tears or windy sighs but if this Sea be rough with the storms of misfortunes or fomented with the tempest of impatience it makes a dolourous noise of complaints and laments roleing with restless bellowes of discontent this is the Kingdome of love but when this Sea breaks into the Kingdome of hate it makes a hidious noise a roaring with exclamations and cursings Also from this Sea flowes four rivers quite through these two Kingdoms two through the Kingdome of hate and two through the Kingdome of love those two through the Kingdome of love are pitty and compassion which when they meet makes a full tide of Charity and overflowes with bounty but those that runs through the Kingdome of hate are the two rivers of fury and despair when these two rivers meet they make a full tide of madness and overflowes with mischief but fearing I should drown your patience with my overflowing discourse I shall desist for this time After a Civill respects She goeth out And one of the Company after she was gone speaks thus My Lord Marquess writ this following speech Were all dead Moralls Writers risen again and their each several souls crusht into one that Soul would languish till it sted the earth in deep despair to see their gloryes last and all their vaster writings so dispised Thus by the Musick of a Ladyes tongue Whose Cords with wit and judgment is thus strung Ex. Here ends my Lord Marquess Scene 12. Enter the Lady Innocence and Adviser an old Man of the Lord de l'Amours as following the Lady Innocence ADviser Pray young Lady stay and take good Counsel along with you Lady Innocence Good Counsel is a guest I would willingly entertain and be glad of his acquaintance and endeavour to make a perfect friendship with and a constant Companion Adviser Then pray Madam have a care of the Lady Incontinent for she is full of designs against you as I perceive by what I hear her say to my Lord Lady Innocence Your Lord is a person of so much worth and merit as he will not yield to plots of destruction to destroy the Innocent he hath more Charity to heal a wound than cruelty to make one his tender Nature and compassionat disposition will strive to dry wet eyes not force dry eyes to weep Adviser My Lord Madam is a generous and noble Lord but she is a dissembling crafty Lady and knowes how to attract my Lord and to winn him to be of her beliefe and I give you warning as a faithfull Servant both to my Lord and you Lady Innocence I thank you friend for your advertising me of this Lady but I shall trust my self to heavens protection fortunes favour and your deeds noble and just Nature Ex. Scene 13. Enter two Men 1. GEntleman The Lady Sanspareilles wit is as if it would over-power her brain 2. Gentleman O no for her brain seems so well tempered as if there were no conceptions which springs therein or propositions or knowledge presented thereunto but it doth digest them with great ease into a distinguishing understanding otherwise she could not deliver her mind and express her conceits or opinions with such method and facility as she doth 1. Gentleman She hath a Monstrous wit 2. Gentleman No her wit is not a Monstrosity but a generosity of Nature it is Natures bounty to her 1. Gentleman Certainly Nature was never so bountifull to any of that Sex as she hath been to her 2. Gentleman The truth is she favours the Female Sex for the most part more than she doth the Masculine Sex because she is of the Female kind herself 1. Gentleman Faith I could wish that I never wisht before 2. Gentleman What wish is that 1. Gentleman Why I wish I were a Woman but such a Woman as the Lady Sanspareille 2. Gentleman Ovid speaks of a Woman that wisht her self a Man and the Gods granted her with and she became a Man but I never heard of a Man that was changed into a Woman 1. Gentleman That was by reason they never wisht that change 2. Gentleman That is a sign they thought the change would be far the worse 1. Gentleman Indeed generally it would be so 2. Gentleman Well for thy sake I wish thou hadst thy wish Ex. Scene 14. Enter the Lady Innocence as musing by her self alone Then Enter her Maid Passive PAssive My dear Mistriss what makes you so studious as you are become pale with musing Lady Innocence The reason is that my Soul is flown out of my body with the wings of desire to seek for love and my thoughts laboriously wanders after it leaving my Senses to a soiltary life and my life to a Melancholly musing Passive Faith I had rather be buryed under the ruins of hate than have a Melancholly life Lady Innocence And I am Melancholly for fear I should be so buryed Passive If you would have love you must give love Lady Innocence Indeed love is like a Coy-Duck it goeth out to invite or draw in others Passive Nay faith a Coy-Woman cannot do so for the Coyer she is the fewer Lovers she will have for Coynes starves Lovers wherefore if you would not starve your beloved you must