Mal. We have brought thee tender of a husband.
Maria. I hope I have one already. 100
Maq. Nay, by mine honour, madam, as good ha’ ne’er a husband as a banished husband; he’s in another world now. I’ll tell ye, lady, I have heard of a sect that maintained, when the husband was asleep the wife might lawfully entertain another man, for then her husband was as dead; much more when he is banished.
Maria. Unhonest creature!
Maq. Pish, honesty is but an art to seem so:
Pray ye, what’s honesty, what’s constancy,
But fables feign’d, odd old fools’ chat, devis’d 110
By jealous fools to wrong our liberty?
Mal. Molly, he that loves thee is a duke, Mendoza; he will maintain thee royally, love thee ardently, defend thee powerfully, marry thee sumptuously, and keep thee, in despite of Rosicleer or Donzel del Phebo.[534] There’s jewels: if thou wilt, so; if not, so.
Maria. Captain, for God’s love,[535] save poor wretchedness
From tyranny of lustful insolence!
Enforce me in the deepest dungeon dwell,
Rather than here; here round about is hell.— 120
O my dear’st Altofront! where’er thou breathe,
Let my soul sink into the shades beneath,
Before I stain thine honour! ’tis[536] thou has’t,
And long as I can die, I will live chaste.
Mal. ’Gainst him that can enforce how vain is strife!
Maria. She that can be enforc’d has ne’er a knife:
She that through force her limbs with lust enrolls,
Wants Cleopatra’s asps and Portia’s coals.
God amend you! 129