Enter, behind, HUMOUR and FOLLY.

Hum. What's here?

Fol. Nay, pray observe.

Ray. Be my heart's empress, build your kingdom

there.

Hum. With what an earnestness he compli [ments.]

Ray. Till now my longings were ne'er satisfied, And the desires of my sensual appetite

Were only fed with barren expectations

To what I now am fill'd with.

Pom. These are too little; more are due to him That is the pattern of his father's glory:

Dwell but among us, industry shall strive
To make another artificial nature,

And change all other seasons into ours.

Hum. Shall my heart break? I can contain no

longer.

[Comes forward with FOLLY. Ray. How fares my lov'd Humour ?

Hum. A little stirr'd;-no matter, I'll be merry; Call for some music-do not;-I'll be melancholy.

Pom. Lady, I hope 't is no neglect of courtesy In us, that so disturbs you; if it rise

From any discontent, reveal the cause;

It shall be soon removed.

Hum. Oh, my heart!—

Help to unlace my gown.-[To RAY.]-I'm a goodly

fool

To be thus play'd on.

Pom. Why, madam?

We can be courteous without stain of honour:

Our bounty gives him a welcome free,

But chaste and honourable.

[A flourish.-Shouts within.

Ray. The meaning of this mirth?

Pom. My lord is coming.

Ray. Let us attend to humble our best thanks, For these high favours.

Enter AUTUMN and BACCHANALIAN.

Pom. My dearest lord, according to th' injunction Of your command, I have, with all observance, Given entertainment to this noble stranger.

Aut. The Sun-born Raybright, minion of my love! Let us be twins in heart; thy grandsire's beams Shine graciously upon our fruits and vines.

I am his vassal servant, tributary;

And for his sake, the kingdoms I possess

I will divide with thee; thou shalt command
The Lydian Tmolus, and Campanian mounts,
To nod their grape-crown'd heads into thy bowls,
Expressing their rich juice; a hundred grains,
Both from the Beltic and Sicilian fields,
Shall be congested for thy sacrifice,

In Ceres' fane; Tiber shall pay thee apples,
And Sicyon olives; all the choicest fruits
Thy father's heat doth ripen.

Ray. Make me but treasurer

Of your respected favours, and that honour
Shall equal my ambition.

Aut. My Pomona,

Speed to prepare a banquet of all novelties.

This is a day of rest, and we the whiles

Will sport before our friends, and shorten time
With length of wonted revels.

Pom. I obey.

Will 't please you, madam? a retirement

From these extremes, in men more tolerable,

Will better fit our modesties.

Hum. I'll drink,

And be a Bacchanalian-no, I will not.
Enter, I'll follow;-stay, I'll go before.

1 The terms expressing and congested, which occur in this and the next line but one, are used in their strict Latin senses; the first meaning to press out, the second to keep together. This part of the scene is indeed pretty thickly strewed with classical allusions, some of which, it is presumed, were not intended to bear the test of very exact scholarship.

Pom. Even what Humour pleaseth.

[Exeunt Huм. and Poм.

Aut. Raybright, a health to Phoebus!

[A flourish.-Drinks. These are the peans which we sing to him, And yet we wear no bays; our cups are only Crown'd2 with Lyæus' blood: to him a health! [A flourish.-Drinks.

Ray. I must pledge that too.

Aut. Now, one other health

To our grand patron, call'd Good-fellowship;
Whose livery all our people hereabout
Are clad in.

Ray. I am for that too.

Aut. "T is well;

[Flourish.-Drinks.

Let it go round; and, as our custom is
Of recreations of this nature, join

Your voices, as you drink, in lively notes;
Sing Iös unto Bacchus.

Fol. My father was a French nightingale, and my mother an English wagtail; I was born a cuckoo in the spring, and lost my voice in summer, with laying my eggs in a sparrow's nest but I'll venture for one-fill my dish-every one take his own, and when I hold up my finger, off with it.

Aut. Begin.

FOLLY sings.

Cast away care; for he that loves sorrow
Nor lengthens a day, nor can buy him to-morrow:
Money is trash; and he that will spend it,
Let him drink merrily, Fortune will send it.
Merrily, merrily, Oh, ho! ho!

Play it off stiffly, we may not part so.

1 i. e. we wear not the insignia of that deity.

2 A crowned cup is a term by no means unfrequent in our old dramas. Without troubling the reader with classical authorities, it will be suficient to observe, that it implies a cup so full of liquor that the contents rise above the brim like a crown. Lyæus is another name for Bacchus.

Chor. Merrily, &c.

[Here, and at the conclusion of every
stanza they drink.

Wine is a charm, it gives heat to the blood,
And the coward is arm'd if his liquor be good;
Wine quickens the wit, and makes the back able,
And it scorns to submit to the watch or constable.1
Merrily, &c.

Let the pots fly about, give us more liquor,

Our wits will be nimbler, our brains will flow quicker,
Empty the cask; and score up, we care not;

Fill the pots all again, drink on, and spare not.
Merrily, &c.

There is a whirlwind in my brains, I could both caper and turn round.

Aut. Oh, a dance by all means!

Now cease your healths, and in an active motion Bestir ye nimbly, to beguile the hours.

DANCE.

Aut. How likes our friend this pastime ?
Ray. Above utterance.

Oh, how have I, in ignorance or dulness,
Run through the progress of so many minutes,
Accusing him, who was my life's first author,
Of slackness and neglect, while I have dream'd
The folly of my days in vain expense

Of useless taste and pleasure! Pray, my lord,
Let one health pass about, while I bethink me
What course I am to take, for being denizen
In your unlimited courtesies.

Aut. Devise a round;2
You have your liberty.

1 In Ford's days the accent of this word was laid on the penultima. It may be as well to add, that a little help has been occasionally given to the metre, as this was a point in which Decker was exceedingly careless. 2 Devise a round,] i. e. a health to pass round; name a toast, in short; which Raybright immediately does.-GIFFORD.

Ray. A health to Autumn's self!

And here let time hold still his restless glass,
That not another golden sand may fall

To measure how it passeth.

[They drink.

Aut. Continue here with me, and by thy pres

ence

Create me favourite to thy fair progenitor,
And be mine heir.

Ray. I want words to express

My thankfulness.

Aut. Whate'er the wanton Spring,

When she doth diaper the ground with beauties,, Toils for, comes home to Autumn; Summer sweats, Pasturing her furlongs, ripening the fruits for food,

While Autumn's garners house them; I alone, in every land,

Traffic my useful merchandise; gold and jewels,
Lordly possessions, are for my commodities
Mortgaged and lost: I sit chief moderator

Between the cheek-parch'd Summer, and th' extremes

Of Winter's tedious frost; nay, in myself
I do contain another teeming Spring.
Surety of health, prosperity of life

Belongs to Autumn; if thou then canst hope
To inherit immortality in frailty,

Live here till time be spent, yet be not old.
Ray. Under the Sun, you are the year's great

emperor.

Aut. On now, to new variety of feasts;

Princely contents are fit for princely guests.

Ray. My lord, I'll follow. [Flourish.-Exit AUT. Sure, I am not well.

Fol. Surely, I am half-drunk, or monstrously mistaken: you mean to stay here, belike?

Ray. Whither should I go else?

Fol. Nay, if you will kill yourself in your own defence, I'll not be of your jury.