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SCENE 10
[The Scrutineo, or Senate-house.]
[Enter AVOCATORI, NOTARIO, BONARIO, CELIA, CORBACCIO, CORVINO, COMMANDADORI, SAFFI, etc.]
1ST AVOC: Are all the parties here?
NOT: All but the advocate.
2ND AVOC: And here he comes.
[Enter VOLTORE and VOLPONE.]
1ST AVOC: Then bring them forth to sentence.
VOLT: O, my most honour'd fathers, let your mercy
Once win upon your justice, to forgive—
I am distracted—
VOLP: [Aside.] What will he do now?
VOLT: O,
I know not which to address myself to first;
Whether your fatherhoods, or these innocents—
CORV: [Aside.] Will he betray himself?
VOLT: Whom equally
I have abused, out of most covetous ends—
CORV: The man is mad!
CORB: What's that?
CORV: He is possest.
VOLT: For which, now struck in conscience, here, I prostate
Myself at your offended feet, for pardon.
1ST, 2ND AVOC: Arise.
CEL: O heaven, how just thou art!
VOLP: [Aside.] I am caught
In mine own noose—
CORV: [To CORBACCIO.] Be constant, sir: nought now
Can help, but impudence.
1ST AVOC: Speak forward.
COM: Silence!
VOLT: It is not passion in me, reverend fathers,
But only conscience, conscience, my good sires,
That makes me now tell truth. That parasite,
That knave, hath been the instrument of all.
1ST AVOC: Where is that knave? fetch him.
VOLP: I go.
[Exit.]
CORV: Grave fathers,
This man's distracted; he confest it now:
For, hoping to be old Volpone's heir,
Who now is dead—
3RD AVOC: How?
2ND AVOC: Is Volpone dead?
CORV: Dead since, grave fathers—
BON: O sure vengeance!
1ST AVOC: Stay,
Then he was no deceiver?
VOLT: O no, none:
The parasite, grave fathers.
CORV: He does speak
Out of mere envy, 'cause the servant's made
The thing he gaped for: please your fatherhoods,
This is the truth, though I'll not justify
The other, but he may be some-deal faulty.
VOLT: Ay, to your hopes, as well as mine, Corvino:
But I'll use modesty. Pleaseth your wisdoms,
To view these certain notes, and but confer them;
As I hope favour, they shall speak clear truth.
CORV: The devil has enter'd him!
BON: Or bides in you.
4TH AVOC: We have done ill, by a public officer,
To send for him, if he be heir.
2ND AVOC: For whom?
4TH AVOC: Him that they call the parasite.
3RD AVOC: 'Tis true,
He is a man of great estate, now left.
4TH AVOC: Go you, and learn his name, and say, the court
Entreats his presence here, but to the clearing
Of some few doubts.
[Exit NOTARIO.]
2ND AVOC: This same's a labyrinth!
1ST AVOC: Stand you unto your first report?
CORV: My state,
My life, my fame—
BON: Where is it?
CORV: Are at the stake
1ST AVOC: Is yours so too?
CORB: The advocate's a knave,
And has a forked tongue—
2ND AVOC: Speak to the point.
CORB: So is the parasite too.
1ST AVOC: This is confusion.
VOLT: I do beseech your fatherhoods, read but those—
[Giving them the papers.]
CORV: And credit nothing the false spirit hath writ:
It cannot be, but he's possest grave fathers.
[The scene closes.]
SCENE 11
[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.]
How now! who let you loose? whither go you now?
What, to buy gingerbread? or to drown kitlings?
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 12
[The Scrutineo, or Senate-house.]
[AVOCATORI, BONARIO, CELIA, CORBACCIO, CORVINO, COMMANDADORI, SAFFI, etc., as before]
1ST AVOC: These things can ne'er be reconciled. He, here,
[Shewing the papers.]
Professeth, that the gentleman was wrong'd,
And that the gentlewoman was brought thither,
Forced by her husband, and there left.
VOLT: Most true.
CEL: How ready is heaven to those that pray!
1ST AVOC: But that
Volpone would have ravish'd her, he holds
Utterly false; knowing his impotence.
CORV: Grave fathers, he's possest; again, I say,
Possest: nay, if there be possession, and
Obsession, he has both.
3RD AVOC: Here comes our officer.
[Enter VOLPONE.]
VOLP: The parasite will straight be here, grave fathers.
4TH AVOC: You might invent some other name, sir varlet.
3RD AVOC: Did not the notary meet him?
