I desire you will let her live with me this Poor Virtue Maudlin God bless you Honour from her it is not fit for a Lord and a great Noble-man to meddle with Virtue your Honour should not foul your fingers with her Besides she will never stay in a great mans house neither is it fit she should and your Honours servants will hate her like the Devil for she will please no body as she should do a very peevish ill-natur'd girle forsooth she is Lord Title Why how doth she agree then with you Maudlin Alas forsooth if it please your Honour Virtue may live in a Cottage when she will be whipt out of a Court or a great Lords Palace they may talk of her but they will never give her leave to live and board with them It may be they give their Chaplain leave to talk of her a Sundays or so forsooth but talk's but talk for they forget her the six days after and never mind her for indeed she is a very peevish girle and not fit for Gentlefolks company that 's the truth of it hardly for poor folks Lord Title VVhy you agree well with her Maudlin Nay by the faith of my body do I not for I can hardly goe to Market and be merry as I use to be and all long of her peevishnesse nay I cannot goe to order one of our busie Thrashers but she troubles me or to speak with the Carter but she whip in presently or discourse with the Plough-man about his plough-share how he should order it for my advantage but she troubles me or about our Husbandman how and where he should sow his Seed but she vexes me still Such a life the Gods help me as I am e'en weary of my self Speak Roger is it not true Roger True Maudlin as steel I never was merry since she vvas in my house the May-pole is dovvn since she came Maudlin I Roger that 't is the more the pity Roger And the Towns Green is a Meadow and the poor Big-pipers cheeks are fallen into a Consumption hardly wind to speak vvithall the Morris-dancers bells are silenc'd and their crosse garters held superstitious idolatrous and profane the May-Lord and his Lady depos'd and the Hobby-horse is forgotten nay the Whitson-Lord and Lady are banish'd Merry Wakes abolish'd and the poor Ale-wives beggar'd Maudlin I I and all since this melancholy girle Virtue came into our house She cries I cannot choose but cry Lord Title Thou art true Maudlin then Maudlin Yes with small beer that 's the calamity of it therefore blesse every good subject from so melancholy a thing as this girle Virtue is But we have a Daughter and it please your Honours worship that will give you good content and please most of your Houshold for she is a lusty Wench though I say 't that should not say 't Did you but see her swim like a Tench on our Town-green incircling the May-pole and at the end of a Horn-pipe when she is to be kiss'd how modestly the wryes her head away but so as to be civil nay she hath been well Educated my own natural Daughter for indeed Roger I was with Child with her before you maried me Roger Peace Maudlin all Truths are not to be spoken of for should that be many a Worshipful Person would be very angry but our Vicar made all well betwixt thee and me Maudlin But I beseech your Honour take my Daughter for you will find her another manner of woman than Virtue is for she is not like her ifaith nor any thing that belongs to her she is better blest than so Lord Title No I will have Poor Virtue or none Roger Faith if you have Virtue you are sure to have her poor for I never knew any of her Family rich the Gods do not blesse them I think in this world but if you will have her take her shall he not Maudlin Maudlin Yes Husband and the house is well rid of her and let us bless our selves for it for now we shall be like our Neighbours again we will not abate them an hair the best in the Parish shall not live merryer than we will now for all Sports Why Vanity and Sin Husband is the Liberty of the Subject and the seven Deadly Sins are the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdome from the greatest to the least if poor folks might have their right Well your Honour shall have her but you will be as weary of her as we have been the Gods bless your Honour but alas you do not know what this Girle Virtue is Lords have no guess at her Lord Title Well Maudlin let me have her I desire no more Maudlin Nor we neither if it pleases your Honour and so the Gods give you good of her Roger Let me speak to his Honour Maudlin Lord Title Do so Roger Roger I give your lordship many thanks Lord Title For what Roger For ridding our house of this troublesome Girl Lord Title And I thank you for it too Roger VVhen thanks on all sides happen we are eas'd Lord Title And I with your Poor Virtue am well pleas'd The Lord goes out As they were going forth Maudlin speaks Maudlin Mark the end of it Roger Roger Yes Maudlin the End Crowns the Work Exeunt Here ends my Lord Marquiss's Scene ACT IV. Scene 26. Enter the Lady Visitant