Ray. Let us attend to humble our best thanks, For these high favours.

Enter AUTUMN and BACCHANALIAN.

Pom. My dearest lord, according to th' injunction

Of your command, I have, with all observance,
Given entertainment to this noble stranger.

Aut. The Sun-born Raybright, minion of my love!

Let us be twins in heart; thy grandsire's beams
Shine graciously upon our fruits and vines.
I am his vassal, servant, tributary;
And, for his sake, the kingdoms I possess,

I will divide with thee; thou shalt command
The Lydian Tmolus, and Campanian mounts,
To nod their grape-crown'd heads into thy bowls,
Expressing their rich juice; a hundred grains,
Both from the Beltick and Sicilian fields,
Shall be congested for thy sacrifice,

In Ceres' fane; Tiber shall pay thee apples,
And Sicyon olives; all the choicest fruits
Thy father's heat doth ripen.

Ray. Make me but treasurer

Of your respected favours, and that honour
Shall equal my ambition.

Aut. My Pomona,

Speed to prepare a banquet of [all] novelties.

This is a day of rest, and we, the whiles,
Will sport before our friends, and shorten time
With length of wonted revels.

Pom. I obey.

Will't please you, madam? a retirement

From these extremes in men, more tolerable,
Will better fit our modesties.

Hum. I'll drink,

And be a Bacchanalian-no, I will not.

Enter, I'll follow ;-stay, I'll go before.-
Pom. Even what Humour pleaseth.

[Exeunt HUM. and Poм.

Aut. Raybright, a health to Phoebus!

[A Flourish.-Drinks.

These are the Pæans, which we sing to him,
And yet we wear no bays; our cups are only
Crown'd with Lyæus' blood: to him a health!
[A Flourish.-Drinks.

Ray. I must pledge that too.

Aut. Now, one other health

To our grand patron, call'd Good-fellowship;

Whose livery all our people hereabout

Are clad in.

Ray. I am for that too.

Aut. 'Tis well;

[Flourish.-Drinks.

Let it go round; and, as our custom is

Of recreations of this nature, join

Your voices, as you drink, in lively notes;
Sing Iös unto Bacchus.

And yet we wear no bays.] The 4to reads: And ye wear no bays. I think this belongs to Raybright, who, on bearing Autumn express his devotion to the Sun, observes, that he does not wear the insignia of that deity; and yet ye wear, &c.; to which the other replies with a boast of his attachment to Bacchus, our cups are only, &c." I have, however, made no change in the former arrangement of the text.

66

Fol. Hey-hoes! a god of winds: there's at least four-and-twenty of them imprisoned in my belly; if I sigh not forth some of them, the rest will break out at the back-door; and how sweet the music of their roaring will be, let an Irishman judge.

Ray. He is a songster too.

Fol. A very foolish one; my music is natural, and came by inheritance: my father was a French nightingale, and my mother an English wagtail; I was born a cuckoo in the spring, and lost my voice in summer, with laying my eggs in a sparrow's nest; but I'll venture for one:-fill my dishevery one take his own, and, when I hold up my finger, off with it,

Cast away care; he that loves sorrow
Lengthens not a day, nor can buy to-morrow:
Money is trash; and he that will spend it,
Let him drink merrily, Fortune will send it.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, Oh, ho!
Play it off stifly, we may not part so.
Chor. Merrily, &c.

[Here, and at the conclusion of every
stanza, they drink.

Wine is a charm, it heats the blood too,

Cowards it will arm, if the wine be good too;
Quickens the wit, and makes the back able,
Scorns to submit to the watch or constable.
Merrily, &c.

Pots fly about, give us more liquor,

Brothers of a rout, our brains will flow quicker; Empty the cask; score up, we care not;

Fill all the pots again, drink on, and

Merrily, &c.

spare not.

Now, have I more air than ten musicians; besides there is a whirlwind in my brains, I could both caper and turn round.

Aut. Oh, a dance by all means!

Now cease your healths, and in an active motion Bestir ye nimbly, to beguile the hours.

Fol. I am for you in that too; 'twill jog down the lees of these rouses into a freer passage; but take heed of sure footing, 'tis a slippery season: many men fall by rising, and many women are raised by falling.

A DANCE.

Aut. How likes our friend this pastime?
Ray. Above utterance.

Oh, how have I, in ignorance and dulness,
Run through the progress of so many minutes,
Accusing him, who was my life's first author,
Of slackness and neglect, whilst I have dreamt
The folly of my days in vain expense
Of useless taste and pleasure! Pray, my lord,
Let one health pass about, whilst I bethink me
What course I am to take, for being denizen
In your unlimited courtesies.

Aut. Devise a round;*

You have your liberty.

2 Devise a round.] i. e. a health to pass round; name a toast, in short; which Raybright immediately does..

Ray. A health to Autumn's self!

And here let time hold still his restless glass,
That not another golden sand may fall

To measure how it passeth.

[They drink.

Aut. Continue here with me, and by thy pre

sence

Create me favourite to thy fair progenitor,

And be mine heir.

Ray. I want words to express

My thankfulness.

Aut. Whate'er the wanton Spring,

When she doth diaper the ground with beauties, Toils for, comes home to Autumn; Summer sweats,

Either in pasturing her furlongs, reaping

The crop of bread, ripening the fruits for food, [While] Autumn's garners house them, Autumn's jollities

Feed on them; I alone in every land,

Traffic my useful merchandize; gold and jewels, Lordly possessions, are for my commodities Mortgaged and lost: I sit chief moderator Between the cheek-parch'd Summer, and th' ex

tremes

Of Winter's tedious frost; nay, in myself

I do contain another teeming Spring.

Surety of health, prosperity of life

Belongs to Autumn; if thou then canst hope

To inherit immortality in frailty,

Live here till time be spent, yet be not old.