SCENE III.

[_Enter_[2774] BILIOSO.

_Bil._ Make way there! The duke returns from the enthronement.—Malevole—

_Mal._ Out, rogue!

_Bil._ Malevole,—

_Mal._ “Hence, ye gross-jawed, peasantly (5)—out, go!”[2775]

_Bil._ Nay, sweet Malevole, since my return I hear you are become the thing I always prophesied would be,—an advanced virtue, a worthily-employed faithfulness, a man o’ grace, (10) dear friend. Come; what! _Si quoties peccant homines_[2776]—if as often as courtiers play the knaves, honest men should be angry—why, look ye, we must collogue[2777] sometimes, forswear sometimes. 15

_Mal._ Be damned sometimes.

_Bil._ Right: _nemo omnibus horis sapit_; “no man can be honest at all hours:” necessity often depraves virtue.

_Mal._ I will commend thee to the duke. 20

_Bil._ Do: let us be friends, man.

_Mal._ And knaves, man.

_Bil._ Right: let us prosper and purchase: our lordships shall live, and our knavery be forgotten. 25

_Mal._ He that by any ways gets riches, his means never shames him.

_Bil._ True.

_Mal._ For impudency and faithlessness are the main stays to greatness. 30

_Bil._ By the Lord, thou art a profound lad.

_Mal._ By the Lord, thou art a perfect knave: out, ye ancient damnation!

_Bil._ Peace, peace! and thou wilt not be a friend to me as I am a knave, be not a knave to me as I am thy friend, and disclose me. Peace! cornets!] 37

_Enter_ PREPASSO _and_ FERRARDO, two Pages _with lights_, CELSO _and_ EQUATO, MENDOZA _in duke’s robes_, _and_ GUERRINO.

_Men._ On, on; leave us, leave us. _Exeunt all saving_ MALEVOLE [_and_ MENDOZA]. Stay, where is the hermit?

_Mal._ With Duke Pietro, with Duke Pietro. 40

_Men._ Is he dead? Is he poisoned?

_Mal._ Dead, as the duke is.

_Men._ Good, excellent: he will not blab: secureness lives in secrecy. Come hither, come hither. 45

_Mal._ Thou hast a certain strong villainous scent about thee my nature cannot endure.

_Men._ Scent, man! What returns Maria, what answer to our suit?

_Mal._ Cold, frosty; she is obstinate. 50

_Men._ Then she’s but dead; ’t is resolute, she dies: “Black deed only through black deed safely flies.”

_Mal._ Pooh! _per scelera semper sceleribus tutum est iter_.[2778]

_Men._ What, art a scholar? Art a politician? Sure, thou art an arrant knave. 56

_Mal._ Who, I? I ha’ been twice an under-sheriff, man.[2779] [Well, I will go rail upon some great man, that I may purchase the bastinado, or else go marry some rich Genoan lady, and instantly go travel.

_Men._ Travel, when thou art married? 62

_Mal._ Ay, ’t is your young lord’s fashion to do so, though he was so lazy, being a bachelor, that he would never travel so far as the university: (65) yet, when he married her, tales off, and, Catso, for England!

_Men._ And why for England?

_Mal._ Because there is no brothel-houses there.

_Men._ Nor courtesans? 70

_Mal._ Neither; your whore went down with the stews, and your punk came up with your puritan.]

_Men._ Canst thou empoison? Canst thou empoison? 75

_Mal._ Excellently; no Jew, ’pothecary, or politician better. Look ye, here’s a box: whom wouldst thou empoison? Here’s a box (_giving it_), which, opened and the fume ta’en up in conduits thorough which the brain purges itself, (80) doth instantly for twelve hours’ space bind up all show of life in a deep senseless sleep: here’s another (_giving it_), which, being opened under the sleeper’s nose, chokes all the pores of life, kills him suddenly. 85

_Men._ I’ll try experiments; ’t is good not to be deceived.—So, so; catso! _Seems to poison_ MALEVOLE [_who falls_]. Who would fear that may destroy? Death hath no teeth nor tongue; And he that’s great, to him are slaves, 90 Shame, murder, fame, and wrong.— Celso!

_Enter Celso_.

_Celso._ My honour’d lord?

_Men._ The good Malevole, that plain-tongu’d man, Alas, is dead on sudden, wondrous strangely! He held in our esteem good place. Celso, 96 See him buried, see him buried.

