_Isa._ Your love, my lord, I blushingly proclaim it, Hath power to draw me through a wilderness, Were 't armed with furies, as with furious beasts. Boy, bid our train be ready; we'll to horse. [_Exit_ Page. My lord, I should say something, but I blush; Courting is not befitting to our sex. 80 _Mass._ I'll teach you how to woo. Say you have loved me long, And tell me that a woman's feeble tongue Was never tuned unto a wooing-string; Yet for my sake you will forget your sex, And court my love with strain'd immodesty: Then bid me make you happy with a kiss. _Isa._ Sir, though women do not woo, yet for your sake I am content to leave that civil custom, And pray you kiss me. _Mass._ Now use some unexpected ambages[231] 90 To draw me further into Vulcan's net. _Isa._ You love not me so well as I love you. _Mass._ Fair lady, but I do. _Isa._ Then show your love. _Mass._ Why, in this kiss I show 't, and in my vowed service This wooing shall suffice: 'tis easier far To make the current of a silver brook Convert his flowing backward to his spring Than turn a woman wooer. There's no cause Can turn the settled course of Nature's laws. _Isa._ My lord, will you pursue the plot? 100 _Mass._ The letter gives direction here for Pavy. To horse, to horse! Thus on Eurydice,[232] With looks regardiant [_sic_], did the Thracian gaze, And lost his gift while he desired the sight: But wiser I, led by more powerful charm, I'd see the world win thee from out mine arm. [_Exeunt._ [225] Ed. 1631 "plots." [226] Old eds. "share." [227] Old eds. "againe." [228] Old eds. "ARSENA." [229] The prefix to Massino's speeches in old eds. is "_Rog._" [230] Old eds. "Dana." [231] Old. eds. "vmbages." The word _ambages_ (= roundabout statements) is not uncommon. Cf. _Spanish Tragedy_:-- "Tush, tush, my lord, let go these _ambages_, And in plain terms acquaint me with your love." --Hazlitt's _Dodsley_, v. 30. [232] Old eds. "once Eridace" (and "Fridace"). SCENE IV. _Venice.--Courtyard of Robert's house._ _Enter at several doors_ CLARIDIANA _and_ GUIDO. _Gui._ Zounds! is the hurricano coming? Claridiana, what's the matter? [_A trampling of horses heard._ _Cla._ The Countess of Suevia has new taken horse.-- Fly, Phoebus, fly, the hour is six o'clock.! _Gui._ Whither is she gone, signior? _Cla._ Even as Jove went to meet his Semele-- To the devil, I think. _Gui._ You know not wherefore? _Cla._ To say sooth. I do not.-- So in immortal wise shall I arrive----