The Devil’s Law Case ACT 4. SCENE 2.

Enter officers preparing seats for the judges; to them Ercole, muffled.

First Officer:
You would have a private seat sir?

Ercole:
Yes sir.

Second Officer:
Here's a closet belongs to'th' court,
Where you may hear all unseen.

Ercole:
I thank you;
There's money.

Second Officer:
I give your thanks again sir.

Enter Contarino, the two surgeons, disguised;
[Contarino as a Dane].

Contarino:
Is't possible Romelio's persuaded
You are gone to the East Indies?

First Surgeon:
Most confidently.

Contarino:
But do you mean to go?

Second Surgeon:
How? Go to the East Indies? And so
many Hollanders gone to fetch sauce for their pickled herrings:
some have been pepper'd there too, lately; but I pray, being thus
well recover'd of your wound, why do you not reveal yourself?

Contarino:
That my fairJolenta should be rumour'd
To be with child by noble Ercole,
Makes me expect to what a violent issue
These passages will come. I hear her brother
Is marrying the infant she goes with,
'Fore it be born, as, if it be a daughter,
To the Duke of Austria's nephew; if a son,
Into the noble ancient family
Of the Palavafini. He's a subtle devil.
And I do wonder what strange suit in law
Has happ'd between him and's mother.

First Surgeon:
'Tis whisper'd 'mong the lawyers, 'twill undo
Him for ever.

Enter Sanit[onella], Win[ifrid].

Sanitonella:
Do you hear, officers?
You must take special care, that you let in
No brachigraphy men, to take notes.

First Officer:
No sir?

Sanitonella:
By no means;
We cannot have a cause of any fame,
But you must have scurvy pamphlets, and lewd ballads
Engend'red of it presently. Have you broke fast yet?

Winifrid:
Not I sir.

Sanitonella:
'Twas very ill done of you:
For this cause will be long a-pleading; but no matter,
I have a modicum in my buckram bag,
To stop your stomach.

Winifrid:
What is't? Green ginger?

Sanitonella:
Green ginger, nor pellitory of Spain
Neither, yet 'twill stop a hollow tooth better
Than either of them.

Winifrid:
Pray what is't?

Sanitonella:
Look you,
It is a very lovely pudding-pie,
Which we clerks find great relief in.

Winifrid:
I shall have no stomach.

Sanitonella:
No matter and you have not, I may pleasure
Some of our learned counsel with't; I have done it
Many a time and often, when a cause
Has proved like an after-game at Irish.

Enter Crispiano like a judge, with another judge; Contilupo
and another lawyer at one bar; Romelio, Ariosto at another;
Leonora with a black veil over her, and Julio.

Crispiano:
'Tis a strange suit; is Leonora come?

Contilup:
She's here my lord; make way there for the
lady.

Crispiano:
Take off her veil: it seems she is asham'd
To look her cause i'th' face.

Contilup:
She's sick, my lord.

Ariosto:
She's mad my lord, and would be kept more
dark.

To Romelio By your favour sir, I have now occasion
To be at your elbow, and within this half hour
Shall entreat you to be angry, very angry.

Crispiano:
Is Romelio come?

Romelio:
I am here my lord, and call'd, I do protest,
To answer what I know not, for as yet
I am wholly ignorant of what the court
Will charge me with.

Crispiano:
I assure you, the proceeding
Is most unequal then, for I perceive
The counsel of the adverse party furnish' d
With full instruction.

Romelio:
Pray my lord,
Who is my accuser?

Crispiano:
'Tis your mother.

Romelio: aside:
She has discover'd Contarino's murder:
If she prove so unnatural, to call
My life in question, I am arm'd to suffer
This to end all my losses.

Crispiano:
Sir, we will do you
This favour: you shall hear the accusation,
Which being known, we will adjourn the court
Till a fortnight hence, you may provide your counsel.

Ariosto:
I advise you, take their proffer,
Or else the lunacy runs in a blood,
You are more mad than she.

Romelio:
What are you sir?

Ariosto:
An angry fellow that would do thee good,
For goodness' sake itself, I do protest,
Neither for love nor money.

Romelio:
Prithee stand further, I shall gall your gout else.