to the Lady Contemplation who was musing to her self LAdy Visit. What always musing Shall I never find thee in a sociable humour Lady Contempl. I would you had come sooner or stayd longer away Lady Visit. Why prethee Lady Contempl. I will tell you A while since there came the Muses to visit me being all either mad or drunk for they toss'd and tumbl'd me and rumbl'd me about from one to the other as I thought they would a divided me amongst them At last came in the Sciences to visit me with sober Faces grave Countenances stayd and formal Behaviours and after they had Saluted me they began to talk very seriously to me their Discourse being Rational Probable Wise Learned and Experienc'd but all the while the Muses would not let me alone one pull'd me to Dance another to Sing another to play on Musick others to recite Verses speak Speeches and Act parts of Plays and the like Whereupon I gravely turned the incorporal head of my rational Soul nodding it to them to be quiet and let me alone but still they playd with me At last my Thoughts which are the language of the Soul spoke to them and pray'd them to forbear until such time as the Sciences were gone but they would not be quiet nor silent doe what I could but would interrupt the Sciences in the midst of their Discourse with their idle Rimes light Fancies and odd Numbers insomuch as the Sciences departed Whereupon the Muses did rejoyce and skip and run about as if they had been wilde And in this jocund humour in came the Arts even a whole Common-wealth for there were not
Trusty Beshrew your tongue wife for speaking so sharply to our young Lady she was left to our trust care and tender usage and not to be snapt and quarrelled with Nurse Fondly Yes and you would betray your trust to her childish folly Foster Trusty No that I would not neither would I venture or yield up her life to loves melancholly Nurse Fondly Come Come husband you humour her too much and that will spoile her I am sure Ex. Scene 8. Enter Sir Peaceable Studious with a Book in his hand a Table being set out whereon is Pen Ink and Paper After he hath walked a turn or two with his eyes fixt upon the ground he sits down to the Table and begins to write Enter the Lady Ignorant his Wife LAdy Ignorant Lord Husband I can never have your company for you are at all times writing or reading or turning your Globes or peaking thorough your Prospective Glasse or repeating Verses or speaking Speeches to your self Sir P. Studious Why wife you may have my company at any time Nay never to be from me if you please for I am alwaies at home Lady Ignorant 'T is true your person is alwaies at home and fixt to one place your Closet as a dull dead statue to the side of a wall but your mind and thoughts are alwaies abroad Sir P. Studious The truth is my mind sometimes sends out my thoughts like Coye ducks to bring more understanding in Lady Ignorant You mistake Husband for your thoughts are like vain or rather like false Scouts that deceives your understanding imprisons your senses and betrayes your life to a dull solitariness Sir P. Studious 'T is better to live a quiet solitary life than a troublesome and an uneasie life Lady Ignorant What is a man born for but to serve his Countrey side with his friends and to please the effeminate Sex Sir P. Studious You say right wife and to serve his Countrey is to finde out such inventions as is usefull either in Peace or War and to form order and settle Common-wealths by Devizing Laws which none but studious brains e're did or can do T is true practice doth pollish beauty and adorn but neither layes the Foundation nor brings the Materials nor builds the walls thereof and to side with friends is to defend Right and Truth with sound arguments and strong proofs from the tyrannical usurpation of false opinions vain phantasines malicious satires and flattering oratorie and to please the effeminate Sex is to praise their beauty wit vertue and good graces in soft Numbers and smooth Language building up Piramides of poetical praises Printing their fame thereon by which they live to After-ages Lady Ignorant Prithy Husband mistake us not for women cares not for wide mouthed fame and we take more delight to speak our selves whilst we live than to be talked of when we are dead and to take our present pleasures than to abstain our selves for After-ages Sir P. Studeous Well wife what would you have me do Lady Ignorance Why I would have you so sociable as to sit and discourse with our friends and acquaintance and play the good fellow amongst them Sir P. Studious What need we to have any other friends than our selves our studies books and thoughts Lady Ignorance Your studies books and thoughts are but dull acquaintance melancholly companions and weak friends Sir P. Studious You do not wife consider their worth for books are conversable yet silent acquaintance and