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
Here on this Figure Cast a Glance But so as if it were by Chance Your eyes not fixt they must not stay Since this like Shadowes to the Day It only represent's for Still Her Beuty 's found beyond the Skill Of the best Paynter to Imbrace Those louely Lines within her fure View her Soul's Picture Iudgment will Then read those Lines which Shee hath writt By Phancy's Pencill drawne alone Which Peece but Shee Can justify owne PLAYES Written by the Thrice NOBLE ILLUSTRIOUS AND Excellent Princess THE LADY MARCHIONESS OF NEWCASTLE LONDON Printed by A. Warren for Iohn Martyn Iames Allestry and Tho. Dicas at the Bell in Saint Pauls Church Yard 1662 THE DEDICATION TO those that do delight in Scenes and wit I dedicate my Book for those I writ Next to my own Delight for I did take Much pleasure and delight these Playes to make For all the time my Playes a making were My brain the Stage my thoughts were acting there THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY MY LORD MY resolution was that when I had done writing to have dedicated all my works in gross to your Lordship and I did verily believe that this would have been my last work but I find it will not unless I dye before I have writ my other intended piece And as for this Book of Playes I believe I should never have writ them nor have had the Capacity nor Ingenuity to have writ Playes had not you read to me some Playes which your Lordship had writ and lye by for a good time to be Acted wherein your Wit did Create a desire in my Mind to write Playes also although my Playes are very unlike those you have writ for your Lordships Playes have as it were a natural life and a quick spirit in them whereas mine are like dull dead statues which is the reason I send them forth to be printed rather than keep them concealed in hopes to have them first Acted and this advantage I have that is I am out of the fear of having them hissed off from the Stage for they are not like to come thereon but were they such as might deserve applause yet if Envy did make a faction against them they would have had a publick Condemnation and though I am not such a Coward as to be affraid of the hissing Serpents or stinged Tongues of Envy yet it would have made me a little Melancholy to have my harmless and innocent Playes go weeping from the Stage and whipt by malicious and hard-hearted censurers but the truth is I am careless for so I have your applause I desire no more for your Lordships approvement is a sufficient satisfaction to me My Lord Your Lordships honest Wife and faithfull Servant M. N. TO THE READERS NOBLE READERS I Must ask pardon for that I said I should not trouble you with more of my works than this Book of Playes but since I have considered with my self there is one work more which is very fit for me to do although I shall not be able to do it so well as the subject will deserve being the Life of my Noble Lord but that work will require some time in the gathering together some several passages for although I mean not to write of all the particulars of these times yet for as much as is concerning that subject I shall write of it will be requirable but it is a work that will move so slowly as perchance I shall not live to finish it but howsoever I will imploy my time about it and it will be a satisfaction to my life that I indeavour it M. N. TO THE READERS NOBLE READERS THe reason why I put out my Playes in print before they are Acted is first that I know not when they will be Acted by reason they are in English and England doth not permit I will not say of Wit yet not of Playes and if they should yet by reason all those that have been bred and brought up to Act are dead or dispersed and it would be an Act of some time not only to breed and teach some Youths to Act but it will require some time to prove whether they be good Actors or no for if they are not bred to it whilst they be young they will never be good Actors when they are grown up to be men for although some one by chance may have naturally a facility to Action and a Volubility of Speech and a good memory to learn and get the Parts by heart or wrote yet it is very unlikely or indeed impossible to get a whole Company of good Actors without being taught and brought up thereto the other reason is that most of my Playes would seem tedious upon the Stage by reason they are somewhat long although most are divided into first and second Parts for having much variety in them I could not possibly make them shorter and being long it might tire the Spectators who are forced or bound by the rules of Civility to sit out a Play if they be not sick for to go away before a Play is ended is a kind of an affront both to the Poet and the Players yet I believe none of my Playes are so long as Ben Johnson's Fox or