_Statues and Pictures challenge price and fame;_ _If they can justly boast, and prove they came_ _From_ Phidias _or_ Apelles. _None denie,_ _Poets and Painters hold a sympathy;_ _Yet their works may decay, and lose their grace,_ _Receiving blemish in their Limbs or Face._ _When the Minds Art has this preheminence,_ _She still retaineth her first excellence._ _Then why should not this dear Piece be esteem'd_ _Child to the richest fancies that e'r teem'd?_ _When not their meanest off-spring, that came forth,_ _But bore the image of their Fathers worth._ Beaumonts, _and_ Fletchers, _whose desert out-wayes_ _The best applause, and their least sprig of B[a]yes_ _Is worthy_ Phæbus; _and who comes to gather_ _Their fruits of wit, he shall not rob the treasure._ _Nor can you ever surfeit of the plenty,_ _Nor can you call them rare, though they be dainty._ _The more you take, the more you do them right,_ _And we will thank you for your own delight._ _Actus Primus. Scæna Prima._ _Enter_ Vitelli, Lamoral, Anastro. _Vit. Alvarez_ pardon'd? _Ana._ And return'd _Lamo._ I saw him land At _St. Lucars_, and such a general welcome, Fame as harbinger to his brave actions, Had with the easie people, prepar'd for him, As if by his command alone, and fortune _Holland_, with those low Provinces, that hold out Against the Arch-Duke, were again compell'd With their obedience to give up their lives To be at his Devotion. _Vit._ You amaze me, For though I have heard, that when he fled from _Sevil_ To save his life (th[e]n forfeited to Law For murth'ring Don _Pedro_ my dear Uncle) His extream wants enforc'd him to take pay I'th' Army, sate down then before _Ostend_, 'Twas never yet reported, by whose favour He durst presume to entertain a thought Of coming home with pardon. _Ana._ 'Tis our nature Or not to hear, or not to give belief To what we wish far from our enemies. _Lam._ Sir, 'tis most certain, the _Infanta_'s Letters Assisted by the Arch-Dukes, to King _Philip_, Have not alone secur'd him from the rigor Of our _Castilian_ Justice, but return'd him A free man and in grace. _Vi[t]._ By what curs'd means Could such a fugitive arise unto The knowledge of their Highnesses? much more (Though known) to stand but in the least degree Of favour with them?