Enter a SEA-NYMPH, big-bellied, singing and dancing. Nymph, Good your honours. Pray your worships, Dear your beauties, Cuc. Hang thee! To lash your sides, To scourge your prides; And bang thee. Nymph. We're pretty and dainty, and I will begin ; See! how they do jeer me, deride me, and grin. Come, sport me, come, court me, your top sail advance, And let us conclude our delights in a dance! All. A dance, a dance, a dance! Cor. This is the wanton melancholy. Women With child, possess'd with this strange fury, often Have danced three days together without ceasing. Pal. 'Tis very strange: but Heaven is full of miracles. 8 8 "Chorus Sancti Viti, or Saint Vitus' dance; the lascivious dance Paracelsus calls it, because they that are taken with it can do nothing but dance till they be dead or cured. It is so called, for that the parties so troubled were wont to goe to Saint Vitus for helpe, and after they had danced there a while, they were certainly freed. 'Tis strange to heare how long they will dance, and in what manner, over stooles, formes, tables; even great bellyed women sometimes (and yet never hurt their childe) will dance so long, that they can stirre neither hand nor foot, but seem to be quite dead." -İbid. p. 15. THE DANCE. [Exeunt the Masquers in couples. We are thy debtor, Corax,' for the gift Of this invention; but the plot deceives us : [Pointing to the paper. Cor. One kind of Melancholy Is only left untouch'd; 'twas not in art "Tis nam'd Love-Melancholy. As, for instance, Admit this stranger here,-young man, stand forth Entangled by the beauty of this lady, [TO PARTH. The great Thamasta, cherish'd in his heart Tha. Am I your mirth? Cor. Love is the tyrant of the heart; it darkens Reason, confounds discretion; deaf to counsel, It runs a headlong course to desperate madness. O were your highness but touch'd home, and thoroughly, With this (what shall I call it?) devil We are thy debtor, Corax, &c.] This good prince is easily pleased; for, to speak truth, a masque more void of invention, or merit of any kind, never shamed the stage. It is singular that Ford did not recollect how absolutely he had anticipated the boasted experiment of this trifler, and laid open the whole secret of the prince's melancholy in the admirable scene with Rhetias in the second act but he was determined to have a show, and, in evil hour, he had it. Pal. Hold! Let no man henceforth name the word again.— Wait you my pleasure, youth.-'Tis late; to rest! Cor. My lords [Exit. Soph. Enough; thou art a perfect arts-man. Cor. Panthers may hide their heads, not change the skin; And love, pent ne'er so close, yet will be seen. ACT IV. SCENE I. [Exeunt. A Room in THAMASTA'S House. Enter AMETHUS and MENAPHON. Amet. Doat on a stranger? Men. Court him; plead, and sue to him. Amet. Affectionately? Men. Servilely; and, pardon me, If I say, basely. Amet. Women, in their passions, Like false fires, flash, to fright our trembling senses, Yet, in themselves, contain nor light nor heat. Men. What I confirm, is truth. Men. If I conceived you were Jealous of my sincerity and plainness, Amet. What then, sir? Men. I would then resolve You were as changeable in vows of friendship, Prithee tell me, friend, How did the youth receive her? Men. With a coldness As modest and as hopeless, as the trust Enter THAMASTA and KALA. Amet. I will esteem him dearly. Men. Sir, your sister. Tha. Servant, I have employment for you. Amet. Harkye! The mask of your ambition is fallen off; Your pride hath stoop'd to such an abject low ness, That you have now discover'd to report Your nakedness in virtue, honours, shame,- Amet. All the flatteries Of greatness have expos'd you to contempt. Tha. This is mere railing. Amet. You have sold your birth For lust. Tha. Lust? Amet. Yes; and, at a dear expense, Purchased the only glories of a wanton. Tha. A wanton ! Amet. Let repentance stop your mouth; Learn to redeem your fault.' Kala. I hope your tongue Has not betray'd my honesty. Men. Fear nothing. [Aside to MEN. Tha. If, Menaphon, I hitherto have strove To keep a wary guard about my fame; If I have us'd a woman's skill to sift The constancy of your protested love; Which my discretion and your service aim'd Men. Great mistress, no: I rather quarrel with mine own ambition, It is evident, from what follows, in a subsequent scene, that this warmth of language is merely affected by Amethus, for the purpose of intimidating his sister, and, by dint of overpowering her supposed coquetry, surprizing her into an avowal of her attachment to his friend. |