Al. But whither are you going now?

Mu. To Antwerp.

Al. What, the Muses and Graces going to a Fair?

Mu. No, we assure you, we are not going to a Fair; but to a Wedding.

Al. What have Virgins to do at Weddings?

Mu. ’Tis no indecent Thing at all, for Virgins to be at such a Wedding as this is.

Al. Pray what Sort of a Marriage is it?

Mu. A holy, undefiled, and chaste Marriage, such a one as Pallas herself need not be asham’d to be at:  Nay, more than that, we believe she will be at it.

Al. Mayn’t a Body know the Bride and Bridegroom’s Name?

Mu. We believe you must needs know that most courteous and accomplish’d Youth in all Kinds of polite Learning, Peter AEgidius.

Al. You have named an Angel, not a Man.

Mu. The pretty Maid Cornelia, a fit Match for Apollo himself, is going to be married to AEgidius.

Al. Indeed he has been a great Admirer of you, even from his Infancy.

Mu. We are going to sing him an Epithalamium.

Al. What, and will the Graces dance too?

Mu. They will not only dance, but they will also unite those two true Lovers, with the indissoluble Ties of mutual Affection, that no Difference or Jarring shall ever happen between ’em.  She shall never hear any Thing from him, but my Life; nor he from her, but my Soul:  Nay:  and even old Age itself, shall be so far from diminishing that, that it shall increase the Pleasure.

Al. I should admire at it, if those that live so sweetly, could ever be able to grow old.

Mu. You say very right, for it is rather a Maturity, than an old Age.

Al. But I have known a great many, to whom these kind Words have been chang’d into the quite contrary, in less than three Months Time; and instead of pleasant Jests at Table, Dishes and Trenchers have flown about.  The Husband, instead of my dear Soul, has been call’d Blockhead, Toss-Pot, Swill-Tub; and the Wife, Sow, Fool, dirty Drab.

Mu. You say very true; but these Marriages were made when the Graces were out of Humour:  But in this Marriage, a Sweetness of Temper will always maintain a mutual Affection.

Al. Indeed you speak of such a happy Marriage as is very seldom seen.

Mu. An uncommon Felicity is due to such uncommon Virtues.

Al. But what!  Will the Matrimony be without Juno and Venus?

Mu. Indeed Juno won’t be there, she’s a scolding Goddess, and is but seldom in a good Humour with her own Jove.  Nor indeed, that earthly drunken Venus; but another heavenly one, which makes a Union of Minds.

Al. Then the Marriage you speak of, is like to be a barren one.