 | Love's Hospital |  |
39
Scen: 2a
Lepidus & ÆgidiusLepidus comes in to ye fore ∥te of ye stage Apace.
Ægidius:
Nay do not rune away wt h it so, as if I meant
To sett vp my staffe here on any conditions:
Blood is noe dowrye, I take it beauty is A pretty
Playfellow, but A good huswife's good to breed on
yet I like yr daughter she may breed me
children may follow their fathers stepps
And thrive in ye worlde.
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Lord how covetous he is yt hath one foot in ye grave
already? well Ægidius, you love my daughter you say
Ægid:
Yea, but ye other thousande (my Lord) would
Make her nere the less lovely, & worke much wt h me
Golde is ye only Catholicon, ye Restorative
Of all decayes in Natures workes, cures beyonde
What ye legend or Physitian boasts of.
Nor can your owne judgmente directe you wher you
should better place it then wt h one so likely to
Improve it for ye good of yours.
Lepid:
Ile loose noe hint of sporte for want of promises.—
Aside.
Ægidius I have alwayes observed yr care
and thriftiness, how strickt a stewarde you have bin
for Nature, nere sufferinge to lanch out into vaine
& frivolouse expences, A vice I alwayes hated
Ægid:
Then it must be so you'le be my father in law
If I can please Facetia
Lepid:
You may not doubt that; I haveinge so prpared her
Ther is indeed in maydes, A kinde of puleinge
Hypocrisy, A formality of denyeinge att leaste
Not yeeldeinge att first encounter.
Ægid
Lett custome have its course.
Lepid:
Otherwise she is all mine owne, lookes wt h my eyes
Likes wt h my fancye or refuseth; had you but seene
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younge Comastes ye other day—
I beleeve she coolde his suite, heele have noe joy
to come hither ag[i]eaine in haste.
Ægid:
youth is to raw in ye worlds practi[s]ce they
know not what they doe when they com̄itt
Themselves to marriage bondes. I shall meet her
In ye yeares of discretion, & shall gett children
Shall attaine too't before one and twentye.
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Most probable: I alwayes fancyed to my selfe
The man whome Fortune now in you prsents
And though you chance to meet wt h opposition
Of other suiters lett that but whett yr edge
Twas danger and multitude of Rivalls
That rendred Atlanta's glorye
Ægidius
—These I digest but all this is noethinge to ye
Motion I intimated.
Lepidus:
Oh, the other thousande, I shall not sticke
For that, I can̄ot be vnnaturall; on whome
but on myne owne should I bestow my
Whole remainder,? knowinge how well you
Know to husbande it but heres another suitor
Enter Piscinus & Columella behinde him.
Ægidius
What active spirits posses me? O the Antipathy
of operation, yt Gold ye heaviest mettale shoulde
Make me light! why it infuses A new soule into
me, and takes away ye defects of A Quondam
disabled [body.] but I will on whilst ye heat lasts
that I may prvent ye rest.
Exit Ægid:
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