SCENE V.[1661

[_To them enter_] MOSCA.

_Mos._ God save you, madam!

_Lady P._ Good sir.

_Volp._ Mosca! welcome, Welcome to my redemption.

_Mos._ Why, sir?

_Volp._ Oh, Rid me of this my torture, quickly, there; My madam with the everlasting voice: The bells, in time of pestilence, ne’er made 5 Like noise, or were in that perpetual motion! The Cock-pit comes not near it. All my house, But now, steam’d like a bath with her thick breath, A lawyer could not have been heard; nor scarce Another woman, such a hail of words 10 She has let fall. For hell’s sake, rid her hence.

_Mos._ Has she presented?

_Volp._ Oh, I do not care; I ’ll take her absence upon any price, With any loss.

_Mos._ Madam——

_Lady P._ I ha’ brought your patron A toy, a cap here, of mine own work.

_Mos._ ’T is well. 15 I had forgot to tell you I saw your knight Where you would little think it.——

_Lady P._ Where?

_Mos._ Marry, Where yet, if you make haste, you may apprehend him, Rowing upon the water in a gondole, With the most cunning courtesan of Venice. 20

_Lady P._ Is ’t true?

_Mos._ Pursue ’em, and believe your eyes: Leave me to make your gift. [_Exit_ LADY P. _hastily_.] I knew ’t would take: For, lightly, they that use themselves most licence, Are still most jealous.

_Volp._ Mosca, hearty thanks For thy quick fiction, and delivery of me. 25 Now to my hopes, what sayst thou?

[_Re-enter_ LADY P. WOULD-BE.]

_Lady P._ But do you hear, sir?——

_Volp._ Again! I fear a paroxysm.

_Lady P._ Which way Row’d they together?

_Mos._ Toward the Rialto.

_Lady P._ I pray you lend me your dwarf. 29

_Mos._ I pray you take him. [_Exit_ LADY P.] Your hopes, sir, are like happy blossoms, fair, And promise timely fruit, if you will stay But the maturing; keep you at your couch, Corbaccio will arrive straight, with the will; When he is gone, I’ll tell you more. [_Exit._]

_Volp._ My blood, 35 My spirits are return’d; I am alive: And, like your wanton gamester at primero, Whose thought had whisper’d to him, not go[1662] less, Methinks I lie, and draw[1663]——for an encounter.[1663]