Sago. I have not spoil’d his face, you may know his visnomy.
Capt. ’Tis Count Massino;[297] go convey him hence;
Thy life, proud Spaniard, answers this offence.
A strong guard for the prisoner, ’less the city’s powers
Rise to rescue him!
[Begirt him with soldiers.
Sago. What needs this strife?
Know, slaves, I prize revenge above my life.
Fame’s register to future times shall tell
That by Don Sago, Count Massino[297] fell!
[Exeunt omnes.
[288] Ed. 1631 and some copies of ed. 1613, “vote-killing.”—The mandrake plant was supposed to shriek so poignantly when pulled from the ground, as to cause madness or death in the person who plucked it.
[289] An allusion to the well-known superstition (to which there is a reference in Hamlet) that ghosts haunted the spot where they had concealed treasure in their lifetime.
[290] The writer had certainly Hotspur’s words in his memory:—
“That villainous salt-petre should be digg’d
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth.”—1 Henry IV. i. 2.
[291] Qu. “Divine” or “Dear”?
[292] Old eds. “Rogero.”—The prefix to his speeches is “Rog.”