Cast

 

 

 

 

SCENE 1

 

 

Translation: Yes, Byron, even in Hell you would be my Love – I would be willing to dwell there in Eternity near to – and loved by you. – But how different from this is the sense in which you say it! – How it troubles me – My arts – – But what arts, good God! have I ever used with you – except those that the immense love I bear you suggested to me so as to be loved by You – in order to please you in everything – so as not to lose you? – Do these then deserve the name of arts? – I love you as I have always loved you – and more – and there is not an instant when I do not desire above all things to show you my heart just as it is – to have you near – but when you absolutely refuse to stay near me – and I, in order to alleviate the immense tedium of your absence, speak about the most indifferent of things – with the greatest inattentiveness, which I have never known how to control – with my eyes upon you – (something that I think escaped only you) – and speak with the Man whom Chance – your refusal – the duty to propriety have placed beside me (for as I told you, it was the Hostess who obliged me to accept that place) and who never gave you cause for suspicion – what must I think except that again you are looking for pretexts to leave me? – Apart from such unjust things – which wound your Friend in her most sensitive part (for I shall never renounce this Name – having too much right to it – not even to substitute that of Sovereign of the whole World – of the Heavens if it were possible) you can easily enough find others. – I am writing you all these things because I feel this way – because I need to unburden myself – and because I would like to see you persuaded of my sincerity. – In person you do not permit me to say all that I feel – imposing silence on me now by your anger – now by your joking about everything – things almost equally displeasing to me at such moments. – Perhaps not even this writing will be free from such danger – or a similar one – but I hope you will at least have the goodness to read it. – Shall I see you sometime today, my Love? – Consider your injustice – before you decide – and the pain you are causing your – – – True Friend – I swear to you!