Hip.  Now have I the greatest temptation in the world to reveal, Thou art a woman. [To AMIDEO.

Amid.  If ’twere not for thy beauty, my master should know, What a man he keeps. [To HIPPOLITO.

Hip.  Why should we have recourse to desperate ways,
When safer may be thought on? 
’Tis like giving the extreme unction. 
In the beginning of a sickness;
Can you imagine to find all asleep? 
The wicked joy, of having such a booty
In their possession, will keep some awake;
And some, no doubt, will watch with wounded
Roderick.

Amid.  What would your wisdom now propose?

Hip.  To say
That some of us are sea-sick; (your complexion
Will make the excuse for us who are less fair:)
So, by good words and promises, procure
We may be set ashore, ere morning come.

Amid.  O, the deep reasons of the grave Hippolito!—­
As if ’twere likely, in so calm a season,
We should be sick so soon; or, if we were,
Whom should we chuse among us to go tell it? 
For whoe’er ventures out must needs be known: 
Or, if none knew us, can you think that pirates
Will let us go upon such easy terms,
As promising rewards?—­Let me advise you.

Hip.  Now, we expect an oracle.

Amid.  Here are bundles,
Of canvas and of cloth, you see lie by us;
In which one of us shall sew up the rest,
Only some breathing place, for air, and food: 
Then call the pirates in, and tell them, we,
For fear, had drowned ourselves:  And when we come
To the next port, find means to bring us out.

Hip.  Pithily spoken!—­
As if you were to bind up marble statues,
Which only bore the shapes of men without,
And had no need of ever easing nature.

Gons.  There’s but one way left, that’s this;—­
You know the rope, by which the cock-boat’s tied,
Goes down by the stern, and now, we are at anchor,
There sits no pilot to discover us;
My counsel is, to go down by the ladder,
And, being once there, unloose, and row to shore.

Man.  This, without doubt, were best; but there lies ever Some one, or more, within the boat, to watch it.

Gons.  I’ll slide down first, and run the venture of it; You shall come after me, if there be need, To give me succour.

Man.  ’Tis the only way.

Gons.  Go in to Julia, then, and first prepare her, With knowledge of the pirates, and the danger Her honour’s in, among such barbarous people.

Man.  Leave it to me.

Amid.  Hippolito and Julia, My rivals, like two pointed rocks appear; And I, through both, must to Gonsalvo steer. [Aside.

[Exeunt all but HIPPOLITA.