r can with a smooth glosing farewell cog.
Nought can great Furor do but bark and howl,
And snarl, and grin, and carl, and touse the world,
Like a great swine, by his long, lean-ear'd lugs.
Farewell, musty, dusty, rusty, fusty London;
Thou art not worthy of great Furor's wit,
That cheatest virtue of her due desert,
And suffer'st great Apollo's son to want.

INGENIOSO.
Nay, stay awhile, and help me to content
So many gentle wits' attention,
Who ken the laws of every comic stage,
And wonder that our scene ends discontent.
Ye airy wits subtle,
Since that few scholars' fortunes are content,
Wonder not if our scene ends discontent.
When that your fortunes reach their due content,
Then shall our scene end here in merriment.

PHILOMUSUS.
Perhaps some happy wit with seely[139] hand
Hereafter may record the pastoral
Of the two scholars of Parnassus hill,
And then our scene may end, and have content.

INGENIOSO.
Meantime, if there be any spiteful ghost,
That smiles to see poor scholars' miseries,
Cold is his charity, his wit too dull:
We scorn his censure, he's a jeering gull.
But whatsoe'er refined sprites there be,
That deeply groan at our calamity:
Whose breath is turn'd to sighs, whose eyes are wet,
To see bright arts bent to their latest set;
Whence never they again their heads shall rear,
To bless our art-disgracing hemisphere,
Let them. |
|
FUROR. |
Let them. | all give us a plaudite.
|
PHANTASMA. |
Let them.

ACADEMICO. |
And none but them. |
|
PHILOMUSUS. | give us a plaudite.
And none but them. |
|
STUDIOSO. |
And none but them. |

FINIS.

WILY BEGUILED.

_EDITION.

A Pleasant Comedie, called Wily Begvilde. The Chiefe Actors be these:
A poore scholler, a rich Foole, and a Knaue at a shifte. At London,
Printed by H.L. for Clement Knight, and are to be solde at his Shop,
in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Holy Lambe_. 1606. 4to.

[There were later editions in 1623, 1635, and 1638, all in 4to. That of
1606 is the most correct.

Hawkins, who included this piece in his collection, observes: "_Wily
Beguiled_ is a regular and very pleasing Comedy; and if it were
judiciously adapted to the manners of the times, would make no
contemptible appearance on the mode