urites, once declining, sink apace.
Yet fortune, stop--this is the likeliest place
To meet Asteria, and by her convey
My humble vows to my offended queen.
Ha! She comes herself; unhappy man,
Where shall I hide?--[_Is going out_.

_Enter Queen and_ ASTERIA.

_Queen_. Is not that Philocles,
Who makes such haste away? Philocles, Philocles!--

_Phil_. I feared she saw me. [_Coming back_.

_Queen_. How now, sir, am I such a bugbear,
That I scare people from me?

_Phil_. 'Tis true, I should more carefully have shunned
The place where you might be; as, when it thunders,
Men reverently quit the open air,
Because the angry gods are then abroad.

_Queen_. What does he mean, Asteria?
I do not understand him.

_Ast_. Your majesty forgets, you banished him
Your presence for this day. [_To her softly_.

_Queen_. Ha! banished him! 'tis true indeed;
But, as thou sayest, I had forgot it quite.

_Ast_. That's very strange, scarce half an hour ago.

_Queen_. But love had drawn his pardon up so soon,
That I forgot he e'er offended me.

_Phil_. Pardon me, that I could not thank you sooner;
Your sudden grace, like some swift flood poured in
On narrow banks, o'erflowed my spirits.

_Queen_. No: 'tis for me to ask your pardon, Philocles,
For the great injury I did you,
In not remembering I was angry with you:
But I'll repair my fault,
And rouse my anger up against you yet.

_Phil_. No, madam, my forgiveness was your act of grace,
And I lay hold of it.

_Queen_. Princes sometimes may pass
Acts of oblivion, in their own wrong.

_Phil_. 'Tis true, but not recal them.

_Queen_. But, Philocles, since I have told you there is one
I love, I will go on, and let you know
What passed this day betwixt us; be our judge,
Whether my servant have dealt well with me.

_Phil_. I beseech your majesty, excuse me:
Any thing more of him may make me
Relapse too soon, and forfeit my late pardon.

_Queen_. But you'll be glad to know it.

_Phil_. May I not hope, then,
You have some quarrel to him?

_Queen_. Yes, a great one.
But first to justify myself:
Know, Philocles, I have concealed my passion
With such care from him, that he knows not yet
I love, but only that I much esteem him.

_Phil_. O stupid wretch,
That, by a thousand tokens, could not guess it!

_Queen_. He loves elsewhere, and that has blinded him.

_Phil_. He's blind indeed!
So the dull beasts in the first paradise,
With levelled eyes, gazed each upon their kin