rn that I
Utter no threats but I do make them good.
Ere this day's sun hath wester'd from the view
Thou art to preach from out the Loggia
Dei Lanzi to the cits in the Piazza.
I, thy Lucrezia, will be upon the steps
To offer thee with phrases seeming-fair
That which shall seal thine eloquence for ever.
O mighty lips that held the world in spell
But would not meet these little lips of mine
In the sweet way that lovers use--O thin,
Cold, tight-drawn, bloodless lips, which natheless I
Deem of all lips the most magnifical
In this our city--

[Enter the Borgias' FOOL.]

Well, Fool, what's thy latest?

FOOL
Aristotle's or Zeno's, Lady--'tis neither latest nor last. For,
marry, if the cobbler stuck to his last, then were his latest his last
in rebus ambulantibus. Argal, I stick at nothing but cobble-stones,
which, by the same token, are stuck to the road by men's fingers.

LUC.
How many crows may nest in a grocer's jerkin?

FOOL
A full dozen at cock-crow, and something less under the dog-star, by
reason of the dew, which lies heavy on men taken by the scurvy.

LUC. [To FIRST APP.]
Methinks the Fool is a fool.

FOOL
And therefore, by auricular deduction, am I own twin to the Lady
Lucrezia!

[Sings.]

When pears hang green on the garden wall
With a nid, and a nod, and a niddy-niddy-o
Then prank you, lads and lasses all,
With a yea and a nay and a niddy-o.

But when the thrush flies out o' the frost
With a nid, [etc.]
'Tis time for loons to count the cost,
With a yea [etc.]

[Enter the PORTER.]

PORTER
O my dear Mistress, there is one below
Demanding to have instant word of thee.
I told him that your Ladyship was not
At home. Vain perjury! He would not take
Nay for an answer.

LUC.
Ah? What manner of man
Is he?

PORTER
A personage the like of whom
Is wholly unfamiliar to my gaze.
Cowl'd is he, but I saw his great eyes glare
From their deep sockets in such wise as leopards
Glare from their caverns, crouching ere they spring
On their reluctant prey.

LUC.
And what name gave he?

PORTER [After a pause.]
Something-arola.

LUC.
Savon-? [PORTER nods.] Show him up. [Exit PORTER.]

FOOL
If he be right astronomically, Mistress, then is he the greater dunce
in