Cast. Enjoy Your own prosperity; I am resolv'd Never, by any charge with me, to force I'll not be your undoing. Rom. Sure some dotage Of living stately, richly, lends a cunning To eloquence. How is this piece of goodness Changed to ambition! oh, you are most miserable In your desires! the female curse has caught you. Cast. Fy! fy! how ill this suits. Rom. A devil of pride Ranges in airy thoughts to catch a star, Cast. Worse and worse, I vow. Rom. But that some remnant of an honest sense Ebbs a full tide of blood to shame, all women Would prostitute all honour to the luxury Of ease and titles. Cast. Romanello, know You have forgot the nobleness of truth, Rom. A dog, a parrot, A monkey, a caroch, a garded lackey, I am not, sir, your charge. Rom. My grief you are; For all my services are lost and ruin'd. Cast. So is my chief opinion of your worthiness, When such distractions tempt you; you would prove A cruel lord, who dare, being yet a servant, As you profess, to bait my best respects I have not oft observed. Possess your freedom, ACT II. SCENE I. An Apartment in JULIO's House. Enter FLAVIA, supported by CAMILLO, and VESPUCCI. Flav. Not yet returned? Cam. Madam! Flav. The lord our husband, We mean. Unkind! four hours are almost past Ves. With your gracious favour, Peers, great in rank and place, ought of necessity To attend on state employments. Cam. For such duties Are all their toil and labour; but their pleasures Flav. Trimly spoken. When we were common, mortal, and a subject, The madam-courtiers would vouchsafe to visit us, 1 On the huge play-day, when the pageant flutter'd About the city.] The huge play-day (for Ford's Sienna is only another name for London) was probably the lord-mayor's day, when the company to which he belonged exhibited, in honour of his installation, those rude but splendid pageantries and processions which, however they may now excite a smile, were then viewed with equal wonder and delight, and not altogether, perhaps, without profit, which is more than can be said of the tattered remnants of them that are annually dragged abroad to shame us. They were not, however, confined to one festival; but "fluttered about the city" on every joyous occasion. There is truth as well as humour in Flavia's pleasant description of the condescension of the "madam-courtiers” on these huge play-days. The satire is not yet quite obsolete.-GIFFORD. Nay, give us leave to sit at the upper end Of our own tables, telling us how welcome They'd make us when we came to court: full little Dream'd I, at that time, of the wind that blew me Up to the weathercock of the honours now Are thrust upon me; but we 'll bear the burthen, Were 't twice as much as 't is. The next great feast, We'll grace the city-wives, poor souls! and see How they'll behave themselves before our presence; You too shall wait on us. Ves. With best observance, And glory in our service. Cam. We are creatures Made proud in your commands. Flav. Believe 't you are so; And you shall find us readier in your pleasures, Enter FABRICIO. Fab. Noblest lady Ves. Rudeness! Keep off, or I shall-saucy groom, learn manners The fellow I have seen, and now remember His name, Fabricio. Fab. Your poor creature, lady; Out of your gentleness, please you to consider All hope of my last fortunes.1 Flav. Give it from him. Cam. Here, madam.--[Takes the paper from FAB. and delivers it to FLAV. who walks aside with it.] -Mark, Vespucci, how the wittol Stares on his sometime wife! 1 All hope of my last fortunes.] Meaning probably (for the language Is constrained) "my final hope, my last resource." The object of this request appears to be more money to enable him to expatriate himself, -GIFFORD. Ves. "She had seen the fellow!" didst opserve? Cam. Most punctually: Could call him by his name too! why 't is possible, She has not yet forgot he was her husband. Ves. That were most strange: oh, 't is a precious trinket! Was ever puppet so slipp'd up? Cam. The tale Of Venus' cat, man, changed into a woman, Ves. He stands Just like Acteon in the painted cloth.' Flav. Friend, we have read, and weigh'd the sum Of what your scrivener (which, in effect, Is meant your counsel learned) has drawn for ye: Or wants drive you to ask, it might be construed Fab. Great lady, Of my misfortunes I'm ashamed. Cam. So, so! This jeer twangs roundly, does it not, Vespucci ? Ves. Why, here's a lady worshipful! Flav. Pray, gentlemen, [Aside to VES. Retire a while; this fellow shall resolve Some doubts that stick about me. 1 He stands Just like Acteon in the painted cloth,] i, e. in the act of gazing at Diana, in a posture of mingled awe and surprise. There is some humour in the expression.-GIFFORD. Both. As you please. [Exeunt VES. and CAM. Flav. To thee, Fabricio,-oh, the change is cruel Since I find some small leisure, I must justify Were kept by me unbroken; no assaults Of gifts, of courtship, from the great and wanton, Of rumour is reward enough, to brand My lewder actions; 't was, I thought, impossible, A beauty fresh as was your youth, could brook The last of my decays. Flav. Did I complain? My sleeps between thine arms were e'en as sound, To pander their own wives; those wives, whose innocence, Stranger to language, spoke obedience only; Fab. My loss is irrecoverable. Flav. Call not Thy wickedness thy loss; without my knowledge Thou sold'st me, and in open court protestedst A precontract unto another, falsely, To justify a separation. Wherein Could I offend, to be believed |