Re-enter MELANTIUS.
Mel. This worthy young man may do violence
Upon himself; but I have cherish’d him
To my best power,
and sent him smiling from me,
To counterfeit again. Sword, hold thine edge;
My heart will never fail me.
Enter DIPHILUS.
Diphilus! Thou com’st as sent.Diph. Yonder has been such laughing.
Mel. Betwixt whom?
Diph. Why, our sister and the king;
I thought their spleens would break; they laugh’d us all
Out of the room.
Mel. They must weep, Diphilus.
Diph. Must they?
Mel. They must.
Thou art my brother; and if I did believe
Thou hadst a base thought, I would rip it out,
Lie
where it durst.
Diph. You should not; I would first
Mangle myself and find it.
Mel. That was spoke
According to our strain. Come, join thy hands to mine,
And swear a firmness to
what project I
Shall lay before thee.
Diph. You do wrong us both:
People hereafter shall not say, there pass’d
A bond, more than our loves, to
tie our lives
And deaths together.
Mel. It is as nobly said as I would wish.
Anon I’ll tell you wonders: We are wrong’d.
Diph. But I will tell you now, we’ll right ourselves.
Mel. Stay not: Prepare the armour in my house;
And what friends you can draw unto our side,
Not knowing
of the cause, make ready too.
Haste, Diphilus, the time requires it, haste!—
[Exit Diphilus.
Tells me it is; and I will credit it.
To take revenge, and lose myself withal,
Were idle; and to ’scape impossible,
Without I had the fort, which (misery!)
Remaining in the hands of my old enemy
Calianax—But I must have it. See,
Where he comes shaking by me.—Good my lord,
Forget your spleen to me; I never wrong’d you,
But would have peace with every man.
Cal. ’Tis well;
If I durst fight, your tongue would lie at quiet.
Mel. You are touchy without all cause.
Cal. Do, mock me.
Mel. By mine honour I speak truth.
Cal. Honour? where is it?
Mel. See, what starts
You make into your hatred, to my love
And freedom to you. I come with resolution
To
obtain a suit of you.
Cal. A suit of me!
’Tis very like it should be granted, sir.
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