but that malicious breath soon vanishes and leaves no stain behind it so I hope your jealousie will do the like it will vanish and leave no doubt behind it Perfection I hope you are not angry with me for telling you or for being my self troubled at what was reported Solid No for innocency is never concern'd it always lives in peace and quiet having a satisfaction in it self wherefore reports only siezes on the guilty arresting them with an angry turbulency Perfection But perchance you may be angry for my jealousie Solid No for jealousie expresses love as being affraid to lose what it desires to keep Perfection Then I hope you do not repent the love you have placed on me Solid Heaven may sooner repent of doing good than I repent my love and choyce Perfection Dear Mistress my mind is so full of joy since it is clear'd of suspition and assured of your love as my thoughts doth fly about my brain like birds in Sun-shine weather Ex. Scene 24. Enter Monsieur Nobilissimo and Madamosel Doltche NObilissimo Sweet Lady will you give me leave to be your Servant Doltche I wish I were a Mistress worthy of your service Nobiliss. There is no man shall admire more your beauty and wit nor be more diligent to your youth nor shall honour your merits and love your vertue more than I Doltche Indeed I had rather be honoured for my merit than for my birth for my breeding than for my wealth and I had rather be beloved for my vertue than admired for my beauty and I had rather be commended for my silence than for my wit Nobilissimo It were pity you should bury your great wit in silence Doltche My wit is according to my years tender and young Nobilissimo Your wit Lady may entertain the silver haired Sages Doltche No surely for neither my years nor my wit are arrived to that degree as to make a good companion having had neither the experience of time nor practice of speech for I have been almost a mute hitherto and a stranger to the VVorld Nobilissimo The VVorld is wide and to travel in it is both dangerous and difficult wherefore you being young should take a guide to protect and direct you and there is no Guide nor Protector so honourable and safe as a Husband what think you of marriage Doltche Marriage and my thoughts live at that distance as they seldom meet Nobilissimo VVhy I hope you have not made a vow to live a single life Doltche No for the Laws of Morality and Divinity are chains which doth sufficiently restrain mankind and tyes him into a narrow compasse and though I will not break those chaining Laws to get lose and so become lawless yet I will not tye nature harder with vain opinions and unnecessary vows than she is tyed already Nobilissimo You shall need no Tutour for you cannot only instruct your self but teach others Doltche Alas my brain is like unplanted ground and my words like wild fruits or like unprofitable grain that yields no nourishing food to the understanding Wherefore if I should offer to speak my speech must be to ask questions not to give instructions Nobilissimo Certainly Lady nature did study the architectour of your form and drew from herself the purest extractions for your mind and your soul the essence or spirits of those extractions or rather you appear to me a miracle something above nature to be so young and beautifull and yet so vertuous witty and wise grac'd with such civil behaviour for many a grave beard would have wagg'd with talking lesse sense with more words Doltche Youth and age is subject to errors one for want of time to get experience the other through long time wherein they lose their memory Nobilissimo Pray let me get your affections and then I shall not lose my hopes of a vertuous Lady to my wife Ex. Scene 25. Enter Madamosel Caprisia and Monsieur Generosity GEnerosity Lady are you walking studiously alone may I not be thought rude if I should ask what your studies are Capris. I am studying how some studies for pain some pleasure some dangers some quarrels some to be wicked some to be learned some to be ignorant some to be foolish some to be famous but few to be wise Generosity Who studies to be wicked Capris. Thieves Murtherers Adulterers Lyers and Extortioners Generosity Who studies to be learned Capris. Linguists Generosity Who studies to be ignorant Capris. Divines Generosity Who studies quarrels Capris. Lawyers Generosity Who studies dangers Capris. Souldiers Generosity VVho studies to be fools Capris. Buffoones Generosity VVho studies fame Capris. Poets Generosity VVho studies pleasure Capris. Epicures Generosity VVho studies pain Capris. Epicures Generosity Do Epicures study both for pain and pleasure Capris. Yes for they that surfeit with pleasure must