Let me hear once more, what I would not hear, Bra. Never. Isa. O my unkind lord! may your sins find mercy, Shall pray for you, if not to turn your eyes Bra. No more; go, go, complain to the great duke. I have some cause to do it, you have none; Of both your dukedoms, that you wrought the means Remain with my supposed jealousy, And think with what a piteous and rent heart I shall perform this sad ensuing part." The arraignment of Vittoria Corombona. Enter Francisco de Medicis, Cardinal Monticelso, Brachiano, Vittoria Corombona, Ambassadors, &c. "Mon. I shall be plainer with you, and paint out Your follies in more natural red and white, Mon. I must spare you, till proof cry whore to that. Vit. My honourable lord, It doth not suit a reverend cardinal Mon. Oh your trade instructs your language! To grow where Sodom and Gomorrah stood, Vit. Your invenom'd apothecary should do't. Were there a second paradise to lose, This devil would betray it. Vit. O poor charity! Thou art seldom found in scarlet. Mon. Who knows not how, when several night by night Her gates were choakt with coaches, and her rooms Outbrav'd the stars with several kinds of lights; When she did counterfeit a prince's court In musick, banquets, and most riotous surfeits, Vit. Ha? whore? what's that? Mon. Shall I expound whore to you? sure I shall! Worse than those tributes i'th' Low-countries paid, And empty'd by cursed riot. They are worse, Worse than dead bodies, which are begg'd at th' gallows, Wherein he is imperfect. What's a whore? She's like the gilt counterfeited coin, Which, whosoe'er first stamps it, brings in trouble Vit. This character 'scapes me. Mon. You, gentlewoman? Take from all beasts and from all minerals Their deadly poison Vit. Well, what then? Mon. I'll tell thee; I'll find in thee an apothecary's shop, To sample them all. Fr. Amb. She hath lived ill. En. Amb. True, but the cardinal's too bitter. Mon. You know what whore is. Next the devil adult'ry, Enters the devil murder. Fru. Your unhappy husband Is dead. Vit. O he's a happy husband; Fra. And by a vaulting engine. He jumpt into his grave. Fra. What a prodigy was't, That from some two yards high, a slender man Mon. I'th' rushes! Fra. And what's more, Upon the instant lose all use of speech, Wound up three days. Now mark each circumstance. She comes not like a widow: she comes arm'd I would have bespoke my mourning. Mon. O you are cunning! Vit. You shame your wit and judgement, To call it so; what, is my just defence, By him that is my judge, call'd impudence? Let me appeal then from this Christian court Mon. See, my lords, She scandals our proceedings. Vit. Humbly thus, Thus low, to the most worthy and respected Leiger ambassadors, my modesty And womanhood I tender; but withall, Must personate masculine virtue. To the point; life En. Amb. She hath a brave spirit. Vit. You are deceived; For know, that all your strict combined heads, Shall prove but glassen hammers, they shall break; Mon. Pray you mistress, satisfy me one question: Bra. That question Inforceth me break silence; I was there. Bra. Why, I came to comfort her, And take some course for settling her estate, Mont. He was. Bra. And 'twas strangely fear'd, That you would cozen her. Mont. Who made you overseer? Bra. Why, my charity, my charity, which should flow From every generous and noble spirit, To orphans and to widows. Mont. Your lust. Bra. Cowardly dogs bark loudest! sirrah, priest, I'll talk with you hereafter.Do you hear? The sword you frame of such an excellent temper, I'll sheath in your own bowels. There are a number of thy coat resemble Your common post-boys. Mont. Ha? Bra. Your mercenary post-boys; Your letters carry truth, but 'tis your guise Bra. Thou liest, 'twas my stool. Bestow't upon thy master, that will challenge [exit Brachiano. Vit. The wolf may prey the better. Fra. My lord, there's great suspicion of the murder; To act a deed so bloody: if she have, And e'er next spring wither both branch and root. Vit. I discern poison Under your gilded pills. Mon. Now the duke's gone I will produce a letter, Down by the river Tyber. View't, my lords: Vit. Grant I was tempted; Temptation to lust proves not the act: You read his hot love to me, but you want My frosty answer. Mon. Frost i'th' dog-days! strange! Vit. Condemn you me for that the, duke did love me? So may you blame some fair and chrystal river For that some melancholic distracted man Hath drown'd himself in't. Mon. Truly drown'd, indeed. Vit. Sum up my faults, I pray, and you shall find, That beauty and gay clothes, a merry heart, And a good stomach to feast, are all, All the poor crimes that you can charge me with. In faith, my lord, you might go pistol flies, The sport would be more noble. Mon. Very good. Vit. But take you your course, it seems you have beggar'd me first, And now would fain undo me. I have houses, Jewels, and a poor remnant of crusados; Would those would make you charitable. Mon. If the devil Did ever take good shape, behold his picture. |