[615] From Royal MSS. 18A xxxi. (British Museum).
[616] MS. “juvenibusque”—an unmetrical reading.
[617] MS. “Hi.”
[618] MS. “Tridentifere.”
[619] MS. “pleno fraterna.”
[620] “In MS. legitur, Neptunus, Eolus, Jupiter; Monosyllaba hæc duo interposita metrum ad iambicos Marstonianos (non Horatianos, fatemur) restituunt.”—Halliwell.
From Sir Robert Chester’s Love’s Martyr,[621] 1601.
A Narration and Description of a most exact wondrous Creature, arising out of the Phœnix and Turtle-Dove’s ashes.
O, ’twas a moving Epicedium!
Can fire, can time, can blackest fate consume
So rare creation? No, ’tis thwart to sense;
Corruption quakes to touch such excellence;
Nature exclaims for justice, justice fate,—
Ought into nought can never remigrate.
Then look; for see what glorious issue, brighter
Than clearest fire, and beyond faith far whiter
Than Dian’s tier, now springs from yonder flame!
Let me stand numb’d with wonder; never came 10
So strong amazement on astonish’d eye
As this, this measureless pure rarity.
Lo, now, th’ extracture of Divinest essence,
The soul of Heaven’s laboured quintessence,
(Pæans to Phœbus!) your dear lover’s death
Takes sweet creation and all-blessing breath.
What strangeness is’t, that from the Turtle’s ashes
Assumes such form, whose splendour clearer flashes
Than mounted Delius? Tell me, genuine muse!
Now yield your aids, you spirits that infuse 20
A sacred rapture, light my weaker eye,
Raise my invention on swift fantasy;
That whilst of this same Metaphysical,
God, man, nor woman, but elix’d of all,
My labouring thoughts with strainèd ardour sing,
My muse may mount with an uncommon wing.
The Description of this Perfection.
Dares then thy too audacious sense
Presume define that boundless Ens,
That amplest thought transcendeth?
O yet vouchsafe, my muse, to greet
That wondrous rareness, in whose sweet
All praise begins and endeth.
Divinest Beauty! that was slightest,
That adorn’d this wondrous Brightest,
Which had nought to be corrupted.
In this perfection had no mean; 10
To this earth’s purest was unclean,
Which virtue even instructed.
By it all beings deck’d and stainèd,
Ideas that are idly feignèd
Only here subsist invested;
Dread not to give strain’d praise at all,
No speech is hyperbolical
To this Perfection blessèd.
Thus close my rhymes; this all that can be said,
This wonder never can be flatterèd. 20
To Perfection.—A Sonnet.
Oft have I gazèd with astonish’d eye
At monstrous issues of ill-shapèd birth,
When I have seen the midwife to old Earth,
Nature, produce most strange deformity.
So have I marvell’d to observe of late
Hard-favour’d feminines so scant of fair,
That masks so choicely shelter’d of the air,
As if their beauties were not theirs by fate.
But who so weak of observation,
Hath not discern’d long since how virtues wanted, 10
How parsimoniously the Heavens have scanted
Our chiefest part of adoration?
But now I cease to wonder, now I find
The cause of all our monstrous penny-shows;
Now I conceit from whence wit’s scarcety grows,
Hard favour’d features, and defects of mind.
Nature long time hath stor’d up virtue, fairness,
Shaping the rest as foils unto this Rareness.
Perfectioni Hymnus.
What should I call this Creature,
Which now is grown unto maturity?
How should I blaze this feature
As firm and constant as eternity?
Call it perfection? Fie!
’Tis perfecter than brightest names can light it;
Call it Heaven’s mirror? Ay,
Alas! best attributes can never right it.
Beauty’s resistless thunder?
All nomination is too straight of sense. 10
Deep contemplation’s wonder?
That appellation give this excellence.
Within all best confined,
(Now, feebler Genius, end thy slighter rhyming),
No suburbs,[622]—all
is mind,—
As far from spot as possible defining.
John Marston.
[621] The verses are from the appendix to Love’s Martyr. The appendix has a separate title—Hereafter Follow Diverse Poeticall Essaies on the former Subiect; viz.: the Turtle and Phœnix. Done by the best and chiefest of our moderne writers, with their names subscribed to their particular workes: neuer before extant, &c. Marston’s verses follow Shakespeare’s Phœnix and Turtle.
