The most excellent, most wise, most dainty, precious, loving, kind, sweet, intolerably fair lady Thamasta commends to your little hands this letter of importance. By your leave, let me first kiss, and then deliver it in fashion to your own proper beauty. [Delivers a letter. Cleo. To me, from her? 'tis strange! I dare peruse it. [Reads. Cuc. Good.-O, that I had not resolved to live a single life! Here's temptation, able to conjure up a spirit with a witness. So, so she has read it. [Aside. Cleo. Is't possible? Heaven, thou art great and boun tiful. Sir, I much thank your pains; and to the princess Cuc. They shall mad-dam. Cleo. When we of hopes or helps are quite bereaven, Our humble prayers have entrance into Heaven. Cuc. That's my opinion clearly and without doubt. [Exeunt. SCENE III.-A Room in the Palace. Enter ARETUS and SOPHRONOS. Are. The prince is throughly moved. Enter PALADOR, AMETHUS, and PELIAS. The mockery ye make of my dull patience, Yet ye shall know, the best of ye, that in me Which, once provoked, shall, like a bearded comet, Set ye at gaze, Pel. and threaten horror. Good sir, Pal. Good sir! 'tis not your active wit or language, Enter MENAPHON. Where is the youth, your friend? is he found yet? Pal. Fly, then, to the desert, Where thou didst first encounter this fantastic, This airy apparition; come no more In sight! Get ye all from me: he that stays Is not my friend. Amet. Are. Soph. 'Tis strange. We must obey. [Exeunt all but PALADOR. Pal. Some angry power cheats with rare delusions My credulous sense; the very soul of reason Is troubled in me ;-the physician Presented a strange masque, the view of it Enter RHETIAS. Rhetias, thou art acquainted with my griefs : Rhe. I have been diligent, sir, to pry into every corner for discovery, but cannot meet with him. There is some trick, I am confident. Pal. There is; there is some practice, sleight, or plot. Rhe. I have apprehended a fair wench in an odd pri. vate lodging in the city, as like the youth in face as can by possibility be discerned. Pal. How, Rhetias! Rhe. If it be not Parthenophil in long-coats, 'tis a spirit in his likeness; answer I can get none from her : you shall see her. Pal. The young man in disguise, upon my life, To steal out of the land. Rhe. I'll send him t’ye. [Exit RHETIAS. As there is by nature Pal. Do, do, my Rhetias. In everything created contrariety, So likewise is there unity and league Between them in their kind: but man, the abstract Of Heaven hath modelled, in himself contains [Enter behind EROCLEA (PARTHENOPHIL), The music Of man's fair composition best accords When 'tis in consort, not in single strains : True harmony consisted. Living here, We are Heaven's bounty all, but Fortune's exercise. Doth waste us to our graves, and we look on it: At last, and ends in sorrow; but the life, So to conclude calamity in rest. Pal. What echo yields a voice to my complaints? Can I be nowhere private? Ero. [Comes forward, and kneels] Let the substance As suddenly be hurried from your eyes As the vain sound can pass, sir, from your ear, Retain a constant memory. Pal. Stand up. 'Tis not the figure stamped upon thy cheeks, [She rises. Ero. I am so worn away with fears and sorrows, Pal. Cunning impostor! Some bolder act of treachery by cutting Hast thou assumed a shape that would make treason As holy as the sacrifice of peace? Ero. The incense of my love-desires are flamed Sir, O, sir, turn me back into the world, If all remembrance of my faith hath found Pal. My scorn, disdainful boy, shall soon unweave And so I may be gentle : as thou art, In thy demeanours; turn, turn from me, prithee, For my belief is armed else.-Yet, fair subtility, Before we part,—for part we must,—be true: In this seducing counterfeit. Great goodness, Are we become so impious, that to tread The path of impudence is law and justice ?— Give me thy name. Ero. Whilst I was lost to memory Parthenophil did shroud my shame in change A convoy to my grave, I must not blush To let Prince Palador, if I offend, Know, when he dooms me, that he dooms Eroclea : Pal. Join not too fast Thy penance with the story of my sufferings:- So martyrdom and holiness are twins, As innocence and sweetness on thy tongue. But, let me by degrees collect my senses; I may abuse my trust. Tell me, what air Hast thou perfumed, since tyranny first ravished The contract of our hearts ? Ero. Have I been buried. Pal. Dear sir, in Athens Buried! Right; as I In Cyrus. Come to trial; if thou beest |