Mon. Do not fear it;

I'll be your ranger.

Cam. You must watch i'th' nights; Then's the most danger.

F. de Med. Farewel, good Marcello ; All the best fortunes of a soldier's wish Bring you on ship-board.

Cam. Were I not best, now I am turn'd soldier, Ere that I leave my wife, sell all she hath, And then take leave of her?

Mon. I expect good from you,

Your parting is so merry.

Cam. Merry, my lord! o'th' captains humour right,

I am resolved to be drunk this night.

[Exit. F. de Med. So, 'twas well fitted: now shall we discern

How his wish'd absence will give violent way To duke Brachiano's lust.

Mon. Why that was it;

To what scorn'd purpose else should we make choice

Of him for a sea-captain? and, besides,
Count Lodowick, which was rumour'd for a pirate,
Is now in Padua.

F. de Med. Is't true?

Mon. Most certain.

I have letters from him, which are suppliant
To work his quick repeal from banishment:
He means to address himself for pension
Unto our sister dutchess.

F. de Med. O'twas well.

We shall not want his absence past six days:
I fain would have the duke Brachiano run
Into notorious scandal; for there's nought,
In such curst dotage, to repair his name,
Only the deep sense of some deathless shame.
Mon. It may be objected, I am dishonourable
To play thus with my kinsman; but I answer,
For my revenge I'd stake a brother's life,
That, being wrong'd, durst not avenge himself.
F. de Med. Come, to observe this strumpet.
Mon. Curse of greatness!

Sure he'll not leave her?

F. de Med. There's small pity in't; Like missletoe on sear elms spent by weather, Let him cleave to her, and both rot together.

[Exeunt.

Enter BRACHIANO with one in the habit of a Conjurer.

Brach. Now, sir, I claim your promise; 'tis dead midnight,

The time prefix'd to shew me, by your art,

How the intended murder of Camillo
And our loath'd dutchess grow to action. [deed
Con. You have won me, by your bounty, to a
I do not often practise: some there are,
Which, by sophistick tricks, aspire that name
Which I would gladly lose, of necromancer;
As some that use to juggle upon cards,
Seeming to conjure, when indeed they cheat.
Others that raise up their confederate spirits
'Bout wind-mills, and endanger their own necks
For making of a squib: and some there are
27 Will keep a curtal to shew juggling tricks,
And give out 'tis a spirit. Besides these,
Such a whole ream of almanack-makers, figure-
flingers,

Fellows, indeed, that only live by stealth,
Since they do merely lie about stol'n goods,
They'd make men think the devil were fast and

loose,

With speaking fustian Latin. Pray sit down; Put on this night-cap, sir, 'tis charm'd; and now I'll shew you, by my strong commanding art, The circumstance that breaks your dutchess' heart.

A dumb Show.

Enter suspiciously JULIO and CHRISTOPHERO; they draw a curtain where BRACHIANO'S picture is. They put on spectacles of glass, which cover their eyes and noses, and then burn perfumes before the picture, and wash the lips of the picture; that done, quenching the fire, and putting off their spectacles, they depart laughing.

Enter ISABELLA in her night-gown, as to bedward, with light after her: Count LODOVICO, GIOVANNI, GUID-ANTONIO, and others waiting on her she kneels down as to prayers, then draws the curtain of the pictare, does three reverences to it, and kisses it thrice: she faints, and will not suffer them to come near it; dies: sorrow exprest in GIOVANNI, and in Count LODOVICO. She's conveyed out solemnly.

Brach. Excellent! then she's dead.
Con. She's poison'd

By the fum'd picture: 'twas her custom nightly,
Before she went to bed, to go and visit
Your picture, and to feed her eyes and lips
On the dead shadow. Doctor Julio,
Observing this, infects it with an oil,
And other poison'd stuff, which presently
Did suffocate her spirits.

Brach. Methought I saw

Count Lodovico there.

Con. He was; and, by my art,
I find he did most passionately doat

See Digby on Bodies.

Upon your dutchess. Now turn another way, And view Camillo's far more politick face. Strike louder, musick, from this charmed ground, To yield, as fits the act, a tragick sound.

The second dumb Show.

Enter FLAMINEO, MARCELLO, CAMILLO, with four more as Captains: they drink healths, and dance: a vaulting horse is brought into the room: MARCELLO and two more whisper'd out of the room, while FLAMINEO and CAMILLO stript themselves into their shirts, as to vault; they compliment who shall begin: as CAMILLO is about to vault, FLAMINEO pitcheth him upon his neck, and with the help of the rest, wriths his neck about seems to see if it be broke, and lays him folded double, as 'twere under the horse: makes shew to call for help: MARCELLO comes in, laments; sends for the Cardinal and Duke, who come forth with armed men; wonders at the act; commands the body to be carried home; apprehends FLAMIN EO, MARCELLO, and the rest; and gocs, as 'twere, to apprehend VITTORIA. Brach. 'Twas quaintly done; but yet each circumstance

stances

To charge her with, about her husband's death;
Their approbation, therefore, to the proofs

Of her black lust shall make her infamous
To all our neighbouring kingdoms. I wonder
If Brachiano will be here?

F. de Med. O fy! 'twere impudence too palpable. [Exeunt. Enter FLAMINEO and MARCELLO guarded, and a Lawyer.

Law. 29 What, are you in by the week? so, I will try now whether thy wit be close prisoner: methinks none should sit upon thy sister, but old whore-masters.

Flam. Or cuckolds; for your cuckold is the most terrible tickler of leachery. Whore-masters would serve, for none are judges at tilting, but those that have been old tilters.

Law. My lord duke and she have been very private.

Flam. You are a dull ass; 'tis threaten'd they have been very publick.