[622] “Differentia Deorum et Hominum, apud Senecam; Sic habet nostri melior pars animum, in illis nulla pars extra animum.”—Marginal note in old ed.
It is with some diffidence that I include this piece among Marston’s Works. Mr. J. P. Collier printed it in 1848 for the Shakespeare Society from a MS. in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire; and he stated that Marston’s name is pencilled on the cover of the MS. in a handwriting of the time. This MS. appears to have been mislaid, for I can find no mention of it in the catalogue of His Grace’s dramatic collection.
Collier was not aware that Nichols had printed this Masque in the third volume of his “Progress of Queen Elizabeth” from another MS., and that there is extant a third MS. copy in Add. MS. 5956 (Brit. Museum).
I have contented myself with printing Collier’s text without any material alterations; but I have given in a footnote the graceful song with which the Masque concludes in Nichols’ transcript. The Masque was performed at Court 16th February 1617-8 (See Nichols’ Progresses of King James I., iii. 466).
THE FIRST ANTIMASQUE OF
MOUNTEBANKS.
MOUNTEBANK’S SPEECH.
The great Master of medicine, Æsculapius, preserve and prolong the sanity of these Royal and Princely Spectators. And if any here present happen to be valetudinary, the blessed finger of our grand Master Paracelsus be at hand for their speedy reparation. I have heard of a mad fellow that styles himself a merry Greek, and goes abroad by the name of Paradox, who with frisking and dancing, and new broached doctrine, hath stolen himself, this Festival time of Christmas, into favour at the Court of Purple, and having there got some approbation for his small performance, is grown so audacious as to intrude himself into this honoured presence. To prevent whose further growing fame, I have, with these my fellow Artists of several nations, all famous for the bank, hither made repair, to present unto your view more wholesome, more pleasing, and more novel delights, which, to avoid prolixity, I distribute into these following commonplaces.
Names of Diseases cured by us,
Which being infinite, purposely we omit.
Musical Charms,
Familiar Receipts,
Sing their Songs, viz.:
Chorus. What is’t you lack, what would you buy?
What is it that you need?
Come to me, Gallants; taste and try:
Here’s that will do the deed.
1 Song.
1. Here’s water to quench maiden fires;
Here’s spirits for old occupiers;
Here’s powder to preserve youth long,
Here’s oil to make weak sinews strong.
What!
2. This powder doth preserve from fate;
This cures the Maleficiate:
Lost Maidenhead this doth restore,
And makes them Virgins as before.
What!
3. Here’s cure for toothache, fever-lurdens,[623]
Unlawful and untimely burdens:
Diseases of all Sex and Ages
This Medicine cures, or else assuages.
What!
4. I have receipts to cure the gout,
To keep pox in, or thrust them out;
To cool hot bloods, cold bloods to warm,
Shall do you, if no good, no harm.
What!
2 Song.
1. Is any deaf? Is any blind?
Is any bound, or loose behind?
Is any foul, that would be fair?
Would any Lady change her hair?
Does any dream? Does any walk,
Or in his sleep affrighted talk?
I come to cure what ere you feel,
Within, without, from head to heel.
2. Be drums or rattles in thy head;
Are not thy brains well tempered?
Does Eolus thy stomach gnaw,
Or breed there vermin in thy maw?
Dost thou desire, and cannot please,
Lo! here the best Cantharides.
I come.
3. Even all diseases that arise
From ill disposed crudities,
From too much study, too much pain,
From laziness, or from a strain,
From any humour doing harm,
Be ’t dry or moist, or cold or warm.
I come.
4. Of lazy gout I cure the Rich;
I rid the Beggar of his itch;
I fleam avoid, both thick and thin:
I dislocated joints put in.
I can old Æson’s youth restore,
And do a thousand wonders more.
Then come to me. What!
3 Song.
1. Maids of the chamber or the kitchen,
If you be troubled with an itching,
Come give me but a kiss or two,
I’ll give you that shall soon cure you.
Nor Galen nor Hippocrates
Did ever do such cures as these.
2. Crack’d maids, that cannot hold your water,
Or use to break wind in your laughter;
Or be you vex’d with kibes or corns,
I’ll cure; or Cuckolds of their horns.
