Act II, Scene ii

Enter GUARDIANO and LIVIA

LIVIA
How, sir, a gentlewoman so young, so fair
As you set forth, spied from the widow’s window!
GUARDIANO
She!
LIVIA Our Sunday-dinner woman?
GUARDIANO
And Thursday-supper woman, the same still.
I know not how she came by her, but I’ll swear	5
She’s the prime gallant for a face in Florence;
And no doubt other parts follow their leader.
The Duke himself first spied her at the window;
Then in a rapture, as if admiration
Were poor when it were single, beckoned me,	10
And pointed to the wonder warily,
As one that feared she would draw in her splendour
Too soon, if too much gazed at. I nev’r knew him
So infinitely taken with a woman,
Nor can I blame his appetite, or tax	15
His raptures of slight folly; she’s a creature
Able to draw a State from serious business,
And make it their best piece to do her service.
What course shall we devise? H’as spoke twice now.
LIVIA
Twice?
GUARDIANO ’Tis beyond your apprehension	20
How strangely that one look has catched his heart!
’Twould prove but too much worth in wealth and favour
To those should work his peace.
LIVIA      And if I do’t not,
Or at least come as near it – if your art
Will take a little pains and second me –	25
As any wench in Florence of my standing,
I’ll quite give o’er, and shut up shop in cunning.
GUARDIANO
’Tis for the Duke, and if I fail your purpose,
All means to come, by riches or advancement,
Miss me and skip me over!
LIVIA      Let the old woman then	30
Be sent for with all speed, then I’ll begin.
GUARDIANO
A good conclusion follow, and a sweet one,
After this stale beginning with old ware.
Within there!

Enter SERVANT

SERVANT      Sir, do you call?
GUARDIANO      Come near, list hither.

[Talks aside with SERVANT]

LIVIA
I long myself to see this absolute creature,	35
That wins the heart of love and praise so much.
GUARDIANO
Go, sir, make haste.
LIVIA      Say I entreat her company;
Do you hear, sir?
SERVANT      Yes, madam.      Exit
LIVIA      That brings her quickly.
GUARDIANO
I would ’twere done; the Duke waits the good hour,
And I wait the good fortune that may spring from’t.	40
I have had a lucky hand these fifteen year
At such court-passage with three dice in a dish.
Signor Fabritio!

Enter FABRITIO

FABRITIO
Oh sir, I bring an alteration in my mouth now.
GUARDIANO
[Aside] An alteration! No wise speech, I hope;	45
He means not to talk wisely, does he trow?
[To him] Good! What’s the change, I pray, sir?
FABRITIO      A new
change.
GUARDIANO
[Aside] Another yet! ’Faith, there’s enough already.
FABRITIO
My daughter loves him now.
GUARDIANO      What, does she, sir?
FABRITIO
Affects him beyond thought, who but the Ward, forsooth!	50
No talk but of the Ward; she would have him
To choose ’bove all the men she ever saw.
My will goes not so fast as her consent now;
Her duty gets before my command still.
GUARDIANO
Why then, sir, if you’ll have me speak my thoughts,	55
I smell ’twill be a match.
FABRITIO      Ay, and a sweet young couple,
If I have any judgement.
GUARDIANO [Aside]      ’Faith, that’s little.
[To him] Let her be sent tomorrow before noon,
And handsomely tricked up; for ’bout that time
I mean to bring her in and tender her to him.	60
FABRITIO
I warrant you for handsome; I will see
Her things laid ready, every one in order,
And have some part of her tricked up tonight.
GUARDIANO
Why, well said.
FABRITIO      ’Twas a use her mother had,
When she was invited to an early wedding;	65
She’d dress her head o’ernight, sponge up herself,
And give her neck three lathers.
GUARDIANO [Aside]      Ne’er a halter?
FABRITIO
On with her chain of pearl, her ruby bracelets,
Lay ready all her tricks and jiggam-bobs.
GUARDIANO
So must your daughter.
FABRITIO      I’ll about it straight, sir.	70
Exit
LIVIA
How he sweats in the foolish zeal of fatherhood
After six ounces an hour, and seems
To toil as much as if his cares were wise ones!
GUARDIANO
Y’have let his folly blood in the right vein, lady.
LIVIA
And here comes his sweet son-in-law that shall be.	75
They’re both allied in wit before the marriage;
What will they be hereafter, when they are nearer?
Yet they can go no further than the fool:
There’s the world’s end in both of ’em.

