[439]Ed.2. “methodicall.”[440]Some copies ofed.1. “operation.”[441]Washing with cosmetics.[442]Ed.2. “We.”[443]Ed.2. “your.”[444]“For this ... sovereign.”—These words are omitted ined.2.[445]Dodsley’s correction.—Ed.1. “pent;”ed.2. “spent.”[446]Ed.2. “the.”[447]Ironical exclamation.[448]At this time Rochelle was an asylum for persecuted Protestants.[449]Ed.2. “have.”[450]“Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit.”—Ovid,Her. Epist.i.53.[451]“Hæc finis Priami fatorum.”—Virgil,Æn.ii.554.[452]Ed.2. “dooth.”
[439]Ed.2. “methodicall.”
[440]Some copies ofed.1. “operation.”
[441]Washing with cosmetics.
[442]Ed.2. “We.”
[443]Ed.2. “your.”
[444]“For this ... sovereign.”—These words are omitted ined.2.
[445]Dodsley’s correction.—Ed.1. “pent;”ed.2. “spent.”
[446]Ed.2. “the.”
[447]Ironical exclamation.
[448]At this time Rochelle was an asylum for persecuted Protestants.
[449]Ed.2. “have.”
[450]“Jam seges est ubi Troja fuit.”—Ovid,Her. Epist.i.53.
[451]“Hæc finis Priami fatorum.”—Virgil,Æn.ii.554.
[452]Ed.2. “dooth.”
SCENEI.
A room in the Duke’s Palace.
EnterPietro, Mendoza, Equato,andBilioso.
Pietro.’Tis grown to youth of day: how shall we waste this light?My heart’s more heavy than a tyrant’s crown.Shall we go hunt? Prepare for field.
[ExitEquato.
Men.Would ye could be merry!
Pietro.Would God I could! Mendoza, bid ’em haste.
[ExitMendoza.
I would fain shift place; O vain relief!Sad souls may well change place, but not change grief:As deer, being struck, fly thorough many soils,[453]Yet still the shaft sticks fast, so——
Bil.A good old simile, my honest lord.10
Pietro.I am not much unlike to some sick manThat long desirèd hurtful drink; at lastSwills in and drinks his last, ending at onceBoth life and thirst. O, would I ne’er had knownMy own dishonour! Good God, that men should desireTo search out that, which, being found, kills allTheir joy of life! to taste the tree of knowledge,And then be driven from out paradise!—Canst give me some comfort?19
Bil.My lord, I have some books which have been dedicated to my honour, and I ne’er read ’em, and yet they had very fine names,Physic for Fortune,[454]Lozenges of sanctified sincerity,[455]very pretty works of curates, scriveners, and schoolmasters. Marry, I remember one Seneca, Lucius Annæus Seneca——
Pietro.Out upon him! he writ of temperance and fortitude, yet lived like a voluptuous epicure, and died like an effeminate coward.—Haste thee to Florence: Here, take our letters; see ’em seal’d: away!Report in private to the honour’d duke30His daughter’s forc’d disgrace; tell him at lengthWe know too much: due compliments[456]advance:There’s naught that’s safe and sweet but ignorance.[457]
[Exit.
EnterBianca.
Bil.Madam, I am going ambassador for Florence; ’twill be great charges to me.
Bian.No matter, my lord, you have the lease of two manors come out next Christmas; you may lay your tenants on the greater rack for it: and when you come home again, I’ll teach you how you shall get two hundred pounds a-year by your teeth.40
Bil.How, madam?
Bian.Cut off so much from house-keeping: that which is saved by the teeth, you know, is got by the teeth.
Bil.’Fore God, and so I may; I am in wondrous credit, lady.
