_Lucio_. Ha!

_Regent_. Go, bring her, Captain.

[_Exit Cesario_.

List to me, Lucio: listen, brother dear,
First playmate-child, tending whose innocence
Myself learned motherhood. Shall I deny
Youth to be loved and follow after love?
There is a love breaks like a morning beam
On the husht novice kneeling by his arms;
And worse there is, whose kisses strangle love,
Whose feet take hold of hell. My Lucio,
Follow not that!

_Lucio_. Why, who--who hath maligned
The Countess?

_Regent_ Not maligned. Lucetta, here--

_Lucio_. Lucetta! Curse Lucetta and her tongue!
Am I a child, to be nagged by waiting-maids?

_Regent_. No, but a man, and shall weigh evidence.

_Lucio_. But I'll not hear it! If her viper tongue
Can kill, why kill it must. But send me a man,
And I will smite his mouth--ay, slit his tongue--
That dares defame the Countess!