 | The Devil And The Lady |  |
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ACT III
Scene I
(A room in the cottage, a table laid out with meats, wines, etc. DEVIL, ANTONIO, PHARMACEUTUS, STEPHANIO, ANGULO, CAMPANO and BENEDICT at table.)DEVIL
Here! push the bottle to Antonio,
He's a choice spirit, whose wit shows brightest when
Burnish'd by wine. Drink sippingly, but not
So as to surfeit th'senses; only kindle
The combination of images
From whose collision leaps the brilliant spark
Of Heaven-born wit.
ANTONIO
Fair Amoret, I drink
Unto the absence of thy loving husband.
[To STEPHANIO
Hark ye, Stephanio, ply the Monk with wine,
Mellow his austere nature.
STEPHANIO
Mr. Benedict
The bottle is with you.
BENEDICT
With me! O Shame!
Take it away! it doth pollute mine eye-sight.
The simple mountain stream that gusheth down
The cavern doth suffice my natural wants
And the few roots that spring uncultivated.
ANTONIO
Tush! man, thy fair round juicy corporation
Doth give the lie unto thine utterance!
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It were the goodliest tree in Christendom.
STEPHANIO
'Tis a fine cargo of guts.
ANGULO
That is as plain
As that two straight lines can't enclose a space,
The angles of his elbows and his knees
And all the other angles of his person
Are all obtuse. Good living hath worn down
Their natural acuteness. Both his haunches
Are as the segments of a circle.
BENEDICT
Faugh!
ANGULO
And each particular hair upon his scull
Makes up the shortest distance 'tween two points.
BENEDICT
Avaunt! the upright shall not soil his speech
To answer to th'ungodly.
STEPHANIO
Ay, is't so?
Then, Master Benedict, d'ye hear, bring to,
Unless thy weighty flanks desire bombardment,
Although, i'faith, good Nature gave thy carcase
Broadside enough. But, rot me, once for all
Drink or be d---d.
BENEDICT
The righteous were made
To suffer persecution.
STEPHANIO
Drink on—
BENEDICT
Hush!
Blast not my hearing with thine obscene oaths.
Sooner than listen to them, I, by drinking,
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Not that I love the carnal taste of wine,
For the Lord knows I'll only wet my lips
That I may stop your execrations.
[Drinks off the bumper
ANTONIO
Bravo! take heed, he only wets his lips!
PHARMACEUTUS
A little wine in moderation
Doth brace the nerves and lend the flagging spirits
A healthful tonic and decent gaiety.
ANTONIO
Would it could brace thy person.
PHARMACEUTUS
Or mend thy temper.
ANTONIO
Make thy hips firmer.
PHARMACEUTUS
Or thy tongue less voluble.
DEVIL
Fie, Gentlemen, no brawls!
STEPHANIO
Fair Excellence,
Thou hast held out long enough. I prithee now
Capitulate on honourable terms,
Disclose the dazzling windows of thine eyes,
Display the rosy banners of thy cheeks,
And open the port cullis of thy lips,
Within whose crimson tenement are rang'd
Thine ivory files of teeth. Consider, prithee,
How shall the airy ardent kiss make way
Through the thick folds of that dark veil, which bars
All access to the fortress of thy soul.
ANTONIO
Ay! Ay! unveil.
ANGULO
Disperse thy ‘nebulæ.’
DEVIL
Ay and the nebulones that surround me.
ANTONIO
Thou wert not used to such reservedness—
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Admit of many pleadings.
DEVIL
'Troth, I dare not
Unveil lest ye should quarrel for my nose.
(Aside)
(No fear of that methinks) and make partition
Of all the other features of my face.
ANGULO
And think you that we would bisect your visage?
ANTONIO
Will you not face us?
DEVIL
Nay, I cannot countenance ye.
ANTONIO
Prithee unveil! why, only double-faces
Do lurk beneath a veil.
DEVIL
And said I not
You wish'd to halve my physiognomy?
You hint that I am double-faced and hence
'Tis plain you wish that half my face were off.
ANGULO
Equals from equals taken remain equals.
DEVIL
Let me have no divisions on the point.
ANGULO
A point hath neither parts nor magnitude,
Thy face hath both and therefore is no point.
