SCENE I.

_Venice.--The Senate-house._

_Enter the_ Duke AMAGO, _the_ Captain, _and the rest of the_ Watch, _with the_ Senators.

_Duke._ Justice, that makes princes like the gods, Draws us unto the senate, That with unpartial balance we may poise The crimes and innocence of all offenders. Our presence can chase bribery from laws; He best can judge that hears himself the cause.

_1st Sen._ True, mighty duke, it best becomes our places, To have our light from you the sun of virtue. Subject authority, for gain, love, or fear, Oft quits the guilty, and condemns the clear. 10

_Duke._ The land and people's mine; the crimes being known, I must redress; my subjects' wrong's mine own. Call for the two suspected for the murder Of Mendoza, our endeared kinsman, These voluntary murderers that confess The murder of him that is yet alive. We'll sport with serious justice for a while; In show we'll frown on them that make us smile.

_2d Sen._ Bring forth the prisoners, we may hear their answers.

_Enter_ (_brought in with_ Officers) CLARIDIANA _and_ ROGERO.[264]

_Duke._ Stand forth, you vipers, [you] that have suck'd blood, 20 And lopp'd a branch sprung from a royal tree! What can you answer to escape tortures?

_Rog._ We have confessed the fact,[265] my lord, to God and man, Our ghostly father, and that worthy captain: We beg not life, but favourable death.

_Duke._ On what ground sprung your hate to him we loved?

_Cla._ Upon that curse laid on Venetians, jealousy. We thought he, being a courtier, would have made us magnificoes of the right stamp, and have play'd at primero in the presence, with gold of the city brought from our Indies. 31

_Rog._ Nay, more, my lord, we feared that your kinsman, for a mess of sonnets, would have given the plot of us and our wives to some needy poet, and for sport and profit brought us in some Venetian comedy upon the stage.

_Duke._ Our justice dwells with mercy; be not desperate.

_1st Sen._ His highness fain would save your lives if you would see it.

_Rog._ All the law in Venice shall not save me; I will not be saved.

_Cla._ Fear not, I have a trick to bring us to hanging in spite of the law. 43

_Rog._ Why, now I see thou lovest me; thou hast confirm'd Thy friendship for ever to me by these words. Why, I should never hear lanthorn and candle[266] call'd for But I should think it was for me and my wife. I'll hang for that, forget not thy trick; Upon 'em with thy trick; I long for sentence.

_2d Sen._ Will you appeal for mercy to the duke? 50

_Cla._ Kill not thy justice, duke, to save our lives; We have deserved death.

_Rog._ Make not us precedents for after-wrongs; I will receive punishment for my sins: It shall be a means to lift me towards heaven.

_Cla._ Let's have our desert; we crave no favour.

_Duke._ Take them asunder; grave justice makes us mirth; That man is soulless that ne'er smiles[267] on earth. Signor Rogero,[268] relate the weapon you kill'd him with, and the manner. 60

_Rog._ My lord, your lustful kinsman--I can title him no better--came sneaking to my house like a promoter to spy flesh[269] in the Lent. Now I, having a Venetian spirit, watch'd my time, and with my rapier run him through, knowing all pains are but trifles to the horn of a citizen.

_Duke._ Take him aside. Signior Claridiana, what weapon had you for this bloody act? What dart used death?

_Cla._ My lord, I brain'd him with a [c]leaver my neighbour lent me, and he stood by and cried, "Strike home, old boy." 71

_Duke._ With several instruments. Bring them face to face. With what kill'd you our nephew?

_Rog._ With a rapier, liege.

_Cla._ 'Tis a lie; I kill'd him with a [c]leaver, and thou stood'st by.

_Rog._ Dost think to save me and hang thyself? No, I scorn it; is this the trick thou said'st thou had'st? I kill'd him, duke. He only gave consent: 'twas I that did it. 80

_Cla._ Thou hast always been cross to me, and wilt be to my death. Have I taken all this pains to bring thee to hanging, and dost thou slip now?

_Rog._ We shall never agree in a tale till we come to the gallows, then we shall jump.

_Cla._ I'll show you a cross-point, if you cross me thus, when thou shalt not see it.

_Rog._ I'll make a wry mouth at that, or it shall cost me a fall. 'Tis thy pride to be hang'd alone, because thou scorn'st my company; but it shall be known I am as good a man as thyself, and in these actions will keep company with thy betters, Jew. 92

_Cla._ Monster!

_Rog._ Dog-killer!

_Cla._ Fencer!

[_They bustle._

_Duke._ Part them, part 'em!

_Rog._ Hang us, and quarter us; we shall ne'er be parted till then.

_Duke._ You do confess the murder done by both?

_Cla._ [_Aside_] But that I would not have the slave laugh at me, And count me a coward, I have a good mind to live. But I am resolute: 'tis but a turn.-- I do confess.

_Rog._ So do I. 103 Pronounce our doom, we are prepared to die.

_1st Sen._ We sentence you to hang till you be dead; Since you were men eminent in place and worth, We give a Christian burial to you both.

_Cla._ Not in one grave together, we beseech you, we shall ne'er agree.

_Rog._ He scorns my company till the day of judgment; I'll not hang with him. 111

_Duke._ You hang together, that shall make you friends; An everlasting hatred death soon ends. To prison with them till the death; Kings' words, like fate, must never change their breath.

_Rog._ You malice-monger, I'll be hang'd afore thee, And 't be but to vex thee.

_Cla._ I'll do you as good a turn, or the hangman and [I] shall fall out.

[_Exeunt ambo, guarded._

_Duke._ Now to our kinsman, shame to royal blood; Bring him before us. 121

_Enter_ MENDOZA _in his nightgown and cap, guarded, with the_ Captain.

Theft in a prince is sacrilege to honour; 'Tis virtue's scandal, death of royalty. I blush to see my shame. Nephew, sit down. Justice, that smiles on those, on him must frown! Speak freely, captain; where found you him wounded?

_Capt._ Between the widow's house and these cross neighbours; Besides, an artificial ladder made of ropes Was fasten'd to her window, which he confess'd He brought to rob her of jewels and coin. 130 My knowledge yields no further circumstance.

_Duke._ Thou know'st too much; would I were past all knowledge, I might forget my grief springs from my shame! Thou monster of my blood, answer in brief To these assertions made against thy life. Is thy soul guilty of so base a fact?

_Men._ I do confess I did intend to rob her; In the attempt I fell and hurt myself. Law's thunder is but death; I dread it not, So my Lentulus' honour be preserved 140 From black suspicion of a lustful night.

_Duke._ Thy head's thy forfeit for thy heart's offence; Thy blood's prerogative may claim that favour. Thy person then to death doom'd by just laws; Thy death is infamous, but worse the cause.

[_Exeunt._

[264] Old eds. "Mizaldus."

[265] Ed. 1631 "act."

[266] "Lanthorn and candle-light"--the cry of the bellman. See Middleton, i. 70.

[267] So the editor of 1820.--Old eds. "sinnes."

[268] Old eds. "Mizaldus."

[269] Rigid rules were enacted from time to time forbidding the consumption of flesh in Lent: see Overall's _Remembrancia_. It may be seen from Middleton's _Chaste Maid_ that promoters (_i.e._, informers) were busily engaged in preventing any infringement of the regulations.