endure pain and Epicures studies the height of pleasure which no sooner injoyed but pain follows Generosity VVho studies to be wise Capris. They that study Temperance Prudence Fortitude and Justice Generosity And what study you Capris. I study how I may avoid the company of mankind also to be quit of your Lordships presence He alone She goeth out Generosity She is so handsome no humour can ill become her Ex. Scene 26. Enter Monsieur Profession and Monsieur Comorade Comorade Thom. Give me leave to rejoyce with thee for the resurrection of thy heart that was kill'd with thy Mistresses cruelty and buried in her constancy Profession VVell well make your self merry Comorade But prethee in what plight is thy heart I doubt it is lean weak and pale and in a puling condition lying in the Grave of thy Mistresses inconstancy Profession Faith I cannot tell the good Angel that brought into life can give a better account of it than I can Comorade VVhere shall I seek this good Angel amongst the effeminate or masculine Sex For I suppose it is an Angel that is of one Sex although I have heard Angels are of neither Sex but prethee of which shall I inquire Profession Of the divine Sex and the divinest of her Sex Comorade You may as well bid me inquire of that which is not to be found for every particular man that is a Servant to any particular of these angelical creatures will prefer his own Mistress to be the divinest and so the most absolutest Profession All men that sees my Mistresse and doth not adore her as the only She is damned in ignorance and condemned to perpetual blindnesse Comorade Say you so then I will not see her for fear I should be one of the damned and therefore I will give over that design as the search of her and go to a Tavern and drink the good health of thy heart and leave the inquiry after it and if you will go with me so Profession I cannot without the breach of gratitude deny thy kindnesse wherefore I will bear thee company Ex. Scene 27. Enter Doctor Freedom and Madamosel Doltche Madamosel Solid Madamosel Volante
give away what they have Portrait Talk not of womens souls for men say we have no souls only beautiful bodies Bon' Esprit But beautiful bodies are a degree of souls and in my Conscience please men better than our souls could do Superbe If anything prove we have no souls it is in letting men make such fools of us Matron Come come Ladies by Womens Actions they prove to have more or at least better souls than Men have for the best parts of the Soul are Love and Generosity and Women have more of either than Men have Grave Temperance The truth is that although Reason and Understanding are the largest parts of the Soul yet Love and Generosity are the delicatest parts of the Soul Enter Monsieur Heroick Heroick Goodmorrow young Ladies you appear this morning like sweet-smelling flowers some as Roses others as Lillies others as Violets Pinks and Primroses and your associating in a company together is like as a Posie which Love hath bound up into one Bucket which is a fit Present for the Gods Bon' Esprit If you would have us presented to the Gods we must die for we are never preferred to them but by Death wherefore we must be given to Death before the Gods can have us they may hear us whilest we live and we may hear of them but partake of neither until we die Heroick O that were pity Ladies for there is nothing more sad in Nature than when Death parts a witty Soul from a young beautiful Body before the one hath built Monuments of Memory and the other gained Trophies of Lovers And as for the Gods you will be as acceptable to them when you are old as when you are young Ambition As nothing could make me so sad as untimely death of Youth Wit and Beauty so there is nothing could anger me more as for Fortune to frown upon Merit or not to advance it according to its worth or to bury it in Oblivion hindring the passage into Fames Palace Temperance For my part I believe Death will neither call nor come for you before his natural time if you do not send Surfet and Excess to call him to take you away Pleasure Indeed Mankind seem as if they were Deaths Factors for they do strive to ingross and destroy all other creatures or at least as many as they can and not only other creatures but their own kinde as in Wars and not only their own kinde but themselves in idle and unprofitable Adventures and gluttonous Excess thus as I said they are Deaths Factors buying sickness with health hoping to gain pleasure and to make delight their profit but they are cozen'd for they only get Diseases Pains and Aches Matron Pray Ladies mark how far you are gone from the Text of your discourse as from sweet-smelling