2 Avoc. This same’s a labyrinth!

1 Avoc. Stand you unto your first report?

Corv. My state,
My life, my fame—

Bon. Where is it?

Corv. Are at the stake.

1 Avoc. Is yours so too?

Corb. The advocate’s a knave,
And has a forked tongue—

2 Avoc. Speak to the point.

Corb. So is the parasite too.

1 Avoc. This is confusion.

Volt. I do beseech your fatherhoods, read but those—

[Giving them papers.

Corv. And credit nothing the false spirit hath writ:
It cannot be, but he’s possest, grave fathers.

[The scene closes.

Scene VII.—A Street.

Enter Volpone.

Volp. To make a snare for mine own neck! and run
My head into it, wilfully! with laughter!
When I had newly ’scaped, was free, and clear,
Out of mere wantonness! O, the dull devil
Was in this brain of mine, when I devised it,
And Mosca gave it second; he must now
Help to sear up this vein, or we bleed dead.—

Enter Nano, Androgyno, and Castrone.

Nan. Sir, master Mosca call’d us out of doors,
And bid us all go play, and took the keys.

And. Yes.

Volp. Did master Mosca take the keys? why so!
I’m farther in. These are my fine conceits!
I must be merry, with a mischief to me!
What a vile wretch was I, that could not bear
My fortune soberly? I must have my crotchets,
And my conundrums! Well, go you, and seek him:
His meaning may be truer than my fear.
Bid him, he straight come to me to the court;
Thither will I, and, if’t be possible,
Unscrew my advocate, upon new hopes:
When I provoked him, then I lost myself. [Exeunt.

Scene VIII.—The Scrutineo, or Senate-House.

Avocatori, Bonario, Celia, Corbaccio, Corvino, Commandadori, Saffi, etc., as before.

[Shewing the papers.