Mal. Why, sure my blood gives me I am noble, sure I am of noble kind; for I find myself possessed with all their qualities;—love dogs, dice, and drabs, scorn wit in stuff-clothes; have beat my shoemaker, knocked my semstress, cuckold my pothecary, and undone my tailor. Noble! why not? since the stoic said, Neminem servum non ex regibus, neminem regem non ex servis esse oriundum;[475] only busy Fortune touses, and the provident Chances blend them together. I’ll give you a simile: did you e’er
see a well with two buckets, whilst one comes up full to be emptied, another goes down empty to be filled? such is the state of all humanity. Why, look you, I may be the son of some duke; for, believe me, intemperate lascivious bastardy makes nobility doubtful: I have a lusty daring heart, Mendoza. 280
Men. Let’s grasp; I do like thee infinitely: wilt enact one thing for me?
Mal. Shall I get by it? [Men. gives him his purse.] Command me; I am thy slave, beyond death and hell.
Men. Murder the duke.
Mal. My heart’s wish, my soul’s desire, my fantasy’s dream, my blood’s longing, the only height of my hopes! How, O God, how! O, how my united spirits throng together, to[476] strengthen my resolve!
Men. The duke is now a-hunting. 290
Mal. Excellent, admirable, as the devil would have it! Lend me, lend me, rapier, pistol, cross-bow: so, so, I’ll do it.
Men. Then we agree.
Mal. As Lent and fishmongers. Come, a-cap-a-pe, how? inform.