BASILISCO. Then fetch thy weapons; and with my single fist I'll combat thee, my body all unarm'd. PISTON. Why, lend me thine, and save me a labour. BASILISCO. I tell thee, if Alcides liv'd this day, He could not wield my weapons. PISTON. Why, wilt thou stay, till I come again? BASILISCO. Ay, upon my honour. PISTON. That shall be, when I come from Turkey. [_Exit_ PISTON. BASILISCO. Is this little desperate fellow gone? Doubtless, he is a very tall fellow; And yet it were a disgrace to all my chivalry To combat one so base: I'll send some crane to combat with the pigmy; Not that I fear, but that I scorn to fight. [_Exit_ BASILISCO. _Enter_ CHORUS. LOVE. Fortune, thou madest Ferdinando find the chain: But yet by Love's instruction he was taught To make a present of it to his mistress. FORTUNE. But Fortune would not let her keep it long. LOVE. Nay, rather, Love, by whose suggested power Erastus us'd such dice as, being false, Ran not by Fortune, but necessity. FORTUNE. Meantime, I brought Ferdinando on the way, To see and challenge what Lucina lost. DEATH. And by that challenge I abridg'd his life, And forc'd Erastus into banishment, Parting him from his love, in spite of Love. LOVE. But with my golden wings I'll follow him, And give him aid and succour in distress. FORTUNE. And doubt not too, but Fortune will be there, And cross him too, and sometimes flatter him, And lift him up, and throw him down again. DEATH. And here and there in ambush Death will stand, To mar what Love or Fortune takes in hand. [_Exeunt._ FOOTNOTES: [399] [Old copy, _semblance_.] [400] [Old copy, _light_.] [401] [A common proverb. See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 91.] [402] [Old copy, _shape_.] [403] [Old copy reads-- "Because I lost The precious carcanet she gave to me."] [404] [Old copy, _reply_.] [405] So Shakespeare, "Merry Wives of Windsor," act i. sc. 8: "_Pist._ And _high_ and _low_ beguiles the rich and poor," _i.e._, _high and low men_--false dice so called. [406] [Lucina probably called Ferdinando by this name in sport.] [407] [Pearl. See Nares, 1859, _in v._]