Bian.See the use of flattery: I did ever counsel you to flatter greatness, and you have profited well: any man that will do so shall be sure to be like your Scotch barnacle,[458]now a block, instantly a worm, and presently a great goose: this it is to rot and putrefy in the bosom of greatness.52
Bil.Thou art ever my politician. O, how happy is that old lord that hath a politician to his young lady! I’ll have fifty gentlemen shall attend upon me: marry, the most of them shall be farmers’ sons, because they shall bear their own charges; and they shall go apparelled thus,—in sea-water-green suits, ash-colour cloaks, watchetstockings, and popinjay-green feathers: will not the colours do excellent?60
Bian.Out upon’t! they’ll look like citizens riding to their friends at Whitsuntide; their apparel just so many several parishes.
Bil.I’ll have it so; and Passarello, my fool, shall go along with me; marry, he shall be in velvet.
Bian.A fool in velvet!
Bil.Ay, ’tis common for your fool to wear satin; I’ll have mine in velvet.
Bian.What will you wear, then, my lord?69
Bil.Velvet too; marry, it shall be embroidered, because I’ll differ from the fool somewhat. I am horribly troubled with the gout: nothing grieves me, but that my doctor hath forbidden me wine, and you know your ambassador must drink. Didst thou ask thy doctor what was good for the gout?
Bian.Yes; he said, ease, wine, and women, were good for it.
Bil.Nay, thou hast such a wit! What was good to cure it, said he?79
Bian.Why, the rack. All your empirics could never do the like cure upon the gout the rack did in England, or your Scotch boot.[459]The French harlequin[460]will instruct you.
Bil.Surely, I do wonder how thou, having for the most part of thy lifetime been a country body, shouldst have so good a wit.
Bian.Who, I? why, I have been a courtier thrice two months.88
Bil.So have I this twenty year, and yet there was a gentleman-usher called me coxcomb t’other day, and to my face too: was’t not a backbiting rascal? I would I were better travelled, that I might have been better acquainted with the fashions of several countrymen: but my secretary, I think, he hath sufficiently instructed me.
Bian.How, my lord?
Bil.“Marry, my good lord,” quoth he, “your lordship shall ever find amongst a hundred Frenchmen forty hot-shots; amongst a hundred Spaniards, three-score braggarts; amongst a hundred Dutchmen, four-score drunkards; amongst an hundred Englishmen, four-score and ten madmen; and amongst an hundred Welshmen”——102
Bian.What, my lord?
Bil.“Four-score and nineteen gentlemen.”[461]
Bian.But since you go about a sad embassy, I would have you go in black, my lord.
Bil.Why, dost think I cannot mourn, unless I wear my hat in cipres,[462]like an alderman’s heir? that’s vile, very old, in faith.
Bian.I’ll learn of you shortly: O, we should have afine gallant of you, should not I instruct you! How will you bear yourself when you come into the Duke of Florence’ court?113
Bil.Proud enough, and ’twill do well enough: as I walk up and down the chamber, I’ll spit frowns about me, have a strong perfume in my jerkin, let my beard grow to make me look terrible, salute no man beneath the fourth button; and ’twill do excellent.
Bian.But there is a very beautiful lady there; how will you entertain her?120
Bil.I’ll tell you that, when the lady hath entertained me: but to satisfy thee, here comes the fool.
EnterPassarello.
Fool, thou shalt stand for the fair lady.
Pass.Your fool will stand for your lady most willingly and most uprightly.
Bil.I’ll salute her in Latin.
Pass.O, your fool can understand no Latin.
Bil.Ay, but your lady can.
Pass.Why, then, if your lady take down your fool, your fool will stand no longer for your lady.130
Bil.A pestilent fool! ’fore God, I think the world be turned upside down too.
Pass.O, no, sir; for then your lady and all the ladies in the palace should go with their heels upward, and that were a strange sight, you know.
Bil.There be many will repine at my preferment.
Pass.O, ay, like the envy of an elder sister, that hath her younger made a lady before her.
Bil.The duke is wondrous discontented.
Pass.Ay, and more melancholic than a usurer having all his money out at the death of a prince.141
Bil.Didst thou see Madam Floria to-day?