Ariosto:
Come, come, I know you for an East Indy merchant,
You have a spice of pride in you still.

Romelio:
My lord,
I am so strength'ned in my innocence,
For any the least shadow of a crime,
Committed 'gainst my mother, or the world,
That she can charge me with, here do I make it
My humble suit, only this hour and place
May give it as full hearing, and as free,
And unrestrain'd a sentence.

Crispiano:
Be not too confident; you have cause to fear.

Romelio:
Let fear dwell with earthquakes,
Shipwrecks at sea, or prodigies in heaven;
I cannot set myself so many fathom
Beneath the height of my true heart, as fear.

Ariosto:
Very fine words, I assure you, if they were
To any purpose.

Crispiano:
Well, have your entreaty:
And if your own credulity undo you,
Blame not the court hereafter. Fall to your plea.

Contilupo:
May it please your lordship and the reverend court,
To give me leave to open to you a case
So rare, so altogether void of precedent,
That I do challenge all the spacious volumes
Of the whole civil law to show the like.
We are of counsel for this gentlewoman,
We have receiv'd our fee, yet the whole course
Of what we are to speak, is quite against her,
Yet we'll deserve our fee too. There stands one,
Romelio the merchant; I will name him to you
Without either title or addition:
For those false beams of his supposed honour,
As void of true heat as are all painted fires,
Or glow-worms in the dark, suit him all basely,
As if he had bought his gentry from the herald,
With money got by extortion: I will first
Produce this Aesop's crow as he stands forfeit
For the long use of his gay borrowed plumes,
And then let him hop naked. I come to'th' point:
'T'as been a dream in Naples, very near
This eight and thirty years, that this Romelio
Was nobly descended; he has rank'd himself
With the nobility, shamefully usurp'd
Their place, and in a kind of saucy pride,
Which like to mushrooms, ever grow most rank
When they do spring from dunghills, sought to o'ersway
The Fieschi, the Grimaldi, Doria,
And all the ancient pillars of our state.
View now what he is come to: this poor thing
Without a name, this cuckoo hatch'd i'th'nest
Of a hedge-sparrow.

Romelio:
Speaks he all this to me?

Ariosto:
Only to you sir.

Romelio:
I do not ask thee,
Prithee hold thy prating.

Ariosto:
Why very good!
You will be presently as angry as I could wish.

Contilup:
What title shall I set to this base coin?
He has no name, and for's aspect he seems
A giant in a May-game, that within
Is nothing but a porter: I'll undertake
He had as good have travell'd all his life
With gypsies: I will sell him to any man
For an hundred chickeens, and he that buys him of me
Shall lose by'th' hand too.

Ariosto:
Lo,what are you come to:
You that did scorn to trade in anything
But gold or spices, or your cochineal,
He rates you now at poor John.

Romelio:
Out upon thee,
I would thou wert of his side.

Ariosto:
Would you so?

Romelio:
The devil and thee together on each hand,
To prompt the lawyer's memory when he founders.

Crispiano:
Signor Contilupo, the court holds it fit,
You leave this stale declaiming 'gainst the person,
And come to the matter.

Contilup:
Now I shall my lord.

Crispiano:
It shows a poor malicious eloquence,
And it is strange men of your gravity
Will not forgo it. Verily, I presume,
If you but heard yourself speaking with my ears,
Your phrase would be more modest.

Contilup:
Good my lord, be assured,
I will leave all circumstance, and come to'th'purpose:
This Romelio is a bastard.

Romelio:
How, a bastard?
O mother, now the day begins grow hot
On your side.

Contilup:
Why she is your accuser.

Romelio:
I had forgot that; was my father married
To any other woman, at the time
Of my begetting?

Contilup:
That's not the business.

Romelio:
I turn me then to you that were my mother,
But by what name I am to call you now,
You must instruct me: were you ever married
To my father?

Leonora:
To my shame I speak it, never.

Crispiano:
Not to Francisco Romelio?

Leonora:
May it please your lordships,
To him I was, but he was not his father.

Contilup:
Good my lord, give us leave in a few words
To expound the riddle, and to make it plain
Without the least of scruple: for I take it,
There cannot be more lawful proof i'th' world,
Than the oath of the mother.

Crispiano:
Well then, to your proofs,
And be not tedious.

