Stares on his sometime wife! sure, he imagines Ves. Good reason: The gain reprieved him from a bankrupt's statute, And filed him in the charter of his freedom. "She had seen the fellow!" didst observe? Cam. Most punctually: Could call him by his name too! why 'tis possible, She has not yet forgot he was her husband. 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 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 Those holy vows, which we, by bonds of faith, 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 Not noble, yet 'twas not mean; for Romanello, Mine only brother, shuns me, and abhors To own me for his sister. Fab. 'Tis confest, I am the shame of mankind. Flav. I live happy In this great lord's love, now; but could his cunning Have train'd me to dishonour, we had never Been sunder'd by the temptation of his purchase. In troth, Fabricio, I am little proud of My unsought honours, and so far from triumph, That I am not more fool to such as honour me, Than to myself, who hate this antick carriage." Fab. You are an angel rather to be worshipp'd, Than grossly to be talk'd with. 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 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. Our lady's cast familiar? Flav. Oh, my stomach Wambles, at sight of sick, sick,—I am sick I faint at heart-kiss me, nay prithee quickly, Thou art my health, my blessing:-turn the bankrupt Out of my doors!-sirrah, I'll have thee whipt, Cam. Hence, hence, you vermin! Flav. Prettily mended, [Exit FAB. Now we have our own lord here; I shall never Endure to spare you long out of my sight.— See, what the thing presented. [Gives him the paper. Jul. A petition, Belike, for some new charity? Flav. We must not Be troubled with his needs; a wanting creature Is monstrous, is as ominous-fie, upon't! Dispatch the silly mushroom once for all, |