Say it! (Bellini: This Isotta----) Ai! Whom I had chosen o'er a hundred others To soar with! To soar and then in wedded peace to prize! This false Isotta Whom in poverty I found, as you found me, and loved to madness. This fair Isotta Whom I would have made All Venice to be a halo for--as were Cities of old for queens of sceptred love: Until she leaves, departs, forsakes me, goes Away, worthless away, from my true arms, With Luzzi, a lank boy. (Bellini: So. And most strange.) No, nothing a woman does is ever strange! Will they not cloak a lie in innocence, A treachery in veiling soft caresses-- Tho to the Mass unceasingly they fare And say like her their aves night and noon? Have they a want that wantons not with guile, A tear that is not turgid with deceit? Are not their passions blown by every wind? Have they not all the straying heart of Helen? Then why must I, Who had in me a hope That rivalled Raphael's or Leonardo's, Keep, cozened so, that I contemn her shame?

Giorgione Monologue from The Immortal Lure

Rehearse Giorgione's monologue