Contilup:
I'll conclude in a word:
Some nine and thirty years since, which was the time
This woman was married, Francisco Romelio,
This gentleman's putative father, and her husband,
Being not married to her past a fortnight,
Would needs go travel; did so, and continued
In France and the Low Countries eleven months:
Take special note o'th' time, I beseech your lordship,
For it makes much to'th' business. In his absence
He left behind to sojourn at his house
A Spanish gentleman, a fine spruce youth
By the ladies' confession, and you may be sure
He was no eunuch neither; he was one
Romelio loved very dearly, as oft haps,
No man alive more welcome to the husband
Than he that makes him cuckold. This gentleman
I say, breaking all laws of hospitality,
Got his friend's wife with child, a full two months
'Fore the husband returned.

Sanitonella aside:
Good sir, forget not the lambskin.

Contilup: aside:
I warrant thee.

Sanitonella aside:
I will pinch by the buttock,
To put you in mind of't.

Contilup: aside:
Prithee hold thy prating.
What's to be practis'd now, my lord? Marry this:,
Romelio being a young novice, not acquainted
With this precedence, very innocently
Returning home from travel, finds his wife
Grown an excellent good huswife, for she had set
Her women to spin flax, and to that use,
Had in a study which was built of stone,
Stor'd up at least an hundredweight of flax:
Marry such a thread as was to be spun from the flax,
I think the like was never heard of.

Crispiano:
What was that?

Contilup:
You may be certain, she would lose no time
In bragging that her husband had got up
Her belly: to be short, at seven months' end,
Which was the time of her delivery,
And when she felt her self to faIl in travail,
She makes her waiting woman, as by mischance,
Set fire to the flax, the fright whereof,
As they pretend, causes this gentlewoman
To fall in pain, and be delivered
Eight weeks afore her reckoning.

Sanitonella aside:
Now sir, remember the lambskin.

Contilup:
The midwife straight howls out, there Was no hope
Of th'infant's life, swaddles it in a flay'd lambskin,
As a bird hatch'd too early, makes it up
With three quarters of a face, that made it look
like a changeling, cries out to Romelio
To have it christ'ned, lest it should depart
Without that it came for: and thus are many serv'd,
That take care to get gossips for those children,
To which they might be godfathers themselves,
And yet be no arch-puritans neither.

Crispiano:
No more!

Ariosto:
Pray my lord, give him way, you spoil
His oratory else: thus would they jest
Were they feed to open their sister's cases.

Crispiano:
You have urg'd enough; you first affirm,
Her husband was away from her eleven Months?

Contilup:
Yes my lord.

Crispiano:
And at seven months' end,
After his return she was delivered
Of this Romelio, and had gone her full time?

Contilup:
True my lord.

Crispiano:
So by this account this gentleman was begot
In his suppos'd father's absence.

Contilup:
You have it fully.

Crispiano:
A most strange suit this, 'tis beyond example,
Either time past, or present, for a woman
To publish her own dishonour voluntarily,
Without being call'd in question, some forty years
After the sin committed, and her counsel
To enlarge the offence with as much oratory
As ever I did hear them in my life
Defend a guilty woman; 'tis most strange:
Or why with such a poison'd violence
Should she labour her son's undoing? We observe
Obedience of creatures to the Law of Nature
Is the stay of the whole world: here that Law is broke,
For though our civil law makes difference
'Tween the base, and the legitimate,
Compassionate Nature makes them equal;
Nay, she many times prefers them. I pray
Resolve me sir, have not you and your mother
Had some suit in law together lately?

Romelio:
None my lord.

Crispiano:
No? No contention about parting your
goods?

Romelio:
Not any.

Crispiano:
No flaw, no unkindness?

Romelio:
None that ever arriv'd at my knowledge.

Crispiano:
Bethink yourself, this cannot choose but savour
Of a woman's malice deeply; and I fear
Y'are practis'd upon most devilishly.
How happ'd gentlewoman, you revealed this no sooner?

Leonora:
While my husband lived, my lord, I durst not.

Crispiano:
I should rather ask you, why you reveal it now?

Leonora:
Because my lord, I loath'd that such a sin
Should lie smother'd with me in my grave; my penitence,
Though to my shame, prefers the revealing of it
'Bove worldly reputation.

