(for John Webster)
It wasn’t well received
that play you wrote –
the Italian tragedy
your tale of calumny & lies
it wasn’t well received
being populated as it was
with people no one could like,
with double-dealing
casuistry, subterfuge
The great Duke had his reasons
& when the door was locked
did what he wanted to
Villainy! Villainy! Ho!
But then we’re all of us no more
than what the play demands
what Webster asked
are taken in the end alive
‘whipped with scorpions’
or like Isabella poisoned
as in those pages where
you worked it out
Vittoria was stabbed to death –
a kind of justice but more perhaps
than she deserved
or where the duke’s acolytes
contrived line by steady line
scene by subtle scene
to accomplish
everything the play required
Yes indeed, lock the doors:
we’re none of us more
than what we say or do
than what the play demands