Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/309

] Fran. Think not, good sir,

Your elegant enforcements can seduce

My weaker innocence:

It's a resolution grounded; and sooner

Shall the fixed orbs be lifted off their hinges,

Than I be mov'd to any act that bears

The name of foul. You know the way you came, sir.

Clar. Is this all the respect the king shall have?

No, you would do well to clothe this harsh denial

In better language.

Fran. You may please to say,

I owe my life unto my sovereign,

And should be proud to pay it in at any

Warning, were it ne'er so short. But, for my chastity,

It doth so much concern another, I can

By no means part with it. So, fare you well, sir.

Clar. By heaven, a saint, no woman!

Sure, she was born o' th' virtues of her mother,

Not of her vices. The whole sex may come

To be thought well of for her sake. I long

To meet Florelio:

My joy is not complete, till I have cured

His jealousies as well as mine.

Flor. There was

A time when snakes and adders had no being;

When the poor infant-world had no worse reptiles

Than were the melon and the strawberry!

Those were the golden times of innocence.

There were no kings then, nor no lustful peers,

No smooth-fac'd favourites, nor no cuckolds, sure.

O,

How happy is that man, whose humbler thoughts

Kept him from court; who never yet was taught

The glorious way unto damnation!

Who never did aspire

Further than the cool shades of quiet rest!

How have the heavens his lower wishes bless'd!

Sleep makes his labours sweet, and innocence