study is a wise Counsellor and kind friends and poetical thoughts are witty Companions wherein other Societies and Companies are great inconveniences and oftimes produces evil effects as Jealousie Adulterie Quarrels Duels and Death besides slanders backbitings and the like Lady Ignorance Truly Husband you are strangely mistaken for those Societies as I would have you frequent doth Sing Dance Rallie make Balls Masks Playes Feasts and the like and also makes Frollicks or Rubices or Playes at Questions and Commands Purposes or Ridles and twenty such like Pastimes and fine sports they have Sir P. Studious But surely Wife you would not like this kind of life nor I neither especially if we were in one and the same Company for perchance you may hear wanton Songs sung and see amorous glances or rude or immodest Actions and when you dance have a secret nip and gentle gripe of the band silently to declare their amorous affections and when you are at Questions or Commands you will be commanded to kiss the men or they you which I shall not like neither should you or if they are commanded to pull of your Garter which no chast and modest woman will suffer nor no gallant man or honourable husband will indure to stand by to see and if you refuse you disturb the rest of the Company and then the women falls out with you in their own defence and the men takes it as an affront and disgrace by reason none refuses but you This causes quarrels with Strangers or quarrels betwixt our selves Lady Ignorant 'T is true if the Company were not Persons of Quality which were civilly bred but there is no rude Actions or immodest behaviours offered or seen amongst them Besides if you do not like those sports you may play at Cardes or Dice to pass away the time Sir P. Studious But Wife let me examine you have or do you frequent these Societies that you speak so Knowingly Learnedly and Affectionately of Lady Ignorance No otherwise Husband but as I have heard which reports makes me desire to be acquainted with them Sir P. Studious Well you shall and I will bear you company to be an Eye-witness how well you behave your self and how you profit thereby Lady Ignorance Pray Husband do for it will divert you from your too serious studies and deep thoughts which feeds upon the health of your body which will shorten your life and I love you so well as I would not have you dye for this I perswade you to is for your good Sir P. Studious We will try how good it is Ex. Scene 9. Enter Nurse Fondley and Foster Trusty her Husband NUrse Fondly How shall I keep your Journey secret but that every body will know of it Foster Trusty We will give out that such a deep melancholly have seized on her since her Fathers death as she hath made a vow not to see any creature besides your self for two years As for me that I have lived so solitary a life with my solitary Master this Ladies Father that I have few or no acquaintance besides I will pretend some business into some other parts of the Kingdom and I having but a little Estate few will inquire after me Nurse Fondly So in the mean time I must live solitary all alone without my Husband or Nurse-childe which Childe Heaven knows I love better than if I had one living of my own Foster Trusty I am as fond of her as you are and Heaven knows would most willingly sacrifice my old life could
Doctor help may be found in giving directions and ordering the cordial Doctor So I understand you would have my counsel what you should do and my industry to order and get a meeting between Monsieur Discretion and you and to make the match betwixt you Volante You understand me right Doctor VVell I will study the means and trye if I can procure thee a man Volante Good fortune be your guide Doctor And Monsieur Discretion your Husband Ex. Scene 41. Enter Madamosel Caprisia alone CApris. Thoughts be at rest for since my love is honest and the person I love worthy I may love honourably for he is not only learned with study experienced with time and practice but he is natures favourite she hath endued his soul with uncontrouled reason his mind with noble thoughts his heart with heroick generosity and his brain with a supream wit Besides she hath presented his judgement and understanding with such a clear Prospective-glasse of speculations and such a Multiplying-glass of conception as he seeth farther and discerns more into natures works than any man she hath made before him She slops a little time then speaks But let me consider I have us'd this worthy Gentleman uncivilly nay rudely I have dispised him wherefore he cannot love me for nature abhors neglect and if he cannot love me in honesty he ought not to marry me and if I be not his wife for certain I shall dye for love or live a most unhappy life which is far worse than death Hay ho Enter Madam la Mere her Mother Mere What Daughter sick with love Capris. O Mother