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Reproof drops from that balmy spring your breath!
Now could I read a lecture of my griefs,
Unearth a mine of jewels at your foot,

Command a golden shower to rain down,
Impoverish every kingdom of the east,

Which traffics richest clothes, and silks, would

you

Vouchsafe one unspleen'd chiding to my riot:
Else such a sacrifice can but beget
Suspicion of returns to my devotion,
In mercenary blessings; for that saint
To whom I vow myself, must never want
Fit offerings to her altar.

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,
Amongst your country's enemies; I use
No force, but humble words, deliver'd from
A tongue that's secretary to my heart.

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?
Lock'd up, and singly too! chaste hospitality!
A banquet in a bed-chamber! Adurni,

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!"
Prepare a welcome to uncrown the greatness
Of his prevailing fates.

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,
Without a proof or warrant!

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.
Castanna, I could pity your consent

To such ignoble practice; but I find
Coarse fortunes easily seduced, and herein
All claim to goodness ceases.

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,
To dress thy soul anew, whose purer whiteness
Is sullied by thy change from truth to folly.
A fearful storm is hovering, it will fall;

No shelter can avoid it: let the guilty
Sink under their own ruin.

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
All what is dearest to me.

Spin. Mercy, heaven!

Champion for me, and Auria living! Auria!

He lives; and, for my guard, my innocence,
As free as are my husband's clearest thoughts,
Shall keep off vain constructions. I must beg
Your charities; sweet sister, your's, to leave me ;
I need no followers now: let me appear,

Or mine own lawyer, or, in open court,
(Like some forsaken client,) in my suit
Be cast for want of honest plea-oh, misery!

[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
Ends in so sad a farewell.

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
Without his bonnet vail'd, or saying grace,

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.

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