amongst themselves with many pleasant parleys: were it not a shame, then, that we of Arcadia, famous for the beauty of our nymphs, and the amorous roundelays of our shepherds, should disgrace Pan's holiday with such melancholy dumps? Courteous country swains, shake off this sobriety; and seeing we have in our company damsels both beautiful and wise, let us entertain them with prattle to try our wits, and tire our time." To this they all agreed with a plaudit. Then," quoth MELICERTUS, " by your leave, since I was first in motion, I will be first in question, and therefore new-come shepherdess, first to you:" at this SAMELA blushed, and he began thus.

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"Fair damsel! when Nereus chatted with Juno he had pardon, in that his prattle came more to pleasure the goddess, than to ratify his own presumption; if I, mistress, be over bold, forgive me; I request not to offend, but to set time free from tediousness. Then, gentle shepherdess, tell me, if you should be transformed, through the anger of the gods, into some shape, what creature would you wish to be in form?" SAMELA, blushing that she was the first that was boarded, yet gathered up her crumbs, and desirous to shew her pregnant wit (as the wisest women be ever tickled with self-love), made him this answer.

"Gentle shepherd, it fits not strangers to be nice, nor maidens too coy, lest the one feel the weight of a scoff, the other the fall of a frump: pithy questions are minds' whetstones, and by discoursing in jest, many doubts are decyphered in earnest ; therefore you have forestalled me in craving pardon, when you have no need to feel any grant of pardon. Therefore thus to your question: Daphne, I remember, was turned to a bay tree, Niobe to a flint, Lampetia and her sisters to flowers, and sundry virgins to sundry shapes, according to their merits; but if my wish might serve for a metamorphosis, I would be turned into a sheep." "A sheep; and why so, mistress?" "I reason thus," quoth SAMELA; "my supposition should be simple, my life quiet, my foot the pleasant plains of

Arcadia, and the wealthy riches of Flora; my drink the cool streams that flow from the concave promontory of this continent; my air should be clear, my walks spacious, my thoughts at ease: and can there be (shepherd) any better premises to conclude my reply than these?" "But have you no other allegations to confirm your resolution?" "Yes, sir," quoth she, "and far greater." "Then the law of our first motion," quoth he, "commands you to repeat them.”

"Far be it," answered SAMELA, "that I should not do of free-will any thing that this pleasant company commands; therefore thus: were I a sheep, I should be guarded from the folds with jolly swains, such as was Luna's love on the hills of Latmos, their pipes sounding like the melody of Mercury, when he lulled asleep Argus; but more, when the damsels, tracing along the plains, should, with their eyes like sun-bright beams, draw on looks to gaze on such sparkling planets: then, weary with food, should I lie and look on their beauties as on the spotted wealth of the richest firmament; I should listen to their sweet lays, more sweet than the sea-born Syrens: thus feeding on the delicacy of their features, I should, like the Tyrian heifer, fall in love with Agenor's darling." Ay, but," quoth MELICERTUS, "those fair-faced damsels oft draw forth the kindest sheep to the shambles." "And what of that, Sir," answered SAMELA, "would not a sheep so long fed with beauty, die for love?" "If she die," quoth PESANA," there is more kindness in beasts than constancy in men, for they die for love when larks die with leeks." "If they be so wise," quoth MENAPHON, they shew but their mothers' wits; for what sparks they have of inconstancy they draw from their female fosterers, as the sea doth ebbs and tides from the moon." "So be it, Sir," answered PESANA: "then no doubt your mother was made of a weathercock, that brought forth such a wavering companion; for you, M. MENAPHON, measure your looks by minutes, and your loves are like lightning, which no sooner flash on the eye but they vanish." "It is, then," quoth MENAPHON, because mine eye is a foolish

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judge, and chooseth too basely, which when my heart censures of, it casts away as refuse." "It were best, then," said PESANA, "to discharge such unjust judges of their seats, and to set your ears hearers of your love pleas." "If they fault," quoth MELICErtus, every market town hath a remedy, or else there is never a baker near by seven miles." "Stay, courteous shepherds," quoth SAMELA, "these jesis are too broad before, they are cynical, like Diogenes' quips, that had large feathers and sharp heads: it little fits in this company to bandy taunts of love, seeing you are unwedded, and these all maidens addicted to chastity." "You speak well as a patroness of our credit," quoth PESANA, " for indeed we be virgins, and addicted to virginity."

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Now," quoth MENAPHON, "that you have got a virgin in your mouth, you will never leave chaunting the word, till you prove yourself either a Vestal or a Sybil." "Suppose she were a Vestal," quoth MELICERTUS, “I had almost said a virgin (but God forbid I had made such a doubtful supposition), she might carry water with Amulia in a sieve; for, amongst all the rest of virgins, we read of none but her that wrought such a miracle.”

