_Put._ Never entreat me--never beseech me to have
pity, forsooth, on your master, M.[222] Herod. Let him
never be so daringly ambitious as to hope, with all his
vows and protestations, to gain my affection! God's
my discretion! Has my sutlery, tapstry, laundry, made
me be ta'en up at the court--preferr'd me to a husband;
and have I advanced my husband, with the labour of
mine own body, from the black-guard[223] to be one of the
duke's drummers, to make him one of the court forkers?
Shall I, that purify many lords and some ladies, can
tell who wears perfumes, who plasters, and for why, know
who's a gallant of a chaste shirt and[224] who not, shall I
become--or dares your master think I will become--or
if I would[225] become, presumes your master to hope I
would become one of his common feminines? No, let
M. Herod brag of his brother's wife. I scorn his letters
and her leavings at my heel--i'faith, and so tell
him. 41
_Pag._ Nay, softly,[226] dear Puttotta--Mistress Puttotta--Madam
Puttotta! O be merciful to my languishing
master! He may in time grow great and well-graced
courtier, for he wears yellow already! Mix, therefore,
your loves. As for Madam Garbetza, his brother's wife,
you see what he writes there.
_Put._ I must confess he says she is a spiny, green creature,
of an unwholesome barren blood and cold embrace--a
bony thing, of most unequal hips, uneven eyes, ill-rank'd
teeth, and indeed one, but that she hires him,
he endures not; yet, for all this does he hope to dishonest
me? I am for his betters, I would he should well know
it; for more by many than my husband know I am a
woman of a known sound and upright carriage; and
so he shall find if he deal with me; and so tell him, I
pray you. What! does he hope to make me one of his
gills, his punks, polecats, flirts, and feminines? 58
[_Exit._ _As_ PUTOTTA _goes out, she flings away
the letter_. _The_ Page _puts it up, and, as
he is talking_, HERCULES _steals it out of
his pocket_.
_Pag._ Alas! my miserable master, what suds art thou
wash'd into! Thou art born to be scorn'd of every
carted community, and yet he'll out-crack a German
when he is drunk, or a Spaniard after he hath eaten a
fumatho,[227] that he has lien with that and that and t'other
lady; that he lay last night in such a madonna's[228]
chamber, t'other night he lay[229] in such a countess's couch,
to-night he lies in such a lady's closet; when poor I
know all this while he only[230] lied in his throat.
[_Exit._
_Herc._ Madam, let me sigh it in your bosom, how immutable
and unfainting, and, indeed----
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