hey have found my
foible, and will turn me into _ridicule_. [_Exit, running._

_Leon._ Sir, I beseech you.

_Poly._ Do not urge my patience.

_Leon._ I'll not deny,
But what your spies informed you of is true:
I love the fair Palmyra; but I loved her
Before I knew your title to my blood.

_Enter_ PALMYRA _guarded._

See, here she comes, and looks, amidst her guards,
Like a weak dove under the falcon's gripe.
O heaven, I cannot bear it.

_Poly._ Maid, come hither.
Have you presumed so far, as to receive
My son's affections?

_Palm._ Alas, what shall I answer? To confess it
Will raise a blush upon a virgin's face;
Yet I was ever taught 'twas base to lie.

_Poly._ You've been too bold, and you must love no more.

_Palm._ Indeed I must; I cannot help my love;
I was so tender when I took the bent,
That now I grow that way.

_Poly._ He is a prince, and you are meanly born.

_Leon._ Love either finds equality, or makes it:
Like death, he knows no difference in degrees,
But plains, and levels all.

_Palm._ Alas! I had not rendered up my heart,
Had he not loved me first; but he preferred me
Above the maidens of my age and rank,--
Still shunned their company, and still sought mine.
I was not won by gifts, yet still he gave;
And all his gifts, though small, yet spoke his love.
He picked the earliest strawberries in woods,
The clustered filberds, and the purple grapes;
He taught a prating stare to speak my name;
And, when he found a nest of nightingales,
Or callow linnets, he would show them me,
And let me take them out.

_Poly._ This is a little mistress, meanly born,
Fit only for a prince's vacant hours,
And then, to laugh at her simplicity,
Not fix a passion there. Now hear my sentence.

_Leon._ Remember, ere you give it, 'tis pronounced
Against us both.

_Poly._ First, in her hand
There shall be placed a player's painted sceptre,
And, on her head, a gilded pageant crown:
Thus shall she go,
With all the boys attending on her triumph;
That done, be put alone into a boat,
With bread and water only for three days;
So on the sea she shall be set adrift,
And who relieves her dies.

_Palm._ I only beg that you would execute
The last part first: Let me be put to sea;
The bread and water for my three days life
I give you back, I would not live so long;
But let me 'scape the shame.

_Leon._ Look to me, piety; and you, O Gods, look to my piety!
Keep me from saying that, which misbecomes