love is a Tyrant which never lets the mind be at rest and the thoughts are the torments and when the mind is tormented the body is seldom in health Mere Well to ease you I will go to this Lord Generosity and pray him to give you a visit Capris. By no means Mother for I had rather dye with love than live to be despised with scorn for he will refuse your desires or if he should come it would be but to express his hate or proudly triumph on my unhappy state Madamosel Caprisia goes out Madamosel Mere alone Mere She is most desperately in love but I will endeavour to settle her mind Ex. Scene 42. Enter Doctor Freedom and Madamosel Volante DOctor Am not I a good Doctor now that hath got you a good Husband Volante Nay Doctor he is but a Suiter as yet Doctor Why do not you woe upon the Stage as the rest of your Comorades doth Volante O fye Doctor Discretion never whines our love in publick Doctor So you love to be in private Volante Why Doctor the purest love is most conceal'd it lyes in the heart and it warms it self by its own fire Doctor Take heed for if you keep it too tenderly and close it may chance to catch cold when it comes abroad Volante True love ought to keep home and not to gossip abroad Enter a Servant-maid Servant-maid Madam Monsieur Discretion is come to visit you Volante Come Doctor be a witnesse of our contract Doctor I had rather stay with your maid Volante She hath not wit to entertain you Doctor Nor none to anger me Volante Pray come away for no wise man is angry with wit Doctor I perceive if I do not go with you that you will call me fool Ex. Scene 43. Enter Monsieur Comorade and Monsieur Bon Compaignon BOn Compaignon Comorade what cause makes you so fine to day Comorade I am going to two weddings to day Bon Compaignon Faith one had been enough but how can you divide yourself betwixt two Bridals Comorade I shall not need to divide my self since the Bridals keeps together for they are marryed both in one Church and by one Priest and they feast in one house Bon Compaignon And will they lye in one bed Comorade No surely they will have two beds for fear each Bride-groom should mistake his Bride Bon Compaignon VVell I wish the Bride-grooms and their Brides joy and their Guests good chear Comorade VVill not you be one of the Guests Bon Compaignon No for a Bon Compaignon shuns Hymens Court neither will Hymen entertain him But who are the Brides and Bride-grooms Comorade Monsieur Nobilissimo and Madamosel Doltche and Monsieur Perfection and Madamosel Solid Bon Compaignon Is Monsieur Profession a Guest there Comorade No for he swears now that he hates marriage as he hates death Bon Compaignon But he loves a Mistress as he loves life Ex. Scene 44. Enter Monsieur Generosity and Madamosel Caprisia he following her GEnerosity Lady why do you shun my company in going from me praystay and give my visit a civil entertainment for though I am not worthy of your affection yet my love deserves you civility Capris. I know you are come to laugh at me which is ignobly done for heroick generous spirits doth not triumph on the weak effeminate Sex Generosity Pray believe I am a Gentleman for if I loved you not yet I would never be rude to be uncivil to you or your Sex But I love you so well as when I leave to serve you with my life may nature leave to nourish me fortune leave to favour me and Heaven leave to blesse me and then let death cast me into Hell there to be tormented Capris. I am more obliged to your generous affections than to my own merits Generosity The ill opinion of your self doth not lessen your vertues and if you think me worthy to be your Husband and will agree we will go strait to Church and be marryed Capri. I shall not refuse you Ex. FINIS PROLOGUE THE Poetress sayes that if the Play be bad She 's very sorry and could wish she had A better plot more wit and skill to make A Play that might each several humour take But she sayes if your humours are not fixt Or that they are extravagantly mixt Impossible a Play for to present With such variety and temperiment But some will think it tedious or find fault Say the Design or Language is stark naught Besides the loose unsetled brains she fears Seeth with squint eyes and hears with Asses ears But she is confident all in this round Their understandings clear and judgements sound And if her Play deserves not praise she knows They 'l neither scoff in words nor preposterous shows Without disturbance you will let it dye And in the Grave of silence let it lye Youths Glory and Deaths Banquet THE FIRST PART 1. THe Lord de L'amour 2. Sir Thomas Father Love 3. Master Comfort Sir Thomas Father Loves Friend 4. Master Charity the Lord de L'amours Friend 5. Adviser the Lord de L'amours man 6. A Iustice of Peace 1. The Queen Attention 2. The Lady Incontinent Mistriss to the Lord de L'amour 3. The Lady Mother Love wife to Sir Thomas Father Love 4. The Lady Sanparelle daughter to Sir Thomas Father and Lady Mother Love 5. The Lady Innocence the affianced Mistriss
