_Cal._ Sure the duke is In the giving vein, they are so loud. Come on, spouse; We have heard all, and we will have our boon too. _Coz._ What is it? _Cal._ That your grace, in remembrance of My share in a dance, and that I play'd your part When you should have drunk hard, would get this signior's grant To give this damsel to me in the church, For we are contracted. In it you shall do Your dukedom pleasure. _Coz._ How? _Cal._ Why, the whole race Of such as can act naturally fools' parts Are quite worn out; and they that do survive Do only zany us: and we will bring you, If we die not without issue, of both sexes Such chopping mirth-makers, as shall preserve Perpetual cause of sport, both to your grace And your posterity, that sad melancholy Shall ne'er approach you. _Coz._ We are pleased in it, And will pay her portion.----[_Comes forward._ _May the passage prove, Of what's presented, worthy of your love And favour, as was aim'd; and we have all That can in compass of our wishes fall._ [_Exeunt._ FOOTNOTES: [93] _The state_,] i. e. _the raised platform on which the chairs were placed_. [94] _The prince, in care to have you keep your vows Made unto Heaven, vouchsafed to love my daughter._] This attempt to impose upon the great duke is more deplorable than the former. It has falsehood and improbability written on its face. The duke, indeed, is not deceived by it; but surely the author showed a strange want of judgment in this gratuitous degradation of three of his most estimable characters.--GIFFORD. [95] _Practice_,] i. e. _artifice, or insidious combination_. THE BONDMAN. The Bondman was performed, as we learn from the Office-book of Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels, at the Cockpit in Drury-lane, December 3, 1623. It was printed the following year, and again in 1638. The main incident of the plot is taken from the life of Timoleon, as related by Plutarch. The revolt and subsequent reduction of the slaves to their duty may have been taken either from Herodotus or Justin, or Purchas's Pilgrim. The artifice by which they are quelled is silly and unnatural, and its introduction degrades a very beautifully managed plot. The play was revived in 1660 by Betterton, who played Pisander; and several alterations of it have since been produced, but without success. Our author never writes with more effect than when he combines his own fancy with real history; and in The Bondman he has produced a piece which is, with few exceptions, at once stately and playful, impressive and tender. He matures the love under the cover of the history; till at length the interest changes, and the history becomes subordinate to the love.