Volpone Or the Fox Part 2

Now, prithee, sweet soul, in all thy variation, Which body would'st thou choose, to keep up thy station?

AND: Troth, this I am in: even here would I tarry.

NAN: 'Cause here the delight of each s.e.x thou canst vary?

AND: Alas, those pleasures be stale and forsaken; No, 'tis your fool wherewith I am so taken, The only one creature that I can call blessed: For all other forms I have proved most distressed.

NAN: Spoke true, as thou wert in Pythagoras still.

This learned opinion we celebrate will, Fellow eunuch, as behoves us, with all our wit and art, To dignify that whereof ourselves are so great and special a part.

VOLP: Now, very, very pretty! Mosca, this Was thy invention?

MOS: If it please my patron, Not else.

VOLP: It doth, good Mosca.

MOS: Then it was, sir.

NANO AND CASTRONE [SING.]: Fools, they are the only nation Worth men's envy, or admiration: Free from care or sorrow-taking, Selves and others merry making: All they speak or do is sterling.

Your fool he is your great man's darling, And your ladies' sport and pleasure; Tongue and bauble are his treasure.

E'en his face begetteth laughter, And he speaks truth free from slaughter; He's the grace of every feast, And sometimes the chiefest guest; Hath his trencher and his stool, When wit waits upon the fool: O, who would not be He, he, he?

[KNOCKING WITHOUT.]

VOLP: Who's that? Away!

[EXEUNT NANO AND CASTRONE.]

Look, Mosca. Fool, begone!

[EXIT ANDROGYNO.]

MOS: 'Tis Signior Voltore, the advocate; I know him by his knock.

VOLP: Fetch me my gown, My furs and night-caps; say, my couch is changing, And let him entertain himself awhile Without i' the gallery.

[EXIT MOSCA.]

Now, now, my clients Begin their visitation! Vulture, kite, Raven, and gorcrow, all my birds of prey, That think me turning carcase, now they come; I am not for them yet- [RE-ENTER MOSCA, WITH THE GOWN, ETC.]

How now! the news?

MOS: A piece of plate, sir.

VOLP: Of what bigness?

MOS: Huge, Ma.s.sy, and antique, with your name inscribed, And arms engraven.

VOLP: Good! and not a fox Stretch'd on the earth, with fine delusive sleights, Mocking a gaping crow? ha, Mosca?

MOS: Sharp, sir.

VOLP: Give me my furs.

[PUTS ON HIS SICK DRESS.]

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.