ye,
And then deliver you to the blue _Neptune_.

Juan de Castro:

Your colours you must wear, and wear 'em proudly,
Wear 'em before the bullet, and in bloud too,
And all the world shall know
We are Vertues servants.

Duke of Medina:

_And all the world shall know, a noble mind_
_Makes women beautifull, and envie blind._

[Exeunt.

Prologue.

Pleasure attend ye, and about ye sit
The springs of mirth, fancy, delight and wit
To stir you up, do not your looks let fall,
Nor to remembrance our late errors call,
Because this day w' are _Spaniards_ all again,
The story of our Play, and our Scene _Spain_:
The errors too, do not for this cause hate,
Now we present their wit and not their state.
Nor Ladies be not angry if you see,
A young fresh beauty, wanton and too free,
Seek to abuse her Husband, still 'tis _Spain_,
No such gross errors in your Kingdom raign,
W' are _Vesrals_ all, and though we blow the fire,
We seldom make it flame up to desire,
Take no example neither to begin,
For some by precedent delight to sin:
Nor blame the Poet if he slip aside
Sometimes lasciviously if not too wide.
But hold your Fanns close, and then smile at ease,
A cruel Scene did never Lady please.
Nor Gentlemen, pray be not you displeased,
235] Though we present some men fool'd, some diseased,
Some drunk, some mad: we mean not you, you're free,
We taxe no farther than our Comedie,
You are our friends, sit noble then and see.

Epilogue.

Good night our worthy friends, and may you part
Each with as merry and as free a heart
As you came hither; to those noble eyes
That deign to smile on our poor faculties,
And give a blessing to our labouring ends,
As we hope many, to such fortune sends
Their own desires, wives fair as light as chast;
To those that live by spight Wives made in hast.

459]
APPENDIX

RULE A WIFE, AND HAVE A WIFE.

The Dramatis Personae are not given in the quarto of 1640 nor in the 2nd
folio. They are as follows:--Duke of Medina. Juan de Castro, Sanchio, Alonzo,
Michael Perez, Officers. Leon, Altea's brother. Cacafogo, a usurer. Lorenzo.
Coachman, etc. Margarita. Altea. Estifania.