VOLP: Not that I know.
4TH AVOC: His coming will clear all.
2ND AVOC: Yet, it is misty.
VOLT: May 't please your fatherhoods—
VOLP: [Whispers to VOLTORE.]: Sir, the parasite
Will'd me to tell you, that his master lives;
That you are still the man; your hopes the same;
And this was only a jest—
VOLT: How?
VOLP: Sir, to try
If you were firm, and how you stood affected.
VOLT: Art sure he lives?
VOLP: Do I live, sir?
VOLT: O me!
I was too violent.
VOLP: Sir, you may redeem it,
They said, you were possest; fall down, and seem so:
I'll help to make it good.
[VOLTORE falls.]
—God bless the man!—
Stop your wind hard, and swell: See, see, see, see!
He vomits crooked pins! his eyes are set,
Like a dead hare's hung in a poulter's shop!
His mouth's running away! Do you see, signior?
Now it is in his belly!
CORV: Ay, the devil!
VOLP: Now in his throat.
CORV: Ay, I perceive it plain.
VOLP: 'Twill out, 'twill out! stand clear. See, where it flies,
In shape of a blue toad, with a bat's wings!
Do you not see it, sir?
CORB: What? I think I do.
CORV: 'Tis too manifest.
VOLP: Look! he comes to himself!
VOLT: Where am I?
VOLP: Take good heart, the worst is past, sir.
You are dispossest.
1ST AVOC: What accident is this!
2ND AVOC: Sudden, and full of wonder!
3RD AVOC: If he were
Possest, as it appears, all this is nothing.
CORV: He has been often subject to these fits.
1ST AVOC: Shew him that writing:—do you know it, sir?
VOLP: [Whispers to VOLTORE.] Deny it, sir, forswear it; know it not.
VOLT: Yes, I do know it well, it is my hand;
But all that it contains is false.
BON: O practice!
2ND AVOC: What maze is this!
1ST AVOC: Is he not guilty then,
Whom you there name the parasite?
VOLT: Grave fathers,
No more than his good patron, old Volpone.
4TH AVOC: Why, he is dead.
VOLT: O no, my honour'd fathers,
He lives—
1ST AVOC: How! lives?
VOLT: Lives.
2ND AVOC: This is subtler yet!
3RD AVOC: You said he was dead.
VOLT: Never.
3RD AVOC: You said so.
CORV: I heard so.
4TH AVOC: Here comes the gentleman; make him way.
[Enter MOSCA.]
3RD AVOC: A stool.
4TH AVOC: [Aside.] A proper man; and, were Volpone dead,
A fit match for my daughter.
3RD AVOC: Give him way.
VOLP: [Aside to MOSCA.] Mosca, I was almost lost, the advocate
Had betrayed all; but now it is recovered;
All's on the hinge again—Say, I am living.
MOS: What busy knave is this!—Most reverend fathers,
I sooner had attended your grave pleasures,
But that my order for the funeral
Of my dear patron, did require me—
VOLP: [Aside.] Mosca!
MOS: Whom I intend to bury like a gentleman.
VOLP: [Aside.] Ay, quick, and cozen me of all.
2ND AVOC: Still stranger!
More intricate!
1ST AVOC: And come about again!
4TH AVOC: [Aside.] It is a match, my daughter is bestow'd.
MOS: [Aside to VOLPONE.]: Will you give me half?
VOLP: First, I'll be hang'd.
MOS: I know,
Your voice is good, cry not so loud.
1ST AVOC: Demand
The advocate.—Sir, did not you affirm,
Volpone was alive?
VOLP: Yes, and he is;
This gentleman told me so.
[Aside to MOSCA.]
—Thou shalt have half.—
MOS: Whose drunkard is this same? Speak, some that know him:
I never saw his face.
[Aside to VOLPONE.]
—I cannot now
Afford it you so cheap.
VOLP: No!
1ST AVOC: What say you?
VOLT: The officer told me.
VOLP: I did, grave fathers,
And will maintain he lives, with mine own life.
And that this creature [Points to MOSCA.] told me.
[Aside.]
—I was born,
With all good stars my enemies.
MOS: Most grave fathers,
If such an insolence as this must pass
Upon me, I am silent: 'twas not this
For which you sent, I hope.
2ND AVOC: Take him away.
VOLP: Mosca!
3RD AVOC: Let him be whipt.
VOLP: Wilt thou betray me?
Cozen me?
3RD AVOC: And taught to bear himself
Toward a person of his rank.
