Act 5 — SCENE III.

A Street; before Imperia’s House.

Enter, on one side, Camillo, Hippolito, Virgilio, Asorino, Baptista, Bentivoglio, Doyt, and Dandyprat; on the other, the Duke and Gentlemen, and Blurt and his Watch with torches.

Omnes.^[776] We are dishonour’d; give us way; he dies,

He dies——

302Duke. I charge you, by your duties to

The state, and love to gentry, sheathe your weapons.

Blurt. Stand: I charge you, put up your naked weapons, and we’ll put up our rusty bills.^[777]

Cam. Up to the hilts we will in his French body:

My lord, we charge you, by the ravish’d honour

Of an Italian lady, by our wrongs,

By that eternal blot, which, if this slave

Pass free without revenge, like leprosy

Will run o’er^[778] all the body of our fames;

Give open way to our just wrath, lest, barr’d——

Duke. Gentlemen——

Cam. Breaking the bonds of honour and of duty,

We cut a passage through you with our swords.

Omnes. He that withstands us, run him through.

Blurt. I charge you, i’ th’ duke’s name, before his own face, to keep the peace.

Cam. Keep thou the peace, that hast a peasant’s heart.

Watch. Peasant?

Cam. Our peace must have her cheeks painted with blood.

Omnes. Away through——

Blurt. Sweet gentlemen, though you have called the duke’s own ghost peasant, for I walk for him i’ th’ night—Kilderkin and Piss-breech hold out—yet hear me, dear bloods. The duke here, for fault of a better, and myself—Cuckoo, fly not hence—for fault of a better, are to lay you by the heels, if you go thus with fire and sword; for the duke is the head, and I, Blurt, am the purtenance.—Woodcock, keep by my side.—Now, sir[s]——

Omnes. A plague upon this Woodcock! kill the watch.

303Duke. Now, in the name of manhood, I conjure ye,

Appear in your true shapes, Italians;

You kill your honours more in this revenge

Than in his murder. Stay, stand; here’s the house.

Blurt. Right, sir, this is the whore-house; here he calls and sets in his staff.

Duke. Sheathe all your weapons, worthy gentlemen;

And by my life I swear, if Fontinelle

Have stain’d the honour of your sister’s bed,

The fact being death, I’ll pay you his proud head.

Cam. Arrest him then before our eyes; and see,

Our fury sleeps.

Duke. This honest officer——

Blurt. Blurt, sir——

Duke. Shall fetch him forth.—Go, sirrah, in our name

Attach the French lord.

Blurt. Garlic, and the rest, follow strongly.

[Exit with Watch.

Duke. O what a scandal were it to a state,

To have a stranger, and a prisoner,

Murder’d by such a troop! Besides, through Venice

Are numbers of his countrymen dispers’d,

Whose rage meeting with yours, none can prevent

The mischief of a bloody consequent.

Re-enter Blurt and Watch, holding Fontinelle and his weapons.

Blurt. The duke is within an inch of your nose, and therefore I dare play with it, if you put not up; deliver, I advise you.

Font. Yield up my weapons, and my foe[s] so nigh!

Myself and weapons shall together yield:

Come any one, come all.

304Omnes. Kill, kill the Frenchman! kill him!

Duke. Be satisfied, my noble countrymen:

I’ll trust you with his life, so you will pawn

The faiths of gentlemen, no desperate hand

Shall rob him of it; otherwise, he runs

Upon this dangerous point, that dares appose^[779]

His rage ’gainst our authority.—French lord,

Yield up this strength; our word shall be your guard.

Font. Who defies death, needs none; he’s well prepar’d.

Duke. My honest fellow, with a good defence,

Enter again; fetch out the courtesan,

And all that are within.

Blurt. I’ll tickle her: it shall ne’er be said that a brown bill^[780] looked pale. [Exit with Watch.

Cam. Frenchman, thou art indebted to our duke.

Font. For what?

Cam. Thy life; for, but for him, thy soul

Had long ere this hung trembling in the air,

Being frighted from thy bosom with our swords.

Font. I do not thank your duke; yet, if you will,

Turn bloody executioners: who dies

For so bright beauty ’s a bright sacrifice.

Duke. The beauty you adore so is profane;

The breach of wedlock, by our law, is death.

Font. Law, give me law.

Duke. With all severity.

Font. In my love’s eyes immortal joys do dwell;

She is my heaven; she from me, I’m^[781] in hell:

Therefore your law, your law.

Duke. Make way, she comes.

305Re-enter Blurt leading Imperia, the rest of the Watch with Violetta masqued.

Imp. Fie, fie, fie.

Blurt. Your fie, fie, fie, nor your foh, foh, foh, cannot serve your turn; you must now bear it off with head and shoulders.