flowers to stinking carrion which are dead carkasses from a lively good-morrow to a dead farewel from mirth to sadness Portrait You say right Mother Matron wherefore pray leave off this discourse for I hate to hear off death for the thoughts of death affright me so as I can take no pleasure of life when he is in my mind Heroick Why Ladies the thought of death is more than death himself for thoughts are sensible or imaginable things but Death himself is neither sensible nor imaginable Portrait Therefore I would not think of him and when I am dead I am past thinking Superbe Let us discourse of something that is more pleasing than Death Heroick Then by my consent Ladies your discourse shall be of Venus and Cupid which are Themes more delightful to your Sex and most contrary to death for Love is hot and Death is cold Love illuminates life and Death quenches life out Bon Esprit Let me tell you Sir Love is as apt to burn life out as Death is to quench it out and I had rather die with cold than be burnt with heat for cold kills with a dead numness when heat kills with a raging madnesse Pleasure But Lovers are tormented with fears and doubts which cause cold sweats fainting of spirits trembling of limbs it breaks the sweet repose of sleep disturbs the quiet peace of the mind vades the colours of beauty nips or blasts the blossome of youth making Lovers look withered before Time hath made them old Heroick It is a signe Lady you have been in love you give so right a Character of a Lover Pleasure No there requires not a self-experience to find out a Lovers trouble for the outward Actions will declare their inward grief and passion Superbe Certainly she is in love but conceals it she keeps it as a Secret Pleasure Love cannot be secret the passion divulges it self Portrait Confess Are you not in love Faction Nay she will never confess a Secret unless you tell her one for those that tell no secrets shall hear none Portrait O yes for a Secret is like a child in the womb for though it be concealed for a time it will come out at last only some comes out easier than others and some before their time Ambition Nay whensoever a secret comes out it 's untimely Faction Secrets are like Coy Ducks when one is flown out it draws out others and returns with many Pleasure Then like a Coy Duck I will try if I can draw all you after me Exit Pleasure Bon' Esprit She shall see she is like a Duck which is like a Goose and we like her for we will follow her Exeunt Scene 8. Enter Monsiuer Tranquillities Peace and his Man TRanquill Peace Have you been at Monsieur Busie's house to tell him I desire to speak with him Servant Yes I have been at his house Tranquill. Peace And will he come Servant Faith Sir the house is too unwieldy to stir and Monsieur Busie is too Active to stay at home but the truth is I went at four a clock this morning because I would be sure to find him and his servants and their Master was flown out of his nest an hour before Then I told his servants I would come about dinner-time and they laugh'd and ask'd me what time was that I said I supposed at the usual time about Noon or an hour before or after but they said their Master never kept any certain time of eating being full of business Then I asked them what time that would be when he would come home to bed They answered that his time of Resting was as uncertain as his time of Eating Then I pray'd them to tell me at what time they thought I might find him at home They said it was impossible for them to guess for that their Master did move from place to place as swift as thoughts move in the Mind Then I pray'd them that they would tell him when he came home that you would desire to speak with him They told me they would but they did verily believe he would forget to come to you by reason his head was so full of busie thoughts or thoughts of
the wisest man as Solomon the wittiest man as David the strongest man as Sampson the fairest man as Paris of Troy the valiantest man as Achilles the subtilest man as Ulysses the power-fullest men as Alexander and Caesar Faction By your favour Women never made a Conquest of the two latter and therefore cannot be said to be absolute Conquerors for none are absolute Conquerors but those that conquer power that is those that get absolute dominion over all the World which Alexander and Caesar are said to have done by their Valour and Conduct and never any Woman or Women conquer'd those men as to get them to yield up their power for a womans sake which shews they were not rul'd by women although they lov'd women by which it is to be proved that women never made an absolute Conquest of men because they could never conquer