ii4 LITERATURE AND DRAMA 



Marq. Now, in like case I should pledge my gaoler roundly. 

 He should swear 'twere pity if such a jolly fellow might not 

 live at least until the cask was out. 



Tanc. I have no wish to resemble you. 



Marq. Ought I rather to make you my model ? You broke 

 my laws, you violated my hospitality, and you betrayed my 

 counsels, though I made you my friend. Can you defend your- 

 self ? 



Tanc. I will not justify myself to you. You would not even 

 understand what my words meant. 



Marq. Youth is sometimes unjust to age. 



Tanc. Age is never just to youth. 



Marq. Age, for instance, plays the gaoler when youth would 

 carry off his wife. 



Tanc. That speech is, indeed, a foul instance of injustice. 



Marq. Solemn Dame Justice must work hard if she weighs 

 that infinity of trifles, all we say and all we think. 



Tanc. Trifles ! Well, yes, Life and Death are trifles to you. 

 Why have you sent for me ? 



Marq. I sent for you to win your friendship. I defy you to 

 believe me ; therefore I can speak frankly. I intend that you 

 should respect me. I mean you to approve of my life. 



Tanc. You ask much; but I understand you better than 

 you think. You have as your prisoner a boy who, in a blind 

 way, tried to do a good action, and failed ridiculously. If you 

 can make him talk, his crotchets will give you sport, and good 

 sport should end with the quarry's death. 



Marq. A pathetic picture, but not true to nature. Let me 

 play the painter in my turn. My canvas shows a lusty lad, 

 whose friend, desiring some pleasant talk, offers him a cup of 

 wine ; but the boy's brow is black with twisted knots, dark 

 folds, wrinkled plaits, for no clear reason. You mislike your 

 host ? abuse me then hail arguments upon me. Let each 

 pellet sting me to the quick ; let each phrase prove me a villain. 

 I'll face the storm. 



Tanc. A sword's point is the one argument I should care to 

 use. You were wise to ask if I had no weapon. If a knife 

 lay on that table I would kill you like a beast of prey. 



Marq. Is it wise to tell a man you wish to kill him ? But to my 



