And lengthen out thy days;1 his followers gone? ACT IV. SCENE I. The Court of Autumn. Enter POMONA, RAYBRIGHT, Cupid, and FORTUNE. Ray. Your entertainments, Autumn's bounteous queen, Have feasted me with rarities as delicate Pom. They are but courtings Of gratitude to our dread lord, the Sun, From whom thou draw'st thy name: the feast of fruits Our gardens yield are much too coarse for thee; All delicacies which the wanton sense Ray. I have rioted In surfeits of the ear, with various music Of warbling birds; I have smelt perfumes of roses, And every flower with which the fresh-trimm'd earth Is mantled in: the Spring could mock my senses 1 I thy wounds will cure, And lengthen out thy days.] The Sun takes a strange way to lengthen out the days of Summer, by putting an instant end to them. It must be confessed, that the god acts very capriciously in this scene, and that Summer, considering her short stay, is most ungently treated on all sides.--GIFFORT. VOL. II.-11 With these fine barren lullabies; the Summer creatures Of every age and quality post, madding, With all store that time is bought for. Cup. Be a lover, I will wait thee With success in life most sought for. For. Be enamour'd on bright honour, And thy greatness shall shine glorious. Cup. Chastity, if thou smile on her, Shall grow servile, thou victorious. For. Be a warrior, conquest ever Shall triumphantly renown thee. Cup. Be a courtier, beauty never, Shall but with her duty crown thee. For. Fortune's wheel is thine, depose me; I'm thy slave, thy power has bound me. Love loves love; thy graces wound me. Ray. You ravish me with infinites, and lay 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 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 melan choly. 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 In Ceres' fane; Tiber shall pay thee apples, Ray. Make me but treasurer Of your respected favours, and that honour 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 Pom. I obey. Will 't please you, madam? a retirement From these extremes, in men more tolerable, Hum. I'll drink, And be a Bacchanalian-no, I will not. 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 Ром. 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'd' 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; Ray. I am for that too. Aut. 'Tis well; [Flourish.-Drinks. Let it go round; and, as our custom is Your voices, as you drink, in lively notes; 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 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 sufficient 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. |