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I could not paint in your shop, I can spy into your excuse. Be not ashamed, Apelles, it is a gentleman's sport to be in love. Call hither Campaspe. Methinks I might have been made privy to your affection; though my counsel had not been necessary, yet my countenance might have been thought requisite. But Apelles, forsooth, lov'd under hand, yea and under Alexander's nose, and—but I say no more.

Apelles. Apelles loveth not so; but he liveth to do as Alexander will.

Enter CAMPASPE.

Alexander. Campaspe, here is news; Apelles is in love with you.

Campaspe. It pleaseth your majesty to say so.

Alexander. Hephestion, I will try her too.-Campaspe, for the good qualities I know in Apelles, and the virtue I see in you, I am determin'd you shall enjoy one another. How say you, Campaspe, would you say ay?

Campaspe. Your handmaid must obey, if you command.

Alexander. Think you not, Hephestion, that she would fain be commanded?

Hephestion. I am no thought-catcher, but I guess unhappily.

Alexander. I will not enforce marriage, where I cannot compel love.

Campaspe. But your majesty may move a question, where you be willing to have a match.

Alexander. Believe me, Hephestion, these parties are agreed; they would have me both priest and witness. Apelles, take Campaspe. Why move ye not?-Campaspe, take Apelles. Will it not be? If you be asham'd one of the other, by my consent you shall never come together. But dissemble not, Campaspe, do you love Apelles?

I guess unhappily] i. e. mischievously. We still call a mischievous boy an unlucky rogue. See note on Hamlet, Shaksp: 1778, vol. X. p. 344.

Campaspe. Pardon, my lord, I love Apelles.

Alexander. Apelles, it were a shame for you, being lov'd so openly of so fair a virgin, to say the contrary. Do you love Campaspe?

Apelles. Only Campaspe.

Alexander. Two loving worms, Hephestion! I perceive Alexander cannot subdue the affections of men, though he conquer their countries. Love falleth like a dew, as well upon the low grass, as upon the high cedar. Sparks have their heat, ants their gall, flies their spleen. Well, enjoy one another, I give her to thee frankly, Apelles. Thou shalt see that Alexander maketh but a toy of love, and leadeth affection in fetters; using fancy as a fool to make him sport, or a minstrel to make him merry. It is not the amorous glance of an eye can settle an idle thought in the heart; * no, no, it is children's game, a life for sempsters and scholars: the one pricking † in clouts, have nothing else to think on the other picking fancies out of books, have little else to marvel at. Go, Apelles, take with you your Campaspe; Alexander is cloy'd with looking on that, which thou wond'rest at.

Apelles. Thanks to your majesty on bended knee, you have honour'd Apelles.

Campaspe. Thanks with bow'd heart, you have blest Campaspe. [Exeunt.

Alexander. Page, go warn Clytus and Parmenio, and the other lords, to be in readiness; let the trumpet sound, strike up the drum, and I will presently into Persia. How now, Hephestion, is Alexander able to resist love as he list?

Hephestion. The conquering of Thebes was not so honourable as the subduing of these thoughts.

* See Nugæ Antiquæ, vol. II. p. 14. I. R.

+ pricking in clouts, &c.] Pricking in clouts was a term formerly used for sewing. So in Sir John Harrington's Treatise on Playe. "For it is (be yt spoken under correction) an unfittynge syght to "see a presence chamber empty more that haulfe the day, and

men cannot bee alwayes discowrsing, nor women always "pricking in clowts; and therefore I say, it is not amisse to play "at some sociable game," &c.

Alexander. It were a shame Alexander should desire to command the world, if he could not command himself. But come, let us go, I will try whether I can better my hand with my heart, than I could with mine eye. And, good Hephestion, when all the world is won, and every country is thine and mine, either find me out another to subdue, or on my word I will fall in love. [Exeunt.

FINIS.

THE

EPILOGUE AT THE BLACK FRIERS.

WHERE the rainbow toucheth the tree, no caterpillers will hang on the leaves; where the glow-worm creep. eth in the night, no adder will go in the day: We hope, in the ears where our travails be lodged, no carping shall harbour in those tongues. Our exercises must be as your judgment is, resembling water, which is always of the same colour into what it runneth. In the Trojan horse lay couch'd soldiers, with children; and in heaps of many words we fear divers unfit, among some allowable.* But as Demosthenes, with often breathing up the hill, amended his stammering; so we hope, with sundry labours 42 against the hair, to correct our studies. If the tree be blasted that blossoms, the fault is in the wind, and not in the root; and if our pastimes be mis-liked, that have been allow'd, you must impute it to the malice of others, and not our endeavour.-And so we rest in good case, if you rest well content.

*allowable, allow'd] i. e. praise-worthy, praised. See note on King Lear, Shaksp: 1778, vol. IX. p. 441. S.

42

pro

- against the hair,] This phrase occurs in the Merry Wives of Windsor, A. 2. S. 3. and Mr. Steevens observes, that it is " "verbial, and is taken from stroking the hair of animals a contrary way to that in which it grows. We now say against "the grain."

So, in Dekker's Satiromastrix: "

go, let them lift up baldness

to the sky; and thou shalt see twill turn Minever's heart quite against the hair.”

Middleton's Mayor of Quinborough, A. 3. S. 2:

"Books in women's hands are as much against

"The hair methinks, as to see men wear stomachers."

THE

EPILOGUE AT THE COURT.

WE cannot tell whether we are fallen among Diomedes's birds or his horses; the one receiv'd some men with sweet notes, the other bit all men with sharp teeth. But as Homer's gods convey'd them into clouds, whom they would have kept from curses; and as Venus, lest Adonis should be prick'd with the stings of adders, cover'd his face with the wings of swans; so we hope, being shielded with your highness's countenance, we shall, though we hear the neighing, yet not feel the kicking, of those jades; and receive, tho' no praise (which we cannot deserve) yet a pardon, which in all humility we desire. As yet we cannot tell what we should term our labours, iron, or bullion; only it belongeth to your majesty to make them fit either for the forge or the mint; current by the stamp, or counterfeit by the anvil. For as nothing is to be called white, unless it had been named white by the first creator, so can there be nothing thought good in the opinion of others, unless it be christen'd good by the judgment of yourself. For ourselves again, we are like these torches, wax, of which, being in your highness's hands, you may make doves or vultures, roses or nettles, laurel for a garland, or elder for a disgrace.

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* elder for a disgrace.] Because Judas is said to have hung himself on an elder-tree

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