Scene II Another Street
Enter Fustigo in some fantastic Sea-suit, meeting a Porter.
Fus. How now, porter, will she come?
Por. If I may trust a woman, sir, she will come.
Fus. There’s for thy pains [Gives money]. Godamercy, if ever I stand in need of a wench that will come with a wet finger,123 porter, thou shalt earn my money before any clarissimo124 in Milan; yet, so God sa’ me, she’s mine own sister body and soul, as I am a Christian gentleman; farewell; I’ll ponder till she come: thou hast been no bawd in fetching this woman, I assure thee.
Por. No matter if I had, sir, better men than porters are bawds.
Fus. O God, sir, many that have borne offices. But, porter, art sure thou went’st into a true house?
Por. I think so, for I met with no thieves.
Fus. Nay, but art sure it was my sister, Viola.
Por. I am sure, by all superscriptions, it was the party you ciphered.
Fus. Not very tall?
Por. Nor very low; a middling woman.
Fus. ’Twas she, ’faith, ’twas she, a pretty plump cheek, like mine?
Por. At a blush a little, very much like you.
Fus. Godso, I would not for a ducat she had kicked up her heels, for I ha’ spent an abomination this voyage, marry, I did it amongst sailors and gentlemen. There’s a little modicum more, porter, for making thee stay [Gives money]; farewell, honest porter.
Por. I am in your debt, sir; God preserve you.
Fus. Not so, neither, good porter. [Exit Porter.] God’s lid, yonder she comes. [Enter Viola.] Sister Viola, I am glad to see you stirring: it’s news to have me here, is’t not, sister?
Vio. Yes, trust me; I wondered who should be so bold to send for me: you are welcome to Milan, brother.
Fus. Troth, sister, I heard you were married to a very rich chuff,125 and I was very sorry for it, that I had no better clothes, and that made me send; for you know we Milaners love to strut upon Spanish leather. And how do all our friends?
Vio. Very well; you ha’ travelled enough now, I trow, to sow your wild oats.
Fus. A pox on ’em! wild oats? I ha’ not an oat to throw at a horse. Troth, sister, I ha’ sowed my oats, and reaped two hundred ducats if I had ’em here. Marry, I must entreat you to lend me some thirty or forty till the ship come: by this hand, I’ll discharge at my day, by this hand.
Vio. These are your old oaths.
Fus. Why, sister, do you think I’ll forswear my hand?
Vio. Well, well, you shall have them: put yourself into better fashion, because I must employ you in a serious matter.
Fus. I’ll sweat like a horse if I like the matter.
Vio. You ha’ cast off all your old swaggering humours?
Fus. I had not sailed a league in that great fishpond, the sea, but I cast up my very gall.
Vio. I am the more sorry, for I must employ a true swaggerer.
Fus. Nay by this iron, sister, they shall find I am powder and touch-box, if they put fire once into me.
Vio. Then lend me your ears.
Fus. Mine ears are yours, dear sister.
Vio. I am married to a man that has wealth enough, and wit enough.
Fus. A linen-draper, I was told, sister.
Vio. Very true, a grave citizen, I want nothing that a wife can wish from a husband: but here’s the spite, he has not all the things belonging to a man.
Fus. God’s my life, he’s a very mandrake,126 or else (God bless us) one a’ these whiblins,127 and that’s worse, and then all the children that he gets lawfully of your body, sister, are bastards by a statute.
Vio. O, you run over me too fast, brother; I have heard it often said, that he who cannot be angry is no man. I am sure my husband is a man in print, for all things else save only in this, no tempest can move him.
Fus. ’Slid, would he had been at sea with us! he should ha’ been moved, and moved again, for I’ll be sworn, la, our drunken ship reeled like a Dutchman.
Vio. No loss of goods can increase in him a wrinkle, no crabbed language make his countenance sour, the stubbornness of no servant shake him; he has no more gall in him than a dove, no more sting than an ant; musician will he never be, yet I find much music in him, but he loves no frets, and is so free from anger, that many times I am ready to bite off my tongue, because it wants that virtue which all women’s tongues have, to anger their husbands: brother, mine can by no thunder, turn him into a sharpness.
Fus. Belike his blood, sister, is well brewed then.
Vio. I protest to thee, Fustigo, I love him most affectionately; but I know not—I ha’ such a tickling within me—such a strange longing; nay, verily I do long.
Fus. Then you’re with child, sister, by all signs and tokens; nay, I am partly a physician, and partly something else. I ha’ read Albertus Magnus, and Aristotle’s Problems.
Vio. You’re wide a’ th’ bow hand128 still, brother: my longings are not wanton, but wayward: I long to have my patient husband eat up a whole porcupine, to the intent, the bristling quills may stick about his lips like a Flemish mustachio, and be shot at me: I shall be leaner the new moon, unless I can make him horn-mad.
Fus. ’Sfoot, half a quarter of an hour does that; make him a cuckold.
Vio. Pooh, he would count such a cut no unkindness.
Fus. The honester citizen he; then make him drunk and cut off his beard.
Vio. Fie, fie, idle, idle! he’s no Frenchman, to fret at the loss of a little scald129 hair. No, brother, thus it shall be—you must be secret.
Fus. As your mid-wife, I protest, sister, or a barber-surgeon.
Vio. Repair to the Tortoise here in St. Christopher’s Street; I will send you money; turn yourself into a brave man: instead of the arms of your mistress, let your sword and your military scarf hang about your neck.
Fus. I must have a great horseman’s French feather too, sister.
Vio. O, by any means, to show your light head, else your hat will sit like a coxcomb: to be brief, you must be in all points a most terrible wide-mouthed swaggerer.
Fus. Nay, for swaggering points let me alone.
Vio. Resort then to our shop, and, in my husband’s presence, kiss me, snatch rings, jewels, or any thing, so you give it back again, brother, in secret.
Fus. By this hand, sister.
Vio. Swear as if you came but new from knighting.
Fus. Nay, I’ll swear after four-hundred a year.
Vio. Swagger worse than a lieutenant among fresh-water soldiers, call me your love, your ingle,130 your cousin, or so; but sister at no hand.
Fus. No, no, it shall be cousin, or rather coz; that’s the gulling word between the citizens’ wives and their mad-caps that man ’em to the garden; to call you one a’ mine aunts’131 sister, were as good as call you arrant whore; no, no, let me alone to cousin you rarely.
Vio. H’as heard I have a brother, but never saw him, therefore put on a good face.
Fus. The best in Milan, I warrant.
Vio. Take up wares, but pay nothing, rifle my bosom, my pocket, my purse, the boxes for money to dice with; but, brother, you must give all back again in secret.
Fus. By this welkin that here roars I will, or else let me never know what a secret is: why, sister, do you think I’ll cony-catch132 you, when you are my cousin? God’s my life, then I were a stark ass. If I fret not his guts, beg me for a fool.133
Vio. Be circumspect, and do so then. Farewell.
Fus. The Tortoise, sister! I’ll stay there; forty ducats.
Vio. Thither I’ll send.—[Exit Fustigo.]—This law can none deny,
Women must have their longings, or they die. [Exit.