 | The Jealous Lovers |  |
SCEN. II.
Demetrius, Asotus.Asot.
I have heard my mother,
Who had more proverbs in her mouth then teeth,
(Peace with her soul where e're it be) affirm,
Marry too soon, and you'le repent too late.
A sentence worth my meditation:
For marriage is a serious thing, perchance
Fair Phryne is no maid: for women may
Be beauteous, yet no virgins. Fair and chaste
Are not of necessary consequence.
Or being both fair and chaste, she may be barren;
And then when I am old, I shall not have
A boy—to dote on, as my father does.
Dem.
Kinde fortune fan you with a courteous wing.
Asot.
A prety complement. What art thou fellow?
Dem.
A Register of heaven, a privie Counsellour
To all the planets, one that has been tenant
To the twelve houses, Tutour to the Fates,
That taught 'um th'art of spinning, a live Almanack,
One that by speculation in the starres
Can foretell any thing.
Asot.
How? foretell any thing?
How many yeares are past since Thebes was built?
Dem.
That is not to foretell: you state the question
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Asot.
And cannot you
As well foretell things past, as things to come?
Say, Register of heaven, and Privy-counsellour
To all the planets, with the rest of your titles,
(For I shall ne're be able to repeat 'um all)
Shall I, as I intend, to day be married?
Dem.
Th' Almutes, or the Lord of the Ascendent,
I finde with Luna corporally joyn'd
To the Almutes of the seventh house,
Which is the matrimoniall family:
And therefore I conclude the nuptialls hold.
And yet th' Aspect is not in Trine, or Sextile,
But in the Quartile radiation,
Or Tetragon, which showes an inclination
Averse, and yet admitting of reception.
It will, although encountred with impediment,
At last succeed.
Asot.
Ha? What bold impediment
Is so audacious to encounter me?
Be he Almutes of what house he please;
Let his Aspect be Sextile, Trine, or Quartile;
I do not fear him with his radiations,
His Tetragons, and inclinations:
If he provoke my spleen, I'le have him know
I souldiers feed shall mince him, and my Poets
Shall with a satyre steep'd in gall and vineger,
Rime 'um to death, as they do rats in Ireland.
Dem.
Good words.
There's no resistance to the laws of Fate.
This sublunary world must yeeld obedience
To the celestiall vertues.
Asot.
One thing more
I would desire to know: Whether my spouse
That shall be, be immaculate. I'de be loth
To marry an Advowsion that has had
Other incumbents.
Dem.
I'le resolve you instantly.
The Dragons-tail stands where the head should be:
A shrew'd suspicion,—she has been strongly tempted.
Asot.
The Dragons-tail puts me in a horrible fear.
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Dem.
And Mars being landlord of th'eleventh house,
Plac'd in the Ram and Scorpion, plainly signifies
The maid has been in love; but the Aspect
Being without reception, layes no guilt
Of act upon her.
Asot.
I shall be jealous presently:
For the Ram is but an ill signe in the head;
And you know what Scorpio aims at in the Almanack.
Dem.
But when I see th' Ascendent and his Lord,
With the good Moon in angles and fixt signes,
I do conclude her virgin pure and spotlesse.
Asot.
I thank th' Ascendent, and his noble Lord;
He shall be welcome to my house at any time,
And so shall mistresse Moon, with all her angles,
And her fixt signes. But how come you to know
All this for certain?
Dem.
Sir, the learned Cabalists.
And all the Chaldees do conclude it lawfull:
As Asla, Baruch, and Abobalt,
Caucaph, Toz, Arcaphan, and Albuas,
Gafar, with Hali, Hippocras, and Lencuo,
With Ben, Benesaphan, and Albubetes.
Asot.
Are Asta, Baruch, and Abohali,
With all the rest o'th' Jury, men of credit?
Dem.
Their words shall go as farre i'th' Zodiack, Sir,
As anothers bond.
Asot.
I am beholding to 'um.
Another scruple yet,—I would have children too,
Children to dote on, Sir, when I grow old,
Such as will spend when I am dead and gone,
And make me have such fine dreams in my grave.
Dem.
Sir, y'are a happy man. I do not see
In all your horoscope one signe masculine;
For such portend sterility.
Asot.
How's that man?
Is't possible for any man to ha' children
Without a signe masculine?
Dem.
Sir, you mistake me:
You are not yet initiate. The Almutes
Of the Ascendent is not elevated,
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Venus is free, and Jove not yet combust:
And then the signifier being lodg'd
In watry signes, the Scorpion, Crab, and Fish,
Foreshow a numerous issue of both sexes.
And Mercury in's exaltations
Plac'd in their angles, and their points successive,
Beholds the Lords of the Triplicity
Unhindered in their influence. You were born
Under a getting constellation,
A fructifying starre.—Sir, I pronounce you
A joyfull father.
Asot.
Happy be the houre
I met with thee. I'le ha' thee live with me.
Thou shalt be my domesticall Astronomer.
I have a brace of Poets as fit as may be,
To furnish thee with verses for each moneth.
Sir, since the gracious starres do promise me
So numerous a troup of sonnes and daughters,
'Tis fit I should have my means in my own hands
To provide for 'um all: therefore I fain would know
Whether my father be—long-liv'd, or no.
Dem.
The planet Mars is Orientall now
To Saturn; but in reference to the Sun
He beares a Westerly position.
Which Ylem linking Saturn with the Sun
In opposition, both sinisterly
Fallne from their corners, plainly signifies
He cannot long survive.
Asot.
Why, who can help it?
There's no resistance to the laws of Fate:
This sublunary world must yeeld obedience
To the celestiall vertues.—Wert not providence
To bespeak mourning clokes against the funerall?
Dem.
'Tis good to be in readines.
Asot.
If thou be
So cunning a prophet, tell me; Do I mean
To entertain thee for my wizard?
Dem.
Sir,
I do not see the least Azymenes,
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Tells me you will.
Asot.
Tell Alcocoden then
He is ith' right. Thrasimachus, Hyperbolus!
(Enter Thrasim. Hyperb.
We have increas'd our family, see him enroll'd.
He is a man of merit, and can prophesie.
Thrasim.
We'le drench him in the welcome of the celler,
And trie if he can prophesie who falls first.
Asot.
How will the world admire me, when they see
My house an Academie, all the arts
Wait at my table, every man of quality
Take sanctuary here! I will be patron
To twenty liberall sciences.
| The Jealous Lovers | |