EQ.  Do so, dear madam, I beseech you most heartily,
And recreate yourself, before you go hence, with some sweet melody.

    The Song.

    If pleasure be the only thing,
    That man doth seek so much: 
    Chief pleasures rest, where virtue rules: 
    No pleasure[s] can be such.

    Though Virtue’s ways be very strait,
    Her rocks be hard to climb: 
    Yet such as do aspire thereto,
    Enjoy all joys in time.

    Plain is the passage unto vice,
    The gaps lie wide to ill: 
    To them that wade through lewdness’ lake
    The ice is broken still.

    This therefore is the difference,
    The passage first seems hard
    To Virtue’s train; but then most sweet
    At length is their reward.

    To those again, that follow vice,
    The way is fair and plain;
    But fading pleasures in the end
    Are bought with lasting[414] pain.

    If pleasure be the only thing, &c_.

SCENE IV.

    Enter VIRTUE, EQUITY, LIBERALITY, MONEY, and the SHERIFF.

VIR.  Now, my lords, I see no cause but that depart we may.

EQ.  Madam, to that shall like you best we willingly obey.

LIB.  Yet,[415] lady, stay awhile, and hear of strange adventures.

VIR.  Of what adventures tell you? let us know.

LIB.  Master Sheriff, of that is happened do you make show.

SHER.  Then, may it please you, the effect is this: 
There is a certain roister, named Prodigality,
That long about this town hath ruffled in great jollity! 
A man long suspected of very lewd behaviour,
Yet standing ever so high in Fortune’s favour,
As never till now he could be bewrayed
Of any offence, that to him might be laid: 
Now wanting (belike) his wonted bravery,
He thought to supply it by murther and robbery.

EQ.  By murther and robbery?

SHER.  Yea, sure.

VIR.  How?

SHER.  This gallant, I tell you, with other lewd franions,
Such as himself, unthrifty companions,
In most cruel sort, by the highway-side,
Assaulted a countryman as he homewards did ride: 
Robbed him, and spoiled him of all that they might,
And lastly bereav’d him of his life outright.

VIR.  O horrible fact!

SHER.  The country hereupon rais’d hue and try straightway: 
He is apprehended, his fellows fled away. 
I supplying, though unworthy, for this year
The place of an officer, and sheriff of the shire,
To my prince’s use, have seized on his money,
And bring you the same, according to my duty: 
Praying the party may have the law with speed,
That others may be terrified from so foul a deed.

VIR.  So horrible a fact can hardly plead for favour: 
Therefore go you, Equity, examine more diligently
The manner of this outrageous robbery: 
And as the same by examination shall appear,
Due justice may be done in presence here.