Alchymist which in truth are somewhat too long but for the Readers the length of the Playes can be no trouble nor inconveniency because they may read as short or as long a time as they please without any disrespect to the Writer but some of my Playes are short enough but the printing of my Playes spoils them for ever to be Acted for what men are acquainted with is despised at lest neglected for the newness of Playes most commonly takes the Spectators more than the Wit Scenes or Plot so that my Playes would seem lame or tired in action and dull to hearing on the Stage for which reason I shall never desire they should be Acted but if they delight or please the Readers I shall have as much satisfaction as if I had the hands of applause from the Spectators M. N. TO THE READERS NOBLE READERS ALthough I expect my Playes will be found fault with by reason I have not drawn the several persons presented in a Circular line or to a Trianglar point making all the Actors to meet at the latter end upon the Stage in a flock together likewise that I have not made my Comedies of one dayes actions or passages yet I have adventured to publish them to the World But to plead in my Playes behalf first I do not perceive any reason why that the several persons presented should be all of an acquaintance or that there is a necessity to have them of one Fraternity or to have a relation to each other or linck'd in alliance as one Family when as Playes are to present the general Follies Vanities Vices Humours Dispositions Passions Affections Fashions Customs Manners and practices of the whole World of Mankind as in several persons also particular Follies Vanities Vices Humours Passions
the Curtezans As for those that are kept honest I can give little or no account for they are so inclos'd with locks and bolts and only look through a jealousie so as a stranger cannot obtain a sight much less an acquaintance Soeur Then they have not that liberty we French women have Frere O no Soeur Why do they fear they would all turn Curtezans if they should be left to themselves Frere The men are jealous and will not put it to the trial for though they are all Merchants even the Princes themselves yet they will not venture their wives Soeur I would not live there for all the World for to be so restrain'd for it is said that Italian men are so jealous of their wives as they are jealous of their Brothers Fathers and Sons Frere They are so for they are wise and know Nature made all in common and to a general use for particular Laws were made by Men not by Nature Soeur They were made by the Gods Brother Frere What Gods Sister old men with long beards Soeur Fie fie Brother you are grown so wild in Italy as France I doubt will hardly reclaim you but I hope when you are marry'd you will be reform'd and grow sober Frere Why Sister are you become more sober or reform'd since you are marry'd Soeur No Brother I never was wild nor wanton but always modest and honest Frere Faith Sister me thinks you might have been marry'd more to your advantage than you are had not my Father been so hasty in marrying you so young Soeur Why do you say so Brother when the man I 'm marry'd to is so worthy a person as I do not merit him neither would I change him for all the World Frere Nay Sister be not angry for 't is my extreme love having no more sisters but you that makes me speak Soeur Prethee Brother do not think I am angry so I believe it proceeds from love and that it is your affection that makes you so ambitious for me Frere Know Sister I love you so well and so much as 't is a torment to be out of your company Soeur Thank you Brother and know I desire never to be in any other Company than my Husband Father and Brother nay any other company is troublesome Exeunt Scene 13 Enter the Sociable Virgins and Matron MAtron Ladies how are your wits to day 1 Virgin Faith my brain is like Salisbury Plain to day where my thoughts run Races having nothing to hinder their way and my brain like Salisbury-plain is so hard as my thoughts like the horses heels leave no print behind so as I have no wit to day for Wit is the print and mark of thoughts 2 Virgin And I am sick to day and sickness breaks the strings of Wit and when the strings are broke no harmony can be made 3 Virgin It is with Wits as it is with Beauties they have their good days as to speak quick and to look well to look cloudy and to speak dully and though my tongue to day is apt to run like an Alarm clock without any intermission yet my mind being out of order my tongue will go out of time as either too fast or too slow so as none can tell the true time of sense 4 Virgin For my part I am so dull to day as my Wit is buried in stupidity and I would not willingly speak unless my speech could work upon every passion in the heart and every thought in the head 1 Virgin For