Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/311

291 So many hours, since I tempted her

With all my eloquence, and for the king,

Yet found her cold as ice.

Flor. Ha, ha, ha!

Clar. You do not well to tempt a friend: you do

Forget she is my sister.

Flor. I would I ne'er had known you had one.

Clar. You'll give a reason now for this.

Flor. None.

Clar. By all that's good, since our dear father left us,

We are become his scorn; look you, sir,

I dare maintain it.

Flor. But I dare not. Put up, put up, young man,

When thou hast known a woman, thou wilt be tamer.

Clar. Ha! what should this mean? I know

He's valiant, wise, discreet; and what of that?

Passion,

When it hath got the bit, doth ofttimes throw

The rider. Yet why should I be peremptory?

She may, for ought I know, be yet unchaste

With some unworthy groom. [Studies.] What, if I stole

Into some corner, and heard her at confession?

'Twould not be amiss; for souls at such a time,

Like ships in tempests, throw out all they have.

And, now I think on't, her trial shall be quick.

Friend, I'll do thee right:

Come on't what will, she dies, if she be light.

Mul. Well, if there be no remedy, one must act two

parts. Roselio shall be the fool and the lord, and Tisso

the citizen and the cuckold.

1 Act. That cannot be, signior: you know, one still

comes in, when the other goes out.

Mul. By Jove, 'tis true. Let me see, we'll contrive it:

the lord and the usurer, the citizen and the politician;

and, sure, they never are together. But who shall act the

honest lawyer? 'tis a hard part, that!

2 Act. And a tedious one! It's admired you would