Nor Galen.
3. If lusty Doll, maid of the dairy,
Chance to be blue-nipp’d by the Fairy,
For making Butter with her tail,
I’ll give her that did never fail.
Nor Galen.
4. Or if some worse mischance betide her,
Or that the nightmare over-ride her;
Or if she tell all in a dream,
I’ll cure her for a mess of cream.
Nor Galen.
4 Song.
1. Is any so spent, that his wife keeps Lent?
Does any waste in his marrow?
Is any a slug? Let him taste of my drug,
’Twill make him as quick as a sparrow.
My powder and oil, extracted with toil,
By rare sublime infusions,
Have proof they are good, by mine own dear blood,
In many strange conclusions.
2. Does any consume with the salt French rheum?
Doth the gout or palsy shake him:
Or hath he the stone, ere a month be gone,
As sound as a bell I’ll make him.
My powder.
3. The griefs of the spleen, and maids that be green,
Or the heat in the Ladies’ faces;
The gripes of the stitch, or the Scholar’s itch,
In my cures deserve no places.
My powder.
The web or the pin,[624] or the morphew of skin,
Or the rising of the mother,
I can cure in a trice. Oh, then, be not nice,
Nor ought that grieves you smother.
My powder.
FAMILIAR RECEIPTS.
An approved receipt against Melancholy feminine.
If any Lady be sick of the Sullens, she knows not where, let her take a handful of simples, I know not what, and use them I know not how, applying them to the part grieved, I know not which, and she shall be well, I know not when.
Against the Scurvy.
If any Scholar be troubled with an itch, or breaking out, which in time may prove the Scurvy, let him first forbear clawing and fretting meats, and then purge choler, but by no means upwards.
For restoring Gentlemen Ushers’ Legs.
If any Gentleman Usher hath the consumption in his legs, let him feed lustily on veal two months in the spring time, and forbear all manner of mutton, and he shall increase in calf.
For the Tentigo.
If any be troubled with the Tentigo, let him travel to Japan, or, because the forest of Turnbolia is of the same altitude, or elevation of the Pole, and at hand, let him hunt there for his recreation, and it shall be done in an instant.
For the Angina.
If any Scholar labour of the Angina, a dangerous disease in the throat, so that he cannot speak an hour together once in a quarter of a year, let him forbear all violent exercises, as trotting to Westminster Hall every term, and all hot liquors and vapours; let him abstain from company, retiring himself warm clad in his study four days in a week, et fiet.[625]
For a Felon.
If any be troubled with a Felon on his finger, whereby he hath lost the lawful use of his hand, let him but once use the exercise of swinging, and stretch himself upon the sovereign tree of Tiburnia, and it will presently kill the Fellon. Probatum.
For a Tympany.
If any Virgin be so sick of Cupid that the disease is grown to a Tympany, let her with all speed possible remove herself, changing air for forty weeks at least, keeping a spare diet as she travels, always after using lawful exercises, till she be married, and then she is past danger.
If any lady be long married, yet childless, let her first desire to be a mother, and to her breakfast take a new-laid egg, in a spoonful of goat’s milk, with a scruple of Ambergris; and at supper feed on a hen trodden but[626] by one cock. But above all things, let her avoid hurrying in a Caroch, especially on the stones, and assuming a finer mould than nature meant her, and no doubt she shall fructify.
For the Falling Sickness.
If any woman be troubled with the falling sickness, let her not travel Westward Ho, because she must avoid the Isle of Man; and for that it is an evil Spirit only entered into her, let her for a Charm always have her legs across when she is not walking, and this will help her.
For a Rupture.
If any Tradesman be troubled with a Rupture in the bowels of his estate, that he cannot go abroad, let him decoct Gold from a pound to a noble, taking the broth thereof from six months to six months, and he shall be as able a man as ever he was.
Now, Princely Spectators, to let you see that we are men qualified from head to foot, we will show you a piece of our footmanship.
Dance Antimasque.
[Exeunt.