be free and twine about him as the Ivy doth the Oke Lady Innocence Modesty forbids it but were it lawfull and that it did not infring the Lawes of modesty I could hang about his neck as the earth to the Center but I had rather starve my delights than do an Act immodest or surfite his affection Ex. ACT V. Scene 15. Enter the Lady Sanspareille and her father with the Audience she takes her place and after a Civill respects to the Company speaks SAnspareille Noble Gentlemen you are welcome and though I cannot promise to feast your Eares with an eloquent Banquet yet I hope it will prove so as I hope it will not cause a dislike for the several dishes of my discourse shall neither be bitter with rayling nor sharp with spite nor salt brined with Satyr nor lushious with flattery and though it may prove tastless to the gusto of your humour yet it will not be disagreeing to the stomack of your reason nor dangerous to the life of your understanding but by reason this worthy Assembly is mixt as Oratours Poets young Students and Souldiers it will be hard for me to divide my discourse so as to give each Company a Civil entertainment but howsoever my indeavour shall not be wanting for that wit I have I shall waite upon you I shall first speak to the young Students because youth and learning is the beginning of life and knowledge and young brains are like plain paper books where time as a hand experience as a pen and practice as Ink writes therein and these books conteins several and divers Chapters The First is of knowledge The Second and Third Chapters are of memory and understanding these Chapters are but short The Fourth and Fift Chapters are conceptions and imaginations this
or Wife to the Lord de L'amour 6. Passive the Lady Innocences maid 7. Falshood an informer to maids of the Lady Incontinent Physitians Natural Philosophers Moral Philosophers young Students Souldiers Lovers Mourners Virgins Servants and others ACT I. Scene 1. Enter Sir Thomas Father Love and his wife the Mother Lady Love MOther Love Husband you have a strange nature that having but one child and never like to have more and this your childe a daughter that you should breed her so strictly as to give her no time for recreation nor no liberty for company nor freedom for conversation but keeps her as a Prisoner and makes her a slave to her book and your tedious moral discourses when other children have Play-fellows and toyes to sport and passe their time withall Father Love Good wife be content doth not she play when she reads books of Poetry and can there be nobler amiabler finer usefuller and wiser companions than the Sciences or pleasanter Play-fellows than the Muses can she have freer conversation than with wit or more various recreations than Scenes Sonets and Poems Tragical Comical and Musical and the like Or have prettier toyes to sport withall than fancie and hath not the liberty so many hours in the day as children have to play in Mother Love Do you call this playing which sets her brain a working to find out the conceits when perchance there is none to find out but are cheats and cozens the Readers with empty words at best it fills her head but with strange phantasmes disturbs her sleep with frightfull dreams of transformed bodyes of Monsters and ugly shaped vices of Hells and Furies and terrifying Gods of Wars and Battles of long travels and dangerous escapes and the pleasantest is but dark groves gloomy fields and the happiest condition but to walk idly about the Elizium fields and thus you breed your daughter as if your Posterity were to be raised from a Poets phantastical brain Father Love I wish my Posterity may last but as long as Homers lines Mother Love Truly it will be a fine airey brood No no I will have her bred as to make a good houswife as to know how to order her Family breed her Children govern her Servants entertain her Neighbours and to fashion herself to all companies times and places and not to be mewed and moped up as she is from all the World insomuch as she never saw twenty persons in one company in all her life unless it be in pictures which you set her to stare on above an hour everyday Besides what Father doth educate their Daughters that office belongs to me but because you have never a Son to tutor therefore you will turn Cotqucan and teach your daughter which is my work Father Love Let me tell you Wife that is the reason all women are fools for women breeding up women one fool breeding up another and as long as that custom lasts there is no hopes of amendment and ancient customs being a second nature makes folly hereditary in that Sex by reason their education is effeminate and their times spent in pins points and laces their study only vain fashions which breeds prodigality pride and envie Mother Love What would you have women bred up to swear swagger gaming drinking Whoring as most men are Father Love No Wife