Eph. So have I too; this is no news.
Art. And I can whisper in your ear the cause.
'Twas chance, no policy of mine, betray'd his privacies:
Ill-offices are not the engines I desire
To rise by, only love to the young prince
Makes me reveal them.
Eph.Nay, nay, without apology;
If it were treason, it should not go down
The sooner for all the gilded preparation.
Nor am I of so feminine a humour
As to mistrust affection delivered bluntly:
Plain meaning should be plainly told;
Bad wares may have false lights, good can abide the day.
Art. But I know the nature of my office;
Though kings still hug suspicion in their bosoms,
They hate the causers; love to hear secrets too,
Yet the revealers still fare the worse,
Being either thought guilty of ends or weakness;
And so esteem'd by those they tell them to
Either unfit or dangerous to be trusted.
Perhaps, sir, when the prince and you are friends again
You'll tell me that, had my love been real,
I should have whisper'd the prince's errors to himself.
Eph. Without a syllable of prologue more,
Or I shall verify your fears.
Art. In this brave city (take it as brief as may be)
There lives a beauty, fit to command
Them that command the world,
And might be Alexander's mistress, were he yet alive,
And had added empires as large as his desires:
She's but a private merchant's wife;
Yet the prince is so far gravell'd in her affection,
I fear——
Eph. Then there is hopes I may recall him:
Love is a childish evil, though the effects
Are dangerous. A prince's errors grown public
Will be scandalous. Poor boy! perhaps
The jealous husband may commit a murder;
I would not have him cut off so young:
Love should be princes' recreation, not their business.
What physic must we give him for his cure?
Art. I dare not counsel you;
But in my poor judgment some gentle
Fatherly persuasions will work upon so good a nature.
Eph. Couldst thou but possibly effect, how I
Might take him napping?
Art. That is beyond my skill:
But I can show you the house and time he walks
From hence in, which will be about an hour
Hence; for then her husband comes home from
The Rialto.