Pass.Yes, I found her repairing her face to-day; the red upon the white showed as if her cheeks should have been served in for two dishes of barberries in stewed broth, and the flesh to them a woodcock.
Bil.A bitter fool![463]—Come, madam, this night thou shalt enjoy me freely, and to-morrow for Florence.148
Pass.What a natural fool is he that would be a pair of boddice to a woman’s petticoat, to be trussed and pointed to them! Well, I’ll dog my lord; and the word is proper: for when I fawn upon him, he feeds me; when I snap him by the fingers, he spits in my mouth. If a dog’s death were not strangling, I had rather be one than a serving-man; for the corruption of coin is either the generation of a usurer or a lousy beggar.
[ExeuntBiancaandPassarello.
EnterMalevolein some frize gown, whilstBiliosoreads his patent.
Mal.I cannot sleep; my eyes’ ill-neighbouring lidsWill hold no fellowship. O thou pale sober night,Thou that in sluggish fumes all sense dost steep;Thou that giv’st all the world full leave to play,160Unbend’st the feebled veins of sweaty labour!The galley-slave, that all the toilsome dayTugs at his oar against the stubborn wave,Straining his rugged veins, snores fast;The stooping scythe-man, that doth barb the field,Thou mak’st wink sure: in night all creatures sleep;Only the malcontent, that ’gainst his fateRepines and quarrels,—alas, he’s goodman tell-clock!His sallow jaw-bones sink with wasting moan;Whilst others’ beds are down, his pillow’s stone.170
Bil.Malevole!
Mal.Elder of Israel, thou honest defect of wicked nature and obstinate ignorance, when did thy wife let thee lie with her?
Bil.I am going ambassador to Florence.
Mal.Ambassador! Now, for thy country’s honour, prithee, do not put up mutton and porridge i’ thy cloakbag. Thy young lady wife goes to Florence with thee too, does she not?
Bil.No, I leave her at the palace.180
Mal.At the palace! Now, discretion shield, man; for God’s love, let’s ha’ no more cuckolds! Hymen begins to put off his saffron[464]robe: keep thy wife i’ the state of grace. Heart o’ truth, I would sooner leave my lady singled in a bordello than in the Genoa palace:Sin there appearing in her sluttish shape,Would soon grow loathsome, even to blushes’ sense;Surfeit would choke[465]intemperate appetite,Make the soul scent the rotten breath of lust.When in an Italian lascivious palace,190A lady guardianless,Left to the push of all allurement,The strongest incitements to immodesty,To have her bound, incens’d with wanton sweets,Her veins fill’d high with heating delicates,Soft rest, sweet music, amorous masquerers,Lascivious banquets, sin itself gilt o’er,Strong fantasy tricking up strange delights,Presenting it dress’d pleasingly to sense,Sense leading it unto the soul, confirm’d200With potent examples impudent custom,Entic’d by that great bawd, opportunity;[466]Thus being prepar’d, clap to her easy earYouth in good clothes, well-shap’d, rich,Fair-spoken, promising, noble, ardent, blood-full,Witty, flattering,—Ulysses absent,O Ithaca,[467]can chastest Penelope hold out?
Bil.Mass, I’ll think on’t. Farewell.
Mal.Farewell. Take thy wife with thee. Farewell.
[ExitBilioso.
To Florence; um! it may prove good, it may;210And we may once unmask our brows.
EnterCelso.
Celso.My honour’d lord,—
Mal.Celso, peace! how is’t? speak low: pale fearsSuspect that hedges, walls, and trees, have ears:Speak, how runs all?
Celso.I’faith, my lord, that beast with many heads,The staggering multitude, recoils apace:Though thorough great men’s envy, most men’s malice,Their much-intemperate heat hath banish’d you,Yet now they find[468]envy and malice ne’er220Produce faint reformation.The duke, the too soft duke, lies as a block,For which two tugging factions seem to saw;But still the iron through the ribs they draw.
