University of Virginia Library

Scena, 4.

The Scence, the Palace within.
Erminia, Althea.
Er.
Althea are all the doors shut?

Al.
They are Madam.

Er.
And have you given order they let none enter?

Al.
I have.

Er.
'Tis well.
So should wives live, honourable wives,
solitary & retir'd when their husbands are away,
always apprehending what will the people say;
for 'tis not now with women as t'was ith' dayes
of Innocence, when none imagin'd harm,
'cause none did any; but now if we admit
mens visits, they presently speak ill of it;
if womens ill too, ill of every thing:
& though publick rumor be but a breath 'tis true,
yet fame and honour is so pure a thing,
as like christal mirrors
'tis blemisht with every breath,
and more pure, more subject to blemishing.

Al.
The more's the pitty.

Er.
Then if they stir abroad,
the world's so foul and durty, how nicely one
must go, and step by step pick out their way
not to defile their Ermine purity?

Al.
Lo there? and I go dash, dash,
thorow thick and thin.
that's my way now.

Er.
Besides, how softly and warily must they tread,
not to awaken rumour and calumny,
which once fastning on our fames and honours,
oh how they tear them with their poisonous
teeth?

Al.
What a terrible bandog do's she make of it
which other Ladies play with, as familiarly
as with their little Shocks or Bononia Dogs?

Er.
In fine, this fame's a hard lesson,
and one must study it well.—

Al.
Faith 'tis so hard as I despair
Aside.
ever to learn it. I must put her out
of this study, or she's a lost woman.
And why this retirement and solitude, Madam?
most wives have never better dayes, then
in absence of their husbands.
What's a husband but a man? and there are
men enough in the world besides.

Er.
Is the wench mad?

Al.
No, but we shud think that woman so
shud pine away, and starve her self
in her husbands absence; & this is just your case:
uds bodykins before I'd torment my self so
for want of a husband,
I'd have twenty so I would.

Er.
Peace Althea, peace for shame,
and cease thy idle talk.

Al.
Pardon me, Madam, I am left in charge
of your health, and must speak.

Er.
Speak modestly then,
for I am left in charge of my honour too,
and must do that, it obliges me to do:
nor shall Cleander purchase more honor abroad,
then Erminia shall at home.

Al.
That man never gets honour (nor woman
that's never tried: what made Penelope (neither)
so famous (I pray) in her husbands absence, but
her entertaining so many Gallants as she did?
there was a valiant woman now. Let them come
as many as they wod, she fear'd them not,
she knew she cod deal with them all.
And you to lock up your self
(a this manner) for fear of them! there's wise
valour indeed!

Er.
As though there were not as much
valour, in Passive Fortitude, and holding out
a siege, against the enemy; as in the Active one,
of fighting them in the field. The one is
Cleander's honour, the other shall be mine.
In either we'l declare our selves invincible.

Al.
I grant you a mans honour
chiefly consists in fighting,
and a womans in defending her chastity;
but there's discretion in all things;
a man may fight and fight,
and yet be counted a quarrelsom
Coxcomb for his pains:
and a woman proud and peevish,
in defending her chastity:
give me a fair condition'd man or woman
'long as you live; & one, that understands reason.
I cannot blame young maids
to have always for burthen of their song,
a husband, a husband, for they never tryed,
and therefore may long perhaps;
but for married wives
to be alwayes in that tone, and crying out
for their husbands,
like fools and children for their baubles,
shews a kinde of incontinence,
and insatiate desire in them.

Er.
Cleander was my first love, & shall be the last
and onely one I'le ever have.

Al.
That shews
your ignorance now; for as that man shud never
be a great scholar who never red but in onebook,
so shud she never be a wise woman, who
never knew but one man. Variety
is good in every thing; and use in that,
as in all things else makes perfectness.

Er.
Well Althea,
I know you say this by way of argument now,
and onely to try your wit; but take heed,
'tis dangerous disputing against known verities;
“and Atheisme in Religion,
“Rebellion in States, and dissolution
“in life and manners, had all their rise at first
“from knowing the best, and arguing for the
worst.

Al.
Well then, since you will needs be so far
out of fashion of other wives,
to remember your husband in's absence;
how can you better do't then by recommending
him in your Orasons to the Gods?
and my Lord Cleander being now expos'd
to the dangerous chance of war, to whom can you
better recommend him, then to the God of war?

Er.
Now thou advisest well.
Mars's Statue discovered, Erminia kneels.
Great Mars, thou whose potent Arm do's weild
The deadly pointed Lance, and mighty Shield,
Fight for my dear Cleander with the one,
And with the other, O defend him from
His enemies abroad, and grant that he
May safely but return with victory:
So shall I ever honour thee, ever pay
My vows unto thee; and on thy Altars lay
The purest offrings the world e're cod get,
Or e're were laid upon thy Altars yet.
Hear me great Mars.