Enter WARD and SORDIDO, one with a shuttlecock, the other a battledore

GUARDIANO      Now, young heir!
WARD
What’s the next business after shittlecock now?	80
GUARDIANO
Tomorrow you shall see the gentlewoman
Must be your wife.
WARD      There’s ev’n another thing too
Must be kept up with a pair of battledores.
My wife! What can she do?
GUARDIANO
Nay, that’s a question you should ask yourself, Ward,	85
When y’are alone together.

[LIVIA and GUARDIANO talk apart]

WARD      That’s as I list.
A wife’s to be asked anywhere, I hope;
I’ll ask her in a congregation, if I have a mind to’t, and
so save a licence. My guardianer has no more wit than
an herb-woman that sells away all her sweet herbs and	90
nosegays, and keeps a stinking breath for her own
pottage.
SORDIDO
Let me be at the choosing of your beloved,
If you desire a woman of good parts.
WARD
Thou shalt, sweet Sordido.	95
SORDIDO
I have a plaguey guess: let me alone to see what she is. If
I but look upon her – ’way, I know all the faults to a hair
that you may refuse her for.
WARD
Dost thou? I prithee let me hear ’em, Sordido.
SORDIDO
Well, mark ’em then; I have ’em all in rhyme.	100
The wife your guardianer ought to tender
Should be pretty, straight and slender;
Her hair not short, her foot not long,
Her hand not huge, nor too too loud her tongue;
No pearl in eye, nor ruby in her nose,	105
No burn or cut, but what the catalogue shows.
She must have teeth, and that no black ones,
And kiss most sweet when she does smack once;
Her skin must be both white and plumped,
Her body straight, not hopper-rumped,	110
Or wriggle sideways like a crab;
She must be neither slut nor drab,
Nor go too splay-foot with her shoes,
To make her smock lick up the dews.
And two things more, which I forgot to tell ye:	115
She neither must have bump in back, nor belly.
These are the faults that will not make her pass.
WARD
And if I spy not these, I am a rank ass.
SORDIDO
Nay more; by right, sir, you should see her naked,
For that’s the ancient order.
WARD      See her naked?	120
That were good sport, i’faith. I’ll have the books turned over;
And if I find her naked on record,
She shall not have a rag on. But stay, stay,
How if she should desire to see me so, too?
I were in a sweet case then, such a foul skin.	125
SORDIDO
But y’have a clean shirt, and that makes amends, sir.
WARD
I will not see her naked for that trick, though.      Exit
SORDIDO
Then take her with all faults, with her clothes on!
And they may hide a number with a bum-roll.
’Faith, choosing of a wench in a huge farthingale	130
Is like the buying of ware under a great penthouse:
What with the deceit of one,
And the false light of th’other, mark my speeches,
He may have a diseased wench in’s bed,
And rotten stuff in’s breeches.      Exit	135
GUARDIANO
It may take handsomely.
LIVIA      I see small hindrance.
How now, so soon returned?

Enter MOTHER

GUARDIANO      She’s come.
LIVIA      That’s well.
Widow, come, come, I have a great quarrel to you,
’Faith, I must chide you, that you must be sent for!
You make yourself so strange, never come at us;	140
And yet so near a neighbour, and so unkind!
Troth, y’are to blame, you cannot be more welcome
To any house in Florence, that I’ll tell you.
MOTHER
My thanks must needs acknowledge so much, madam.
LIVIA
How can you be so strange then? I sit here	145
Sometime whole days together without company,
When business draws this gentleman from home,
And should be happy in society,
Which I so well affect as that of yours.
I know y’are alone, too; why should not we,	150
Like two kind neighbours, then supply the wants
Of one another, having tongue-discourse,
Experience in the world, and such kind helps
To laugh down time, and meet age merrily?
MOTHER
Age, madam! You speak mirth; ’tis at my door,	155
But a long journey from your ladyship yet.
LIVIA
My faith, I’m nine and thirty, ev’ry stroke, wench,
And ’tis a general observation
’Mongst knights’ wives or widows, we accompt
Ourselves then old, when young men’s eyes leave looking at’s.	160
’Tis a true rule amongst us, and ne’er failed yet
In any but in one, that I remember;
Indeed, she had a friend at nine and forty;
Marry, she paid well for him, and in th’end
He kept a quean or two with her own money,	165
That robbed her of her plate and cut her throat.
MOTHER
She had her punishment in this world, madam,
And a fair warning to all other women
That they live chaste at fifty.
LIVIA      Ay, or never, wench.
Come, now I have thy company I’ll not part with’t	170
Till after supper.
MOTHER      Yes, I must crave pardon, madam.
LIVIA
I swear you shall stay supper. We have no strangers, woman,
None but my sojourners and I, this gentleman
And the young heir his ward; you know our company.
MOTHER
Some other time I will make bold with you, madam.	175
GUARDIANO
Nay, pray stay, widow.
LIVIA      ’Faith, she shall not go;
Do you think I’ll be forsworn?

