rush in like a stormy flood: I need not instruct

you in your own profession.

Omnes. No, no, no.

Vas. In, then; your ends are profit and preferment.-Away!

[Exeunt BAN. Sor. The guests will all come, Vasques?

Vas. Yes, sir. And now let me a little edge your resolution: you see nothing is unready to this great work, but a great mind in you; call to your remembrance your disgraces, your loss of honour, Hippolita's blood, and arm your courage in your own wrongs; so shall you best right those wrongs in vengeance, which you may truly call

your own.

Sor. 'Tis well; the less I speak, the more I burn,

And blood shall quench that flame.

Vas. Now you begin to turn Italian. This beside; when my young incest-monger comes, he will be sharp set on his old bit: give him time enough, let him have your chamber and bed at liberty; let my hot hare have law ere he be hunted to his death, that, if it be possible, he post to hell in the very act of his damnation."

Sor. It shall be so; and see, as we would wish, He comes himself first

That, if it be possible, he post to hell in the very act of his damnation.] This infernal sentiment has been copied from Shakspeare by several writers who were nearly his contemporaries.— Reed. It is not, however, ill placed in the mouth of such an incarnate fiend as Vasques.

Enter GIOVANNI.

Welcome, my much-lov'd brother;

Now I perceive you honour me; you are wel

come-

But where's my father?

Gio. With the other states,

Attending on the nuncio of the pope,

To wait upon him hither. How's my sister?
Sor. Like a good housewife, scarcely ready yet;
You were best walk to her chamber.

Gio. If you will.

Sor. I must expect my honourable friends;

Good brother, get her forth.

Gio. You are busy, sir.

[Exit.

Vas. Even as the great devil himself would have it! let him go and glut himself in his own destruction-[Flourish.]-Hark, the nuncio is at hand; good sir, be ready to receive him.

Enter CARDINAL, FLORIO, DONADO, RICHARDETTO, and Attendants.

Sor. Most reverend lord, this grace hath made me proud,

That you vouchsafe my house; I ever rest
Your humble servant for this noble favour.

1. Car. You are our friend, my lord; his Holi

ness

Shall understand how zealously you honour
Saint Peter's vicar in his substitute:

Our special love to you.

Sor. Signiors, to you

My welcome, and my ever best of thanks
For this so memorable courtesy.

Pleaseth your grace walk near?

Car. My lord, we come

To celebrate your feast with civil mirth,
As ancient custom teacheth: we will go.

Sor. Attend his grace there. Signiors, keep

your way.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

ANNABELLA's Bed Chamber in the same.

ANNABELLA, richly dressed, and GIOVANNI.

Gio. What, chang'd so soon! hath your new
sprightly lord

Found out a trick in night-games more than we
Could know, in our simplicity?-Ha! is't so?
Or does the fit come on you, to prove treache-

rous

To your past vows and oaths?

Ann. Why should you jest
At my calamity, without all sense

Of the approaching dangers you are in?

Gio. What danger's half so great as thy revolt? Thou art a faithless sister, else thou know'st, Malice, or any treachery beside,

Would stoop to my bent brows; why, I hold

fate

Clasp'd in my fist, and could command the course

Of time's eternal motion, hadst thou been

One thought more steady than an ebbing sea.

And what? you'll now be honest, that's resolv'd? Ann. Brother, dear brother, know what I have been,

And know that now there's but a dining-time
"Twixt us and our confusion; let's not waste
These precious hours in vain and useless speech.
Alas! these gay attires were not put on
But to some end; this sudden solemn feast
Was not ordain'd to riot in expense;

I that have now been chamber'd here alone,
Barr'd of my guardian, or of any else,

Am not for nothing at an instant freed
To fresh access. Be not deceiv'd, my brother,
This banquet is an harbinger of death

To you and me; resolve yourself it is,
And be prepared to welcome it.

Gio. Well, then;

The schoolmen teach that all this globe of earth Shall be consumed to ashes in a minute.

Ann. So I have read too.

Gio. But 'twere somewhat strange
To see the waters burn; could I believe
This might be true, I could believe as well

There might be hell or heaven.

Ann. That's most certain.

Gio. A dream, a dream! else in this other world

We should know one another.

Ann. So we shall.

Gio. Have you heard so?

Ann. For certain.

Gio. But do you think,

That I shall see you there? You look on me."--
May we kiss one another, prate or laugh,
Or do as we do here?

Ann. I know not that;

But-brother, for the present, what d'ye mean3 To free yourself from danger? some way think How to escape; I'm sure the guests are come. Gio. Look up, look here; what see you in my face?

Ann. Distraction and a troubled conscience." Gio. Death, and a swift repining wrath :-yet look;

What see you in mine eyes?

Ann. Methinks you weep.

Gio. I do indeed; these are the funeral tears Shed on your grave; these furrow'd up my cheeks When first I lov'd and knew not how to woo. Fair Annabella, should I here repeat

The story of my life, we might lose time.

7 You look on me.] i. e. You look with surprize or astonishment on me. Such is the force of this expression.-See Jonson, vol. iv. p. 180.

But-brother, for the present, what d'ye mean.] The 4to, which is imperfect in this place, reads, "But good for the present." The word adopted is certainly not the author's; but it is safe, at least; and I prefer it to inserting a monosyllable at random.

9 Distraction and a troubled conscience.] The old copy reads, a troubled countenance; well corrected by Dodsley.