DEVIL
From thine own wit I judge thy wit is pointless,
For thou hast parts and therefore lackest point.
ANTONIO
How should his inability proceed
From his ability? If he hath parts
Then is he not without ability,
But if his language hath no point in it,
Then his ability is null and void.
ANGULO
Which is absurd.
ANTONIO
Can'st solve it?
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I say still
A point hath neither parts nor magnitude—
DEVIL
But this is size-point and hath parts and magnitude.
ANTONIO
Thou art as full of point as a woolcard, Amoret.
DEVIL
But you are ‘contre-point’ and meet me halfway.
CAMPANO
The devil take discussion—that bears point-blank.
STEPHANO
I wish the point were doubled.
ANTONIO
Nay, i'faith
We've had enough on't.
[Here BENEDICT helps himself
What, old Confidence,
Thou top and Pink of all Morality,
Thy taste improves then. Marry, but I had
Some shrewd suspicion that that demi-circle
Of entrails was bow'd out with better stuff
Than herb and biscuit.
BENEDICT
A—avaunt I—I will not heed the unrighteous.
ANTONIO
Thou dost not like the carnal taste of wine?
ANGULO
How the saint reels about his centre of gravity,
His spine subtends an arc of ninety degrees.
STEPHANO
'Faith he hath no small matter in his hold,
He'd keep both pumps at work, I warrant him.
DEVIL
I pray ye, Gentlemen, give ear to me,
It is my wish that e'er I do unveil
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In turn should chaunt some love lorn madrigal
Some amorous ditty which may give him scope
To laud with Love's exaggeration
Unto the height of his ability
My loveliness of feature: after which
To him whose strains are sweetest and whose praise
Sounds softest to the ear of vanity
I purpose the unveiling of my beauty
And will admit him to snatch as many kisses
From lips, cheeks, eyebrows, forehead as he wish
Ad libitum. Doth it hit your fancies?
ANTONIO
Ay!
Certes, fair Amoret: Shall I begin?
My voice is sweeter than the chink of silver.
CAMPANO
Mine louder than the bugles' clamour.
ANGULO
And mine
Falls with more regular cadence than—
STEPHANIO
And mine's
Like any cannon.
DEVIL
What saith Benedict?
BENEDICT
My voice was ever yet employed in psalmody.
PHARMACEUTUS
But mine—
ANTONIO
What! thine! the clicking of thy tongue
Upon thy worn-out palate doth resemble
The livelong hammering of thy cursed pestle
Upon the druggéd mortar and doth surfeit
Our hearing, as thy physicks do our taste.
DEVIL
Antonio, prithee sing first.
ANTONIO
Why, then, here goes!
By Jove, I'll warble like the captive thrush.
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The all subduing trammels of strong love.
My soul is held in such sweet thrall by thee
Had I the power I would not grant it bail,
Therefore, sweet Excellence, my strains shall be
Most like the imprison'd linnet's.
DEVIL
Prithee, gaol-bird,
No prelude to thy warblings—quick—dispatch.
STEPHANIO
I can roar out a catch with th'best o'ye.
ANTONIO
If thou presumest to exalt thy voice—
STEPHANIO
Avast! Avast there messmate! Anchor quietly.
What! do you bear against me? Put about ship
Or ere a hand can reef the mizzen top-sail,
I'll lend thy stern so warm a cannonading
As peradventure, man, may make thy bowsprit
Drip with salt water.
DEVIL
What, Stephanio,
Would'st print the booted fury of thy five toes
Into his yielding carcase?
STEPHANIO
Marry, would I.
PHARMACEUTUS
(whispering STEPHANIO)
Ay, do't, Stephanio, prithee, do it now.
He lacketh salutary chastisement.
ANTONIO
Thou woulds't not meddle sure with my entailments.
CAMPANO
How! woulds't thou violate his back settlements?
STEPHANIO
What! do you side with him? do you back him?
CAMPANO
No,
Not his back-side.
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If thou but stirrest one finger
Or look'st upon me commandingly—thus,
I'll let more light into thy skull than ever
Shone there of nature, with as rude a polt
As ever cudgel-swinging bumpkin lent
His blue and batter'd brother-labourer.
