Mortadello

OR, THE ANGEL OF VENICE 101 I see the bond that clogs, the fetter link that galls, Dissolved in the sharp drink—it rusts, and rots, and falls. [MORTADELLO drinks the hashish potion. MORTADELLO. Thanks girl ! Here, take this pearl ! MONICA. A pearl ! A pearl of price ! MORTADELLO. In my wife’s ear it hung ! MONICA. O stately sacrifice ! This will make history. Now drink my lord, I’ll show By desert gramayre the thing that you would know. [MORTADELLO drinks again. Shut but your eyes : and where she is, and what she does Your very eyes, I swear, shall see. MORTADELLO. Calamitous ! My brain turns. MONICA. It shall clear. By Fatima’s holy hand. O Monica, appear ! I, it is I, command ! [She drops the veil from her face. Stare, murderer, stare your eyes out ! Let them start From your pale face, despair through all your dastard heart. Yes, I have won, I have won ! Black bastardy of fear ! My auguries are done, my vengeance drawing near Is at your throat. I will be gone. ’Tis here ! ’Tis here ! [She disappears. MORTADELLO. God ! God ! I’m poisoned. Stop the fiend ! Arrest her, friends ! All my wealth for a leech ! So Mortadello ends ! No ! Jesus ! up and out ! By God ! I’ll kill her first, Though all my blood is boiling and my bowels burst ! Give me my sword ! If I must go to hell, I swear