_Celso._ I shall observe ye.

_Men._ And, Celso, prithee, let it be thy care to-night To have some pretty show, to solemnize 100 Our high instalment; some music, masquery. We’ll give fair entertain unto Maria, The duchess to the banish’d Altofront: Thou shalt conduct her from the citadel Unto the palace. Think on some masquery. 105

_Celso._ Of what shape, sweet lord?

_Men._ What[2780] shape! Why, any quick-done fiction; As some brave spirits of the Genoan dukes, To come out of Elysium, forsooth, Led in by Mercury, to gratulate 110 Our happy fortune; some such anything, Some far-fet trick good for ladies, some stale toy Or other, no matter, so ’t be of our devising. Do thou prepare ’t; ’t is but for fashion sake. Fear not, it shall be grac’d, man, it shall take.

_Celso._ All service. 116

_Men._ All thanks; our hand shall not be close[2781] to thee; farewell. (_Aside._) Now is my treachery secure, nor can we fall: Mischief that prospers, men do virtue call. I’ll trust no man: he that by tricks gets wreaths 120 Keeps them with steel; no man securely breathes Out of deserved ranks; the crowd will mutter, “fool!” Who cannot bear with spite, he cannot rule. The chiefest secret for a man of state Is, to live senseless of a strengthless hate. _Exit._

_Mal._ (_starts up and speaks._) Death of the (126) damned thief! I’ll make one i’ the masque; thou shalt ha’ some brave spirits of the antique dukes.

_Celso._ My lord, what strange delusion? 130

_Mal._ Most happy, dear Celso, poisoned with an empty box: I’ll give thee all, anon. My lady comes to court; there is a whirl of fate comes tumbling on; the castle’s captain stands for me, the people pray for me, and the (135) great leader of the just stands for me: then courage, Celso; For no disastrous chance can ever move him That leaveth[2782] nothing but a God above him. _Exeunt._

[SCENE IV.][2783]

_Enter_ BILIOSO _and_ PREPASSO, two Pages _before them_; MAQUERELLE, BIANCA, _and_ EMILIA.

_Bil._ Make room there, room for the ladies! Why, gentlemen, will not ye suffer the ladies to be entered in the great chamber? Why, gallants! and you, sir, to drop your torch where the beauties must sit too? 5

_Pre._ And there’s a great fellow plays the knave; why dost not strike him?

_Bil._ Let him play the knave, o’ God’s name; thinkest thou I have no more wit than to strike a great fellow?—The music! more lights! 10 revelling-scaffolds! do you hear? Let there be oaths enow ready at the door, swear out the devil himself. Let’s leave the ladies, and go see if the lords be ready for them.

_Exeunt_ BILIOSO, PREPASSO, _and_ Pages.

_Maq._ And, by my troth, beauties, why do (15) you not put you into the fashion? This is a stale cut; you must come in fashion: look ye, you must be all felt, felt and feather, a felt upon your bare hair. Look ye, these tiring things[2784] are justly out of request now: and, do ye (20) hear? you must wear falling-bands,[2785] you must come into the falling fashion: there is such a deal o’ pinning these ruffs, when the fine clean fall is worth all: and again, if ye should chance to take a nap in the afternoon, your falling-band 25 requires no poting-stick[2786] to recover his form: believe me, no fashion to the falling, I say.

_Bian._ And is not Signior St. Andrew a gallant fellow now. 30

_Maq._ By my maidenhead, la, honour and he agree as well together as a satin suit and woollen stockings.

_Emilia._ But is not Marshal Make-room, my servant in reversion, a proper gentleman? 35

_Maq._ Yes, in reversion, as he had his office; as, in truth, he hath all things in reversion: he has his mistress in reversion, his clothes in reversion, his wit in reversion; and, indeed, is a suitor to me for my dog in reversion: but, (40) in good verity, la, he is as proper a gentleman in reversion as—and, indeed, as fine a man as may be, having a red beard and a pair of warpt legs.

_Bian._ But, i’ faith, I am most monstrously in love with Count Quidlibet-in-quodlibet: (45) is he not a pretty, dapper, unidle[2787] gallant?

_Maq._ He is even one of the most busy-fingered lords: he will put the beauties to the squeak most hideously.

_Re-enter_ BILIOSO.

_Bil._ Room! make a lane there! the duke (50) is entering: stand handsomely for beauty’s sake, take up the ladies there! So, cornets, cornets!