Crispiano:
Your penitence?
Might not your penitence have been as hearty,
Though it had never summon'd to the court
Such a conflux of people?

Leonora:
Indeed, I might have confess'd it,
Privately to'th' Church, I grant; but you know repentance
Is nothing without satisfaction.

Crispiano:
Satisfaction? Why your husband's dead,
What satisfaction can you make him?

Leonora:
The greatest satisfaction in the world, my lord,
To restore the land to'th' right heir, and that's
My daughter.

Crispiano:
O she's straight begot then?

Ariosto:
Very well, may it please this honourable court,
If he be a bastard, and must forfeit his land for't,
She has prov'd herself a strumpet, and must lose
Her dower; let them go a-begging together.

Sanitonella
Who shall pay us our fees then?

Crispiano:
Most just.

Ariosto:
You may see now what an old house
You are like to pull over your head, dame.

Romelio:
Could I conceive this publication
Grew from a hearty penitence, I could bear
My undoing the more patiently; but my lord,
There is no reason, as you said even now,
To satisfy me but this suit of hers
Springs from a devilish malice, and her pretence,
Of a grieved conscience, and religion,
Like to the horrid powder-treason in England,
Has a most bloody unnatural revenge
Hid under it. O the violencies of women!
Why, they are creatures made up and compounded
Of all monsters, poisoned minerals,
And sorcerous herbs that grows.

Ariosto:
Are you angry yet?

Romelio:
Would man express a bad one, let him forsake
All natural example, and compare
One to another; they have no more mercy
Than ruinous fires in great tempests.

Ariosto:
Take heed you do not crack your voice sir.

Romelio:
Hard-hearted creatures, good for nothing else,
But to wind dead bodies.

Ariosto:
Yes, to weave seaming lace
With the bones of their husbands that were long since buried,
And curse them when they tangle.

Romelio:
Yet why do I
Take bastardy so distastefully, when i'th' world,
A many things that are essential parts
Of greatness, are but by-slips, and are father'd
On the wrong parties?
Preferment in the world a many times,
Basely begotten? Nay, I have observ'd
The immaculate justice of a poor man's cause,
In such a court as this, has not known whom
To call father, which way to direct itself
For compassion: but I forget my temper:
Only that I may stop that lawyer's throat,
I do beseech the court, and the whole world,
They will not think the baselier of me,
For the vice of a mother: for that woman's sin,
To which you all dare swear when it was done,
I would not give my consent.

Crispiano:
Stay, here's an accusation,
But here's no proof; what was the Spaniard's name
You accuse of adultery?

Contilupo:
Don Crispiano,
My lord.

Crispiano:
What part of Spain was he born in?

Contilupo:
In Castile.

Julio aside:
This may prove my father.

Sanitonella aside:
And my master; my client's spoil'd
then.

Crispiano:
I knew that Spaniard well: if you be a bastard,
Such a man being your father, I dare vouch you
A gentleman; and in that, Signior Contilupo,
Your oratory went a little too far.
When do we name Don John of Austria..
The Emperor's son, but with reverence?
And I have known in divers families,
The bastards the greater spirits. But to'th' purpose;
What time was this gentleman begot? And be sure
You lay your time right.

Ariosto:
Now the metal comes
To the touchstone.

Contilupo:
In anno seventy-one, my lord.

Crispiano:
Very well, seventy-one; the battle of Lepanto
Was fought in't - a most remarkable time,
'T will lie for no man's pleasure. And what proof is there
More than the affirmation of the mother,
Of this corporal dealing?

Contilupo:
The deposition
Of a waiting-woman serv'd her the same time.

Crispiano:
Where is she?

Contilupo:
Where is our solicitor
Witll the waiting-woman?

Ariosto:
Room for the bag
And baggage!

Sanitonella
Here my lord, ore tenus.

Crispiano:
And what can you say gentlewoman?

Winifrid:
Please your lordship, I Was the party that dealt
in the business, and brought them together.

Crispiano:
Well.

Winifrid:
And convey'd letters between them.

Crispiano:
What needed letters, when 'tis said he lodg'd
in her house?

Winifrid:
A running ballad now and then to her viol, for
he was never well, but when he was fiddling.

