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(From the Magnifico Marco Venier to Veronica
Franco.) If I love you as much as my own life, cruel lady, why do you offer no relief for my suffering in such great love? And if I ask in vain for grace and pity, why do not you at least end with death this pain I endure for love of you? I know you are not right to reward my faithfulness in this way; but a wrong that rights a greater wrong is well received; my suffering is more bitter than any death, and to die by your hand in this condition would be a boon I long for and cherished. But how ever can it be, in the tenderest part of your body, that your fair, fine white breast can enclose a heart so hard and pitiless? How can it be that such a gay appearance conceals desires and thoughts so cruel that they disdain my humble devotion? To use the great beauty given you by heaven for the death and grief of a man who loves you- what deed worse than this could you commit? Let your natural desire be freed from all this and let compassion fitting to your beauty make its way into your mind instead....... [ll. 1-24; pp. 51] |
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