Clown. Our cynosures! Amazon. Indeed! Pray, let me out. Courtier. Superb she-warrior, rest you here a space: Nay, frown not, most redoubted amazon: I have a thing to say: I'll say it now. That which the world calls folly is my trade, Unwitting that its trade is only folly. I neither crave the statesman's rancid fame, The sailor's vogue, the soldier's red renown, Nor care I to discover: Africa Agrees not well with my adventurous sprite; The negress is not lovely--that's the die: Nor is the Arctic climate amorous. I wrote a book----Good lack, the solitude! But first the woe by which I was confined! O Luna, of thy tenderness I pray Let me no more be fructified by woe! The highway?--Fie on steam and liveried lightning!-- Whate'er I fancy if I may I do. A happy notion fills me now; give ear, Gentle and lovely ladies, gentlemen, Sprightly and handsome. Will you hearken it? [They assent. It is my earnest hope to make you mad.-- These gala robes wherein we now are dressed Why should we cast for good and all to-night, To don the wintry worldling's dingy slough, Returning sadly to the chrysalis? Fashion, propriety, convention?--Tush! Let us like noble heretics protest Against all dogmas false and fashionable, And, if need be, with righteous resignation Attest our faith in glorious martyrdom, Tied to opinion's stake, and burned by tongues Of scandalous fire, blazing from faggot hearts. Then, gentle friends, since such is our resolve, We can do nothing nobler than attack Fashion's mainstay, the discipline of dress. I swear that you may well with less ado Worship the sun, keep harems, or, like France When liberty became beside herself, Extend the week from seven days to ten-- Yea, set apart and consecrate each day To traversing with all your might and main, In order, Moses' ten "commandements," Than steadfast be in non-observance brave Of the great ordinance of dressing all In fashion's right religious uniform. So, shall we dare the world? Who says with me, To wear this fancy dress to-morrow too In the sun's kindly, and the world's ill, eye? Amazon. Suppose we do, what issue do you see? Courtier. Whatever fantasies our minds may don We shall expound with these our fancy clothes. There is none here, I think, to whom I'm known, Nor do I know a single one of you; So I propose that each assume some name To complement the dress worn, to be used While we are in this mood. Clown [to Amazon]. If that were fixed You should be called war's bride, Bellona bold. Bellona. Bellona would be bold to call you clown. Corsair [to Contadina]. I'll call you--what? Some lingering name: Herminia! Herminia. Herminia! Corsair. What name for me, Herminia? What word, however harsh, would by your lips Be sweetened to a note of Syren strength, That, whispered, should have force to summon me From Iceland to Ceylon. Tell me, Herminia. Herminia. I think Antinous should be your name. Courtier [to Summer].