wherewith you shall perish.
Am I all a mass or lump? Is there no proportion in me? Am I all
ass? Is there no wit in me? Epi, prepare them to the slaughter.

_Samias._ I pray, sir, hear us speak! We call you mass, which your
learning doth well understand is all man, for _Mas maris_ is a man.
Then _As_ (as you know) is a weight, and we for your virtues
account you a weight.

_Tophas._ The Latin hath saved your lives, the which a world of
silver could not have ransomed. I understand you, and pardon you.

_Dares._ Well, Sir Tophas, we bid you farewell, and at our next
meeting we will be ready to do you service.

A happy combination of the romance of _Campaspe_ with the mythology of
_Endymion_ is found in the graceful and charming comedy, _Gallathea_.
Its plot is really double, though happily blended, while yet a third and
independent thread of lower comedy is drawn through it. On the shores of
the Humber in Lincolnshire dwell two shepherds, Tyterus and Melebeus,
each the possessor of a beautiful daughter, by name Gallathea and
Phillida. Every year the god Neptune is accustomed to exact the
sacrifice of the fairest girl of the country to his pet monster, the
Agar (the Humber eagre), and this year each fond father dreads lest his
daughter will be chosen for the victim. To save them the girls are
disguised as boys. Strangers to each other, they meet and fall in love,
each believing the other to be what she appears, though many a doubt is
raised by replies which seem more befitting a maid than a youth. In a
neighbouring forest range Diana and her chaste nymphs, amongst whom
Cupid, out of pure mischief, lets fly his golden-headed arrows. At once
the nymphs feel strange emotions within them, which quicken into
uneasiness and longing at the sight of Gallathea and Phillida. But Diana
detects the change, guesses at the cause, and promptly makes capture of
Cupid. His wings clipped, his bow burnt, all his arrows broken, he is
beaten and set to a task. Meanwhile the day of sacrifice has arrived
and, in default of a better, a victim is found. But Neptune will have no
second-best: what promises to be a tragedy changes to joy on the god's
refusal to accept the proffered girl. However, the sacrifice is only
postponed. Moreover the delay has given rise to a stricter search, which
means increased peril for the disguised maidens. Fortunately
intervention arrives before discovery. Venus, ha