help those in distresse his bounty heats his counsel and advice gives light Effem. Lovely I love you so much Sweet-heart that since you will not be my Mistris you shall be my VVife Poor Virtue Indeed I will not Effem. Lovely VVill you refuse me Poor Virtue Yes Effem. Lovely VVherefore Poor Virtue Because I know though you may use me well at first after a time you 'l be divorc'd Effem. Lovely I will never part from thee Poor Virtue O yes but you will for youth and beauty most commonly are inconstant for vain ambition and flattering praises corrupt that mind that lives therein and is pleased therewith Poor Vertue goes out Effeminate Lovely alone Effem. Lovely Well I will become a new man and cast off all vanity and study Moral Philosophy to gain this Maid for then perchance she will love me Exit Scene 17. Enter Lady Conversation and Sir Vain Complement LAdy Conversat. Complements are the worst sort of Conversation for they are not sociable besides Truth holds no intelligence nor correspondence with them Sir Vain Compl. Truth is no Complement as flattery and I speak nothing but what truth hath dictated to my tongue Lady Conversat. Those praises you gave me were writ by speech in so fine a style of Eloquence with such flourishing Letters of words as I cannot believe but that custome of self-conceited wit or passion hath given the Scribe which is the Tongue a bribe to flatter me Enter the Lady Contemplation and Mistris Troublesome to the Lady Conversation and Sir Vain Complement Lady Conversat. This is a wonder to see you Lady Contemplation abroad I doubt it doth Prognosticate some change of Fortune pray Iove it be good Lady Contempl. All the ill will fall on me Madam Mistris Troubles Nay faith Madam she accounts company a worse fortune than the ruine of a Kingdome and you cannot conceive with what difficulty I have got her abroad for at first I did perswade her with all the Rhetorick I had and pleaded with as powerful arguments as I could finde any promised more than I was able to perform and nothing of this could get her forth until I told her I would bring your Ladyship to visit her and that forced her out for she said she would rather trouble you than you should trouble her Lady Conversat. Faith Contemplation thou art only sit to keep beasts company for what difference is there betwixt beasts and men but Conversation Lady Contempl. Indeed beasts want that folly of idle Conversation and the error of speaking as much as the vanity of dressing and the custome of dissembling for they spend their time more prudently quietly easily honestly so more happily and if it were for no other reason than speaking I had rather be a beast than of mankinde Lady Conversat. O fie O fie you are a beastly Lady Lady Contempl. No Madam beasts have no false Titles of Honour their honour lives in their natures not in their names Lady Conversat. Who that may choose or have their liberty would spend their time in idle thoughts Lady Contempl. All that are wise and would be happy for should not we think that man were mad that leaves a peaceful habitation and thrusts himself in forein broyls or should not we think a King were most unjust that makes his peaceful and obedient subjects slaves to strange Princes The Mind 's a Common-wealth and the Thoughts are the Citizens therein and Reason rules as King or ought to doe But there is no reason we should vex our Thoughts with outward things or make them slaves unto the world Lady Conversat. But thoughts would want imployment were it not for the world and idlenesse were worse than slavish toyls Lady Contempl. The thoughts without the worlds materials can Create millions of worlds only with the help of Imagination Lady Conversat. Then your Minde and the World are meer strangers Lady Contempl. I say not so for though the World draws not my Minde to wander up and down yet my Minde draws the World to it then pensils out each several part and piece and hangs that Landskip in my Brain on which my thoughts do view with Judgments eyes Thus the world is in my Minde although my Minde is not in the world Lady Conversat. Then you inchant the world Lady Contempl. I had rather inchant the world than the world should inchant me Lady Conversat. If the Minde be a Common-wealth as you said even now it was Pray tell me of what degree the Passions are of Lady Contempl. They are the Nobles thereof and Magistrates therein each several Passion still governs in its turn and office Lady Conversat. And what are the Appetites Lady Contempl. The Appetites are none of the Mind's Citizens but they are an unruly Rout that dwell in the Senses which are the Suburbs of the Body Indeed the Appetites are the Out-Lawries and doe oft-times much hurt with their disorders insomuch as they many