All what I ever durst or think or know;
And yet is here the comfort I shall have?
Must I not do what all men else may,—love?
Friar. Yes, you may love, fair son.

Must I not praise

Gio.
That beauty which, if framed anew, the gods
Would make a god of, if they had it there,
And kneel to it, as I do kneel to them ?
Friar. Why, foolish madman,—

Gio.

Shall a peevish1 sound,

A customary form, from man to man,

Of brother and of sister, be a bar

'Twixt my perpetual happiness and me?

Say that we had one father; say one womb—
Curse to my joys!-gave both us life and birth;
Are we not therefore each to other bound

So much the more by nature? by the links

Of blood, of reason? nay, if you will have't,

Even of religion, to be ever one,

One soul, one flesh, one love, one heart, one all ?

Friar. Have done, unhappy youth! for thou art lost.

Gio. Shall, then, for that I am her brother born,

My joys be ever banished from her bed?

No, father; in your eyes I see the change

Of pity and compassion; from your age,
As from a sacred oracle, distils

The life of counsel: tell me, holy man,

What cure shall give me ease in these extremes?
Friar. Repentance, son, and sorrow for this sin:
For thou hast moved a Majesty above

With thy unranged almost blasphemy.

Gio. O, do not speak of that, dear confessor!
Friar. Art thou, my son, that miracle of wit

Who once, within these three months, wert esteemed
A wonder of thine age throughout Bononia?

1 1 Trifling.

How did the University applaud

Thy government, behaviour, learning, speech,
Sweetness, and all that could make up a man !
I was proud of my tutelage, and chose

Rather to leave my books than part with thee;
I did so :-but the fruits of all my hopes
Are lost in thee, as thou art in thyself.

O, Giovanni! hast thou left the schools

Of knowledge to converse with lust and death?

For death waits on thy lust. Look through the world, And thou shalt see a thousand faces shine

More glorious than this idol thou ador'st:

Leave her, and take thy choice, 'tis much less sin;
Though in such games as those they lose that win.
Gio. It were more ease to stop the ocean
From floats and ebbs than to dissuade my vows.

Friar. Then I have done, and in thy wilful flames
Already see thy ruin; Heaven is just.

Yet hear my counsel.

Gio.

As a voice of life.

Friar. Hie to thy father's house; there lock thee

fast

Alone within thy chamber; then fall down
On both thy knees, and grovel on the ground;
Cry to thy heart; wash every word thou utter'st
In tears and if't be possible-of blood:
Beg Heaven to cleanse the leprosy of lust
That rots thy soul; acknowledge what thou art,
A wretch, a worm, a nothing; weep, sigh, pray
Three times a-day and three times every night:
For seven days' space do this; then, if thou find'st
No change in thy desires, return to me:

I'll think on remedy. Pray for thyself

Our old dramatists appear to have learned Italian entirely from books; few, if any, of them pronounced it co: rectly. Giovanni is here used by Ford as a quadrisyllable, as it was by Massinger and others of his contempo: aries.-Gifford.

At home, whilst I pray for thee here.-Away!
My blessing with thee! we have need to pray.
Gio. All this I'll do, to free me from the rod
Of vengeance; else I'll swear my fate's my god.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The Street before FLORIO's House.

Enter GRIMALDI and VASQUES, with their swords drawn. Vas. Come, sir, stand to your tackling; if you prove craven, I'll make you run quickly.

Grim. Thou art no equal match for me.

Vas. Indeed, I never went to the wars to bring home news; nor cannot play the mountebank for a meal's meat, and swear I got my wounds in the field. See you these gray hairs? they'll not flinch for a bloody nose. Wilt thou to this gear?

1

Grim. Why, slave, thinkest thou I'll balance my reputation with a cast-suit? Call thy master; he shall know that I dare

Vas. Scold like a cot-quean; 2-that's your profession. Thou poor shadow of a soldier, I will make thee know my master keeps servants thy betters in quality and performance. Comest thou to fight or prate?

Grim. Neither, with thee. I am a Roman and a gentleman; one that have got mine honour with expense of blood.

Vas. You are a lying coward and a fool. Fight, or by these hilts, I'll kill thee:-brave my lord !-you'll fight?

Grim. Provoke me not, for if thou dost—
Vas.

1 i.e. Cast-off.

Have at you!

[They fight; GRIMALDI is worsted.

2 A contemptuous term for one who concerns himself with female affairs.

Enter FLORIO, DONADO, and SORANZO, from opposite

sides

Flo. What mean these sudden broils so

doors?

Have you not other places but my house
To vent the spleen of your disordered bloods?
Must I be haunted still with such unrest

near my

As not to eat or sleep in peace at home?
Is this your love, Grimaldi? Fie! 'tis naught.
Don. And, Vasques, I may tell thee, 'tis not well
To broach these quarrels; you are ever forward
In seconding contentions.

Flo.

Enter ANNABELLA and PUTANA above.

What's the ground?

Sor. That, with your patience, signiors, I'll resolve:

This gentleman, whom fame reports a soldier,-
For else I know not,-rivals me in love

To Signior Florio's daughter; to whose ears
He still prefers his suit, to my disgrace;
Thinking the way to recommend himself
Is to disparage me in his report :--

But know, Grimaldi, though, may be, thou art
My equal in thy blood, yet this bewrays

A lowness in thy mind, which, wert thou noble,
Thou wouldst as much disdain as I do thee
For this unworthiness :- and on this ground
I willed my servant to correct his tongue,
Holding a man so base no match for me.

Vas. And had not your sudden coming prevented us, I had let my gentleman blood under the gills :---I should have wormed you, sir, for running mad.1

Grim. I'll be revenged, Soranzo.

1 The allusion is to the practice of cutting what is called the worm from under a dog's tongue, as a preventive of madness.Gifford.

Vas. On a dish of warm broth to stay your stomac do, honest innocence, do! spoon-meat is a wholeso diet than a Spanish blade.

Grim. Remember this!

Sor.

I fear thee not, Grimaldi.

[Exit GRIMALDI.

Flo. My Lord Soranzo, this is strange to me, Why you should storm, having my word engaged; Owing1 her heart, what need you doubt her ear? Losers may talk by law of any game.

Vas. Yet the villany of words, Signior Florio, may be such as would make any unspleened dove choleric. Blame not my lord in this.

Flo. Be you more silent :

I would not for my wealth, my daughter's love
Should cause the spilling of one drop of blood.
Vasques, put up, let's end this fray in wine.

[Exeunt.

Put. How like you this, child? here's threatening, challenging, quarrelling, and fighting on every side; and all is for your sake: you had need look to yourself, charge; you'll be stolen away sleeping else shortly.

Ann. But, tutoress, such a life gives no content To me; my thoughts are fixed on other ends.

Would you would leave me!

Put. Leave you! no marvel else; leave me no leaving,

charge; this is love outright.

Indeed, I blame you not;

you have choice fit for the best lady in Italy.

Ann. Pray do not talk so much.

Put. Take the worst with the best, there's Grimaldi the soldier, a very well-timbered fellow. They say he is

a Roman, nephew to the Duke Montferrato; they say he did good service in the wars against the Milanese; but, 'faith, charge, I do not like him, an't be for nothing but for being a soldier: not one amongst twenty of your skirmishing captains but have some privy maim or other that mars their standing upright. I like him the worse, he

1 i.e. Owning.

mer