ind of language
which, in my opinion, is not much unlike the man Platony,[251] the son
of Lagus, king of Egypt, brought for a spectacle, half-white, half-black.

COM. SEN. I am persuaded these same language-makers have the very
quality of cold in their wit, that freezeth all heterogeneal languages
together, congealing English tin, Grecian gold, Roman latten[252] all in
a lump.

PHA. Or rather, in my imagination, like your fantastical gull's apparel,
wearing a Spanish felt, a French doublet, a Granado stocking, a Dutch
slop, an Italian cloak, with a Welsh freeze jerkin.

COM. SEN. Well, leave your toying: we cannot pluck the least feather
from the soft wing of time. Therefore, Lingua, go on, but in a less
formal manner. You know an ingenious oration must neither swell above
the banks with insolent words, nor creep too shallow in the ford with
vulgar terms; but run equally, smooth and cheerful, through the clean
current of a pure style.

LIN. My lord, this one thing is sufficient to confirm my worth to be
equal or better than the Senses, whose best operations are nothing till
I polish them with perfection; for their knowledge is only of things
present, quickly sublimed with the deft[253] file of time: whereas the
tongue is able to recount things past, and often pronounce things to
come, by this means re-edifying such excellences as time and age do
easily depopulate.

COM. SEN. But what profitable service do you undertake for our dread
queen Psyche?

LIN. O, how I am ravished to think how infinitely she hath graced me
with her most acceptable service! But above all (which you, Master
Register, well remember), when her highness, taking my mouth for her
instrument, with the bow of my tongue struck so heavenly a touch upon my
teeth, that she charmed the very tigers asleep, the listening bears and
lions to couch at her feet, while the hills leaped, and the woods danced
to the sweet harmony of her most angelical accents.

MEM. I remember it very well. Orpheus played upon the harp, while she
sung, about some four years after the contention betwixt Apollo and Pan,
and a little before the excoriation of Marsyas.

ANA. By the same token the river Alpheus, at that time pursuing his
beloved Arethusa, dischannelled himself of his former course, to be
partaker of their admirable consort[254], and the music being ended,
thrust himself headlong into earth, the next way to follow his amorous
chace. If you go to Arcadia, you shal