Table and chess [are prepared]

MOTHER      ’Tis a great while
Till supper time; I’ll take my leave then, now, madam,
And come again i’th’evening, since your ladyship
Will have it so.
LIVIA      I’th’evening! By my troth, wench,	180
I’ll keep you while I have you; you have great business, sure,
To sit alone at home; I wonder strangely
What pleasure you take in’t! Were’t to me now,
I should be ever at one neighbour’s house
Or other all day long. Having no charge,	185
Or none to chide you, if you go, or stay,
Who may live merrier, ay, or more at heart’s ease?
Come, we’ll to chess, or draughts; there are an hundred tricks
To drive out time till supper, never fear’t, wench.
MOTHER
I’ll but make one step home, and return straight, madam.	190
LIVIA
Come, I’ll not trust you; you use more excuses
To your kind friends than ever I knew any.
What business can you have, if you be sure
Y’have locked the doors? And that being all you have,
I know y’are careful on’t. One afternoon	195
So much to spend here! Say I should entreat you now
To lie a night or two, or a week with me,
Or leave your own house for a month together –
It were a kindness that long neighbourhood
And friendship might well hope to prevail in.	200
Would you deny such a request? I’faith,
Speak truth, and freely.
MOTHER      I were then uncivil, madam.
LIVIA
Go to then, set your men; we’ll have whole nights
Of mirth together ere we be much older, wench.
MOTHER
[Aside] As good now tell her, then, for she will know’t;	205
I have always found her a most friendly lady.
LIVIA
Why, widow, where’s your mind?
MOTHER      Troth, ev’n at home, madam.
To tell you truth, I left a gentlewoman
Ev’n sitting all alone, which is uncomfortable,
Especially to young bloods.
LIVIA      Another excuse!	210
MOTHER
No, as I hope for health, madam, that’s a truth;
Please you to send and see.
LIVIA      What gentlewoman? Pish!
MOTHER
Wife to my son, indeed, but not known, madam,
To any but yourself.
LIVIA      Now I beshrew you,
Could you be so unkind to her and me,	215
To come and not bring her? ’Faith, ’tis not friendly.
MOTHER
I feared to be too bold.
LIVIA      Too bold? Oh what’s become
Of the true hearty love was wont to be
’Mongst neighbours in old time?
MOTHER      And she’s a stranger, madam.
LIVIA
The more should be her welcome. When is courtesy	220
In better practice, than when ’tis employed
In entertaining strangers? I could chide, i’faith.
Leave her behind, poor gentlewoman, alone too!
Make some amends, and send for her betimes, go.
MOTHER
Please you command one of your servants, madam.	225
LIVIA
Within there.

Enter SERVANT

SERVANT      Madam.
LIVIA      Attend the gentlewoman.
MOTHER
[Aside] It must be carried wondrous privately
From my son’s knowledge, he’ll break out in storms else.
[To SERVANT] Hark you, sir.

[They talk privately; exit SERVANT]

LIVIA [Aside to GUARDIANO]      Now comes in the heat of your part.
GUARDIANO
[Aside to LIVIA] True, I know it, lady, and if I be out,	230
May the Duke banish me from all employments,
Wanton, or serious.
LIVIA      So, have you sent, widow?
MOTHER
Yes, madam, he’s almost at home by this.
LIVIA
And ’faith, let me entreat you, that henceforward
All such unkind faults may be swept from friendship,	235
Which does but dim the lustre. And think thus much,
It is a wrong to me, that have ability
To bid friends welcome, when you keep ’em from me;
You cannot set greater dishonour near me,
For bounty is the credit and the glory	240
Of those that have enough. I see y’are sorry,
And the good ’mends is made by’t.
MOTHER      Here she’s, madam.

