ACT II. SCENE I.

_A Room in an Inn._

_Enter_ PHŒNIX _and_ FIDELIO.

PHŒ. Fear not me, Fidelio: become you that invisible ropemaker the scrivener, that binds a man as he walks, yet all his joints at liberty, as well as I’ll fit that common folly of gentry, the easy-affecting venturer; and no doubt our purpose will arrive most happily. FID. Chaste duty, my lord, works powerfully in me; and rather than the poor lady my mother should fall upon the common side of rumour to beggar her name, I would not only undergo all habits, offices, disguised professions, though e’en opposite to the temper my blood holds; but in the stainless quarrel of her reputation, alter my shape for ever. PHŒ. I love thee wealthier; thou hast a noble touch:[836] and by this means, which is the only safe means to preserve thy mother from such an ugly land and sea monster as a counterfeit captain is, he resigning and basely selling all his estate, title, right, and interest in his lady, as the form of the writing shall testify, What otherwise can follow but to have A lady safe deliver’d of a knave? FID. I am in debt my life to the free goodness of your inventions. PHŒ. O, they must ever strive to be so good! Who sells his vow is stamp’d the slave of blood. [_Exeunt._