CARD. You fly beyond your reason,

FERD. Go to, mistress!

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

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! have been a stranger long at court:

O, you

Came you along with the lord Ferdinand?

DELIO. I did, sir: and how fares your noble dutchess?

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

The left hand way; and all suppose the dutchess
Would amend it, if she could: for, say they,
Great princes, though they grudge their officers
Should have such large and unconfined means
To get wealth under them, will not complain,
Lest thereby they should make them odious
Unto the people; for other obligation

Of love or marriage, between her and me,
They never dream of.

DELIO. The lord Ferdinand

Is going to bed.

Enter DUTCHESS, FERDINAND, BOSOLA, and

Attendants.

FERD. I'll instantly to bed,

For I am weary. I am to bespeak

A husband for you.

DUTCH. For me, sir! pray who is't?

FERD. The great count Malateste.

DUTCH. Fie upon him:

A count! he's a mere stick of sugar-candy ;*

You may look quite thorough him. When I chuse

A husband, I will marry for your honour.

FERD. You shall do well in't.

Antonio ?

How is't, worthy

DUTCH. But, sir, I am to have private conference

with you

About a scandalous report is spread

Touching mine honour.

* he's a mere stick of sugar candy, &c.] Repeated almost verbatim in The Devil's Law Case, Act II. Sc. I.

FERD. Let me be ever deaf to't:

One of Pasquil's paper-bullets, court-calumny,
A pestilent air, which princes' palaces

Are seldom purg'd of. Yet, say that it were true
I pour it in your bosom, my fix'd love
Would strongly excuse, extenuate, nay deny
Faults, were they apparent in you. Go, be safe
In your own innocency.

DUTCH. O bless'd comfort!

This deadly air is purg'd.

[Exeunt Dutchess, Antonio, Delio, and

Attendants.

FERD. Her guilt treads on

Hot burning culters. Now, Bosola

How thrives our intelligence?

Bos. Sir, uncertainly:

'Tis rumour'd she hath had three bastards, but

By whom, we may go read i'th' stars.

FERD. Why some

Hold opinion, all things are written there.

Bos. Yes, if we could find spectacles to read them.

I do suspect, there hath been some sorcery

Us'd on the dutchess.

FERD. Sorcery! to what purpose?

Bos. To make her dote on some desertless fellow, She shames to acknowledge.

FERD. Can your faith give way

To think there's power in potions, or in charms,
To make us love whether we will or no?

Bos. Most certainly.