Part 2 / Act 1 — ACT I. SCENE I.
Reading edition
A Street.
Enter Lactantio, Aurelia, and Servant.
Song within.
To be chaste is woman’s glory,
’Tis her fame and honour’s story:
Here sits she in funeral weeds,
Only bright in virtuous deeds;
Come and read her life and praise,
That singing weeps, and sighing plays.
Lac. Welcome, soul’s music! I’ve been listening here
To melancholy strains from the duchess’ lodgings;
That strange great widow, that has vow’d so stiffly
Ne’er to know love’s heat in a second husband:
And she has kept the fort most valiantly,
To th’ wonder of her sex, this seven year’s day,
And that’s no sorry trial. A month’s constancy
Is held a virtue in a city-widow;
And are they excell’d by so much more i’ th’ court?
My faith, a rare example for our wives!
556Heaven’s blessing of[864] her heart for it! poor soul,
She had need have somewhat to comfort her.
What wouldst thou do, faith, now,
If I were dead, suppose I were thy husband,
As shortly I will be, and that’s as good?
Speak freely, and[865] thou lov’st me.
Aur. Alas, sir,
I should not have the leisure to make vows;
For dying presently, I should be dead
Before you were laid out!
Lac. Now fie upon thee for a hasty dier!
Wouldst thou not see me buried?
Aur. Talk not on’t, sir,
These many years, unless you take delight
To see me swoon, or make a ghost of me.
Lac. Alas, poor soul! I’ll kiss thee into colour:
Canst thou paint pale so quickly? I perceive then
Thou’dst go beyond the duchess in her vow,
Thou’dst die indeed. What’s he?
Aur. Be settled, sir;
Spend neither doubt nor fear upon that fellow:
Health cannot be more trusty to man’s life
Than he to my necessities in love.
Lac. I take him of thy word, and praise his face,
Though he look scurvily; I’ll think hereafter
That honesty may walk with fire in’s nose,
As well as brave desert in broken clothes:
But for thy further safety, I’ve provided
A shape, that at first sight will start thy modesty,
And make thee blush perhaps, but 'twill away
After a qualm or two. Virginity
Has been put often to those shifts before thee
Upon extremities; a little boldness
Cannot be call’d immodesty, especially
557When there’s no means without it for our safeties.
Thou know’st my uncle, the lord cardinal,
Wears so severe an eye, so strict and holy,
It not endures the sight of womankind
About his lodgings:
Hardly a matron of fourscore’s admitted;
Though she be worn to gums, she comes not there
To mumble matins; all his admiration
Is plac’d upon the duchess; he likes her,
Because she keeps her vow and likes not any;
So does he love that man above his book
That loves no woman: for my fortune’s sake then,
For I am like to be his only heir,
I must dissemble, and appear as fair
To his opinion as the brow of piety;
As void of all impureness as an altar:
Thine ear [whispers]; that, and we’re safe.
Aur. You make me blush, sir.
Lac. ’Tis but a star shot from a beauteous cheek,
It blazes beauty’s bounty, and hurts nothing.
Aur. The power of love commands me.
Lac. I shall wither
In comforts, till I see thee. [Exeunt severally.