I told him he would find his comfort in the bosom of the Lord. He didn’t seem to agree.
Where was the wily duke during all this? You may well ask. As it turns out he was secretly directing events, disguised as a friar, and he was the one who came up with a cunning plan. He may be of a tender and mild disposition, but he has a devious mind and he likes to play games. Nor does he always stop to think who might get hurt by them.
Angelo had once been betrothed to a woman called Mariana, but her dowry went down on the same ship as her brother Frederick, and Angelo left her in tears, pretending he had discovered some stain on her honour when it was, in fact, the loss of the dowry that turned him against her. If you needed any more evidence of his worthlessness, that’s the kind of person he is.
Now, if I were to go back to Angelo and pretend to agree to his demands, the friar suggested, we could arrange things so that Mariana went to his chamber in my stead, breaking no laws and saving both my virginity and Claudio’s life.
It seemed a very good plan, and it worked, though the friar did have to do a little juggling with severed heads later on to convince Angelo that Claudio had indeed been beheaded. Then, for reasons of his own, the friar let me go on believing that Claudio had been executed – I did say he likes to play games, didn’t I? – until the final scenes had been played out.
He had Mariana beg for Angelo’s life, and the poor woman importuned me to beg with her! Thus, I found myself on my knees for a second time, this time pleading for the life of a man I hated, the man who, I thought, had killed my brother even though, he thought, he had enjoyed the treasures of my body.
So is it any wonder I was speechless when in walked Claudio, as alive as you or I, and the duke announced that I was to be his duchess?
I could have said no, I suppose, but at the time I was too stunned to say anything, and the next thing I knew we were married.
Though it took me many months, I got over the shock of it all and adapted myself as best I could to my new life. I hadn’t actually taken my vows, so there was no legal problem with the marriage. The duke took over Vienna again and enforced the law himself, tempered with mercy and charity, and things were back on an even keel. I’m not saying that fornication ceased. That could never happen here. We Viennese are an odd lot, our lives full of secret vices and lies, and anyone with an interest in the human mind and perverse behaviour would have a field day studying us.
Being the duke’s wife had many advantages, I soon found, though I did have some trouble adjusting to his husbandly demands. He wasn’t a young man, but he was certainly vigorous, though he needed certain props to help him perform those functions he liked so much. In particular, he liked to dress as a friar and intone Latin vespers when he took me from behind, as was his wont. That, I could deal with, but I drew the line when he asked me to dress as a nun. That would have been far too much of a travesty for me to take, given everything that had happened.
So time passed, and on the whole I quite enjoyed the life of idleness and luxury. I loved my horses, enjoyed the theatre and the frequent grand balls, and I came to rely on the kind attentions of my maids and the delicious concoctions of my cooks. As I say, the sacrifices were bearable. Once in a while, I had a wistful thought for the life I might have led, but I must confess that when I hosted a magnificent banquet or walked the grounds and gardens of our wonderful palace, the thought of a bare, cold, tiny cloister lost much of its appeal. Mind you, I still attended church regularly and prayed every night, and we gave generously to the votarists of St Clare.
You might be interested in knowing what happened to the others. Claudio and Juliet were married, after which they moved to the country. By all accounts they are happy enough, though we don’t see them very often. Angelo and Mariana were also married – it was her wish, the duke’s dictate, and in accord with the law – but their story didn’t end happily at all. Well, how could it with an evil, sadistic pervert like Angelo for a husband? Mariana is very sweet, but she is such a naif when it comes to men. Even back when I was headed for the convent I had more idea than she did.
So I wasn’t at all surprised when she came to me in tears about six months after her marriage.
‘Dry your eyes, dear,’ I said to her, ‘and let’s walk in the garden.’ It was a beautiful spring day, with a warm gentle breeze wafting the scents of flowers through the mild air.
‘I can’t go on,’ she said.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘It’s Angelo.’
‘What about him?’
‘He doesn’t love me any more.’
He never did love her, I could have said, but I held my tongue. I doubted that was what she wanted to hear at the moment. ‘What makes you think that?’ I asked.
She looked around, then leaned in towards me and lowered her voice. ‘He has other women.’
I could have laughed out loud. Just about every husband in Vienna has other women. I suspect even my own duke has one from time to time, but if it spares me the friar’s costume and the Latin vespers for a night, who am I to complain? But Mariana, I could see, was really upset. ‘It’s just men, Mariana,’ I told her. ‘They’re like that. They can’t help themselves. It’s their nature. Every time they see an attractive woman they just have to conquer her.’
‘But am I not attractive?’
‘That’s neither here nor there. You’re his wife. That’s all that counts.’
‘Yes, I am his wife, so why does he have to sleep with other women? I’ll sleep with him any time he wants. I’ll do anything he wants me to, even if it hurts me, even that disgusting thing with the-’
‘Mariana! I told you, it’s just their nature. You’ll have to learn to live with it or your life will be a very unhappy one.’
‘But I am unhappy already. I can’t live with it. I want to die.’
I took her arm. ‘Don’t be so histrionic, Mariana,’ I said. ‘You’ll get used to it.’
She broke away. ‘I won’t! Never! I want to die. I’m going to kill myself.’
I sighed. ‘Over a man? There must be better reasons. Look, who is this woman he’s been seeing?’
Mariana looked at me. Her eyes were so full of pain that my heart cried for her, even though I thought she was being foolish. ‘It’s not just one woman.’
‘How many?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Two, three?’
‘I told you. I don’t know.’
‘You must have some idea. Is it three, four, or five?’
‘About three. I think that’s about right.’
‘So he’s sleeping with three other women?’
‘Three a week. Yes.’
‘What?’
‘He has them sent to him. There’s a man called Pandarus, a Greek I think, a despicable human being, and Angelo pays him to procure young women. Usually young virgins from the provinces who are new in town and haven’t settled into employment. They’re so young. They don’t… I mean they don’t all know what to expect.’
‘He forces them?’
Mariana nodded. ‘I’ve heard cries. Screams, sometimes, and he swears they will die terribly if they ever speak of what happened.’
Mariana’s story was starting to interest me. I had heard of this Pandarus, though I had never met him, and I knew that he affected a respectable enough surface and was able to move among varying levels of society. Procuring wasn’t new to Vienna, even among the higher echelons – nothing to do with sex is new to Vienna – but this Pandarus intrigued me all the same. ‘How do you know all this?’ I asked.