stly, whereas the names of husband and wife hold forth
nothing, but clashing and cloying, and dulness and faintness, in their
signification; they shall be abolished for ever betwixt us.

_Flo_. And instead of those, we will be married by the more
agreeable names of mistress and gallant.

_Cel_. None of my privileges to be infringed by thee, Florimel,
under the penalty of a month of fasting nights.

_Flo_. None of my privileges to be infringed by thee, Celadon,
under the penalty of cuckoldom.

_Cel_. Well, if it be my fortune to be made a cuckold, I had
rather thou should'st make me one, than any one in Sicily; and, for my
comfort, I shall have thee oftener than any of thy servants.

_Flo_. Look ye now, is not such a marriage as good as wenching,
Celadon?

_Cel_. This is very good; but not so good, Florimel.

_Queen_. Now set we forward to the assembly.--You promise,
cousin, your consent?

_Lys_. But most unwillingly.

_Queen_. Philocles, I must beg your voice too.

_Phil_. Most joyfully I give it.

_Lys_. Madam, but one word more;--
Since you are so resolved,
That you may see, bold as my passion was,
'Twas only for your person, not your crown;
I swear no second love
Shall violate the flame I had for you,
But, in strict imitation of your oath,
I vow a single life.

_Queen_. Now, my Asteria, my joys are full;
[_To_ ASTERIA.
The powers above, that see
The innocent love I bear to Philocles,
Have given its due reward; for by this means
The right of Lysimantes will devolve
Upon Candiope: and I shall have
This great content, to think, when I am dead,
My crown may fall on Philocles's head.
[_Exeunt_.

EPILOGUE,
WRITTEN BY
A PERSON OF HONOUR.

Our poet, something doubtful of his fate,
Made choice of me to be his advocate,
Relying on my knowledge in the laws;
And I as boldly undertook the cause.
I left my client yonder in a rant,
Against the envious, and the ignorant,
Who are, he says, his only enemies:
But he condemns their malice, and defies
The sharpest of his censurers to say,
Where there is one gross fault in all his play.
The language is so fitted for each part,
The plot according to the rules of art,
And twenty other things he bid me tell you;
But I cried, e'en go do't yourself for Nelly.[A]
Reason with judges, urged in the defence
Of those they would condemn, is insolence;
I therefore wave the merits of his play,
And think it fit to plead this safer way.
If when too many in the