g!

_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.]_

Some thoughts there are--some thoughts----

_Courtiers_. God save you, madam!

_[They go out, leaving the Regent alone._]

_Regent (she loosens the clasp of her robe)._ Some thoughts
--some thoughts--
Fall from me, envious robe!
Rest there, my crown--thou more than leaden ache!
Ah!--
God! What a mountain drops! I float--I am lifted
Like thistledown on nothing. Back, my crown--
Weight me to earth! Nay, nay, thy rim shall bite
No more upon this forehead ... Where's my glass?
O mirror, mirror, hath it bit so deep?
My love is coming, hark! O, say not grey,
Sweet mirror! Tell, what time to cure it now?
And he so near, so near!
How shall I meet him?
Why how but as the river leaps to sea,
Steel to its magnet, child to mother's arms?

[_She catches up flowers from the baskets left by the
courtiers, and decks herself mildly._

Flowers for my hair, flowers at the breast! Sweet flowers,
He'll crush you 'gainst his corslet. He has arms
Like bands of iron for clasping, has my love.
He'll hurt, he'll hurt ... But oh, sweet flowers, to lie
And feel you helpless while he grips and bruises
Your weak protesting breasts! You'll die in bliss,
Panting your fragrance out.--
Wh'st! Hush, poor fool!
I have unlearned love's very alphabet.
Men like us coy, demure ... Then I'll coquet
And play Madam Disdain--but not to-day.
To-morrow I'll be shrewish, shy, perverse,
Exacting, cold--all April in my moods:
We'll walk the forest, and I'll slip from him,
Hide me like Dryad 'mid the oaks, and mark
His hot dark face pursuing; or I'll couch
In covert green, and hold my breath to hear
His blundering foot go by; then up I'll leap,
And run--and he'll run after. O this lightness!
I'll draw him like a fairy, dance and doub