Leave, in thy prayers, fair, vow-breaking wanton, Spin. How unmanly! His anger threatens mischief! Adur. Lady, be not mov'd; I will stand champion for your honour, hazard [Exit. Champion for me, and Auria living! Auria! (Like some forsaken client), in my suit Be cast for want of honest plea-oh, misery! [Exit. Adur. Her resolution's violent ;-quickly follow. Cast. By no means, sir: you've followed her already, I fear, with too much ill success, in trial Of unbecoming courtesies, your welcome Adur. I will stand The roughness of the encounter, like a gentleman, And wait ye to your homes, whate'er befall me. [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. The Street before MARTINO's House. Enter FULGOso and GUZMAN. Ful. I say, don, brother mine, win her and wear her. And so will I; if't be my luck to lose her, I lose a pretty wench, and there's the worst on 't. Ful. So am I too, Can as occasion serves, if she turns scurvy, Unswear myself again, and ne'er change colours. Shall's try a slash? here's that shall do 't; I'll tap A gallon of thy brains, and fill thy hogshead Guz. Not in friendship, brother. [Draws. Ful. Or whistle thee into an ague: hang it, Be sociable; drink till we roar and scratch; Then drink ourselves asleep again :-the fashion! Thou dost not know the fashion. Guz. Her fair eyes, Like to a pair of pointed beams drawn from Of roses red and white, divided by Ful. Hey-day! what's he?-[seeing BENATZI.] Enter BENATZI, as an outlaw,' LEVIDOLCHE at a window above. Ben. Death of reputation, the wheel, strappado, galleys, rack, are ridiculous fopperies; goblins to fright babies. Poor lean-soul'd rogues! they will swoon at the scar of a pin. Ful. Bless us! a monster, patch'd of dagger-bombast, His eyes like copper-basins; he has chang'd Guz. Let us then avoid him, Or stand upon our guard; the foe approaches. Ben. Cutthroats by the score abroad, come home, and rot in fripperies. Honourable cuts are but badges for a fool to vaunt; the raw-ribb'd apothecary poisons cum privilegio, and is paid. Oh, the commonwealth of beasts is most politicly ordered! Guz. Brother we'll keep aloof, there is no valour In tugging with a man-fiend. Ful. I defy him. It gabbles like I know not what ;-believe it, Ben. Look else: the lion roars, and the spaniel fawns; down, cur; the badger bribes the unicorn, that a jury may not pass upon his pillage; here the bear fees the wolf, for he will not howl gratis ;beasts call pleading howling.-So then! there the 1 By this term nothing more seems meant than a disbanded soldier in rags, as in our author's age was too commonly the case, formidable from arms, and desperate from necessity.-GIFFORD. 2 The fellow's a shrewd fellow at a pink,] i. e. at fighting, at a duel.He judges from the rugged appearance of Benatzi, and his fierce strutting language:-GIFFORD, horse complains of the ape's rank riding; the jockey makes mouths, but is fined for it; the stag is not jeer'd by the monkey for his horns; the ass by the hare for his burthen; the ox by the leopard for his yoke; nor the goat by the ram for his beard: only the fox wraps himself warm in beaver, bids the cat mouse, the elephant toil, the boar gather acorns; while he grins, feeds fat, tells tales, laughs at all, and sleeps safe at the lion's feet. Save ye, people. Ful. Why, save thee too, if thou be'st of Heaven's making; What art?-fear nothing, don, we have our blades, Are metal men ourselves, try us who dare. Guz. Our brother speaks our mind, think what you please on 't. Ben. A match; observe well this switch; with this only switch have I pash'd out the brains of thirteen Turks to the dozen, for a breakfast. Ful. What, man, thirteen! is 't possible thou liest not? Ben. I was once a scholar, then I begg'd' without pity; from thence I practised law, there a scruple of conscience popp'd me over the bar: a soldier I turn'd a while, but could not procure the letter of preferment. Merchant I would be, and a glut of land-rats gnawed me to the bones; would have bought an office, but the places with reversions were catch'd up; offer'd to pass into the court, and wanted trust for clothes; was lastly, for my good parts, pressed into the galleys, took prisoner, redeemed among other slaves by your gay great man, they call him Auria; and am now I know not who, where, or what. How d'ye like me ?-say. 1 The "needy Latinist" and begging scholar is a character not unfrequently alluded to in our earlier dramas. In the "Return from Parnassus," the universities are described, in no very delicate terms, as discharging twice in the year no small number of destitute graduates upon the town. The dramatists, too often specimens in their own persons of this mortifying truth, took their revenge by contrasting the "poor scholar" and the "rich fool," and showing where the real advantage lay (more particularly in the eyes of the fairer sex), as in the pleasant comedy of "Wily Beguiled." Ful. A shaver of all trades! What course of life Dost mean to follow next? ha! speak thy mind. Guz. Nor be thou daunted, fellow; we ourselves Have felt the frowns of fortune in our days. Ben. I want extremely, exceedingly, hideously. Lev. [above.] Take that, enjoy it freely, wisely use it, [to] Th' advantage of thy fate, and know the giver. Umph, have we gipsies here? oh, mine is safe; Guz. Not mine; I seldom Wear such unfashionable trash about me. Guz. We defy them. Ben. Stand from about me as you are mortal! You are dull clod-pated lumps of mire and garbish. This is the land of fairies.-Imperial queen of elves, I do crouch to thee, vow my services, my blood, my sinews to thee, sweet sovereign of largess and liberality.-A French tailor-neat!-Persian cookdainty!-Greek wines-rich!-Flanders' maresstately!-Spanish sallads-poignant!-Sirs, I am fitted. Ful. Prate sense and do n't be mad; I like thy humour, "T is pretty, odd, and so-as one might say, I care not greatly if I entertain thee: Dost want a master? if thou dost, I am for thee; Else choose, and sneck up!' pish, I scorn to flinch, man. Ben. Excellent! what place shall I be admitted to? chamber, wardrobe, cellar, or stable? 1 In most passages of our old plays where the expression sneck-up or snick-up occurs, it seems equivalent to "go and be hanged," or "hang yourself." |