Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 10 of 10Fletcher, John
General
Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, Vol. 10 of 10
Fletcher, John
English drama
_Gent._ And my course shall be my Beads at home; so
Please your Grace to give me leave to leave the Court.
_Duke._ In peace, Sir,
And take my love along.
_Gent._ I shall pray for ye.
_Duke._ Now to our selves retire we, and begin
By this example to correct each sin. [_Exeunt._
[_Flourish._
_King. Em._ By this we plainly view the two imposthumes
That choke a kingdoms welfare; Ease, and Wantonness;
In both of which _Lavall_ was capital:
For first, Ease stole away his minde from honor,
That active noble thoughts had kept still working,
And then deliver'd him to drink and women,
Lust and outragious riot; and what their ends are,
How infamous and foul, we see example.
Therefore, that great man that will keep his name,
And gain his merit out of Virtues schools,
Must make the pleasures of the world his fools. [_Flourish._
_The_ TRIUMPH.
_Enter Musicians: next them_, Perolot _with the wound he died_
_with. Then_ Gabriella _and_ Maria, _with their wounds: after
them, four Furies with Bannerets in[s]crib'd_ Revenge, Murder,
Lust _and_ Drunkenness, _singing. Next them_, Lavall _wounded.
Then [a] Chariot with Death drawn by the Destinies_. [_Flourish._
_Enter_ PROLOGUE.
_From this sad sight ascend your noble eye,_
_And see old_ Time _helping triumphantly,_
_Helping his Master_ Man: _view here his vanities_
_And see his false friends like those glutted flyes,_
_That when they've suckt their fill, fall off, and fade_
_From all remembrance of him, like a shade._
_And last, view who relieves him; and that gone,_
_We hope your favour, and our Play is done_. [Flourish.
_Enter Anthropos, Desire, and Vain Delight; Bounty._
_Ant._ What hast thou done, _Desire_, and how imploy'd
The charge I gave thee, about levying wealth
For our supplies?
_Desire._ I have done all, yet nothing:
Tri'd all, and all my ways, yet all miscarried;
There dwells a sordid dulness in their mindes
Thou son of earth, colder then that thou art made of,
I came to _Craft_, found all his hooks about him,
And all his nets baited and set; his slie self
And greedie _Lucre_ at a serious conference
Which way to tie the world within their statutes:
Business of all sides and of all sorts swarming
Like Bees broke loose in summer: [I] declared
Your will and want together, both inforcing
With all the power and pains I had, to reach him;
Yet all fell short.
_Anth._ His answer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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