I would have them bred in learned Schools to noble Arts and Sciences as wise men are Mother Love What Arts to ride Horses and fight Dewels Father Love Yes if it be to defend their Honour Countrey and Religion For noble Arts makes not base Vices nor is the cause of lewd actions nor is unseemly for any Sex but baseness vice and lewdnesse invents unhandsome and undecent Arts which dishonours by the practice either Sex Mother Love Come come Husband I will have her bred as usually our Sex is and not after a new fashioned way created out of a self-opiniated that you can alter nature by education No no let me tell you a woman will be a woman do what you can and you may assoon create a new World as change a womans nature and disposition Enter the Lady Sanspareille as to her Father as not thinking her Mother was there Sanspareille O Father I have been in search of you to ask you a question concerning the Sun When she sees her Mother she starts back Mother What have you to do with the Sun and lives in the shade of the Worlds obscuritie Sansp. VVhy Madam where would you have me live can I live in a more serene aire than in my Fathers house or in a purer or clearer light than in my Parents eyes or more splendrous than in my Parents company Mother I would have you live at Court there to have honour favour and grace and not to lose your time ignorantly knowing nothing of the VVorld nor the VVorld of you Sansp. Can I live with more honour than with my Father and You or have more favour than your loves or is there a greater grace than to be Daughter of vertuous Parents can I use or imploy my time better than to obey my Parents commands need I know more than honesty modesty civility and duty As for the VVorld mankind is so partial to each self as they have no faith on the worth of their Neighbour neither doth they take notice of a Stranger but to be taken notice of Mother Love Yes yes your beauty will attract eyes and ears which are the doors to let in good opinion and admiration Sansp. Had I a tongue like a Cerces-wand to charm all ears that heard me it would straight transform men from civil Obligers to spitefull Detractors or false Slanderers my beauty may only serve but as a bribe to tempt men to intrap my youth and to betray my innocency Mother To betray a fools-head of your own Lord Lord how the dispositions of Youth is changed since I was young for before I came to your Age I thought my Parents unnaturall because they did not provide me a Husband Sanspareille If all youth were of my humour their dispositions are changed indeed for Heaven knows it is the only curse I fear a Husband Mother Love Why then you think me curst in Marrying your Father Sansp. No Madam you are blest not only in being a Wife a condition you desired but being marryed to such a man that wishes could not hope for Mother Love Why then my good Fortune may encourage you and raise a hope to get the like Sansp. O no! It rather drives me to dispair beleiving there is no second Mother Love Come come you are an unnatural Child to flatter your Father so much and not me when I endured great pains to breed bear and nurse you up Sansp. I do not flatter Madam for I speak nothing but my thoughts and that which Love and duty doth allow and truth approve of Father Love Come come Wife the Jeerals wit will out-argue both ours Ex. Scene 2. Enter the
Terrestriall globes which globes are as Man and Wife the Coelestiall as the Husband the Terrestriall as the Wife which breeds and bears what the Coelestiall begets For the Coelestiall and the Terrestriall globes are Natures working houses where Animals Vegetables and Minerals are wrought into several figures shapt and formed into divers fashions like as Smiths makes diverse fashioned things out of mettals so Nature is as the Smith the Earth as the mettal the Sun as the fire the Sea as the quenching water the aire as the Bellows youth is the Furnace time is the Forge and motion is the Hammer both to shape and break assunder but for fear I should break your patience I shall desist from speaking any more at this time After a modest and humble respective bow to the assembly She goeth out The whilst the Audience holds up their hands in admiration 1. Philosopher Now you have heard her what do you say 2. Philosopher I say let us go home and make a funerall pile of our bookes that are Philosophy burn them to Ashes that none may file as Phenix like out of that dust 3. Philosopher No throw them at those foolish men that walk in black who would be thought learned by the outside although they are unlettered 4. Philosopher Take heed of that for so they may have hopes of a resurrection and so rise again in ragged covers and tattered torn sheets in old Duck-lane and quack their to be bought 1. Philosopher No no we will all now send for Barbers and in our great Philosophies despair shave of our reverend beards as excrements which