eve, and still fewer to
sympathize with."

It was, no doubt, with reference to these criticisms that Byron told
Medwin (_Conversations_, 1824, p. 173) that it was no invention of his
that the "young Foscari should have a sickly affection for his native
city.... I painted the men as I found them, as they were--not as the
critics would have them.... But no painting, however highly coloured,
can give an idea of the intensity of a Venetian's affection for his
native city."

Goethe, on the other hand, was "not careful" to note these
inconsistencies and perplexities. He thought that the dramatic handling
of _The Two Foscari_ was "worthy of great praise," was "admirable!"
(_Conversations with Goethe_, 1874, p. 265).

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

MEN.

FRANCIS FOSCARI, _Doge of Venice_.
JACOPO FOSCARI, _Son of the Doge_.
JAMES LOREDANO, _a Patrician_.
MARCO MEMMO, _a Chief of the Forty_.
BARBARIGO, _a Senator_.

_Other Senators, The Council of Ten, Guards, Attendants, etc., etc._

WOMAN.

MARINA, _Wife of young_ FOSCARI.

SCENE--The Ducal Palace, Venice.

THE TWO FOSCARI.

ACT I.

SCENE I.--_A Hall in the Ducal Palace_.

_Enter_ LOREDANO _and_ BARBARIGO, _meeting_.

_Lor._ WHERE is the prisoner?

_Bar._ Reposing from
The Question.

_Lor._ The hour's past--fixed yesterday
For the resumption of his trial.--Let us
Rejoin our colleagues in the council, and
Urge his recall.

_Bar._ Nay, let him profit by
A few brief minutes for his tortured limbs;
He was o'erwrought by the Question yesterday,
And may die under it if now repeated.[at][37]

_Lor._ Well?

_Bar._ I yield not to you in love of justice,
Or hate of the ambitious Foscari, 10
Father and son, and all their noxious race;
But the poor wretch has suffered beyond Nature's
Most stoical endurance.

_Lor._ Without owning
His crime?

_Bar._ Perhaps without committing any.
But he avowed the letter to the Duke
Of Milan, and his sufferings half atone for
Such weakness.

_Lor._ We shall see.

_Bar._ You, L