SCENE II.

_Pavia._--ISABELLA'S _house_.

_Enter ISABELLA alone, GNIACA following her._

_Isa._ O Heavens, that I was born to be hate's slave, The food of rumour that devours my fame! I am call'd Insatiate Countess, lust's paramour, A glorious devil, and the noble whore! I am sick, vex'd, and tormented. O revenge!

_Gni._ On whom would my Isabella be revenged?

_Isa._ Upon a viper, that does eat[270] mine honour; I will not name him till I be revenged. See, here's the libels are divulg'd against me-- An everlasting scandal to my name-- 10 And thus the villain writes in my disgrace:--

[_She reads._

_Who loves Isabella the Insatiate,_ _Needs Atlas' back for to content her lust,_ _That wand'ring strumpet, and chaste wedlock's hate,_ _That renders truth deceit for loyal trust;_ _That sacrilegious thief to Hymen's rites,_ _Making her lust her god, heaven her delights!_ Swell not, proud heart, I'll quench thy grief in blood; Desire in woman cannot be withstood.

_Gni._ I'll be thy champion, sweet, 'gainst all the world; 20 Name but the villain that defames thee thus.

_Isa._ Dare thy hand execute whom my tongue condemns, Then art thou truly valiant, mine for ever; But if thou faint'st, hate must our true lover sever.

_Gni._ By my dead father's soul, my mother's virtues, And by my knighthood and gentility, I'll be revenged On all the authors of your obloquy! Name him.

_Isa._ Massino.[271] 30

_Gni._ Ha!

_Isa._ What! does his name affright thee, coward lord! Be mad, Isabella! curse on thy revenge! This lord was knighted for his father's worth, Not for his own. Farewell, thou perjured man! I'll leave you all; You all conspire to work mine honour's fall.

_Gni._ Stay, my Isabella; were he my father's son, Composed of me, he dies! Delight still keep with thee. Go in.

_Isa._ Thou art just; 40 Revenge to me is sweeter now than lust.

[_Exit_ ISABELLA.

_Enter_ MASSINO;[272] _they see one another and draw and make a pass; then enter_ ANNA.

_Ann._ What mean you, nobles? Will you kill each other?

_Ambo._ Hold!

_Mass._ Thou shame to friendship, what intends thy hate?

_Gni._ Love arms my hand, makes my soul valiant! Isabella's wrongs now sit upon my sword, To fall more heavy to thy coward's head Than thunderbolts upon Jove's rifted oaks. Deny thy scandal, or defend thy life.

_Mass._ What?--hath thy faith and reason left thee both, 50 That thou art only flesh without a soul? Hast thou no feeling of thyself and me? Blind rage, that will not let thee see thyself!

_Gni._ I come not to dispute but execute: And thus comes death!

[_Another pass._

_Mass._ And thus I break thy dart. Here's at thy whore's face!

_Gni._ 'Tis miss'd. Here's at thy heart! Stay, let us breathe.

_Mass._ Let reason govern rage yet, let us leave; Although most wrong be mine, I can forgive. In this attempt thy shame will ever live. 60

_Gni._ Thou hast wrong'd the Phoenix of all women rarest-- She that's most wise, most loving, chaste, and fairest.

_Mass._ Thou dotest upon a devil, not a woman, That has bewitch'd thee with her sorcery, And drown'd thy soul in lethy faculties. Her quenchless[273] lust has [quite] benumbed thy knowledge; Thy intellectual powers oblivion smothers, That thou art nothing but forgetfulness.

_Gni._ What's this to my Isabella? My sin's mine own. Her faults were none, until thou madest 'em known. 70

_Mass._ Leave her, and leave thy shame where first thou found'st it; Else live a bondslave to diseasèd lust, Devour'd in her gulf-like appetite, And infamy shall write thy epitaph; Thy memory leave nothing but thy crimes-- A scandal to thy name in future times.

_Gni._ Put up your weapon; I dare hear you further. Insatiate lust is sire still to murther.

_Mass._ Believe it, friend, if her heart-blood were vext, Though you kill me, new pleasure makes you next. 80 She loved me dearer than she loves you now; She'll ne'er be faithful, has twice broke her vow. This curse pursues female adultery, They'll swim through blood for sin's variety; Their pleasure like a sea, groundless and wide, A woman's lust was never satisfied.

_Gni._ Fear whispers in my breast, I have a soul That blushes red for tend'ring[274] bloody facts. Forgive me, friend, if I can be forgiven; Thy counsel is the path leads me to heaven. 90

_Mass._ I do embrace thy reconcilèd love----

_Gni._ That death or danger now shall ne'er remove. Go tell thy Insatiate Countess, Anna, We have escap'd the snares of her false love, Vowing for ever to abandon her.

_Mass._ You have heard our resolution; pray, be gone.

_Ann._ My office ever rested at your pleasure; I was the Indian, yet you had the treasure. My faction often sweats, and oft takes cold; Then gild true diligence o'er with gold. 100

_Mass._ Thy speech deserves it. There's gold;

[_Gives her gold._

Be honest now, and not love's noddy, Turn'd up and play'd on whilst thou keep'st the stock. Prithee formally let's ha' thy absence.

_Ann._ Lords, farewell.

[_Exit_ ANNA.

_Mass._ 'Tis whores and panders that makes earth like hell.

_Gni._ Now I am got out of lust's labyrinth, I will to Venice for a certain time, To recreate my much abusèd spirits, And then revisit Pavy and my friend. 110

_Mass._ I'll bring you on your way, but must return; Love is like Ætna, and will ever burn. Yet now desire is quench'd, flamed once in height: Till man knows hell he never has firm faith.

[_Exeunt ambo._

[270] Old eds. "get."

[271] Old eds. "Rogero."

[272] Old eds. "GUIDO."--The prefix to his speeches is "_Gui._"

[273] So the editor of 1820.--Old eds. "vselesse."

[274] Ed. 1613 "tending."