Reproof drops from that balmy spring your breath! Command a golden shower to rain down, Which traffics richest clothes, and silks, would you Vouchsafe one unspleen'd chiding to my riot: Spin. Auria, Auria, Fight not for name abroad; but come, my husband, Fight for thy wife at home! Adur. Oh, never rank, Dear cruelty, one that is sworn your creature, Spin. How poorly some, tame to their wild desires, Fawn on abuse of virtue! pray, my lord, Make not your house my prison. Adur. Grant a freedom To him who is the bondman to your beauty. [A noise within, and the door is forced. Enter AURELIO, followed by CASTANNA, AMORETTA, FUTELLI, and PIERO. Aurel. Keep back, ye close contrivers of false pleasures, Or I shall force ye back.-Can it be possible? Dishonourable man! Adur. What sees this rudeness, That can broach scandal here? Aurel. For you, hereafter. Oh, woman, lost to every brave report, Thy wrong'd Auria is come home with glory!" Spin. Whiles you, belike, Are furnish'd with some news for entertainment, Which must become your friendship, to be knit More fast betwixt your souls, by my removal, Both from his heart and memory! Adur. Rich conquest, To triumph on a lady's injured fame, Thy wrong'd Auria is come home with glory.] Ford seldom embarrasses himself with the unities either of time or place; nor is his conduct in this respect, perhaps, a matter of much importance. Auria's "triumphant exploits" must have occupied a space worth noticing; and his return might easily, had the author been so pleased, been transferred to the opening of the next Act: though this, after all, would only have relieved one improbability among many. Fut. Have I life, sir? Faith? Christianity? Piero. Put me on the rack, The wheel, or the gallies, if Aurel. Peace, factors In merchandize of scorn! your sounds are deadly. To such ignoble practice; but I find Cast. Use your tyranny. Spin. What rests behind for me? out with it! Aurel. Horror, Becoming such a forfeit of obedience; Hope not that any falsity in friendship Can palliate a broken faith, it dares not. Leave, in thy prayers, fair, vow-breaking wanton, No shelter can avoid it: let the guilty Spin. How unmanly His anger threatens mischief! Amor. Whom, I prethee, Doth the man speak to? Adur. Lady, be not mov'd; [Exit. I will stand champion for your honour, hazard Spin. Mercy, heaven! Champion for me, and Auria living! Auria! He lives; and, for my guard, my innocence, Or mine own lawyer, or, in open court, [Exit. Adur. Her resolution's violent;-quickly fol low. Cast. By no means, sir: you've followed her already, I fear, with too much ill success, in trial Of unbecoming courtesies, your welcome Adur. I will stand The roughness of th' encounter, like a gentleman, And wait ye to your homes, whate'er befal me. [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. The Street before MARTINO'S House. Enter FULGOSO and GUZMAN. Ful. I say, Don, brother mine, win her and wear her. And so will I; if't be my luck to lose her, I lose a pretty wench, and there's the worst on't. Guz. Wench said ye? most mechanically, faugh! Wench is your trull, your blowze, your dowdie; but, Sir brother, he who names my queen of love As at some paranymphal feast, is rude, Nor vers'd in literature. Dame Amoretta, Lo, I am sworn thy champion! Ful. So am I too, Can as occasion serves, if she turns scurvy, Unswear myself again, and ne'er change co lours. Pish, man! the best, though call 'em ladies, madams, Fairs, fines, and honies, are but flesh and blood, And now and then too, when the fit 's come on 'em, Will prove themselves but flirts, and tirliry-pufkins. Guz. Our choler must advance. Ful. Dost long for a beating? Shall's try a slash? here's that shall do't; I'll tap [Draws. A gallon of thy brains, and fill thy hogshead With two of wine for't, Gus. Not in friendship, brother. |