_Miser._ How now, Respublica? have I not been long hence? _Resp._ Come ye first or last, ye bless me with your presence. _Miser._ As I was commanded, I bring you Verity, To help you, your people, and their posterity. _Ver._ Dear jewel Respublica! I do you embrace. _Resp._ I thank your goodness, and submit me to your grace. _Miser._ Embrace Verity for ever, Respublica, And cleave fast to her! _Resp._ Yes, Misericordia! _Miser._ Now please it you to declare, sister Verity! How she may recover her old prosperity; Her honour, her wealth, her riches, her substance, Her commons, her people, her strength, and her puissance. _Ver._ All this will be recovered incontinent; And, to better state also, by good government. _Resp._ No lady of my name upon earth, I esteem, Hath had better administers than mine have been: Policy, Reformation, and Authority. _Miser._ These three be very good. _Resp._ And the four[th], Honesty. _Ver._ But what if these, which have had you and yours to keep, Have been ravening wolves in the clothing of sheep? _Resp._ If I heard not you, Verity, such sentence give, By no man's persuasion I could it believe. _Ver._ Ah, good Respublica! thou hast been abused; Whom thou chosest are vices to be refused. Whom thou callst Honesty, is Adulation; And he that in pretence was Reformation, Is indeed Oppression and huge violence; Whom thou callst Authority, is proud Insolence; Then he that was Policy, the chief man of price, Indeed is most stinking and filthy Avarice. He first inveigled thee, and his purpose to frame, Cloaked each of these vices with a virtuous name. _Resp._ Benedicite! is this a possible case? _Ver._ Ye shall see it proved true before your own face; They shall be convinced before you, one by one. _Resp._ O Lord! what marvel if my thrift were well nigh gone? But what redress shall I have hereof? and when? _Miser._ Such as may be most fit, and as soon as we can. Justice and peace are appointed to descend; Th' one to keep you quiet; the other you to defend. As soon as we four sisters together shall be met, An order for your establishment shall be set: By the eternal providence it is decreed so. _Resp._ O most merciful Lord, all praise be thee unto! _Miser._ I will leave you here with my sister Verity, And learn of their coming with all celerity. _Ver._ Ye need not; for I know they be now very near; And, behold! they begin already to appear. ACTUS QUINTI, SCENA QUARTA. PAX. JUSTITIA. VERITAS. MISERICORDIA. RESPUBLICA. _Peace._ Now, once again, in God let us two sisters kiss, In token of our joining to make a perfect bliss. _Justitia._ And now, let us never be sundered any more Till we may Respublica perfectly restore.