DEMETRIUS.
How many women saw this child of his?
AARON.
Why, so, brave lords! When we join in league,
I am a lamb; but if you brave the Moor,
The chafed boar, the mountain lioness,
The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms.
But say again, how many saw the child?
NURSE.
Cornelia the midwife and myself,
And no one else but the delivered empress.
AARON.
The empress, the midwife, and yourself.
Two may keep counsel when the third’s away.
Go to the empress; tell her this I said.
[He kills her.]
“Wheak, wheak!” So cries a pig prepared to the spit.
DEMETRIUS.
What mean’st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst thou this?
AARON.
O Lord, sir, ’tis a deed of policy.
Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours,
A long-tongued babbling gossip? No, lords, no.
And now be it known to you my full intent.
Not far, one Muliteus lives, my countryman;
His wife but yesternight was brought to bed.
His child is like to her, fair as you are.
Go pack with him, and give the mother gold,
And tell them both the circumstance of all,
And how by this their child shall be advanced,
And be received for the emperor’s heir,
And substituted in the place of mine,
To calm this tempest whirling in the court;
And let the emperor dandle him for his own.
Hark ye, lords; ye see I have given her physic,
[Indicating the Nurse.]
And you must needs bestow her funeral;
The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms.
This done, see that you take no longer days,
But send the midwife presently to me.
The midwife and the nurse well made away,
Then let the ladies tattle what they please.