unts of his jilting mistress; or, perhaps, by some
distressed servant, to gain an opportunity with a jealous man's wife.

_Pala._ No, it must be the invention of a woman, it has so much of
subtilty and love in it.

_Rho._ I am sure 'tis extremely pleasant; for to go unknown, is the
next degree to going invisible.

_Pala._ What with our antic habits and feigned voices,--_Do you know
me?_ and--_I know you,_--methinks we move and talk just like so many
overgrown puppets.

_Rho._ Masquerade is only vizor-mask improved; a heightening of the
same fashion.

_Pala._ No, masquerade is vizor-mask in debauch, and I like it the
better for't: for, with a vizor-mask, we fool ourselves into
courtship, for the sake of an eye that glanced; or a hand that stole
itself out of the glove sometimes, to give us a sample of the skin:
But in masquerade there is nothing to be known, she's all _terra
incognita_; and the bold discoverer leaps ashore, and takes his lot
among the wild Indians and savages, without the vile consideration of
safety to his person, or of beauty, or wholesomeness in his mistress.

_Enter_ BELIZA.

_Rho._ Beliza, what make you here?

_Bel._ Sir, my lady sent me after you, to let you know, she finds
herself a little indisposed; so that she cannot be at court, but is
retired to rest in her own apartment, where she shall want the
happiness of your dear embraces to night.

_Rho._ A very fine phrase, Beliza, to let me know my wife desires to
lie alone.

_Pala._ I doubt, Rhodophil, you take the pains sometimes to instruct
your wife's woman in these elegancies.

_Rho._ Tell my dear lady, that since I must be so unhappy as not to
wait on her to-night, I will lament bitterly for her absence. 'Tis
true I shall be at court, but I will take no divertisement there; and
when I return to my solitary bed, if I am so forgetful of my passion
as to sleep, I will dream of her; and betwixt sleep and waking, put
out my foot towards her side, for midnight consolation; and, not
finding her, I will sigh, and imagine myself a most desolate widower.

_Bel._ I shall do your commands, sir. [_Exit._

_Rho._ [_Aside._] She's sick as aptly for my purpose, as if she had
contrived it so. Well, if ever woman was a help-mate for man, my
spouse is so; for within this hour I received a note from Melantha,
that she would meet me this evening in masquerade, in boys' habit, to
rejoice with me before she entered into fett