‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore

[Act II, Scene ii]

Enter SORANZO in his study, reading a book

SORANZO
‘Love’s measure is extreme, the comfort pain,

The life unrest, and the reward disdain.’
What’s here? Look’t o’er again. ’Tis so, so writes
This smooth licentious poet in his rhymes;
But Sannazar, thou liest, for had thy bosom	5
Felt such oppression as is laid on mine,
Thou wouldst have kissed the rod that made the smart.
To work then, happy Muse, and contradict
What Sannazar hath in his envy writ.
‘Love’s measure is the mean, sweet his annoys,	10
His pleasures life, and his reward all joys.’
Had Annabella lived when Sannazar
Did in his brief encomium celebrate
Venice, that queen of cities, he had left
That verse which gained him such a sum of gold,	15
And for one only look from Annabel
Had writ of her, and her diviner cheeks.
O, how my thoughts are –
VASQUES (Within)
Pray forbear! In rules of civility, let me give notice on’t: I
shall be taxed of my neglect of duty and service.	20
SORANZO
What rude intrusion interrupts my peace?
Can I be nowhere private?
VASQUES (Within)
Troth, you wrong your modesty.
SORANZO
What’s the matter, Vasques, who is’t?

HIPPOLITA
’Tis I:	25
Do you know me now? Look, perjured man, on her
Whom thou and thy distracted lust have wronged.
Thy sensual rage of blood hath made my youth
A scorn to men and angels; and shall I
Be now a foil to thy unsated change?	30
Thou know’st, false wanton, when my modest fame
Stood free from stain or scandal, all the charms
Of hell or sorcery could not prevail
Against the honour of my chaster bosom.
Thine eyes did plead in tears, thy tongue in oaths	35
Such, and so many, that a heart of steel
Would have been wrought to pity, as was mine;
And shall the conquest of my lawful bed,
My husband’s death urged on by his disgrace,
My loss of womanhood, be ill rewarded	40
With hatred and contempt? No! Know, Soranzo,
I have a spirit doth as much distaste
The slavery of fearing thee as thou
Dost loathe the memory of what hath passed.
SORANZO
Nay, dear Hippolita –
HIPPOLITA Call me not dear,	45
Nor think with supple words to smooth the grossness
Of my abuses. ’Tis not your new mistress,
Your goodly Madam Merchant, shall triumph
On my dejection: tell her thus from me,
My birth was nobler, and by much more free.	50

SORANZO
You are too violent.
HIPPOLITA You are too double
In your dissimulation. Seest thou this,
This habit, these black mourning weeds of care?
’Tis thou art cause of this, and hast divorced
My husband from his life and me from him,	55
And made me widow in my widowhood.
SORANZO
Will you yet hear?
HIPPOLITA More of thy perjuries?
Thy soul is drowned too deeply in those sins:
Thou need’st not add to th’number.
SORANZO Then I’ll leave you;
You are past all rules of sense.
HIPPOLITA And thou of grace.	60
VASQUES
Fie, mistress, you are not near the limits of reason: if my lord
had a resolution as noble as virtue itself, you take the course to
unedge it all. Sir, I beseech you do not perplex her. Griefs, alas,
will have a vent; I dare undertake Madam Hippolita will now
freely hear you.	65
SORANZO
Talk to a woman frantic! Are these the fruits of your
love?

HIPPOLITA
They are the fruits of thy untruth, false man!
Didst thou not swear, whilst yet my husband lived,
That thou wouldst wish no happiness on earth	70
More than to call me wife? Didst thou not vow,
When he should die, to marry me? For which
The devil in my blood, and thy protests,
Caused me to counsel him to undertake
A voyage to Leghorn, for that we heard	75
His brother there was dead and left a daughter
Young and unfriended, who with much ado
I wished him to bring hither. He did so,
And went, and, as thou know’st, died on the way.
Unhappy man to buy his death so dear	80
With my advice! Yet thou for whom I did it
Forget’st thy vows, and leav’st me to my shame.
SORANZO
Who could help this?
HIPPOLITA Who? Perjured man, thou couldst,
If thou hadst faith or love.
SORANZO You are deceived:
The vows I made, if you remember well,	85
Were wicked and unlawful, ’twere more sin
To keep them than to break them; as for me,
I cannot mask my penitence. Think thou
How much thou hast digressed from honest shame
In bringing of a gentleman to death	90
Who was thy husband. Such a one as he,
So noble in his quality, condition,
Learning, behaviour, entertainment, love,
As Parma could not show a braver man.

