Act IV, Scene ii

Enter HIPPOLITO

HIPPOLITO
The morning so far wasted, yet his baseness
So impudent? See if the very sun do not blush at him!
Dare he do thus much, and know me alive!
Put case one must be vicious, as I know myself
Monstrously guilty, there’s a blind time made for’t;	5
He might use only that, ’twere conscionable.
Art, silence, closeness, subtlety, and darkness
Are fit for such a business. But there’s no pity
To be bestowed on an apparent sinner,
An impudent daylight lecher! The great zeal	10
I bear to her advancement in this match
With Lord Vincentio, as the Duke has wrought it,
To the perpetual honour of our house,
Puts fire into my blood, to purge the air
Of this corruption, fear it spread too far,	15
And poison the whole hopes of this fair fortune.
I love her good so dearly, that no brother
Shall venture farther for a sister’s glory
Than I for her preferment.

Enter LEANTIO and a PAGE

LEANTIO      Once again
I’ll see that glist’ring whore shines like a serpent,	20
Now the court sun’s upon her. Page!
PAGE      Anon, sir!
LEANTIO
I’ll go in state too; see the coach be ready.
[Exit PAGE]
I’ll hurry away presently.
HIPPOLITO      Yes, you shall hurry,
And the devil after you; take that at setting forth!

[Strikes LEANTIO]

Now, and you’ll draw, we are upon equal terms, sir.	25
Thou took’st advantage of my name in honour
Upon my sister; I nev’r saw the stroke
Come, till I found my reputation bleeding;
And therefore count it I no sin to valour
To serve thy lust so. Now we are of even hand,	30
Take your best course against me. You must die.
LEANTIO
How close sticks envy to man’s happiness!
When I was poor and little cared for life,
I had no such means offered me to die,
No man’s wrath minded me. [Draws his sword] Slave, I turn this to thee,	35
To call thee to account for a wound lately
Of a base stamp upon me.
HIPPOLITO      ’Twas most fit
For a base mettle. Come and fetch one now
More noble, then, for I will use thee fairer
Than thou hast done thine own soul or our honour;	40
And there I think ’tis for thee.

[They fight and LEANTIO falls]

[VOICES] WITHIN      Help, help, oh part ’em!
LEANTIO
False wife! I feel now th’hast prayed heartily for me.
Rise, strumpet, by my fall, thy lust may reign now;
My heart-string and the marriage-knot that tied thee
Breaks both together. [Dies]
HIPPOLITO      There I heard the sound on’t,	45
And never liked string better.

