Page images
PDF
EPUB

.

The tyranny of thoughts, consider mine,

In some proportion, by the strength of yours;
Thus may you yield and conquer.
Spin. Do not study,

My lord, to apparel folly in the weed

Of costly colours; henceforth cast off far,
Far from your noblest nature, the contempt
Of goodness, and be gentler to your fame,
By purchase of a life to grace your story.
Adur. Dear, how sweetly

Reproof drops from that balmy spring your breath!
Now could I read a lecture of my griefs,
Unearth a mine of jewels at your foot,
Command a golden shower to reign down,
Impoverish every kingdom of the East,

Which traffics richest clothes and silks, would you

Vouchsafe one unspleen'd chiding to my riot:
Else such a sacrifice can but beget

Suspicion of returns to my devotion,

In mercenary blessings; for that saint
To whom I vow myself, must never want
Fit offerings to her altar.

Spin. Auria, Auria,

Fight not for name abroad; but come, my husband,

Fight for thy wife at home!

Adur. Oh, never rank,

Dear cruelty, one that is sworn your creature,

Among your country's enemies; I use

No force, but humble words, deliver'd from

A tongue that's secretary to my heart.

Spin. How poorly some, tame to their wild de

sires,

Fawn on abuse of virtue! pray, my lord,

Make not your house my prison.

Adur. Grant a freedom

To him who is the bondman to your beauty.

[A noise within, and the door is forced.

Enter AURELIO, followed by CASTANNA, AMORETTA, FUTELLI and PIERO.

Aurel. Keep back, ye close contrivers of false pleasures,

Or I shall force ye back.-Can it be possible?
Lock'd up and singly too! chaste hospitality!
A banquet in a bedchamber! Adurni,
Dishonourable man!

Adur. What sees this rudeness
That can broach scandal here?

Aurel. For you hereafter.

Oh, woman, lost to every brave report,
Thy wronged Auria is come home with glory!
Prepare a welcome to uncrown the greatness
Of his prevailing fates.

Spin. Whiles you, belike,

Are furnished with some news for entertainment, Which must become your friendship, to be knit More fast betwixt your souls, by my removal, Both from his heart and memory!

Adur. Rich conquest,

To triumph on a lady's injured fame,
Without a proof or warrant!

Fut. Have I life, sir?

Faith? Christianity?

Piero. Put me on the rack,

The wheel, or the galleys, if—

Aurel. Peace, factors

In merchandise of scorn! your sounds are deadly. Castanna, I could pity your consent

To such ignoble practice: but I find

Coarse fortunes easily seduced, and herein

All claim to goodness ceases.

Cast. Use your tyranny.

Spin. What rests behind for me? out with it!
Aurel. Horror,

Becoming such a forfeit of obedience;

Hope not that any falsity in friendship

Can palliate a broken faith, it dares not.

Leave, in thy prayers, fair, vow-breaking wanton,
To dress thy soul anew, whose purer whiteness
Is sullied by thy change from truth to folly.
A fearful storm is hovering, it will fall;
No shelter can avoid it: let the guilty
Sink under their own ruin.

Spin. How unmanly!

His anger threatens mischief!
Amor. Whom, I prethee,
Doth the man speak to?

Adur. Lady, be not mov'd;

I will stand champion for your honour, hazard
All what is dearest to me.
Spin. Mercy, heaven!

[Exit.

Champion for me, and Auria living! Auria!
He lives; and, for my guard, my innocence,
As free as are my husband's clearest thoughts,
Shall keep off vain constructions. I must beg
Your charities; sweet sister, yours to leave me ;
I need no followers now: let me appear,
Or mine own lawyer, or, in open court

(Like some forsaken client), in my suit

Be cast for want of honest plea-oh, misery! [Exit. Adur. Her resolution's violent; quickly follow. Cast. By no means, sir: you've followed her already,

I fear, with too much ill success, in trial

Of unbecoming courtesies, your welcome
Ends in so sad a farewell.

Adur. I will stand

The roughness of the encounter, like a gentleman, And wait ye to your homes, whate'er befall me.

[Exeunt.

ACT III. SCENE I.

The Street before MARTINO's House.

Enter FULGOso and GUZMAN.

Ful. I say, don, brother mine, win her and wear her.

And so will I; if't be my luck to lose her,

I lose a pretty wench, and there's the worst on 't.
Guz. Wench, said ye? most mechanically, faugh!
Sir brother, he who names my queen of love
Without his bonnet veil'd, or saying grace,
As at some paranymphal feast, is rude,
Nor vers'd in literature. Dame Amoretta,
Lo, I am sworn thy champion!

Ful. So am I too,

Can as occasion serves, if she turns scurvy,
Unswear myself again, and ne'er change colours.
Pish, man! the best, though call 'em ladies, madams,
Fairs, fines, and honeys, are but flesh and blood.
Guz. Our choler must advance.
Ful. Dost long for a beating?

Shall's try a slash? here's that shall do 't; I'll tap

A gallon of thy brains, and fill thy hogshead
With two of wine for 't.

Guz. Not in friendship, brother.

[Draws.

Ful. Or whistle thee into an ague: hang it, Be sociable; drink till we roar and scratch; Then drink ourselves asleep again :—the fashion! Thou dost not know the fashion.

Guz. Her fair eyes,

Like to a pair of pointed beams drawn from
The sun's most glorious orb, do dazzle sight,
Audacious to gaze there; then over those
A several bow of jet securely twines
In semicircles; under them two banks

Of roses red and white, divided by
An arch of polish'd ivory, surveying
A temple from whence oracles proceed
More gracious than Apollo's, more desired
Than amorous songs of poets, softly tuned.

Ful. Hey-day! what's he?-[seeing BENATZI.] Enter BENATZI, as an outlaw,' LEVIDOLCHE at a window above.

Ben. Death of reputation, the wheel, strappado, galleys, rack, are ridiculous fopperies; goblins to fright babies. Poor lean-soul'd rogues! they will swoon at the scar of a pin.

Ful. Bless us! a monster, patch'd of dagger-bombast,

His eyes like copper-basins; he has chang'd
Hair with a shag-dog.

Guz. Let us then avoid him,

Or stand upon our guard; the foe approaches. Ben. Cutthroats by the score abroad, come home, and rot in fripperies. Honourable cuts are but badges for a fool to vaunt; the raw-ribb'd apothecary poisons cum privilegio, and is paid. Oh, the commonwealth of beasts is most politicly ordered!

Guz. Brother we'll keep aloof, there is no valour In tugging with a man-fiend.

Ful. I defy him.

It gabbles like I know not what ;—believe it,
The fellow's a shrewd fellow at a pink.2

Ben. Look else: the lion roars, and the spaniel fawns; down, cur; the badger bribes the unicorn, that a jury may not pass upon his pillage; here the bear fees the wolf, for he will not howl gratis ;beasts call pleading howling.-So then! there the

1 By this term nothing more seems meant than a disbanded soldier in rags, as in our author's age was too commonly the case, formidable from arms, and desperate from necessity.-GIFFORD.

2 The fellow's a shrewd fellow at a pink,] i. e. at fighting, at a duel.— He judges from the rugged appearance of Benatzi, and his fierce strutting language.-GIFFORD.

« PreviousContinue »