 | Love and War |  |
Scen. 1.
Lerenica, Histerica.Ler.
Display my tresses, see decent places
Become their shapes, withdraw the stragling
Hairs, reduce them to a set form.
Hist.
'Tis done.
Behold, delicious, sweet face't Hymens day,
And what your will is with acceptance pleas'd
To be, my purpose was to have took labour,
In conveying you to some chaste Nunnery,
Where all refreshment of a doleful day
Should be low sighs; but your mind is turn'd
You in its place receive a Palace bright,
Where Diadems come to a grasping hand,
Such riot by a fury is imploy'd,
That reason would conclude (if sense guide not)
That walls and houses were all eeven ground,
And by it fumes sent by an airy help,
Draweth a curtain betwixt friends and foe,
And no other musick practised,
But clamours from both wide and shril-sound throats,
As't were a ransome to a Victory,
The cause whereof Bellerrio counts you fair.
Lere.
Had you by favour obtained the good will
Of Duke Bellerrio, and no outraging
Carriage by a mysterious form, metamorphos'd
The design, but expedition wrought with
Nature so, that in the passage of affection,
You by discretion wrought to the object,
Combined with a smile, following by track,
Or by tradition, to the wonted place,
All the Nuptial Rights that are wished for,
To present to the view a happy morn,
As Bridegrooms morrows, Sack-posset, and beside,
A thing not to be named.
Oh! My blood is young.
Lere.
It would have favour'd time, so as an hour
Rest, when waken all the joyes being past,
And what did boyl by a lascivious lust,
Would cooled be by a dull appetite,
You may protest when tall Bellerrio,
Did by his own known Counsell hide
Within my soul a treasure not corrupt.
In those consenting silent times he moved,
Was but a gliding beam to Sol his selfe,
Which by its fullnesse brings on this malady;
But now renouncing those bad infections,
Receives by means some vitall Spirits in,
To bid defiance to those false allurements.
Hist.
It were too hard, you speak not like a Syren,
For beauty, shape, with modesty, if tyrants all with-
stand, are invitations to Venus Courts,
The efficacy therein by which they bear,
If were abrap'd, the Academy of Love were gone;
Nay if by nature possibly I could
Be turn'd a Man, if Icie temper seiz'd
Upon my limbs, and put to prospect as
One wanting soul, the like reward, also
Hopeful enterprize, would then regenerate,
As I have hear-said, calor naturalis in my veins;
Nay if Midas his wish, with Jasons golden fleece,
Put to redeem your same beautious piece,
Yet all would prove too vain; for you are such,
And have like virtues, both in least and much;
I cannot so my selfe so full express,
As if a man I were I do confesse,
For then I should inlarge at every word,
And here for three, three hundred then afford.
Lere.
Believe me, Histerica at this time doth pierce
My understanding a thought of great belief,
That he prefers you to a place so high,
To be the prologue to his enterprise;
But by his carriage he should be what wise,
(And if he be) he should have took more care,
Than to send such Orations as these.
Learning is not a bait fit for Womens stomacks;
Fostered Muse, than any Tullian phrase, or
Homers lines, you are too high in your design,
And withall too tedious, away, away,
Be sure your words are not in office, like
Compelling swords, but turn their calling to
Rebounding echoes; they are air, and so
They vanish, and doth not enter my soul;
And if by lot he chuses you again,
Tell him from me he is not wise.
Hist.
Too hard
Nature to work upon, and by temper,
Was not first decreed to be a woman;
For women are soft, you carry an opposition:
For men to love, you stand against the cause,
But 'tis no matter; now Bellerrio comes,
[Enter Beller.
He'l speak himself.
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