Watch. I never heard men pray more fervently.
Rog. O that a man had the instinct of a lion!
He knows when the lioness plays false to him.[320]
But these solaces, these women, they bring man to grey
hairs before he be thirty; yet they cast out such mists of flattery from their breath, that a man’s lost again. Sure I fell into my marriage-bed drunk, like the leopard;[321] well, with sober eyes, would I had avoided it!
Come, grave, and hide me from my blasted fame.
O that thou couldst as well conceal my shame!
[Exeunt ambo, with Officers.
Tha. Your pardon and your favour, gracious duke, 120
[Women kneel.
At once we do implore, that have so long
Deceived your royal expectation,
Assurèd that the comic knitting up
Will move your spleen unto the proper use
Of mirth, your natural inclination;
And wipe away the watery-coloured anger
From your enforcèd cheek. Fair lord, beguile
Them and your saf’t[322] with a pleasing smile. 130
Duke. Now by my life I do: fair ladies, rise;
I ne’er did purpose any other end
To them and these designs. I was inform’d
Of some notorious error as I sat in judgment;
And—do you hear?—these night works require
A cat’s eyes to impierce dejected darkness.
Call back the prisoners.