Enter MIRABEL, PINAC, and BELLEUR. Pin. What a state she keeps! How far off they sit from her! How rich she is! Ay, marry, this shows bravely! Bel. She is a lusty wench, and may allure a good man; But, if she have a tongue, I'll not give twopence for her. There sits my Fury; how I shake to see her! How sweet she kisses! [MIRABEL salutes ORIANA.] She has a spring dwells on her lips, a para dise! This is the legacy? We'll along with ye: We see you are grown so witty by your journey, In hope they cannot find me. Ros. If you go further. So good and free society we hold ye, We 'll jog along too. Pin. Are you so valiant, lady? Lil. And we 'll be merry, sir, and laugh. Pin. It may be We'll go by sea. Lil. Why, 't is the only voyage! I love a sea-voyage, and a blust'ring tempest; And let all split! Pin. This is a dainty damesel!— I think 't will tame ye. Can ye ride post? Lil. Oh, excellently! I am never weary that Enter LA CAStre, Nantolet, LUGIER, and DE GARD. La Cast., Nant., &c. And we'll make up the rest, lady. Ori. Then Ŏriana takes ye! Nay, she has caught ye; If ye start now, let all the world cry shame on ye! I have out-travell'd ye. Bel. Did not I say she would cheat thee? 80 Mir. I thank ye: I am pleas'd ye have deceiv'd me, And willingly I swallow it, and joy in 't ; this? I go for Turkey; 50 Mir. Like enough. 'Tis dainty! Bel. I will live in a bawdy-house. pense, 56 Even with the service of my life, those pains, And those high favours you have thrown upon What a world's this! 85 Nothing but craft and cozenage! Ori. Mir. Well; I do take thee upon mere com passion; Who begun, sir? And I do think I shall love thee. As a testimony, Lil. How long? Pin. Lil. if she can love me Nay, if once ye love And take your chance. Then take me, Pin. Most willingly: ye are mine, lady; And, if I use ye not that ye may love me -90 Lil. A match, i' faith. Pin. Why, now ye travel with me. Ros. How that thing stands ! Bel. Bless your five wits! It will, if ye urge it: Ros. Nay, prithee. stay; I'll have thee. Wilt thou use me kindly, V [CASTRUCCIO, an old Lord.] MARQUIS OF PESCARA [COUNT] MALATESTI. RODERIGO, SILVIO, GRISOLAN, DOCTOR. [Lords.] The Several Madmen. DUCHESS [OF MALFI]. CARIOLA [her woman]. [JULIA, Castruccio's wife, and] the Cardinal's mistress [Old Lady.] Ladies, Three Young Children, Two Pilgrims, Executioners, Court Officers, and Attendants. [SCENE.- Amalfi, Rome, Loretto, Milan. TIME. - Early Sixteenth Century.] Bos. I have done you better service than to be slighted thus. Miserable age, where only the reward of doing well is the doing of it! Card. You enforce your merit too much. Bos. I fell into the galleys in your serv- [ ice; where, for two years together, I wore two towels instead of a shirt, with a knot on the shoulder, after the fashion of a Roman mantle. Slighted thus! I will thrive some way. Blackbirds fatten best in hard weather; why not I in these dog-days? Card. Would you could become honest! Bos. With all your divinity do but direct me the way to it. I have known many travel far for it, and yet return as arrant knaves as ( they went forth, because they carried themselves always along with them. [Erit CARDINAL} Are you gone? Some fellows, they say, are possessed with the devil, but this great fellow were able to possess the greatest devil, and make him worse. Ant. He hath denied thee some suit? Bos. He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over standing-pools; they are rich and o'erladen with fruit, but none but crows, pies, and caterpillars feed on them. [ Could I be one of their flatt'ring panders I would hang on their ears like a horseleech, til I were full, and then drop off. I pray, leave me. Who would rely upon these miserable depend encies. in expectation to be advanc'd to morrow? What creature ever fed worse than hoping Tantalus? Nor ever died any man more fearfully than he that hop'd for a pardon. There are rewards for hawks and dogs when [65 they have done us