BEL. And I?

HIERO. Perseda, chaste and resolute.
And heere, my lords, are seueral abstracts drawne,
For eache of you to note your [seuerall] partes.
And act it as occasion's offred you.
You must prouide [you with] a Turkish cappe,
A black moustache and a fauchion.

Giues paper to BAL[THAZAR].

You with a crosse, like a knight of Rhodes.

Giues another to LOR[ENZO].

And, madame, you must [then] attire your-selfe

He giueth BEL[-IMPERIA] another.

Like Phoebe, Flora, or the huntresse [Dian],
Which to your discretion shall seeme best.
And as for me, my lords, Ile looke to one,
And with the raunsome that the vice-roy sent
So furnish and performe this tragedie
As all the world shall say Hieronimo
Was liberall in gracing of it so.

BAL. Hieronimo, me thinks a comedie were better.

HIERO. A comedie? fie! comedies are fit for common wits;
But to present a kingly troupe withall,
Giue me a stately-written tragedie,--
Tragedia cothurnata, fitting kings,
Containing matter, and not common things!
My lords, all this [our sport] must be perfourmed,
As fitting, for the first nights reuelling.
The Italian tragedians were so sharpe
Of wit that in one houres meditation
They would performe any-thing in action.

LOR. And well it may, for I haue seene the like
In Paris, mongst the French tragedians.

HIERO. In Paris? mas, and well remembered!--
Theres one thing more that rests for vs to doo.

BAL. Whats that, Hieronimo?
Forget not any-thing.

HIERO. Each one of vs
Must act his parte in vnknowne languages,
That it may breede the more varietie:
As you, my lord, in Latin, I in Greeke,
You in Italian, and, for-because I know
That Bel-imperia hath practised the French,
In courtly French shall all her phrases be.

BEL. You meane to try my cunning then, Hieronimo!

BAL. But this will be a meere confusion,
And hardly shall we all be vnderstoode.

HEIRO. It must be so; for the conclusion
Shall proue the inuention and all was good;
And I my-selfe in an oration,
That I will haue there behinde a curtaine,
And with a strange and wondrous shew besides,
Assure your-selfe, shall make the matter knowne.
And all shalbe concluded in once scene,
For theres no pleasure tane in tedi