Hen.

     I do beseech
     The honourable Court, I may be heard
     In my Advocate.

     Assist.

     ’Tis granted.

     Bar.

     Humh, humh.

     Jam.

     That Preface,
     If left out in a Lawyer, spoils the Cause,
     Though ne’re so good, and honest.

     Bar.

     If I stood here,
     To plead in the defence of an ill man,
     (Most equal Judge) or to accuse the innocent
     (To both which, I profess my self a stranger)
     It would be requisite I should deck my Language
     With Tropes and Figures, and all flourishes
     That grace a Rhetorician, ’tis confess’d
     Adulterate Metals need the Gold-smiths Art,
     To set ’em off; what in it self is perfect
     Contemns a borrowed gloss:  this Lord (my Client)
     Whose honest cause, when ’tis related truly,
     Will challenge justice, finding in his Conscience
     A tender scruple of a fault long since
     By him committed, thinks it not sufficient
     To be absolv’d of’t by his Confessor,
     If that in open Court he publish not
     What was so long conceal’d.

     Jam.

     To what tends this?

     Bar.

     In his young years (it is no miracle
     That youth, and heat of blood, should mix together)
     He look’d upon this woman, on whose face
     The ruines yet remain, of excellent form,
     He look’d on her, and lov’d her.

     Jac.

     You good Angels,
     What an impudence is this?

     Bar.

     And us’d all means
     Of Service, Courtship, Presents, that might win her
     To be at his devotion:  but in vain;
     Her Maiden Fort, impregnable held out,
     Until he promis’d Marriage; and before
     These Witnesses a solemn Contract pass’d
     To take her as his Wife.

     Assist.

     Give them their Oath.

     Jam.

     They are incompetent Witnesses, his own Creatures,
     And will swear any thing for half a Royal.

     Offi.

     Silence.

     Assist.

     Proceed.

     Bar.

     Upon this strong assurance
     He did enjoy his wishes to the full,
     Which satisfied, and then with eyes of Judgement
     (Hood-wink’d with Lust before) considering duly
     The inequality of the Match, he being
     Nobly descended, and allyed, but she
     Without a name, or Family, secretly
     He purchas’d a Divorce, to disanul
     His former Contract, Marrying openly
     The Lady Violante.

     Jac.