I here renounce my fatherhood. No child
Will I acknowledge mine. Thoa art a wife ;
Thy duty is thy husband's. When Antonio
Returns from Seville, tell him that his father
Is long since dead. Henceforward I will own
No kin, no home, no tie. I will away,
To-morrow morn, and live an anchorite.
One thing ye cannot rob me of — my work.
My name shall still outsoar these low, mirk vapors —
Not the Ribera, stained with sin and shame.
As she hath left it, but the Spagnoletto.
My glory is mine own. I have done with it,
But I bequeath it to my country. Now
I win make friends with beasts — they'11 prove less savage
Than she that was my daughter. I have spoken
For the last time that word. Thee I curse not ;
Thou hast not set thy heel upon my heart ;
But yet I will not bless thee. Go. Good-night.
ANNICCA {embracing him).
What ! will you spurn me thus ? Nay, I will bide. And be to thee all that she should have been. Soothe thy declining years, and heal the wound Of this sharp sorrow. Thou shalt bless me still, Father—
[Rebbra has yielded for a moment to her embrace ; but, suddenly rising, he pushes her roughly from him.