Duke. Now fetch Curvetto and the Spaniard hither;

Their punishments shall lie under one doom.

What is she masqu’d?

Blurt. A punk too.—Follow, fellows: Slubber, afore.

[Exit with Watch.

Viol. She that is masqu’d is leader of this masque.

What’s here? bows, bills, and guns! Noble Camillo,

[Unmasquing.

I’m sure you’re lord of this misrule:^[782] I pray,

For whose sake do you make this swaggering fray?

Cam. For yours, and for our^[783] own; we come resolv’d

To murder him that poisons your chaste bed,

To take revenge on you for your false heart;

And, wanton dame, our wrath here must not sleep;

Your sin being deep’st, your share shall be most deep.

Viol. With pardon of your grace, myself to you all,

At your own weapons, thus do answer all.

For paying away my heart, that was my own;

Fight not to win that, in good troth, ’tis gone.

For my dear love’s abusing my chaste bed,

And her^[784] sweet theft, alack, you are misled!

306This was a plot of mine, only to try

Your love’s strange temper; sooth, I do not lie.

My Fontinelle ne’er dallied in her arms;

She never bound his heart with amorous charms:

My Fontinelle ne’er loath’d my sweet embrace;

She never drew love’s picture by his face:

When he from her white hand would strive to go,

She never cried, fie, fie, nor no, no, no.

With prayers and bribes we hir’d her, both to lie

Under that roof: for this must my love die?

Who dare be so hard-hearted? Look you, we kiss,

And if he loathe his Violet,^[785] judge by this.

[Kissing him.

Font. O sweetest Violet! I blush——

Viol. Good figure,

Wear still that maiden blush, but still be mine.

Font. I seal myself thine own with both my hands,

In this true deed of gift. Gallants, here stands

This lady’s champion: at his foot I’ll lie^[786]

That dares touch her: who taints my constancy,

I am no man for him; fight he with her,

And yield, for she’s a noble conqueror.

Duke. This combat shall not need; for see, asham’d

Of their rash vows, these gentlemen here break

This storm, and do with hands what tongues should speak.

Omnes. All friends, all friends!

Hip. Punk, you may laugh at this:

Here’s tricks! but, mouth, I’ll stop you with a kiss.

Enter Curvetto and Lazarillo, led by Blurt and the Watch.

Blurt. Room; keep all the scabs back, for here comes Lazarus.

307Duke. O, here’s our other spirits that walk i’ th’ night!

Signior Curvetto, by complaint from her,

And by your writing here, I reach the depth

Of your offence. They charge your climbing up

To be to rob her: if so, then by law

You are to die, unless she marry you.

Imp. I? fie, fie, fie, I will be burnt to ashes first.

Cur. How, die, or marry her? then call me daw:^[787]

Marry her—she’s more common than the law—

For boys to call me ox? no, I’m^[788] not drunk;

I’ll play with her, but, hang her! wed no punk.

I shall be a hoary courtier then indeed,

And have a perilous^[789] head; then I were best

Lie close, lie close, to hide my forked crest.

No, fie, fie, fie; hang me before the door

Where I was drown’d, ere I marry with a whore.

Duke. Well, signior, for we rightly understand,

From your accusers, how you stood her guest,

We pardon you, and pass it as a jest:

And for the Spaniard sped so hardly too,

Discharge him, Blurt: signior, we pardon you.

Blurt. Sir, he’s not to be discharged, nor so to be shot off: I have put him into a new suit, and have entered into him with an action; he owes me two-and-thirty shillings.

Laz. It is thy honour to have me die in thy debt.

Blurt. It would be more honour to thee to pay me before thou diest: twenty shillings of this debt came out of his nose.

Laz. Bear witness, great duke, he’s paid twenty shillings.

Blurt. Signior, no, you cannot smoke me so. 308He took twenty shillings of it in a fume,^[790] and the rest I charge him with for his lying.

Laz. My lying, most pitiful prince, was abominable.

Blurt. He did lie, for the time, as well as any knight of the post^[791] did ever lie.

Laz. I do here put off thy suit, and appeal: I warn thee to the court of conscience, and will pay thee by twopence a-week, which I will rake out of the hot embers of tobacco-ashes, and then travel on foot to the Indies for more gold, whose red cheeks I will kiss, and beat thee, Blurt, if thou watch for me.

Hip. There be many of your countrymen in Ireland, signior; travel to them.

Laz. No, I will fall no more into bogs.

Duke. Sirrah, his debt ourself will satisfy.

Blurt. Blurt, my lord, dare take your word for as much more.

Duke. And since this heat of fury is all spent,

And tragic shapes meet comical event,

Let this bright morning merrily be crown’d

With dances, banquets, and choice music’s sound.

[Exeunt omnes.

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