So wildly. I'll tell you, gallants; 'tis now,
Since first I found myself a little hot
And quivering 'bout the heart, some ten days since:
A tedious ague, sirs; but what of that?
The gracious glance and little whisper past,15
Approaches made from th' hand unto the lip,
I came to visit her, and, as you know, we use,
Breathing a sigh or two by the way of prologue,
Told her that in love's physic 'twas a rule,
Where the disease had birth, to seek a cure.20
I had no sooner nam'd love to her, but she
Began to talk of flames, and flames
Neither devouring nor devour'd, of air
And of chameleons.
1 Court. O, the Platonics!
2 Court. Those of the new religion in love!25
Your lordship's merry, troth! how do you like
The humour on't?
Ors. As thou would'st like red hair
Or leanness in thy mistress, scurvily!
'T does worse with handsomeness than strong desire
Could do with impotence—a mere trick30
To enhance the price of kisses!
Phi. Surely these silly women, when they feed
Our expectation so high, do but like
Ignorant conjurers, that raise a spirit,
Which handsomely they cannot lay again.35
Ors. True, 'tis like some that nourish up young lions,
till they grow so great they are afraid of themselves:
they dare not grant at last, for fear they should not
satisfy.
Phi. Who's for the town? I must take up again.40
Ors. This villainous love's as changeable as the philo-
sopher's stone, and thy mistress as hard to compass too!
Phi. The Platonic is ever so: they are as tedious before
they come to the point, as an old man fall'n into the
stories of his youth.45
2 Court. Or a widow into the praises of her first hus-
band.
Ors. Well, if she hold out but one month longer, if I
do not quite forget I e'er beleaguered there, and remove
the siege to another place, may all the curses beguil'd50
virgins loose upon their perjur'd lovers fall upon me.
Phi. And thou wou'lt deserve 'em all.