Enter BIANCA, and SERVANT [who shows her in, then exits]

BIANCA
[Aside] I wonder how she comes to send for me now?
LIVIA
Gentlewoman, y’are most welcome, trust me y’are,
As courtesy can make one, or respect	245
Due to the presence of you.
BIANCA      I give you thanks, lady.
LIVIA
I heard you were alone, and’t had appeared
An ill condition in me, though I knew you not,
Nor ever saw you – yet humanity
Thinks ev’ry case her own – to have kept your company	250
Here from you, and left you all solitary.
I rather ventured upon boldness then
As the least fault, and wished your presence here –
A thing most happily motioned of that gentleman,
Whom I request you, for his care and pity,	255
To honour and reward with your acquaintance;
A gentleman that ladies’ rights stands for,
That’s his profession.
BIANCA      ’Tis a noble one,
And honours my acquaintance.
GUARDIANO      All my intentions
Are servants to such mistresses.
BIANCA      ’Tis your modesty	260
It seems, that makes your deserts speak so low, sir.
LIVIA
Come, widow. [To BIANCA] Look you, lady, here’s our business;
Are we not well employed, think you?

[Points to chess table]

An old quarrel
Between us, that will never be at an end.
BIANCA      No,
And methinks there’s men enough to part you, lady.	265
LIVIA
Ho! But they set us on, let us come off
As well as we can, poor souls, men care no farther.
I pray sit down, forsooth, if you have the patience
To look upon two weak and tedious gamesterss.
GUARDIANO
’Faith, madam, set these by till evening,	270
You’ll have enough on’t then; the gentlewoman,
Being a stranger, would take more delight
To see your rooms and pictures.
LIVIA      Marry, good sir,
And well remembered! I beseech you show ’em her;
That will beguile time well. Pray heartily do, sir,	275
I’ll do as much for you; here, take these keys,
Show her the monument too – and that’s a thing
Everyone sees not; you can witness that, widow.
MOTHER
And that’s worth sight indeed, madam.
BIANCA      Kind lady,
I fear I came to be a trouble to you.	280
LIVIA
Oh nothing less, forsooth.
BIANCA      And to this courteous gentleman,
That wears a kindness in his breast so noble
And bounteous to the welcome of a stranger.
GUARDIANO
If you but give acceptance to my service,
You do the greatest grace and honour to me	285
That courtesy can merit.
BIANCA      I were to blame else,
And out of fashion much. I pray you lead, sir.
LIVIA
After a game or two w’are for you, gentlefolks.
GUARDIANO
We wish no better seconds in society
Than your discourses, madam, and your partner’s there.	290
MOTHER
I thank your praise. I listened to you, sir,
Though when you spoke there came a paltry rook
Full in my way, and chokes up all my game.
Exit GUARDIANO and BIANCA
LIVIA
Alas, poor widow, I shall be too hard for thee.
MOTHER
Y’are cunning at the game, I’ll be sworn, madam.	295
LIVIA
It will be found so, ere I give you over.
She that can place her man well –
MOTHER      As you do, madam.
LIVIA
– As I shall, wench, can never lose her game.
Nay, nay, the black king’s mine.
MOTHER      Cry you mercy, madam.
LIVIA
And this my queen.
MOTHER      I see’t now.
LIVIA      Here’s a duke	300
Will strike a sure stroke for the game anon;
Your pawn cannot come back to relieve itself.
MOTHER
I know that, madam.
LIVIA      You play well the whilst;
How she belies her skill! I hold two ducats
I give you check and mate to your white king,	305
Simplicity itself, your saintish king there.
MOTHER
Well, ere now, lady,
I have seen the fall of subtlety. Jest on.
LIVIA
Ay, but simplicity receives two for one.
MOTHER
What remedy but patience!

Enter above GUARDIANO and BIANCA

BIANCA      Trust me, sir,	310
Mine eye nev’r met with fairer ornaments.
GUARDIANO
Nay, livelier, I’m persuaded, neither Florence
Nor Venice can produce.
BIANCA      Sir, my opinion
Takes your part highly.
GUARDIANO      There’s a better piece
Yet than all these.

