Men. 'Tis my first step to honour. May I fall Lower than shame, when I neglect all service That may confirm this favour!

Tha. Are you well, sir?

Par. Great princess, I am well. To see a league Between an humble love, such as my friend's is, And a commanding virtue, such as yours is,

Are sure restoratives.

Tha. You speak ingeniously.

Brother, be pleas'd to show the gallery
To this young stranger. Use the time a while,
And we will all together to the court:

I will present you, sir, unto the prince..

Par. You are all composed of fairness and true bounty.

Amet. Come, come: we'll wait you, sister. This beginning

Doth relish happy process.

Men. You have bless'd me.

[Exeunt MEN. AMET. and PAR.

Tha. Kala! O, Kala!

Kala. Lady.

Tha. We are private;

Thou art my closet.

Kala. Lock your secrets close then ;

I am not to be forced.

Tha. Never till now

Could I be sensible of being a traitor

To honour and to shame.

Kala. You are in love.

Tha. I am grown base-Parthenophill-
Kala. He's handsome,

Richly endow'd; he hath a lovely face,

A winning tongue.

1 Henceforth I'll call you servant,] i. e. acknowledge you as a lover.

Tha. If ever I must fall,

In him my greatness sinks: Love is a tyrant,
Resisted. Whisper in his ear how gladly

I would steal time to talk with him one hour;
But do it honourably. Prithee, Kala,

Do not betray me.

Kala. Madam, I will make it

Mine own case; he shall think I am in love with him. Tha. I hope thou art not, Kala.

Kala. "T is for your sake:

I'll tell him so; but, 'faith, I am not, lady.

Tha. Pray, use me kindly; let me not too soon Be lost in my new follies. 'Tis a fate

That overrules our wisdoms; while we strive
To live most free, we're caught in our own toils.
Diamonds cut diamonds; they who will prove
To thrive in cunning, must cure love with love.
[Exeunt.

ACT II. SCENE I.

An Apartment in the Palace.

Enter SOPHRONOS and AREtus.

Soph. Our commonwealth is sick: 't is more than time

That we should wake the head thereof, who sleeps In the dull lethargy of lost security.

The commons murmur, and the nobles grieve;
The court is now turn'd antic, and grows wild,
While all the neighbouring nations stand at gaze,
And watch fit opportunity to wreak

Their just-conceived fury on such injuries
As the late prince, our living master's father,
Committed against laws of truth or honour.
Intelligence comes flying in on all sides:
While the unsteady multitude presume
How that you, Aretus, and I engross,
Out of particular ambition,

The affairs of government; which I, for my part,
Groan under, and am weary off.

Are. Sophronos,

I am as zealous too of shaking off

My gay state-fetters, that I have bethought
Of speedy remedy; and to that end,

As I have told you, have concluded with
Corax, the prince's chief physician.

Soph. You should have done this sooner, Aretus;
You were his tutor, and could best discern
His dispositions, to inform them rightly.
Are. Passions of violent nature by degrees
Are easiliest reclaim'd. There's something hid
Of his distemper, which we'll now find out.

Enter CORAX, RHETIAS, PELIAS, CUCULUS, and GRilla. You come on just appointment. Welcome, gen

tlemen!

Have you won Rhetias, Corax?
Cor. Most sincerely.

Cuc. Save ye, nobilities! Do your lordships take notice of my page? "Tis a fashion of the newest edition, spick and span-new, without example. Do your honour, housewife!

Gril. There's a courtesy for you, and a courtesy for you.

Soph. "Tis excellent: we must all follow fashion, And entertain she-waiters.

Are. "T will be courtly.

Cuc. I think so; I hope the chronicles will rear me one day for a headpiece

Rhe. Of woodcock, without brains in it!! Barbers shall wear thee on their citterns, and hucksters set thee out in gingerbread.

1 Of woodcock, &c.] A cant term for a simpleton.-GIFFORD.

2 Barbers shall wear thee on their citterns.] It appears from innumerable passages in our old writers, that barbers' shops were furnished with some musical instruments (commonly a cittern or guitar) for the

The cittern of Johnson's days differed little from the guitar, as to form. It was strung with wire instead of catgut, like the guitar, and seems to have been in great vogue.

Cuc. Devil take thee! I say nothing to thee now; canst let me be quiet?

Gril. You are too perstreperous, saucebox.

Cuc. Good girl! if we begin to puff once

Pel. Prithee, hold thy tongue; the lords are in the presence.

Rhe. Mum, butterfly!

Pel. The prince! stand and keep silence.

Cuc. O the prince! wench thou shalt see the prince now.

Enter PALADOR, with a book.

Soph. Are. Sir, gracious sir!

Pal. Why all this company?

[Seft music.

Cor. A book! is this the early exercise,
I did prescribe? instead of following health,
Which all men covet, you pursue disease.

Where's your great horse, your hounds, your set at tennis,

Your balloon ball, the practice of your dancing,
Your casting of the sledge, or learning how
To toss a pike? all chang'd into a sonnet!
Pray, sir, grant me free liberty to leave
The court; it does infect me with the sloth
Of sleep and surfeit: in the university
I have employments, which to my profession
Add profit and report; here I am lost,
And, in your wilful dulness, held a man
Of neither art nor honesty. You may

Command my head:-pray, take it, do! 't were better

amusement of such customers as chose to strum upon it while waiting for their turn to be shaved. It should be recollected that the patience of the customers, if the shop was at all popular, must, in those tedious days of love-locks, and beards of the most fantastic cuts, have been frequently put to very severe trials. Some kind of amusement, therefore, was necessary to beguile the time, and as newspapers had not then descended to the lower classes, a more innocent or effectual one than an instrument n pretty general use could not readily be found.

The head of the cittern, like that of the harp, occasionally terminated, suppose, in some grotesque kind of ornament.-GIFFORD.

For me to lose it, than to lose my wits,

And live in Bedlam;' you will force me to 't;
I am almost mad already.

Pal. I believe it.

Soph. Letters are come from Crete, which do require

A speedy restitution of such ships

As by your father were long since detain'd;
If not, defiance threaten'd.

Are. These near parts

Of Syria that adjoin, muster their friends;
And by intelligence we learn for certain,
The Syrian will pretend an ancient interest
Of tribute intermitted.

Soph. Through your land

Your subjects mutter strangely, and imagine
More than they dare speak publicly.

Cor. And yet

They talk but oddly of you.

Cuc. Hang 'em, mongrels!

Pal. Of me? my subjects talk of me!

Cor. Yes, scurvily,

And think worse, prince.

Pal. I'll borrow patience

A little time to listen to these wrongs;

And from the few of you which are here present,

Conceive the general voice.

Cor. So! now he's nettled.

[Aside.

Pal. By all your loves I charge you, without fear

Or flattery, to let me know your thoughts,

And how I am interpreted: speak boldly.

Soph. For my part, sir, I will be plain and brief. I think you are of nature mild and easy, Not willingly provok'd, but withal headstrong In any passion that misleads your judgment: I think you too indulgent to such motions

1 And live in Bedlam.] As there were mad folks in Famagosta, there were doubtless receptacles for them. Ford, however, was thinking of Moorfields.-GIFFORD.