Pier. Go, seize Antonio! guard him strongly in!
[Exit Forobosco.
Str. By his ambition being only bribed,
Fee’d by his impious hand, I poisonèd 180
His agèd father, that his thirsty hope
Might quench their dropsy of aspiring drought
With full unbounded quaff.
Pier. Seize me, Antonio!
Str. O, why permit you now such scum of filth
As Strotzo is to live and taint the air
With his infectious breath!
Pier. Myself will be thy strangler, unmatched slave.
Piero comes from his chair, snatcheth the cord’s end, and Castilio aideth him: both strangle Strotzo.
Str. Now change your——
Pier. I—pluck Castilio!—I change my humour: pluck Castilio!
Die, with thy death’s entreats even in thy jaws.— 190
[Aside.] Now, now, now, now, now, my plot begins to work!
Why, thus should statesmen do,
That cleave through knots of craggy policies,
Use men like wedges, one strike out another,
Till by degrees the tough and knurly[300] trunk
Be riv’d in sunder.—Where’s Antonio?