_Pietro._ Sing of the nature of women; and then the song shall be surely full of variety, old crotchets, and most sweet closes: it shall be humorous, grave, fantastic, amorous, melancholy, sprightly, one in all, and all in one. 41 _First Page._ All in one! _Pietro._ By'r lady, too many. Sing: my speech grows culpable of unthrifty idleness: sing. Ah, so, so, sing. _Song by_ Second _and_ Third Pages. I am heavy: walk off; I shall talk in my sleep: walk off. [_Exeunt_ Pages. _Enter_ MALEVOLE, _with cross-bow and pistol_. _Mal._ Brief, brief: who? the duke! good heaven, that fools Should stumble upon greatness!--Do not sleep, duke; Give ye good-morrow: I[480] must be brief, duke; I am fee'd to murder thee: start not: Mendoza, 50 Mendoza hir'd me; here's his gold, his pistol, Cross-bow, and[481] sword: 'tis all as firm as earth. O fool, fool, chokèd with the common maze Of easy idiots, credulity! Make him thine heir! what, thy sworn murderer! _Pietro._ O, can it be? _Mal._ Can! _Pietro._ Discover'd he not Ferneze? _Mal._ Yes, but why? but why? for love to thee? Much, much![482] to be reveng'd upon his rival, Who had thrust his jaws awry; Who being slain, suppos'd by thine own hands, 60 Defended by his sword, made thee most loathsome, Him most gracious with thy loose princess: Thou, closely yielding egress and regress to her, Madest him heir; whose hot unquiet lust Straight tous'd thy sheets, and now would seize thy state. Politician! wise man! death! to be Led to the stake like a bull by the horns; To make even kindness cut a gentle throat! Life, why art thou numb'd? thou foggy dulness, speak: Lives not more faith in a home-thrusting tongue 70 Than in these fencing tip-tap courtiers? _Enter_ CELSO, _with a hermit's gown and beard_. _Pietro._[483] Lord Malevole, if this be true---- _Mal._ If! come, shade thee with this disguise. If! thou shalt handle it; he shall thank thee for killing thyself. Come, follow my directions, and thou shalt see strange sleights. _Pietro._ World, whither wilt thou? _Mal._ Why, to the devil. Come, the morn grows late: A steady quickness is the soul of state. [_Exeunt._ [477] Old eds. "safely." [478] Ed. 1. "and please you." [479] Ed. 2. "as soone leaue you as we to quietnesse." [480] For "I must" ed. 1. reads "must;" ed. 2. "you must." [481] Omitted in ed. 1. [482] Ironical exclamation. [483] Old eds. "_Cel._" ACT IV. SCENE I. _Palace of the Duke._ Enter MAQUERELLE.