sunne
Does burne in love while we partake his heate;
The clyming ivy with her loving twines
Clips the strong oake. No skill of surgerie
Can heale the wounds, nor oceans quench the flames
Made by all pow'rfull love. Witnesse myselfe:
Since first the booke of your perfections
Was brought so neare than I might read it ore,
I have read in it charmes to countermand
All my enchantments and enforce mee stoop
To begge your love.

_Justina_. How ere you please to style
A lustfull appetite, it takes not mee.
Heav'n has my bow my life shall never bee
Elder then my unstain'd virginitie.

_Cyprian_. Virginitie! prize you so dearely that
Which common things cast of? Marke but the flow'rs
That now as morning fresh, fragrant and faire,
Lay ope their beautys to the courting sunne,
And amongst all the modest mayden rose:
These wanton with the aire until unleavd
They die and so loose their virginitie.

_Justina_. In _India_ there is a flow'r (they say)
Which, if a man come neare it, turnes away:
By that I learne this lesson, to descrie
Corrupt temptations and the tempter flie.

Leaves 245-267 are taken up with the _Tragedy of Nero_, which was
printed in 1624. Then comes [Daborne's] _Poore Man's Comfort_
(268-292), an inferior play printed in 1655. Afterwards follows a dull
play (leaves 293-316), _Loves Changlelings Changed_, founded on Sidney's
_Arcadia_. The last piece in the book (leaves 317-349) is _The
lancheinge of the May_, Written by W.M. Gent in his return from _East
India_, A.D. 1632. There is a second title, _The Seamans honest wife_,
to this extraordinary piece. On the last leaf is a note by Sir Henry
Herbert:--"This Play called ye _Seamans honest wife_, all ye Oaths
left out in ye action as they are crost in ye booke & all other
Reformations strictly observed, may bee acted, not otherwise. This 27th
June, 1633. HENRY HERBERT.

"I command your Bookeeper to present mee with a faire Copy hereaft[er]
and to leave out all oathes, prophaness & publick Ribaldry as he will
answer it at his perill. H. HERBERT."

It is plain therefore that the piece was intended for presentation on
the stage; but it must have been a strange audience that could have
listened to it. Dramatic interest there is none whatever. The piece is
nothing more, than a laudation of the East India Company. In tables of
statistics we have set bef