VASQUES
You do not well, this was not your promise.	95
SORANZO
I care not: let her know her monstrous life.
Ere I’ll be servile to so black a sin
I’ll be a corpse. Woman, come here no more,
Learn to repent and die; for by my honour
I hate thee and thy lust. You have been too foul. [Exit]	100
VASQUES
This part has been scurvily played.
HIPPOLITA
How foolishly this beast contemns his fate,
And shuns the use of that which I more scorn
Than I once loved, his love! But let him go:
My vengeance shall give comfort to his woe.	105
She offers to go away
VASQUES
Mistress, mistress, Madam Hippolita! Pray, a word or two.
HIPPOLITA
With me, sir?
VASQUES
With you if you please.
HIPPOLITA
What is’t?
VASQUES
I know you are infinitely moved now, and you think you	110
have cause: some I confess you have, but, sure, not so much
as you imagine.
HIPPOLITA
Indeed!
VASQUES
O you were miserably bitter, which you followed even to
the last syllable; faith, you were somewhat too shrewd. By	115
my life, you could not have took my lord in a worse time
since I first knew him; tomorrow you shall find him a
new man.

HIPPOLITA
Well, I shall wait his leisure.
VASQUES
Fie, this is not a hearty patience: it comes sourly from you.	120
Troth, let me persuade you for once.
HIPPOLITA
[Aside] I have it, and it shall be so. Thanks opportunity!
[To him] Persuade me to what?
VASQUES
Visit him in some milder temper. O, if you could but master a little
your female spleen, how might you win him!	125
HIPPOLITA
He will never love me. Vasques, thou hast been a too trusty servant
to such a master, and I believe thy reward in the end will fall
out like mine.
VASQUES
So perhaps too.
HIPPOLITA
Resolve thyself, it will. Had I one so true, so truly honest,	130
so secret to my counsels, as thou hast been to him and his, I should
think it a slight acquittance not only to make him master of all I
have, but even of myself.
VASQUES
O, you are a noble gentlewoman!
HIPPOLITA
Wilt thou feed always upon hopes? Well, I know thou art wise, and	135
seest the reward of an old servant daily what it is.
VASQUES
Beggary and neglect.
HIPPOLITA
True; but Vasques, wert thou mine, and wouldst be private to me
and my designs, I here protest myself, and all what I can else call
mine, should be at thy dispose.	140

VASQUES
[Aside] Work you that way, old mole? Then I have the wind of you.
[To her] I were not worthy of it, by any desert that could lie within
my compass. If I could –
HIPPOLITA
What then?
VASQUES
I should then hope to live in these my old years with rest and	145
security.
HIPPOLITA
Give me thy hand. Now promise but thy silence,
And help to bring to pass a plot I have,
And here in sight of Heaven, that being done,
I make thee lord of me and mine estate.	150
VASQUES
Come, you are merry: this is such a happiness that I can neither
think or believe.
HIPPOLITA
Promise thy secrecy, and ’tis confirmed.
VASQUES
Then here I call our good genii for witnesses, whatsoever
your designs are, or against whomsoever, I will not only	155
be a special actor therein, but never disclose it till it be
effected.

HIPPOLITA
I take thy word, and with that, thee for mine.
Come then, let’s more confer of this anon.
On this delicious bane my thoughts shall banquet;	160
Revenge shall sweeten what my griefs have tasted. Exeunt