_Regent_. Hey? That Song!
_Gamba_. Hie to me, fly to me, steel-blue mate!
Under my breast-knot flutters thy fellow;
Here can I rest not, and thou so late.
Home, to me, home!
'Love, love, I come!'
--Dear one, I wait!
_Quanno nacesti tu, nacqui pur io:
La lundananza tua, 'l desiderio mio_!
You know the song, madonna?
_Regent_. Ay, fool. Sit
Here at my feet, sing on.
_Gamba (sings)._
Bird of the South, my Rondinello
Under thy wing my heart hath lain
Till the rain falling on last leaves yellow
Drumm'd to thee, calling southward again.
Home, to me, home!
'Love, love, I come!'
Ah, love, the pain!
_Addio, addio! ed un' altra volt' addio!
La lundananza tua, 'l desiderio mio!
(Pause)._
A foolish rustic thing the shepherd wives
In our Abruzzi croon by winter fires,
Of their husbands in the plains.
_Regent_. Gamba!
_Gamba_. Madonna?
_Regent_. I'd make thee my confessor. Mindest thou,
By Villalago, where from Sanno's lake
The stream, our Tasso, hurls it down the glen?
One noon, with Lucio--ever in those days
With Lucio--on a rock within the spray,
I wove a ferny garland, while the boy
Roamed, but returned in triumph, having trapped
A bee in a bell-flower--held it to my ear,
Laughing, dissembling that he feared to loose
The hairy thief. So laughed we--and were still,
As deep in Vallescura wound a horn,
And up the pathway 'neath the dappling bough
Came riding--flecked with sunshine, man and horse,--
My lord, my lover; and that song, that song
Upon his lips....
_Voice of Watchman_. Sail ho! a sail! a sail!
_[Murmur of populace below. It grows and swells to
a roar as enter hurriedly courtiers, guards, and
others: Cesario; Lucetta with mirror._]
_Lucetta_. My lady! O my lady!--
_Cesario_. See, they near!
Galley on galley--look, there, by the point!
_Regent_. O, could my heart keep tally with the surge
That here comes crowding!
_Lucetta_. Joy, my lady! Joy!
_All_. Joy! Joy, my lady!
_[They press flowers on her. A pause, while they
watch. On the canal the galleys come into
sight. They near: and as the oars rise and
fall, the rowers' chorus is borne from the distance.
It is the Rondinello song_
_Chorus in Distance. La lundananza tua, 'l desiderio mio!_
_Regent_. Thanks, my good, good friends!
And deem it not discourteous if alone
I'd tune my heart to bliss.
My glass, Lucetta!
_[Takes mirror.]_