Health and jouisance to this fair assembly. Now the thrice three learned Sisters forsake me, if ever I beheld such beauties in Athens. You ask, perhaps, who I am that thus conceitedly salute you? I am a merry Greek, and a Sophister of Athens, who, by fame of certain novel and rare presentments undertaken and promised by the gallant Spirits of Graia drawn hither, have intruded myself, Sophiste like, in at the back door, to be a Spectator, or rather a Censor, of their undertakings. The Muses grant they may satisfy our expectations. Ah, the shows and the songs, and the speeches, and the plays, and the comedies, and the actings that I have seen at Athens! The universe never saw the like. But let that pass. There was another end of my coming, and that was to get some of these Beauties to be my disciples; for I teach them rare doctrines, but delightful; and if you be true Athenians (that is, true lovers of novelties, as I hope you all are) you will give my hopes their looked-for expectation. Know, then, my name is Paradox: a strange name, but proper to my descent, for I blush not to tell you truth. I am a slip of darkness, my father a Jesuit, and my mother an Anabaptist; and as my name is strange, so is my profession, and the art which I teach, myself being the first that reduced it to rules and method, bears my own name, Paradox. And I pray you, what is a Paradox? It is a Quodlibet, or strain of wit and invention screwed[627] above the vulgar conceit, to beget admiration. And (because method is the mother of discipline) I divide my Paradox[es] into these [three] heads—Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter; and first of the first, for the Masculine is more worthy than the Feminine, and the Feminine than the Neuter.
[Draws his Book and reads.
Masculine.[628]
1. He cannot be a Cuckold that wears a Gregorian, for a perriwig will never fit such a head.
2. A Knight of the long robe is more honourable than a Knight made in the field; for furs are dearer than spurs.
3. ’Tis better to be a coward than a Captain; for a goose lives longer than a cock of the game.
4. A Cannibal is the lovingest man to his enemy; for willingly no man eats that he loves not.
5. A Bachelor is but half a man, and being wed, he may prove more than half a monster; for Aries and Taurus rule the head and shoulders, and Capricorn reacheth as low as the knees.
6. A wittall cannot be a Cuckold: for a Cuckold is wronged by his wife, which a wittall cannot be; for volenti non fit injuria.
7. A Shoemaker is the fittest man of the parish to make a Constable; for he virtuti officii put any man in the stocks, and enlarge him at last.
8. A prisoner is the best fencer; for he ever lies at a close ward.
9. An elder Brother may be a wise man; for he hath wherewithal to purchase experience, at any rate.
10. A Musician will never make a good Vintner; for he deals too much with flats and sharps.
11. A Drunkard is a good philosopher; for he thinks aright that the world goes round.
12. The Devil cannot take Tobacco through his nose; for St. Dunstan hath seared that up with his tongs.
13. Prentices are the nimblest Scavengers; for they can cleanse the City Stews in one day.
14. No native Physician can be excellent; for all excellent simples are foreigners.
15. A Master of Fence is more honourable than a Master of Arts; for good fighting was before good writing.
16. A Court fool must needs be learned; for he goes to school in the Porter’s Lodge.
17. Burgomasters ought not to wear their fur gowns at Midsummer; for so they may bring in the sweating sickness again.
18. A Cutpurse is of the surest trade; for his work is no sooner done, but he hath his money in his hand.
Feminine.
1. ’Tis far better to marry a widow than a maid.—Causa patet.
2. Downright language is the best Rhetoric to win a woman; for plain dealing is a jewel, and there is no lady but desires her lap full of them.
3. Women are to be commended for loving Stage players; for they are men of known action.
4. If a woman with child long to lie with another man, her husband must consent; for if he will not, she will do it without him.
5. Rich widows were ordained for younger brothers; for they, being born to no land, must plough in another man’s soil.
6. A maid should marry before the years of discretion; for Malitia supplet et cætera.
7. ’Tis dangerous to wed a widow; for she hath cast her rider.
