GRISELDA 107 



secretly and wait for us hard by, at the little wood by the cross- 

 roads. Come with us, and in six hours you will be on Tuscan 

 soil, and free. 



Gris. Free! I cannot understand let me think. Silence 

 let me speak. You speak too quickly. My lord is about to 

 marry. He will send for me to his court to serve the lady. 

 You, a stranger, come to me and ask me to follow you and dis- 

 obey the noble Marquis. Why ? 



Tanc. That you may escape from him ; that you may reach 

 safety and happiness. 



Gris. My boy, you know not what you say. I can reach 

 no happiness by flight or disobedience. I will go to the 

 Marquis. 



Tanc. To the Marquis ? Say to persecution, insult, death. 

 A moment since you asked why you should follow me. I ask, 

 now, Why go to the Marquis ? 



Gris. (a pause) I think it right. 



Tanc. Right ! I know well that as wide a gulf sunders 

 wrong from right as hell from heaven. Only, let us not give 

 the name of right to every common custom. In women obedience 

 is a custom, and this custom would make you obey your 

 Marquis, serve his concubine, and kiss his hand the hand 

 which struck you. This custom would have you kneel and 

 stretch your throat to meet his knife, rusty with your children's 

 blood. Can you call this custom right ? 



Gris. You hurt me. You say you come to serve me. Be 

 gentle, then. 



Tanc. That is the voice. When I hear that voice I must be 

 calm ; but the voice even of an angel cannot make truth false. 

 Go to Saluce, and you do wrong. 



Gris. You say that going to Saluce I shall do wrong and 

 suffer much, and you would bribe me from this wrong-doing and 

 misery with happiness. What happiness ? Daily food ? Shelter 

 from heat and cold ? More ? A servant many ? Learned 

 Tuscans, too, to talk with friends, yon would call them ; 

 wealth, perhaps, and leisure much leisure to think upon the 

 past. It may be wrong, young sir I am a poor casuist but 

 I will go to the Marquis. 



Tanc. Your words sting, but they are not just. In our 



