104 LITERATURE AND DRAMA 



Tanc. If I leave you now I shall throw away men's lives 

 lives risked for you. 



Gris. Men's lives risked for me ? Father, if it please you, I 

 will hear this gentleman alone. 



Gian. I will go. Men's lives ! I have neither skill nor will 

 to meddle with such gear ; I am an ignorant old man your 

 servant, sir. Be prudenfr, Grisyld. [Exit GIAN, L. 



Gris. Now, sir, I will hear you ; but first tell me who you 

 are ; I never saw you at the court. 



Tanc. Why speak of me ? I am nothing. 



Gris. You wish me to believe you, and to act on my belief. 

 Tell me, then, who and what are you ? 



Tanc. I know neither who nor what I am. I have inherited 

 no father's name, and as yet I have won no honour by which 

 men should know me ; but henceforth they shall say, ' He saved 

 Griselda.' Lady, I cannot buy your faith, but I entreat you 

 give it me as a free gift ; trust me, and I will soon prove that 

 your trust has been well bestowed. 



Gris. Young sir, these are wild words. I am a very simple 

 person, and I wish for a simple answer. Who and what are 

 you ? 



Tanc. I am called Tancred, and I have no other name. My 

 guardians would not tell my parentage, but they gave me 

 kindly nurture in Bologna. There we, the student youth, loved 

 no theme so well as argument concerning noble women. One 

 we judged to be the worthiest of all who live. She was a peasant 

 girl, whom the wild Marquis of Saluce, in a mad freak, made 

 his wife. Men mocked at first, but by gentle dignity she taught 

 them both to love and honour her. Then, as though in spite 

 that she whom he had raised should stand upon the solid ground 

 of her own worth, the Marquis killed the two children she had 

 borne him, calling them base-born brats, because she was their 

 mother. She said he could not kill her love, whether for them 

 or him. Thereupon his mad mood changed, and he gave her 

 power, which she so used that for many years the weak had 

 peace, while the strong loved the law which bound them. Then 

 the moody Marquis took back all that he had given, and robbed 

 her even of the name of wife. Discrowned, divorced, stripped 

 to her smock, and cast out from the palace like a beggar, she 



