le, cheer up the drooping flowers;
Let Sophos once more see a sunshine-day:
O, let the sacred centre of my heart--
I mean fair Lelia, nature's fairest work--
Be once again the object to mine eyes.
O, but I wish in vain, whilst her I wish to see:
Her father he obscures her from my sight,
He pleads my want of wealth,
And says it is a bar in Venus' court.
How hath fond fortune by her fatal doom
Predestin'd me to live in hapless hopes,
Still turning false her fickle, wavering wheel!
And love's fair goddess with her Circian cup
Enchanteth so fond Cupid's poison'd darts,
That love, the only loadstar of my life,
Doth draw my thoughts into a labyrinth.
But stay:
What do I see? what do mine eyes behold?
O happy sight! It is fair Lelia's face!
Hail, heav'n's bright nymph, the period of my grief,
Sole guidress of my thoughts, and author of my joy.
LELIA.
Sweet Sophos, welcome to Lelia;
Fair Dido, Carthaginians' beauteous queen,
Not half so joyful was, when as the Trojan prince
Aeneas landed on the sandy shores
Of Carthage' confines, as thy Lelia is
To see her Sophos here arriv'd by chance.
SOPHOS.
And bless'd be chance, that hath conducted me
Unto the place where I might see my dear,
As dear to me as is the dearest life.
NURSE.
Sir, you may see that fortune is your friend.
SOPHOS.
Yet fortune favours fools.
NURSE.
By that conclusion you should not be wise. [_Aside_.
LELIA.
Foul fortune sometimes smiles on virtue fair.
SOPHOS.
'Tis then to show her mutability:
But since, amidst ten thousand frowning threats
Of fickle fortune's thrice-unconstant wheel,
She deigns to show one little pleasing smile,
Let's do our best false fortune to beguile,
And take advantage of her ever-changing moods.
See, see, how Tellus' spangled mantle smiles,
And birds do chant their rural sugar'd notes,
As ravish'd with our meeting's sweet delights:
Since then, there fits for love both time and place,
Let love and liking hand in hand embrace.
NURSE.
Sir, the next way to win her love is to linger her leisure. I measure my
mistress by my lovely self: make a promise to a man, and keep it. I have
but one fault--I ne'er made promise in my life, but I stick to it tooth
and nail. I'll pay it home, i' faith. If I promise my love a kiss, I'll
give him two; marry, at first I will make nice, and cry _Fie, fie_; and
that will make him come again and again. I'll make him break his wind
with come-agains.
SOPHOS.
But what says Le
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