Nature's best skill'd musician, undertakes own; He could not run division with more art Upon his quaking instrument, than she, sung her The nightingale, did with her various notes That such they were, than hope to hear again. Men. You term them rightly; For they were rivals, and their mistress, har mony.— Some time thus spent, the young man grew at last Whom art had never taught cliffs, moods, or notes, Concord in discord, lines of differing method Meeting in one full centre of delight. Amet. Now for the bird. Men. The bird, ordain'd to be Music's first martyr, strove to imitate These several sounds; which, when her warbling throat Fail'd in, for grief, down dropp'd she on his lute, And brake her heart! It was the quaintest sadness, To see the conqueror upon her hearse, To weep a funeral elegy of tears; That, trust me, my Amethus, I could chide' Amet. I believe thee. Men. He look'd upon the trophies of his art, Then sigh'd, then wiped his eyes, then sigh'd and cried: "Alas, poor creature! I will soon revenge Henceforth this lute, guilty of innocent blood, Amet. Thou hast discours'd A truth of mirth and pity." The intended execution with intreaties, I could chide, &c.] It should rather be, I could not chide; unless the speaker means to insinuate that his grief was too poignant and profuse, for a man. As he was pashing it against a tree.] i. e. dashing it. See Massinger, vol. i. p. 38. 7 Thou hast discours'd A truth of mirth and pity.] This is evidently corrupt; but I can suggest no remedy. The sense might be somewhat improved by reading tale for truth, or, with less violence, I' truth, of, &c.: but what can be done with mirth? pathetic, indeed, this most beautiful tale is, but it certainly contains nothing of merriment. It was not strange the music of his hand Did overmatch birds, when his voice and beauty, Amet. But is this miracle Not to be seen? Men. I won him by degrees To choose me his companion. Whence he is, So gently he would woo not to make known; He told me, that some remnant of his life Men. Willingly. The fame of our young melancholy prince, Your matchless friendship, and my desperate love Amet. Now thou art doubly welcome : I will not lose the sight of such a rarity For one part of my hopes. When do you intend To visit my great-spirited sister? Men. May I Without offence? C Amet. Without offence!-Parthenophill Shall find a worthy entertainment too. .Men. She's too excellent, And I too low in merit. Amet. I'll prepare A noble welcome; and, friend, ere we part, SCENE II. [Exeunt. Another Room in the Palace,mile Enter RHETIAS, carelessly attired. Rhe. I will not court the madness of the times; Not fawn upon the riots that embalm Our wanton gentry, to preserve the dust Of memorable shame. When commonwealths And ancient virtue which renowns the great, rooms Grow up, and make new laws to license folly; 8 Why should not I, a May-game, scorn the weight 8 Why should not I, a May-game, &c.] i. e. an unconsidered trifle, a jest, a piece of mirth. This expression occurs in the same sense in the next piece : "Wilt thou make thyself a May-game To all the world?" The motive which Rhetias assigns for assuming the part of an alllicensed fool is not very creditable to him: nor does he turn the character to much account. Some part of what he here says, however, though it might be expressed with less effort, is the result of sound observation. Of my sunk fortunes? snarl at the vices? Enter PELIAS. Here comes intelligence; a buzz o' the court. Pel. Prithee, hear me. Instead of a fine guarded' page we have got him A boy, trick'd up in neat and handsome fashion; Persuaded him, that 'tis indeed a wench, And he has entertain'd him; he does follow him, Snarl at the vices.] Snarl (as well as girl) is commonly made a dissyllable by our poet: he passed his youth in the neighbourhood of Dartmoor, and probably adopted the practice of that wild district. This mode of enunciation still prevails in the northern counties, at least in poetry, where, what to an English ear sounds like a soft d, is interposed between r and l, in such monosyllables as end with these two letters. Instead of a fine guarded page.] i. e. of a page with a livery richly laced, or turned up. The expression is common to all our old writers. |