III. 2
100 Duke. How should he be made, then?
Lucio. Some report a sea-maid spawned him; some, that he was begot between two stock-fishes. But it is certain that, when he makes water, his urine is congealed ice; that I know to be true: and he [is a motion generative]; 105 that’s infallible.
Duke. You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace.
Lucio. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the rebellion of a codpiece to take away the life of a man! Would the Duke that is absent have done this? Ere he 110 would have hanged a man for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing a thousand: he had some feeling of the sport; he knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy.
Duke. I never heard the absent Duke much [detected] 115 for women; he was not inclined that way.
Lucio. O, sir, you are deceived.
Duke. ’Tis not possible.
Lucio. Who, not the Duke? yes, your beggar of fifty; and his use was to put a ducat in her clack-dish: the Duke 120 had crotchets in him. He would be drunk too; that let me inform you.
Duke. You do him wrong, surely.
Lucio. Sir, I was an inward of his. A [shy] fellow was the Duke: and I believe I know the cause of his III. 2
125 withdrawing.