_Enter_ BILIOSO. _Bil._ Make way[539] there! the duke returns from the enthronement.--Malevole,-- _Mal._ Out, rogue! _Bil._ Malevole,-- _Mal._ Hence, ye gross-jawed, peasantly--out, go![540] 168 _Bil._ Nay, sweet Malevole, since my return I hear you are become the thing I always prophesied would be,--an advanced virtue, a worthily-employed faithfulness, a man o' grace, dear friend. Come; what! _Si quoties peccant homines_[541]--if as often as courtiers play the knaves, honest men should be angry--why, look ye, we must collogue[542] sometimes, forswear sometimes. _Mal._ Be damned sometimes. _Bil._ Right: _nemo omnibus horis sapit_; no man can be honest at all hours: necessity often depraves virtue. _Mal._ I will commend thee to the duke. _Bil._ Do: let us be friends, man. 180 _Mal._ And knaves, man. _Bil._ Right: let us prosper and purchase:[543] our lordships shall live, and our knavery be forgotten. _Mal._ He that by any ways gets riches, his means never shames him. _Bil._ True. _Mal._ For impudency and faithlessness are the main stays to greatness. _Bil._ By the Lord, thou art a profound lad. _Mal._ By the Lord, thou art a perfect knave: out, ye ancient damnation! 191 _Bil._ Peace, peace! and thou wilt not be a friend to me as I am a knave, be not a knave to me as I am thy friend, and disclose me. Peace! cornets! _Enter_ PREPASSO and FERRARDO, _two_ Pages _with lights_, CELSO _and_ EQUATO, MENDOZA _in duke's robes, and_ GUERRINO. _Men._ On, on; leave us, leave us. [_Exeunt all except_ MALEVOLE _and_ MENDOZA. Stay, where is the hermit? _Mal._ With Duke Pietro, with Duke Pietro. _Men._ Is he dead? is he poisoned? _Mal._ Dead, as the duke is. _Men._ Good, excellent: he will not blab; secureness lives in secrecy. Come hither, come hither. 201 _Mal._ Thou hast a certain strong villainous scent about thee my nature cannot endure. _Men._ Scent, man! What returns Maria, what answer to our suit? _Mal._ Cold, frosty; she is obstinate. _Men._ Then she's but dead; 'tis resolute, she dies: Black deed only through black deed[544] safely flies. _Mal._ Pooh! _per scelera semper sceleribus tutum est iter_.[545] _Men._ What, art a scholar? art a politician? sure, thou art an arrant knave. 211 _Mal._ Who, I? I ha' been twice an under-sheriff, man.[546] Well, I will go rail upon some great man, that I may purchase the bastinado, or else go marry some rich Genoan lady, and instantly go travel. _Men._ Travel, when thou art married?