once did make us all esteemed as wife and stuff boyes foot-balls with them 2. Philosopher Nature thou dost us wrong and art too prodigall to the effeminate Sex but I forgive thee for thou art a she dame Nature thou art but never shewed thy malice untill now what shall we do 3. Philosopher Faith all turn gallants spend our time in vanity and sin get Hawks and Hounds and running Horses study the Card and Dye Rich Cloathes and Feathers wast our time away with what this man said or what that man answered backbite and raile at all those that are absent and then renownce it with new Oathes Alamode 4. Philosopher No no honour this Virgin whose wit is supreme whose judgment is Serene as is the Sky whose life is a Law unto her selfe and us virtue her handmaid and her words so sweet like to harmonious musick in the Aire that charms our Senses and delights the Soul and turns all passions in our hearts to love teaches the aged and instructs the youth no Sophister but Mistriss still of truth Ex. Here ends my Lord Marquisses Scene 10. Enter the Lord de l'Amour and the Lady Innocence LOrd de l'Amour I begin to be so fond of your Company as I cannot be long absent therefrom Lady Innocence 'T is your favours to me which favours are above my merits indeed I have no merits but what your favour creates Lord de l'Amour You seem so virtuous and sweetly dispositioned and are so beautifull and witty as I cannot but admire and love you Lady Innocence I dare not be so rude not yet so ungratefull to speak against my selfe now you have praised me for your words are like to Kings which makes all currant coyn they set their stamp on although the substance should be mean and of no value Lord de l'Amour Thy words are Musicall Lady Innocence I wish I could speak as eloquently upon every subject as several birds sings sweety in several Tunes to please you Lord de l'Amour Do you love me so well as to wish it onely for my sake Lady Innocence Yes and how should I do otherwise for my affections to you was ingrafted into the root of my infancy by my Fathers instructions and perswasions which hath grown up with my Age The Lady Incontinent peeps in and sees them together speaks to her selfe in the mean time they seem to whisper Lady Incontinent Are you both so serious in discourse I will break your friendship or I will fall to the grave of death in the attempt Lady Incontinent goes out Lord de l'Amour Heaven make you as virtuous as loving and I shall be happy in a Wife Lord de l'Amour goes out Lady Innocence alone Lady Innocence Heaven make him as constant as I virtuous and I shall be sure of a gallant man to my Husband Ex. ACT IV. Scene 11. Enter the Lady Sanspareille and takes her place her Father and her Audience about her being all Morall Philosophers When she had done her respects speaks SAnsp. By my fathers relation to me I understand that all this worthy Assembly are students in morality wherefore I shall treat this time of passions wherein I make no question being all sage that you have not only learnt to distinguish them but have practiced how to temper and govern them but perchance you will say to your selves what need she speak of that which have been so often treated of only to make repetitions of former Authors but you all know without my telling you that new applications may be made on often preached Texts and new arguments may be drawn from old principles and new experiences may be learnt from former follies but howsoever my discourse shall not be very long least tedious impertinencies should make it unpleasant to your eares cause too great a loss of time to your better imployments but my discourse is as I said on the passions which I will first divide as the Ancient Philosophers into two love and hate First I will treat of pure love which is self-love for love to all other things is but the effects thereof And is derived therefrom self-love is the sole passion of the Soul it is a passion pure in it self being unmixt although all other passions do attend it this passion called self-love is the legitimated Child of Nature being bred in infinite and born in eternity yet this passion of self-love being the Mother of all other love is oftentimes mistaken for a fond or a facile disposition bred from a weak constitution of the body or a strong or rather exstravagant appetite of the Senses or from a gross constitution or evill habit or custome of life or an ill example of breeding but these Childish humours facile and easy dispositions foolish and earnest desires gross and greedy appetites Inconstant and evill Natures these are not pure love as the effects of self-love for it doth it self hurt but they are the effects of the body and nor of the Soul for some of them proceeds from a gross strength of body hot and active spirits others from a tenderness and weakness of body and faint spirits but the true passions of love which is self-love but mistake me not for when I say self-love 〈…〉 as is appertaining thereto as love of honour love of virtue humane love naturall love pious love Sympatheticall love which are the
