 | The Warde |  |
41
scaena 2
enter Mistress Claribell, Saena her maid; Mr Hodgepodge, alias Hodgefeild; Mr Simple & his page.Mr Hodgefeild.
Pray Mistress Saena! turne not now away.
this is the making or the marring houre,
in which my blisse is crossd, or perfited.
Saena.
I must confesse; it somewhat may Concerne yee
to get all now Compleated; for 'tis time
which oft Combines impossibilities,
& knits the wary characters of art;
A season strain'd can conquer Victory,
& crowne each faculty with a due pleas'd worth.
Yet must I work this for yee? & have nought?
noe point of true dimension from your favour?
noe tincture from a generous feeling pulse?
nor any moiety for my diligence?
you know 'tis in our power to cross a match:
yes! though the wedding gowne be made & witnesse,
put to th'agreement: though a father call
& mother mak't a match: we have a power
ore all these parcell child-commanders: neither
fore the conjunction does praevaile our Art.
we can pause after stroakes; and sometimes lock
the wrangling Theseus in a Labyrinth.
make our deare mistresse lick up our frothy humours
& vomit part out, in her husbands face,
whilst you shall hold her, thus! and I will fetch
to countenance the deed, the next hot water.
besides we can persuade, well for a neede,
& turn the application of our mistresse
to what addiction our owne bow is bent.
Turne upside downe Conclusions; and convert
the poinant humour to our purposes.
These things our skill, can compasse, had it merit.
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merit doeth plead; heere take it correspondent
To a most ready & most praegnant art,
There; hold.
Saena
Pray sir, surcease we are not so submisse,
to prostitute our tounge, (I shall deserve it;)
for your forgotten bounties harbinger.
True bounty Counts Convenience; & then comes
must lonely faire excepted: but thrust forward
(without that hiew of rich discretion)
Is duld & blunted by a sad repulse.
poise but my constitution: Can yee finde
a posy for soe base an Anagram,
implanted in my ill fixt horoscope?
or that my physiognomy doest portend
a Stigma, for so ready Trechery?
Though I can doe, it may be, very much,
with my younge mystresse: tis not so easy meanes
shall swallow up my firme laid faith to her;
And soe I leave you—.
Mr Hodgefeild.
O! my hope is gone
the best of sutors woo by servants aide.
when feare & errour makes them soone afraide
a prompter can encoradge, & lett in;
so doe the weakest glorious prizes winne.
Audacious proper wooing without ground
distastes your mistresse; doth your selfe confound.
but yet some Comforts aide mee.—
Claribell
—still troubled in my maiden thoughts?
Mr Hodgefeild.
my mistresse voice, & person doth appeare
as doth the glorious sunne; when rising from
her watry couch shee guilds' the hemisphere
& lightens all concavities below,—
with the reflexion of a gratefull beame.
now dearest Jaylour of a weary soule,
(weary'd for that 'tis kept soe much within)
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my dried limbes, within those blest precincts
may put mee from all thought of misery.
seale mee a long expected resolution
to free mee from these bonds, and cares that vexe
the truest heart of a right suppliant;
and I shall shrine thee in my heart a godesse.
Claribell;
why then in briefe; I love thee & have longe
entyrely lov'd thee; but 'tis vanity
for me to say I love: & the ould man
that perches ore all our greene-siknesse walle
as yet against it: were he but once dispatch'd,
we quickly would seale up this difference.
Mr Hodgef.
can he be not once mov'd? they say, loves potent,
& can doe much: time wearies hoary oakes;
which shew a stiffe & venerable age.
Time flawes the hardned jawes of rocky flints,
and weares a passadge, to eternall night;
and chaseth bedded sorrowes; which if plac't
in the fell chambers of a touch't remorse
had eaten up the vitall entrailes, and
enclosd the subject with envenoumd phanges.
yet by this medicine hath these ferall rootes
been pluckt, discerpt & dride' all into nothinge:
& sometimes washt with a Laethaean flood.
why should not then an Importunity,
(which wearies time & massacres discretion;)
command with helpe of love, soe small a boone,
as to envolve, both hearts of ours in one?
Claribell.
I wish it may be soe: & were not curses
that come from parents loathed exescrations
of a most deadely, & a viperous nature
I would attempt yet somewhat: now farewell;
I may noe more be seene.—
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was ever man soe bless't, & yet so cross't?
Soe bless't in a most comming, loving mistresse,
which sends paternall aide through every blush
(as fragrant as the sweet Arabian gummes)
unto her poore, distressed, loyall servant:
soe cursed, in a hatefull stoppage causd
by her most impious, & unweldy father:
whose words like charmes, do hunt me from these thresholds,
& make mee sing my griefe to philomell.
o! blessing drop't from the eternall sky!
o heavenly mixture of Ambrosia.
mixed by the fates for some all happy soules,
to have in the height of Love an unity;
a correspondence in our dear affections
which may replante, what time doth rend away,
& blow alive the mortifyde cynders
of syncere liking, & true affiance,
(neglected by forbidden Amoretts,)
into the dull relapse of dusty embers.
yee gods; which sit on winged chairs to governe
the sad & changeable scaene of mortall acts,
direct my constant passage on this stage
That I may draw a just catastrophe.
without the insulting voice of a full chorus:
& then respire my last, in lovely armes
more warme to mee, then is soft zephyrus
when shee arrives to ticle deynty flora.
may these things blesse mee: & I live to see
the old man dy, and Claribell with mee.
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