absolutely those two absolute Conquerors and Masters of the World Pleasure But Livia Conquer'd Augustus Caesar and Ruled his Power and he was as absolute a Master of the Worlds Power as Iulius Caesar and Alexander Faction He was rather to be said the Possessor of the Worlds power than the absolute Conqueror of the Worlds power Superbe It is as good to be a Conqueress of the possessor of power as to conquer the Conqueror of power Ambition It is as good for the Benefit but not so much for the Honour of it Portrait But Alexander nor Caesar lived not so long a time as to be Conquer'd by women for women must have time and opportunity for to gain the Conquest in as well as men have Faction If Alexander and Caesar must have been old before they possibly could have been conquer'd it proves that women do rather conquer Age than power weakens the strength and the truth is women conquer nothing but the vices weaknesses and defects of men As they can conquer an unexperienc'd Youth and doting Age ignorant Breeding effeminate Natures wavering Minds facile Dispositions soft Passions wanton Thoughts unruly Appetites and the luxurious Lives of men but they cannot conquer mens fix'd Resolutions their heroick Valours their high Ambitions their magnificent Generosities their glorious Honours or their conquering or over-ruling Powers Nor can women conquer their moral Vertues as their Prudence Fortitude Justice and Temperance But put the case a man had the power of the whole World and could quit that power for the enjoyment of any particular woman or women yet he quits not that power for the womans sake but for his minds-sake his pleasure-sake as to satisfie his Fancy Passion or Appetites And what Conquest soever Women make on Men if any Conquest they do make is more by the favour of Nature than the Gods Ambition Well I wish I may be the Conqueress of one man let the favour proceed from which it will Exeunt Scene 4. Enter Ease Wanton and Idle EAse There hath been such a Skirmish or rather a Battel Idle How and betwixt whom Ease Why betwixt Grave Temperance and Mother Matron Idle What was the cause of their falling out Ease Why Mother Matron had a spic'd pot of Ale in her hand so she set it to her mouth and drank a hearty draught of it and finding it very good and refreshing drank another draught By my faith said she this is a cheerly cup indeed and a comfortable drink and with that drank another draught and so long-winded she was as she drank up all the Ale therein Whereupon Grave Temperance rebuked her for drinking so much saying that though a little as one draught or so might refresh the Spirits yet a great quantity would make her drunk Whereupon Mother Matron who could not then suffer a reproof in anger she flung the pot which was still in her hand at Grave Temperance's head Idle It was a sign she had drank all the good liquor out or otherwise she would not have throvvn the pot avvay Ease It was a sign she was drunk or else she would not have done so outragious an act as to have broke Grave Temperances head Enter Mother Matron as half drunk and scolding Matron Reprove me teach me Have not I liv'd long enough in the World to be able to govern my self but Temperance must govern me Am I a Child am I a Novice that I must be governed by Temperance No no let her go to Nunneries and let her be the Lady Prioress to govern Nuns for yfaith she shall not Prior me Idle Not Frier you do you say Matron No nor Nunn me neither for I will be neither Fryerd nor Nunn'd Ease Why what will you be Matron Why what should I be but as I am a wise sober and discreet Governess to a company of young Ladies Ladies that love the World better than Heaven and hate a Nunnery worse than Death and by my Faith they have reason for liberty is the joy of life and the World is the place of sensual pleasures and sensual pleasures are substantial and in being when the pleasures after death are uncertain but if they were certain yet I had rather have a draught of Ale in this World than a draught of Nectar in the next Idle This Ale hath heat her into a Poetical height Matron What do you say into a pots head Idle No I say your head is a pot filled with the fume of Ale Matron What have you to do with my head Ease What had you to do with Grave Temperances head Matron I would Temperances grave head were in your throat and then there would be two fools heads one within another Idle Come let 's leave her or she will talk her self into a fit of madnesse Ease and Idle go out Matron alone Matron A couple of Gill-flirts to heat me thus Exit Scene 5. Enter Monsieur Satyrical and Madamoiselle Bon' Esprit SAtyrical Dear Mistris have you freely pardon'd and