Crispiano:
Speak to the purpose, did you ever know
them bed together?

Winifrid:
No my lord, but I have brought him to the
bed-side.

Crispiano:
That was somewhat near to the business;
And what, did you help him off with his shoes?

Winifrid:
He wore no shoes, an't please you my lord.

Crispiano:
No? What then, pumps?

Winifrid:
Neither.

Crispiano:
Boots were not fit for hisjoumey.

Winifrid:
He wore tennis-court woollen slippers, for
fear of creaking sir, and making a noise, to wake the
rest o'th' house.

Crispiano:
Well, and what did he there, in his
tennis-court woollen slippers?

Winifrid:
Please your lordship, question me in Latin, for
the cause is very foul; the Examiner o'th' court was fain to
get it out of me alone i'th' counting house, 'cause he would
not spoil the youth o'th' office.

Ariosto:
Here's a latin spoon, and a long one, to feed with
the devil.

Winifrid:
I'd be loath to be ignorant that way, for I hope
to marry a proctor, and take my pleasure abroad at the
Commencements with him.

Ariosto:
Come closer to the business.

Winifrid:
I will come as close as modesty will give me
leave. Truth is, every morning when he lay with her, I made
a caudle for him, by the appointment of my mistress, which
he would still refuse, and call for small drink.

Crispiano:
Small drink?

Ariosto:
For a julep.

Winifrid:
And said he was wondrous thirsty.

Crispiano:
What's this to the purpose?

Winifrid:
Most effectual, my lord; I have heard them
laugh together extremely, and the curtain rods fall from
the tester of the bed, and he ne'er came from her, but he
thrust money in my hand; and once in truth, he would have
had some dealing with me; which I took he thought 'twould
be the only way i'th' world to make me keep counsel the better.

Sanitonella aside:
That's a stinger, 'tis a good wench,
be not daunted.

Crispiano:
Did you ever find the print of two in the bed?

Winifrid:
What a question that to be ask'd! May it please
your lordship, 'tis to be thought he lay nearer to her
than so.

Crispiano:
What age are you of, gentlewoman?

Winifrid:
About six and forty, my lord.

Crispiano:
Anno seventy-one,
And Romelio is thirty-eight: by that reckoning,
You were a bawd at eight year old: now verily,
You fell to the trade betimes.

Sanitonella aside:
There y'are from the bias.

Winifrid:
I do not know my age directly: sure I am elder,
I can remember two great frosts, and three great plagues,
and the loss of Calais, and the first coming up of the breeches
with the great codpiece; and I pray what age do you take me
of then?

Sanitonella aside:
Well come off again!

Ariosto:
An old hunted hare,
She has all her doubles.

Romelio:
For your own gravities,
And the reverence of the court, I do beseech you,
Rip up the cause no further, but proceed
To sentence.

Crispiano:
One question more and I have done:
Might not this Crispiano, this Spaniard,
Lie with your mistress at some other time,
Either afore or after, than i'th' absence
Of her husband?

Leonora:
Never.

Crispiano:
Are you certain of that?

Leonora:
On my soul, never.

Crispiano:
That's well - he never lay with her,
But in anno seventy-one, let that be remembered.
Stand you aside a while. Mistress, the truth is,
I knew this Crispiano, lived in Naples
At the same time, and loved the gentleman
As my bosom friend; and as I do remember,
The gentleman did leave his picture with you,
If age or neglect have not in so long time ruin'd it.

Leonora:
I preserve it still my lord.

Crispiano:
I pray let me see't,
Let me see the face I then Ioved so much to look on.

Leonora:
Fetch it.

Winifrid:
I shall, my lord.

Crispiano:
No, no, gentlewoman,
I have other business for you.

Exit one for the picture.

First Surgeon aside:
Now were the time to cut
Romelio's throat,
And accuse him for your murder.

Contarino aside:
By no means.

Second Surgeon aside:
Will you not let us be men of
fashion,
And down with him now he's going?

Contarino aside:
Peace,
Let's attend the sequel.

Crispiano:
I commend you lady,
There was a main matter of conscience;
How many ills spring from adultery !
First, the supreme law that is violated,
Nobility oft stain'd with bastardy,
Inheritance of land falsely possess'd,
The husband scorn'd, wife sham'd, and babes unbless'd.

