English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600
_Sil_. This straunger will bewitch her with his eies.
_Ge_. It is _Adonis_.
_Sil_. It is _Ganymede_.
_Ge_. My blood is chill.
_Sil_. My hearte is colde as Leade.
_Eu_. Faire youthes, you have forgot for what ye came:
You seeke your Love, shee's gone.
_Ge_. The more to blame.
_Eu_. Not so; my sister had no will to go
But that our parents dread commaund was so.
_Sil_. It is thy sense: thou art not of her kin,
But as my Ryvall com'ste my Love to win.
_Eu_. By great _Appollos_ sacred Deitie,
That shepheardesse so neare is Sib[124] to me
As I ne may (for all the world) her wed;
For she and I in one selfe wombe were bred.
But she is gone, her flocke is left to mee.
_Ge_. The shepcoat's mine and I will in and see.
_Sil_. And I.
[_Exeunt Silvio and Gemulo_.
_Eu_. Go both, cold comfort shall you finde:
My manly shape hath yet a womans minde,
Prone to reveale what secret she doth know.
God pardon me, I was about to show
My transformation: peace, they come againe.
_Enter Silvio and Gemulo_.
_Sil_. Have ye found her?
_Ge_. No, we looke in vaine.
_Eu_. I told ye so.
_Ge_. Yet heare me, new come Swayne.
Albe thy seemly feature set no sale
But honest truth vpon thy novell tale,
Yet (for this world is full of subtiltee)
We wish ye go with vs for companie
Unto a wise man wonning[125] in this wood,
Hight _Aramanth_, whose wit and skill is good,
That he may certifie our mazing doubt
How this straunge chaunce and chaunge hath fallen out.
_Eu_. I am content; have with ye when ye will.
_Sil_. Even now.
_Eu_. Hee'le make ye muse if he have any skill.
[_Exeunt_.
_Actus Quintus_.
_Enter Ascanio and Eurymine_.
_Asca_. _Eurymine_, I pray, if thou be shee,
Refraine thy haste and doo not flie from mee.
The time hath bene my words thou would'st allow
And am I growne so loathsome to thee now?
_Eu_. _Ascanio_, time hath bene, I must confesse,
When in thy presence was my happinesse,
But now the manner of my miserie
Hath chaung'd that course that so it cannot be.
_Asca_. What wrong have I contrived, what iniurie
To alienate thy liking so from mee?
If thou be she whom sometime thou didst faine,
And bearest not the name of friend in vaine,
Let not thy borrowed guise of altred kinde
Alter the wonted liking of thy minde,
But though in habit of a man thou goest
Yet be the same _Eurymine_ thou wast.
_Eu_. How gladly would I be thy Lady still,
If earnest vowes might answere to my will.
_Asca_. And is thy fancie alterd with thy guise?
_Eu_. My kinde, but not my minde in any wise.
_Asca_. What though thy habit differ from thy kinde,
Thou maiest retain thy wonted loving minde.
_Eu_. And so I doo.
_Asca_. Then why art thou so straunge,
Or wherefore doth thy plighted fancie chaunge?
_Eu_. _Ascanio_, my heart doth honor thee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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