forgiven me my faults Bon' Esprit Yes Satyrical But will you not reprove me for them hereafter Bon' Esprit In a pardon all faults ought to be forgiven if not forgotten and no repetitions ought to be made of the same for a clear pardon and a free forgiveness blots out all offences or should do so But you imagine your offences greater than they are and by your doubts I to be of less good nature than I am Satyrical There are none that have offended what they love but fears and hopes and doubts sight Duels in their Minds Bon' Esprit Banish those doubts and let the hopes remain to build a confident belief to keep out jealousie otherwise it will take possession and destroy at least disturb affection Satyrical Not my affection to you Exeunt Scene 6. Enter Superbe Ambition and Portrait FAction For Heavens sake let 's go see Mother Matron for 't is said she 's mad-drunk Ambition If she be mad-drunk she 's rather to be shunn'd than sought after Superbe Why do not we give money to see mad people in Bedlam and we may see her for nothing Ambition Those people
at least VVanton That 's all one for Cupid wounds Age as well as youth Ease But I had thought that an old womans heart had been so hard Love could not have enter'd VVanton Old Mother Matron proves it otherwise for her Heart is as tender as the youngest Heart of us all Idle While I am young I will be a Lover because I will not be a Fool when I am old Ease That 's the way to be a Fool whilst you are young and a Lover when you are old VVanton No that is to be a Curtezan whilst she is young and a Bawd when she is old Idle Nay faith when I can no longer traffique for my self I will never trade for any other VVanton Covetousness will tempt your reverent Age Exeunt Scene 9. Enter Ambition Pleasure Faction Portrait Bon' Esprit Superbe Wanton Ease Excess PLeasure How shall we entertain our time Portrait Let us sit and chuse Husbands Bon' Esprit What in the Ashes Portrait No in our Speeches Faction Content Ambition Begin but let your Maids Lady Pleasure sit and chuse Husbands with us Pleasure If I were to chuse a Husband I would chuse a man that was honourably born nobly bred wisely taught civilly behav'd also I would have him to speak rationally wittily and eloquently to act prudently valiantly justly and temperately to live freely magnificently and peaceably I would have him honourably born because I would not have him a Boor by Nature which is surly rude grumbling and miserable I would have him nobly bred because I would not have him a Shark a Cheat or a Sycophant I would have him wisely taught because I would not have him an ignorant fool nor a pedantical fool I would have him civilly-behav'd to please my Eyes I would have him to speak rational witty and eloquent to please my Ears I would have him valiant to defend his Country to guard his Family and to maintain his Honour I would have him prudent to foresee misfortunes and to provide for the future that I may never want for the present I would have him temperate lest Excess should ruine his Fortune Health or Esteem I would have him just because others should be just to him to live freely as not to be inslaved to live magnificently for to be respected to live peaceably to avoid brawleries And such a man as this will be kind to his Wife loving to his Children bountiful to his Servants courteous to his Friends civil to Strangers faithful to his Trust and just to his Promise Superbe If I were to choose a Husband I would choose a man that were Rich honour'd with Titles and were Powerful I would have him Rich because I would have him live plentifully to feed luxuriously to be adorn'd gloriously I would have him to have Titles of Honour because I would take place of my Neighbours to have the chief place at a Feast and to have the first and choisest meats offer'd me I would have him Powerful to oppose my Opposers to insult over my Enemies and to neglect my Friends which if I be poor and helpless they will do me Thus I shall be honour'd by my Superiours crouch'd to by Inferiours flatter'd by Sycophants brag'd of by my Friends obey'd by my Servants respected by my Acquaintance envy'd by my Neighbours sought to by my Enemies Thus I might advance my Friends punish my Enemies tread down my Superiours inslave my Inferiours insult over my Foes and inthrone my self Ambition If I were to choose a Husband I would choose a man whom all other men are slaves to and he mine And what can I desire more than to be absolute Bon' Esprit If I were to choose I would choose a man for a Husband that were an honest and plain-dealing man patient and wise that I might neither be deceiv'd by his falshood nor troubl'd with his quarrels