All conquering Bounty, queen of hearts, life's

glory,
Nature's perfection; whom all love, all serve;
To whom Fortune, even in extreme 's a slave;
When I fall from my duty to thy goodness,
Let me be rank'd as nothing !

Boun. Come, you flatter me.
Ray. I flatter you! why, madam, you are

Bounty;
Sole daughter to the royal throne of peace.
Hum. He minds not me now.

[Aside.
Ray. Bounty's self!
For you, he is no soldier dares not fight;
No scholar he, that dares not plead your merits,
Or study your best sweetness; should the Sun,
Eclips'd for many years, forbear to shine
Upon the bosom of our naked pastures,
Yet, where you are, the glories of
Would warm the barren grounds, arm heartless

misery, And cherish desolation : 'deed I honour you, And, as all others ought to do, I serve you. Hum. Are these the rare sights, these the pro

mis'd compliments ? Win. Attendance on our revels! let delight Conjoin the day with sable-footed night; Both shall forsake their orbs, and in one sphere Meet in soft mirth, and harmless pleasures here: While plump Lyæus shall, with garland crown'd Of triumph-ivy, in full cups

your smiles

Of Cretan wine, and shall dame Ceres call
To wait on you, at Winter's festival ;
While gaudy Summer, Autumn, and the Spring,
Shall to my lord their choicest viands bring.
We'll rob the sea, and from the subtle air
Fetch her inhabitants, to supply our fare;
That, were Apicius here, he in one night
Should sate with dainties his strong appetite.
Begin our revels then, and let all pleasure
Flow like the ocean in a boundless measure.

[A Flourish.

Enter Concert and DETRACTION.

Con. Wit and pleasure, soft attention

Grace the sports of our invention. Detr. Conceit, peace! for Detraction

Hath already drawn a faction

Shall deride thee.
Con.

Antick, leave me!
For in labouring to bereave me
Of a scholar's praise, thy dotage

Shall be hiss'd at.
Detr.

Here's a hot age,
When such petty penmen covet
Fame by folly! On; I'll prove

it
Scurvy by thy part, and try thee

By thine own wit.
Con.

I defy thee;
Here are nobler judges ; wit
Cannot suffer where they sit.

Detr. Prithee, foolish Conceit, leave off thy set speeches, and come to the conceit itself in plain language. What goodly thing is't, in the name of laughter ? Con. Detraction, do thy worst. Conceit ap

pears, In honour of the Sun, their fellow-friend, Before thy censure: know, then, that the spheres Have for a while resign'd their orbs, and lend Their seats to the four Elements, who join'd With the four known Complexions, have atoned A noble league, and severally put on Material bodies; here amongst them none Observes a difference: Earth and Air alike Are sprightly active; Fire and Water seek No glory of pre-eminence; Phlegm and Blood, Choler and Melancholy, who have stood In contrarieties, now meet for pleasure, To entertain time in a courtly Measure.

Detr. Impossible and improper; first, to personate insensible creatures, and next, to compound quite opposite humours ! fie, fie, fie! it's abominable.

Con. Fond ignorance ! how darest thou vainly

scan

Impossibility, what reigns in man
Without disorder, wisely mix'd by nature,
To fashion and preserve so high a creature ?

Detr. Sweet sir, when shall our mortal eyes behold this new piece of wonder? We must gaze on the stars for it, doubtless.

The Scene opens, and discovers the Masquers, (the four Elements, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth; and the four Complexions, Phlegm, Blood, Choler, and Melancholy,) on a raised Platform.

Con. See, thus the clouds fly off, and run in

chase, When the Sun's bounty lends peculiar grace.

Detr. Fine, i’faith; pretty, and in good earnest : but, sirrah scholar, will they come down too?

Con. Behold them well; the foremost represents Air, the most sportive of the elements.

Detr. A nimble rascal, I warrant him some alderman's son; wondrous giddy and light-headed; one that blew his patrimony away in feather and tobacco.

Con. The next near him is Fire.

Detr. A choleric gentleman, I should know him; a younger brother and a great spender, but seldom or never carries any money about him: he was begot when the sign was in Taurus, for he roars like a bull, but is indeed a bell-wether.

Con. The third in rank is Water.

Detr. A phlegmatic cold piece of stuff: his father, methinks, should be one of the duncetable,' and one that never drank strong beer in's

9 Dunce-table.) An inferior table provided in some Inns of court, it is said, for the poorer or duller students. See Mass, vol. iii. p. 216. VOL. II.

FF

life, but at festival times; and then he caught the heart-burning a whole vacation and half a term after.

Con. The fourth is Earth.

Detr. A shrewd plotting-pated fellow, and a great lover of news. I guess at the rest; Blood is placed near Air, Choler near Fire; Phlegm and Water are sworn brothers, and so are Earth and Melancholy.

Con. Fair nymph of Harmony, be it thy task To sing them down, and rank them in a masque.

A SONG : During which, the Masquers descend upon the

Stage, and take their places for the Dance.

See the Elements conspire:

Nimble Air does court the Earth,
Water does commix with fire,

To give our prince's pleasure birth;
Each delight, each joy, each sweet
In one composition meet,
All the seasons of the year;

Winter does invoke the Spring,
Summer does in pride appear,

Autumn forth its fruits doth bring,
And with emulation pay

Their tribute to this holy-day ;
In which the Darling of the Sun is come,
To make this place a new Elysium.

[A Dance.—Exeunt Masquers.