The Case is Altered/Act II Scene V

by Ben Jonson

SCENE V.

Aurelia, Phœnixella, Francisco, Angelo, Count.

Count. Close with my daughters, gentlemen! well done,

'Tis like yourselves: nay, lusty Angelo,

Let not my presence make you baulk your sport;

I will not break a minute of discourse

'Twixt you and one of your fair mistresses.

Ang. One of my mistresses? why thinks your lordship

I have so many?

Count. Many! no, Angelo,

I do not think th'ast many, some fourteen

I hear thou hast, even of our worthiest dames

Of any note in Milan.

Ang. Nay, good my lord, fourteen! it is not so.

Count. By th' mass that is't; here are their names to shew,

Fourteen, or fifteen to one. Good Angelo,

You need not be asham'd of any of them,

They are gallants all.

Ang. 'Sblood you are such a lord.

Count. Nay stay, sweet Angelo, I am dispos'd

[Exit Angelo.]

A little to be pleasant past my custom.

He's gone, he's gone, I have disgrac'd him shrewdly.

Daughters, take heed of him, he's a wild youth;

Look what he says to you, believe him not,

He will swear love to every one he sees.

Francisco, give them counsel, good Francisco,

I dare trust thee with both, but him with neither.

Franc. Your lordship yet may trust both them with him.

[Exuent.]