_THE JEWEL MERCHANTS_

_The play begins with the sound of a woman's voice singing a song
(adapted from Rossetti's version) which is delivered to the accompaniment
of a lute._

SONG:

Let me have dames and damsels richly clad
To feed and tend my mirth,
Singing by day and night to make me glad.

Let me have fruitful gardens of great girth
Filled with the strife of birds,
With water-springs and beasts that house i' the earth.

Let me seem Solomon for lore of words,
Samson for strength, for beauty Absalom.

Knights as my serfs be given;
And as I will, let music go and come,
Till, when I will, I will to enter Heaven.

_As the singing ends, the curtain rises upon a corner of Balthazar
Valori's garden near the northern border of Tuscany. The garden is walled.
There is a shrine in the wall: the tortured figure upon the crucifix is
conspicuous. To the right stands a rather high-backed stone bench: by