Mal.I tell thee, Celso, I have ever foundThy breast most far from shifting cowardiceAnd fearful baseness: therefore I’ll tell thee, Celso,I find the wind begins to come about;I’ll shift my suit of fortune.I know the Florentine, whose only force,230By marrying his proud daughter to this prince,Both banish’d me, and made this weak lord duke,Will now forsake them all; be sure he will:I’ll lie in ambush for conveniency,Upon their severance to confirm myself.
Celso.Is Ferneze interr’d?
Mal.Of that at leisure: he lives.
Celso.But how stands Mendoza? how is’t with him?
Mal.Faith, like a pair of snuffers, snibs[469]filth in other men, and retains it in himself.[470]240
Celso.He does fly from public notice, methinks, as a hare does from hounds; the feet whereon he flies betray him.
Mal.I can track him, Celso.O, my disguise fools him most powerfully!For that I seem a desperate malcontent,He fain would clasp with me: he’s the true slaveThat will put on the most affected graceFor some vile second cause.
Celso.He’s here.
Mal.Give place.
[ExitCelso.
EnterMendoza.
Illo, ho, ho, ho! art there, old truepenny?[471]Where hast thou spent thyself this morning? I see flattery in thine eyes, and damnation in thy soul. Ha, ye[472]huge rascal!
Men.Thou art very merry.253
Mal.As a scholarfutuens gratis. How does[473]the devil go with thee now?
Men.Malevole, thou art an arrant knave.
Mal.Who, I? I have been a sergeant, man.
Men.Thou art very poor.
Mal.As Job, an alchymist, or a poet.
Men.The duke hates thee.260
Mal.As Irishmen[474]do bum-cracks.
Men.Thou hast lost his amity.
Mal.As pleasing as maids lose their virginity.
Men.Would thou wert of a lusty spirit! would thou wert noble!265
Mal.Why, sure my blood gives me I am noble, sure I am of noble kind; for I find myself possessed with all their qualities;—love dogs, dice, and drabs, scorn wit in stuff-clothes; have beat my shoemaker, knocked my semstress, cuckold my pothecary, and undone my tailor. Noble! why not? since the stoic said,Neminem servum non ex regibus, neminem regem non ex servis esse oriundum;[475]only busy Fortune touses, and the provident Chances blend them together. I’ll give you a simile: did you e’ersee a well with two buckets, whilst one comes up full to be emptied, another goes down empty to be filled? such is the state of all humanity. Why, look you, I may be the son of some duke; for, believe me, intemperate lascivious bastardy makes nobility doubtful: I have a lusty daring heart, Mendoza.280
Men.Let’s grasp; I do like thee infinitely: wilt enact one thing for me?
Mal.Shall I get by it? [Men.gives him his purse.] Command me; I am thy slave, beyond death and hell.
Men.Murder the duke.
Mal.My heart’s wish, my soul’s desire, my fantasy’s dream, my blood’s longing, the only height of my hopes! How, O God, how! O, how my united spirits throng together, to[476]strengthen my resolve!
Men.The duke is now a-hunting.290
Mal.Excellent, admirable, as the devil would have it! Lend me, lend me, rapier, pistol, cross-bow: so, so, I’ll do it.
Men.Then we agree.
Mal.As Lent and fishmongers. Come, a-cap-a-pe, how? inform.
Men.Know that this weak-brain’d duke, who only standsOn Florence’ stilts, hath out of witless zealMade me his heir, and secretly confirm’dThe wreath to me after his life’s full point.300
Mal.Upon what merit?
Men.Merit! by heaven, I horn him:Only Ferneze’s death gave me state’s life.Tut, we are politic, he must not live now.
Mal.No reason, marry: but how must he die now?
