 | The Obstinate Lady |  |
Scena prima.
Enter Lorece and Jaques.Lor.
I am beholding to thee Iaques.
Iaq.
I will be dutiful to your Worship.
Lor.
I should be glad to cope with your Lady, now
methinks I am of a prompter expression then usual:
Lovers and the Muses are cater-cousins.
My Vandona, Iaques.
Iaq.
I must vanish like a mist.
Exit.
Lor.
Farewell grave Titan.
Ile out with a Poetical Soliloquie in her hearing for my Preludium.
The gaudy Stars are not more full of glee,
When golden Phebus setteth in the West;
Nor do the cheerful Birds with more delight
Rejoyce at the new Livery of the spring;
Then I to have this miracle of beauty
Enter within the knowledge of mine eyes.
Van.
He speaks well, I woo'd he meant earnest. The
Gentleman seems very deserving: but he is something
wild.
Lor.
She shall be stoutly accosted. Impudency is a
very happy quality in a wooer.
Van.
A comes.
Lor.
Lady, you are not a puny in the Court of Cupid,
of an annual service. I am bold to
tell you plainly, I love you, and (if I find occasion)
I will maintain it boldly.
Van.
I pray you (Mr. Lorece) desist.
Lor.
Never my sweet Vandona; my descent (I know)
you doubt not, and my affection you need not.
Whilest I live I shall love you, and (if you die)
your memory.
Van.
I shall be catch'd. We widows are glass mettal,
soon broke.
Lor.
I can do no more Lady, and I will do no less.
Van.
Your habit, carriage, and discourse, Sir, shew
you a Traveller.
Lor.
My boldness she means. Sweetest Vandona, I
have been one. The habits, conditions, and situations
of many great kingdoms I have exactly
gathered into my table-books: and also my fortnights
observation of the Antipodes.
Van.
O strange! have you been there? I wonder
how you came thither.
Lor.
I will tell you Lady. When I was bound thither,
I was in Asia at Taxcallau; there we took
ship, and in a pair of Oares sailed to Madrid, the
Catholique Kings Court. From thence to Naples
in Savoy, from Naples to Crema, and thence to
Alexandria, where against a tree we suffered shipwrack.
Into a new Phaluk therefore we got us,
which was rigg'd for Francfort, where shortly after
we arrived, victual'd our Gondalo, and threw
Van.
Tis a great way thither.
Lor.
Thence we went to Lisbon, and after to Mantua,
and the next morning we came to the Antipodes,
at twy-light i'th afternoon.
Van.
What sights saw you there Sir?
Lor.
So many sights (dear Lady) that they almost
made me blind.
Van.
Relate a few.
Lor.
First, Lady, the King is no man.
Van.
I believe you Sir, for it never could enter my
mind that any man inhabited there.
Lor.
There they have no houses, but the Emperours
Palace, where Sir Francis Drake was entertain'd,
after he had shot the Pyrænæan Gulfe, upon
the Mediterranean mount in Russia.
Van.
Where then lies all the Court, I wonder?
Lor.
In the Court Mistris.
Van.
I guess hem but cold lodgings.
Lor.
Your Ladyship is mistook: they are never a
cold; For the Sun, being never above a hundred
degrees above Saturn, makes that Climate as hot
as Norway. They at the Antipodes hear with their
noses, smell with their ears, see by feeling, but
taste with all their Senses: for they are the most
insatiable gluttons under the cope: and feel not
any thing;
Van.
This is wonderful. And I cannot imagine
how their senses can be so contrary to ours.
No! did you never hear (excellent Vandona)
that they are opposite to us?
Van.
O yes! I have indeed.
Lor.
I will now tell you Madam something of the
South Indies.
Van.
Has not the Mogul of Persia his bread thence?
Lor.
The King of Spain hath his gold there, of which
the Hollanders took a great prize, when they won
the silver Fleet.
Van.
How I was mistook!
Lor.
I will give you the situation of the Countrey.
Some of the ancient Geographers, as Heliodorus,
the Knight o'th Sun, Amadis de Guale, and Palmerin
de Oliva, affirm it to lie a thousand Italian
miles from the Isthmos of Corinth: but some modern
writers, as Don Quixot, Parismus, Montelion,
and Mervin, say it is a Peninsula in Arabia Fœlix,
where the Phœnix is. But learned Hollinshed affirms,
the South Indies are separated from Armenia
by the Calidonean Forrest, from Asia Minor
by the Venetian Gulfe, and from China by a great
brick wall. There instead of Chery-stones children
play with Pearls: and (for glass) the windows
are of broad Diamonds. Hunters there have
no horns but the Unicorns; no water runs there
but Scamander, Simois, Aganippe, Hippocrene, and
the like. There are no hills but Olympus, Ida, and
Parnassus. No valley but Tempe of Ascra and Margiana;
no men but of the off-spring of Scipio Affrican,
Iulius Cæsar, Alexander the Great, Hector,
Van.
It is a pleasant Countrey sure!
Lor.
I will now tell you the conditions of our neighbour
Nations. The Spaniards are humble, the
Italians chast, the French peaceful, the Dutch sober,
and the Irish cleanly. I came at last to Virginia,
where I saw nothing more worthy mention
then an honest woman who cast her self into the
sea because no body would lie with her. In conclusion;
at Iames Town Port I took horse, and
the next morning (after a long and tedious journey)
arrived in Wales.
Van.
And what did you there Mr. Lorece?
Lor.
As soon as I could I went to Merlins Cave,
which is obscurely situated on the top of a Beech,
where all the night he lay on the ground.
Van.
What was he Sir?
Lor.
He was an intricate Prognosticator of firmamental
Eclipses, and vaticinated future Occurrents
by the mysterious influences of the sublime
Stars, and vagabundical Planets; generated he
was by the inhumane conjunction of an Incubus;
And was immur'd alive in a cave, by the preeminent
Magick of the Lady of the Lake.
Van.
You frequent Playes, do you not?
Lor.
They are most commonly my afternoons employment.
Van.
I like him the better for it.—
Aside.
Van.
And you have read many Histories?
Lor.
Many, Lady. I am a worm in a book, I go
through them.
This pleases me too— aside.
Farewel Sir.
Lore.
Admired Philoclea, leave me not so.
Van.
What would you have?
Lore.
Your consent Lady.
Van.
Expect that a month or two hence.
Lore.
Dear Vandona, sweet Mistress!
Van.
Indeed you must.
Lore.
Nay, sweet Oriana.
Van.
Y'are two importunate.
Lore.
Excellent Claridiana, Polinarda, Laurana, Bradamant.
Exit Van.
It makes no matter, I am sure to have her: how
some women are taken with strange tales!
Hercules could not wooe a Lady better.
Ent. Iaques.
Now my old Anchises! how dost true penny! Be
merry Iaques.
Iaq.
Is she tender-hearted?
Lor.
Respectful and pliant.
Iaq.
Good truth I am glad on't Sir; my Lady
(though I say it) is of a very good nature, my
mind alwaies gave me she would be coming on.
Lore.
Thou shalt find me so.
Exuent.
| The Obstinate Lady | |