[_Enter_] 4 Avocatori, Notario, BONARIO, CELIA, CORBACCIO, CORVINO,
Commandadori, [Saffi, _etc._]
_1 Avoc._ Are all the parties here?
_Not._ All but th’ advocate.
_2 Avoc._ And here he comes.
[_Enter_ VOLTORE _and_ VOLPONE.]
_1 Avoc._ Then bring them forth to sentence.
_Volt._ O, my most honour’d fathers, let your mercy
Once win upon your justice, to forgive—
I am distracted——
_Volp._ (_Aside._) What will he do now?
_Volt._ O, 5
I know not which t’ address myself to first;
Whether your fatherhoods, or these innocents—
_Corv._ (_Aside._) Will he betray himself?
_Volt._ Whom equally
I have abus’d, out of most covetous ends——
_Corv._ The man is mad!
_Corb._ What’s that?
_Corv._ He is possest. 10
_Volt._ For which, now struck in conscience, here I prostrate
Myself at your offended feet, for pardon.
_1, 2 Avoc._ Arise.
_Cel._ O heaven, how just thou art!
_Volp._ I’m caught
I’ mine own noose——
_Corv._ [_to_ CORBACCIO.] Be constant, sir; nought now 14
Can help but impudence.
_1 Avoc._ Speak forward.
_Com._ Silence!
_Volt._ It is not passion in me, reverend fathers,
But only conscience, conscience, my good sires,
That makes me now tell truth. That parasite,
That knave, hath been the instrument of all. 19
_1 Avoc._ Where is that knave? Fetch him.
_Volp._ I go. [_Exit._]
_Corv._ Grave fathers,
This man’s distracted; he confest it now:
For, hoping to be old Volpone’s heir,
Who now is dead——
_3 Avoc._ How!
_2 Avoc._ Is Volpone dead?
_Corv._ Dead since, grave fathers.
_Bon._ O sure vengeance!
_1 Avoc._ Stay,
Then he was no deceiver?
_Volt._ O no, none: 25
This parasite, grave fathers.
_Corv._ He does speak
Out of mere envy, ’cause the servant’s made
The thing he gap’d for. Please your fatherhoods,
This is the truth, though I’ll not justify
The other, but he may be some-deal faulty. 30
_Volt._ Ay, to your hopes, as well as mine, Corvino:
But I’ll use modesty.[1740] Pleaseth your wisdoms,
To view these certain notes, and but confer[1741] them;
And as I hope favour, they shall speak clear truth. 34
_Corv._ The devil has ent’red him!
_Bon._ Or bides in you.
_4 Avoc._ We have done ill, by a public officer
To send for him, if he be heir.
_2 Avoc._ For whom?
_4 Avoc._ Him that they call the parasite.
_3 Avoc._ ’T is true,
He is a man of great estate, now left.
_4 Avoc._ Go you, and learn his name, and say the court 40
Entreats his presence here, but to the clearing
Of some few doubts. [_Exit_ Notary.]
_2 Avoc._ This same’s a labyrinth!
_1 Avoc._ Stand you unto your first report?
_Corv._ My state,
My life, my fame——
_Bon._ Where is ’t?
_Corv._ Are at the stake.
_1 Avoc._ Is yours so too?
_Corb._ The advocate’s a knave, 45
And has a forked tongue——
_2 Avoc._ Speak to the point.
_Corb._ So is the parasite too.
_1 Avoc._ This is confusion.
_Volt._ I do beseech your fatherhoods, read but those—
[_Giving them papers._]
_Corv._ And credit nothing the false spirit hath writ:
It cannot be but he’s possest, grave fathers. 50
[_The scene closes._]