A little toysome;-'tis a pretty sign Of breeding, is't not, sirs? I could, indeed, la! Long for some strange good things now. Cam. Such news, madam, Would overjoy my lord, your husband. Ves. Cause Bonfires and bell-ringings. Flav. I must be with child, then, Or lose my longings, which were mighty pity. Enter FABRICIO. Fab. Noblest lady Ves. Rudeness! Keep off, or I shall-Sawcy groom, learn manners; Go swab amongst your goblins. Flav. Let him stay; The fellow I have seen, and now remember Fab. Your poor creature, lady; Out of your gentleness, please you to consider 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 5 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. Stares on his sometime wife! sure, he imagines Ves. Good reason: The gain reprieved him from a bankrupt's statute, Could call him by his name too! why 'tis possible, Ves. That were [most] strange: oh, 'tis a precious trinket! Was ever puppet so slipt up ? Cam. The tale Of Venus' cat, man, changed into a woman, Ves. He stands Just like Acteon in the painted cloth." Cam. No more. 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: 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 surprize. There is some humour in the expression.. 'You are a faulty man; and should we urge Our lord as often for supplies, as shame, 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 ? [Aside to VES. Ves. Why, here's a lady worshipful! Flav. Pray, gentlemen, Retire a while; this fellow shall resolve Some doubts that stick about me. Both. As you please. [Exeunt VES. and FLAV. 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; 'twas, 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 ev'n as sound, Stranger to language, spoke obedience only; Fab. My loss is irrecoverable. Flav. Call not Thy wickedness thy loss; without my knowledge To justify a separation. Wherein Could I offend, to be believed thy strumpet, In all opinions, that I am shook off, Ev'n from mine own blood, which, although I boast Fab. 'Tis confest, I am the shame of mankind. Flav. I live happy In this great lord's love, now; but could his cunning My unsought honours, and so far from triumph, Flav. [Gives him money.] Keep those ducats, I shall provide you better:-'twere a bravery, Could you forget the place wherein you've render'd Your name for ever hateful. Fab. I will do't, Do't, excellentest goodness, and conclude Flav. You may prosper 8 In Spain, in France, or elsewhere, as in Italy. not At my behaviour to you; I have forgot 7 this antick carriage.] This childish and ridiculous affectation of levity, which she assumed, partly to humour the count, but chiefly, as she afterwards says, to defeat the "lascivious villanies" of her attendants, Camillo and Vespucci. 8 My days in silent sadness.] The old copy has goodness, evidently repeated, by mistake, from the word immediately above it. Sadness is not given as the author's expression, but as conveying what might, perhaps, have been his meaning. |