8. An English virgin sings sweeter here than at Brussells; for a voluntary is sweeter than a forc’d note.
9. A great Lady may with her honour wear her servant’s picture; for a shadow yet never made a Cuckold.
10. A painted Lady best fits a Captain; for so both may fight under their colours.
11. It is good for a young popish wench to marry an old man; for so she shall be sure to keep all fasting nights.
12. A dangerous secret is safely plac’d in a woman’s bosom; for no wise man would search for it there.
13. A woman of learning and tongues is an admirable creature; for a starling that can speak is a present for an Emperor.
14. There were never so many chaste wives as in this age; for now ’tis out of fashion to lie with their own husbands.
15. A great Lady should not wear her own hair; for that’s as mean as a coat of her own spinning.
16. A fair woman’s neck should stand awry; for so she looks as if she were looking for a kiss.
17. Women love fish better than flesh; for they will have Place, whatever they pay for it.
Neuter.[629]
1. Old things are the best things; for there is nothing new but diseases.
2. The best bodies should wear the plainest habits; for painted Clothes were made to hide bare walls.
3. Dissemblers may safely be trusted; for their meaning is ever contrary to their words.
4. Musicians cannot be but healthful; for they live by good air.
5. An Usurer is the best Christian; for Quantum nummorum in arca, Tantum habet et fidei.
6. None should have license to marry but rich folks; for Vacuum is a monster in rerum natura.
7. A hare is more subtle than a fox; for she makes more doubles than old Reynard.
8. ’Tis better to be a beggar than a Merchant; for all the world lies open to his traffic, and yet he pays no custom.
9. ’Tis more safe to be drunk with the hop than with the grape; for a man should be more inward with his Countryman than with a stranger.
10. It is better to buy honour than to deserve it; for what is far fetched and dear bought is good for Ladies.
11. A man deep in debt should be as deep in drink; for Bacchus cancels all manner of obligations.
12. Playhouses are more necessary in a well governed Commonwealth than public Schools; for men are better taught by example than precept.
13. It is better to feed on vulgar and gross meats, than on dainty and high dishes; for they that eat only partridge or quail, hath no other brood than woodcock or goose.
14. Taverns are more requisite in a City than Academies; for it is better the multitude were loving than learned.
15. A Tobacco shop and a Bawdy house are coincident; for smoke is not without fire.
16. An Almanack is a book more worthy to be studied than the history of the world; for a man to know himself is the most worthy knowledge, and there he hath twelve signs to know it by.
17. Wealth is better than wit; for few poets have had the fortune to be chosen Aldermen.
18. Marriage frees a man from care; for then his wife takes all upon her.
19. A Kennel of hounds is the best Consort;[630] for they need no tuning from morning to night.
20. The Court makes better Scholars than the University: for where a King vouchsafes to be a teacher, every man blushes to be a non-proficient.
[Music sounds.
Para. But hark! Music: they are upon entrance. I must put up.
Main Masque.
Enter Pages 4.
Their Song, dialoguewise.
Where shall we find relief?
Is there no end of grief?
Is there no comfort left?
What cruel Charms bereft
The patrons of our youth?
We must now beg for ruth.
Enter Obscurity.
Kind pity is the most
Poor boys can hope for, when
Their joys are lost.
Obscurity.
Light, I salute thee; I, Obscurity,
The son of Darkness and forgetful Lethe;
I, that envy thy brightness, greet thee now,
Enforc’d by Fate. Fate makes the strongest bow.
The ever youthful Knights by spells enchain’d,
And long within my shady nooks restrain’d,
Must be enlarged, and I the Usher be
To their night glories; so the Fates agree.
Then, put on life, Obscurity, and prove
As light as light, for awe, if not for love.
Lo! hear their tender year’d, kind-hearted Squires,
Mourning their Master’s loss; no new desires
Can train them from these walks, but here they wend
From shade to shade, and give their toils no end.
But now will I relieve their suffering care.
Hear me, fair Youths! since you so constant are
In faith to your lov’d Knights, go haste apace,
And with your bright lights guide them to this place;
For if you fall directly, that descent,
Their wished approach will farther search prevent.
Haste by the virtue of a charming song,
While I retrieve them, lest they lag too long.
THE CALL, OR SONG OF OBSCURITY.
Appear, Appear, you happy Knights!
Here are several sorts of Lights:
Fire and beauty shine together,
Your slow steps inviting hither.
Come away; and from your eyes
Th’ old shades remove,
For now the Destinies
Release you at the suit of Love.
So, so: ’tis well marched, march apace;
Two by two fill up the place,
And then with voice and measure
Greet the King of Love and Pleasure.
Now, Music, change thy notes, and meet
Aptly with the Dancers’ feet;
For ’tis the pleasure of Delight
That they shall triumph all this night.