nor vex'd with his follies Faction If I were to choose a Husband I would choose a subtil crafty Knave that can cheat an honest Fool with which cheats I can entertain my time like those that go to see Juglers play tricks VVanton If I were to choose a Husband I would choose a man that were blind deaf and dumb that he might neither trouble me with his impertinent Questions nor see my indiscreet Actions nor hear my foolish Discourses Thus I may say what I will and never be crost do what I will and never be hinder'd go where I will and never be watch'd come when I will and never be examin'd entertain whom I will and never be rebuk'd Thus I may Govern as I will Spend as I will Spare as I will without Controlment Portrait If I were to choose a Husband I would choose a man that were industrious thrifty and thriving for the pleasure is not so much to enjoy as getting like those that are hungry have more pleasure in eating their meat than when their stomacks are full Excess If I were to choose a Husband I would choose a man that were a busie Fool which would continually bring me fresh although false News for his busie mind which fills his Head with Projects which Projects will feed my excessive Ambition with his high Designs although improbable and set my thoughts at work with his several Atchievments although there is no leading-path therein But howsoever this will furnish my Imagination imploy my Thoughts please my Curiosity and entertain my time with Varieties wherein and wherewith I may pass my life with fine Phantasms or like a fine Dream Pleasure It is a sign you love sleep excessively well so as you would have your life pass as a dream Excess Why Madam sleeping is the lifes Elizium and our dreams the pastime therein and our beds are our living graves to the greatest part of our life and most are best pleased therein for it gives rest to our wearied and tired limbs it revives the weak and fainting spirits it eases the sick and pained it pacifies the grieved it humours the melancholy it cherishes age it nourishes youth it begets warmth it cools heat it restores health it prolongs life and keeps the mind in peace Ease I will not choose but vvish and pray which is if ever I marry I pray Jove that I may out-live my Husband Bon' Esprit O fie Women pray that their Husbands may out-live them Ease If they do in my Conscience they dissemble but howsoever I will never pray so for I perceive when men are Widowers they are more hasty to marry again than Batchellors are and the last love blots out the first and I should be sorry to be blotted out Ambition But if men do marry after they have buried their first Wife yet perchance they will not love their second Wife so well as the first Ease I know not that but yet to the outward view I perceive a man seems to forget his first Wife in the presence of his second Wife Faction By your favour a second Wife puts a Husband in remembrance of
us go then Exeunt Scene 4. Enter Monsieur Malateste to his Wife Madam Bonit MAlateste Lord how ill-favour'd you are drest to day Bonit VVhy I am cleanly Malateste You had need be so for if you were ill-favour'dly drest and sluttish too it were not to be endur'd Bonit VVell Husband I will strive to be more fashionably drest Exeunt Scene 5. Enter Monsieur Pere and Monsieur Frere as newly come from Travelling MOnsieur Pere Well Son but that you are as a stranger having not seen you in a long time I would otherwise have chid you for spending so much since you went to travel Frere Sir travelling is chargeable especially when a man goeth to inform himself of the Fashions Maners Customs and Countries he travelleth through Enter Madam la Soeur and Monsieur Marry her Husband where they salute and welcome their Brother home Pere Look you Son I have increas'd my Family since you went from home your Sisters Beauty hath got me another Son Soeur And I make no question but my Brothers noble and gallant Actions will get you another Daughter Pere Well Son I must have you make haste and marry that you may give me some Grand-children to uphold my Posterity for I have but you two and your sister I hope will bring me a Grand-son soon for her Maids say she is sick a mornings which is a good sign she is breeding although she will not confess it for young marry'd Wives are asham'd to confess when they are with Child they keep it as private as if their Child were unlawfully begotten Monsieur Frere all the while looks upon his Sister very stedfastly Marry Me thinks my Brother doth something resemble my Wife Frere No sure Brother so rude a made face as mine can never resemble so well a shap'd face as my sisters Marry I believe the Venetian Ladies had a