service; but for a soldier that hazards his limbs in a battle, nothing but a kind of geometry is his last supportation. Delio. Geometry? Bos. Ay, to hang in a fair pair of slings, take his latter swing in the world upon an hon- [ ourable pair of crutches, from hospital to hospital. Fare ye well, sir: and yet do not you scorn us; for places in the court are but like beds in the hospital, where this man's head lies at that man's foot, and so lower and lower. [Exit.] 76 Del. I knew this fellow seven years in the galleys For a notorious murder; and 't was thought Ant. 80 85 Breeds all black malcontents; and their close rearing, Like moths in cloth, do hurt for want of wearing. SCENE II. 1 Sil. True, my lord, he reels from the tilt often. Rod. Gris. Ha, ha, ha! Ferd. Why do you laugh? Methinks you that are courtiers should be my touch-wood, [51 take fire when I give fire; that is, laugh when I laugh, were the subject never so witty. Cast. True, my lord: I myself have heard a very good jest, and have scorn'd to seem to have so silly a wit as to understand it. Ferd. But I can laugh at your fool, my lord. Cast. He cannot speak, you know, but he makes faces; my lady cannot abide him. Ferd. No? 60 Cast. Nor endure to be in merry company; for she says too full laughing, and too much company, fills her too much of the wrinkle. Ferd. I would, then, have a mathematical instrument made for her face, that she might not laugh out of compass. I shall shortly visit [es you at Milan, Lord Silvio. Sil. Your grace shall arrive most welcome. Ferd. You are a good horseman, Antonio: you have excellent riders in France; what do you think of good horsemanship? 71 Ant. Nobly, my lord: as out of the Grecian horse issued many famous princes, so out of brave horsemanship arise the first sparks of growing resolution, that raise the mind to noble action. 76 Ferd. You have bespoke it worthily. Sil. Your brother, the lord cardinal, and sister duchess. [Enter CARDINAL, with DUCHESS, and CARIOLA.] Ant. Some such flashes superficially hang on him for form; but observe his inward character: he is a melancholy churchman. The spring in his face is nothing but the engend'ring of toads; where he is jealous of any man, he lays worse plots for them than ever was im- [91 pos'd on Hercules, for he strews in his way Hatterers, panders, intelligencers, atheists, and a thousand such political monsters. He should have been Pope; but instead of coming to it by the primitive decency of the church, he did [6 bestow bribes so largely and so impudently as if he would have carried it away without heaven's knowledge. Some good he hath done Delio. You have given too much of him. What's his brother? 100 Ant. The duke there? A most perverse and turbulent nature. What appears in him mirth is merely outside; Delio. Ant. Twins? In quality. He speaks with others' tongues, and hears men's suits 105 As cuts off all lascivious and vain hope. Are more in heaven than other ladies' shrifts. Let all sweet ladies break their flatt'ring glasses, And dress themselves in her. Fie, Antonio. Ferd. Call him hither. [Erit Attendants.] We [are] now upon parting. Good Lord Silvio, Do us commend to all our noble friends At the leaguer. Sil. Sil. I am. Sir, I shall. You are for Milan? Duch. Bring the caroches. We'll bring you down To the haven, [Exeunt DгCHESS, SILVIO, Cas TRUCCIO, RODERIGO, GRISOLANĮ CARIOLA, JULIA, and Attendants. Card. Be sure you entertain that Bosola For your intelligence. I would not be seen in 't; And therefore many times I have slighted him When he did court our furtherance, as this morning. Ferd. Antonio, the great master of her household, Had been far fitter. Card. You are deceiv'd in him. His nature is too honest for such business. He comes: I'll leave you. Bos. [Erit.] [Re-enter BOSOLA.] I was lur'd to you. Ferd. My brother, here, the cardinal could never Abide you. Bos. Never since he was in my debt. Ferd. May be some oblique character in your face |