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Town and

SCENE: The garden of Master WALTER's house. country life compared. JULIA tells of her loving guardian, Master WALTER.

Enter JULIA and HELEN.

Hel. I like not, Julia, this your country life;

I'm weary on't.

Jul.

Indeed? So am not I!

I know no other; would no other know.'

Hel. You would no other know! Would you not know Another relative? - another friend,

Another house, another any thing,

learn'd

Because the ones you have already please you?
That's poor content! Would you not be more rich,
More wise, more fair? The song that last you
You fancy well; and therefore shall you learn
No other song? Your virginal, 'tis true,
Hath a sweet tone; but does it follow thence,
You shall not have another virginal?
You may, love, and a sweeter one; and so
A sweeter life may find than this you lead!

Jul. I seek it not. Helen, I'm constancy!
Hel. So is a cat, a dog, a silly hen,

An owl, a bat, that still sojourn where they

Are wont to lodge, nor care to shift their quarters.
Thou'rt constancy? I'm glad I know thy name!
The spider comes of the same family,

That in his meshy fortress spends his life,
Unless you pull it down, and scare him from it.
And so, in very deed, thou'rt constancy!

Jul. Helen, you know the adage of the tree:
I've ta'en the bend. This rural life of mine,
Enjoin'd me by an unknown father's will,

I've led from infancy. Debarr'd from hope

Of change, I ne'er have sigh'd for change. The town
To me was like the Moon, for any thought

I e'er should visit it; nor was I school'd
To think it half so fair!

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The town's the Sun, and thou hast dwelt in night E'er since thy birth, not to have seen the town! Their women there are queens, and kings their men; Their houses palaces!

Jul.

And what of that?

Have your town-palaces a hall like this?

Couches so fragrant? walls so high-adorn'd?

Casements with such festoons, such prospects, Helen, As these fair vistas have? Your kings and queens! See me a May-day queen, and talk of them!

Hel. Extremes are ever neighbours. 'Tis a step From one to th' other! Were thy constancy

A reasonable thing, a little less

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a woman's constancy,

I should not wonder wert thou ten years hence

The maid I know thee now; but, as it is,
The odds are ten to one, that this day year
Will see our May-day queen a city one.

Jul. Never! I'm wedded to a country life:
O, did you hear what Master Walter says!
Nine times in ten, the town's a hollow thing,

Where what things are, is nought to what they show
Where merit's name laugh's merit's self to scorn ;
Where friendship and esteem, that ought to be
The tenants of men's hearts, lodge in their looks
And tongues alone; where little virtue, with
A costly keeper, passes for a heap,

A heap for none, that has a homely one;
Where fashion makes the law,

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your umpire which

You bow to, whether it has brains or not;
Where Folly taketh off his cap and bells,
To clap on Wisdom, which must bear the jest;
Where, to pass current, you must seem the thing,
The passive thing, that others think, and not
Your simple, honest, independent self.

Hel. Ay; so says Master Walter. See I not
What you can find in Master Walter, Julia,
To be so fond of him!

Jul.

He's fond of me.

I've known him since I was a child. E'en then
The week I thought a weary, heavy one,
That brought not Master Walter. I had those
About me then that made a fool of me,

As children oft are fool'd; but more I loved
Good Master Walter's lesson than the play
With which they'd surfeit me.
As I grew up,

More frequent Master Walter came,

and more

I loved to see him. I had tutors then,

Men of great skill and learning; but not one

That taught like Master Walter. What they'd show me, And I, dull as I was, but doubtful saw,

A word from Master Walter made as clear

As day-light. When my schooling-days were o'er, — That's now good three years past, three years, I vow

I'm twenty, Helen!-well, as I was saying,
When I had done with school, and all were gone,
Still Master Walter came; and still he comes,
Summer or Winter, frost or rain.

I've seen

The snow upon a level with the hedge,
Yet there was Master Walter !

[Master WALTER and Sir THOMAS CLIFFORD in the distance.

Hel.

Who comes here?

A carriage, and a gay one; - who alights?

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Pshaw! Only Master Walter !

What see you,

Which thus repairs the arch of the fair brow,

A frown was like to spoil?- A gentleman!

One of our town kings! Mark, - how say you now?
Wouldst be a town queen, Julia? Which of us,

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Mark him as he comes up the avenue:
So looks a clerk! A clerk has such a gait!
So does a clerk dress, Julia; mind his hose,
They're very like a clerk's! a diamond loop
And button, note you, for his clerkship's hat:
O, certainly a clerk! See, Julia, see,

How Master Walter bows, and yields him place,
That he may first go in,
a very clerk!

Jul. I wonder who he is.

Hel.

Wouldst like to know?

Wouldst, for a fancy, ride to town with him?

I prophesy he comes to take thee thither.

Jul. He ne'er takes me to town. No, Helen, no,

To town who will; a country life for me!

Hel. We'll see.

[Exeunt.

Аст І. SCENE III.

An Apartment in Master WALTER'S House.

CHARACTERS: JULIA and CLIFFORD. Love at first sight Sir THOMAS CLIFFORD Wooes a rural maid.

Enter JULIA followed by CLIFFORD.

Jul. No more! I pray you, sir, no more!
Clif.

Jul. You mock me, sir!
Clif.

On Earth as reverence.

I love you!

Then there is no such thing
Honour filial, the fear

Of kings, the awe of Supreme Heaven itself,

Are only shows and sounds that stand for nothing.

I love you.

Jul.
Clif. Say but a moment, still I say I love you.
Love's not a flower that grows on the dull earth;
Springs by the calendar; must wait for sun,

You have known me scarce a minute.

For rain; matures by parts,

must take its time

To stem, to leaf, to bud, to blow.

It owns

A richer soil, and boasts a quicker seed:
You look for it, and see it not, and, lo!

E'en while you look, the peerless flower is up,
Consummate in the birth!

Jul.

You're from the town:

How comes it, sir, you seek a country wife?
Clif. In joining contrasts lieth love's delight.
Complexion, stature, Nature mateth it,
Not with their kinds, but with their opposites.
Hence hands of snow in palms of russet lie;
The form of Hercules affects the sylph's,

And breasts that case the lion's fear-proof heart
Find their loved lodge in arms where tremors dwell.

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