your Solitary musing to those whose condition of fortune denies them the use of the World and worldly pleasures and do not deny your self for I hate a self-denying Creature Solitary Well you shall prevail with me for this one time Exeunt Scene 4. Enter two Gentlemen 1 GEnt. Have you seen Monsieur Thesis Book of Poems that is newly come forth 2 Gent. Yes 1 Gent. And how do you approve of them 2 Gent. As well as I do of an Anagram 1 Gent. There is never an Anagram in the Book 2 Gent. Why the whole Book is an Anagram of Doctor Costives Poems for he hath only new placed the words as they do Anagrams of names but the whole matter sense and conceits is the same 1 Gent. Indeed he hath imitated him 2 Gent. By your favour imitation is only to be like another and not the same but his is the very same as I have told you for which he deserves less praises than a Imitator although those that do imitate any Excellent Poet do not gain so much honour to themselves as they give honour to those they imitate as for example the Imitators of Homer give more honour to Homer than to themselves for Imitators are only as Painters where he that is imitated is as Nature or the Gods for the one draws but Copies the other makes the Original so that there is as much difference as a Man and the Picture of a man 1 Gent. But a Painter that draws the Picture of a man very like the life he may be more famous than the man that is drawn 2 Gent. But not worshiped and adored as Nature is that made him for Art cannot out-do Nature nor do as Nature hath doue and doth do and an Imitator is but an Artificer when as the Original Author is a Creator and ought to be accounted of and respected and worship'd as Divine but there are or have been but very few Poets that have such powers and parts to make a perfect Creature which is a perfect work as Poems scenes or story but some Poets are like Chymist that strive and labour to make as Nature makes but most fail in their work and lose their labours wanting that Natural heat or well-tempered matter which should produce such Creatures as Nature makes yet some 't is said have made gold as Raimond Lully 1 Gent. Then Homer is a Raimond Lully in Poetry 2 Gent. Nay rather Raimond Lully is a Homer in Chymistry for no man ought to compare Homer to any Creature by reason he hath out-wrought Nature having done that which she never did for Nature never made Gods Devils Hells and Heavens as Homer hath done 1 Gent. For my part I had rather be Raimond Lully than Homer for I had rather have the Art to make Gold than the Nature to make Poems 2 Gent. You would not gain so much by Gold as Wit 1 Gent. VVhy what shall I gain 2 Gent. Fame 1 Gent. But Gold will bribe Fame to speak as I would have her if I have gold enough to bribe her 2 Gent. But Poems will force Fame to speak for you without a bribe 1 Gent. That were all one to me so she speaks well whether she be forced flattered or bribed 2 Gent. But there is a fate of Poverty on Chymists as much as on Poets so that if you were as Excellent a Chymist as Raimond Lully you would be as poor as Divine Homer 1 Gent. Not if I could make Gold 2 Gent. Yes for Chymists spend more in the making of Gold than they gain by it when it is made and how should they do otherways when they must needs spend a pound or pounds to make a grain for the limbeck of a Chymist is but a little Still set a-work by a wasting fire whereas Natures limbeck is the Earth set a-work by an undecaiable fire which is the Sun this Chymist becomes as poor by an over-greedy Covetousness as Poets by a despising Carelessness 1 Gent. Then Chymists are like those Bodyes which become lean with over-eating and Poets like those Bodyes that becomes lean by over-fasting the one surfits the other famishes 2 Gent. Indeed Chymists are so greedily Covetous and feed so much on hopes as they never leave untill such time as they have vomitted out all their wealth and then they become sick and lean with Poverty Exeunt ACT II. Scene 5. Enter two other Gentlemen 1 GEnt. The Lady Faction is of a strange busy Nature she runs into every House takes upon her to govern every ones Family yet cannot rule her own she condemns all Actions be they never so Just or Prudent all Officers be they never so worthy or fitly placed all Laws be they never so beneficial or expedient for the Common-wealth all Customs be they never so antient or harmless indeed all peaceable wise and well ordered Governments she hates and delights in nothing but disordered change 2 Gent. 