Men.My utmost project is to murder the duke, that I might have his state, because he makes me his heir; to banish the duchess, that I might be rid of a cunning Lacedæmonian, because I know Florence will forsake her; and then to marry Maria, the banished Duke Altofront’s wife, that her friends might strengthen me and my faction: that is all, la.311
Mal.Do you love Maria?
Men.Faith, no great affection, but as wise men do love great women, to ennoble their blood and augment their revenue. To accomplish this now, thus now. The duke is in the forest next the sea: single him, kill him, hurl him i’ the main, and proclaim thou sawest wolves eat him.
Mal.Um! not so good. Methinks when he is slain,To get some hypocrite, some dangerous wretch320That’s muffled o[’e]r with feignèd holiness,To swear he heard the duke on some steep cliffLament his wife’s dishonour, and, in an agonyOf his heart’s torture, hurl’d his groaning sidesInto the swollen sea,—this circumstanceWell made sounds probable: and hereuponThe duchess——
Men.May well be banish’d:O unpeerable invention! rare!Thou god of policy! it honeys me.330
Mal.Then fear not for the wife of Altofront;I’ll close to her.
Men.Thou shalt, thou shalt. Our excellency is pleas’d:Why wert not thou an emperor? when weAre duke, I’ll make thee some great man, sure.
Mal.Nay,Make me some rich knave, and I’ll make myselfSome great man.
Men.In thee be all my spirit:Retain ten souls, unite thy virtual powers:Resolve; ha, remember greatness! heart, farewell:340The fate of all my hopes in thee doth dwell.
[Exit.
Re-enterCelso.
Mal.Celso, didst hear?—O heaven, didst hearSuch devilish mischief? suffer’st thou the worldCarouse damnation even with greedy swallow,And still dost wink, still does thy vengeance slumber?If now thy brows are clear, when will they thunder?
[Exeunt.
[453]Streams.—A deer was said totake soilwhen it took to the water to escape the hunters.[454]“In 1579 was published a book, entitledPhysic against Fortune, as well prosperous as adverse, contained in two Books. Written in Latin by Francis Petrarch, a most famous poet and oratour, and now first Englished by Thomas Twyne.4to. B. L.”—Reed.[455]This seems to be a fictitious book, but some of the old divines chose titles quite as quaint. One of Thomas Becon’s works is entitledThe Pomander of Prayer.[456]Ed.1. “complaints.”[457]What follows, down to the entrance of Malevole (l.156), was added ined.2.[458]It was a common superstition that this shell-fish turned itself into a solan-goose. SeeNares’ Glossary.[459]A horrid instrument of torture by which the legs were crushed. In Millœus’Praxis Criminis Persequendi, Paris, 1541,fol., there is a blood-curdling representation of a victim undergoing this torture. The instrument was never used in England; but was frequently applied in France and Scotland to extort confession from criminals.[460]Olded.“herlakeene.”[461]Concerning Welshmen’s pride in their gentility, see Middleton,iii.23 (note).[462]Fine crape.[463]Olded.“fowl.”—The wordfowlseems to have been pronouncedfool(Middleton,vi.249). Perhaps the reading “fowl” (after the mention of “woodcock”) should be retained, as some sort of joke may have been intended.[464]Hymen was usually represented in masques with a saffron robe.[465]Oldeds.“cloake” and “cloke.”[466]“So in Shakespeare’sLucrece:‘OOpportunity, thy guilt is great!· · · · · · ·Thou foul abettor! thou notoriousbawd!’”—Dyce.So Heywood:—“WinOpportunity,She’s thebest bawd.”—Fair Maid of the West,i.1.[467]Ed.2. “O Ithacan.”[468]Some copies ofed.1. “faind.”[469]Snubs, rebukes.Cf.Middleton’sFive Gallants,ii.3:—“Push! i’faith, sir, you’re to blame; you havesnibbedthe poor fellow too much.”[470]Ed.2. “itself.”[471]“Hor.[within]Hillo, ho, ho, my lord!Ham.Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come.· · · · · · ·· · · ·art thou there, truepenny?”—Hamlet,i.5.[472]Ed.2. “thou.”[473]Ed.2. “dooth.”[474]“This fantastical cohibition against the freedom of Nature in this part, makes me reflect upon as inconvenient a restraint (deserving but a collateral insertion) imposed upon the reverse of this and the benefit we receive from the egestions of Port Esquiline. For the Guineans are very careful [ne pardant], and wondered much at the Netherlanders’ rusticity and impudence....The Irish are much of the same opinion in this point of unnatural restraint, whereas the Romans, by an edict of Claudius the Emperor, most consonant to the law of Nature, at all times and in all places, upon a just necessity, freely challenged the benefit of Nature.”—Bulwer’sArtificial Changeling,ed.1650,p.220.[475]Seneca,Epist.xliv.[476]Oldeds.“so.”