[Enter] DUKE above

BIANCA      Not possible, sir!
GUARDIANO      Believe it;	315
You’ll say so when you see’t. Turn but your eye now,
Y’are upon’t presently.      Exit
BIANCA [Sees DUKE]      Oh sir!
DUKE      He’s gone, beauty!
Pish, look not after him! He’s but a vapour
That when the sun appears is seen no more.
BIANCA
Oh treachery to honour!
DUKE      Prithee, tremble not;	320
I feel thy breast shake like a turtle panting
Under a loving hand that makes much on’t.
Why art so fearful? As I’m friend to brightness,
There’s nothing but respect and honour near thee.
You know me, you have seen me; here’s a heart	325
Can witness I have seen thee.
BIANCA      The more’s my danger.
DUKE
The more’s thy happiness. Pish, strive not, sweet!
This strength were excellent employed in love, now,
But here ’tis spent amiss. Strive not to seek
Thy liberty and keep me still in prison.	330
I’faith, you shall not out till I’m released now;
We’ll be both freed together, or stay still by’t;
So is captivity pleasant.
BIANCA      Oh my lord!
DUKE
I am not here in vain; have but the leisure
To think on that, and thou’lt be soon resolved.	335
The lifting of thy voice is but like one
That does exalt his enemy, who, proving high,
Lays all the plots to confound him that raised him.
Take warning, I beseech thee; thou seem’st to me
A creature so composed of gentleness	340
And delicate meekness, such as bless the faces
Of figures that are drawn for goddesses,
And makes art proud to look upon her work;
I should be sorry the least force should lay
An unkind touch upon thee.
BIANCA      Oh my extremity!	345
My lord, what seek you?
DUKE      Love.
BIANCA      ’Tis gone already,
I have a husband.
DUKE      That’s a single comfort;
Take a friend to him.
BIANCA      That’s a double mischief,
Or else there’s no religion.
DUKE      Do not tremble
At fears of thine own making.
BIANCA      Nor, great lord,	350
Make me not bold with death and deeds of ruin
Because they fear not you; me they must fright,
Then am I best in health. Should thunder speak
And none regard it, it had lost the name
And were as good be still. I’m not like those	355
That take their soundest sleeps in greatest tempests;
Then wake I most, the weather fearfullest,
And call for strength to virtue.
DUKE      Sure I think
Thou know’st the way to please me. I affect
A passionate pleading ’bove an easy yielding,	360
But never pitied any; they deserve none
That will not pity me. I can command:
Think upon that. Yet if thou truly knewest
The infinite pleasure my affection takes
In gentle, fair entreatings, when love’s businesses	365
Are carried courteously ’twixt heart and heart,
You’d make more haste to please me.
BIANCA      Why should you seek, sir,
To take away that you can never give?
DUKE
But I give better in exchange: wealth, honour.
She that is fortunate in a duke’s favour	370
Lights on a tree that bears all women’s wishes;
If your own mother saw you pluck fruit there,
She would commend your wit and praise the time
Of your nativity. Take hold of glory.
Do not I know y’have cast away your life	375
Upon necessities, means merely doubtful
To keep you in indifferent health and fashion –
A thing I heard too lately, and soon pitied –
And can you be so much your beauty’s enemy
To kiss away a month or two in wedlock,	380
And weep whole years in wants for ever after?
Come, play the wise wench, and provide for ever;
Let storms come when they list, they find thee sheltered.
Should any doubt arise, let nothing trouble thee;
Put trust in our love for the managing	385
Of all to thy heart’s peace. We’ll talk together,
And show a thankful joy for both our fortunes.
Exit [both] above
LIVIA
Did not I say my duke would fetch you over, widow?
MOTHER
I think you spoke in earnest when you said it, madam.
LIVIA
And my black king makes all the haste he can, too.	390
MOTHER
Well, madam, we may meet with him in time yet.
LIVIA
I have given thee blind mate twice.
MOTHER      You may see, madam,
My eyes begin to fail.
LIVIA      I’ll swear they do, wench.

