Page:The Rehearsal - Villiers (1672).djvu/41

 For the supposed dead, O Kings, Forbear to act such deadly things. Lardella lives: I did but try If Princes for their Loves could dye. Such Cœlestial constancie Shall, by the Gods, rewarded be: And from these Funeral obsequies A Nuptial Banquet shall arise. [The Coffin opens, and a Banquet is discover'd.

Bayes. Now it's out. This is the very Funeral of the fair person which Volscius sent word was dead, and Pallas, you see, has turn'd it into a Banquet.

Johns. By my troth, now, that is new, and more than I expected.

Bayes. Yes, I knew this would please you: for the chief Art in Poetry is to elevate your expectation, and then bring you off some extraordinary way.

K. Ush. Resplendent Pallas, we in thee do find The fiercest Beauty, and a fiercer mind: And since to thee Lardella's life we owe, We'l supple Statues in thy Temple grow.

K. Phys. Well, since alive Lardella's found, Let, in full Boles, her health go round. [The two Usurpers take each of them a Bole in their hands.

K. Ush. But where's the Wine?

Pal. That shall be mine. Lo, from this conquering Lance, Does flow the purest wine of France: And, to appease your hunger, I Have, in my Helmet, brought a Pye: Lastly, to bear a part with these, Behold a Buckler made of Cheese.

K. Phys. What man is this that dares disturb our feast?

Draw. He that dares drink, and for that drink dares die, And, knowing this, dares yet drink on, am I.

Johns. That is as much as to say, that though he would ra-