Enter GUARDIANO, LIVIA, ISABELLA, WARD, and SORDIDO

LIVIA      ’Tis my brother!
Are you hurt, sir?
HIPPOLITO      Not anything.
LIVIA      Blessed fortune!
Shift for thyself; what is he thou hast killed?
HIPPOLITO
Our honour’s enemy.
GUARDIANO      Know you this man, lady?
LIVIA
Leantio? My love’s joy? [To HIPPOLITO] Wounds stick upon thee	50
As deadly as thy sins! Art thou not hurt?
The devil take that fortune. And he dead!
Drop plagues into thy bowels without voice,
Secret and fearful. [To others] Run for officers!
Let him be apprehended with all speed,	55
For fear he scape away; lay hands on him!
We cannot be too sure, ’tis wilful murder!
You do Heaven’s vengeance and the law just service;
You know him not as I do: he’s a villain,
As monstrous as a prodigy, and as dreadful.	60
HIPPOLITO
Will you but entertain a noble patience
Till you but hear the reason, worthy sister!
LIVIA
The reason! That’s a jest Hell falls a-laughing at!
Is there a reason found for the destruction
Of our more lawful loves? And was there none	65
To kill the black lust ’twixt thy niece and thee
That has kept close so long?
GUARDIANO      How’s that, good madam?
LIVIA
Too true, sir, there she stands, let her deny’t;
The deed cries shortly in the midwife’s arms,
Unless the parents’ sins strike it still-born.	70
And if you be not deaf and ignorant,
You’ll hear strange notes ere long. [To ISABELLA] Look upon me, wench!
’Twas I betrayed thy honour subtly to him
Under a false tale; it lights upon me now.
His arm has paid me home upon thy breast,	75
My sweet, beloved Leantio!
GUARDIANO      Was my judgement
And care in choice so dev’lishly abused,
So beyond shamefully? All the world will grin at me!
WARD
Oh Sordido, Sordido, I’m damned, I’m damned!
SORDIDO
Damned! Why, sir?
WARD      One of the wicked; dost not see’t?	80
A cuckold, a plain reprobate cuckold!
SORDIDO
Nay, and you be damned for that, be of good cheer, sir,
y’have gallant company of all professions; I’ll have a wife
next Sunday too, because I’ll along with you myself.
WARD
That will be some comfort yet.	85
LIVIA
[To GUARDIANO] You, sir, that bear your load of injuries
As I of sorrows, lend me your grieved strength
To this sad burthen who, in life, wore actions
Flames were not nimbler. We will talk of things
May have the luck to break our hearts together.	90
GUARDIANO
I’ll list to nothing but revenge and anger,
Whose counsels I will follow.
Exeunt LIVIA and GUARDIANO
[carrying LEANTIO’s body]
SORDIDO      A wife, quoth’a!
Here’s a sweet plum-tree of your guardianer’s grafting!
WARD
Nay, there’s a worse name belongs to this fruit yet, and
you could hit on’t, a more open one. For he that marries	95
a whore looks like a fellow bound all his lifetime to a
medlar-tree; and that’s good stuff, ’tis no sooner ripe but
it looks rotten – and so do some queans at nineteen. A
pox on’t, I thought there was some knavery abroach, for
something stirred in her belly the first night I lay with her.	100
SORDIDO
What, what, sir!
WARD
This is she brought up so courtly! Can sing, and dance,
and tumble too, methinks. I’ll never marry wife again
that has so many qualities.	105
SORDIDO
Indeed they are seldom good, master. For likely when
they are taught so many, they will have one trick more
of their own finding out. Well, give me a wench but with
one good quality, to lie with none but her husband, and
that’s bringing-up enough for any woman breathing.	110
WARD
This was the fault when she was tendered to me; you
never looked to this.
SORDIDO
Alas, how would you have me see through a great far-
thingale, sir! I cannot peep through a millstone, or in the
going, to see what’s done i’th’bottom.	115
WARD
Her father praised her breast, sh’ad the voice, forsooth;
I marvelled she sung so small indeed, being no maid.
Now I perceive there’s a young chorister in her belly –
this breeds a singing in my head, I’m sure.
SORDIDO
’Tis but the tune of your wives’ cinquepace, danced in a	120
featherbed. ’Faith, go lie down, master – but take heed
your horns do not make holes in the pillowberes. [Aside]
I would not batter brows with him for a hogshead of
angels; he would prick my skull as full of holes as a
scrivener’s sand-box.	125
Exeunt WARD and SORDIDO
ISABELLA
[Aside] Was ever maid so cruelly beguiled
To the confusion of life, soul, and honour,
All of one woman’s murdering! I’d fain bring
Her name no nearer to my blood than woman,
And ’tis too much of that. Oh shame and horror!	130
In that small distance from yon man to me
Lies sin enough to make a whole world perish.
[To him] ’Tis time we parted, sir, and left the sight
Of one another; nothing can be worse
To hurt repentance, for our very eyes	135
Are far more poisonous to religion
Than basilisks to them. If any goodness
Rest in you, hope of comforts, fear of judgements,
My request is, I nev’r may see you more;
And so I turn me from you everlastingly,	140
So is my hope to miss you. But for her,
That durst so dally with a sin so dangerous,
And lay a snare so spitefully for my youth,
If the least means but favour my revenge,
That I may practise the like cruel cunning	145
Upon her life, as she has on mine honour,
I’ll act it without pity.
HIPPOLITO      Here’s a care
Of reputation and a sister’s fortune
Sweetly rewarded by her. Would a silence,
As great as that which keeps among the graves,	150
Had everlastingly chained up her tongue;
My love to her has made mine miserable.

