[397] Ed. 1. “ye.”
SCENE III.[398]
The palace of the Duke of Genoa.
Enter Malevole and Passarello.
Mal. Fool, most happily encountered: canst sing, fool?
Pass. Yes, I can sing, fool, if you’ll bear the burden; and I can play upon instruments, scurvily, as gentlemen do. O, that I had been gelded! I should then have been a fat fool for a chamber, a squeaking fool for a tavern, and a private fool for all the ladies.
Mal. You are in good case since you came to court, fool: what, guarded, guarded![399] 9
Pass. Yes, faith, even as footmen and bawds wear velvet, not for an ornament of honour, but for a badge of drudgery; for, now the duke is discontented, I am fain to fool him asleep every night.
Mal. What are his griefs?
Pass. He hath sore eyes.