Part 2 (2/2)

Why dost thou laugh so, man?

MOS: I cannot choose, sir, when I apprehend What thoughts he has without now, as he walks: That this might be the last gift he should give; That this would fetch you; if you died to-day, And gave him all, what he should be to-morrow; What large return would come of all his ventures; How he should wors.h.i.+p'd be, and reverenced; Ride with his furs, and foot-cloths; waited on By herds of fools, and clients; have clear way Made for his mule, as letter'd as himself; Be call'd the great and learned advocate: And then concludes, there's nought impossible.

VOLP: Yes, to be learned, Mosca.

MOS: O no: rich Implies it. Hood an a.s.s with reverend purple, So you can hide his two ambitious ears, And he shall pa.s.s for a cathedral doctor.

VOLP: My caps, my caps, good Mosca. Fetch him in.

MOS: Stay, sir, your ointment for your eyes.

VOLP: That's true; Dispatch, dispatch: I long to have possession Of my new present.

MOS: That, and thousands more, I hope, to see you lord of.

VOLP: Thanks, kind Mosca.

MOS: And that, when I am lost in blended dust, And hundred such as I am, in succession-

VOLP: Nay, that were too much, Mosca.

MOS: You shall live, Still, to delude these harpies.

VOLP: Loving Mosca!

'Tis well: my pillow now, and let him enter.

[EXIT MOSCA.]

Now, my fain'd cough, my pthisic, and my gout, My apoplexy, palsy, and catarrhs, Help, with your forced functions, this my posture, Wherein, this three year, I have milk'd their hopes.

He comes; I hear him-Uh! [COUGHING.] uh! uh! uh! O-

[RE-ENTER MOSCA, INTRODUCING VOLTORE, WITH A PIECE OF PLATE.]

MOS: You still are what you were, sir. Only you, Of all the rest, are he commands his love, And you do wisely to preserve it thus, With early visitation, and kind notes Of your good meaning to him, which, I know, Cannot but come most grateful. Patron! sir!

Here's signior Voltore is come-

VOLP [FAINTLY.]: What say you?

MOS: Sir, signior Voltore is come this morning To visit you.

VOLP: I thank him.

MOS: And hath brought A piece of antique plate, bought of St Mark, With which he here presents you.

VOLP: He is welcome.

Pray him to come more often.

MOS: Yes.

VOLT: What says he?

MOS: He thanks you, and desires you see him often.

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