these presents, that I am a beast; see what I say, I say a very beast. Troy. 'Tis granted. Sec. Go to, then; a horned beast, a goodly tall, horned beast; in pure verity, a cuckold :nay, I will tickle their trangdidos. Mor. Ah, thou base fellow! would'st thou confess it an it were so? but 'tis not so; and thou liest, and loudly. Troy. Patience, Morosa:-you are, you say, a cuckold? Sec. I'll justify my words, I scorn to eat them; this sucking ferret hath been wriggling in my old coney-burrow. Mor. The boy, the babe, the infant! I spit at thee. Cast. Fie, Secco, fie. Sec. Appear, Spadone! my proofs are pregnant and gross; truth is the truth; I must and I will be divorced: speak, Spadone, and exalt thy voice. Spa. Who? I speak? alas, I cannot speak, I. Nit. As I hope to live to be a man Sec. Damn the prick of thy weason-pipe!where but two lie in a bed, you must be bodkin, bitch-baby, must you?-Spadone, am I a cuckold or no cuckold? Spa. Why, you know I [am] an ignorant, unable trifle in such business; an oaf, a simple alcatote, an innocent." A simple alcatote, an innocent.] This is pretty nearly the sense which the word still bears in the North of Devon; where I have Sec. Nay, nay, nay, no matter for that; this ramkin hath tupp'd my old rotten carrion-mutton. Mor. Rotten in thy maw, thy guts and garbage! Sec. Spadone, speak aloud what I am. Sec. What hast thou seen them doing together? doing? Spa. Nothing. Mor. Are thy mad brains in thy mazer now, thou jealous bedlam? Sec. Didst not thou, from time to time, tell me as much? Spa. Never. Sec. Hey-day! ladies and signor, I am abused; they are agreed to scorn, jeer, and run me out of my wits, by consent. This gelded hobet-a-hoy is a corrupted pandar, this page a milk-livered dildoe, my wife a whore confest, and I myself a cuckold arrant. Spa. Truly, Secco, for the ancient good woman I dare swear point-blank; and the boy, surely, I ever said, was to any man's thinking, a very chrisome in the thing you wot; that's my opinion clearly. Clar. What a wise goose-cap hast thou shew'd thyself! frequently heard it; to Ford it must have been quite familiar. Totle and alcatotle are both used in the Exmoor Dialogues, as in the text, for "silly elf, or foolish oaf." 9 A very chrisome] i, e. an infant, a child within the first month. Thus Fuller, in a pretty passage, They say when Crysomes (infants, as he explains it) smile, it is because of some intercourse between them and their guardian angels." Sec. Here in my forehead it sticks, and stick it shall. Law I will have: I will never more tumble in sheets with thee, I will father no misbegotten of thine; the court shall trounce thee, the city cashier thee, diseases devour thee, and the spittle confound thee. [Exit. Cast. The man has dream'd himself into a lu nacy. Sil. Alas, poor Nitido! Nit. Truly, I am innocent. Mor. Marry art thou; so thou art. The world says, how virtuously I have carried my good name in every part about me these threescore years and odd; and at last to slip with a child! there are men, men enough, tough and lusty, I hope, if one would give their mind to the iniquity of the flesh; but this is the life I have led with him a while, since when he lies by me as cold as a dry stone. Troy. This only, ladies, is a fit of novelty; All will be reconciled.-I doubt, Spadone, Here is your hand in this, howe'er denied. Spa. Faithfully, in truth forsooth Troy. Well, well, enough.-Morosa, be less troubled ; This little jarr is argument of love, It will prove lasting.-Beauties, I attend you. [Exeunt all but SPA. and NIT. Spa. Youngling, a word, youngling; have not you scaped the lash handsomely? thank me for't. Nit. I fear thy roguery, and I shall find it. Spa. Is't possible? Give me thy little fist; we are friends: have a care henceforth; remember this whilst you live And still the urchin would, but could not do.' pretty knave, and so forth! come, truce on all hands. Nit. Beshrew your fool's head; this was jest in earnest. SCENE II. A Room in ROMANELLO's house. Enter ROMANELLO. [Exeunt. Rom. I will converse with beasts, there is in mankind No sound society; but, in woman-bless me!— Nor faith nor reason: I may justly wonder What trust was in my mother. Enter Servant. Serv. A caroch, sir, Stands at the gate. Rom. Stand let it still and freeze there! Make sure the locks. Serv. Too late; you are prevented. Enter FLAVIA, followed by CAMILLO and VESPUCCI, who stand apart. 1 Flav. Brother, I come— Rom. Unlook'd for;-I but sojourn Spadone alludes to his threat of avenging himself on Nitido, who had twitted him with this scrap.-p. 132. 2 Myself; I keep nor house, nor entertainments, Flav. Why d'ye slight me? For what one act of mine, even from my childhood, Cam. Not the strain in ordinary. Rom. I'm out of tune to chop discourse-how ever, You are a woman. Flav. Pensive and unfortunate, Wanting a brother's bosom to disburthen More griefs than female weakness can keep league with. Let worst of malice, voiced in loud report, 2 : entertainments, French cooks composed.] i. e. perhaps, which French cooks composed but the pointing of the 4to. is so indistinct, that it is not easy to discern what the author meant to say. Mr. Heber's copy has a full point after entertainments; if that be correct, composed must be a misprint. |
