Gio. Not go! for what?

Friar. O, do not go; this feast, I'll gage my life,

Is but a plot to train you to your ruin;
Be ruled, you shall not go.

Gio. Not go! stood death

Threatening his armies of confounding plagues,
With hosts of dangers hot as blazing stars,
I would be there; not go! yes, and resolve
To strike as deep in slaughter as they all;
For I will go.

Friar. Go where thou wilt;-I see
The wildness of thy fate draws to an end,
To a bad fearful end:-I must not stay
To know thy fall; back to Bononia I

With speed will haste, and shun this coming blow. Parma, farewell; would I had never known thee, Or aught of thine! Well, young man, since no

prayer

Can make thee safe, I leave thee to despair. [Exit. Gio. Despair, or tortures of a thousand hells,

All's one to me; I have set up my rest.*

Now, now, work serious thoughts on baneful

plots;

Be all a man, my soul; let not the curse
Of old prescription rend from me the gall
Of courage, which enrolls a glorious death:

4 I have set up my rest.] i. e. I have made my determination; taken my fixed and final resolution.--See Jonson, vol. ii. p. 142.

If I must totter like a well-grown oak,
Some under-shrubs shall in my weighty fall
Be crush'd to splits; with me they all shall perish!

[Exit.

SCENE IV.

A Hall in SORANZO's House.

Enter SORANZO, VASQUES with Masks, and BAN

DITTI.

Sor. You will not fail, or shrink in the attempt? Vas. I will undertake for their parts; be sure, my masters, to be bloody enough, and as unmerciful as if you were preying upon a rich booty on the very mountains of Liguria: for your pardons, trust to my lord; but for reward, you shall trust none but your own pockets.

Banditti. We'll make a murder.

Sor, Here's gold,-[Gives them money]-here's more; want nothing; what you do

Is noble, and an act of brave revenge:

I'll make you rich, banditti, and all free.
Omnes. Liberty! liberty!

Vas. Hold, take every man a vizard; when you are withdrawn, keep as much silence as you can possibly. You know the watch-word,' till which be spoken, move not; but when you hear that,

You know the watch-word.] It passage, that this was "VENGEANCE."

appears, from a subsequent

rush in like a stormy flood: I need not instruct you in your own profession.

Omnes. No, no, no.

Vas. In, then; your ends are profit and preferment.-Away!

[Exeunt BAN. Sor. The guests will all come, Vasques?

Vas. Yes, sir. And now let me a little edge your resolution: you see nothing is unready to this great work, but a great mind in you; call to your remembrance your disgraces, your loss of honour, Hippolita's blood, and arm your courage in your own wrongs; so shall you best right those wrongs in vengeance, which you may truly call your own.

Sor. 'Tis well; the less I speak, the more I burn,

And blood shall quench that flame.

Vas. Now you begin to turn Italian. This beside; when my young incest-monger comes, he will be sharp set on his old bit: give him time enough, let him have your chamber and bed at liberty; let my hot hare have law ere he be hunted to his death, that, if it be possible, he post to hell in the very act of his damnation."

Sor. It shall be so; and see, as we would wish, He comes himself first

• That, if it be possible, he post to hell in the very act of his damnation.] This infernal sentiment has been copied from Shakspeare by several writers who were nearly his contemporaries.— Reed. It is not, however, ill placed in the mouth of such an incarnate fiend as Vasques.

Enter GIOVANNI.

Welcome, my much-lov'd brother;

Now I perceive you honour me; you are wel

come

But where's my father?

Gio. With the other states,
Attending on the nuncio of the pope,

To wait upon him hither. How's my sister?
Sor. Like a good housewife, scarcely ready yet;
You were best walk to her chamber.

Gio. If you will.

Sor. I must expect my honourable friends;

Good brother, get her forth.

Gio. You are busy, sir.

[Exit.

Vas. Even as the great devil himself would have it! let him go and glut himself in his own destruction-[Flourish.]-Hark, the nuncio is at hand; good sir, be ready to receive him.

Enter CARDINAL, FLORIO, DONADO, RICHARDETTO, and Attendants.

Sor. Most reverend lord, this grace hath made me proud,

That

you vouchsafe my house; I ever rest

Your humble servant for this noble favour.

Car. You are our friend, my lord; his Holi

ness

Shall understand how zealously you honour
Saint Peter's vicar in his substitute:

Our special love to you.

Q

Sor. Signiors, to you

My welcome, and my.ever best of thanks
For this so memorable courtesy.

Pleaseth your grace walk near?

Car. My lord, we come

To celebrate your feast with civil mirth,
As ancient custom teacheth: we will go.

Sor. Attend his grace there. Signiors, keep

your way.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

ANNABELLA's Bed Chamber in the same.

ANNABELLA, richly dressed, and GIOVANNI. Gio. What, chang'd so soon! hath your new sprightly lord

Found out a trick in night-games more than we
Could know, in our simplicity ?-Ha! is't so?
Or does the fit come on you, to prove treache-

rous

To your past vows and oaths?

Ann. Why should you jest
At my calamity, without all sense

Of the approaching dangers you are in?

Gio. What danger's half so great as thy revolt? Thou art a faithless sister, else thou know'st, Malice, or any treachery beside,

Would stoop to my bent brows; why, I hold

fate