Mel. [Within] So ho, so ho!

Trol. There, there, there! look to your right worshipful, look to yourself.

Enter MELEANDER with a poleaxe.

Mel. Show me the dog whose triple-throated noise Hath roused a lion from his uncouth den

To tear the cur in pieces.

Cor. [Putting on his mask, and turning to MELEANDER.
Stay thy paws,

Courageous beast; else, lo, the Gorgon's skull,
That shall transform thee to that restless stone

Which Sisyphus rolls up against the hill,

Whence, tumbling down again, it with his weight
Shall crush thy bones and puff thee into air.

Mel. Hold, hold thy conquering breath; 'tis stronger far

Than gunpowder and garlic. If the fates

Have spun my thread, and my spent clue of life
Be now untwisted, let us part like friends.-

Lay up my weapon, Trollio, and be gone.

Trol. Yes, sir, with all my heart.
Mel.

Will walk, and gabble wisely.

Cor.

The motion; on!

Mel.

This friend and I

[Exit TROLLIO with the poleaxe. I allow

[Takes off his mask.

So politicians thrive,

That, with their crabbèd faces and sly tricks,

Legerdemain, ducks, cringes, formal beards,
Crisped hairs, and punctual cheats, do wriggle in
Their heads first, like a fox, to rooms of state,

Then the whole body follows.

Cor.

Then they fill

Lordships; steal women's hearts; with them and theirs The world runs round; yet these are square1 men still.

Ford.

1 Honest.

F

Mel. There are none poor but such as engross offices. Cor. None wise but unthrifts, bankrupts, beggars, rascals.

Mel. The hangman is a rare physician.

All

Cor. [Aside] That's not so good.—It shall be granted. Mel. The buzz of drugs and minerals and simples, Bloodlettings, vomits, purges, or what else Is conjured up by men of art, to gull Liege-people, and rear golden piles, are trash To a strong well-wrought halter; there the gout, The stone, yes, and the melancholy devil, Are cured in less time than a pair of minutes: Build me a gallows in this very plot,

And I'll dispatch your business.

Cor.

Right under the left ear.

Mel.

Fix the knot

Sirrah, make ready.

Cor. Yet do not be too sudden; grant me leave

To give a farewell to a creature long

Absented from me: 'tis a daughter, sir,

Snatched from me in her youth, a handsome girl;

She comes to ask a blessing.

Mel.

I cannot see her yet.

Cor.

Pray, where is she?

She makes more haste

In her quick prayers than her trembling steps,
Which many griefs have weakened.

Mel.

Cruel man!

How canst thou rip a heart that's cleft already
With injuries of time ?-Whilst I am frantic,
Whilst throngs of rude divisions huddle on,
And do disrank my brains from peace and sleep,
So long-I am insensible of cares.

As balls of wildfire may be safely touched,
Not violently sundered and thrown up;

So my distempered thoughts rest in their rage,
Not hurried in the air of repetition,

Or memory of my misfortunes past:

Then are my griefs struck home, when they're reclaimed To their own pity of themselves.—Proceed;

What of your daughter now?

Cor.

I cannot tell ye,

'Tis now out of my head again; my brains
Are crazy; I have scarce slept one sound sleep
These twelve months.

Mel.

'Las, poor man! canst thou imagine

To prosper in the task thou tak'st in hand
By practising a cure upon my weakness,
And yet be no physician for thyself?

Go, go, turn over all thy books once more,
And learn to thrive in modesty; for impudence
Does least become a scholar.

A kind of learnèd fool.

Cor.

Thou'rt a fool,*

I do confess it.

Mel. If thou canst wake with me, forget to eat, Renounce the thought of greatness, tread on fate, Sigh out a lamentable tale of things

Done long ago, and ill done; and, when sighs

Are wearied, piece up what remains behind

With weeping eyes, and hearts that bleed to death;

Thou shalt be a companion fit for me,

And we will sit together, like true friends,

And never be divided. With what greediness
Do I hug my afflictions! there's no mirth

Which is not truly seasoned with some madness :
As, for example,-

[Exit hastily.

Cor.
What new crotchet next?
There is so much sense in this wild distraction,
That I am almost out of my wits too,

To see and hear him some few hours more

Spent here would turn me apish, if not frantic.

Re-enter MELEANDER with CLEOPHILA.

Mel. In all the volumes thou hast turned, thou man

Of knowledge, hast thou met with any rarity,
Worthy thy contemplation, like to this?

The model of the heavens, the earth, the waters,

The harmony and sweet consent of times,
Are not of such an excellence, in form

Of their creation, as the infinite wonder
That dwells within the compass of this face :
And yet I tell thee, scholar, under this
Well-ordered sign is lodged such an obedience
As will hereafter, in another age,

Strike all comparison into a silence.
She had a sister too;-but as for her,

If I were given to talk, I could describe

A pretty piece of goodness—let that pass—

We must be wise sometimes. What would you with her? Cor. I with her! nothing, by your leave, sir, I;

It is not my profession.

Mel.

You are saucy,

And, as I take it, scurvy in your sauciness,

To use no more respect.-Good soul, be patient;
We are a pair of things the world doth laugh at :
Yet be content, Cleophila; those clouds,
Which bar the sun from shining on our miseries,
Will never be chased off till I am dead;

And then some charitable soul will take thee
Into protection: I am hasting on;

The time cannot be long.

Cleo.

I do beseech ye,

Sir, as you love your health, as you respect

My safety, let not passion1 overrule you.

Mei. It shall not; I am friends with all the world.

Get me some wine; to witness that I will be

An absolute good fellow, I will drink with thee.

1 Sorrow.

Cor. [Aside to CLEO.] Have you prepared his cup?
Cleo. [Aside to COR.]
It is in readiness.

Enter CUCULUS and GRILLA.

Cuc. By your leave, gallants, I come to speak with a young lady, as they say, the old Trojan's daughter of the house.

Mel. Your business with my lady-daughter, toss-pot? Gril. Toss-pot! O base! toss-pot!

Cuc. Peace! dost not see in what case he is?-I would do my own commendations to her; that's all. Mel. Do.-Come, my Genius, we will quaff in wine Till we grow wise.

Cor.

True nectar is divine.

[Exeunt MELEANDER and CORAX. Cuc. So! I am glad he is gone,-Page, walk aside.Sweet beauty, I am sent ambassador from the mistress of my thoughts to you, the mistress of my desires.

Cleo. So, sir! I pray, be brief.

Cuc. That you may know I am not, as they say, an animal, which is, as they say, a kind of cokes,' which is, as the learned term it, an ass, a puppy, a widgeon, a dolt, a noddy, a

Cleo. As you please.

Cuc. Pardon me for that, it shall be as you please indeed: forsooth, I love to be courtly and in fashion.

Cleo. Well, to your embassy. What, and from whom? Cuc. Marry, "What" is more than I know; for to know what's what is to know what's what and for what's what :—but these are foolish figures and to little purpose. Cleo. From whom, then, are you sent ?

Cuc. There you come to me again. O, to be in the favour of great ladies is as much to say as to be great in ladies' favours.

Cleo. Good time o' day t'ye! I can stay no longer. Cuc. By this light, but you must; for now I come to't.

1 i.e. A simpleton.