SONG. Wedding is great Juno's crown: High wedlock then be honoured: Duke S. O my dear niece, welcome thou art to me! Enter Jaques de Boys. Jaq. de B. Let me have audience for a word or two: His brother here and put him to the sword: Welcome, young man ; 150 160 170 Thou offer'st fairly to thy brothers' wedding: 180 That have endured shrewd days and nights with us, Play, music! And you, brides and bridegrooms all, And thrown into neglect the pompous court? Jaq. de B. He hath. Jaq. To him will I: out of these convertites There is much matter to be heard and learn'd. [To Duke S.] You to your former honour I bequeath; Your patience and your virtue well deserves it: [To Orl.] You to a love, that your true faith doth merit: [To Oli.] You to your land, and love, and great allies: [To Sil.] You to a long and well-deserved bed: 190 [To Touch.] And you to wrangling; for thy loving voyage Is but for two months victuall'd. So, to your pleas ures: I am for other than for dancing measures. Duke S. Stay, Jaques, stay. Jaq. To see no pastime I: what you would have 200 [Exit. Duke S. Proceed, proceed: we will begin these rites, [A dance. EPILOGUE. IO Ros. It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue: yet to good wine they do use good bushes; and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! I am not furnished like a beggar, therefore to beg will not become me: my way is to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you: and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women, as I perceive by your simpering, none of you hates them,-that between you and the women the play may please. If I were a woman I would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me, complexions that liked 20 me and breaths that I defied not: and, I am sure, as many as have good beards or good faces or sweet breaths will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell. [Exeunt. From an ivory comb (XVth Cent.) in the collection of Lord Londesborough. (The illustration exhibits the peculiar use of the weapon, which was never thrown, and other characteristics of medieval hunting scenes. From an illuminated MS. (XIVth Cent.) in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow. Butchery, slaughter-house; II. iii. 27. Calling, appellation; I. ii. 235. Capable, sensible, receivable; III. v. 23. Capon lined, alluding to the customary gifts expected by Elizabethan magistrates, capon justices," as they were occasionally called; II. vii. 154. 66 |