If destiny thy miseries do ease, Then hast thou health; and happy shalt thou be: If destiny deny thee life, Hieronimo, Yet shalt thou[229] be assured of a tomb: If neither; yet let this thy comfort be, Heaven covereth him that hath no burial. And to conclude, I will revenge his death: But how? not as the vulgar wits of men, With open but inevitable ills, As by a secret, yet a certain mean, Which under kindship will be cloaked best. Wise men will take their opportunity, Closely and safely fitting things to time. But in extremes advantage hath no time: And therefore all times fit not for revenge. Thus therefore will I rest me in unrest, Dissembling quiet in unquietness: Not seeming that I know their villainies That my simplicity may make them think, That ignorantly I will let all[230] slip; For ignorance, I wot, and well they know, _Remedium malorum mors est._ Nor aught avails it me to menace them Who, as a wintry storm upon a plain, Will bear me down with their nobility. No, no, Hieronimo, thou must enjoin Thine eyes to observation, and thy tongue To milder speeches than thy spirit affords,[231] Thy heart to patience and thy hands to rest, Thy cap to courtesy and thy knee to bow, Till to revenge thou know, when, where, and how. [_A noise within._ How now, what noise? what coil is that you keep? _Enter a_ SERVANT. SERVANT. Here are a sort of poor petitioners, That are importunate, and it shall please you, sir, That you should plead their cases[232] to the king. HIERONIMO. That I should plead their several actions? Why, let them enter, and let me see them. _Enter three_ CITIZENS _and an_ OLD MAN. 1 CITIZEN. So, I tell you this, for learning and for law There is not any advocate in Spain That can prevail, or will take half the pain, That he will in pursuit of equity. [_Aside._ HIERONIMO. Come near, you men, that thus importune me; Now must I bear a face of gravity, For thus[233] I us'd, before my marshalship, To plead in causes as corrigidor.-- [_Aside._ Come on, sirs, what's the matter? 2 CITIZEN. Sir, an action. HIERONIMO. Of battery? 1 CITIZEN. Mine, of debt. HIERONIMO. Give place. 2 CITIZEN. No, sir, mine is an action of the case. 3 CITIZEN. Mine an _Ejectio firma_ by a lease. HIERONIMO.