MUCEDORUS. Desist dissuasion,
My resolution brooks no battery,
Therefore, if thou retain thy wonted form,
Assist what I intend.

ANSELMO. Your miss will breed a blemish in the court,
And throw a frosty dew upon that beard,
Whose front Valencia stoops to.

MUCEDORUS. If thou my welfare tender, then no more;
Let love's strong magic charm thy trivial phrase,
Wasted as vainly as to gripe the sun.
Augment not then more answers; lock thy lips,
Unless thy wisdom suit me with disguise,
According to my purpose.

ANSELMO. That action craves no counsel,
Since what you rightly are, will more command,
Than best usurped shape.

MUCEDORUS. Thou still art opposite in disposition;
A more obscure servile habiliment
Beseems this enterprise.

ANSELMO. Then like a Florentine or mountebank!

MUCEDORUS. 'Tis much too tedious; I dislike thy judgment,
My mind is grafted on an humbler stock.

ANSELMO. Within my closet does there hang a cassock--
Though base the weed is, 'twas a shepherd's--
Which I presented in Lord Julio's masque.

MUCEDORUS. That, my Anselmo, and none else but that,
Mask Mucedorus from the vulgar view.
That habit suits my mind; fetch me that weed.
[_Exit ANSELMO_.
Better than kings have not disdain'd that state,
And much inferior, to obtain their mate.

_Re-enter_ ANSELMO _with a shepherd's coat, which he
gives to_ MUCEDORUS.

MUCEDORUS. So let our respect command thy secrecy.
At once a brief farewell;
Delay to lovers is a second hell.
[_Exit MUCEDORUS_.

ANSELMO. Prosperity forerun thee: awkward chance
Never be neighbour to thy wishes' venture:
Content and Fame advance thee: ever thrive,
And glory thy mortality survive!

_Enter_ MOUSE _with a bottle of hay_.

MOUSE. O, horrible, terrible! Was ever poor gentleman so scar'd out of
his seven senses? A bear? Nay, sure it cannot be a bear, but some devil
in a bear's doublet; for a bear could never have had that agility to
have frighted me. Well, I'll see my father hanged before I'll serve his
horse any more. Well, I'll carry home my bottle of hay, and for once
make my father's horse turn Puritan, and observe fasting-days, for he
gets not a bit. But soft! this way she followed me; therefore I'll take
the other path; and because I'll be sure to have an eye on him, I will
take hands with some foolish creditor, and make every step backward.

[_As he goes backwards, the