better opinion of your face and person than you deliver of your self Soeur My Brother cannot choose but be weary comming so long a Journey to day wherefore it were fit we should leave him to pull off his boots Pere Son now I think of 't I doubt you are grown so tender since you went into Italy as you can hardly endure your boots to be roughly pull'd off Frere I am very sound Sir and in very good health Pere Art thou so Come thy ways then Exeunt Scene 6. Enter Monsieur Malateste and Madam Bonit his Wife MAlateste Wife I have some occasion to sell some Land and I have none that is so convenient to sell as your Joynture Bonit All my Friends will condemn me for a fool if I should part with my Joynture Malateste Why then you will not part with it Bonit I do not say so for I think you so honest a man that if you should die before me as Heaven forbid you should Malateste Nay leave your prayers Bonit Well Husband you shall have my Joynture Malateste If I shall go fetch it She goes out and comes back and brings the writings and gives it him and then he makes haste to be gone Bonit Surely Husband I deserve a kiss for 't Malateste I cannot stay to kiss Enter Madam Bonits Maid Joan. Ioan. Madam what will you have for your supper for I hear my Master doth not sup at home Bonit Any thing Ione a little Ponado or Water-gruel Ioan. Your Ladyships Diet is not costly It satisfies Nature as well as costly Olio's or Bisks and I desire onely to feed my Hunger not my Gusto for I am neither gluttonous nor lickerish Ioan. No I 'll be sworn are you not Exeunt Scene 7. Enter the Sociable Virgins and two Grave Matrons MAtron Come Ladies what discourse shall we have to day 1 Virgin Let us sit and rail against men 2 Matron I know young Ladies love men too well to rail against them besides men always praise the Effeminate Sex and will you rail at those that praise you 2 Virgin Though men praise us before our faces they rail at us behind our backs 2 Matron That 's when you are unkind or cruel 3 Virgin No 't is when we have been too kind and they have taken a surfet of our company 1 Matron Indeed an over-plus of Kindness will soon surfet a mans Affection 4 Virgin Wherefore I hate them and resolve to live a single life and so much I hate men that if the power of Alexander and Caesar were joyn'd into one Army and the courage of Achilles and Hector were joyn'd into one Heart and the wisedom of Solomon and Ulysses into one Brain and the Eloquence of Tully and Demosthenes into one Tongue and this all in one man and had this man the Beauty of Narcissus and the youth of Adonis and would marry me I would not marry him 2 Matron Lady let me tell you the Youth and Beauty would tempt you much 4 Virgin You are deceiv'd for if I would marry I would sooner marry one that were in years for it were better to chuse grave Age than fantastical Youth but howsoever I will never marry for those that are unmaried appear like birds full of life and spirit but those that are maried appear like beasts dull and heavy especially maried men 1 Matron Men never appear like beasts but when women make them so 1 Virgin They deserve to be made beasts when they strive to make women fools 2 Virgin Nay they rather think us fools than make us so for most Husbands think when their Wives are good and obedient that they are simple 1 Virgin When I am maried I 'll never give my Husband cause to think me simple for my obedience for I will be crose enough 3 Virg. That 's the best way for Husbands think a cross and contradicting Wife is witty a hold and commanding Wife of a heroick spirit a subtil and crafty Wife to be wise a prodigal Wife to be generous a false Wife to be beautiful And for those good qualities he loves her best otherwise he hates her nay the falser she is the fonder he is of her 4 Virgin Nay by your favour for the most part Wives are so inslav'd as they dare not look upon any man but their Husbands 1 Matron What better object can a woman have than her Husband 1 Virgin By your leave Matron one object is tiresome to view often when variety of objects are very pleasing and delightful for variety of objects clear the senses and refresh the mind when only one object dulls both sense and mind that makes maried wives so sad and melancholy when they keep no other company but their Husbands and in truth they have reason for a Husband is a surfet to the Eyes which causes a loathing dislike unto the mind and the truth is that variety is the life and delight of Natures works and Women being the only Daughters of Nature and not the Sons of Iove as men are feigned to be are more pleased with variety than men are 1 Matron Which is no honour to the Effeminate Sex