[453]Streams.—A deer was said totake soilwhen it took to the water to escape the hunters.
[454]“In 1579 was published a book, entitledPhysic against Fortune, as well prosperous as adverse, contained in two Books. Written in Latin by Francis Petrarch, a most famous poet and oratour, and now first Englished by Thomas Twyne.4to. B. L.”—Reed.
[455]This seems to be a fictitious book, but some of the old divines chose titles quite as quaint. One of Thomas Becon’s works is entitledThe Pomander of Prayer.
[456]Ed.1. “complaints.”
[457]What follows, down to the entrance of Malevole (l.156), was added ined.2.
[458]It was a common superstition that this shell-fish turned itself into a solan-goose. SeeNares’ Glossary.
[459]A horrid instrument of torture by which the legs were crushed. In Millœus’Praxis Criminis Persequendi, Paris, 1541,fol., there is a blood-curdling representation of a victim undergoing this torture. The instrument was never used in England; but was frequently applied in France and Scotland to extort confession from criminals.
[460]Olded.“herlakeene.”
[461]Concerning Welshmen’s pride in their gentility, see Middleton,iii.23 (note).
[462]Fine crape.
[463]Olded.“fowl.”—The wordfowlseems to have been pronouncedfool(Middleton,vi.249). Perhaps the reading “fowl” (after the mention of “woodcock”) should be retained, as some sort of joke may have been intended.
[464]Hymen was usually represented in masques with a saffron robe.
[465]Oldeds.“cloake” and “cloke.”
[466]“So in Shakespeare’sLucrece:
‘OOpportunity, thy guilt is great!· · · · · · ·Thou foul abettor! thou notoriousbawd!’”—Dyce.
So Heywood:—
“WinOpportunity,She’s thebest bawd.”—Fair Maid of the West,i.1.
[467]Ed.2. “O Ithacan.”
[468]Some copies ofed.1. “faind.”
[469]Snubs, rebukes.Cf.Middleton’sFive Gallants,ii.3:—“Push! i’faith, sir, you’re to blame; you havesnibbedthe poor fellow too much.”
[470]Ed.2. “itself.”
[471]
“Hor.[within]Hillo, ho, ho, my lord!Ham.Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come.· · · · · · ·· · · ·art thou there, truepenny?”—Hamlet,i.5.
[472]Ed.2. “thou.”
[473]Ed.2. “dooth.”
[474]“This fantastical cohibition against the freedom of Nature in this part, makes me reflect upon as inconvenient a restraint (deserving but a collateral insertion) imposed upon the reverse of this and the benefit we receive from the egestions of Port Esquiline. For the Guineans are very careful [ne pardant], and wondered much at the Netherlanders’ rusticity and impudence....The Irish are much of the same opinion in this point of unnatural restraint, whereas the Romans, by an edict of Claudius the Emperor, most consonant to the law of Nature, at all times and in all places, upon a just necessity, freely challenged the benefit of Nature.”—Bulwer’sArtificial Changeling,ed.1650,p.220.
[475]Seneca,Epist.xliv.
[476]Oldeds.“so.”
