esteemed amongst ladies for his civil conceits as LUTESIO? Thou wert wished for amongst the chastest for thy choice qualities, amongst youth for thy wit, amongst age for thy honest behaviour, desired of all, because offensive to none: and now if thou prosecute this bad purpose, intend this base love, to violate the honour of a Venetian Lady, look to be hated of all that are virtuous, because thou art grown so suddenly vicious, and to be banished out of the company of all that are honest, because thou seekest to make one dishonest. Then as thou lovest thy fame, leave off this love, and as thou valuest thine honour, so veil the appetite of thy dishonest thoughts!

"Besides, LUTESIO, enter into the consideration of the fault, and by that measure what will be the sequel of thy folly! Thou attemptest to dishonour a wife, nay, the wife of thy friend in doing this, thou shalt lose a sweet companion, and purchase thyself a fatal enemy; thou shalt displease God, and grow odious to men; hazard the hope of thy grace, and assure thyself of the reward of sin. Adultery, LUTESIO, is commended in none, condemned in all, and punished in the end either with this world's infamy, or heaven's anger: it is a desire without regard of honesty, and a gain with greater reward of misery: a pleasure bought with pain, a delight hatched with disquiet, a content possessed with fear, and a sin finished with sorrow'. Barbarous nations punish it with death: mere atheists in religion avoid it by instinct of nature: such as glory God with no honour, covet to glorify themselves with honesty: and wilt thou that art a Christian then, crucify Christ anew, by making the harbour of thy soul the habitation of Satan?

“O, LUTESIO, as thou blushest at my words, so banish thy bad thoughts, and being created by God, seek not to despise thy Creator in abusing his creatures. A woman's honesty is her honour, and her honour the chiefest essence of her life'. Then in seeking to blemish her virtues with lust, thou aimest at no less disgrace than her death and yet, LUTESIO, this is not all; for in winning her love, thou losest a friend', than which there is nothing more precious, as there is nothing more rare: as Corruptio unius est generatio alterius: so the loss of a friend is the purchase of an enemy, and such a mortal foe as will apply all his wits to thy wreck, intrude all his thoughts to thy ruin, and pass away his days, cares and nights' slumbers, in dreaming of thy destruction. For if brute beasts will revenge such brutish wrongs as adultery, then imagine no man to be so patient, that will overpass so gross an injury3.

"Assure thyself of this, LUTESIO! if her husband hear of your loves, he will aim at your lives'; he will leave no confection untempered, no poison unsearched, no mineral untried, no aconite unbruised, no herb, tree, root, stone, simple or secret unsought, till revenge hath satisfied the burning thirst of his hate! So shalt thou fear with whom to drink, with whom to converse, where to walk, how to perform thy affairs, only for doubt of her revenging husband, and thy protested enemy. If such unlawful lust, such unkind

desires, such unchaste love procure so great loss, and so many perils, revert it, LUTESIO, as a passion most pernicious, as a sin most odious, and a gain full of most deadly sorrows.

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Though this be much, LUTESIO, yet this is not all: for many love that are never liked, and every one that wooes is not a winner : diverse desire with hope, and yet their wishes are to small effect. Suppose the lady whom thou lovest is honest; then is thy love as unlikely as Ixion's was to Juno, who aiming at the substance, was made a fool with a shadow. I tell thee, it is more easy to cut a diamond with a glass, to pierce steel with a feather, to tie an elephant with a thread of silk, than to alienate an honest woman's love from her husband; their hearts be harbours of one love1; closets of one contents; cells, whereinto no amorous idea but one can enter; as hard to be pierced with new-fangled affection, as the adamant to be made soft with fire.

"A lady, LUTESIO, that regardeth her honour, will die with Lucretia, before she agree to lust; she will eat coals with Portia, before she prove unchaste; she will think every misery sweet, every mishap content, before she condescend to the allurements of any wanton lecher. Imagine then her whom thou lovest to be such a one; then will it qualify thy hope, cool thy desires, and quench those unbridled thoughts that lead thee on to such follies. For if she be a wanton, what dost thou win? her that many hath worn, and more than thyself may vanquish: a light housewife and a lewd minion, that after she hath yielded the flower of her love, to Theseus,

will marry with Menelaus, and then run away with Paris: amorous to every one, because she is humorous to all.

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Then, LUTESIO, seeing if thou likest an honest lady, thy love is past hope, and if thou wooest a wanton, thou shalt gain but what others have left; leave both, and become as hitherto thou hast been, an honest gentleman in all men's opinions; so shalt thou live well thought of, and die honourably :". and with that, smiling, she asked him, if she had not played the preacher well.

But LUTESIO wondering at her virtues, made no answer, he was so amazed, but rested silent; which PHILOMELA perceiving, to waken him out of his dump, she took again her lute in her hand, and began to sing this following ode.

PHILOMELA'S SECOND ODE.

It was frosty winter season,

And fair Flora's wealth was geason:
Meads that erst with green were spread,
With choice flowers diap❜red,

Had tawny vales: cold had scattered,
What the springs and nature planted:
Leafless boughs there might you see,
All except fair Daphne's tree;
On their twigs no birds perched,
Warmer coverts none they searched;
And by nature's secret reason,
Fram'd their voices to the season:
With their feeble tunes bewraying,
How they griev❜d the spring's decaying:
Frosty winter thus had gloomed
Each fair thing that summer bloomed;
Fields were bare, and trees unclad,

Flowers withered, birds were had:

When I saw a shepherd fold
Sheep in cote, to shun the cold;
Himself sitting on the grass,
That with frost withered was;
Sighing deeply, thus 'gan say,
"Love is folly when astray;
Like to love no passion such,
For his madness, if too much;
If too little, then despair;
If too high, he beats the air;
With bootless cries, if too low;
An eagle matcheth with a crow.
Thence grows jars, thus I find,
Love is folly, if unkind;
Yet do men most desire
To be heated with this fire;
Whose flame is so pleasing hot,
That they burn, yet feel it not :
Yet hath love another kind,
Worse than these unto the mind:
That is, when a wanton's eye
Leads desire clean awry,
And with the bee doth rejoice
Every minute to change choice,
Counting he were then in bliss,
If that each fair fall were his;
Highly thus in love disgrac'd,
When the lover is unchaste;
And would taste of fruit forbidden,
'Cause the scape is easily hidden.

Though such love be sweet in brewing,

Bitter is the end ensuing;

For the humour of love he shameth,

And himself with lust defameth;

D