Sol. If your lordship
Will please for some few moments to retire
Into your tent, her majesty in person
Will give you parley here.
Dec. In person, sir?
The favour bears some omen! She who in
The tempest of misfortune still did spread
Her sails at large, why doth she strike them now,
The wind so prosperous? This is a descent
Beneath her greatness.
Sol. I reach not, my lord,
The mysteries of princes; but this message
She charg'd me to return.
Dec. The acts of princes
Are govern'd often by as frail a passion
As those are of the vulgar: the same rage
That stirs two footmen to a fray, creates
War between kingdoms; but the zealous subject,
Gazing afar on th' actions of the proud,
Finds towers and lions in an empty cloud.
But I'll obey her leisure. Watch you here
Till you discover her advanc'd this way. [Exit Decastro.
Enter Ascanio, Florentio.
Flo. Sir, you created me, and rais'd me up
To th' state of duke, when I was common dust;
And, had not fortune given me interest
I' th' favour of the queen, I had continued
In the worst fate of man, ingratitude.
Now I can boast I have restored you back
A love rich as the bounty you shower'd on me:
'Tis all the stock of my poor life.
Asc. Sad fate!
That I must wound thee to the heart to cure
My leprosy with thy blood. Florentio, search
I' th' stock of women; there's some other beauty.
Flo. O, no! no other.
Asc. I'll endow her with
The wealth of all Castile.
Flo. Poor empty nothing!