THE SONG AND DANCE TOGETHER.
Frolic measures now become you,
Overlong obscured Knights:
What if Lethe did benumb you,
Love now wakes you to delights.
Love is like a golden flower,
Your comely youth adorning:
Pleasure is a gentle shower
Shed in some April morning.
Lightly rise, and lightly fall you
In the motion of your feet:
Move not till our notes do call you;
Music makes the action sweet.
Music breathing blows the fire
Which Cupids feeds with fuel,
Kindling honour and desire,
And taming hearts most cruel.
Quickly, quickly, mend your paces,
Nimbly changing measured graces:
Lively mounted high aspire,
For joy is only found in fire.
Music is the soul of measure,
Mixing both in equal grace;
Twins are they, begot of Pleasure,
When she wisely numbered space.
Nothing is more old or newer
Then number, all advancing;
And no number can be truer
Than music joined with dancing.
Every Knight elect a Beauty,
Such as may thy heart inflame:
Think that her bright eye doth view thee,
And to her thy action frame.
So shall none be faint or weary,
Though treading endless paces;
For they all are light and merry
Whose hopes are fed with graces.
Sprightly, sprightly, end your paces,
Nimbly changing measured graces:
Lively mounted high aspire,
For joy is only found in fire.
Obscurity.
Servants of Love, for so it fits you be,
Since he alone hath wrought your liberty,
His ceremonies now and courtly rites
Perform with care, and free resolved sprites.
To sullen darkness my dull steps reflect;
All covet that which Nature doth affect.
The Second Measure; which danc’d,
SONG TO TAKE OUT THE LADIES.
On, on, brave Knights, you have well showed
Each his due part in nimble dances:
These Beauties to whose hands are owed
Yours, wonder why
You spare to try.
Mark how inviting are their glances.
Such, such a charm, such faces, such a call,
Would make old Æson skip about the Hall.
See, see fair choice, a starry sphere
Might dim bright day: choose here at pleasure.
Please your own eye: approve you here,
Right gentle Knights:
To these soft wights
View, talk and touch, but all in measure.
Far far from hence be roughness, far a frown;
Your fair deportment this fair night shall crown.
After they have danced with the Ladies, and set them in their places, fall to their last Dance.
Enter Paradox, and to him his Disciples.
Silence, Lordings, Ladies, and fiddles! Let my tongue twang awhile. I have seen what hath been showed; and now give me leave to show what hath not been seen, for the honour of Athens. By virtue of this musical Whistle I will summon my disciples. See obedience: here they are all ready. Put forward, my paradoxical Pupils, methodically and arithmetically, one by one.
1. Behold this principal Artist that swift encounters me, whose head is honoured by his heels for dancing in a Chorus of a Tragedy presented at Athens, where he produced such learned variety of footing, and digested it so orderly and close to the ground, that he was rewarded with this relic, the cothurne or buskin of Sophocles, which for more eminence he wears on his head. The paradoxical virtue thereof is, that being dipped into River or Spring, it alters the nature of the liquor, and returneth full of wine of Chios, Palermo, or Zante.
2. This second Master of the science of footmanship (for he never came on horseback in his life) was famed at the Feast of Pallas, where in dancing he came off with such lofty tricks, turns above ground, capers, cross-capers, horse-capers, so high and so lofty performed, that he for prize bore away the Helmet of Pallas. The paradoxical virtue of the Cask is, that in our travels if we fall among enemies, show but this, and they suddenly vanish all like fearful shadows.
3. Now, view this third piece of Excellence: this is he that put down all the Bakers, at the feast of Ceres, and so danced there, as if he had kneaded dough with his feet: wherewith the Goddess was so tickled, that she in reward set this goodly loaf on his head, and endued it with this paradoxical influence, that cut off it and eat as often as you please, it straight fills up again, and is in the instant healed of any wound our hunger can inflict on it.
