SCENE II[3]
       ANTONIO, DELIO, [Enter SILVIO, CASTRUCCIO, JULIA, RODERIGO
       and GRISOLAN]

  DELIO.  The presence 'gins to fill:  you promis'd me
  To make me the partaker of the natures
  Of some of your great courtiers.

  ANTONIO.                          The lord cardinal's
  And other strangers' that are now in court?
  I shall.—Here comes the great Calabrian duke.

       [Enter FERDINAND and Attendants]

  FERDINAND.  Who took the ring oftenest?[4]
  SILVIO.  Antonio Bologna, my lord.

  FERDINAND.  Our sister duchess' great-master of her household?
  Give him the jewel.—When shall we leave this sportive action,
  and fall to action indeed?

  CASTRUCCIO.  Methinks, my lord, you should not desire to go to war
  in person.

  FERDINAND.  Now for some gravity.—Why, my lord?

  CASTRUCCIO.  It is fitting a soldier arise to be a prince, but not
  necessary a prince descend to be a captain.

  FERDINAND.  No?

  CASTRUCCIO.  No, my lord; he were far better do it by a deputy.

  FERDINAND.  Why should he not as well sleep or eat by a deputy?
  This might take idle, offensive, and base office from him, whereas
  the other deprives him of honour.

  CASTRUCCIO.  Believe my experience, that realm is never long in quiet
  where the ruler is a soldier.

  FERDINAND.  Thou toldest me thy wife could not endure fighting.

  CASTRUCCIO.  True, my lord.

  FERDINAND.  And of a jest she broke of[5] a captain she met full of
  wounds:  I have forgot it.

  CASTRUCCIO.  She told him, my lord, he was a pitiful fellow, to lie,
  like the children of Ismael, all in tents.[6]
  FERDINAND.  Why, there's a wit were able to undo all the
  chirurgeons[7] o' the city; for although gallants should quarrel,
  and had drawn their weapons, and were ready to go to it, yet her
  persuasions would make them put up.

  CASTRUCCIO.  That she would, my lord.—How do you like my Spanish
  gennet?[8]
  RODERIGO.  He is all fire.

  FERDINAND.  I am of Pliny's opinion, I think he was begot
  by the wind; he runs as if he were ballass'd[9] with quicksilver.

  SILVIO.  True, my lord, he reels from the tilt often.

  RODERIGO, GRISOLAN.  Ha, ha, ha!

  FERDINAND.  Why do you laugh?  Methinks you that are courtiers
  should be my touch-wood, take fire when I give fire; that is,
  laugh when I laugh, were the subject never so witty.

  CASTRUCCIO.  True, my lord:  I myself have heard a very good jest,
  and have scorn'd to seem to have so silly a wit as to understand it.

  FERDINAND.  But I can laugh at your fool, my lord.

  CASTRUCCIO.  He cannot speak, you know, but he makes faces; my lady
  cannot abide him.

  FERDINAND.  No?

  CASTRUCCIO.  Nor endure to be in merry company; for she says too much
  laughing, and too much company, fills her too full of the wrinkle.

  FERDINAND.  I would, then, have a mathematical instrument made
  for her face, that she might not laugh out of compass.—I shall
  shortly visit you at Milan, Lord Silvio.

  SILVIO.  Your grace shall arrive most welcome.

  FERDINAND.  You are a good horseman, Antonio; you have excellent
  riders in France:  what do you think of good horsemanship?

  ANTONIO.  Nobly, my lord:  as out of the Grecian horse issued many
  famous princes, so out of brave horsemanship arise the first sparks
  of growing resolution, that raise the mind to noble action.

  FERDINAND.  You have bespoke it worthily.

  SILVIO.  Your brother, the lord cardinal, and sister duchess.

       [Enter CARDINAL, with DUCHESS, and CARIOLA]

  CARDINAL.  Are the galleys come about?

  GRISOLAN.                               They are, my lord.

  FERDINAND.  Here 's the Lord Silvio is come to take his leave.

  DELIO.  Now, sir, your promise:  what 's that cardinal?
  I mean his temper?  They say he 's a brave fellow,
  Will play his five thousand crowns at tennis, dance,
  Court ladies, and one that hath fought single combats.

  ANTONIO.  Some such flashes superficially hang on him for form;
  but observe his inward character:  he is a melancholy churchman.
  The spring in his face is nothing but the engend'ring of toads;
  where he is jealous of any man, he lays worse plots for them than
  ever was impos'd on Hercules, for he strews in his way flatterers,
  panders, intelligencers, atheists, and a thousand such political
  monsters.  He should have been Pope; but instead of coming to it
  by the primitive decency of the church, he did bestow bribes
  so largely and so impudently as if he would have carried it away
  without heaven's knowledge.  Some good he hath done——

  DELIO.  You have given too much of him.  What 's his brother?

  ANTONIO.  The duke there?  A most perverse and turbulent nature.
  What appears in him mirth is merely outside;
  If he laught heartily, it is to laugh
  All honesty out of fashion.

  DELIO.                       Twins?

  ANTONIO.                             In quality.
  He speaks with others' tongues, and hears men's suits
  With others' ears; will seem to sleep o' the bench
  Only to entrap offenders in their answers;
  Dooms men to death by information;
  Rewards by hearsay.

  DELIO.              Then the law to him
  Is like a foul, black cobweb to a spider,—
  He makes it his dwelling and a prison
  To entangle those shall feed him.

  ANTONIO.                           Most true:
  He never pays debts unless they be shrewd turns,
  And those he will confess that