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You were his tutor, and could best discern
His dispositions, to inform them rightly.

Are. Passions of violent nature, by degrees
Are easiliest reclaimed. There's something hid
Of his distemper, which we'll now find out.

Enter CORAX, RHETIAS, PELIAS, CUCULUS, and
GRILLA.

You come on just appointment. Welcome, gentlemen! Have you won Rhetias, Corax ?

Cor.

Most sincerely.
Do your lordships take

Cuc. Save ye, nobilities! notice of my page? 'Tis a fashion of the newest edition, spick and span new, without example.-Do your honour, housewife.

Gril. There's a curtsey for you, and a curtsey for you.

Soph. 'Tis excellent: we must all follow fashion, And entertain she-waiters.

Are.

"Twill be courtly.

Cuc. I think so; I hope the chronicles will rear me one day for a headpiece-

Rhe. Of woodcock,' without brains in't!

Barbers

shall wear thee on their citterns,2 and hucksters set thee out in gingerbread.

Cuc. Devil take thee! I say nong to thee now; can'st let me be quiet?

Gril. You're too perstreperous, saucebox.

Cuc. Good girl!--If we begin to puff once

Pel. Prithee, hold thy tongue; the lords are in the presence.

1 Simpleton.

2 It appears from innumerable passages in our old writers, that barbers' shops were furnished with some musical instrument (commonly a cittern or guitar), for the amusement of such customers as chose to strum upon it while waiting for their turn to be shaved, &c.-Gifford. Citterns," Dyce adds, "were usually ornamented with grotesque heads carved at the extremity of the neck and fingerboard."

66

The prince stand and keep silence.

Rhe. Mum, butterfly!

Pel.

Cuc. O, the prince!-Wench, thou shalt see the prince

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Why all this company?

Cor. A book is this the early exercise

I did prescribe? instead of following health,

Which all men covet, you pursue disease.

Where's your great horse, your hounds, your set at

tennis,

Your balloon-ball,1 the practice of your dancing,
Your casting of the sledge, or learning how
To toss a pike? all changed into a sonnet!
Pray, sir, grant me free liberty to leave
The court; it does infect me with the sloth
Of sleep and surfeit: in the university
I have employments, which to my profession
Add profit and report; here I am lost,
And in your wilful dulness held a man
Of neither art nor honesty. You may
Command my head :-pray,

take it, do! 'twere better

For me to lose it than to lose my wits,

And live in Bedlam; you will force me to't ;

I'm almost mad already.

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Soph. Letters are come from Crete, which do require

A speedy restitution of such ships

As by your father were long since detained;

If not, defiance threatened.

Are.

These near parts

Of Syria that adjoin muster their friends;
And by intelligence we learn for certain

1 A large inflated ball of leather used in a game called balloon.

The Syrian will pretend an ancient interest
Of tribute intermitted.

Soph.

Through your land

Your subjects mutter strangely, and imagine
More than they dare speak publicly.

Cor.

They talk but oddly of you.

Cuc.

And yet

Hang 'em, mongrels.

Yes, scurvily,

I'll borrow patience

Pal. Of me! my subjects talk of me!

Cor.

And think worse, prince.

Pal.

A little time to listen to these wrongs;

And from the few of you which are here present
Conceive the general voice.

Cor.

So! now he's nettled. [Aside.
Pal. By all your loves I charge ye, without fear
Or flattery, to let me know your thoughts,
And how I am interpreted: speak boldly.

Soph. For my part, sir, I will be plain and brief.
I think you are of nature mild and easy,
Not willingly provoked, but withal headstrong
In any passion that misleads your judgment :
I think you too indulgent to such motions
As spring out of your own affections;
Too old to be reformed, and yet too young
To take fit counsel from yourself of what
Is most amiss.

Pal.

So! Tutor, your conceit ?

Are. I think you dote-with pardon let me speak

it

Too much upon your pleasures; and these pleasures
Are so wrapt up in self-love, that you covet
No other change of fortune; would be still
What your birth makes you; but are loth to toil
In such affairs of state as break your sleeps.

Cor. I think you would be by the world reputed

A man in every point complete; but are

In manners and effect 1 indeed a child,
A boy, a very boy.

Pel.

May't please your grace,
I think you do contain within yourself
The great elixir, soul, and quintessence
Of all divine perfections; are the glory
Of mankind, and the only strict example
For earthly monarchs to square out their lives by;
Time's miracle, Fame's pride; in knowledge, wit,
Sweetness, discourse, arms, arts-

Pal.

You are a courtier.

Cuc. But not of the ancient fashion, an't like your highness. 'Tis I; I that am the credit of the court, noble prince; and if thou wouldst, by proclamation or patent, create me overseer of all the tailors in thy dominions, then, then the golden days should appear again; bread should be cheaper, fools should have more wit, knaves more honesty, and beggars more money. Gril. I think now—

Cuc. Peace, you squall!

Pal. [to RHETIAS] You have not spoken yet.

Cuc. Hang him! he'll nothing but rail.

Gril. Most abominable;-out upon him!

Cor. Away, Cuculus; follow the lords.

Cuc. Close, page, close.

[They all silently withdraw except PALADOR and RHETIAS.

Pal. You are somewhat long a' thinking.

Rhe. I do not think at all.

Pal. Am I not worthy of your thought?

Rhe. My pity you are, but not my reprehension.

Pal. Pity!

Rhe. Yes, for I pity such to whom I owe service, who exchange their happiness for a misery.

Pal. Is it a misery to be a prince ?

1 Qy. "Affect."-Dyce.

Rhe. Princes who forget their sovereignty, and yield to affected passion, are weary of command.-You had a father, sir.

Pal. Your sovereign, whiles he lived: but what of him? Rhe. Nothing. I only dared to name him; that's ali. Pal. I charge thee, by the duty that thou ow'st us, Be plain in what thou mean'st to speak: there's something

That we must know: be free; our ears are open.

Rhe. O, sir, I had rather hold a wolf by the ears than stroke a lion the greatest danger is the last.

Pal. This is mere trifling.-Ha! are all stol'n hence? We are alone: thou hast an honest look ; Thou hast a tongue, I hope, that is not oiled With flattery: be open. Though 'tis true That in my younger days I oft have heard Agenor's name, my father, more traduced Than I could then observe; yet I protest I never had a friend, a certain friend,

That would inform me throughly of such errors

As oftentimes are incident to princes.

Rhe. All this may be. I have seen a man so curious in feeling of the edge of a keen knife, that he has cut his fingers. My flesh is not of proof against the metal I am to handle; the one is tenderer than the other.

Take the word

Pal. I see, then, I must court thee.
Of a just prince; for anything thou speakest
I have more than a pardon,-thanks and love.

Rhe. I will remember you of an old tale that something concerns you. Meleander, the great but unfortunate statesman, was by your father treated with for a match between you and his eldest daughter, the Lady Eroclea: you were both near of an age. I presume you remember a contract, and cannot forget her.

Pal. She was a lovely beauty. Prithee, forward!

Rhe. To court was Eroclea brought; was courted by your father, not for Prince Palador, as it followed, but to

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