my part if any can take delight in my unfolded tongue and unpolish'd words my discourse is at their service Matron Me thinks Ladies your Wits run nimbly fly high and spread far wherefore make a witty match or a match of Eloquence 1 Virgin With all my heart for in the Combat of Eloquence I shall do like to a valiunt man in a battel for though he wins not the Victory yet he proves not a Coward so though I should not get the victory of Wit or Eloquence yet I shall not prove my self a fool 2 Virgin I will make no such match for though I have read some few books yet I have not studied Logick nor Rhetorick to place and set words in order and though I have read History and such like books yet I have not got their Speeches by heart nor parts of them as the parts of one Oration and a part of another Oration and of three or four to make up an Oration of my own as all Orators do now adays neither have I studied the Morals or the Fathers so much as to have their sayings and sentences to stuff my Discourse as Preachers do and to speak a natural way although extraordinary witty as to have their Orations as full of wit as of words yet it would be condemn'd if the Speaker is not learned or that their Speeches express not learning 3 Virgin Now you talk of Speeches and Orations it seems very strange to me to read the Speeches that Chronologers write down to be truly related as from the mouths of those that spoke them especially such as are spoken ex tempore and on a sudden but more especially those that are spoken in Mutinies and to a tumultuous multitude wherein is nothing but distraction both in the Speakers and Hearers frights and fears in Opposers and Assaulters As for Example when Tacitus set down the Speeches of some persons at such times when and where every one is in such fears and disorders as there seem'd to be not any one person that could have the leisure time rest or silence to get those Speeches by heart to bear them away in their memory or had they Place Time Ink Pen or Paper to write them down 4 Virgin But the Speeches that Thucidides sets down may be better credited because most of them were premeditated and soberly orderly and quietly deliver'd which might more easily be noted and exactly taken to deliver to posterity 3 Virgin Another thing is how Tacitus could come to know the particulars and private speeches betwixt man and man as Friend and Friend Brother and Brother and not only the Speeches of the Roman Nations of which he might be best informed but the Speeches of persons of other Nations whose Language was not easily understood or frequent amongst the Romans nay not only so but he hath writ the thoughts of some Commanders and others Matron Lady you must not be so strict in History as to have every word true for it is a good History if the sense matter maner form and actions be true As for Example Say a man should be presented all naked is he less a man for being naked or is he more a man for being cloathed or for being cloathed after another Fashion than his own So a History is not the less true if the Actions Occasions Forms and the like be related although every word be not express'd as they were so that Tacitus's Speeches may be true as to the sense although he
having made her a Lady Lord Lord to see the fortune that some have over others why if my Master would have maried one of his Maids he might have chosen a prettier wench amongst any of us all than she is 2 Maid Yes 'faith for she was thought the veriest Puss of us all for she is neither snout-fair nor well-shap'd she hath splay-feet and chilblainheels 1 Maid Nay all will grant she was the dirtiest slut in the House for there was never a man-servant but would cry so at her when they kiss'd her besides she was the veriest fool amongst us But Lord what Wealth and Honour will do for now she is a Lady she looks as if she never wash'd a dish or scour'd a kettle or spit 2 Maid But I wonder how she came to be his Wife she might have served as her Betters have done before her I am sure there was Nan a pretty pert cleanly Maid who was kind and willing to do any thing either to serve our Master or fellow servants 1 Maid O but Nan had not an old woman that us'd to come to her to get suet and scraps as Briget had and this old woman they say counsell'd Briget to seem nice and coy 2 Maid I wonder what Richard the Carter will say who was turned out of his service because he should not share with my Master 1 Maid 'Faith I heard that Richard was told of her Advancement and 't is said he laugh'd and said my Master had a hungry stomach that he could feed of his leavings but by his Troth he was glad she was become a Lady for now he could say he had kiss'd and courted a Lady as well as the best Gallant of them all Exeunt Scene 19. Enter the Lord Widower and the Lady Sprightly his Daughter LOrd