LUCY. Oh, how malicious!
Bless me, grumbler, what grimaces!
PAUL. Then to witness two embraces
Does not look at all suspicious?—
Was it malice, then, in me,
Not plain seeing?
LUCY. Malice merely:
For a husband, how so nearly
He may pry, should never see
More than half his wife doth do.
PAUL. Well, with that I'm quite content,
To that condition I assent,
And since twice embraced by you
Has that rascal soldier been,
Whom the sea spewed out in spite,
I will juggle with my sight,
And pretend but once to have seen;
And as I for two embraces
Meant to give a hundred blows,
I but fifty now propose
For one half of my disgraces.
I have totted up the score;
You yourself the sentence gave;
Yes, by God I swear, you'll have
Fifty strokes and not one more.
LUCY. I've admitted far too much.
For a husband it would be
Quite preposterous; he should see
But the quarter.
PAUL. Even as such
I acknowledge the appeal.
Patience, and your back prepare,
For the now admitted share,
Five-and-twenty blows you'll feel.
LUCY. No, not so; you're still astray.
PAUL. Then say what?
LUCY. Between us two,
You're to trust not what you view,
But what I am pleased to say.
PAUL. Better far, I think, 'twould be,
Daughter of the devil, that you
Held the stick and used it too,
With it well belabouring me;
Is't agreed what I propose?
Yes; then let us both change places.
Give to him the two embraces,
And to me the hundred blows.