Bil. There be many will repine at my preferment.
Pass. O, ay, like the envy of an elder sister, that hath her younger made a lady before her.
Bil. The duke is wondrous discontented.
Pass. Ay, and more melancholic than a usurer having all his money out at the death of a prince. 141
Bil. Didst thou see Madam Floria to-day?
Pass. Yes, I found her repairing her face to-day; the red upon the white showed as if her cheeks should have been served in for two dishes of barberries in stewed broth, and the flesh to them a woodcock.
Bil. A bitter fool![463] —Come, madam, this night thou shalt enjoy me freely, and to-morrow for Florence. 148
Pass. What a natural fool is he that would be a pair of boddice to a woman’s petticoat, to be trussed and pointed to them! Well, I’ll dog my lord; and the word is proper: for when I fawn upon him, he feeds me; when I snap him by the fingers, he spits in my mouth. If a dog’s death were not strangling, I had rather be one than a serving-man; for the corruption of coin is either the generation of a usurer or a lousy beggar.
[Exeunt Bianca and Passarello.
Enter Malevole in some frize gown, whilst Bilioso reads his patent.