Puslapio vaizdai
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After my flame lacks oil, to be the fnuff
Of younger fpirits; whose apprehenfive fenfes
All but new things disdain; whose judgments are
Meer fathers of their garments; whose conftancies
Expire before their fashions: This he wish'd;
I, after him, do after him wish too,

Since I nor wax, nor honey, can bring home,
I quickly were dissolved from my hive,
To give fome labourer room.

2. L. You are lov'd, fir;

They, that least lend it you, shall lack you first.
Kin. I fill a place, I know't. How long is't, count,
Since the physician at your father's dy'd?

He was much fam'd.

BER. Some fix months fince, my lord.

Kin. If he were living, I would try him yet;
Lend me an arm;
the reft have worn me out

With feveral applications: nature and sickness
Debate it at their leisure. Welcome, count;
My fon's no dearer.

BER. Thank your majesty.

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[Exeunt.

SCENE III. Rofillion. A Room in the Count's Palace.
Enter Countefs, and Steward; Clown behind.
Cou. I will now hear what you fay of this gentle-

woman.

Ste. Madam, the care I have had to even your content, I wish might be found in the calendar of my past endeavours; for then we wound our modefty, and make foul the clearness of our deservings, when of ourselves we publish them.

Cou. What does this knave here? Get you gone, firrah:

VOL. IV.

9 Labourers 25 fay you

B

The complaints, I have heard of you, I do not all believe; 'tis my flowness, that I do not: for, I know, you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make fuch knaveries yours.

Clo. "Tis not unknown to you, madam, that I am a poor fellow:

Cou. Well, fir.

Clo. No, madam, 'tis not fo well, that I am poor; though many of the rich are damn'd: But if may have your ladyfhip's good will to go to the world, Isbel the woman and I will do as we may.

Cou. Wilt thou needs be a beggar?

Clo. I do beg your good will in this cafe.
Cou. In what cafe?

Clo. In Ishel's cafe, and mine own. Service is no heritage: and, I think, I fhall never have the bleffing of God, 'till I have iffue o' my body; for, they fay, bearns are bleffings.

Cou. Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry.

Clo. My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go, that the devil drives.

Cou. Is this all your worship's reason?

Clo. 'Faith, madam, I have other holy reasons, fuch as they are.

Cou. May the world know them?

Clo. I have been, madam, a wicked creature, as you and all flesh and blood are; and, indeed, I do marry, that I may repent.

Cou. Thy marriage, fooner than thy wickednefs.

Clo. I am out o' friends, madam; and I hope to have friends for my wife's fake.

Cou. Such friends are thine enemies, knave.

Clo. You're fhallow, madam; e'en great friends; for the knaves come to do that for me, which I am aweary of. He, that eares my land, fpares my team, and gives me leave to inn the crop: if I be his cuckold, he's my drudge: He, that comforts my wife, is the cherisher of my flesh and blood; he, that cherishes my flesh and blood, loves my flesh and blood; he, that loves my flesh and blood, is my friend: ergo, he, that kiffes my wife, is my friend: If men could be contented to be what they are, there were no fear in marriage; for young Charbon the puritan, and old Poyfam the papist, howfom'ere their hearts are fever'd in religion, their heads are both one, they may jowl horns together like any deer i' the herd.

Cou. Wilt thou ever be a foul-mouth'd and calumnious knave?

Clo. A prophet I, madam; and I speak the truth the

next way:

For I the ballad will repeat,

which men full true shall find; Your marriage comes by destiny, your cuckoo fings by kind.

Cou. Get you gone, fir; I'll talk with you more anon. Ste. May it please you, madam, that he bid Helen come to you; of her I am to speak.

Cou. Sirrah, tell my gentlewoman, I would speak with her; Helen I mean.

Clo. Was this fair face the cause, quoth fhe, [finging. why the Grecians facked Troy?

Fond done, fond done! for Paris, he,
was this king Priam's joy.

2 Madam in great 31 done, fond

With that he fighed as she stood,
With that, &c.

and gave this fentence then;
Among nine bad if one be good,
Among, &c.

there's yet one good in ten.

Cou. What, one good in ten ? you corrupt the fong, firrah.

Clo. One good woman in ten, madam; which is a purifying o' the fong: 'Would God would ferve the world fo all the year! we'd find no fault with the tythe woman, if I were the parfon : One in ten, quoth a'! an we might have a good woman born but or every blazing ftar, or at an earthquake, 'twould mend the lottery well; a man may draw his heart out, ere he pluck one.

Cou. You'll be gone, fir knave, and do as I command you?

Clo. That man fhould be at a woman's command, and yet no hurt done! Though honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will wear the furplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart. I am going, forfooth; the business is, for Helen to come hither. [Exit Clown.

Cou. Well, now. Ste. I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman intirely.

Cou. 'Faith, I do : her father bequeath'd her to me; and she herself, without other advantage, may lawfully make title to as much love as fhe finds: there is more owing her, than is pay'd; and more shall be pay'd her, than the'll demand.

13 but ore everie

Ste. Madam, I was very late more near her than, I think, the wish'd me: alone she was, and did communicate to herself, her own words to her own ears; fhe thought, I dare vow for her, they touch'd not any ftranger fenfe. Her matter was, she loved your fon : Fortune, fhe faid, was no goddess, that had put fuch difference betwixt their two eftates; Love, no god, that should not extend his might, only where qualities were level; Diana, no queen of virgins, that would fuffer her poor knight to be furpriz'd in the firft affault, without refcue, or ransom afterward: This she deliver'd in the most bitter touch of forrow, that e'er I heard virgin exclaim in which I held my duty, fpeedily to acquaint you withal; fithence, in the lofs that may happen, it concerns you fomething to know it.

Cou. You have difcharg'd this honeftly; keep it to yourself: many likelihoods inform'd me of this before, which hung fo tottering in the balance, that I could neither believe, nor misdoubt: Pray you, leave me: ftall this in your bosom, and I thank you for your honeft care: I will speak with you further anon. [Exit Steward.

Enter HELENA.

Cou. Even fo it was with me, when I was young: If we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn

Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong;

Our blood to us, this to our blood is born;

It is the fhow, and feal, of nature's truth,
When love's ftrong paffion is impreft in youth:
By our remembrances of days foregone,

Such were our faults,-O, then we thought them none.

8 that would 11 without rescue in the first

affault 26 If ever we
32 or then

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