SCENEII.
A forest near the sea.
EnterPietro, Ferrardo, Prepasso,andThree Pages.
Fer.The dogs are at a fault.
[Cornets like horns within.
Pietro.Would God nothing but the dogs were at it!Let the deer pursue safety,[477]the dogs follow the game, and do you follow the dogs: as for me, ’tis unfit one beast should hunt another; I ha’ one chaseth me: an’t[478]please you, I would be rid of ye a little.
Fer.Would your grief would, as[479]soon as we, leave you to quietness!
Pietro.I thank you.
[ExeuntFerrardoandPrepasso.
Boy, what dost thou dream of now?10
First Page.Of a dry summer, my lord; for here’s a hot world towards: but, my lord, I had a strange dream last night.
Pietro.What strange dream?
First Page.Why, methought I pleased you with singing, and then I dreamt that you gave me that short sword.
Pietro.Prettily begged: hold thee, I’ll prove thy dream true; take’t.
[Giving sword.
First Page.My duty: but still I dreamt on, my lord; and methought, an’t[478]shall please your excellency, you would needs out of your royal bounty give me that jewel in your hat.23
Pietro.O, thou didst but dream, boy; do not believe it: dreams prove not always true; they may hold in a short sword, but not in a jewel. But now, sir, you dreamt you had pleased me with singing; make that true, as I ha’ made the other.
First Page.Faith, my lord, I did but dream, and dreams, you say, prove not always true; they may hold in a good sword, but not in a good song: the truth is, I ha’ lost my voice.32
Pietro.Lost thy voice! how?
First Page.With dreaming, faith: but here’s a couple of sirenical rascals shall enchant ye: what shall they sing, my good lord?
Pietro.Sing of the nature of women; and then the song shall be surely full of variety, old crotchets, and most sweet closes: it shall be humorous, grave, fantastic, amorous, melancholy, sprightly, one in all, and all in one.41
First Page.All in one!
Pietro.By’r lady, too many. Sing: my speech grows culpable of unthrifty idleness: sing. Ah, so, so, sing.
Song bySecondandThird Pages.
I am heavy: walk off; I shall talk in my sleep: walk off.
[ExeuntPages.
EnterMalevole,with cross-bow and pistol.
Mal.Brief, brief: who? the duke! good heaven, that foolsShould stumble upon greatness!—Do not sleep, duke;Give ye good-morrow: I[480]must be brief, duke;I am fee’d to murder thee: start not: Mendoza,50Mendoza hir’d me; here’s his gold, his pistol,Cross-bow, and[481]sword: ’tis all as firm as earth.O fool, fool, chokèd with the common mazeOf easy idiots, credulity!Make him thine heir! what, thy sworn murderer!
Pietro.O, can it be?
Mal.Can!
Pietro.Discover’d he not Ferneze?
Mal.Yes, but why? but why? for love to thee?Much, much![482]to be reveng’d upon his rival,Who had thrust his jaws awry;Who being slain, suppos’d by thine own hands,60Defended by his sword, made thee most loathsome,Him most gracious with thy loose princess:Thou, closely yielding egress and regress to her,Madest him heir; whose hot unquiet lustStraight tous’d thy sheets, and now would seize thy state.Politician! wise man! death! to beLed to the stake like a bull by the horns;To make even kindness cut a gentle throat!Life, why art thou numb’d? thou foggy dulness, speak:Lives not more faith in a home-thrusting tongue70Than in these fencing tip-tap courtiers?
EnterCelso,with a hermit’s gown and beard.
Pietro.[483]Lord Malevole, if this be true——
Mal.If! come, shade thee with this disguise. If!thou shalt handle it; he shall thank thee for killing thyself. Come, follow my directions, and thou shalt see strange sleights.
Pietro.World, whither wilt thou?
Mal.Why, to the devil. Come, the morn grows late: A steady quickness is the soul of state.
[Exeunt.