Mir. But, hark ye, hark ye, sir! Is’t possible
I may believe what you say?

Lug. You may choose, sir.

Mir. No baits? no fish-hooks, sir? no gins? no nooses?
No pitfalls to catch puppies?

Lug. I tell you certain:
You may believe; if not, stand to the danger!

[Exit.

Mir. A lord of Savoy, says he? the duke’s nephew?
A man so mighty? By’r lady, a fair marriage!
By my faith a handsome fortune! I must leave prating:
For, to confess the truth, I have abused her,
For which I should be sorry, but that will seem scurvy.
I must confess she was, ever since I knew her,
As modest as she was fair; I am sure she loved me;
Her means good, and her breeding excellent;
And for my sake she has refused fair matches:
I may play the fool finely. Stay! who are these?

Enter De GARD disguised, ORIANA, and Attendants.

Ori. Good my lord, chuse a nobler; for I know
I am so far below your rank and honour,
That what you can say this way, I must credit
But spoken to beget yourself sport. Alas, sir,
I am so far off from deserving you,
My beauty so unfit for your affection,
That I am grown the scorn of common railers,
Of such injurious things, that, when they cannot
Reach at my person, lie with my reputation.
I am poor, besides.

De Ga. You are all wealth and goodness;
And none but such as are the scum of men,
The ulcers of an honest state, spite-weavers,
That live on poison only, like swoln spiders,
Dare once profane such excellence, such sweetness.

Mir. This man speaks loud indeed.

De Ga. Name but the men, lady;
Let me but know these poor and base depravers,
Lay but to my revenge their persons open,
And you shall see how suddenly, how fully,
For your most beauteous sake, how direfully,
I’ll handle their despites. Is this thing one?
Be what he will—

Mir. Sir!

De Ga. Dare your malicious tongue, sir—

Mir. I know you not, nor what you mean.

Ori. Good my lord!

De Ga. If he, or any he—

Ori. I beseech your honour!
This gentleman’s a stranger to my knowledge;
And, no doubt, sir, a worthy man.

De Ga. Your mercy!
But, had he been a tainter of your honour,
A blaster of those beauties reign within you—
But we shall find a fitter time. Dear lady,
As soon as I have freed you from your guardian,
And done some honour’d offices unto you,
I’ll take you, with those faults the world flings on you,
And dearer than the whole world I’ll esteem you!

[Exeunt.