3 MER: How!
1 MER: St. Mark!
What beast is this!
PER: It is a fish.
2 MER: Come out here!
PER: Nay, you may strike him, sir, and tread upon him; He"ll bear a cart.
1 MER: What, to run over him?
PER: Yes, sir.
3 MER: Let"s jump upon him.
2 MER: Can he not go?
PER: He creeps, sir.
1 MER: Let"s see him creep.
PER: No, good sir, you will hurt him.
2 MER: Heart, I will see him creep, or p.r.i.c.k his guts.
3 MER: Come out here!
PER: Pray you, sir!
[ASIDE TO SIR POLITICK.]
-Creep a little.
1 MER: Forth.
2 MER: Yet farther.
PER: Good sir!-Creep.
2 MER: We"ll see his legs.
[THEY PULL OFF THE Sh.e.l.l AND DISCOVER HIM.]
3 MER: Ods so, he has garters!
1 MER: Ay, and gloves!
2 MER: Is this Your fearful tortoise?
PER [DISCOVERING HIMSELF.]: Now, sir Pol, we are even; For your next project I shall be prepared: I am sorry for the funeral of your notes, sir.
1 MER: "Twere a rare motion to be seen in Fleet-street.
2 MER: Ay, in the Term.
1 MER: Or Smithfield, in the fair.
3 MER: Methinks "tis but a melancholy sight.
PER: Farewell, most politic tortoise!
[EXEUNT PER. AND MERCHANTS.]
[RE-ENTER WAITING-WOMAN.]
SIR P: Where"s my lady?
Knows she of this?
WOM: I know not, sir.
SIR P: Enquire.- O, I shall be the fable of all feasts, The freight of the gazetti; ship-boy"s tale; And, which is worst, even talk for ordinaries.
WOM: My lady"s come most melancholy home, And says, sir, she will straight to sea, for physic.
SIR P: And I to shun this place and clime for ever; Creeping with house on back: and think it well, To shrink my poor head in my politic sh.e.l.l.
[EXEUNT.]
SCENE 5.3.
A ROOM IN VOLPONE"S HOUSE.
ENTER MOSCA IN THE HABIT OF A CLARISSIMO; AND VOLPONE IN THAT OF A COMMANDADORE.
VOLP: Am I then like him?
MOS: O, sir, you are he; No man can sever you.
VOLP: Good.
MOS: But what am I?
VOLP: "Fore heaven, a brave clarissimo, thou becom"st it!
Pity thou wert not born one.
MOS [ASIDE.]: If I hold My made one, "twill be well.
VOLP: I"ll go and see What news first at the court.
[EXIT.]