The picture is brought in.

So, hang it up i'th' court. You have heard
What has been urged 'gainst Romelio.
Now my defInitive sentence in this cause,
Is, I will give no sentence at all.

Ariosto:
No?

Crispiano:
No, I cannot, for I am made a party.

Sanitonella aside:
How, a party? Here are fine cross
tricks,
What the devil will he do now?

Crispiano:
Signior Ariosto, his Majesty of Spain
Confers my place upon you by this patent,
Which till this urgent hour I have kept
From your knowledge: may you thrive in't, noble sir,
And do that which but few in our place do;
Go to their grave uncurs'd.

Ariosto:
This law business
Will leave me so small leisure to serve God,
I shall serve the King the worse.

Sanitonella aside:
Is he ajudge?
We must then look for all conscience, and no law;
He'll beggar all his followers.

Crispiano: to Romelio:
Sir,
I am of your counsel, for the cause in hand
Was begun at such a time, 'fore you could speak;
You had need therefore have one speak for you.

Ariosto:
Stay, I do here first make protestation,
I ne'er took fee of this Romelio,
For being of his counsel; which may free me,
Being now his judge, for the imputation
Of taking a bribe. Now sir, speak your mind.

Crispiano:
I do first entreat, that the eyes of all
Here present, may be fixed upon this.

Leonora: aside:
O I am confounded: this is Crispiano.

Julio aside:
This is my father; how the judges have
blear'd him!

Winifrid aside:
You may see truth will out in spite of the
devil.

Crispiano:
Behold, I am the shadow of this shadow,
Age has made me so; take from me forty years,
And I was such a summer fruit as this,
At least the painter feigned so: for indeed,
Paintings and epitaphs are both alike,
They flatter us, and say we have been thus.
But I am the party here, that stands accus'd
For adultery with this woman, in the year
Seventy-one. Now I call you my lord to witness,
Four years before that time I went to'th' Indies,
And till this month, did never set my foot since
In Europe; and for any former incontinence,
She has vow'd there was never any. What remains then,
But this is a mere practice 'gainst her son?
And I beseech the court it may be sifted,
And most severely punish'd.

Sanitonella aside:
'Uds foot, we are spoiled;
Why my client's proved an honest woman.

Winifrid aside:
What do you think will become of me
now?

Sanitonella aside:
You'll be made dance lachrimae I fear
At a cart's tail.

Ariosto:
You mistress, where are you now?
Your tennis-court slippers, and your tane drink
In a morning for your hot liver; where's the man
Would have had some dealing with you, that you might
Keep counsel the better?

Winifrid:
May it please the court, I am but a young thing,
and was drawn arsy-varsy into the business.

Ariosto:
How young? Of five and forty?

Winifrid:
Five and forty! And shall please you, I am not
five and twenty: she made me colour my hair with bean
flour, to seem elder than I was; and then my rotten teeth,
with eating sweetmeats: why, should a farrier look in
my mouth, he might mistake my age. O mistress,
mistress, you are an honest woman, and you may be
asham'd on't, to abuse the court thus.

Leonora:
Whatso'er I have attempted,
'Gainst my own fame, or the reputation
Of that gentleman my son, the Lord Contarino
Was cause of it.

Contarino aside:
Who, I?

Ariosto:
He that should have married your daughter?
It was a plot belike then to confer
The land on her that should have been his wife?

Leonora:
More than I have said already, all the world
Shall ne'er extract from me; I entreat from both
Your equal pardons.

Julio:
And I from you sir.

Crispiano:
Sirrah, stand you aside,
I will talk with you hereafter.

Julio:
I could never away with after reckonings.

Leonora:
And now my lords, I do most voluntarily
Confine myself unto a stricter prison,
And a severer penance, than this court
Can impose; I am ent'red into religion.

Contarino aside:
I the cause of this practice! This
ungodly woman
Has sold herself to falsehood. I will now
Reveal myself.

Ercole: revealing himself:
Stay my lord, here's a window
To let in more light to the court.

Contarino aside:
Mercy upon me! O that thou art
living
Is mercy indeed!

