CAS. And knowest thou why this meeting is?

LOR. For her, my lord, whom Balthazar doth loue,
And to confirme their promised marriage.

CAS. She is thy sister.

LOR. Who? Bel-imperia?
I, my gratious lord, and this is the day
That I haue longd so happily to see.

CAS. Thou wouldst be loath that any fault of thine
Should intercept her in her happines?

LOR. Heauens will not let Lorenzo erre so much.

CAS. Why then, Lorenzo, listen to my words:
It is suspected, and reported too,
That thou, Lorenzo, wrongst Hieronimo,
And in his sutes toward his Maiestie
Still keepst him back and seekes to crosse his sute.

LOR. That I, my lord?

CAS. I tell thee, sonne, my-selfe haue heard it said,
When to my sorrow I haue been ashamed
To answere for thee, though thou art my sonne.
Lorenzo, knowest thou not the common loue
And kindenes that Hieronimo hath wone
By his deserts within the court of Spaine?
Or seest thou not the k[ing] my brothers care
In his behalfe and to procure his health?
Lorenzo, shouldst thou thwart his passions,
And he exclaime against thee to the king,
What honour wert in this assembly,
Or what a scandale were among the kings,
To heare Hieronimo exclaime on thee!
Tell me,--and loke thou tell me truely too,--
Whence growes the ground of this report in court?

LOR. My l[ord], it lyes not in Lorenzos power
To stop the vulgar liberall of their tongues:
A small aduantage makes a water-breach;
And no man liues that long contenteth all.

CAS. My-selfe haue seene thee busie to keep back
Him and his supplications from the king.

LOR. Your-selfe, my l[ord], hath seene his assions,
That ill beseemde the presence of a king;
And, for I pittied him in his distresse,
I helde him thence with kinde and curteous words,
As free from malice to Hieronimo
As to my soule, my lord.

CAS. Hieronimo, my sonne, mistakes thee then.

LOR. My gratious father, beleeue me, so he doth;
But whats a silly man, distract in minde
To think vpon the murder of his sonne?
Alas, how easie is it for him to erre!
But, for his satisfaction and the worlds,
Twere good, my l[ord], that Hieronimo and I
Were reconcilde, if he misconster me.

CAS. Lorenzo, that hast said; it shalbe so!
Goe, one of you, and call Hieronimo.