Y. ART. Still fear and hope my grief and woe
prolongs.
But tell me, by what power thou didst survive?
With my own hands I temper’d that vile draught,
That sent thee breathless to thy grandsire’s
grave,
If that were poison I receiv’d of him.
AMIN. That ego nescio, but this dram
Receiv’d I of this gentleman;
The colour was to kill my rats,
But ’twas my own life to despatch.
FUL. Is it even so? then this ambiguous doubt
No man can better than myself decide;
That compound powder was of poppy made and mandrakes,
Of purpose to cast one into a sleep,
To ease the deadly pain of him whose leg
Should be saw’d off;
That powder gave I to the schoolmaster.
AMIN. And that same powder, even that idem,
You took from me, the same, per fidem!
Y. ART. And that same powder I commix’d
with wine,
Our godly knot of wedlock to untwine.
O. ART. But, daughter, who did take thee from thy grave?
O. LUS. Discourse it, daughter.
ANS. Nay, that labour save;
Pardon me, Master Arthur, I will now
Confess the former frailty of my love.
Your modest wife with words I tempted oft;
But neither ill I could report of you,
Nor any good I could forge for myself,
Would win her to attend to my request;
Nay, after death I lov’d her, insomuch
That to the vault where she was buried
My constant love did lead me through the dark,
There ready to have ta’en my last farewell.
The parting kiss I gave her I felt warm;
Briefly, I bare her to my mother’s house,
Where she hath since liv’d the most chaste and
true,
That since the world’s creation eye did view.
Y. ART. My first wife, stand you here: my
second, there,
And in the midst, myself; he that will choose
A good wife from a bad, come learn of me,
That have tried both, in wealth and misery.
A good wife will be careful of her fame,
Her husband’s credit, and her own good name;
And such art thou. A bad wife will respect
Her pride, her lust, and her good name neglect;
And such art thou. A good wife will be still
Industrious, apt to do her husband’s will;
But a bad wife, cross, spiteful and madding,
Never keep home, but always be a-gadding;
And such art thou. A good wife will conceal
Her husband’s dangers, and nothing reveal
That may procure him harm; and such art thou.
But a bad wife corrupts chaste wedlock’s vow.
On this hand virtue, and on this hand sin;
This who would strive to lose, or this to win?
Here lives perpetual joy, here burning woe;
Now, husbands, choose on which hand you will go.
Seek virtuous wives, all husbands will be blest;
Fair wives are good, but virtuous wives are best.
They that my fortunes will peruse, shall find
No beauty’s like the beauty of the mind.
[Exeunt.