 | A Fine Companion |  |
Scena I.
Æmilia, Ualeria.Æmi.
Come sister, though our liberty be straightned,
Our mind stands free, without compulsion,
There's none can make a rape upon our will.
Well if they understood a woman truely,
They would not seeke to curbe so, whose nature
Rejoyces like a torrent, to make way
Spight of impediments. Now if their wisedome
Should let us alone, we might perhaps our selues
Find out the inconvenience, and prevent it,
Which they like a false perspectiue would seeke,
To multiply upon us.
Val.
I shall never
Recall that faith, which I haue plighted once
To my Aurelio. Ile runne all hazards,
And violent attempts, to throw my selfe
Into his armes.
Æmi.
I would not haue you leaue him,
Nor yet turne desperate. Now would I rather
Get him by some devise, I loue a witty
And an ingenuous tricke aboue my life:
And should take more delight to over-reach them,
Then to enjoy my purpose.
Val.
But I dare not
Play with my fortune so, nor trust adventures,
If Fate would be so gratious to present
An opportunity.
Æmi.
Come feare it not.
You see what a man they would put upon me,
Might be my father. H'has lesse vigour in him,
Then any Catamite. There's not reseru'd
So much as one masculine graine in him.
A fellow that's as bald, as a Lookinglasse,
And whose diseases are beyond Arithmeticke:
Not a joynt of him free, a gowty numnesse
The stiffenesse he has left: and were I married
I must spend all my life in rubbing of him
With hot wollen cloaths, and applying Plaisters,
And Cataplasmes, and trenchers to his belly;
Must undergoe the person of a Chirurgion,
Not of a wife: and yet I am not terrified:
It moues me not, I make a jeast of it;
Because I meane t'abuse them all, and chuse
Where I like best.
Ual.
It is a happy spirit,
That rules in you, I would I had one like it.
Æmi.
Like me; thou hast not studied thy selfe so well:
Nor hast that season of thy mother in thee.
Obserue her fashions, take example by them:
Although her husband be penurious,
Hard as the mettle, that he dotes upon.
Yet she can make him mallemable, and worke him,
And turne, and hammer him, and wire-draw him,
And rule him with as much correction,
As one would wish to governe. For my part;
When I haue stretcht my braines, made all the shifts,
The wit of woman can be pregnant of.
And shew'd my loue by such experience,
As shall outstrip beliefe, all for his sake
That shall enioy me, which is Master Carelesse.
And when he has me, if hee shall presume,
On former passages of my affection,
To oversway me in the least desire,
To contradict, and tempt my patience,
Ile shake off all obedience, and forget it.
Ile slight him, yet prevaile.
Ual.
Alasse my heart is
Tender, and violable with the least weapons,
Sorrow can dart at me.
Æmi.
You are a foole,
And every one that will can make you so:
When was your sweet heart Master Spruse here with you?
Ual.
But lately, and presented such a Scene
Of protestations, and then varied it,
Were interwoven with such subtle threads,
That I could scarce distinguish them.
Æmi.
Take heed,
What ere he speakes, it tends but to corrupt you,
I'de ioyne commerce of language with a Sphinx,
Ere I'de daigne to answer him. Master Carelesse
Told me his humours, seemes he boasted of it,
He gaue his character, the most perfideous,
And loue abusing creature in the world;
That all his vowes were treacherous: his smiles,
His words, and actions, like small Rivulets,
Through twenty turnings of loose passions,
At last would runne to the dead sea of sinne.
Val.
What ere he sayes, I resolue nere to trust him.
Æmi.
Bee wise, and constant, and then governe fate:
And in the interim, how ere matters fall,
Wee'l find a tricke wench, how to cheat them all.
| A Fine Companion | |