Enter GUARDIANO

GUARDIANO
[Aside] I can but smile as often as I think on’t,
How prettily the poor fool was beguiled,	395
How unexpectedly! It’s a witty age.
Never were finer snares for women’s honesties
Than are devised in these days; no spider’s web
Made of a daintier thread than are now practised
To catch love’s flesh-fly by the silver wing.	400
Yet to prepare her stomach by degrees
To Cupid’s feast, because I saw ’twas queasy,
I showed her naked pictures by the way –
A bit to stay the appetite. Well, advancement!
I venture hard to find thee; if thou com’st	405
With a greater title set upon thy crest,
I’ll take that first cross patiently, and wait
Until some other comes greater than that.
I’ll endure all.
LIVIA
The game’s ev’n at the best now; you may see, widow,	410
How all things draw to an end.
MOTHER      Ev’n so do I, madam.
LIVIA
I pray take some of your neighbours along with you.
MOTHER
They must be those are almost twice your years, then,
If they be chose fit matches for my time, madam.
LIVIA
Has not my duke bestirred himself?
MOTHER      Yes, ’faith, madam;	415
H’as done me all the mischief in this game.
LIVIA
H’as showed himself in’s kind.
MOTHER      In’s kind, call you it?
I may swear that.
LIVIA      Yes ’faith, and keep your oath.
GUARDIANO
[Aside] Hark, list! There’s somebody coming down; ’tis
she.

Enter BIANCA

BIANCA
[Aside] Now bless me from a blasting! I saw that now	420
Fearful for any woman’s eye to look on.
Infectious mists and mildews hang at’s eyes,
The weather of a doomsday dwells upon him.
Yet since mine honour’s leprous, why should I
Preserve that fair that caused the leprosy?	425
Come, poison all at once! [Aside to GUARDIANO] Thou in whose baseness
The bane of virtue broods, I’m bound in soul
Eternally to curse thy smooth-browed treachery,
That wore the fair veil of a friendly welcome,
And I a stranger; think upon’t, ’tis worth it.	430
Murders piled up upon a guilty spirit
At his last breath will not lie heavier
Than this betraying act upon thy conscience.
Beware of off’ring the first-fruits to sin:
His weight is deadly who commits with strumpets	435
After they have been abased and made for use;
If they offend to th’death, as wise men know,
How much more they, then, that first make ’em so?
I give thee that to feed on. I’m made bold now,
I thank thy treachery; sin and I’m acquainted,	440
No couple greater; and I’m like that great one
Who, making politic use of a base villain,
He likes the treason well, but hates the traitor;
So I hate thee, slave.
GUARDIANO [Aside]      Well, so the Duke loves me,
I fare not much amiss then; two great feasts	445
Do seldom come together in one day,
We must not look for ’em.
BIANCA      What, at it still, Mother?
MOTHER
You see we sit by’t; are you so soon returned?
LIVIA
[Aside] So lively and so cheerful? A good sign, that.
MOTHER
You have not seen all since, sure?
BIANCA      That have I, Mother,	450
The monument and all. I’m so beholding
To this kind, honest, courteous gentleman,
You’d little think it, Mother, showed me all,
Had me from place to place, so fashionably;
The kindness of some people, how’t exceeds!	455
’Faith, I have seen that I little thought to see
I’th’morning when I rose.
MOTHER      Nay, so I told you
Before you saw’t, it would prove worth your sight.
I give you great thanks for my daughter, sir,
And all your kindness towards her.
GUARDIANO      Oh good widow!	460
Much good may’t do her – [Aside] forty weeks hence, i’faith.

Enter SERVANT

LIVIA
Now, sir?
SERVANT      May’t please you, madam, to walk in?
Supper’s upon the table.
LIVIA      Yes, we come;
Will’t please you, gentlewoman?
BIANCA      Thanks, virtuous lady –
[Aside to LIVIA] Y’are a damned bawd! [Aloud to others] I’ll follow you forsooth,	465
Pray take my mother in. [Aside] An old ass go with you!
[Aloud] This gentleman and I vow not to part.
LIVIA
Then get you both before.
BIANCA [Aside]      There lies his art.
Exeunt [BIANCA, GUARDIANO, and SERVANT]
LIVIA
Widow, I’ll follow you.      [Exit MOTHER]
Is’t so, ’damned bawd’?
Are you so bitter? ’Tis but want of use;	470
Her tender modesty is sea-sick a little,
Being not accustomed to the breaking billow
Of woman’s wavering faith, blown with temptations.
’Tis but a qualm of honour, ’twill away;
A little bitter for the time, but lasts not.	475
Sin tastes at the first draught like wormwood water,
But drunk again, ’tis nectar ever after.      Exit