—

This queen of swords is warlike, not of peace

In its adornment as a legate’s sword ...

A legate, tamquam pacis angelus, In Holy Father’s phrase. O sirs, the shame That such a soldier—what condottiere In Italy would match our Cardinal— Is wasted on the Church.

Lord Bonafede!

I speak out of my flesh. I have gone ever cursing

The tonsure where the helmet should have been.

I am a man-at-arms, the jangling glories

Of panoply are dearer than the bell

That dins the raising of God’s sacrifice.

Come, Messer Bernardino, you can mingle

Your saints with Pagan bulls and goddesses

Who love their gods by Nile.