Daughter although you do govern my Family very well for your years yet you are young and wanting Experience may be cozened and though I have a great Estate yet it will be all consum'd if Order and Method be not put into practice wherefore I would have you take the counsel of Mistris Dorothy Subtilty to assist you Lady Who is that my Lord Lord Why do not you know her she that waited on your Mother Lady Pardon me my Lord I did not know her by that Title for she was plain Dol Subtilty when she waited on my Mother and not knowing of her advancement from a Chambermaid to a Gentlewoman I might easily mistake besides she is not so much older as to have much more experience than my self perchance she may have more craft which was learned her in her poverty than I who have been bred at the Horn of Plenty that knew no scarcity nor sharking necessity Lord You have a sharp tongue when spight moves it but let me hear no more of these words but do as I command you Lady I never disobey'd you as I do know Lord Well no more words Exeunt Scene 20. Enter the Bride and all the Bridal Guests they dance and Monsieur Disguise dances with the Bride Sir Spendall seems to whisper Monsieur Disguise in the Ear being half drunk SPendall Sir but that you look more like a woman than a man you might give the Bridegroom more cause to be melancholy for the living than the dead but let me intreat you young Gentleman that you strike not his Head as your News hath done his Heart for I perceive the Brides eyes are fix'd upon you and from the root of a fix'd eye grows Horns when they are set in a maried Head Disguise There is no fear Spendall Yes Sir as long as there are doubts there are fears Disguise There is no doubt Sir Spendall But that she will be Sir Disguise What Sir Spendall What you please Sir and let me tell you young Gentleman that as long as there are women there will be Lovers and Cuckolds Disguise And let me tell you Sir that as long as there are men there will be Fools and Drunkards Lady Inconstant Sir I doubt we have invited you rather to your trouble than your delight Disguise Madam you are the Treasure of Pleasure and Delight which none can receive but from your Bounty nor enjoy but by your Favour Exeunt Scene 21. Enter the Lady Sprightly and Dol Subtilty LAdy Sprightly What had you to do to contradict my commands Dol Subtilty They were not fit to be obey'd wherefore they were forbid The Lady gives Dol a box on the Ear Lady There take that to remember I forbid you to forbid my commands Dol. I will declare your blows to some that shall revenge me Enter the Lord Widower Lord What are you so light-finger'd 'T is time to get you a Husband to govern and rule your high spirit Lady No pray Sir get me no Husband for if my Father takes part against me surely a Husband will be worse natur'd Lord So you will say I am unnatural Lady No Sir I only say it is not my undutifulness that displeases you but some that hath more wit than I or at least good fortune to please you better Lord VVell pray study your Book and VVork and leave the Houshold Affairs to my disposal Lady Sir I took the Office as my duty to your commands not for Delight Pleasure Ease or Profit and I shall surrender it up again upon the same account and with all the trouble care labour vexations and disquiets belonging thereunto Lord In doing so you will do very well Exeunt Scene 32. Enter the Lady Hypocondria as being frightly sick and her Husband Sir VVilliam Lovewell LOvewell Heaven bless you wife what makes you so extremely pale and to seem so affrighted Hypocon. O Husband I have an Imposthume broken within me and the bag will rise and choke me Lovewell Heaven forbid Hypocon. O I am choak'd I am choak'd I cannot fetch my breath She takes her breath very short Sir VVilliam Lovewell in a great fright calls for help Enter some servants Lovewell O send for Doctors strait for my wife is ready to die They go out running he standing by the Chair his Wife sits in trembling and quaking Lovewell How are you dear VVife how do you feel your self now how are you Hypocondria O very ill but yet me thinks I can fetch my breath a little better than I could I believe the Imposthume-bag is fallen down wherefore I will go to bed Lovewell Pray do VVife He leads her out and she goeth softly Exeunt Scene 23. Enter Sir Henry Sage and the Lady Chastity his Wife SAge Sweet-heart I was in your Bed-chamber and in your Cabinet-chamber and missing you in both I was afraid I must have been forc'd to have hir'd a Cryer to have proclamed my loss Chastity Many a Wife doth proclame her Husbands loss without the help of a Cryer for the Wives Adulterous Acts proclame her Husband a Cucold and the loss of his Honour Sage But I am not afraid of that for I am confident of thy Chastity although the old
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