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Robert Browning (1812–1889). A Blot in the ’Scutcheon.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Act III Scene VII

What! So insult a saintly man of God!

Heaven, forgive him all the pain he gives me!

Could you but know with what distress I see

Them try to vilify me to my brother!

Ah!

The mere thought of such ingratitude

Makes my soul suffer torture, bitterly…

My horror at it… Ah! my heart’s so full

I cannot speak… I think I’ll die of it.

Scoundrel! I wish I’d never let you go,

But slain you on the spot with my own hand.

Brother, compose yourself, and don’t be angry.

Nay, brother, let us end these painful quarrels.

I see what troublous times I bring upon you,

And think ’tis needful that I leave this house.

What! You can’t mean it?

Yes, they hate me here,

And try, I find, to make you doubt my faith.

What of it? Do you find I listen to them?

No doubt they won’t stop there. These same reports

You now reject, may some day win a hearing.

No, brother, never.

Ah! my friend, a woman

May easily mislead her husband’s mind.

No, no.

So let me quickly go away

And thus remove all cause for such attacks.

No, you shall stay; my life depends upon it.

Then I must mortify myself. And yet,

If you should wish…

No, never!

Very well, then;

No more of that. But I shall rule my conduct

To fit the case. Honour is delicate,

And friendship binds me to forestall suspicion,

Prevent all scandal, and avoid your wife.

No, you shall haunt her, just to spite them all.

’Tis my delight to set them in a rage;

You shall be seen together at all hours

And what is more, the better to defy them,

I’ll have no other heir but you; and straightway

I’ll go and make a deed of gift to you,

Drawn in due form, of all my property.

A good true friend, my son-in-law to be,

Is more to me than son, and wife, and kindred.

You will accept my offer, will you not?

Heaven’s will be done in everything!

Poor man!

We’ll go make haste to draw the deed aright,

And then let envy burst itself with spite!