ould be piped and
sung to; as a dairy-wench, I would dance at maypoles, and make
syllabubs; as a country gentlewoman, keep a good house, and come up
to term to see motions; as a citizen's wife, to be troubled with a
jealous husband, and put to my shifts; others' miseries should be
my pleasures. As a waiting-woman, I would taste my lady's delights
to her; as a miscellany madam, invent new tires, and go visit
courtiers; as a great lady, lie a-bed, and have courtiers visit me;
as a duchess, I would keep my state; and as an empress, I would do
any thing. And, in all these shapes, I would ever be follow'd with
the affections of all that see me. Marry, I myself would affect
none; or if I did, it should not be heartily, but so as I might
save myself in them still, and take pride in tormenting the poor
wretches. Or, now I think on't, I would, for one year, wish myself
one woman; but the richest, fairest, and delicatest in a kingdom,
the very centre of wealth and beauty, wherein all lines of love
should meet; and in that person I would prove all manner of
suitors, of all humours, and of all complexions, and never have any
two of a sort. I would see how love, by the power of his object,
could work inwardly alike, in a choleric man and a sanguine, in a
melancholic and a phlegmatic, in a fool and a wise man, in a clown
and a courtier, in a valiant man and a coward; and how he could
vary outward, by letting this gallant express himself in dumb gaze;
another with sighing and rubbing his fingers; a third with
play-ends and pitiful verses; a fourth, with stabbing himself, and
drinking healths, or writing languishing letters in his blood; a
fifth, in colour'd ribands and good clothes; with this lord to
smile, and that lord to court, and the t'other lord to dote, and
one lord to hang himself. And, then, I to have a book made of all
this, which I would call the "Book of Humours," and every night
read a little piece ere I slept, and laugh at it.--Here comes
Hedon.

ENTER HEDON, ANAIDES, AND MERCURY, WHO RETIRES WITH CUPID TO THE
BACK OF THE STAGE, WHERE THEY CONVERSE TOGETHER.

HED. Save you sweet and clear beauties! By the spirit that moves
in me, you are all most pleasingly bestow'd, ladies. Only I can
take it for no good omen, to find mine Honour so dejected.

PHI. You need not fear, sir; I did of purpose humble my