Eu.  Most willingly.

Phoe.  The matter is but small: 
To wear a bunch of Lawrell in your Caull[129]
For Phoebus sake, least else I be forgot;
And thinke vpon me when you see me not.

Eu.  Here while I live a solemn oath I make To Love the Lawrell for Appollo’s sake.

Ge.  Our suite is dasht; we may depart, I see.

Phoe.  Nay Gemulo and Silvio, contented bee: 
This night let me intreate ye you will take
Such cheare as I and these poore Dames can make: 
To morrow morne weele bring you on your way.

Sil.  Your Godhead shall commaund vs all to stay.

Phoe.  Then, Ladies, gratulate this happie chaunce
With some delightful tune and pleasaunt daunce,
Meane-space upon his Harpe will Phoebus play;
So both of them may boast another day
And make report that, when their wedding chaunc’te,
Phoebus gave musicke and the Muses daunc’te.

    THE SONG.

Since painfull sorrowes date hath end And time hath coupled friend with friend, Reioyce we all, reioyce and sing, Let all these groaves of Phoebus ring:  Hope having wonne, dispaire is vanisht, Pleasure revives and care is banisht:  Then trip we all this Roundelay, And still be mindful of the bay.

[Exeunt.

FINIS.

INTRODUCTION TO THE MARTYR’D SOULDIER.

Anthony A. Wood, in his Athenae Oxonienses (ed.  Bliss, III., 740), after giving an account of James Shirley, adds:—­“I find one Henry Shirley, gent., author of a play called the Martyr’d Souldier, London, 1638, 4to.; which Henry I take to be brother or near kinsman to James.”  Possibly a minute investigation might discover some connection between Henry Shirley and the admirable writer who closes with dignity the long line of our Old Dramatists; but hitherto Wood’s conjecture remains unsupported.  On Sept. 9, 1653, four plays of Henry Shirley’s were entered on the Stationers’ Lists, but they were never published:  the names of these are,—­

1. The Spanish Duke of Lerma. 2. The Duke of Guise. 3. The Dumb Bawd. 4. Giraldo the Constant Lover.

Among the Ashmolean MSS. (Vol. 38.  No. 88) are preserved forty-six lines[130] signed with the name of “Henrye Sherley.”  They begin thus:—­

    “Loe, Amorous style, affect my pen: 
    For why?  I wright of fighting men;
    The bloody storye of a fight
    Betwixt a Bayliffe and a Knight,” &c.

My good friend Mr. S.L.  Lee, of Balliol, kindly took the trouble to transcribe the forty-six lines; but he agrees with me that they are not worth printing.