University of Virginia Library

SCENE III.

Exterior of an Inn.
Montolio, Antonio, and Wagner, enter from the Inn.
Wag.
Here we may breathe; sub dio;—but more wine,
Mi domine—your hot-house is not hotter
Than that same camera, I think you call it.
Wheugh! had I been a melon, I had blossom'd,
And fructified, and ripen'd, in an hour.

Mont.
Well, but your tale; you spoke just now of Faustus.

Wag.
You're wrong; I was about to speak; dicturus.

Mont.
Psha! 'tis all one, man.

Wag.
Minimè; the things
Are most diverse; I'll prove it logicè.

Mon.
We'll grant it without proof:

Wag.
You're wrong again.

[Enrico sings without.
Mon.
Why, sure it is Enrico!

Ant.
You are right,
If I may trust my eyes.

Wag.
No, sir, you may not;
Eyes are fallacious; seeing is no proof.
But who's Enrico? quæso, now, I pray you.

Mon.
A gallant soldier, and my worthy friend.
He comes fresh from the wars, where he has earned
An honourable name. (Enrico enters)
Right welcome home.

Ant.
Welcome again to Venice.

Mon.
Doubly welcome.

En.
I thank you, gentlemen.

Mon.
A friend of ours;
A student from—how do you call the place?
Your German names defy Venetian lips.

Wag.
From Wittenberg, where, as the poet sings,—

Mon.
Well, never mind the poet. (To Enrico)
Come, you'll join us?

En.
I've not yet seen my sister.

Mon.
Nay, a glass;
Old friends must not so lightly part, Enrico.

En.
Sirs, you shall rule me. Right good wine, i' faith.

Mon.
And now of Faustus.

Wag.
Aye, he is a man!
My master, too;—but understand me, sirs,
I' the way of learning; I was his famulus;
'Till I bethought me it was fit a scholar
Should see the world.

Mon.
But if report speak truth,
Your Faustus has had dealings with the devil.

Wag.
He scorns the devil, has learning in his head
Enough for twenty colleges; and yet
He has his humours. He can draw a sword,
And love a pretty wench, too, I can tell you.

En.
Good learning in a doctor!

Wag.
I remember,
There was a short time since at Wittenberg
A Venice maid, a handsome girl enough,
Adine di Campo Fiore.

En.
What of her?

Wag.
She and the doctor—eh! you understand!

En.
You do not mean to say—

Wag.
I mean to say,
The lady, as your Frenchman sweetly phrases it,
Made a slight faux-pas with the doctor.

En.
(striking him)
Liar!
Draw, villain!

Wag.
Draw! you've almost drawn my teeth.
What should I draw? I've nothing, sir, to draw.

Mon.
Come, come; here's some mistake.

En.
My sister!

Wag.
Eh!
His sister! Incidi in Scyllam! Hold him.
Cohibe iram!—that is, be pacified.
Let us proceed to argumentum.

En.
Off!
He is no friend to me that holds me back,

Wag.
Yes, but he is to me. Pray, hold him fast;
And let us argue this affair scholasticè.
It was not I faux-pas'd it with your sister.

En.
Shall I hear this?

Wag.
Upon my life it was not.
If you must fight, the doctor is your man;
And, as I heard a half-hour since, he's here.

En.
Is this true, sirs?

Mon.
Indeed, I've heard as much.

En.
Then let me go; I will not harm the fool;
He is not worth my anger; but for Faustus,
Or he or I.
[Exit Enrico.

Wag.
Vade in pacem!

Mon.
Sir!
You must not be so free of speech, unless
Your hand is prompter to your sword.

Wag.
Quite wrong;
Fighting's his trade, as argument is mine.
Oh, an I had him now at Wittenberg,
You'd see how I would handle him; mehercule!
I'll run him clean through with a syllogism;
Pound him to dust with Aristotle's elenches;
Or snare him with the argument Socraticum.

Mon.
Go to; you are a coward.

Wag.
Probes; prove it.

Ant.
Away; he is not for our company.

[Exeunt Montolio and Antonio.
Wag.
What, gone without probation! Brutes, per Jovem;
I'll in and syllogize the landlord's daughter;
She is a fair one, and eke loves a scholar.
SONG.

[Exit.