Of beauty; physic yet hath never found
A remedy to cure a lover's wound.-
Ha! who are those that cross you private walk
Into the shadowing grove, in amorous foldings?

PROPHILUS and EUPHRANEA pass by, arm in arm, and whispering.

My sister; O, my sister! 'tis Euphranea
With Prophilus; supported too! I would
It were an apparition! Prophilus

Is Ithocles his friend: it strangely puzzles me.

Re-enter PROPHILUS and EUPHRANEA.

Again! help me my book; this scholar's habit
Must stand my privilege; my mind is busy,
Mine eyes and ears are open.

[Walks aside, pretending to read.

Pro. Do not waste

The span of this stolen time, lent by the gods

8

For precious use, in niceness. Bright Euphranea, Should I repeat old vows, or study new,

For purchase of belief to my desires,

Org. Desires!

Pro. My service, my integrity.

Org. That's better.

Pro. I should but repeat a lesson

Oft conn'd without a prompter, but thine eyes: My love is honourable.—

8 Do not waste

The span of this stolen time, lent by the gods

For precious use, in niceness.] i. e. in unnecessary pre

ciseness; in starting trivial and unimportant objections.

Org. So was mine

To my Penthea; chastely honourable.

Pro. Nor wants there more addition to my wish Of happiness, than having thee a wife;

Already sure of Ithocles, a friend

Firm and unalterable.

Org. But a brother

More cruel than the grave.

Euph. What can you look for
In answer to your noble protestations,
From an unskilful maid, but language suited
To a divided mind?

Org. Hold out, Euphranea!

Euph. Know, Prophilus, I never undervalued,
From the first time you mention'd worthy love,
Your merit, means, or person; it had been
A fault of judgment in me, and a dulness
In my affections, not to weigh and thank
My better stars, that offer'd me the grace
Of so much blissfulness: for, to speak truth,
The law of my desires kept equal pace
With your's; nor have I left that resolution:
But only, in a word, whatever choice

Lives nearest in my heart, must first procure
Consent, both from my father and my brother,
Ere he can own me his.

Org. She is foresworn else.

Pro. Leave me that task.

Euph. My brother, ere he parted

To Athens, had my oath.

Org. Yes, yes, he had sure.

Pro. I doubt not, with the means the court

supplies,

But to prevail at pleasure.

Org. Very likely! .

Pro. Meantime, best, dearest, I may build my

hopes

On the foundation of thy constant sufferance,
In any opposition.

Euph. Death shall sooner

Divorce life, and the joys I have in living,

Than my chaste vows from truth.

Pro. On thy fair hand

I seal the like.

Org. There is no faith in woman.

Passion, O be contain'd!-my very heart-strings Are on the tenters.

Euph. We are overheard.'

Cupid protect us! 'twas a stirring, sir,

Of some one near.

Pro. Your fears are needless, lady;

None have access into these private pleasures,
Except some near in court, or bosom student
From Tecnicus his Oratory; granted
By special favour lately from the king
Unto the grave philosopher.

66

Euph. We are overheard.] The 4to reads, heard," which destroys both metre and rhythm. ner in which this is printed in the old copy, I suaded that the original stood thus:

Sir, we are overFrom the manam almost per

"We are overheard, sir. Cupid protect us! 'twas a stirring, sure, Of some one near."

Euph. Methinks

I hear one talking to himself-I see him.

Pro. 'Tis a poor scholar; as I told you, lady. Org. I am discover'd.-Say it; is it possible, [Half aloud to himself, as if studying. With a smooth tongue, a leering countenance, Flattery, or force of reason-I come to you, sirTo turn or to appease the raging sea?

Answer to that.-Your art! what art? to catch
And hold fast in a net the sun's small atoms?
No, no; they'll out, they'll out; you may as easily
Outrun a cloud driven by a northern blast,
As-fiddle-faddle so! peace, or speak sense.
Euph. Call you this thing a scholar? 'las, he's
lunatic.

Pro. Observe him, sweet; 'tis but his recreation. Org. But will you hear a little? You are so tetchy,

You keep no rule in argument; philosophy
Works not upon impossibilities,

But natural conclusions.-Mew!-absurd!
The metaphysics are but speculations

Of the celestial bodies, or such accidents

As not mixt perfectly, in the air engender'd,
Appear to us unnatural; that's all.

Prove it; yet, with a reverence to your gravity,
I'll baulk illiterate sauciness, submitting

My sole opinion to the touch of writers.

Pro. Now let us fall in with him.

[They come forward.

Org. Ha, ha, ha!

These apish boys, when they but taste the gram

mates,'

And principles of theory, imagine

They can oppose their teachers. Confidence

Leads many into errors.

Pro. By your leave, sir.

Euph. Are you a scholar, friend?

Org. I am, gay creature,

With pardon of your deities, a mushroom

On whom the dew of heaven drops now and

them;

The sun shines on me too, I thank his beams! Sometimes I feel their warmth; and eat and

sleep.

Pro. Does Tecnicus read to thee?

Org. Yes, forsooth,

He is my master surely; yonder door
Opens upon his study.

Pro. Happy creatures!

Such people toil not, sweet, in heats of state, Nor sink in thaws of greatness: their affections Keep order with the limits of their modesty ; Their love is love of virtue. What's thy name?

When they but taste the grammates.] Orgilus affects the pedantlanguage of the schools. To taste is to touch lightly, to merely enter on grammates seems to be a contemptuous diminutive for grammar, as grammatist is for grammarian.

Mew!--absurd! which occurs just above, is a term of the schools, and is used when false conclusions are illogically deduced from the opponent's premises. See Mass. vol. iii. p. 230. where many examples of the expression may be found.