CHURMS.
Ere I would wrong my love with one day’s absence,
I would pass the boiling Hellespont,
As once Leander did for Hero’s love,
Or undertake a greater task than that,
Ere I would be disloyal to my love. 
And if that Lelia give her free consent,
That both our loves may sympathise in one,
My hand, my heart, my love, my life, and all,
Shall ever tend on Lelia’s fair command.

LELIA. 
Master Churms,
Methinks ’tis strange you should make such a motion: 
Say, I should yield and grant you love,
When most you did expect a sunshine day,
My father’s will would mar your hop’d-for hay;
And when you thought to reap the fruits of love,
His hard constraint would blast it in the bloom: 
For he so doats on Peter Plod-all’s pelf,
That none but he forsooth must be the man: 
And I will rather match myself
Unto a groom of Pluto’s grisly den,
Than unto such a silly golden ass.

CHURMS.
Bravely resolved, i’ faith!

LELIA. 
But, to be short—­
I have a secret friend, that dwells from hence
Some two days’ journey, that’s the most;
And if you can, as well I know you may,
Convey me thither secretly—­
For company I desire no other than your own—­
Here take my hand: 
That once perform’d, my heart is next.

CHURMS.
If on th’adventure all the dangers lay,
That Europe or the western world affords;
Were it to combat Cerberus himself,
Or scale the brazen walls of Pluto’s court,
When as there is so fair a prize propos’d;
If I shrink back, or leave it unperform’d,
Let the world canonise me for a coward: 
Appoint the time, and leave the rest to me.

LELIA. 
When night’s black mantle overspreads the sky,
And day’s bright lamp is drenched in the west—­
To-morrow night I think the fittest time,
That silent shade[s] may give us[159] safe convoy
Unto our wished hopes, unseen of living eye.

CHURMS.
And at that time I will not fail
In that, or ought may make for our avail.

NURSE. 
But what if Sophos should meet you by the forest-side, and encounter
you with his single rapier?

CHURMS.
Sophos? a hop of my thumb! 
A wretch, a wretch!  Should Sophos meet
Us there accompani’d with some champion
With whom ’twere any credit to encounter,
Were he as stout as Hercules himself,
Then would I buckle with them hand to hand,
And bandy blows, as thick as hailstones fall,
And carry Lelia away in spite of all their force. 
What? love will make cowards fight—­
Much more a man of my resolution.

LELIA. 
And on your resolution I’ll depend. 
Until to-morrow at th’appointed time,
When I look for you:  till when I leave you,
And go make preparation for our journey.