PROLOGUE. To tell ye, gentlemen, in what true sense The writer, actors, or the audience Should mould their judgments for a play, might draw For any stolen invention, from whose height It is art's scorn, that some of late have made For your parts, gentlemen, to quit his pains, you will please, that as you meet with strains Of lighter mixture, but to cast your eye Rather upon the main than on the bye, His hopes stand firm, and we shall find it true, 1 An allusion to his debt to Burton, and to the version of the story of "the Nightingale's death," taken from Strada's Prolusiones Academice (i. 1). RHETIAS (a reduced Courtier), Servant to EROCLEA. TROLLIO, Servant to MELEANDER. GRILLA, a Page of CUCULUS, in woman's dress. Officers, Attendants, &c. THAMASTA, Sister of AMETHUS, and Cousin to the THE LOVER'S MELANCHOLY. ACT THE FIRST. SCENE I.-A Room in the Palace. Enter MENAPHON and PELIAS. EN. Dangers! how mean you dangers? that so courtly You gratulate my safe return from dan If my experience hath not, truant-like, Misspent the time, which I have strove to use Pel. As I am modest, I protest 'tis strange. Men. Pel. What? To bestride The frothy foams of Neptune's surging waves, Men. Sweet sir, 'tis nothing: Straight comes a dolphin, playing near your ship, A feather-bed to waft ye to the shore As easily as if you slept i' the court. I this language! I will not stretch Enter AMETHUS, SOPHRONOS, and Attendants. Men. My honoured father! Soph. From mine eyes, son of my care, my love, The joys that bid thee welcome do too much Speak me a child. Men. O princely sir, your hand. Amet. Perform your duties where you owe them first; I dare not be so sudden in the pleasures Thy presence hath brought home. Soph. Here thou still find'st A friend as noble, Menaphon, as when Thou left'st at thy departure. Men. To him I owe more service Amet. Yes, I know it, Pray give leave: He shall attend your entertainments soon, Next day, and next day: for an hour or two I would engross him only. Soph. Amet. Ye're both dismissed. Pel. Noble lord! Your creature and your servant. [Exeunt all but AMETHUS and MENAPHON. Amet. Give me thy hand. I will not say, "Thou'rt welcome;" That is the common road of common friends. Men. 'Tis pieced to mine. That can create a Heaven on earth dwell with thee! To see the other's funerals performed. Let's now awhile be free.-How have thy travels Men. Such cure as sick men find in changing beds I found in change of airs: the fancy flattered Amet. Of sweetness and humility, more pities Men. Thamasta, my great mistress, Your princely sister, hath, I hope, ere this Is monstrous in a true friend. Men. Wear the old looks too? 1 Does the court 1 So the old edition; probably equivalent to "fawned." |