 | Two ways of dying for a husband. I. Dying to keep him, or Tortesa the usurer. II. Dying to lose him, or Bianca Visconti |  |
SCENE I.
[Pasquali's Chamber. Fiametta sitting with his cap in her hand.]FIAMETTA.
What wilt thou do for a black feather, Pasquali?
PASQUALI.
Hast thou no money?
FIAMETTA.
No—save my dowry of six pieces.
PASQUALI.
Give the pieces to me, and thy dowry will be ten times greater.
FIAMETTA.
An it be not six times les, I will never trust counting upon fingers.
PASQUALI.
Hast thou no dread of dying uncelebrated?
If it be sin I have a dread of it by baptism.
PASQUALI.
Is it a sin to neglect thy immortality?
FIAMETTA.
Ay—it is.
PASQUALI.
Then take heed how thou fallest into sin—for to be the friend of a poet is to be immortal, and thou art no friend of mine if I have not thy six pieces.
FIAMETTA.
But how shall I have six times more, master Pasquali?
PASQUALI.
In reputation! Wouldst thou marry a fool?
FIAMETTA.
No, truly.
PASQUALI.
Then if thy husband be wise, he will be more proud that thou art famous, than covetous of thy six pieces.
FIAMETTA.
And shall I be famous?
(Gives him the money.)
PASQUALI.
Thou wilt live when Sforza is dead!
Is not Sforza famous, then?
PASQUALI.
He hath fame while he lives, and so had king Priam of Troy. But if Homer had not written, Priam would have been forgot and Troy too; and if Sforza live not in poetry, he is as dead in a century—as thou and Laura were, but for your favors to Petrarch and Pasquali.
FIAMETTA.
Why does not Sforza give thee six pieces and be immortal?
PASQUALI.
Truly—he pays more for a less matter! It is the blindness of great men that they slight the poets. Look here now—hath not Sforza shed blood, and wasted treasure, and taken a thousand murders on his soul, to leave a name after him?
FIAMETTA.
I misdoubt he hath.
PASQUALI.
Now will I, whom he thinks less worthy than a trumpeter, sit down, and with a scrape of my pen, make a dog's name more known to posterity.
FIAMETTA.
When thou speakest of a dog, I think of my Lady's
PASQUALI.
Canst thou tell me why the moon riseth not every night, as the sun every day?
FIAMETTA.
No—truly.
PASQUALI.
Neither can I give thee reason for a woman's fancy— which is as unaccountable in its caprice as the moon in its changes. Hence the sun is called “he,” the moon “she.”
FIAMETTA.
Holy Virgin—what it is to be learned!
PASQUALI.
Come, Fiametta! spend thy dowry while thy mind is enlightened!
FIAMETTA.
If I should repent now!
PASQUALI.
Think not of it. If thou shouldst repent to-morrow, I shall still go beseemingly to the funeral, and 'thou wilt be famous past praying for. Come away!
| Two ways of dying for a husband. I. Dying to keep him, or Tortesa the usurer. II. Dying to lose him, or Bianca Visconti | |