times disturb the mindes tranquillity and peace But Madam lest the appetite of talking should disturb the Mind I shall kiss your Ladyships hand and leave you to those that are more delightful and pleasanter company than I am Exit Mistris Trouble Lady Conversation I perceive you and Sir Vain Complement are grown dull with the Lady Contemplations company Lady Conversat. Mercury defend me from her for I would not keep her company for Ioves Mansion Vain Compl. And Cupid defend me from her for I would not be bound to Court her for the Favours Venus gives to Mars Conversat. Lord what a dull piece of gravity she is Vain Compl. She looks as if she convers'd with none but Ghosts and Spirits walking in Moon-shine and solitary and dismal places Conversat. Let us talk of her no more for I am so far from keeping her acquaintance as I hate to hear her nam'd Exeunt Scene 18. Enter the Lord Courtship and the Lady Ward LOrd Courtship My Sweet Fair Maid I cannot hope thy Pardon for my crimes are not only great but many for I have not only us'd you unkindly uncivilly ungentlemanly which are vices and crimes that Cankerfret the Fame of Honour and burie all noble qualities but I have used you barbarously cruelly and inhumanly which are sins sufficient to annihilate all the Masculine Race and surely if there be that we call Justice in Nature it will unless thy virtue redeem them and save them with thy pity wherefore for the sake of the generality though not for my particular pardon me Thus will you become a Deity to your whole Sex and ours Lady Ward I am sure your Lordship is a particular punishment to me which Heaven send me quit of She goes out he follows her ACT IV. Scene 19. Enter Sir Fancie Poet and the Lady Contemplation SIr Fan. Poet Lady you smother your thoughts and stifle your conception in the close Closet of Study Lady Contempl. No Sir I only keep them warm being tender and weak Sir Fan. Poet They will grow stronger in
pure Gold and Innocency as Marble white and Constancy as undissolving Diamonds and Modesty as Rubies red Love shall the Altar be and Piety as Incense sweet ascend to Heaven Truth as the Oil shall feed the Lamp of Memory whereby the flame of Fame shall never goe out Exit Sir Golden Riches alone Sir Gold Rich. And is She gone are Riches of no force Then I wil bury my self within the bowels of the Earth so deep that men shall never reach me nor Light shall find me out Exit Scene 22. Enter Mistris Messenger and the Lady Amorous's woman and Lord Courtship MIstris Messenger My Lord my Lady the Lady Amourous remembers her Service to you and sent me to tell you her Husband is gone out of Town and She desires to have the happiness of your company Lord Courtship Pray present my Service in the humblest manner to your Lady and pray her to excuse me for though I cannot say I am sick yet I am far from being well Mistris Messen. I shall my Lord Exeunt Scene 23. Enter the Lord Title and then enters a Servant to him SErvant My Lord there is an old man without desires to speak with you Lord Title Direct him hither Servant goes out Enter Old Humanity Lord Title Old man what have you to say to me Old Humanity I am come to desire your Lordship not to persecute a poor young Maid one that is friendless and your Lordship is powerful and therefore dangerous Lord Title What poor Maid do you mean Old Human. A Maid call'd Poor Virtue Lord Title Do you know her Old Human. Yes Lord Title Are you her Father Old Human. No I am her servant and have been maintain'd by her Noble Family these threescore years and upwards Lord Title Ha her Noble Family what or who is She Old Humanity She is a Lady born from a Noble Stock and hath been choisely bred but ruin'd by misfortunes which makes her poorly serve Lord Title Alas he weeps Who were her Parents Old Human. The Lord Morality and the Lady Piety Lord Title Sure it cannot be But why should I doubt her Beauty Wit and sweet Demeanour declares her Noble Pedigree The Lord Morality was a Famous man and was a great Commander and wise in making Lawes and prudent for the Common Good He was a Staff and Prop unto the Common-wealth til Civil Wars did throw it down where he fell under it But honest friend how shall I know this for a truth Old Human. Did not your Lordship hear he had a Child Lord Title Yes that I did an only Daughter Old Human. This is She I mention and if Times mend will have her Fathers Estate as being her Fathers Heir but to prove it and her Birth I will bring all those servants that liv'd with her and with her Father and all his Tenants that will witness the truth Lord Title When I consider and bring her and her Actions to my minde I cannot doubt the truth and for the news thou shalt be my Adopted Father and my Bosome-friend I 'll be a staff for thy Old Age to lean upon my shoulders shall give strength unto thy feeble limbs and on my neck shalt lay thy