ANGULO
There will be ‘Vulgar Fractions’ then, methinks.
ANTONIO
So! So! you thrust your tongue into your cheek
As if you doubt my prowess—Why, come on then!
Dost think a lawyer hath but legal weapons?
Can'st toddle to the scratch? I'll sew your sees up!
I'll Chancery your upper tenements.
I'll file and bore you scientifically.
I'll make the patchwork peep, I warrant you,
Disorganise your victualling-office, uncork
The claret of your nob, and dim your daylights,
And make your ivories chatter in the tusk-box.
STEPHANIO
I'll bring my guns to bear on ye enow,
I'm only gathering wind before I crowd sail.
ANTONIO
Ay, ay, for every mugger thou shalt give me,
I'll lend thee ten and ten and ten to that.
ANGULO
Oh! a recurring decimal.
STEPHANIO
Come, unrig.
ANTONIO
I am your man.
DEVIL
(coming behind)
And I your woman, Sir.
(Trips him up)
ANGULO
Quod erat demonstrandum!
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Ha! Ha! founder'd!
CAMPANO
He hath received some damage in his rear,
And total rout unto his advanc'd guard.
ANTONIO
How now! the devil! Amoret!
DEVIL
The Devil's Amoret
Is a good part if done in character.
The Devil Amoret! the Devil, Sir!
I was an Angel twenty minutes since,
Did I not say that you would change your humour?
ANTONIO
Assault and battery!
DEVIL
Ha! Ha! Ha! Antonio,
And would you swear me in to keep the peace?
PHARMACEUTUS
It was a bad concussion. Shall I bleed you?
ANTONIO
I am bedevil'd and bewizarded.
DEVIL
And have you not the grace to say ‘bewitched’?
ANTONIO
Methought a Giant grappled me—What spells
Have put such thew and sinew in an arm
Whose rounded purity seem'd only able
To string a necklace or to clasp a bracelet?
DEVIL
What! have I tickled you? your nose drops blood.
STEPHANIO
How! hath he sprung a leak? hath he bilg'd?
ANGULO
He hath prov'd
The law of gravitation lustily—
And yet, methought, the vacuum in his skull
Might have buoyed up his carcase to some purpose.
STEPHANIO
He pitches bravely.
ANTONIO
Murrain take ye all!
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Your jests upon me thus? but I'll not stand it.
DEVIL
No, 'faith, you measur'd all your length just now.
ANTONIO
What do ye take me for?
ANGULO
A baffled lawyer
Diverging from the perpendicular
Which you have done before now—
BENEDICT
Yea, by 'r Lady,
He hath swerv'd from rectitude.
ANTONIO
O chattering Apes,
Do ye make mouths at me? do ye snap your fingers
As ye esteem'd me less than th'heated air
Whose rarefied attenuated substance
Would scarce endure the thistle beard to sport
Upon its yielding subtlety? then, here's for ye,
I value not a single soul among ye
The interest which one poor farthing yields
I' th'fraction of a second.
ANGULO
How!
COMPANO
What!
STEPHANIO
Do you brave us all?
ANTONIO
Ay.
STEPHANIO
Split my—
DEVIL
Hist!
[Knocking
ANTONIO
O Lord, the Necromancer!
BENEDICT
Holy Virgin
Defend us!
ANTONIO
We shall all be cats or foxes.
STEPHANIO
'Twill blow a rough gale.
[Knocking
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Saints deliver me!
I'll never do an evil thing again.
ANTONIO
I'll never nim a client of his due.
PHARMACEUTUS
I'll never kill a patient any more.
STEPHANIO
Would I were safe i' my hammock, out at sea!
PHARMACEUTUS
Would I were mixing draughts or rolling pills.
DEVIL
Wishes prove nothing but the vanity
Of him that wisheth: though, like telescopes,
They bring far things awhile beneath the view,
They cannot 'minish the long interval
And space between the object and the wish.
[Knocking
Quick, quick, be expeditious, Gentlemen.
Look ere you leap but tarry not in looking,
Were a good proverb.
A quick decision i' the nick of time
Outruns mature deliberation
As the strong gush o' th'tide in some strait river
Precurses the more sober ocean.
You mount the chimney, Benedict—what now!
