- [first lines]
- [de Medici enters his apartment and finds Machiavelli feeding grapes to a pretty woman]
- Duke de Medici: Enjoying yourself, Master Machiavelli?
- Machiavelli: Welcome home, your excellence! Did you find what you are looking for?
- Duke de Medici: Oh, yes, I found cannon - fine, sturdy brass cannon. I daresay the armorers of the Amelia are as excellent craftsmen as you will find anywhere in Europe.
- Machiavelli: And yet I believe I detect a certain discordant note?
- Duke de Medici: You do - the ring of brass on an empty coffer.
- Machiavelli: And the excellent craftsmen of the Amelia are asking to be paid for their labors.
- Duke de Medici: In gold, before delivery. Machiavelli, I must find that money!
- Artist's Guild Chairman: Gentlemen, I propose that the art dealers of Florence be prohibited from dealing in ancient, classical and pagan objects of art and that all such objects presently in their possession be confiscated and impounded by the government.
- [the artists react angrily]
- Artist's Guild Chairman: It is the duty of Florence to protect it's *living* artists and not to line the pockets of the dealers who buy and sell the works of the dead.
- Marco del Monte: And force them to buy the half-dead works of some of the living?
- [last lines]
- [toasting a statue]
- Marco del Monte: Here's to my Venus, to my goddess of love, and her newfound freedom.
- Angelica: But Marco...
- Marco del Monte: And, for once, the heroine's silence is absolute and guaranteed. To my *silent* beauty!
- Angelica: I still say she's too fat.
- [as his friends chuckle, Marco and Angelica embrace and kiss]