'T is said she is in love with Sir William Admirer 1 Gent. And he in love with the Lady Peaceable 2 Gent. She is a sweet Lady Exeunt Scene 6. Enter the Lady Peaceable and Sir William Admirer ADmirer I will sit and lissen to what you say and learn from you what is the noblest way to entertain the life Peaceable Alas I cannot learn you I have not long experience my Soul is young a meer novice Soul it wants both growth and experienced years for I am like a House that is newly built and is unfurnished Admirer Though you are young you are wise Peaceable How can you expect youth can be discreet and wise when those that have lived long and have had much experience are oftentimes Fools wherefore I can only entertain you like a Parrot only with words not wisely to discourse and if you should lissen to me long I shall surfit your Ears with idle words for the Brain will be as soon over-charged with noise as the Stomack with meat Admirer I can no more be weary of thy words than Angels are with Heavenly Musick Enter the Lady Faction Faction Lady Peaceable the report is you are Ambitious to get away my Servant Sir William Admirer from me Peaceable I am only Ambitious to live Virtuously and dye Piously Faction Why Servant I hear you have forsaken me Admirer I despaired of ever being entertained and so I never really address'd a Sute but by way of rallery Faction Your Mistriss doth not believe you for she blushes either for your faults or her own Peaceable My Bashfullness proceeds not from a Guiltiness either of base actions wicked thoughts mean birth or breeding or evill or erronious opinions for my bashfullness is only an effect of Nature for as some are naturally fearfull so am I naturally bashfull and as Melancholy produces a sad Countenance so Bashfullness produceth an extorted and a Convulsive Countenance as Grief produces tears so Bashfullness produces blushing Admirer Lady Faction spare my young Mistriss lest she should out-run you in a full speed Faction
in a bashfull Countenance and if to tremble for fear to describe the fear as being the Nature of the Sex also to describe their Behaviour after a Noble Garb and their answers to their Suters to be full of Reason Sense and Truth and those answers to be delivered in as short discourses and as few words as Civility will allow of and not like an ignorant innocent a childish simplicity an unbred Behaviour expressing themselves or answering their Suters with mincing words that have neither Sense nor Reason in them Also Poetical and Romantical VVriters should not make great Princes that have been bred in great and populous Cities glorious Camps and splendrous Courts to woo and make Love like private bred men or like rude bred Clowns or like mean bred Servants or like Scholars that woo by the Book in Scholastical Terms or Phrases or to woo like flanting ranting swearing bragging Swaggerers or Rusters or to woo a Country wench like as a Noble Lady or great Princesse Also not to make such women as have been bred and born Nobly and Honourably to receive the Courtship of great Persons like a Dairy-maid Kitchin-maid or like such as have been bred in mean Cottages as to behave themselves simply or rudely as to the answer and speak Crossingly or Thwartingly as contradicting every word that is spoken unto them as if they did believe what they said was not truth for Civil and Honourable bred women who have Noble and Generous Souls will rather seem to believe all their Superlative Praises than make Doubts as if they knew they lyed for to make Doubts is in the mid-way to give the Lye Matron Lady how approve you of those Lovers that kisse the Letters Tokens Pledges and the like that are sent unto them from their Lovers or such as wear Letters Tokens or Pledges in their Bosomes and next their Heart and take them and view them a hundred times a day Lady Speaker Approve it say you you mean disapprove it but let me tell you most Reverend Matron that the very hearing of it makes the sick and the seeing of it would make me die I have so great an Aversion against such actions for those actions like as whining Speeches proceed from filthy Amorous Love and Mean Lovers for true Love in Noble Persons receives gifts as an expression of their Suters or Lovers Loves and will carefully keep them as an acknowledgment of the receipt and accept of them as a great Seal to their affections yet they keep such Presents but as Treasurers not as Owners untill they be man and wife neither do they make Idols of such gifts nor do they adore the Owner the more for the gift nor the gist for the Owner nor do they think fit they ought to give such outward expressions of Love by such uselesse actions when as they have a high esteem of their Suters Love a perfect belief of their Merit and a constant return of their affection and a resolution to dye or suffer any misery for their sakes if need required besides true Lovers have ever the Idea of their beloved in their Thoughts by which they cannot forget their Memory indeed Love-letters they may read often because Letters are an injoyment of their discourse although their