restless head Old Human. Heaven bless you and I shall serve you as my Old Age will give me leave Exit Lord Title leading him forth Scene 24. Enter Lord Courtship and the Lady VVard LOrd Courts Thou Celestial Creature do not believe that I am so presumptuous to ask thy love I only beg thy pardon that when my body lies in the silent grave you give my restless soul a pass and leave to walk amongst sad Lovers in dark and gloomy shades and though I cannot weep to shew my penitence yet I can bleed He offers her a Dagger Here take this Instrument of Death for only by your hands I wish to die Give me as many Wounds as Pores in skin That I may bleed sufficient for my sin Lady VVard It seems strange to me that you a wise man or at least accounted so should fall into such extreams as one while to hate me to death and now to profess to love me beyond life Lord Courts My Debaucheries blinded my Judgment nor did I know thy worth or my own errour until thy wise wit gave the light to my dark understanding and you have drawn my bad life and all my unworthy actions therein so naturally in your discourse as now I view them I do hate my self as much as you have cause to hate me Lady VVard I only hate your Crimes but for those excellent Qualities and true Virtues that dwell in your Soul I love and honour and if you think me worthy to make me your Wife and will love me according as my honest life will deserve your affections I shall be proud of the Honour and thank Fortune or Heaven for the Gift Lord Courts Sure you cannot love me and the World would condemn you if you should and all your Sex will hate you Lady VVard The World many times condemns even Justice her self and women for the most part hate that they should love and honour Lord Courts But can you love me Lady VVard I can and do love you Lord Courts How happy am I to enjoy a world of Beauty Wit Virtue and sweet Graces Leads her forth Exeunt Scen. 25. Enter the Lord Title and Roger Farmer and Maudlin Huswife his Wife LOrd Title Honest Roger and Maudlin I present you with a kind Good-morrow Roger Present me Bless your Lordship I should present you with a couple of Capons Lord Title 'T is a salutation when you salute but how do you then Roger Very well I thank your Honour How do you Lord Title Well enough of Complements I am come with a Petition to you Roger What is that is 't please your Honour Lord Title A Sute Roger Byrlaken I have need of one for I have but poor and bare cloathing on Lord Title No Roger it is a request and desire I have you should grant Roger Grant or to Farm let no Sir I will not part with my Lease Lord Title Roger you understand me not therefore let me speak with Maudlin your Wife Roger There she is Sir spare her not for she is good metal I 'll warrant your Honour wipe your lips Maudlin and answer him every time that he moves thee and give him as good as he brings Maudlin were he twenty Lords hold up your head Maudlin be not hollow Maudlin I 'll warrant you Husband I 'll satisfie him Lord Title Honest Maudlin Maudlin That 's more than your Lordship knows Lord Title Why then Maudlin Maudlin That 's my name indeed Lord Title You have a maid here in your house Maudlin I hope so forsooth but I will not answer for no Virgin in this wicked world Roger Well said Maudlin Nay your Honour will get nothing of my Maudlin I 'll warrant you Lord Title Well this supposed Maid is Poor Virtue that 's her name
Reason when there are so many seeming reasons as the right cannot be known 1 Virgin Seeming reasons are like seducing flatterers perswade 't is truth when all is false they say 2 Virgin Let us talk of Justice 4 Virgin Justice to the Generality hath a broad full face but to particulars she hath but a quarter and half-quarter face and to some particulars she veils it all over Wherefore to talk of Justice is to talk blindfold 2 Virgin Let us talk of Bashfulness 3 Virgin What should we talk of our own disgrace Matron A Grace you mean Lady 3 Virgin No surely a distemper'd Countenance and a distorted Face can be no grace 1 Virgin Let us talk of the Passions 2 Virgin It is easier to talk of them than to conquer and govern them although it is easier to conquer the perturbed passions of the Mind than the unruly Appetites of the Body for as the Body is grosser than the Soul so the Appetites are stronger than the Passions 4 Virgin Let us talk of Gifts 5 Virgin There are no Gifts worth the talking of but Natural Gifts as Beauty Wit good Nature and the like 4 Virgin Let us talk of Wit that is a Natural Gift 1 Virgin Nature gives true Wit to very few for many that are accounted Wits are but Wit-leeches that suck and swell with wit of other men and when they are over-gorg'd they spue it out again besides there are none but Natural Poets that have variety of Discourses all others talk according to their Professions Practice and Studies when Poets talk