And dies by some child's hand. The feeble

bird

With little wings, yet greatly venturous

In the upper sky. The fish in th' other element, That knows no touch of eloquence. What else?

Yon tall and elegant stag,

Who paints a dancing shadow of his horns
In the water, where he drinks.

ᎷᎪᎡᏀᎪᎡᎬᎢ,

I myself love all these things, yet so as with a difference-for example, some animals better than others, some men rather than other men ; the nightingale before the cuckoo, the swift and graceful palfrey before the slow and asinine mule. Your humour goes to confound all qualities.

What sports do you use in the forest ?—

SIMON,

Not many; some few, as thus :

To see the sun to bed, and to arise,

Like some hot amourist with glowing eyes,

Bursting the lazy bands of sleep that bound

him,

With all his fires and travelling glories round

him.

Sometimes the moon on soft night clouds to rest,
Like beauty nestling in a young man's breast,
And all the winking stars, her handmaids, keep
Admiring silence, while those lovers sleep.
Sometimes outstretcht, in very idleness,
Nought doing, saying little, thinking less,
To view the leaves, thin dancers upon air,
Go eddying round; and small birds, how they

fare,

When mother Autumn fills their beaks with

corn,

Filch'd from the careless Amalthea's horn;
And how the woods berries and worms provide
Without their pains, when earth has nought
beside

To answer their small wants.

To view the graceful deer come tripping by, Then stop, and gaze, then turn, they know not why,

Like bashful younkers in society.

To mark the structure of a plant or tree,
And all fair things of earth, how fair they be.
MARGARET. (smiling)

And, afterwards them paint in simile.

SIR WALTER.

Mistress Margaret will have need of some

refreshment. Please you, we have some poor

viands within.

MARGARET.

Indeed I stand in need of them.

SIR WALTER.

Under the shade of a thick-spreading tree,
Upon the grass, no better carpeting,

We'll eat our noon-tide meal; and, dinner done,
One of us shall repair to Nottingham,

To seek some safe night-lodging in the town, Where you may sleep, while here with us you dwell,

By day, in the forest, expecting better times, And gentler habitations, noble Margaret.

SIMON.

Allons, young Frenchman

MARGARET.

Allons, Sir Englishman. The time has been, I've studied love-lays in the English tongue, And been enamour'd of rare poesy:

Which now I must unlearn: Henceforth,

Sweet mother-tongue, old English speech, adieu; For Margaret has got new name and language

new.

(Exeunt.)

ACT THE THIRD.

SCENE-An Apartment of State in Woodvil Hall.-Cavaliers drinking.

JOHN WOODVIL, LOVEL, GRAY,
and four more.

JOHN.

More mirth, I beseech you, gentlemen-
Mr. Gray, you are not merry.—

GRAY.

More wine, say I, and mirth shall ensue in course. What we have not yet above three

half-pints a man to answer for.

soul of drinking, as of wit.

More wine. (fills)

Brevity is the Despatch, I say.

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

I entreat you, let there be some order, some method, in our drinkings. I love to lose my reason with my eyes open, to commit the deed of drunkenness with forethought and de

liberation. I love to feel the fumes of the liquor gathering here, like clouds.

SECOND GENTLEMAN.

And I am for plunging into madness at once, Damn order, and method, and steps, and degrees, that he speaks of. Let confusion have her legitimate work.

LOVEL.

I marvel why the poets, who, of all men, methinks, should possess the hottest livers, and most empyreal fancies, should affect to see such virtues in cold water.

GRAY.

Virtue in cold water! ha! ha! ha!

JOHN.

Because your poet-born hath an internal wine, richer than lippara or canaries, yet uncrushed from any grapes of earth, unpressed in mortal wine-presses.

THIRD GENTLEMAN.

What may be the name of this wine?

JOHN.

It hath as many names as qualities. It is denominated indifferently, wit, conceit, invention, inspiration, but its most royal and comprehensive name is fancy.