[_Exeunt_ LELIA and NURSE.

CHURMS.
_So Lelia shall accept thee as her friend_:--who can but ruminate upon
these words? Would she had said, her love: but 'tis no matter; first
creep, and then go; now her friend: the next degree is Lelia's love.
Well, I'll persuade her father to let her have a little more liberty.
But soft; I'll none of that neither: so the scholar may chance cosen me.
Persuade him to keep her in still: and before she'll have Peter
Plod-all, she'll have anybody; and so I shall be sure that Sophos shall
never come at her. Why, I'll warrant ye, she'll be glad to run away with
me at length. Hang him that has no shifts. I promised Sophos to further
him in his suit; but if I do, I'll be pecked to death with hens. I swore
to Gripe I would persuade Lelia to love Peter Plod-all; but, God forgive
me, 'twas the furthest end of my thought. Tut! what's an oath? every man
for himself: I'll shift for one, I warrant ye.
[_Exit_.

_Enter_ FORTUNATUS _solus_.

FORTUNATUS.
Thus have I pass'd the beating billows of the sea,
By Ithac's rocks and wat'ry Neptune's bounds:
And wafted safe from Mars his bloody fields,
Where trumpets sound tantara to the fight,
And here arriv'd for to repose myself
Upon the borders of my native soil.
Now, Fortunatus, bend thy happy course
Unto thy father's house, to greet thy dearest friends;
And if that still thy aged sire survive,
Thy presence will revive his drooping spirits,
And cause his wither'd cheeks be sprent with youthful blood,
Where death of late was portray'd to the quick.
But, soft; who comes here? [_Stand aside_.

_Enter_ ROBIN GOODFELLOW.

ROBIN GOODFELLOW.
I wonder I hear not of Master Churms; I would fain know how he speeds,
and what success he has in Lelia's love. Well, if he cosen the scholar
of her, 'twould make my worship laugh; and if he have her, he may
say,--Godamercy, Robin Goodfellow: O, ware a good head as long as you
live. Why, Master Gripe, he casts beyond the moon, and Churms is the
only man he puts in trust with his daughter; and, I'll warrant, the old
churl would take it upon his salvation that he will persuade her to
marry Peter Plod-all. But I will make a fool of Peter Plod-all; I'll
look him in the face, and pick his purse, whilst Churms cosen him of his
wench, and my old grandsire Holdfast of his daughter: and if he can do
so, I'll teach him a trick to cosen him of his