LELIA. 
Why, what knowest thou, nurse I prythee, tell me.

NURSE. 
Heavy news, i’ faith, mistress:  you must be matched, and married to a
husband.  Ha, ha, ha, ha! a husband, i’ faith.

LELIA. 
A husband, nurse? why, that’s good news, if he be a good one.

NURSE.  A good one, quotha? ha, ha, ha, ha! why, woman, I heard your father say that he would marry you to Peter Plod-all, that puck-fist, that snudge-snout, that coal-carrierly clown.  Lord! ’twould be as good as meat and drink to me to see how the fool would woo you.

LELIA. 
No, no; my father did but jest:  think’st thou,
That I can stoop so low to take a brown-bread crust,
And wed a clown, that’s brought up at the cart?

NURSE. 
Cart, quotha?  Ay, he’ll cart you; for he cannot tell how to court you.

LELIA. 
Ah, nurse! sweet Sophos is the man,
Whose love is lock’d in Lelia’s tender breast: 
This heart hath vow’d, if heav’ns do not deny,
My love with his entomb’d in earth shall lie.

NURSE. 
Peace, mistress, stand aside; here comes somebody.

    Enter SOPHOS.

SOPHOS.
Optatis non est spes ulla potiri. 
Yet, Phoebus, send down thy tralucent beams,
Behold the earth that mourns in sad attire;
The flowers at Sophos’ presence ’gin to droop,
Whose trickling tears for Lelia’s loss
Do turn the plains into a standing pool. 
Sweet Cynthia, smile, cheer up the drooping flowers;
Let Sophos once more see a sunshine-day: 
O, let the sacred centre of my heart—­
I mean fair Lelia, nature’s fairest work—­
Be once again the object to mine eyes. 
O, but I wish in vain, whilst her I wish to see: 
Her father he obscures her from my sight,
He pleads my want of wealth,
And says it is a bar in Venus’ court. 
How hath fond fortune by her fatal doom
Predestin’d me to live in hapless hopes,
Still turning false her fickle, wavering wheel! 
And love’s fair goddess with her Circian cup
Enchanteth so fond Cupid’s poison’d darts,
That love, the only loadstar of my life,
Doth draw my thoughts into a labyrinth. 
But stay: 
What do I see? what do mine eyes behold? 
O happy sight!  It is fair Lelia’s face! 
Hail, heav’n’s bright nymph, the period of my grief,
Sole guidress of my thoughts, and author of my joy.

LELIA. 
Sweet Sophos, welcome to Lelia;
Fair Dido, Carthaginians’ beauteous queen,
Not half so joyful was, when as the Trojan prince
Aeneas landed on the sandy shores
Of Carthage’ confines, as thy Lelia is
To see her Sophos here arriv’d by chance.

SOPHOS. 
And bless’d be chance, that hath conducted me
Unto the place where I might see my dear,
As dear to me as is the dearest life.

NURSE. 
Sir, you may see that fortune is your friend.

SOPHOS. 
Yet fortune favours fools.