University of Virginia Library

Scena secunda.

Enter Pedante the Parasite, attired in a gown and cap like a Schoolmaister, and with him Attilia.
Attilia.
I Pray you maister Schoolmaister let me be gone:
I haue haste on my way, Ile be at home again anone.

Pedante.
Sweet hart and bag pudding goe you so swiftly?
Haue with you then, doo ye lack any company?

Attilia.
In faith Sir no.

Pedante.
I pray you tell me one thing before you parte,
I think you be somwhat wetherwise by your arte.
Doo you knowe me by acqaintance, or gesse you by aime?
That you hit so right on my office in stead of my name?

Attilia.
I haue seen you before if I am not beguilde:
You haue been Schoolmaister to maister Fedele euer since he was a childe.

Pedante.
True sweet hart, but I pray thee be not angry with mee:
But giue me leaue a little while to mooue a question to thee.
What is your name, and where doo you dwell?

Attilia.
Softe, there lay a strawe, that will I not tell.
Alas poor Attilia, what meanes he by this?
If I stay with him long, my mistres Victoria her seruant wil misse.
About your busines good Sir, I pray you get you away:
I purpose not to tell you my name this day.

Pedante.
Be not so strange faire Lady, I knowe your name very well,
And the name of your mistres, and the place where you dwell.

Attilia.
If you doo, much good doo it you, I can tary no longer:

Pedante.
Then I perceiue I shall be driuen to try who is the stronger.
I shall tell you one thing if it please you to stay:

(stop her.
Attilia.
Speak your minde quickly, a woord and away,

Pedante.
Bee not angry I beseech you, to hear that is true,
You are the fairest Creature that euer I did view.

Attilia.
What followes of this?

Pedante.
I like you, and looue you, before all the Creatures that euer I knew,

Attillia.
What ill luck is this? I see nothing that makes me to loue and like you.

Pedante.
You might if you tride me, for I come of the smiters:

Attilia.
Great barkers are none of the greatest biters.

Pedante.
Good mistres Attilia, because you haue haste:
I will talke with you more, when your busines is past.
If I can be spared from my Maister so long, soon at night:
I will resorte to your house, and lay my meaning wide open before your sight.

Attilia.
Farwel Sir Pedante, look you be not too quick:

Exit.
Pedante.
What a drunken wooer am I that gaue her neuer a licke,
This falles out pat for my Maister Fedele, and comes in the nick.
By cogging and counterfaiting looue, as you see:
If Attilia be so mad, as to like and looue mee,
By her all the Iugling of her mistres I shall knowe:
And finde whether any new cōmers, haue set my Maister beside the cushin or no.

Crack-stone.
This is as excrement for my proposition as can be desirde,
Soon at night like the Schoolmaister will I be attirde.
First come, first seru'd, if the maid be so freendly to let mee in:
Then Sa Sa Sa, the battaile will beginne.
With that Magnaniminstrelsie and mercy, that in mee dooth floe:
Ile make a conflict of the Mistres, and let the maid goe.
Farewell seely Schoolmaister. this Iniunction is not found in his Aduerb I trowe.

Exit.
Pedante.
These tidings wilbe ioyfull to my maister I am sure,
Who for loue of Victoria suffers many a sharp shower:
Enter Fedele.
Loe where he comes walking by him selfe alone,
With his head full of thoughts, and his hart full of mone.
Rowse vp your wittes Sir, what are you a sleep?
Neuer be so base minded to a woman to creep.
See, see, your cap on your head, good manners forgot,
Now you are come to your owne swinge, you knowe me not.
Doo your dutie to your maister, good nurture is best:
In via virtutis non progredi, regredi est.

Fedele.
Alas my care so closeth vp my sight:
That all is lost, wherin I should delight.

Pedante.
You knowe that it may be said of me, which was said of Vlisses,
Multorum hominum mores qui vidit et vrbes.
Therfore if you desire mee your cares to releeue:
The best counsell I can, to you I will giue.

Fedele.
You knowe Victoria is the cause of all my secret smart:
Victoriaes beautie is the worme, that gnawes me to the hart.
What counsaile now?

Pedante.
Did not I teach you long agoe out of tragicall Seneca:
His golden saying, duo omnium malorum foemina?
Did I not cause you with your pen in the margent of your book, to marke that place:
And yet will you be tooting on a beautifull face?
Which no otherwise vanisheth, and away dooth goe:
Then water, that neuer returnes to the spring, from whence it did flowe.
Beautie is so tickle a foundation to bear any frame:
And looue so vncertain, that it throwes the house on his hed that built the same.
Wherupon I gaue you a good lesson of olde:
Euery letter therof would be written in Golde.
Quod iuuat exiguum est, plus est quod lædit amantes:
They knowe what I mean that are versificautes

Fedele.
If this colde comfort in my need, be all that I shall haue:
Out of my sight. No succour at thy handes I mean to craue.

