you are a hearer of my hoarse ditty, take it as you find it, and construe of it as you please, I know mine own meaning best. In that I commend kissing, it argues me the more kind; and my husband the more loving, in that I find lip-love so sweet; women may be wantons in their husbands, yet not immodest: and wives are allowed to sport, so their dallying be not dishonest; yet had I known you had been so nigh, I would have been more silent." And at this word she blushed again, discovering by her looks, it grieved her, any man (though never so familiar) should hear her so extraordinary pleasant: but to find fish in Seignior LUTESIO'S fingers, because he glanced at disdain in love, she followed her reply thus: Yet since, Sir, what is past cannot be recalled, I will overslip the conceit of mine own folly, and be so bold as to have you under confession. What is the reason, LUTESIO, you diversely descant of the fruition of love? Hath that divine passion crept into your brains?"

GIOVANNI hearing her harp on that string, strained it a pin higher thus." Divine passion call you it, Madam? nay rather a fury fetched from hell, a madness brewed in the bosom of Tesiphon, an unbridled desire, a restless agony, a continual anguish. Thus do I value love, because my life is at an end by the wrongs of love: such as are poisoned with ragwort count it fatal; yet such as have the pleurisy drink it in potions: the mercurial Moti was very much commended of Ulysses, though condemned of Cyrus: men's poems follow their passions, and they conclude as they are contented: then, Madam, if all the world say, love is a heaven, yet must I say, desire is a hell: not that the beauteous Saint, whom mine eye doth worship, and my heart doth honour, hath quitted my affection with disdain but that in not daring discover my passions, I am put to a triple tormenting penance."

At this he fetched such a feigned sigh, that simple meaning PHILOMELA imagined the gentleman was full of sorrow, and there

fore began to comfort him thus. Why, Seignior LUTESIO, have you soared so high, that you doubt the scorching of your feathers? Have your desires taken flight so far above your degree, that you fear a fall? Is the lady whom you love so great of birth, that you dare not be your own broker? Love, LUTESIO, if honest, is lawful, and may reap disdain, but not disgrace. Desire is the daughter of Destiny, and the sympathy of affections is forepointed by the stars. Women's eyes are not tied to high personages, but to exquisite perfections: and the greater oft-times they be in degrees, the lower they prove in loves. Be she then, LUTESIO, the stateliest, the richest, the fairest in all Italy, fear not to court her: for happily she may grant, and she at the worst can but say no. When I enter into thy wonted humours, how honestly wanton thou hast been amongst women of high account, when I think of thy wealth, of thy virtues, of thy parentage, of thy person, I flatter not, LUTESIO; for in my opinion a frump amongst friends is petty treason in effect! I cannot but wonder what she is that LUTESIO dares not tell he loves; if without offence I may crave it, tell me her name, that I may censure of her qualities."

LUTESIO, with a face full of discontent, made her this answer: "Madam, as I dare not discourse my loves, so I will not discover her name; I regard her honour as my life, and therefore only suffice it, I am as far unworthy of her, as she is beyond my reach to compass."

PHILOMELA, who straight found the knot in the rush, began to imagine that it was some married wife that LUTESIO aimed at: and therefore charged him by the love that he bore to PHILIPPO MEDICO, that he would tell her whether it was a wife or a maid that he thus earnestly affected. LUTESIO briefly told her, that she was not only a wife, but maid to one, whom she almost as tenderly loved, as he did the Earl her husband: a lady of honour and virtue, yet a woman, and therefore he hoped might be won, if his heart

would serve him to be a wooer.

PHILOMELA hearing this, began to find a knot in the rush, and began to deem it was some familiar of his that he was affected to: and therefore with a gentle frown, as if she loved him, and yet misliked of his fondness in fancy, taking him by the hand, she began thus to school him.

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LUTESIO, now I see, the strongest oak hath his sap, and his worms that ravens will breed in the fairest ash, and that the musked angelica bears a dew, that shining like pearl, being tasted, is most prejudicial: that the holiest men in shew are oft the hollowest men in substance; and where there is the greatest flourish of virtue', there in time appeareth the greatest blemish of vanity. I speak this by all, but apply it to them, who seeming every way absolute, will prove every way dissolute. Hath not Venice held thee more famous for thy good parts than for thy parentage; and yet well born? and valued thee more for living well, than wealthily; and yet thy patrimony is not small? Oh, LUTESIO, darken not these honours with dishonesty; nor for the foolish and fading passion of lusť3, reach not an everlasting penance of infamy!

"As I mislike of thy choice, so I can but wonder at thy change, to see thee altered in manners, that wert erst so modest. Who was

esteemed amongst ladies for his civil conceits as LUTESIO? Thou wert wished for amongst the chastest for thy choice qualities, amongst youth for thy wit, amongst age for thy honest behaviour, desired of all, because offensive to none: and now if thou prosecute this bad purpose, intend this base love, to violate the honour of a Venetian Lady, look to be hated of all that are virtuous, because thou art grown so suddenly vicious, and to be banished out of the company of all that are honest, because thou seekest to make one dishonest. Then as thou lovest thy fame, leave off this love, and as thou valuest thine honour, so veil the appetite of thy dishonest thoughts!

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Besides, LUTESIO, enter into the consideration of the fault, and by that measure what will be the sequel of thy folly! Thou attemptest to dishonour a wife, nay, the wife of thy friend in doing this, thou shalt lose a sweet companion, and purchase thyself a fatal enemy; thou shalt displease God, and grow odious to men; hazard the hope of thy grace, and assure thyself of the reward of sin. Adultery, LUTESIO, is commended in none, condemned in all, and punished in the end either with this world's infamy, or heaven's anger: it is a desire without regard of honesty, and a gain with greater reward of misery: a pleasure bought with pain, a delight hatched with disquiet, a content possessed with fear, and a sin finished with sorrow'. Barbarous nations punish it with death: mere atheists in religion avoid it by instinct of nature: such as glory God with no honour, covet to glorify themselves with honesty: and wilt thou that art a Christian then, crucify Christ anew, by making the harbour of thy soul the habitation of Satan?

O, LUTESIO, as thou blushest at my words, so banish thy bad thoughts, and being created by God, seek not to despise thy Creator in abusing his creatures. A woman's honesty is her honour, and her honour the chiefest essence of her life'. Then in seeking to blemish her virtues with lust, thou aimest at no less disgrace than her death and yet, LUTESIO, this is not all; for in winning her love, thou losest a friend', than which there is nothing more precious, as there is nothing more rare: as Corruptio unius est generatio alterius: so the loss of a friend is the purchase of an enemy, and such a mortal foe as will apply all his wits to thy wreck, intrude all his thoughts to thy ruin, and pass away his days, cares and nights' slumbers, in dreaming of thy destruction. For if brute beasts will revenge such brutish wrongs as adultery, then imagine no man to be so patient, that will overpass so gross an injury3.

"Assure thyself of this, LUTESIO! if her husband hear of your loves, he will aim at your lives'; he will leave no confection untempered, no poison unsearched, no mineral untried, no aconite unbruised, no herb, tree, root, stone, simple or secret unsought, till revenge hath satisfied the burning thirst of his hate! So shalt thou fear with whom to drink, with whom to converse, where to walk, how to perform thy affairs, only for doubt of her revenging husband, and thy protested enemy. If such unlawful lust, such unkind