Do you stick fast in't? doth its sooty breath
Offend thy proud olfactories? Up farther,
My ghostly chimney-sweep. I warrant this
Is not the first time you have made a chimney
The medium of intrigue. Up farther yet,
Work thy way inward. Hark ye! Pharmaceutus,
Stow your long body cheek by jowl with Angulo
Within the closet yonder. You, Campano,
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There i' the corner with Stephanio.
You i' this chest, my worthy Counsellor,
Must with contracted stomach chafe your knees.
So! So! ye are all safe now.
[Loud and continued knocking
I prithee, patience.
I.e. are combed exactly straight upon his forehead. This is the definition which Archimedes gives of a straight line.— A. T.
Scene II
Outside of the cottage—early morning.MAGUS
I do much fear my Devil hath play'd false
Or that the weeds of wanton Idleness
Have mantled his clear wit. Why comes he not?
There is no punishment too sharp for him
That doth forsake his trust, betray the station
Where we have set him in Authority.
If the frail reed we lean upon should break,
Where most we hope its succour, it were meet
That we should hew it from the wholesome Earth
Which nourisheth and perfects better things.
If he should answer my suspicions,
I'll pen him for some centuries in ice
Up to the neck, I'll rack his thumbs with screws;
I'll twitch his tail until the black blood spout
Forth at the end; I'll fill his jaws with tooth-ache;
I'll stick hot pins thro's liver—Hark! he comes.
[Enter DEVIL, still veil'd
Ha! Amoret, awake, abroad so early
Blanching the roses of thy cheeks. What now!
The grey cock hath not crow'd, the glow-worm still
Leads on unpal'd his train of emerald light.
DEVIL
Good faith, most venerable necromancer,
The roses of my visage are not blanch'd
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Unto a depth of dusky colouring. (Unveils)
MAGUS
How now, my Hellish Minister, dark child
Of bottomless Hades; what rude waggery
What jejune undigested joke is this?
To quilt thy fuscous haunches with the flounc'd,
Frilled, finical delicacy of female dress.
How hast thou dar'd to girdle thy brown sides
And prop thy monstrous veterbræ with stays?
Speak out, thou petticoated Solecism.
Thou hairy trifler! what mad pranks have sent
Thy diabolical wits a wool-gathering?
DEVIL
A linen gathering I grant you, Master.
MAGUS
Certes, it seems your Devilship to-night
Is unaccountably facetious!
Speak and beware the magic of my spells!
Or I will rive yon mighty Cedar-Tree
Sheer from its topmost windiest branch unto
The lowest fang o' th'root—between each half
I'll place thy sinful carcase and again
When the cleft stem shall close without a fissure
Thy bunching body shall be quash'd as flat
As spider in a hinge.
DEVIL
Nay, prithee—
MAGUS
Speak, then,
And tell me why thy horny scalp is thus
Envelop'd in the foldings of this veil?
DEVIL
Why lurks the Bravo's dagger in the sheath
Ere yet it glitter o'er his enemy?
Why is the curvéd fish-hook buried in
The length o' th'twisting worm? My gudgeons play
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Is buried in the foldings of this veil
To save thy scalp from horns.
MAGUS
Ay? is it so?
Good Devil bear with me. My nature is
Most quickly mov'd to anger which as quickly
Is wasted like the flint o' th'veiny Earth
Which underneath the hoof one moment flashes
A particle of intense fire which dies
As instantly. But wind and wave have chafed me,
The Anarchy of the impetuous blast
And the wet beatings of the step-dame surge
Have ruffled my smooth temper.
DEVIL
Gentle Master,
Unless thine oars had been swift wings, thy boat
Some pinion'd steed of air, thine ocean-path
The limitless abyss of Ether's space,
I know not how thou hast measur'd back thy way
So keenly.
MAGUS
Half the powers o' th'other world
Were leagued against my journeying: but had not
The irresistible and lawless might
Of brazen-handed fix'd Fatality
Oppos'd me, I had done it. The black storm,
From out whose mass of volum'd vapour sprang
The lively curling thunderbolt had ceas'd
Long ere from out the dewy depth of Pines
Emerging on the hollow'd banks, that bound
The leapings of the saucy tide, I stood—
The mighty waste of moaning waters lay
So goldenly in moonlight, whose clear lamp
With its long line of vibratory lustre
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Was buoyant with rejoicings. Each hoar wave
With crisped undulation arching rose,
Thence falling in white ridge with sinuous slope
Dash'd headlong to the shore and spread along
The sands its tender fringe of creamy spray.
