OR, THE ANGEL OF VENICE 
25 
 
GIUSEPPE. 
 
Why then, where’s he been ? 
MARCO.  Ha !  Ha !  you’d never guess. 
EUPHEMIA. 
 
Then tell us what you mean ! 
MARGARITA.  You great big teasing Mark !  It was Olimpia’s 
father. 
Whose knotted cherry-club teased you last Easter rather. 
MARCO.  Don’t.  Bygones should be bygones !  Though if I 
catch him walking 
One night by the canal, I may set people talking ! 
MATTEO.  Well, what’s the news ? 
GIUSEPPE. 
The Doge is drunk ? 
FILIPPO. 
 
Or is the Pope ill ? 
MATTEO.  He has just heard the Turks have sacked Con-
stantinople. 
MARCO.  No, but an idol breaks, a temple is defiled : 
Your Princess Monica is found to be with child. 
GIUSEPPE.  Hum ! 
MATTEO. 
It’s a dirty lie. 
FILIPPO. 
A dirty lie ! 
EUPHEMIA. 
You hog ! 
MARGARITA.  You filthy beast. 
GIUSEPPE. 
 It’s false, I make no doubt, the dog ! 
I suppose you are the father. 
MARCO. 
O !  no one knows who he is, 
But she. 
FILIPPO.  You say’t again ! 
NINA.  
A saint as sweet as she is ! 
Let’s tear the lying tongue from him ! 
GIUSEPPE. 
To the canal ! 
And cool his brains ;  he’s mad, perhaps, the animal. 
[They drag him off, struggling, towards R.