First Surgeon aside:
Stay, keep in your shell
A little longer.

Contarino aside: I am Ercole.

Ariosto:
A guard upon him for the death of Contarino.

Ercole:
I obey the arrest o'th' court.

Romelio:
O sir, you are happily restor'd to life,
And to us your friends !

Ercole:
Away, thou art the traitor
I only live to challenge; this former suit
Touch'd but thy fame; this accusation
Reaches to thy fame and life: the brave Contarino
Is generally suppos'd slain by this hand.

Contarino aside:
How knows he the contrary?

Ercole:
But truth is,
Having receiv'd from me some certain wounds,
Which were not mortal, this vile murderer,
Being by will deputed overseer
Of the nobleman's estate, to his sister's use,
That he might make him sure from surviving,
To revoke the will, stole to him in's bed,
And kill'd him.

Romelio:
Strange, unheard of! More practice yet!

Ariosto:
What proof of this ?

Ercole:
The report ofhis mother deliver'd to me,
In distraction for Contarino's death.

Contarino aside:
For my death? I begin to apprehend,
That the violence of this woman's love to me
Might practise the disinheriting of her son.

Ariosto:
What say you to this, Leonora?

Leonora:
Such a thing I did utter out of my distraction:
But how the court will censure that report,
I leave to their wisdoms.

Ariosto:
My opinion is,
That this late slander urg'd against her son,
Takes from her all manner of credit:
She that would not stick to deprive him of his living,
Will as little tender his life.

Leonora:
I beseech the court,
I may retire myself to my place of penance,
I have vowed myself and my woman.

Ariosto: Go when you please. To Ercole
What should
move you be thus forward
In the accusation?

Ercole:
My love to Contarino.

Ariosto:
O, it bore very bitter fruit at your last meeting.

Ercole:
'Tis true: but I begun to love him
When I had most cause to hate him; when our bloods
Embrac'd each other, then I pitied
That so much valour should be hazarded
On the fortune of a single rapier,
And not spent against the Turk.

Ariosto:
Stay sir,
Be well advis'd, there is no testimony
But your own, to approve you slew him,
Therefore no other way to decide it,
But by duel.

Contarino:
Yes my lord, I dare affirm
'Gainst all the world, this nobleman speaks truth.

Ariosto:
You will make yourself a party in the duel.

Romelio:
Let him, I will fight with them both, sixteen of
them.

Ercole:
Sir, I do not know you.

Contarino:
Yes, but you have forgot me,
You and I have sweat in the breach together
At Malta.

Ercole:
Cry you mercy, I have known
Of your nation brave soldiers.

Julio aside:
Now if my father
Have any true spirit in him, I'll recover
His good opinion. To Contarino Do you hear? Do
not swear sir,
For I dare swear, that you will swear a lie,
A very filthy, stinking, rotten lie:
And if the lawyers think not this sufficient,
I'll give the lie in the stomach,
That's somewhat deeper than the throat:
Both here, and all France over and over,
From Marseilles, or Bayonne, to Calais sands,
And there draw my sword upon thee,
And new scour it in the gravel of thy kidneys.

Ariosto: You the defendant charg'd with the murder,
And you second there, must be committed
To the custody of the Knight-Marshal;
And the court gives charge, they be tomorrow
Ready in the lists before the sun be risen.

Romelio:
I do entreat the court, there be a guard
Placed o'er my sister, that she enter not
Into religion: she's rich, my lords,
And the persuasions of friars, to gain
All her possessions to their monasteries,
May do much upon her.

Ariosto:
We'll take order for her.

Crispiano:
There's a nun too you have got with child,
How will you dispose of her?

Romelio: You question me, as if l were grav'd already,
When I have quench'd this wild-fire in Ercole's
Tame blood, I'll tell you.

Exit.

Ercole: You have judg'd today
A most confused practice, that takes end
In as bloody a trial; and we may observe
By these great persons, and their indirect
Proceedings, shadow'd in a veil of state,
Mountains are deform'd heaps, swell'd up aloft;
Vales wholesomer, though lower, and trod on oft.

Sanitonella:
Well, I will put up my papers,
And send them to France for a precedent,
That they may not say yet, but, for one strange law-suit,
We come somewhat near them.

Exeunt.