Law. If it can be proved they have but kiss'd one another.

Flam. What then?

Law. My lord cardinal will ferret them. Flam. A cardinal, I hope, will not catch co

neys.

Law. For to sow kisses (mark what I say) to sow kisses is to reap leachery; and, I am sure, a woman that will endure kissing is half won.

Flam. True, her upper part; by that rule, if you will win her nether part too, you know what follows.

Law. Heark, the ambassadors are lighted. Flam. I do put on this feigned garb of mirth, To gall suspiciou.

Mar. O my unfortunate sister!

I would my dagger-point had cleft her heart
When she first saw Brachiano: you, 'tis said,
Were made his engine, and his stalking horse,
To undo my sister.

Flam. I am a kind of path
To her, and mine own preferment.

Mar. Your ruin.

S.

The Arraignment of VITTORIA. Enter FRANCISCO DE MEDICIS, MONTICELSO, the 34 four lieger Ambassadors, BRACHIANO, VITTORIA COROMBONA, ISABELLA, Lawyer, and a guard.

Mon. Forbear, my lord, here is no place assign'd you:

This business, by his holiness, is left
To our examination.

Brach. May it thrive with you.

[Lays a rich gown under him. F. de Med. A chair there for his lordship. Brach. Forbear your kindness; an unbidden guest

Should travel as Dutch women go to church,
Bear their stool with them.

Mon. At your pleasure, sir.

Stand to the table, gentlewoman. Now, signior, Fall to your plea.

Law. Domine judex converte oculos in hanc pestem mulierum corruptissimam.

Vit. Cor. What's he?

F. de Med. A lawyer, that pleads against you. Vit. Cor. Pray, my lord, let him speak his usual tongue, I'll make no answer else.

F. de Med. Why, you understand Latin. Vit. Cor. I do, sir, but amongst this auditory Which come to hear my cause, the half or more May be ignorant in't.

Mon. Go on, sir.

Vit. Cor. By your favour,

I will not have my accusation clouded

In a strange tongue: all this assembly Shall hear what you can charge me with.

F. de Med. Signior,

You need not stand on't much; pray, change your language.

Mon. Oh, for God's sake! gentlewoman, your

credit

p. 122.

Who such a concatenation

Of mischief hath effected, that to extirp
Of her, and her projections.
The memory of't, must be the consummation

Vit. Cor. What's all this?
Law. Hold your peace!

Exorbitant sins must have exulceration.

Vit. Cor. Surely, my lords, this lawyer hath swallowed

Some apothecaries bills, or proclamations:
And now the hard and undigestable words
Come up like stones we use give hawks for
physick.

Why, this is Welch to Latin.

Law. My lords, the woman Knows not her tropes, nor is perfect In the academick derivation

Of grammatical elocution.

F. de Med. Sir, your pains

Shall be well spared, and your deep eloquence
Be worthily applauded among those
Which understand you.

Law. My good lord.
F. de Med. Sir,

Put up your papers in your fustian bag,

[FRANCISCO speaks this as in scorn. Cry mercy, sir, 'tis buckeram, and accept My notion of your learn'd verbosity. Law. I most graduatically thank your lordship;

I shall have use for them elsewhere.

Mon. I shall be plainer with you, and paint

Observe this creature here, my honour'd lords,
A woman of a most prodigious spirit,
In her effected.

Vit. Cor. My honourable lord,
It doth not suit a reverend cardinal
To play the Lawyer thus.

Mon. Oh, your trade instructs your language! You see, my lords, what goodly fruit she seems; 36 Yet like those apples travellers report

paid,

Exactions upon meat, drink, garments, sleep;
Ay even on man's perdition, his sin.
They are those brittle evidences of law,
Which forfeit all a wretched man's estate
For leaving out one syllable. What are whores?
They are those flattering bells have all one tune,
At weddings and at funerals. Your rich whores
Are only treasuries by extortion fill'd,
And empty'd by curs'd riot. They are worse,
Worse than dead bodies, which are begg'd at th'
gallows,

And wrought upon by surgeons, to teach man
Wherein he is imperfect. What's a whore?
She is like the gilt counterfeited coin,

Which, whosoe'er first stamps it, brings in trouble

All that receive it.

Vit. Cor. This character 'scapes me.
Mon. You, gentlewoman?

Take from all beasts and from all minerals

Their deadly poison

Vit. Com. Well, what then?

Mon. I'll tell thee;

I'll find in thee an apothecary's shop,

To sample them all.

cumstance.

Mon. And look upon this creature as his wife.

She comes not like a widow: she comes arm'd With scorn and impudence: is this a mourninghabit?

Vit. Cor. Had I foreknown his death, as you suggest,

I would have bespoke my mourning.
Mon. O you are cunning!

Vit. Cor. You shame your wit and judgment
To call it so; what! is my just defence
By him that is my judge call'd impudence?
Let me appeal then from this 37 Christian court
To the uncivil Tartar.

Mon. See, my lords,
She scandals our proceedings.

Vit. Cor. Humbly thus,

Thus low, to the most worthy and respected
Leiger embassadors, my modesty
And woman-hood I tender; but withal,
So intangled in a cursed accusation,
That my defence, of force, like Perseus,
Must personate masculine virtue. To the point;
Find me but guilty, sever head from body,
We'll part good friends: I scorn to hold my life
At yours, or any man's intreaty, sir.

E. Amb. She hath a brave spirit.

Mon. Well, well, such counterfeit jewels Make true ones oft suspected.

Vit. Cor. You are deceived;

For know, that all your strict combined heads, Which strike against this mine of diamonds, Shall prove but glassen hammers, they shall break;

These are but feigned shadows of my evils.