PESANA hearing how pleasantly MELICERTUS played with her nose, thought to give him a great bone to gnaw upon, which she cast in his teeth thus briefly. "I remember, Sir, that Epicurus measured every man's diet by his own principles: Apradas, the great Macedonian pirate, thought every one had a letter of mart that sails in the ocean: none came to knock at Diogenes' tub, but was supposed a Cynic; and fancy of late hath so tied you to his vanities, that you will think Vesta a flat figured conceit of poetry."

SAMELA, perceiving these blows would grow to deep wounds, broke off their talk with this pretty digression: "Gentlemen, to end this strife, I pray you let us hear the opinion of DORON; for all this while neither he nor CARMELA have uttered one word, but sat as censors at our pleas: 'twere necessary he told us how his heart came

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thus on his halfpenny." DORON, hearing SAMELA thus pleasant, made presently this blunt reply: "I was, fair mistress, in solemn doubt with myself, whether in being a sheep you would be a ram or an ewe?" "An ewe, no doubt," quoth SAMELA, "for horns are the heaviest burthen that the head can bear." As DORON was ready to reply, came in suddenly to this parley four or five old shepherds, who broke off their prattle, that from chat they fell to drinking; and so, after some parley of their flocks, every one departed to their own home, where they talked of the exquisite perfection of SAMELA, especially MELICERTUS, who, gotten to his own cottage, and lain down in his couch by himself, began to ruminate on SAMELA's shape, Ah, MELICERTUS, what an object fortune this day brought to thy eyes! presenting a strange idea to thy sight, as appeared to Achilles of his dead friend Patroclus; tresses of gold like the trammels of SEPHESTIA's locks, a face fairer than Venus, such was SEPHESTIA: her eye paints her out SEPHESTIA, her voice sounds her out SEPHESTIA, she seemeth none but SEPHESTIA but seeing she is dead, and there lives not such another SEPHESTIA, sue to her and love her, for that it is either a self-same or another SEPHESTIA." In this hope MELICERTUS fell to his slumber, but SAMELA was not content, for she began thus to muse with herself: " May this MELICERTUS be a shepherd? or can a country cottage afford such perfection? Doth this coast bring forth such excellency? then happy are the virgins that shall have such suitors, and the wives such pleasing husbands: but his face is not inchaced with any rustic proportion, his brows contain the characters of nobility, and his looks in shepherd's weed are lordly, his voice pleasing, his wit full of gentry weigh all these equally, and consider, SAMELA, is it not thy MAXIMUS? Fond fool! away with these suppositions: Could the dreaming of Andromache call Hector from his grave? or can the <vision of my husband raise him from the seas? Tush, stoop not to such vanities; he is dead, and therefore grieve not thy memory with

the imagination of his new revive, for there hath been but one Hippolitus found to be Virbius, twice a man. To salve SAMELA, then, this suppose: if they court thee with hyacinth, entertain them with roses; if he send thee a lamb, present him an ewe; if he woo, be wooed, and for no other reason but he is like MAXIMUS."

Thus he rested, and thus she slept, all parties being equally content and satisfied with hope except PESANA, who, fettered with the feature of her best beloved MENAPHON, sat cursing Cupid as a partial deity, that would make more day-light in the firmament than one sun, more rainbows in the heaven than one Iris, and more loves in one heart than one settled passion: many prayers she made to Venus for revenge, many vows to Cupid, many orisons to Hymeneus, if she might possess the type of her desires.

Well, poor soul, howsoever she was pained, she smothered all with patience, and thought to brave love with seeming not to love; and thus she daily drove out the time with labour and looking to her herd, hearing every day by DORON, who was her kinsman, what success MENAPHON had in his loves.

Thus fates and fortunes dallying a doleful catastrophe, to make a more pleasing epitasis, it fell out amongst them thus: MELICERTus going to the fields, as he was wont to do, with his flocks, drove to graze as near the swains of MEN APHON as he might, to have view of his new entertained mistress, who, according to his expectation, came thither every day. MELICERTUS, esteeming her to be some farmer's daughter at the most, could not tell how to court her; yet, at length calling to remembrance her rare wit discovered in their last discourses, finding opportunity to give her both ball and racket, seeing the coast was clear, and that none but SAMELA and he were in the field, he left his flock in the valley, and stept unto her, and saluted her thus.

"Mistress of all eyes that glance but at the excellence of your perfection, Sovereign of all such as Venus hath allowed for lovers, Enone's over-match, Arcadia's comet, Beauty's second comfort,

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