SCENE II.
Chamber in the Duke’s Palace.
Enter Malevole at one door; Bianca, Emilia, and Maquerelle at the other door.
Mal. Bless ye, cast o’ ladies![412] —Ha, dipsas![413] how dost thou, old coal?
Maq. Old coal!
Mal. Ay, old coal: methinks thou liest like a brand under these[414] billets of green wood. He that will inflame a young wench’s heart, let him lay close to her an old coal that hath first been fired, a panderess, my half-burnt lint, who though thou canst not flame thyself, yet art able to set a thousand virgin’s tapers afire.—And how does[415] Janivere thy husband, my little periwinkle? is he troubled with the cough o’ the lungs still? does he hawk o’ nights still? he will not bite. 12
Bian. No, by my troth, I took him with his mouth empty of old teeth.
Mal. And he took thee with thy belly full of young bones: marry, he took his maim by the stroke of his enemy.
Bian. And I mine by the stroke of my friend.
Mal. The close stock![416] O mortal wench! Lady, ha’ ye now no restoratives for your decayed Jasons?[417] look ye, crab’s guts baked,[418] distilled ox-pith,[419] the pulverised hairs of a lion’s upper-lip, jelly of cock-sparrows, he-monkey’s marrow, or powder of fox-stones?—And whither are all[420] you ambling now? 24