PLAN. To be a whore is more unknown to her, Than what is done in the Antipodes; She is so pure she cannot think a sin, Nor ever heard the name to understand it. KING. No doubt, these private meetings were to read Her moral lectures, and teach her chastity! PLAN. Nay, give me leave, sir. I do not say My addresses have been all so virtuous; For whatsoever base desires a flaming Beauty could kindle in a heart, were all alive In me, and prompted me to seek some ease By quenching burnings hotter than Ætna. Imagine but a man that had drunk mercury, And had a fire within his bones, Whose blood was hotter than the melted ore! If he should wish for drink, nay, steal it too, Could you condemn him? EPH. Marri'd, do they say? [_Aside._ PLAN. I did endure a heat seas could not cool; It would have kill'd a salamander. Then, taught both impudence and wit, I singled out my foe, us'd all the arts That love could think upon, and in the end Found a most absolute repulse. KING. Well, Plangus, youth excuses the first fault; But a relapse exceeds all pardon. [_Exeunt_ KING _and_ PLANGUS. SCENE VI. AND. Curs'd be old age, and he that first Number'd fourscore! What devil has betray'd us to a doating fool? Did I but now promise myself, what hopes Ambitious thoughts could reach; and shall I sink Down to my first foundation without the pleasure of A tasted greatness? Death and disgrace! I dare provoke the utmost of your malice, After the sweetness of some sharp revenge. _Enter_ LIBACER _in haste_. LIB. Madam, my master. AND. You may both hang together. LIB. Why, this it is, if a man should kill his father For you, he should be thus rewarded; as soon as Your turn's served, I may be hang'd that did it. AND. Since he is dead, how was it done? LIB. Why, nothing; only as he was taking water At the Rialto, his foot slipp'd a little, And he came tumbling in the sea; Whence he was taken up, but not alive. AND. Heav'n prospers not these courses, I see it plainly; let them be acted with as much closeness, Or to what end soever, they never thrive. Libacer, We are undone, undone; the king hath found His son here, and I have lost him to eternity. LIB. You women are the shallowest creatures; You never look beyond the present. Rome was not built in one day, madam; Greatness is never sweet that comes too easily. Should Plangus be a fool now, and obey his father-- Pox o' this virtue, it spoils most men living. We have hopes yet: revenge is something; And if my old trade fail not. Princes are mortal as well as other men; Yet my soul inspires me with half a confidence That Leon hath not died in vain. I use to see As far into mischief as another: I'll go to him, And if I bring him not within this half hour, As hot and eager on the scent as e'er he was, Take me and hang me at my coming home-- Madam, here is a messenger from court. [_As he is going out he meets_ ARTESIO.