Ladies. We hate them worse than hell.
Favourites. Good your grace, we are reclaim'd.
Duke. That's but an airy note.
When practical, we'll hold it cordial.
Meantime, we do adjudge you to the quarries;
Where you shall toil, till a relation give
Test of your reformation. Look on those
Tunis-engagers, who were timely drawn
From their trepanning course, and by their hazard,
Secur'd through valour, rais'd their ruin'd fortunes
Above expectance! When your work is done,
We shall find like adventures[183] for your spirits
To grapple with, and rear your blanch'd repute.
Leave interceding, for we are resolv'd.
Now, conscript consuls, whose direction gives
Life to our laws, we cannot choose but wonder
How your impartial judgments should submit
(As if they had been biassed) to grant
These alimonies to their loose demands.
Sure, such decrees would not have relish'd well
Your jealous palates, had you so been used.
"Wives to desert your beds, impeach your fames,
In public courts discover your defects,
Nay, to belie your weakness, and recover
For all these scandals alimonious wages
To feed their boundless riot!"
Consul. They're annull'd;
Our courts will not admit them.
Duke. 'Tis well done,
For gentlemen t' engage their state and fame,
And beds of honour, were a juggling game.
So we dismiss you. May the palms of peace
Crown Seville's state with safety and increase.
Whereto when our reluctant actions give
The least impede, may we no longer live!
[Exeunt omnes. Trumpets sounding.
EPILOGUE
You see our Ladies now are vanished,
And gone, perchance, unto their husbands' bed,
Convinc'd of guilt; where if they cannot tame
Their loose desires, but still retain the name
Of Alimony Ladies, you shall hear,
They will not forfeit what they hold so dear—
Prohibited delights; and in that stain
With blushless dalliance visit you again.
Nor shall we build on these our confidence
Who give less reins to reason than to sense:
Yet for redemption of their husbands' lands,
Seal our acquittance with your graceful hands.