Arb. Guilt dare not help guilt! though they grow together
In doing ill, yet at the punishment
They sever, and each flies the noise of other
Think not of help; answer!

Ara. I will; to what?

Arb. To such a thing, as, if it be a truth,
Think what a creature thou hast made thyself,
That didst not shame to do what I must blush
Only to ask thee. Tell me who I am,
Whose son I am, without all circumstance;
Be thou as hasty as my sword will be,
If thou refusest.

Ara. Why, you are his son.

Arb. His son? Swear, swear, thou worse than woman damn’d!

Ara. By all that’s good, you are.

Arb. Then art thou all
That ever was known bad! Now is the cause
Of all my strange misfortunes come to light.
What reverence expect’st thou from a child,
To bring forth which thou hast offended Heaven,
Thy husband, and the land? Adulterous witch!
I know now why thou wouldst have poison’d me:
I was thy lust, which thou wouldst have forgot!
Then, wicked mother of my sins, and me,
Show me the way to the inheritance
I have by thee, which is a spacious world
Of impious acts, that I may soon possess it.
Plagues rot thee, as thou liv’st, and such diseases
As use to pay lust, recompense thy deed!

Gob. You do not know why you curse thus.

Arb. Too well.
You are a pair of vipers; and behold
The serpent you have got! There is no beast,
But, if he knew it, has a pedigree
As brave as mine, for they have more descents;
And I am every way as beastly got,
As far without the compass of a law,
As they.

Ara. You spend your rage and words in vain,
And rail upon a guess; hear us a little.

Arb. No, I will never hear, but talk away
My breath, and die.

Gob. Why, but you are no bastard.

Arb. How’s that?

Ara. Nor child of mine.

Arb. Still you go on
In wonders to me.

Gob. Pray you, be more patient:
I may bring comfort to you.

Arb. I will kneel,

[Kneels.

Gob. First know, our last king, your supposed father,
Was old and feeble when he married her,
And almost all the land, as she, past hope
Of issue from him.

Arb. Therefore she took leave
To play the whore, because the king was old;
Is this the comfort?

Ara. What will you find out
To give me satisfaction, when you find
How you have injured me? Let fire consume me
If ever I were whore!