Thereat my shallop lightly I unbound,
Spread my white sail and rode exulting on
The placid murmurings of each feathery wave
That hurried into sparkles round the cleaving
Of my dark Prow; but scarcely had I past
The third white line of breakers when a squall
Fell on me from the North, an inky Congress
O' the Republican clouds unto the zenith
Rush'd from th'horizon upwards with the speed
Of their own thunder-bolts.
The seas divided and dim Phantasies
Came thronging thickly round me, with hot eyes
Unutterable things came flitting by me;
Semblance of palpability was in them,
Albeit the wavering lightnings glitter'd thro'
Their shadow'd immaterialities.
Black shapes clung to my boat; a sullen owl
Perch'd on the Prow, and overhead the hum
As of infernal Spirits in mid Heaven
Holding aerial council caught mine ear.
Then came a band of melancholy sprites,
White as their shrouds and motionlessly pale
Like some young Ashwood when the argent Moon
Looks in upon its many silver stems.
And thrice my name was syllabled i' th'air
And thrice upon the wave, like that loud voice
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Came sounding o'er the lone Ionian.
Thereat I girded round my loins the scarf
Thy Mother Hecate gave me and withstood
The violent tempest: the insulting surge
Rode over me in glassy arch but dar'd not
Sprinkle one drop of its nefarious spray
Upon my charméd person: the red heralds
O' th'heavy footed thunder glanc'd beside me,
Kiss'd my bar'd front and curl'd around my brow
In lambent wreaths of circling fire, but could not
Singe one loose lock of vagrant grey, that floated
To the wind's dalliance. But nor magic spells
Vigour of heart or vigilance of hand,
Could back the Ocean's spumy menacings,
Which drove my leaky skiff upon the sands.
Soon as I touch'd firm Earth, each mounting billow
Fell laxly back into its windless bed,
And all the moon-lit Ocean slumber'd still.
Thrice with bold prow I breasted the rough spume
But thrice a vitreous wall of waves up sprung
Ridging the level sea—so far'd it with me
Foil'd of my purpose. Some unwholesome star,
Some spells of darker Gramarie than mine,
Rul'd the dim night and would not grant me passage.
DEVIL
Thou hast come fittingly.
MAGUS
How so?
DEVIL
My plans
Are growing to a head.
MAGUS
And hast thou guarded
With scrupulous exactness—
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Grant me but
The tenth part of an hour and I will mesh
In the entanglement of stratagem
These lawless insolents; thyself shall take
That vengeance which thou wishest.
MAGUS
Who are within?
DEVIL
Water and oil.
MAGUS
What mean you?
DEVIL
Salt and pepper.
MAGUS
Be less ambiguous.
DEVIL
A most warring compound
Of uncongenial elements, good Master.
'Faith, seldom doth thy dice box, Intercourse,
Turn up such rude unmated numbers.
MAGUS
Ha!
Where's Amoret?
DEVIL
Asleep.
MAGUS
Art sure?
DEVIL
Most certain.
MAGUS
'Tis well. I wait without. What signal, prithee,
Shall summon my approach?
DEVIL
A beat o' th'foot, or
The shrill collision of my palms—thus—thrice, or
A clearing of the throat—thus—meaningly.
MAGUS
I will be sure to mark it. Get thee gone
And do thy bidding, Devil.
[Exit DEVIL
'Tis even thus—
And they would pluck from th'casket the sole gem
Of mine affections, taint its innocent lustre,
And give it back dishonour'd, they would canker
My brightest flower, would muddy the clear source
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Would let the foul consuming worm into
The garner of my love. O Earthliness!
Man clambers over the high battlements
That part the principalities of good
And ill—perchance a few hot tears, and then
The sear'd heart yields to 't and Crime's signet stamps
Her burning image there. The summer fly
That skims the surface of the deep black pool
Knows not the gulf beneath its slippery path.
