PHANTASTES, _a swart-complexioned fellow, but quick-eyed, in a white satin doublet of one fashion, green velvet hose of another, a fantastical hat with a plume of feathers of several colours, a little short taffeta cloak, a pair of buskins cut, drawn out with sundry-coloured ribbands, with scarfs hung about him after all fashions and of all colours, rings, jewels, a fan, and in every place other odd complements_.[218] HEURESIS, _a nimble-sprited page in the newest fashion, with a garland of bays, &c_. PHANTASTES, HEURESIS. PHA. Sirrah boy! Heuresis! boy! how now, biting your nails? HEU. Three things have troubled my brain this many a day, and just now, when I was laying hold on the invention of them, your sudden call made them, like Tantalus's apples, fly from my fingers. PHA. Some great matters, questionless; what were they? HEU. The quadrature of a circle, the philosopher's stone, and the next way to the Indies. PHA. Thou dost well to meditate on these three things at once, for they'll be found out altogether--_ad Graecas Calendas_; but let them pass, and carry the conceit I told you this morning to the party you wot of. In my imagination 'tis capricious; 'twill take, I warrant thee. HEU. I will, sir. But what say you to the gentleman that was with you yesterday? PHA. O, I think thou meanest him that made nineteen sonnets of his mistress's busk-point.[219] HEU. The same, the same, sir. You promised to help him out with the twentieth. PHA. By Jupiter's cloven pate, 'tis true. But we witty fellows are so forgetful; but stay, Heu, Heu,[220] carry him this. _The Gordian knot, which Alexander great Did whilom, cut with his all-conquering sword, Was nothing like thy busk-point, pretty peat,[221] Nor could so fair an augury afford_. Then to conclude, let him pervert Catullas's _Zonam solvit diu ligatum_ thus, thus-- _Which if I chance to cut, or else untie, Thy little world I'll conquer presently_. 'Tis pretty, pretty, tell him 'twas extemporal. HEU. Well, sir, but now for Master Inamorato's love-letter. PHA. Some nettling stuff, i'faith; let him write thus: _Most heart-commanding-faced gentlewoman, even as the stone in India, called Basaliscus, hurts all that looks on it, and as the serpent in Arabia, called Smaragdus, delighteth the sight, so does thy celestial orb-assimilating eyes both please, and in pleasing wound my love-darted heart_. HEU. But what trick shall I invent for the conclusion? PHA. Pish, anything, love will minister ink for the rest. He that [hath] once begun well, hath half done; let him begin again, and there's all. HEU. Master Gullio spoke for a new fashion; what for him? PHA. A fashion for his suit! Let him button it down the sleeve with four elbows, and so make it the pure hieroglyphic of a fool. HEU. Nay, then let me request one thing of you. PHA. What's that, boy? By this fair hand, thou shalt have it.