4TH AVOC: Away.
[The OFFICERS seize VOLPONE.]
MOS: I humbly thank your fatherhoods.
VOLP: [Aside.] Soft, soft: Whipt!
And lose all that I have! If I confess,
It cannot be much more.
4TH AVOC: Sir, are you married?
VOLP: They will be allied anon; I must be resolute:
The Fox shall here uncase.
[Throws off his disguise.]
MOS: Patron!
VOLP: Nay, now,
My ruins shall not come alone; your match
I'll hinder sure: my substance shall not glue you,
Nor screw you into a family.
MOS: Why, patron!
VOLP: I am Volpone, and this is my knave;
[Pointing to MOSCA.]
This [To VOLTORE.], his own knave; This [To CORBACCIO.], avarice's fool;
This [To CORVINO.], a chimera of wittol, fool, and knave:
And, reverend fathers, since we all can hope
Nought but a sentence, let's not now despair it.
You hear me brief.
CORV: May it please your fatherhoods—
COM: Silence.
1ST AVOC: The knot is now undone by miracle.
2ND AVOC: Nothing can be more clear.
3RD AVOC: Or can more prove
These innocent.
1ST AVOC: Give them their liberty.
BON: Heaven could not long let such gross crimes be hid.
2ND AVOC: If this be held the high-way to get riches,
May I be poor!
3RD AVOC: This is not the gain, but torment.
1ST AVOC: These possess wealth, as sick men possess fevers,
Which trulier may be said to possess them.
2ND AVOC: Disrobe that parasite.
CORV, MOS: Most honour'd fathers!—
1ST AVOC: Can you plead aught to stay the course of justice?
If you can, speak.
CORV, VOLT: We beg favour.
CEL: And mercy.
1ST AVOC: You hurt your innocence, suing for the guilty.
Stand forth; and first the parasite: You appear
T'have been the chiefest minister, if not plotter,
In all these lewd impostures; and now, lastly,
Have with your impudence abused the court,
And habit of a gentleman of Venice,
Being a fellow of no birth or blood:
For which our sentence is, first, thou be whipt;
Then live perpetual prisoner in our gallies.
VOLT: I thank you for him.
MOS: Bane to thy wolfish nature!
1ST AVOC: Deliver him to the saffi.
[MOSCA is carried out.]
—Thou, Volpone,
By blood and rank a gentleman, canst not fall
Under like censure; but our judgment on thee
Is, that thy substance all be straight confiscate
To the hospital of the Incurabili:
And, since the most was gotten by imposture,
By feigning lame, gout, palsy, and such diseases,
Thou art to lie in prison, cramp'd with irons,
Till thou be'st sick, and lame indeed.—Remove him.
[He is taken from the bar.]
VOLP: This is call'd mortifying of a Fox.
1ST AVOC: Thou, Voltore, to take away the scandal
Thou hast given all worthy men of thy profession,
Art banish'd from their fellowship, and our state.
Corbaccio!—bring him near—We here possess
Thy son of all thy state, and confine thee
To the monastery of San Spirito;
Where, since thou knewest not how to live well here,
Thou shalt be learn'd to die well.
CORB: Ah! what said he?
COM.: You shall know anon, sir.
1ST AVOC: Thou, Corvino, shalt
Be straight embark'd from thine own house, and row'd
Round about Venice, through the Grand Canale,
Wearing a cap, with fair long asses' ears,
Instead of horns; and so to mount, a paper
Pinn'd on thy breast, to the Berlina—
CORV: Yes,
And have mine eyes beat out with stinking fish,
Bruised fruit and rotten eggs—'Tis well. I am glad
I shall not see my shame yet.
1ST AVOC: And to expiate
Thy wrongs done to thy wife, thou art to send her
Home to her father, with her dowry trebled:
And these are all your judgments.
ALL: Honour'd fathers.—
1ST AVOC: Which may not be revoked. Now you begin,
When crimes are done, and past, and to be punish'd,
To think what your crimes are: away with them.
Let all that see these vices thus rewarded,
Take heart and love to study 'em! Mischiefs feed
Like beasts, till they be fat, and then they bleed.
[Exeunt.]
[VOLPONE comes forward.]
VOLP.: The seasoning of a play, is the applause.
Now, though the Fox be punish'd by the laws,
He yet doth hope, there is no suffering due,
For any fact which he hath done 'gainst you;
If there be, censure him; here he doubtful stands:
If not, fare jovially, and clap your hands.
[Exit.]