persons be at a distance and are also a recreation and delight in their Wits if there be any Wit therein but to kisse the Paper they neither find pleasure delight non profit neither to themselves nor to their Beloved the truth is not one Writer amongst a thousand make Lovers woo either wisely wittily nobly eloquently or naturally but either foolishly meanly unmanly unhandsomely or amorously which is corruptly Matron Lady you say very true and some Romantical Writers make long and tedious Orations or long and tedious and fruitless discourse in such times as requires sudden action Lady Speaker You say right as to speak when they are to fight but for my part I hate to read Romances or some Scenes in Plays whose ground or Foundation is Amorous Love Matron VVhen you read such Books you must never consider the Subject that the VVriter writes on but consider the Wit Language Fancy or Description 2 Matron Most Reverend Sister I suppose few read Romances or the like Books but for the Wit Fancy Judgement and lively Descriptions for they do not read such Books as they do read Chronicles wherein is only to be considered the true Relation of the History Lady Speaker Most Grave and VVife Matronesse I believe though none read Romances or such like Books whose ground is feigned Love and Lovers as they read Chronicles whose ground should be unfeigned Truth yet certainly few read Romances or the like Books either for the Wit Fancy Judgement or Descriptions but to feed their Amorous Humours on their Amorous Discourses and to tune their Voice to their Amorous Strains of Amorous Love for it is to be observed that those Books that are most Amorously penned are most often read Exeunt Scene the last Enter the Academical Gentlemen to them enters a Servant MAn Servant May it please your Worships there is an Antient Gentlewoman that desires to speak with your VVorships 1 Gent. I lay my life it is one of the Matrons of the Academy 2 Gent. Faith if the Humble Bee is flown out the rest of the Bees will follow 3 Gent. I fear if they do they will swarm about our Ears 4 Gent. Yes and sting us with their Tongues 5 Gent. Let us send for her in 6 Gent. I will go and Usher her in He goes out Enters with the Matron All the Gentlemen pull off their Hats Matron Gentlemen the Ladies of the Academy have sent me unto you to know the Reason or Cause that you will not let them rest in quiet or suffer them to live in peace but disturb them in both by a confused noise of Trumpets which you uncivilly and discourteously blow at their Grate and Gates 1 Gent. The cause is that they will not permit us to come into their Company but have barricadoed their Gats against us and have incloystred themselves from us besides it is a dangerous example for all the rest of their Sex for if all women should take a toy in their heads to incloyster themselves there would be none left out to breed on Matron Surely it is very fit and proper that young Virgins should live a retired life both for their Education and Reputation 2 Gent. As for their Education it is but to learn to talk and women can do that without teaching for on my Conscience a woman was the first inventer of Speech and as for their Retirement Nature did never make them for that purpose but to associate themselves with men and since men are the chief Head of their kind it were a sign they had but very little Brain if they would suffer the youngest and fairest women to incloyster themselves Matron Gentlemen pray give me leave to inform you for I perceive you are in great Error of mistake for these Ladies have not vowed Virginity or are they incloystred for an Academy is not a Cloyster but a School wherein are taught how to be good Wives when they are married 3 Gent. But no man can come to woo them to be Wives Matron No but if they can win their Parents or those they are left in trust with and get their good liking and consent the young Ladies have learn'd so much Duty and Obedience as to obey to what they shall think fit 4 Gent. But we desire the Ladies good liking we care not for their Friends for the approvment and good liking of their Friends without the Love of the Ladies will not make us happy for there is no satisfaction in a secondary Love as to be beloved for anothers sake and not for their own Matron If you be Worthy Gentlemen as I believe you all are their Love will be due to your Merits and your Merits will perswade them to love you All the Gentlemen Well if you will be our Mediator we will surcease our Clamour otherwise we will increase our noise Matron If you can get leave of their Parents and Friends I will endeavour to serve you and shall be proud of the imployment that you shall be pleased to impose to my trust and management Gentlemen And we shall be your Servants for your favours They all go out with the Gentlemen waiting on her with their Hats in their hands Scraping and Congying to her FINIS