PROLOGUE
'Fore love, a mighty session; and (I fear)
Though kind last 'sizes, 'twill be now severe:
For it is thought, and by judicious men,
Aglaura 'scap't only by dying then.
But 'twould be vain for me now to endear,5
Or speak unto my Lords, the Judges here:
They hold their places by condemning still,
And cannot show at once mercy and skill;
For wit's so cruel unto wit, that they
Are thought to want, that find not want i' th' play.10
But, ladies, you who never lik'd a plot,
But where the servant had his mistress got,
And whom to see a lover die it grieves,
Although 'tis in worse language that he lives,
Will like't, w' are confident, since here will be15
That, your sex ever lik'd, variety!
141