of all that Nature makes or Art invents and like as Bees that gather the sweets of every flower bring honey to the Hive which are the Ears of the Hearers wherein Wit doth swarm But since we are not by Nature so indu'd Wit is a subject not fit to be pursued by us 5 Virgin Let us talk of Beauty 3 Virgin Those that have it take greater pleasure in the Fame than in the Possession for they care not so much to talk of it as to hear the praises of it Matron Come Ladies let us go for I perceive your Wits can settle upon no one subject this day Exeunt Scene 16. Enter Monsieur Frere alone as being melancholy FRere O how my Spirit moves with a disorder'd haste my thoughts tumultuously together throng striving to pull down Reason from his throne and banish Conscience from the Soul Walks as in a melancholy posture Enter Monsieur Pere Pere What Son Lover-like already before you have seen your Mistris Well her Father and I am agreed there 's nothing wanting but the Priest and Ceremony and all is done Frere Sir there are our Affections wanting for we never saw one another Wherefore it is not known whether we shall affect or nor Pere I hope you are not so disobedient to dispute your Fathers will Frere And I hope Sir you will not be so unkind as to force me to marry one I cannot love Pere Not love why she is the richest Heiress in the Kingdom Frere I am not covetous Sir I had rather please my Fancy than increase my Estate Pere Your Fancy Let me tell you that your fancy is a fool and if you do not obey my will I will dis-inherit you Frere I fear not poverty Pere Nor fear you not a Fathers curse Frere Yes Sir that I do Pere Why then be sure you shall have it if you refuse her Frere Pray give me some time to consider of 't Pere Pray do and consider wisely you had best Exeunt Scene 17. Enter two Servants I SErvant I doubt my Lady will die 2 Servant I fear so for the Doctor when he felt her pulse shook his head which was an ill sign 1 Servant It is a high Feaver she is in 2 Servant The Doctor says a high continual Feaver 1 Servant She 's a fine young Lady 't is pity she should die 2 Servant My Master puts on a sad face but yet me thinks his sadness doth not appear of a through-die Exeunt Scene 18. Enter the Sociable Virgins and two Grave Matrons MAtron Come Ladies how will you pass your time to day I Virgin Pray let us sit and Rhime and those that are out shall lose a Collation to the rest of the Society All speak Agree agreed I Virgin Love is both kind and cruel As fire unto fuel It doth imbrace and burn Gives Life and proves Deaths Urn 2 Virgin A lowring Sky and Sunny wrays Is like a commendation with dispraise Or like to Cypress bound to Bays Or like to tears on Wedding days 3 Virgin A flatt'ring Tongue and a false Heart A kind Imbrace which makes me start A beauteous Form a Soul that 's evil Is like an Angel but a Devil 4 Virgin A woman old to have an Amorous passion A Puritan in a fantastick Fashion A formal States-man which dances and skips about And a bold fellow which is of countenance out 5 Virgin A Scholars head with old dead Authors full For want of wit is made a very gull 1 Virgin To laugh and cry to mingle smiles and tears Is like to hopes and doubts and joys and fears As sev'ral passions mixes in one mind So sev'ral postures in one face may find 2 Virgin To love and hate both at one time And in one person both to joyn To love the man but hate the crime Is like to sugar put to brine Matron Ladies you had better tell some Tales to pass your time with for your rhymes are not full of wit enough to be delightfully sociable 3 Virgin Agreed let us tell some Tales 4 Virgin Once upon a time Honour made Love to Vertue a gallant and Heroick Lord he was and she a sweet modest and beautiful Lady and naked Truth was the Confident to them both which carried and brought love messages and presents from and to each other 2 Matron Out upon beastly truth for if she goeth naked I dare say she is a wanton Wench and Virtue I dare swear is little better than her self if she keeps her company or can behold her without winking and I shall shrewdly suspect you Ladies to be like her if you discourse of her but more if you have any acquaintance with her And since you are so wilde and wanton as to talk of naked truth I will leave you to your scurrilous discourse for I am asham'd to be in your company and to hear you speak such Ribauldry O fie O fie naked Truth Iove bless me and keep me from naked Truth as also from her sly Companion Virtue out upon them both She goes out and the Sociable Virgins follow her saying Stay or else Truth would meet her and cloath her in a fools coat Exeunt Scene 19. Enter Madam Soeur and Monsieur Frere MAdam Soeur Now you have seen your Mistris Brother tell me how you like her Frere It were a rudeness to your Sex if I should say I dislike any Woman Soeur Surely Brother you cannot dislike her