Man sees, but plunges madly into it.
We follow thro' a night of crime and care
The voice of soft Temptation, still it calls,
And still we follow onwards, till we find
She is a Phantom and—we follow still.
When couched in Boyhood's passionless tranquillity,
The natural mind of man is warm and yielding,
Fit to receive the best impressions,
But raise it to the atmosphere of manhood
And the rude breath of dissipation
Will harden it to stone. 'Tis like the seaplant
Which in its parent and unshaken depths
Is mouldable as clay, but when rude hands
Have pluck'd it from its billowless Abyss
Unto the breathings of Heaven's airs, each gust
Which blows upon 't will fix it into hardness.
I'll to the Northern casement which looks over
The shrubby banks o' th'mountain Lake, for thence
The slightest whisper from within may reach me.
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Scene III
Interior of MAGUS' cottage. Enter DEVIL.DEVIL
O ye puissant spirits whose tried powers
The issue of this night hath fully prov'd,
Though your undoubted prowess hath descended
In dearth of other merriment to play
At hide and seek—come forth!
STEPHANIO
(Whispering from under his sacks.)
Is the coast clear?
Has he heel'd offward?
ANTONIO
(Half raising the lid of the chest.)
Is the sorcerer gone?
DEVIL
‘Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen.’
CAMPANO
What! did he beat a parley with thee, Amoret?
Or did ye sally forth, and nail his Ordnance
Ere it had vent?
BENEDICT
(Up in the chimney.)
The Lord deliver me!
That ever Benedict should come to this!
DEVIL
Out of your holes, ye Rats! uncavern ye,
White-liver'd conies!
ANTONIO
Why, thou art a Shrew.
DEVIL
Nay, give the Devil his due, I am not shrewish.
ANTONIO
Beshrew me, if thou art not. Where is Magus,
And his familiar?
DEVIL
Fear, like Drunkenness
Sees ever double—there was only one.
'Twas an old suitor whom I had discarded,
A miserly craving man, whose white hairs preach
Against his manners.
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Became the end of being; his hair was lac'd
With cobwebs, his sad calculating brows
Gather'd into a hundred dusty wrinkles.
A rusty key with many less ones dangled
Beside him, his parch'd person showed most like
A disembowell'd Mummy or dried Moth.
There was no moisture in his fissur'd lip.
He thrust his shrivell'd fingers into mine,
And mumbled from his dry and corky tongue
Some sentences which intimated Love,
But sounded like chaf'd parchment or the whistle
Of tight and corded Inexpressibles.
Ev'n such an one so sapless and so wither'd
I clos'd my door upon.
BENEDICT
(Groaning in the chimney)
Beate Martin!
ANTONIO
He calls for Betty Martin.
DEVIL
And he'll find her
For she is marvellously fond of soot.
PHARMACEUTUS
(Who has advanced into the stage with ANGULO.)
Did you speak verity, my oil of Roses?
Who shook the door so keenly?
ANGULO
Ay, good mistress,
Are we correct i' th'data?
DEVIL
Know you not
Philargyrus, to whose roof the sparrow's nest
Owes not a straw that lines it?
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Know him? Ay,
A weak, old patient with a thready pulse,
And dry unfruitful palm, which lacketh ever
The wholesome dew of perspiration.
But I much marvel how he knocked so briskly.
DEVIL
He was enrag'd we did not open to him:
And irritation often times doth nerve
The puny frame with artificial strength.
A child in wrath will cast a heavy stone,
Which in his tamer mood he scarce had mov'd.
But to the point! We tarry long in colloquy,
The cool and pearly grey of dawn hath crept
Into the sable bosom of the night.
It were fit time that I should call from ye
The man that hits my fancy.
PHARMACEUTUS
Wilt unveil then,
My liniment of Linseed, my Electuary,
My syrup of Poppies, eh? my flower of sulphur?
DEVIL
(Aside)
That's a home touch, though but a random hit.
My flower of sulphur quotha! by the Cabbala
A pretty flower of sulphur shall ye find me.
My thoughts begin to burn: a Devil's heat
Glows through me to the core: have at ye, Sirs!
[OMITTED]
| The Devil And The Lady | |