Enter GUARDIANO and LIVIA [who talk aside]

GUARDIANO
If you can but dissemble your heart’s griefs now,
Be but a woman so far.
LIVIA      Peace! I’ll strive, sir.
GUARDIANO
As I can wear my injuries in a smile,	155
Here’s an occasion offered, that gives anger
Both liberty and safety to perform
Things worth the fire it holds, without the fear
Of danger or of law; for mischiefs acted
Under the privilege of a marriage-triumph	160
At the Duke’s hasty nuptials will be thought
Things merely accidental; all’s by chance,
Not got of their own natures.
LIVIA      I conceive you, sir,
Even to a longing for performance on’t;
And here behold some fruits.

[Kneels before HIPPOLITO and ISABELLA]

Forgive me both.	165
What I am now, returned to sense and judgement,
Is not the same rage and distraction
Presented lately to you; that rude form
Is gone for ever. I am now myself,
That speaks all peace and friendship; and these tears	170
Are the true springs of hearty, penitent sorrow
For those foul wrongs which my forgetful fury
Slandered your virtues with. This gentleman
Is well resolved now.
GUARDIANO      I was never otherways.
I knew, alas, ’twas but your anger spake it,	175
And I nev’r thought on’t more.
HIPPOLITO      Pray rise, good sister.
ISABELLA
[Aside] Here’s ev’n as sweet amends made for a wrong now
As one that gives a wound, and pays the surgeon;
All the smart’s nothing, the great loss of blood,
Or time of hindrance. Well, I had a mother,	180
I can dissemble too. [To LIVIA]      What wrongs have slipped
Through anger’s ignorance, aunt, my heart forgives.
GUARDIANO
Why thus tuneful now!
HIPPOLITO      And what I did, sister,
Was all for honour’s cause, which time to come
Will approve to you.
LIVIA      Being awaked to goodness,	185
I understand so much, sir, and praise now
The fortune of your arm, and of your safety;
For by his death y’have rid me of a sin
As costly as ev’r woman doted on.
T’has pleased the Duke so well, too, that – behold, sir –	190
H’as sent you here your pardon,

[Gives him a letter]

which I kissed
With most affectionate comfort; when ’twas brought,
Then was my fit just past; it came so well, methought,
To glad my heart.
HIPPOLITO      I see his grace thinks on me.
LIVIA
There’s no talk now but of the preparation	195
For the great marriage.
HIPPOLITO      Does he marry her, then?
LIVIA
With all speed, suddenly, as fast as cost
Can be laid on with many thousand hands.
This gentleman and I had once a purpose
To have honoured the first marriage of the Duke	200
With an invention of his own; ’twas ready,
The pains well past, most of the charge bestowed on’t;
Then came the death of your good mother, niece,
And turned the glory of it all to black.
’Tis a device would fit these times so well, too,	205
Art’s treasury not better. If you’ll join,
It shall be done, the cost shall all be mine.
HIPPOLITO
Y’have my voice first, ’twill well approve my thankfulness
For the Duke’s love and favour.
LIVIA      What say you, niece?
ISABELLA
I am content to make one.
GUARDIANO      The plot’s full, then;	210
Your pages, madam, will make shift for cupids.
LIVIA
That will they, sir.
GUARDIANO      You’ll play your old part still.
LIVIA
What, is’t good? Troth, I have ev’n forgot it.
GUARDIANO
Why, Juno Pronuba, the marriage-goddess.
LIVIA
’Tis right, indeed.
GUARDIANO [To ISABELLA] And you shall play the nymph	215
That offers sacrifice to appease her wrath.
ISABELLA
Sacrifice, good sir?
LIVIA      Must I be appeased, then?
GUARDIANO
That’s as you list yourself, as you see cause.
LIVIA
Methinks ’twould show the more state in her deity
To be incensed.
ISABELLA      ’Twould, but my sacrifice	220
Shall take a course to appease you, or I’ll fail in’t,
[Aside] And teach a sinful bawd to play a goddess.
GUARDIANO
For our parts, we’ll not be ambitious, sir;
Please you walk in and see the project drawn,
Then take your choice.
HIPPOLITO      I weigh not, so I have one.      Exit	225
LIVIA
[Aside] How much ado have I to restrain fury
From breaking into curses! Oh how painful ’tis
To keep great sorrow smothered! Sure I think
’Tis harder to dissemble grief than love.
Leantio, here the weight of thy loss lies,	230
Which nothing but destruction can suffice.
Exeunt