Flam. He is.
Hort. Why proffers he his service to our duke?
Flam. Because he understands there's like to grow
Some wars between us and the Duke of Florence,
In which he hopes employment.
I never saw one in a stern bold look
Wear more command, nor in a lofty phrase
Express more knowing or more deep contempt
Of our slight airy courtiers. He talks
As if he had travelled all the princes' courts
Of Christendom: in all things strives to express,
That all that should dispute with him may know,
Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright,
But looked to near, have neither heat nor light.—
The duke!
Re-enter Brachiano; with Francisco de Medicis disguised like Mulinassar, Lodovico, Antonelli, Gasparo, Farnese, Carlo, and Pedro, bearing their swords and helmets; and Marcello.
Brach. You are nobly welcome. We have heard at full
Your honourable service 'gainst the Turk.
To you, brave Mulinassar, we assign
A competent pension: and are inly sorry,
The vows of those two worthy gentlemen
Make them incapable of our proffered bounty.
Your wish is, you may leave your warlike swords
For monuments in our chapel: I accept it
As a great honour done me, and must crave
Your leave to furnish out our duchess' revels.
Only one thing, as the last vanity
You e'er shall view, deny me not to stay
To see a barriers prepared to-night:
You shall have private standings. It hath pleased
The great ambassadors of several princes,
In their return from Rome to their own countries,
To grace our marriage, and to honour me
With such a kind of sport.
Fran. de Med. I shall persuade them
To stay, my lord.
Brach. Set on there to the presence!
[Exeunt Brachiano, Flamineo, Marcello, and Hortensio.
Car. Noble my lord, most fortunately welcome:
[The Conspirators here embrace.
You have our vows, sealed with the sacrament,
To second your attempts.
Ped. And all things ready:
He could not have invented his own ruin
(Had he despaired) with more propriety.
Lod. You would not take my way.
Fran. de Med. 'Tis better ordered.
Lod. To have poisoned his prayer-book, or a pair of beads,
The pummel of his saddle,[80] his looking-glass,
Or the handle of his racket,—O, that, that!
That while he had been bandying at tennis,
He might have sworn himself to hell, and strook
His soul into the hazard! O, my lord,
I would have our plot be ingenious,
And have it hereafter recorded for example,
Rather than borrow example.
Fran. de Med. There's no way
More speeding than this thought on.
Lod. On, then.
Fran. de Med. And yet methinks that this revenge is poor,
Because it steals upon him like a thief.
To have ta'en him by the casque in a pitched field,
Led him to Florence!—
Lod. It had been rare: and there
Have crowned him with a wreath of stinking garlic,
To have shown the sharpness of his government
And rankness of his lust.—Flamineo comes.
[Exeunt Lodovico, Antonelli, Gasparo, Farnese, Carlo, and Pedro.
Re-enter Flamineo, Marcello, and Zanche.
Mar. Why doth this devil haunt you, say?
Flam. I know not;
For, by this light, I do not conjure for her.
'Tis not so great a cunning as men think,
To raise the devil; for here's one up already:
The greatest cunning were to lay him down.
Mar. She is your shame.
Flam. I prithee, pardon her.
In faith, you see, women are like to burs,
Where their affection throws them, there they'll stick.
Zan. That is my countryman, a goodly person:
When he's at leisure, I'll discourse with him
In our own language.
Flam. I beseech you do. [Exit Zanche.
How is't, brave soldier? O, that I had seen
Some of your iron days! I pray, relate
Some of your service to us.
Fran. de Med. 'Tis a ridiculous thing for a man to be his own chronicle: I did never wash my mouth with mine own praise for fear of getting a stinking breath.
Mar. You're too stoical. The duke will expect other discourse from you.
Fran. de Med. I shall never flatter him: I have studied man too much to do that. What difference is between the duke and I? no more than between two bricks, all made of one clay: only 't may be one is placed on the top of a turret, the other in the bottom of a well, by mere chance. If I were placed as high as the duke, I should stick as fast, make as fair a show, and bear out weather equally.