_Doge_ (_solus_). Adieu, my worthy nephew.--Hollow bauble! [_Taking up the ducal cap_. Beset with all the thorns that line a crown, 260 Without investing the insulted brow With the all-swaying majesty of Kings; Thou idle, gilded, and degraded toy, Let me resume thee as I would a vizor. [_Puts it on_. How my brain aches beneath thee! and my temples Throb feverish under thy dishonest weight. Could I not turn thee to a diadem? Could I not shatter the Briarean sceptre Which in this hundred-handed Senate rules, Making the people nothing, and the Prince 270 A pageant? In my life I have achieved Tasks not less difficult--achieved for them, Who thus repay me! Can I not requite them? Oh for one year! Oh! but for even a day Of my full youth, while yet my body served My soul as serves the generous steed his lord, I would have dashed amongst them, asking few In aid to overthrow these swoln patricians; But now I must look round for other hands To serve this hoary head; but it shall plan 280 In such a sort as will not leave the task Herculean, though as yet 'tis but a chaos Of darkly brooding thoughts: my fancy is In her first work, more nearly to the light Holding the sleeping images of things For the selection of the pausing judgment.-- The troops are few in---- _Enter_ VINCENZO. _Vin_. There is one without Craves audience of your Highness. _Doge_. I'm unwell-- I can see no one, not even a patrician-- Let him refer his business to the Council. 290 _Vin_. My Lord, I will deliver your reply; It cannot much import--he's a plebeian, The master of a galley, I believe. _Doge_. How! did you say the patron of a galley?[389] That is--I mean--a servant of the state: Admit him, he may be on public service. [_Exit_ VINCENZO.