+Lod.+ Listen to me. Soon at night (so rumour spreads it through the city) The two great dukes of Venice and Verona Are feasted by your lord, where a masque's intended. +Dor.+ That's true, sir. +Lod.+ Now, when ye all are set round about the table, In depth of silence, you shall confess these words Aloud to your husband, _You are not this child's father_: And, 'cause my order bars[148] me such inquisition, You shall say, Such a man lay with me, Naming the party was partner in your sin. +Dor.+ Good sir! +Lod.+ This is your penance I enjoin you: keep it, You are absolv'd; break it, you know the danger of it. Good-bye! +Dor.+ O good sir, stay! never was penance of more shame than this. +Lod.+ You know the danger of the breach as to us: 'Tis the shameful loss of our religious orders, If we reveal. +Dor.+ For Heaven's sake, Enjoin me first upon my knees to creep From Verona to Loretto. +Lod.+ That's nothing. +Dor.+ Nothing indeed to this. Is this your penance, So wondrous easy in performance? +Lod.+ 'Tis irrevocable. +Dor.+ I am silent: your new penance may meet A new performance. Farewell, sir. You are the cruell'st e'er confess'd me before. +Lod.+ And this the trick to catch a right pure whore. [_Exeunt._ FOOTNOTES: [133] The camomile is said to grow faster the more it is pressed or trodden upon, and to this circumstance the Clown here alludes. Frequent notice is taken of this property in the plant by our ancient writers. As in Tofte's "Honours Academie, or the Famous Pastorall of the Faire Shepheardesse Julietta," 1610, p. 204, 5th part: "But as gold taken out of the burning furnace, is farre more bright and fierce, than when it was first flung in; and as _Camomell, the more it is trod upon, the thicker and better it groweth_: even so we see this faire Archeresh to shew more cleare and beautifull, when the flame was once past and gone then she had bene before." And in the "First Part of King Henry IV.," act ii. sc. 4: "For though _the camomile the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows_, yet youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears." See other instances in the notes of Mr Steevens and Dr Farmer on the last passage. [134] [Recommended.] [135] [I might go in search of it.] [136] [A proverbial expression, by which the Clown ironically suggests that the world is going to be good at last.] [137] That is, acquainted, or informed him. [See note at vol. ix., p. 483.] [138] [Old copy, _fears_.] [139] The speech following has hitherto very mistakenly been assigned to Verona. The sense, even without comparison with the old copy, shows the error.--_Collier._ [140] [Old copy, _made_.] [141] [Old copy, _So cast him from our presence._] [142] The 4º reads, _Exeunt Lord_, &c., but Lorenzo is meant.--_Collier._ [143] [Old copy, _of lords_.] [144] See note on "Albumazar," [xi. 328.]