_Zen._ Much above my merit.
_Leo._ But have you not yet found a happy time
To move for me.
_Zen._ I have watched all occasions,
But hitherto, without success: yet doubt not
But I'le embrace the first means.
_Leo._ Do, and prosper:
Excellent creature, whose perfections make
Even sorrow lovely, if your frowns thus take me,
What would your smiles doe?
_Hip._ Pox o' this stale Courtship:
If I have any power.
_Leo._ I am commanded,
Obedience is the Lovers sacrifice
Which I pay gladly.
_Hip._ To be forc'd to wooe,
Being a woman, could not but torment me,
But bringing for my advocates, youth and beauty,
Set off with wealth, and then to be deni'd too
Do's comprehend all tortures. They flatter'd me,
That said my looks were charms, my touches fetters,
My locks soft chains, to bind the arms of Princes,
And make them in that wish'd for bondage, happy.
I am like others of a coarser feature,
As weak to allure, but in my dotage, stronger:
I am no _Circe_; he, more than _Ulysses_,
Scorns all my offer'd bounties, slights my favours,
And, as I were some new Egyptian, flyes me,
Leaving no pawn, but my own shame behind him.
But he shall finde, that in my fell revenge,
I am a woman: one that never pardons
The rude contemner of her proffered sweetness.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67