CAS.It would not help us in the least.We are not a parcel of graziers come to market, dolt!
(Luiz rises.)
DUKE.My love, our suite's feelings! (To Luiz.) Be so good as to ring the bell and inform the Grand Inquisitor that his Grace the Duke of Plaza-Toro, Count Matadoro, Baron Picadoro--DUCH.And suite--DUKE.And suite--have arrived at Venice, and seek--CAS.Desire--DUCH.Demand!
DUKE.And demand an audience.
LUIZ.Your Grace has but to command.
DUKE (much moved).I felt sure of it--I felt sure of it!
(Exit Luiz into Ducal Palace.) And now, my love--(aside to Duchess) Shall we tell her? I think so--(aloud to Casilda) And now, my love, prepare for a magnificent surprise.It is my agreeable duty to reveal to you a secret which should make you the happiest young lady in Venice!
CAS.A secret?
DUCH.A secret which, for State reasons, it has been necessary to preserve for twenty years.
DUKE.When you were a prattling babe of six months old you were married by proxy to no less a personage than the infant son and heir of His Majesty the immeasurably wealthy King of Barataria!
CAS.Married to the infant son of the King of Barataria?
Was I consulted? (Duke shakes his head.) Then it was a most unpardonable liberty!
DUKE.Consider his extreme youth and forgive him.Shortly after the ceremony that misguided monarch abandoned the creed of his forefathers, and became a Wesleyan Methodist of the most bigoted and persecuting type.The Grand Inquisitor, determined that the innovation should not be perpetuated in Barataria, caused your smiling and unconscious husband to be stolen and conveyed to Venice.A fortnight since the Methodist Monarch and all his Wesleyan Court were killed in an insurrection, and we are here to ascertain the whereabouts of your husband, and to hail you, our daughter, as Her Majesty, the reigning Queen of Barataria! (Kneels.)(During this speech Luiz re-enters.)DUCH.Your Majesty! (Kneels.) (Drum roll.)DUKE.It is at such moments as these that one feels how necessary it is to travel with a full band.
CAS.I, the Queen of Barataria! But I've nothing to wear!
We are practically penniless!
DUKE.That point has not escaped me.Although I am unhappily in straitened circumstances at present, my social influence is something enormous; and a Company, to be called the Duke of Plaza-Toro, Limited, is in course of formation to work me.An influential directorate has been secured, and I shall myself join the Board after allotment.
CAS.Am I to understand that the Queen of Barataria may be called upon at any time to witness her honoured sire in process of liquidation?
DUCH.The speculation is not exempt from that drawback.If your father should stop, it will, of course, be necessary to wind him up.
CAS.But it's so undignified--it's so degrading! A Grandee of Spain turned into a public company! Such a thing was never heard of!
DUKE.My child, the Duke of Plaza-Toro does not follow fashions--he leads them.He always leads everybody.When he was in the army he led his regiment.He occasionally led them into action.He invariably led them out of it.
SONG--DUKE OF PLAZA-TORO.
In enterprise of martial kind, When there was any fighting, He led his regiment from behind--He found it less exciting.
But when away his regiment ran, His place was at the fore, O--That celebrated, Cultivated, Underrated Nobleman, The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
ALL.In the first and foremost flight, ha, ha!
You always found that knight, ha, ha!
That celebrated, Cultivated, Underrated Nobleman, The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
DUKE.When, to evade Destruction's hand, To hide they all proceeded, No soldier in that gallant band Hid half as well as he did.
He lay concealed throughout the war, And so preserved his gore, O!
That unaffected, Undetected, Well-connected Warrior, The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
ALL.In every doughty deed, ha, ha!
He always took the lead, ha, ha!
That unaffected, Undetected, Well-connected Warrior, The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
DUKE.When told that they would all be shot Unless they left the service, That hero hesitated not, So marvellous his nerve is.
He sent his resignation in, The first of all his corps, O!
That very knowing, Overflowing, Easy-going Paladin, The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
ALL.To men of grosser clay, ha, ha!
He always showed the way, ha, ha!
That very knowing, Overflowing, Easy-going Paladin, The Duke of Plaza-Toro!
(Exeunt Duke and Duchess into Grand Ducal Palace.As soon as they have disappeared, Luiz and Casilda rush to each other's arms.)RECITATIVE AND DUET--CASILDA AND LUIZ.
O rapture, when alone together Two loving hearts and those that bear them May join in temporary tether, Though Fate apart should rudely tear them.
CAS.Necessity, Invention's mother, Compelled me to a course of feigning--But, left alone with one another, I will atone for my disdaining!
AIR
CAS.Ah, well-beloved, Mine angry frown Is but a gown That serves to dress My gentleness!
LUIZ.Ah, well-beloved, Thy cold disdain, It gives no pain--'Tis mercy, played In masquerade!
BOTH.Ah, well-beloved, etc.
CAS.O Luiz, Luiz--what have you said? What have I done?
What have I allowed you to do?
LUIZ.Nothing, I trust, that you will ever have reason to repent.(Offering to embrace her.)CAS.(withdrawing from him).Nay, Luiz, it may not be.Ihave embraced you for the last time.
LUIZ (amazed).Casilda!
CAS.I have just learnt, to my surprise and indignation, that I was wed in babyhood to the infant son of the King of Barataria!
LUIZ.The son of the King of Barataria? The child who was stolen in infancy by the Inquisition?
CAS.The same.But, of course, you know his story.
LUIZ.Know his story? Why, I have often told you that my mother was the nurse to whose charge he was entrusted!
CAS.True.I had forgotten.Well, he has been discovered, and my father has brought me here to claim his hand.
LUIZ.But you will not recognize this marriage? It took place when you were too young to understand its import.