assistant, but I ne'er did see such lack of good order, discretion, and sobriety, as I have now done. I have passed much time in seeing the royal sports of hunting and hawking, where the manners were such as made me devise the beasts were pursuing the sober creation, and not man, in quest of exercise and food. I will now, in good sooth, declare to you, who will not blab, that the gun-powder fright is got out of all our heads, and we are going on hereabouts as if the devil was contriving every man should blow up himself by wild riot, excess, and devastation of time and temperance."--_Ibid. Letter from Sir John Harrington to Mr Secretary Barlow, 1606._] THE SECULAR MASQUE. _Enter_ JANUS. _Janus._ Chronos, Chronos, mend thy pace; An hundred times the rolling sun Around the radiant belt has run In his revolving race. Behold, behold, the goal in sight, Spread thy fans, and wing thy flight. _Enter_ CHRONOS, _with a Scythe in his hand, and a Globe on his back; which he sets down at his entrance_. _Chronos._ Weary, weary of my weight, Let me, let me drop my freight, And leave the world behind. I could not bear, Another year, The load of humankind. _Enter_ MOMUS, _laughing_. _Momus._ Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! well hast thou done, To lay down thy pack, And lighten thy back, The world was a fool, e'er since it begun; And since neither Janus, nor Chronos, nor I, Can hinder the crimes, Or mend the bad times, 'Tis better to laugh than to cry. Cho. of all three. _'Tis better to laugh than to cry._ _Janus._ Since Momus comes to laugh below, Old Time begin the show, That he may see, in every scene, What changes in this age have been. _Chronos._ Then, goddess of the silver bow, begin. [_Horns, or hunting-music, within._] _Enter_ DIANA. _Dia._ With horns and with hounds, I waken the day, And hie to the woodland-walks away; I tuck up my robe, and am buskined soon, And tie to my forehead a wexing moon. I course the fleet stag, unkennel the fox, And chace the wild goats o'er summits of rocks; With shouting and hooting we pierce through the sky, And Echo turns hunter, and doubles the cry. Cho. of all. _With shouting and hooting we pierce through the sky, And Echo turns hunter, and doubles the cry._ _Janus._ Then our age was in its prime: _Chronos._ Free from rage, _Diana._ ----And free from crime. _Momus._ A very merry, dancing, drinking, Laughing, quaffing, and unthinking time. Cho. of all. _Then our age was in its prime, Free from rage, and free from crime; A very merry, dancing, drinking, Laughing, quaffing, and unthinking time._ [_Dance of_ DIANA'S _Attendants._] _Enter_ MARS.