Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/134

114 Aglaura without doubt this night expects

The prince; and why

You should not then supply his place by stealth,

And in disguise

King. I apprehend thee, Ziriff;

But there's difficulty.

Zir. Who trades in love must be an adventurer, sir;

But here

Is scarce enough to make the pleasure dearer:

I know the cave: your brother and myself

With Iolas (for those, w'are sure, do hate him),

With some few chosen more, betimes will wait

The prince's passing through the vault: if he

Comes first, he's dead; and, if it be yourself,

We will conduct you to the chamber door,

And stand 'twixt you and danger afterwards.

King. I have conceiv'd of joy, and am grown great;

Till I have safe deliverance, time's a cripple

And goes on crutches. As for thee, my Ziriff,

I do here entertain a friendship with thee,

Shall drown the memory of all patterns past.

We will oblige by turns, and that so thick

And fast, that curious studiers of it

Shall not once dare to cast it up, or say

By way of guess, whether thou or I

Remain the debtors when we come to die.

Ori. Is the Queen ready to come out?

Phi. Not yet:

Sure, the king's brother is but newly enter'd.

Sem. Come, my lord, the song then.

Ori. The song.

Ors. A vengeance take this love! it spoils a voice

Worse than the losing of a maidenhead.

I have got such a cold with rising and walking in my shirt

a-nights, that a bittern whooping in a reed is better music.

Ori. This modesty becomes you as ill, my lord,

As wooing would us women:

Pray, put's not to't.