Pedante.
Adultus Iuuenis tandem custode remoto:
Cereus in vitium flecti, monitoribus asper.
The right course of the world, now he runnes vpon wheeles:
Had I knowen this when you were a boy, I would haue hamperd your heeles.
It were a good deed to set all your fortune at euen and od:
And let you alone till you are beaten with your owne rod.
But the looue that I bear to you euery day:
Will not suffer me to see this good witte cast away.
Some tidings I haue for you, therfore be not afraid:
I am growen in acquaintance with Victoriaes maid.
By whome I trust in the end to knowe:
What Suters to her Mistres resorte too and fro.
If no body els do followe the game:
The spark that you left in her brest, will break out in a flame.

Fedele.
Thankes good Pedante, get thee home and leaue me heer a space:
To trye if I may meet with faire Victoria in this place.

Pedante.
I knowe where to prick that the vain may bleed:
See how faire he dooth speak, when his humour I feed.
This passeth Prosodia, Sintaxis and all,
Tis the way to my profit to stoop to his call.

Exit.
Fedele.
Heer was I wunt to meet with her, and heer I mean to walke:
And sound her meaning if I may, by moouing her to talke.

Victoria setteth open the Casement of her windowe and with her Lute in her hand playeth, and singeth this dittie.
Victoria.
Speake.

Fedele.
Oh greedy looue that neuer feeleth glut,
How haue I boasted of Victoriaes grace?
With feare at last from fauour to be shut,
And lose the light of such a shining face?
Shall neither teares, nor toyle, nor broken sleep:
Haue force inough a Ladies looue to keep?

Victoria.
And hath Fortunio now forgot the way.
Which by my windowe learnd of late to walke:
See the disturber of my peace this day,
Fedele comes to proffer mee some talke.
Sith hee is heer, his patience I will prooue:
Whome for Fortunios sake I cannot looue.

Fedele.
I serue a Mistres whiter then the snowe,
Straighter then Cedar, brighter then the Glasse:
Finer in trip and swifter then the Roe,
More pleasant then the Feeld of flowring Grasse.
More gladsome to my withering Ioyes that fade:
Then Winters Sun, or Sommers cooling shade,
Sweeter then swelling grape of ripest wine,
Softer then feathers of the fairest Swan:
Smoother then Iet, more stately then the Pine,
Fresher then Poplar, smaller then my span.
Clearer then Beauties fiery pointed beam:
Or Ysie cruste of Christalles frosen stream.
Yet is shee curster then the Beare by kinde,
And harder harted then the aged Oke:
More glib then Oyle, more fickle then the winde,
Stiffer then Steele, no sooner bent but broke.
Loe thus my seruice is a lasting sore:
Yet will I serue although I dye therfore.

Enter Victoria.
Victoria.
Now must I either fode him off with fained curtesie:
Or els be coy in talke, to rid mee of his company.
Sir Fedele well met, and so farwell, I must away:
My busines is such as will not suffer me to staye.

Shee offreth to departe & he stayeth her.
Fedele.
Mistres Victoria: let vs haue one woord before yee goe,
Oh looue, oh death, between you bothe, vouchsafe to rid my woe.

Victoria.
A wunder sure it is to see, how gentlemen complain:
What cark, what care, what hell on earth, for women they sustain.
Your peace is war, your sleep is watching, and your ease is toyle:
Your life is death, your mirth is mone, and your successe a foyle.
These woordes are vsde for ornaments to beautifie your stile:
And these I think you followe, poore Victoria to beguile.

Fedele.
If for your sake alone, more then for any other dame:
I were not thus tormented, then, I graunt I were too blame.
But sith your golden graces are the cause of all my greefe:
Giue eare and credit to my plaint, and yeeld me some releefe.

Victoria.
If this be true, why did you part? and stay so long in Spain:
Delay breeds losse, either I thought you would not come again.
Or els that change of company would alter your delight,
And absence put me out of minde, that shut me out of sight.
Did not I say, that your departure would my death procure?

Fedele.
You did.

Victoria.
And could you make me then to feele so sharp a showre?

Fedele.
Need hathe no lawe, the matter toucht my land and life so neer:
That I was forste against my will, to stay no longer heer.
But sith I haue dispatcht, according to mine owne desire:
Loe heer I am to serue you still, in bitter frost, or fier.