Cynthia's Revels; Or, The Fountain of Self-LoveJonson, Ben
General
Cynthia's Revels; Or, The Fountain of Self-Love
Jonson, Ben
English drama (Comedy); English drama -- 17th century
PHI. For Cupid's sake speak no more of him; would I might never
dare to look in a mirror again, if I respect ever a marmoset of 'em
all, otherwise than I would a feather, or my shuttle-cock, to make
sport with now and then.
PHA. Come sit down: troth, and you be good beauties, let's run
over them all now: Which is the properest man amongst them? I
say, the traveller, Amorphus.
PHI. O, fie on him, he looks like a Venetian trumpeter in the
battle of Lepanto, in the gallery yonder; and speaks to the tune of
a country lady that comes ever in the rearward or train of a
fashion.
MOR. I should have judgment in a feature, sweet beauties.
PHA. A body would think so, at these years.
MOR. And I prefer another now, far before him, a million at least.
PHA. Who might that be, guardian?
MOR. Marry, fair charge, Anaides.
PHA. Anaides! you talk'd of a tune, Philautia; there's one speaks
in a key, like the opening of some justice's gate, or a postboy's
horn, as if his voice feared an arrest for some ill words it should
give, and were loth to come forth.
PHI. Ay, and he has a very imperfect face.
PHA. Like a sea-monster, that were to ravish Andromeda from the
rock.
PHI. His hands too great too, by at least a straw's breadth.
PHA. Nay, he has a worse fault than that too.
PHI. A long heel?
PHA. That were a fault in a lady, rather than him: no, they say
he puts off the calves of his legs, with his stockings, every
night.
PHI. Out upon him! Turn to another of the pictures, for love's
sake. What says Argurion? Whom does she commend afore the rest?
CUP. I hope I have instructed her sufficiently for an answer.
[ASIDE.]
MOR. Troth, I made the motion to her ladyship for one to-day,
i'the presence, but it appear'd she was otherways furnished before:
she would none.
PHA. Who was that Argurion?
MOR. Marry, the poor plain gentleman in the black there.
PHA. Who, Crites?
ARG. Ay, ay, he: a fellow that nobody so much as look'd upon, or
regarded; and she would have had me done him particular grace.
PHA. That was a true trick of yourself, Moria, to persuade
Argurion to affect the scholar.
ARG. Tut, but she shall be no chooser for me. In good faith, I
like the citizen's son there, Asotus; methinks none of them all
come near him.
PHA. Not Hedon?
ARG. Hedon! In troth no. Hedon's a pretty slight courtier, and he
wears his clothes well, and sometimes in fashion; marry, his face
is but indifferent, and he has no such excellent body. No, the
other is a most delicate youth; a sweet face, a straight body, a
well-proportion'd leg and foot, a white hand, a tender voice.
PHI. How now, Argurion!
PHA. O, you should have let her alone, she was bestowing a copy of
him upon us. Such a nose were enough to make me love a man, now.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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