Pier. No? yes? nothing but no and yes, dull lump?
Canst thou not honey me with fluent speech,
And even adore my topless villainy?
Will I not blast my own blood for revenge,
Must not thou straight be perjur’d for revenge,
And yet no creature dream ’tis my revenge?
Will I not turn a glorious bridal morn
Unto a Stygian night? Yet naught but no and yes! 90
Str. I would have told you, if the incubus[204]
That rides your bosom would have patience,
It is reported that in private state
Maria, Genoa’s duchess, makes to court,
Longing to see him, whom she ne’er shall see,
Her lord Andrugio. Belike she hath receiv’d
The news of reconciliation.
A[205] reconciliation with death!
Poor lady! shall but find poor comfort in’t.
Pier. O, let me swoon for joy. By heaven, I think 100
I ha’ said my prayers, within this month at least;
I am so boundless happy. Doth she come?
By this warm reeking gore, I’ll marry her.
Look I not now like an inamorate?[206]
Poison the father, butcher the son, and marry the mother, ha!
Strotzo, to bed: snort in securest sleep;
For see, the dapple grey coursers of the morn
Beat up the light with their bright silver hooves,
And chase it through the sky.—To bed, to bed!
This morn my vengeance shall be amply fed. 110
[Exeunt.
[198] Old eds. “cloucht,” which we might regard as a misprint for “coucht” if Marston had not shown an excessive fondness (ridiculed in The Poetaster) for the word “clutch.”
[199] Feeling, perception.—See Dyce’s Shakesp. Glossary.
[200] Plunge often has the meaning of—difficulty, embarrassment. I suppose it has that meaning here. Piero is annoyed at having to speak fair words to so paltry a rascal as Strotzo.
[201] Stroke gently, flatter.—A common name for a flatterer was clawback.—“Flatant.—Flattering, fawning, colloguing with, clawing, smoothing, stroaking.”—Cotgrave.
[202] Old eds. “husht.”