CARD. Speak lower.

FERD. Lower!

Rogues do not whisper't now, but seek to publish't (As servants do the bounty of their lords,) Aloud; and with a covetous searching eye,

To mark who note them. O, confusion seize her! She hath had most cunning bawds to serve her turn, And more secure conveyances for lust,

Than towns of garrison for service.

CARD. Is't possible?

Can this be certain ?

FERD. Rhubarb, O, for rhubarb,

To purge this choler! here's the cursed day
To prompt my memory; and here't shall stick
Till of her bleeding heart I make a spunge
To wipe it out.

CARD. Why do you make yourself
So wild a tempest?

FERD. Would I could be one,

That I might toss her palace 'bout her ears,
Root up her goodly forests, blast her meads,
And lay her general territory as waste,
As she hath done her honours.

CARD. Shall our blood,

The royal blood of Arragon, and Castile,
Be thus attainted?

FERD. Apply desperate physick:

We must not now use balsamum, but fire,
The smarting cupping-glass, for that's the mean
To purge infected blood, such blood as hers.

There is a kind of pity in mine eye,

I'll give it to my handkercher; and now 'tis here,
I'll bequeath this to her bastard.

CARD. What to do?

FERD. Why, to make soft lint for his mother's

wounds,

When I have hewed her to pieces.

CARD. Curs'd creature!

Unequal nature, to place women's hearts

So far upon the left side!

FERD. Foolish men,

That e'er will trust their honour in a bark
Made of so slight weak bulrush as is* woman,
Apt every minute to sink it!

CARD. Thus

Ignorance, when it hath purchas'd honour,
It cannot wield it.

FERD. Methinks I see her laughing,
Excellent hyena! Talk to me somewhat, quickly,
Or my imagination will carry me

To see her in the shameful act of sin.

CARD. With whom?

FERD. Happily with some strong-thigh'd barge

man,

Or one o'th' wood-yard, that can quoit the sledge,
Or toss the bar, or else some lovely squire
That carries coals up to her privy + lodgings.

*is] The 4to, of 1640, "this."

† privy] The 4to. of 1640, "private."

CARD. You fly beyond your reason.

FERD. Go to, mistress!

'Tis not your whore's milk that shall* quench my wild-fire,

But your whore's blood.

CARD. How idly shews this rage, which carries you, As men convey'd by witches through the air, On violent whirlwinds! this intemperate noise Fitly resembles deaf men's shrill discourse, Who talk aloud, thinking all other men To have their imperfection.

FERD. Have not you

My palsy?

CARD. Yes, I can be angry

Without this rupture: there is not in nature
A thing that makes man so deform'd, so beastly,
As doth intemperate anger. Chide yourself.
You have divers men, who never yet express'd
Their strong desire of rest, but by unrest,
By vexing of themselves. Come, put yourself

In tune.

FERD. So, I will only study to seem The thing I am not. I could kill her now, In you, or in myself; for I do think

It is some sin in us, heaven doth revenge

By her.

CARD. Are you stark mad?

FERD. I would have their bodies

Burnt in a coal-pit with the ventage stopp'd, *shall] The 4to. of 1640, "can."

That their curs'd smoke might not ascend to heaven;
Or dip the sheets they lie in in pitch or sulphur,
Wrap them in't, and then light them like a match;
Or else to boil their bastard to a cullis*

And give❜t his lecherous father, to renew
The sin of his back.

CARD. I'll leave

you.

FERD. Nay, I have done.

I am confident, had I been damn'd in hell,
And should have heard of this, it would have put me
Into a cold sweat. In, in, I'll go sleep.

Till I know who leaps my sister, I'll not stir:
That known, I'll find scorpions to string+ my whips,
And fix her in a general eclipse.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.-SCENE I.

Enter ANTONIO, and DELIO.

ANT. Our noble friend, my most beloved Delio!

O, you

have been a stranger long at court:

Came you along with the lord Ferdinand ?

DELIO. I did, sir: and how fares your

dutchess?

noble

ANT. Right fortunately well: she's an excellent Feeder of pedigrees; since you last saw her, She hath had two children more, a son and daughter.

* cullis] See note † p. 220.

string] The 4to of 1640, "sting."

"Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue

Thy lingering."-Milton's Par. Lost, ii. 701.

VOL. I.

DELIO. Methinks 'twas yesterday; let me but wink, And not behold your face, which to mine eye Is somewhat leaner, verily I should dream It were within this half hour.

ANT. You have not been in law, friend Delio, Nor in prison, nor a suitor at the court,

Nor begg'd the reversion of some great man's place, Nor troubled with an old wife, which doth make Your time so insensibly hasten.

DELIO. Pray, sir, tell me,

Hath not this news arriv'd yet to the ear

Of the lord Cardinal?

ANT. I fear it hath :

The lord Ferdinand, that's newly come to court,
Doth bear himself right dangerously.

DELIO. Pray, why?

ANT. He is so quiet, that he seems to sleep The tempest out, as dormice do in winter : Those houses that are haunted, are most still Till the devil be up.

DELIO. What say the common people? ANT. The common rabble do directly say She is a strumpet.

DELIO. And your graver heads,

Which would be politick, what censure they?

ANT. They do observe, I grow to infinite purchase,*

* purchase] This word is generally used by old dramatists as a cant term for stolen goods, but here it seems to mean riches, valuable property: our author in The Devil's Law Case has;

"Tailors in France, they grow to great abominable purchase, and become great officers." Act II. Sc. 1.