4. Approach now thou that comest in the rear of my disciples, but mayest march in the vanguard of thy validity; for at the celebration of the feast of Venus Cytherea, this Amoroso did express such passion with his eyes, such casts, such winks, such glances, and with his whole body such delightful gestures, such cringes, such pretty wanton mimics, that he won the applause of all; and, as it was necessary at the Feast of that Goddess, he had then a most ample and inflaming codpiece, which, with his other graces, purchased him this prize, the Smock of Venus, wrapped turbanlike on his head, the same she had on when she went to bed to Mars, and was taken napping by Vulcan. The Paradox of it is, that if it be hanged on the top of our Maypole, it draws to us all the young lads and lasses near adjoining, without power to part till we strike sail ourselves. And now I have named our Maypole, go bring it forth, though it be more cumbersome than the Trojan horse: bring it by force of arms, and see you fix it fast in the midst of this place, lest, when you encircle it with your capricious dances, it falls from the foundation, lights upon some lady’s head, and cuffs off her perriwig. But now for the glory of Athens!
Music plays the Antimasque. The disciples dance one Strain.
We have give you a taste of the excellency of our Athenial Revels, which I will now dignify with mine own person. Lie here, impediment, whereof being freed, I will descend. O, you Authors of Greek wonders! what ostent is this? What supernatural Paradox? a wooden Maypole find the use of voluntary motion! Assuredly this tree was formerly the habitation of some wood nymph, for the Dryads (as the Poets say) live in trees; and perhaps, to honour my dancing, the nymph hath crept into this tree again: so I apprehend it, and will entertain her courtesy.
Paradox, his Disciples, and the Maypole, all dance.
Did ever eye see the like footing of a tree, or could any tree but an Athenian tree do this? or could any nymph move it but an Athenian nymph? Fair Nymph, though I cannot arrive at thy lips, yet will I kiss the wooden mask that hides thy no doubt most amiable face.
Paradox offers to kiss and a Nymph’s head meets him out of the Maypole.
Wonder of wonders! Sweet Nymph, forbear: my whole structure trembles: mortality cannot stand the brightness of thy countenance. Pursue me not, I beseech thee: put up thy face, for love’s sake. Help, help! Disciples, take away this dismal peal from me. Rescue me, with all your violence.—So, the Devil is gone, and I will not stay long after. Lordings and Ladies: if there be any here desirous to be instructed in the mystery of Paradoxing, you shall have me at my lodging in the black and white Court, at the sign of the Naked Boy. And so to you all the best wishes of the night.
Enter Mountebank, like a Swiss.
Stay, you presumptuous Paradox! I have viewed thy antics and thy Puppet, which have kindled in me the fire of Emulation. Look; am I not in habit as fantastic as thyself? Dost thou hope for grace with Ladies, by thy novel doctrine? I am a man of art: witness this, my Charming Rod, wherewith I work Miracles; and whereas thou like a fabulous Greek, hast made monsters of thy Disciples, lo! I will oppose squadron against squadron, and plain truth against painted fiction. Now for [thy] moving Ale-sign: but for frighting the Devil out of it, I could encounter thee with Tottenham High Cross, or Cheap Cross (though it be new guilt), but I scorn odds, and therefore will I affront thee pole to pole. Go, Disciples: usher in our lofty enchanted motion; and, Paradox, now betake you to your tackling, for you deal with men that have got air and fire in them.
Paradox.
Assist me, thou active nymph, and you, my glorious associates. Victory! Victory for Athens!
[Dance.
Mountebank.
Accomplished Greek! now, as we are true Mountebanks, this was bravely performed on both parts, and nothing now remains but to make these two Maypoles better acquainted. But we must give place: the Knights appear.
Obscurity Enter.
Enough of these night-sports! part fairly, Knights,
And leave an edge on pleasure, lest these lights
I suddenly dim all; and pray, how then
Will these gay Ladies shift among you men,
In such confusion? Some their homes may miss:
Obscurity knows tricks as mad as this.
But make your parting innocent for me;
I will no author now of Error be.
Myself shall pass with you, a friend of light,
Giving to all this round a kind good night.
LAST SONG.[631]
We must away: yet our slack pace may show
’Tis by constraint we this fair Orb forego.
Our longer stay may forfeit what but now
Love hath obtained for us: to him we bow,
And to this gentler Power, who so contriv’d
That we from sullen shades are now depriv’d,
And hither brought, where Favour, Love, and Light,
So gloriously shine, they banish Night.
More would we say, but Fate forbids us more.—
Our Cue is out—Good night is gone before.[632]