Part 82 (2/2)

FAVOURITES. Good your grace, we are reclaim'd.

DUKE. That's but an airy note.

When practical, we'll hold it cordial.

Meantime, we do adjudge you to the quarries; Where you shall toil, till a relation give Test of your reformation. Look on those Tunis-engagers, who were timely drawn From their trepanning course, and by their hazard, Secur'd through valour, rais'd their ruin'd fortunes Above expectance! When your work is done, We shall find like adventures[183] for your spirits To grapple with, and rear your blanch'd repute.

Leave interceding, for we are resolv'd.

Now, conscript consuls, whose direction gives Life to our laws, we cannot choose but wonder How your impartial judgments should submit (As if they had been bia.s.sed) to grant These alimonies to their loose demands.

Sure, such decrees would not have relish'd well Your jealous palates, had you so been used.

”Wives to desert your beds, impeach your fames, In public courts discover your defects, Nay, to belie your weakness, and recover For all these scandals alimonious wages To feed their boundless riot!”

CONSUL. They're annull'd; Our courts will not admit them.

DUKE. 'Tis well done, For gentlemen t' engage their state and fame, And beds of honour, were a juggling game.

So we dismiss you. May the palms of peace Crown Seville's state with safety and increase.

Whereto when our reluctant actions give The least impede, may we no longer live!

[_Exeunt omnes. Trumpets sounding._

EPILOGUE

_You see our Ladies now are vanished, And gone, perchance, unto their husbands' bed, Convinc'd of guilt; where if they cannot tame Their loose desires, but still retain the name Of Alimony Ladies, you shall hear, They will not forfeit what they hold so dear-- Prohibited delights; and in that stain With blushless dalliance visit you again.

Nor shall we build on these our confidence Who give less reins to reason than to sense: Yet for redemption of their husbands' lands, Seal our acquittance with your graceful hands._

_Naviter inc.u.mbens calamo, sine merce laboro; Merce carens vates nomine verus ero._

_Haec thalami socias alimonia fecit iniquas; ”Haud aries uni sufficit unus ovi.”_--Arnold.

FINIS.

THE PARSON'S WEDDING.

_EDITION._

_The Parson's Wedding, A Comedy. The Scene London. Written at Basil in Switzerland: by Thomas Killigrew. Dedicated to the Lady Vrsvla Bartv [Bertie] Widow. London: Printed by J. M.

for Henry Herringman...._ 1663.

This forms part of the collected edition of the works in folio, mentioned presently.

<script>